Herb Gathering Quest #3
Herb Gathering Quest #3
"From here on, it's monster territory. I can't take you any further."
After a while, the wagon driver spoke up.
It was finally time to dismount and continue on foot.
The wagon had been crossing a vast plain.
Beyond a certain boundary line, the plain became a danger zone where monsters roamed. Unfortunately, the lake where the herbs grew lay inside that danger zone, so we couldn't ride the wagon all the way.
Well, not entirely impossible.
If we paid an extra fee, the driver would happily take us right up to the lake.
But that fee was a blatant ripoff, so we were forced to walk instead.
Bronze Tier adventurers earning pocket change had no choice but to leg it in situations like this.
"I'll guide us. I got a map from Wendy."
Ethan pulled a crumpled, folded map from his pocket — a map detailing the paths across the plain. As the party leader responsible for this quest, Ethan had received various tools from Wendy.
Usually, the most experienced adventurer takes the role of party leader.
Ethan probably had more adventuring experience than me.
So he's a veteran adventurer despite looking like a snot-nosed kid.
Going by appearances alone, he totally looks like some grade-schooler obsessed with Minecraft.
Rebecca and I followed Ethan as he walked along, checking the map.
No matter how far we walked, the plain was nothing but a sea of green.
Ethan occasionally lifted his head to scan the sky and check the terrain to confirm our direction.
With a guide leading the way, I could just empty my mind and walk. Though Rebecca, walking beside me, wore a somewhat anxious expression.
"Are we sure we're going the right way?"
"We have a map, so we shouldn't get lost."
"Yeah, but still... the guy leading us looks like a kid, so I can't really feel confident."
"He's not a kid, he's a halfling. Halflings have sharper senses than humans. Their race excels at handling delicate tools and navigating. You can follow him without worry."
"R-really? Well, that's a relief."
Rebecca shrugged her shoulders with an awkward expression.
It was just as Rebecca, having shed her unease, fell silent.
Suddenly, I heard a suspicious noise nearby and sharpened my focus.
The sound of earth rumbling from below ground.
At the same time, I felt a faint tremor beneath my feet.
"This is..."
"Huh? What's wrong?"
I quickly sent a warning to Rebecca.
"Monsters!"
"Monsters? I don't see anything?"
Rebecca looked around, a puzzled expression on her face.
But even without seeing anything, I knew monsters had appeared. I knew the characteristics of the monsters that infested the area near Yoen-su. I calmly drew my crossbow and loaded a bolt.
"Monster Moles. They're burrowers!"
The moment I spoke.
Pshhhh!
A mound of dirt erupted, and a mole burst out of the ground. The mole, as big as a decent-sized dog, stared at Rebecca and me, baring its sharp front teeth.
Up ahead, Ethan shouted.
"Monster Moles have appeared! Be careful not to get bitten by their front teeth! If those rat bastards bite you, they'll put a hole right through your thigh!"
The Monster Mole is a creature native to the plains near Yoen-su.
These moles, wielding abnormally large front teeth, tunnel through the ground and ambush their prey.
An annoying situation, but the Monster Mole that appeared beside us wasn't alone.
Following the vanguard, several more Monster Moles burst through the earth.
"Wh-what do we do?"
"We smash them!"
I fired my crossbow. Because I'd pre-aimed where it would surface, the bolt struck the Monster Mole's body. Other moles immediately rushed at me, but there was no need to back down.
Because Rebecca quickly stepped in front of me.
Shhhing!
The clear ring of a blade.
The weapon Rebecca held was a curved blade. A sword similar in shape to the sabers used by knights. The crescent-curved blade oddly had patterns like rippling waves on its surface.
'That's an oddly-shaped sword.'
I observed Rebecca while firing bolts.
I was a total novice at swordsmanship, but I could at least tell that Rebecca's skill was above average.
The way she swung her sword was distinctly different from the reckless flailing of amateurs.
However, Rebecca was struggling against the Monster Moles.
Because, like any first-time adventurer, she knew nothing about the monsters.
"Wh-what the hell are these rat bastards! Why is their hide so tough!"
Rebecca was flustered when the moles didn't get cut even after being slashed. She'd probably swung her sword expecting ordinary rats, so of course they wouldn't cut.
Monster Moles have a specific point you need to target.
"Aim for the belly. The belly."
I offered Rebecca some casual advice.
"These moles have tough outer skin, but their belly skin is soft. So aiming for the belly is the strategy."
"Th-they're crawling on the ground, how am I supposed to aim for the belly?"
"You just flip them over by force."
Showing is better than explaining a hundred times.
Conveniently, a Monster Mole charged me without fear, so I drew the dagger from my belt.
Of course, swinging the blade first is something only amateurs do.
I kicked the approaching Monster Mole with all my strength.
Eeeeeeeeeeeee!!
With a bizarre squealing cry, the Monster Mole was launched into the air.
When it crashed back to the ground, the mole was lying on its back, stomach exposed. I had deliberately kicked it as if scooping up its flank to reveal the belly.
"KIMORING, you rat bastard—!!"
I plunged the dagger in and easily finished off the floundering Monster Mole.
"O-oh, so that's how you do it!"
Enlightened, Rebecca launched a kick at a Monster Mole. She was a bit clumsy, but the moles' movements weren't particularly swift. The sluggish Monster Moles couldn't avoid the kick and were flipped over, exposing their bellies.
Eeeeeeeeee!!
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
Slaaash!
Rebecca finally managed to dispatch one Monster Mole after a lengthy struggle. Once Ethan and I had each taken down three, there were no more living Monster Moles around.
For a party including a first-timer, we'd finished the battle without significant injury.
Ethan looked over at Rebecca and me and spoke.
"Gather the spoils. Take only what you each killed."
He then crouched down and began applying his knife to the Monster Mole's corpse. The part Ethan was cutting was the mole's stubby tail. To me, the sight of him dismantling a corpse was natural, but Rebecca, the newbie, seemed to disagree.
"Huh...? What's that kid doing? Why's he cutting off the tail?"
"Monster corpses are worth money. A Monster Mole's tail will sell. If we just leave, it's like throwing money on the ground."
"The tail? What can you even use that for?"
"Monster Mole tails can be used as medicine. The locals here have a folk remedy of boiling the tail and drinking it to reduce fevers. Selling them at a general store can get you about 2 Copper each."
Of course, it's just a folk remedy, and when I actually tried eating it, it didn't do shit.
There's demand only because the locals superstitiously believe in its medicinal effect.
At my teaching, Rebecca's eyes widened and she murmured.
"Ah-haa...!"
Her reaction was so clear, it made teaching her worthwhile.
For a moment, I felt an irrepressible sense of satisfaction at Rebecca's murmur.
Seeing a newbie adventurer learn something new and be happy about it warmed my heart.
"Wait, could you say that again? What you just said?"
"Why?"
"Just... just 'cause I want to hear it."
"Ah-haa—!"
"Th-that's enough. Now hurry up and cut off the tails."
Sniff sniff!
The lewd scent wafting from her... total spontaneous orgasm possible!
I tried to hide my twitching lips as I cut off and pocketed the Monster Mole tails.
"Thanks for teaching me all this stuff. You're really kind, Luke."
"I'm just helping because you're a first-timer. An adventurer should be well-versed in any junk items that might be worth money. Bronze Tier adventurers can barely scrape by on quest rewards alone. You've got to earn side income like this."
"Got it."
After pocketing the Monster Mole tails, the three of us adventurers began moving toward the lake again.
*
Since it was an open plain, spotting the lake wasn't difficult.
By the time dusk fell, my party and I had arrived at Lake Mersil.
"This is Lake Mersil. The area where the Moonlight Herb grows. First, we should finish setting up camp before it gets completely dark."
"Camp? We're sleeping here? Wouldn't it be better to quickly pick the herbs and head back to the city?"
"We can't. Until night falls, Moonlight Herb is nearly impossible to distinguish from other plants. We have no choice but to wait for the moon to rise to collect it."
"Hm...?"
Rebecca tilted her head but followed Ethan's instructions for now. Since I knew a bit about Moonlight Herb, I prepared the campsite without complaint.
Moonlight Herb is a plant that is hard to distinguish from the surrounding weeds until full night.
To collect Moonlight Herb, we were forced to stay the night here.
"We'll build a shelter. Please gather stones and branches."
Together with Rebecca, I collected materials that could serve as a blind.
Since Lake Mersil was a danger zone where monsters appeared, we needed a shelter to sleep safely.
Just like the camouflage training I did in the army in my past life, we piled up grass and dirt around the site.
Conveniently, there was a suitable spot nearby where the ground was dry, so my party and I decided to build the shelter there.
By the time the shelter was nearly complete, darkness had fallen.
A night with the moon risen.
The moment the pure-white moonlight shone upon the earth.
"Ah—."
Only then did Rebecca seem to understand why Moonlight Herb could only be picked at night.
The plants blooming around the lakeshore began to glow all at once.
Plants that had been indistinguishable from weeds during the day were now shining brightly the moment they held the moonlight.
The characteristic of Moonlight Herb is that its leaves glow fluorescent when bathed in moonlight. Because of this, the habitat of Moonlight Herb becomes enveloped in a dazzling cluster of light when night falls.
Just like right now.
"Pretty..."
Rebecca gazed at the glowing lakeshore with an enraptured expression.
Women on the Midgard Continent apparently liked this kind of scenery, finding it atmospheric, and Rebecca seemed no different.
In fact, it was said that men and women often got together in places where Moonlight Herb bloomed.
I considered casually throwing out a romantic remark but stopped myself.
'Now's not the time.'
It was time to pick herbs.
According to the request requirements, we had to collect enough Moonlight Herb to fill a burlap sack.
The amount to be collected was large, so we had to start the work quickly to get any proper sleep.
At some point, Ethan had already crouched down and started pulling Moonlight Herb, so I couldn't just stand around.
I rolled up my sleeves and bent over, beginning to pull Moonlight Herb as well.
"You have to pull gently so the roots don't get damaged, Rebecca. It's also good to use something like a flat rock to dig up the surrounding soil and then pull it out."
"L-like this, right?"
"Yes, you're doing great!"
"Hehe."
I worked while offering Rebecca light advice.
Ethan had already brought the burlap sack to hold the Moonlight Herb.
"I received the burlap sack together with the map from Wendy. We just need to fill this sack with Moonlight Herb. I'm mentioning this because we have a first-timer in the party, but be careful not to let other weeds or clumps of dirt get into the sack. The client might cut the pay."
I hummed to myself as I pulled the Moonlight Herb.
Work songs are a must for this kind of simple manual labor.
Songs I used to listen to while working on assignments until dawn back in my college days in my past life.
Twenty years had passed since I came to this otherworld, and my memories of my past life were hazy, but I could at least recall the tunes of the songs.
"Hm hm hm~."
"What are you hm-hm-ing about? Are you hurt?"
"I'm singing."
"That was singing...?"
"Ahem."
Embarrassed under Rebecca's gaze, I stopped humming.
Is modern beat just too ahead of its time for the inhabitants of this otherworld? To think they wouldn't even realize it was a song.
It took about an hour to fill the burlap sack.
We were just tying the mouth of the sack with twine and preparing to move it to the shelter.
Suddenly, Ethan spoke up with a puzzled expression.
"While we were picking herbs... did either of you happen to see any suspicious footprints?"
"Suspicious footprints?"
"There were horseshoe prints stamped all over the lakeshore. I haven't heard anything about wild horses living around here... Could a stray horse have been wandering about?"
At Ethan's words, I searched my memory.
I had definitely seen horseshoe prints stamped into the ground by the lakeshore. I'd been too focused on picking herbs to pay it much mind, but now that I thought about it again, something felt off.
"I saw them too. Horseshoe-shaped footprints."
"Did you touch one? Didn't it feel strange?"
"Yes... the area around the footprints was damp with moisture."
The spots where the horseshoe prints were stamped had one strange commonality: the ground around them was wet with moisture.
Despite having been under the midday sun, the moisture still remained in the soil.
"Peculiar footprints indeed. Well, it's probably nothing to worry about. Let's head to the campsite. We should decide the order of the night watch before we sleep. Who will take the first watch?"
As we moved to the campsite, my party and I decided the order of the night watch.
We arrived at the campsite after circling around the lake. Now that it was time to rest, my party and I were somewhat less tense.
But just as we were about to push aside the grass laid as a blind and step inside, a bizarre sound came from behind us.
Bubble bubble.
The sound of violent bubbling.
Turning around, I saw large bubbles rising from the lake. A disturbance was occurring on the lake, which had been perfectly calm just moments ago.
"What's that?"
Soon, something broke through the bubbles and raised its head above the water.
Upon seeing the creature's upper body, my first thought was that it was a horse.
A green-skinned horse with a mane running down its neck.
Clop, clop.
But when the creature walked up onto the land, I changed my assessment.
Because an ordinary horse's hindquarters couldn't possibly have a fish's tail attached.
Hee-hee-heeng.
The finned horse looked at my party and me and let out a low whinny.
The horse's cry carried a clear hostility directed at us.