Chapter 513: Natives (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 513: Natives (1)
Three corpses were hanging from the vines of a tree.
"Erwen, cut them down."
The first thing I did was have Erwen drop the corpses onto the ground so we could examine them.
"These are clean stab wounds."
"Yes. They seem to be from swords. I would say one of about this length?" Versyl assessed.
"...Then it's as I thought," Amelia said gravely. "This was probably the work of a human."
Both the wizard and assassin agreed that the wound was caused by a weapon and that the one who attacked them was most likely human.
"But... aren't there also quite a few monsters that use weapons?" Auyen asked innocently.
Though he didn't tend to see much combat himself, he had a point. However, none of the rest of us thought that a monster killed them. That was because their corpses had been hanging from the vines of a tree.
"Monsters have never been known to do anything like that before. You probably already know this, but normally, monsters attack adventurers in a wild, murderous frenzy. But after killing them, they no longer have any interest in the corpses."
"Oh... now that I think about it, you're right."
Versyl's explanation made perfect sense and was more than enough to convince Auyen. However...
I sighed. "Then what the hell happened here...?"
"I don't know. Maybe the Silver Lion Clan fought amongst themselves? Or maybe someone betrayed them? For now, all we know is that it wasn't a monster that killed these people."
Despite it all, Versyl's reasoning wasn't infallible. There was also the very real possibility that this place had a monster that acted differently from any we'd ever encountered.
"A corrupted mental state."
It took me a moment to register that Amelia had spoken. "What?"
"Maybe they were hit with some kind of ability that affected their mental state? Monsters don't hang their prey on trees, but a human overcome with madness might do just that."
That was also a possibility, and as the leader, I had no intention of ignoring it.
"Versyl, cast Tranquility on us."
"Oh, right away!"
For now, I had Versyl cast a spell as a basic countermeasure. Tranquility wasn't as effective as Soul Barrier when it came to abilities that affected your mind, but Soul Barrier consumed a lot more MP.
"You can keep Tranquility active at all times, right?"
"Yes, don't worry."
All right, that should be enough prep for now. If something goes wrong later on, I'll just have to adjust my orders then.
I stepped to the side and once again looked up at the spot where the bodies had been hanging. Then I turned to the person next to me. "Missha."
"Y-Yes!"
"What was your first thought when you saw those dead bodies hanging by the vines?"
"U-Um... I'm not sure? Maybe it looked almost like whoever did this was showing off. Like they were displaying their prey..."
Yeah, that made sense.
"Emily, what about you?"
"To me, it felt more like a warning rather than a boast. It would also explain why they hung them right at the entrance..."
"So you think they're trying to warn us to not come any further inside?"
"Yeah." Amelia nodded, then turned my question back at me. "What do you think?"
"The same as you. It seems like they're warning us."
The moment the words left my mouth, I heard a strange noise from my side. "Tsk."
"What's wrong, Missha?"
"Nothing..."
Anyway, that was enough talking. It was time to stop giving these three bodies any more attention.
I was curious about who had killed them, of course. It didn't seem like a monster had done it, but at the same time, it didn't really seem like a human had done it either. Still, what was the point of agonizing over it now?
I'll be able to find out just by heading further inside.
If you were wondering what was waiting for you in the darkness up ahead, you just had to walk into it. There were some things in this world you could never know unless you were willing to step into the unknown and see them for yourself.
"Let's go."
As we headed further into the jungle, I made sure that Auyen was doing his job of creating a map of the area.
"Agh! Th-that tree just moved!"
Finally, we came across our first monster. But it wasn't the Diamont we'd heard about from the Hektz clan.
"It's a new monster."
Its name and rank were unknown, but it was obviously a plant-type monster. It had to be, as there didn't seem to be an animal or other being attached to the tree or moving it.
Fwish!
It swung its vines like whips.
Hm, is this its basic attack pattern?
Thunk!
Going by the force behind its attack as it smashed into my shield, it wasn't all that strong. In terms of physical strength, it seemed to be, oh, rank-five or so? But it was too soon to let my guard down, of course. Magic-type monsters were known to have a weak Strength stat.
Fwooosh!
The branches of the tree shook as if ruffled by a gust of wind, and their leaves began to fall and dissipate into small flecks of light. At first, the flecks were rather small, but as they fell, they clumped together and grew. By the time each ball of light reached the ground, they were several times larger than the specks they were made up of. Not only that, but they now had a clear form.
"It's Seedria!"
The rank-five plant-type monster Seedria was small and made cute noises, but you couldn't let that fool you. It was still ranked the same as a Troll.
Peeek, peeek, peee—!
Since it's able to summon Seedrias, does that mean this tree thing has the summoning-type essence Growing Seed? What other skills does it have, then?
As I held back the seven Seedrias that were attacking me, I mulled over the possibilities, but I didn't have to wait long before it revealed its next ability.
Poom! Poom! Poooooom!
With machine-gun speed, bullets of mana suddenly shot out at us. I recognize the skill as rank-four Palpupura's Magic Barrage.
Sheeeeee!
And that dust seemed like Fascination Powder.
Overall, I would say this thing is slightly above rank-four.
"So you think they're trying to warn us to not come any further inside?"
"Yeah." Amelia nodded, then turned my question back at me. "What do you think?"
"The same as you. It seems like they're warning us."
The moment the words left my mouth, I heard a strange noise from my side. "Tsk."
"What's wrong, Missha?"
"Nothing..."
Anyway, that was enough talking. It was time to stop giving these three bodies any more attention.
I was curious about who had killed them, of course. It didn't seem like a monster had done it, but at the same time, it didn't really seem like a human had done it either. Still, what was the point of agonizing over it now?
I'll be able to find out just by heading further inside.
If you were wondering what was waiting for you in the darkness up ahead, you just had to walk into it. There were some things in this world you could never know unless you were willing to step into the unknown and see them for yourself.
"Let's go."
As we headed further into the jungle, I made sure that Auyen was doing his job of creating a map of the area.
"Agh! Th-that tree just moved!"
Finally, we came across our first monster. But it wasn't the Diamont we'd heard about from the Hektz clan.
"It's a new monster."
Its name and rank were unknown, but it was obviously a plant-type monster. It had to be, as there didn't seem to be an animal or other being attached to the tree or moving it.
Fwish!
It swung its vines like whips.
Hm, is this its basic attack pattern?
Thunk!
Going by the force behind its attack as it smashed into my shield, it wasn't all that strong. In terms of physical strength, it seemed to be, oh, rank-five or so? But it was too soon to let my guard down, of course. Magic-type monsters were known to have a weak Strength stat.
Fwooosh!
The branches of the tree shook as if ruffled by a gust of wind, and their leaves began to fall and dissipate into small flecks of light. At first, the flecks were rather small, but as they fell, they clumped together and grew. By the time each ball of light reached the ground, they were several times larger than the specks they were made up of. Not only that, but they now had a clear form.
"It's Seedria!"
The rank-five plant-type monster Seedria was small and made cute noises, but you couldn't let that fool you. It was still ranked the same as a Troll.
Peeek, peeek, peee—!
Since it's able to summon Seedrias, does that mean this tree thing has the summoning-type essence Growing Seed? What other skills does it have, then?
As I held back the seven Seedrias that were attacking me, I mulled over the possibilities, but I didn't have to wait long before it revealed its next ability.
Poom! Poom! Poooooom!
With machine-gun speed, bullets of mana suddenly shot out at us. I recognize the skill as rank-four Palpupura's Magic Barrage.
Sheeeeee!
And that dust seemed like Fascination Powder.
Overall, I would say this thing is slightly above rank-four.
I waited a bit longer to see if it had any more active skills, but it didn't use anything new. I also wanted to know what its passive might be, but that wasn't a good enough reason to keep dragging out this fight, so I decided to end it.
Slam!
I swung my hammer at full strength, cracking the giant tree in half.
"Oh! Did you kill it?"
However, its body wasn't dissolving into specks of light like usual.
Why? I wondered, confused. Does it have some sort of healing ability?
Kyu?
Just as I was thinking that, a small creature emerged from the felled tree and darted away the moment it spotted us. As a long-time player of Dungeon and Stone, I intuitively realized what it was.
"Erwen, kill it! That must be its main body!"
As soon as I gave the order, Erwen lifted her bow, an arrow already nocked to snipe down the fleeing monster.
Fwoosh!
After a moment, she let it fly, and it exploded on contact like a firework.
[You have killed a Cavern Squirrel.]
As the monster's body dissipated, two things were left behind. One was a rank-four magic stone, and the other was...
[No. 9999: Beginner's Luck has been activated.]
An essence.
***
"What should I do?"
"What do you think? This is a new monster! Of course we should use a magic vial on it."
Once I gave her the okay, Versyl scrambled to take out a vial and rushed over to the essence.
"But this one's essence won't be all that useful to us," Amelia grumbled.
"That's true... We don't know what its passive ability was, but its active skills weren't all that great..."
Interestingly, Missha backed up Amelia's griping. This was a bit of a surprise, considering Missha had been pretty quiet since the expedition began.
Is she slowly getting more comfortable with the rest of the clan?
It wasn't a proper conversation, but the fact that she was saying something instead of not engaging at all like before was a step in the right direction. Though I'd only make things awkward if I drew attention to it, so I kept those thoughts to myself.
"Actually, that might not be the case," I noted, throwing in my two cents.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because this type of monster often has its own unique essences separate from the host."
There were quite a few cases of parasitic-type monsters who were able to use different abilities depending on the hosts they inhabited. They might have the ability to give the host's innate active skills a power boost or use a skill the host wasn't capable of.
"We should head back to the library and find out more about its essence later on."
"What should we name it?" Amelia asked.
"Is there a point? I'm sure that the other adventurers who passed through here earlier already named it."
"...Well, you never know. Let's call it Nanari."
"Sure, do whatever you want."
It seemed that, if not today, our clan would inevitably introduce a monster named Nanari into the world.
I waited a bit longer to see if it had any more active skills, but it didn't use anything new. I also wanted to know what its passive might be, but that wasn't a good enough reason to keep dragging out this fight, so I decided to end it.
Slam!
I swung my hammer at full strength, cracking the giant tree in half.
"Oh! Did you kill it?"
However, its body wasn't dissolving into specks of light like usual.
Why? I wondered, confused. Does it have some sort of healing ability?
Kyu?
Just as I was thinking that, a small creature emerged from the felled tree and darted away the moment it spotted us. As a long-time player of Dungeon and Stone, I intuitively realized what it was.
"Erwen, kill it! That must be its main body!"
As soon as I gave the order, Erwen lifted her bow, an arrow already nocked to snipe down the fleeing monster.
Fwoosh!
After a moment, she let it fly, and it exploded on contact like a firework.
[You have killed a Cavern Squirrel.]
As the monster's body dissipated, two things were left behind. One was a rank-four magic stone, and the other was...
[No. 9999: Beginner's Luck has been activated.]
An essence.
***
"What should I do?"
"What do you think? This is a new monster! Of course we should use a magic vial on it."
Once I gave her the okay, Versyl scrambled to take out a vial and rushed over to the essence.
"But this one's essence won't be all that useful to us," Amelia grumbled.
"That's true... We don't know what its passive ability was, but its active skills weren't all that great..."
Interestingly, Missha backed up Amelia's griping. This was a bit of a surprise, considering Missha had been pretty quiet since the expedition began.
Is she slowly getting more comfortable with the rest of the clan?
It wasn't a proper conversation, but the fact that she was saying something instead of not engaging at all like before was a step in the right direction. Though I'd only make things awkward if I drew attention to it, so I kept those thoughts to myself.
"Actually, that might not be the case," I noted, throwing in my two cents.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because this type of monster often has its own unique essences separate from the host."
There were quite a few cases of parasitic-type monsters who were able to use different abilities depending on the hosts they inhabited. They might have the ability to give the host's innate active skills a power boost or use a skill the host wasn't capable of.
"We should head back to the library and find out more about its essence later on."
"What should we name it?" Amelia asked.
"Is there a point? I'm sure that the other adventurers who passed through here earlier already named it."
"...Well, you never know. Let's call it Nanari."
"Sure, do whatever you want."
It seemed that, if not today, our clan would inevitably introduce a monster named Nanari into the world.
"Hm... Nanari isn't bad. But since it was able to summon Seedrias and use a Palpupura's essence, it might be better to call it See-Palpupura—"
"Stop."
What the hell was wrong with Versyl?
"This guy will be named Nanari," I ordered, cutting her off at the pass. "We'll keep calling it that until we can confirm whether it already has another name."
Versyl blinked, then awkwardly coughed, which I took as a sign of agreement.
Thankfully, Amelia seemed to be in a much better mood after that.
Anyway, now that the issue of its name has been squared away...
After putting the Nanari (Temporary) essence away, we slowly fell back into formation and continued our expedition.
"...What a strange island."
Everyone agreed with Auyen, as it was beginning to dawn on all of us just how bizarre this place was. The jungle seemed standard enough on its own—even though it was pretty dark, we were used to that kind of thing as adventurers. However, there were strange, out-of-place little details that made it clear there was something off about this place.
"Ugh... I stepped on it again..."
At some point during our trek through the wilderness, we began to encounter strange, squishy patches that felt like mud beneath the soles of our boots. But when we lifted our feet to see what we were stepping on, what we found instead was what looked to be chunks of meat. It was impossible to tell what in the world it even was.
"This is disgusting. Why the hell is this stuff all over the place...?"
"It could be worse. At least it doesn't smell rotten."
The only good thing about it was the lack of smell. Visually, however, it was so grotesque that even I felt sick to my stomach walking on it. It looked almost like a bunch of monsters that had been cut up and squashed down with a hydraulic press.
Why the hell is there an eye sticking out of that one...?
Whatever they were, we found these strange patches of meat all over the ground and sometimes even in the trees. It was getting to the point that I was starting to wonder if the final boss of this island would be an unhinged alchemist or something. Whatever the case, though, we continued to slowly make our way inland, creating a map as we went.
"Prepare for battle!"
Suddenly, a monster leaped out of the darkness and attacked us. It was Diamont, the monster we'd been warned about in advance.
[You have killed a Diamont.]
The fight itself wasn't difficult, but because I wanted to investigate its abilities a bit more, we dragged the battle out for forty minutes. As a result, I was able to figure out its passive skill.
Unclean was a passive skill that increased the strength of all active skills by 1.5 times in exchange for giving up one essence slot.
I had my hopes up since all of its active skills were rank three...
I never imagined that its passive would only be rank five. What a letdown.
If it had had a good passive, it might have even been good enough to add to my final build.
Diamont had the skill Hellfire, which was good enough to be used in the endgame, but its passive and other skills were mediocre.
It's nice to come across monsters with new skill combinations, but it's going to be tough to find one with the perfect combo—
"Mister!" Erwen suddenly shouted.
We'd barely had a moment to catch our breath after our last fight, and another monster was already coming our way? I immediately jumped to my feet, on high alert.
However, a second later, Erwen followed up with another piece of important information. "It's not a monster! It's humans!"
"Humans?"
"There are four of them. They seem to be running as fast as possible, almost like they're being chased..." she mused. "But they're not coming our way. What should we do?"
What else is there to do?
"Let's go after them. I want to know what happened here anyway. Since they got to this island before us, they should know something."
As we were all seasoned adventurers, it didn't take long for everyone to pack up their stuff and get back in formation. We then took off with Erwen at the forefront.
"We're almost there!"
Eventually, Erwen came to a halt, and a group of people soon came careening out of the bushes across from us.
"Huh—?!"
They skidded to a stop at the sight of us, struggling to catch their breaths, and I watched them react to our sudden appearance in real time.
"Baron...Yandel...?"
Panic, suspicion, surprise, happiness, hope—their expressions were a tapestry of emotions, but they were all scrubbed away an instant later when their wearers seemed to come to their senses.
"W-We're alive!"
"...Please save us!"
They quickly dropped their weapons and ran toward us, not even bothering to question why we were on this island too. This was the type of person I hated the most.
I get that you're happy to see us, but you should at least offer the bare minimum explanation first.
"What was chasing after you?"
"A-Ah... Ahhh! M-Monsters! Living on this island...!"
"Were they chasing you? We can't sense anything around here but you."
"N-No, they weren't!"
"Then why were you running like that?"
"...Th-that's because they caught us and dragged us back to their village. We managed to escape, but we thought they might chase after us..."
"I see." Since I got the gist now, I released the hand I had clamped on his shoulder and gave my clan orders. "It seems there are no monsters nearby. But let's not let our guard down."
We went from combat-ready to simply vigilant. There was no need for us to unnecessarily waste energy, after all. I then handed some water to the adventurers that we tracked down. As soon as they finished drinking it, I asked them some follow-up questions, but their answers just had me tilting my head in confusion.
"Now that you've calmed down a bit, explain a bit more. There was a village?"
"Y-Yes, that's exactly what it was. A village of monsters that live on this island..."
"Don't you mean a colony?"
"No. I don't know what else to call it, but..."
It seemed that the man trying to explain the situation to me hadn't been able to get a grip yet. Thankfully, the woman next to him was able to answer my question in his stead.
"Your Lordship, the monsters there were nothing like the monsters that we know."
"What do you mean?"
"First off, they communicated with each other in a language we couldn't understand. The wizards said it sounded almost like they were speaking the ancient language, but... o-oh! Sorry, that's not really relevant." The woman apologized for rambling and quickly moved on. "The village we were brought to was massive. Countless monsters were living there... and on the streets, there were families and children as well. It was as if the monsters living there... were the native people of this island."
Natives... Well, that was definitely interesting news.
"Hm... Nanari isn't bad. But since it was able to summon Seedrias and use a Palpupura's essence, it might be better to call it See-Palpupura—"
"Stop."
What the hell was wrong with Versyl?
"This guy will be named Nanari," I ordered, cutting her off at the pass. "We'll keep calling it that until we can confirm whether it already has another name."
Versyl blinked, then awkwardly coughed, which I took as a sign of agreement.
Thankfully, Amelia seemed to be in a much better mood after that.
Anyway, now that the issue of its name has been squared away...
After putting the Nanari (Temporary) essence away, we slowly fell back into formation and continued our expedition.
"...What a strange island."
Everyone agreed with Auyen, as it was beginning to dawn on all of us just how bizarre this place was. The jungle seemed standard enough on its own—even though it was pretty dark, we were used to that kind of thing as adventurers. However, there were strange, out-of-place little details that made it clear there was something off about this place.
"Ugh... I stepped on it again..."
At some point during our trek through the wilderness, we began to encounter strange, squishy patches that felt like mud beneath the soles of our boots. But when we lifted our feet to see what we were stepping on, what we found instead was what looked to be chunks of meat. It was impossible to tell what in the world it even was.
"This is disgusting. Why the hell is this stuff all over the place...?"
"It could be worse. At least it doesn't smell rotten."
The only good thing about it was the lack of smell. Visually, however, it was so grotesque that even I felt sick to my stomach walking on it. It looked almost like a bunch of monsters that had been cut up and squashed down with a hydraulic press.
Why the hell is there an eye sticking out of that one...?
Whatever they were, we found these strange patches of meat all over the ground and sometimes even in the trees. It was getting to the point that I was starting to wonder if the final boss of this island would be an unhinged alchemist or something. Whatever the case, though, we continued to slowly make our way inland, creating a map as we went.
"Prepare for battle!"
Suddenly, a monster leaped out of the darkness and attacked us. It was Diamont, the monster we'd been warned about in advance.
[You have killed a Diamont.]
The fight itself wasn't difficult, but because I wanted to investigate its abilities a bit more, we dragged the battle out for forty minutes. As a result, I was able to figure out its passive skill.
Unclean was a passive skill that increased the strength of all active skills by 1.5 times in exchange for giving up one essence slot.
I had my hopes up since all of its active skills were rank three...
I never imagined that its passive would only be rank five. What a letdown.
If it had had a good passive, it might have even been good enough to add to my final build.
Diamont had the skill Hellfire, which was good enough to be used in the endgame, but its passive and other skills were mediocre.
It's nice to come across monsters with new skill combinations, but it's going to be tough to find one with the perfect combo—
"Mister!" Erwen suddenly shouted.
We'd barely had a moment to catch our breath after our last fight, and another monster was already coming our way? I immediately jumped to my feet, on high alert.
However, a second later, Erwen followed up with another piece of important information. "It's not a monster! It's humans!"
"Humans?"
"There are four of them. They seem to be running as fast as possible, almost like they're being chased..." she mused. "But they're not coming our way. What should we do?"
What else is there to do?
"Let's go after them. I want to know what happened here anyway. Since they got to this island before us, they should know something."
As we were all seasoned adventurers, it didn't take long for everyone to pack up their stuff and get back in formation. We then took off with Erwen at the forefront.
"We're almost there!"
Eventually, Erwen came to a halt, and a group of people soon came careening out of the bushes across from us.
"Huh—?!"
They skidded to a stop at the sight of us, struggling to catch their breaths, and I watched them react to our sudden appearance in real time.
"Baron...Yandel...?"
Panic, suspicion, surprise, happiness, hope—their expressions were a tapestry of emotions, but they were all scrubbed away an instant later when their wearers seemed to come to their senses.
"W-We're alive!"
"...Please save us!"
They quickly dropped their weapons and ran toward us, not even bothering to question why we were on this island too. This was the type of person I hated the most.
I get that you're happy to see us, but you should at least offer the bare minimum explanation first.
"What was chasing after you?"
"A-Ah... Ahhh! M-Monsters! Living on this island...!"
"Were they chasing you? We can't sense anything around here but you."
"N-No, they weren't!"
"Then why were you running like that?"
"...Th-that's because they caught us and dragged us back to their village. We managed to escape, but we thought they might chase after us..."
"I see." Since I got the gist now, I released the hand I had clamped on his shoulder and gave my clan orders. "It seems there are no monsters nearby. But let's not let our guard down."
We went from combat-ready to simply vigilant. There was no need for us to unnecessarily waste energy, after all. I then handed some water to the adventurers that we tracked down. As soon as they finished drinking it, I asked them some follow-up questions, but their answers just had me tilting my head in confusion.
"Now that you've calmed down a bit, explain a bit more. There was a village?"
"Y-Yes, that's exactly what it was. A village of monsters that live on this island..."
"Don't you mean a colony?"
"No. I don't know what else to call it, but..."
It seemed that the man trying to explain the situation to me hadn't been able to get a grip yet. Thankfully, the woman next to him was able to answer my question in his stead.
"Your Lordship, the monsters there were nothing like the monsters that we know."
"What do you mean?"
"First off, they communicated with each other in a language we couldn't understand. The wizards said it sounded almost like they were speaking the ancient language, but... o-oh! Sorry, that's not really relevant." The woman apologized for rambling and quickly moved on. "The village we were brought to was massive. Countless monsters were living there... and on the streets, there were families and children as well. It was as if the monsters living there... were the native people of this island."
Natives... Well, that was definitely interesting news.