Volume 13 Chapter 10 Special Area
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Yeah! That’s right! The top Hunting Group is gonna beg Sir Kent for a reward, huh?”
”Ah, that’s what they said.”
Lakia was striking a victory pose, all excited.
Maybe she’s planning to force her way into my bed if she becomes the top dog.
Personally, I don’t mind some playful smacking in bed, but getting caught up in s*x and slacking off on Hunting Group duties would be a problem.
I need to lay down the law with her real clear.
”Then, we’re going all out to win the top spot!”
Glancing at the beaming Lakia with one eye, I looked back at the board just as the staff was messing with it again.
A chorus of shouts rose from the Monster Hunters around us.
”What the… Rootless Weed, 18 S-rank, 48 A-rank!?”
I couldn’t help but look at the board a second time.
The Rootless Weed, thought to be just a mid-tier Hunting Group, had pulled out the King’s Sword and topped the hunting scores, causing a stir among the Monster Hunters lounging around the taverns.
”Hey… Was Rootless Weed really that strong? Isn’t that Rosalinda’s group?”
”But they beat Black Bullet at the Beast King martial arts tournament. They’re tough, right?”
”Word is, they’ve become Kent the King’s pet Hunting Group and got a whole new set of Equipment. They were always a bunch of oddballs, but they had the skills; just lacked the cash.”
All over the taverns, people were buzzing with surprise about Rootless Weed taking the top spot.
”Lakia, sorry to break it to you, but we’re the top dogs today.”
Rosalinda and Iska rushed over to me, side by side.
Iska must’ve used Devour, because today her hands had turned into wings, and her legs were like a bird’s──she had this game-like harpy look going on.
…Bird girl… feather touch… leg tease… ugh… my head is…
I was starting to think bad thoughts, so I looked away from Iska and talked to Rosalinda.
”You guys got some amazing hunting results, I heard. Did Iska work hard?”
”Iska worked hard too, but this time it was our Hunting Group members’ big appetites that let us find a whole bunch of new monsters. Usually, you wouldn’t think that carrots, radishes, potatoes, onions buried in the ground, or pomegranates, strawberries, and apples growing on the surface would turn into monsters, right?”
Rosalinda was bragging about her Hunting Group’s results, breathing hard.
”We were poor until recently, so everyone was stingy with their preserved food and ate what grew wild on the hunting grounds. This time, we were going to gather some for cooking, but Renge, the monster Cooking person who came to help, saw that they were monsters. She got rid of the monster-fied veggies and fruits right away. When we took the harvest to the buyers, they gave us more than 5 big silver coins each, so our wallets got pretty warm.”
I knew that Renge, the phantom monster Cooking person of Abyss Vena, was visiting Rosalinda, but I was surprised that she knew how to deal with monster-fied vegetables and fruits.
”Renge has a weird Skill called [Processing Technique]. This time, Heta and the others found the monster-fied vegetables and fruits, and Renge used her [Processing Technique] Skill to make them harmless, so we got a whole bunch of S-ranks. All I did was hunt the known monsters around so it was easier for everyone to search.”
Iska was praising Renge and Heta.
She wants to show off that this time it wasn’t just Iska’s Devour, but the combined power of the Hunting Group that got them the big prize.
”By the way, if you drop the [Southern Pomegranate] before processing it, it goes kaboom.
Other veggies and fruits have poison, cause hallucinations, or even shoot hard seeds everywhere.
Good thing Renge warned us beforehand, or we would have had wounded people everywhere.
Without Renge, we might have built a mountain of corpses.
I also have a backstory of getting an S-level monster certification because I wrote up a report summarizing the warning points about these monsters.”
Rosalinda was showing me the dropped fruits and veggies.
They looked just like the regular ones you’d buy, but they were way bigger.
I took the report about the newly discovered monster ecology that Rosalinda handed me and started reading it.
’Monster name: Bomber Pomegranate. Characteristics: It looks like an ordinary pomegranate tree, but you can’t eat the fruit unless you pick it before it ripens. If it ripens on the tree, it turns into a troublesome monster that goes kaboom with just a slight shock, scattering hard seeds all over the place. You can make it harmless by cutting it off the tree before it ripens. The dropped item, [Southern Pomegranate], can explode like a high-level fireball if infused with mana after a few seconds.’
Whoa… if I accidentally eat this, won’t it mess with my mana and blow me up?
I was shocked reading the next monster report they discovered.
’Monster name: Bomb Potato. Characteristics: It looks like an ordinary potato. However, if you give it even the slightest shock, it goes boom. Just to note, the explosion doesn’t have any added nasty effects. It grows wild, and if you dig it up carefully and heat it, it turns into the harmless dropped item [Southern Potato]. Infusing it with mana and burying it makes it a weapon that explodes on pressure.’
This one blows up too?!
I don’t want to accidentally step on one while not knowing it’s buried in the ground and have it explode.
By the way, when I went to Coco, I saw some hunting wagon wheels blown off.
Did we pass through its wild growing area…?
I’m sweating cold as I face a monster like an anti-tank landmine, opening the next monster report.
’Monster Name: Drain Cucumber, Characteristics: Looks like a normal cucumber. If you don’t cut it off from the tree before it’s fully ripe, it will turn into a monster. Once it becomes a monster, if you slam it to the ground or something, it explodes. The blast has the effect of [Libido Reduction (down to about one-hundredth)]. By the way, the drop item called [Drain Cucumber’s Pseudo Semen] that comes out after neutralizing it turns milky when exposed to air and has the same components as real semen, somehow quenching the thirst of succubus types.’
W-What the hell!!!
This monster… making semen makes no sense!
Pseudo is no good… pseudo… nothing beats the real squeeze.
But, it might be worth growing as an emergency remedy for succubus types without a master.
Losing beautiful succubus types while they’re young would be a loss to the world… Maybe I should buy some from the dealer and let Milly have a taste.
We’ll think about mass production after that.
Knowing that succubus types without a master end up short-lived, I thought we should protect this monster found by Rosalinda and make a special breeding ground in a spot rich in magic elements for the Blackdagger family.
There were various other monsters described, but each had unique ecosystems not seen in other regions.
”…Rosalinda… I’m surprised no one died.”
”Thanks to Renge. If it was just us, we would have been wiped out long ago.”
Just as Rosalinda said, the monster group they encountered this time wouldn’t be too hard to handle if you knew how to deal with them, but if you didn’t, they were the kind of deadly monsters that could cost you your life.
”…This is a terrible monster… I can’t believe a monster like this exists… Coco really seems to be a particularly unusual area in the Southern Region.”
Lakia, a veteran monster hunter who was reading the report beside me, also seemed surprised by the monsters Rosalinda and the others encountered.
”The Hunter Guild says they’ll warn all the monster hunters in this camp. The leaders and sub-leaders of each hunting group should be called.”
Rosalinda said that, and a waitress from the tavern ran over to us.
She told us the Hunter Guild was calling.
So, the leaders of each hunting group gathered at the Hunter Guild’s office, and they got the details about the monster Rosalinda and the others met.
New monsters
Monster Name: Grenade Pomegranate (Bomber Pomegranate)
Hunt Rank: B
Type: Plant
Features: It’s a pomegranate tree, nothing special.
But, you can’t eat the fruit unless you pick it before it ripens.
If it ripens on the tree, it explodes with a little shock, scattering seeds everywhere.
It’s a pain-in-the-ass monster.
If you cut it off the tree before it ripens, it’s safe.
The dropped item, [Southern Pomegranate Fruit], can be made into a weapon.
If you put magic in it, it explodes like a high-level mage’s fireball in a few seconds, scattering seeds.
Monster Name: Bomb Potato
Hunt Rank: C
Type: Plant
Features: Looks like a normal potato.
But, it explodes if you give it even a little shock.
It’s a troublesome potato.
By the way, it just explodes, there are no nasty side effects from the blast.
They grow on their own.
If you dig them up carefully and heat them, they become harmless and change into the dropped item, [Southern Potato].
If you put magic in them and bury them in the ground, they become a pressure-sensitive explosive weapon.
Monster Name: Drain Cucumber
Hunt Rank: B
Type: Plant
Look: It’s an ordinary cucumber.
If you don’t cut it from the main tree before it’s fully ripe, it turns into a monster.
Once it’s a monster-cuke, smacking it down on the ground or shocking it makes it blow up.
The explosion has a [sex drive killer (drops down to about 1/100)] effect.
Also, the drop item after neutralizing it, [Essence Sucking Cucumber’s pseudo semen], turns milky white when it touches air and becomes the same as semen, with a mysterious effect that quenches the thirst of succubi.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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