Three corpses hung from the vines of a tree.
«Erwen, ».
The first thing I did was have Erwen drop the bodies to the ground so I could examine them.
«These are clean stab wounds.»
«Yeah. They appear to be made of swords. I would say one of this length». Versyl evaluated.
«... So it's like I thought», Amelia said gravely. «It was probably the work of a human».
Both the magician and the murderer agreed that the wound had been caused by a weapon and that the person who had attacked them was most likely a human.
«But... Aren't there also enough monsters that use weapons?». Auyen asked innocently.
Although he himself didn't usually watch many fights, he was right. However, none of the others thought that a monster had killed them. That was because their corpses were hanging from the vines of a tree.
«Monsters have never been known to do something like this before. You probably already know this, but monsters typically 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 a lot of sense and was more than enough to convince Auyen. However...
i sighed. «So what the hell happened here...?».
«I don't know. Maybe the Silver Lion Clan fought among themselves? Or maybe someone betrayed them? For now, all we know is that it wasn't a monster that killed these people».
Despite everything, Versyl's reasoning was not infallible. There was also the very real possibility that there was a monster in this place that acted differently than all the ones we had encountered.
«A corrupt state of mind».
It took me a moment to realize that Amelia had spoken. «That?
«Perhaps they were hit with some kind of skill that affected their mental state? Monsters don't hang their prey from trees, but a crazed human could».
That was also a possibility, and as a leader, I had no intention of ignoring it.
«Versyl, cast Tranquility on us.»
«Oh, right now!»
For now, I had Versyl cast a spell as a basic countermeasure. Tranquility was not as effective as Soul Barrier when it came to skills that affected your mind, but Soul Barrier consumed much more MP.
«You can keep Tranquility active at all times, right?».
«Yeah, don't worry.
Alright, that should be enough preparation for now. If something goes wrong later, I'll have to adjust my orders then.
I stepped aside and once again looked towards the place where the bodies had been hanging. Then I turned to the person next to me. «Missha».
«¡S-Sí!»
«What was the first thing you thought when you saw those corpses hanging from the vines?».
«U-Um... Not sure? Maybe it seemed almost as if whoever did this was bragging. As if they were displaying their prey...»
Yes, that made sense.
«Emily, ¿y tú?»
«To me it seemed more like a warning than a boast. It would also explain why they were hung right at the entrance...»
«So you think they're trying to warn us not to come in anymore?»
«Yeah.» Amelia nodded, and then returned the question. «What do you think?»
«The same as you. It seems like they are warning us».
The moment the words left my mouth, I heard a strange noise next to me. «Tsk.»
«What is it, Missha?»
«Nada...»
Anyway, it was enough to talk. It was time to stop paying attention to those three corpses.
I was curious to know who had killed them, of course. It didn't look like a monster did it, but at the same time it didn't look like a human did it either. Still, what was the point of agonizing over it now?
I'll be able to find out just by going a little deeper.
If he was wondering what awaited him in the darkness, he just had to go into it. There were some things in this world that you could never know unless you were willing to step into the unknown and see them for yourself.
«Let's go.
As we headed into the jungle, I made sure Auyen was doing his job of creating a map of the area.
«Agh! I-that tree just moved!»
Finally, we meet our first monster. But he was not the Diamont we had heard the Hektz clan talk about.
«It's a new monster.»
His name and rank were unknown, but he was obviously a plant-type monster. It had to be, since there didn't seem to be any animals or other beings attached to the tree or moving it.
¡Fwish!
He waved his vines like whips
Is this your basic attack pattern?
Hit!
Judging by the strength of his attack as it hit my shield, it was not that strong. In terms of physical strength, it seemed to be, a rank five or so? But it was too early to let our guard down. Magical type monsters were known to have weak strength.
¡Fwooosh!
The branches of the tree shook as if agitated by a gust of wind, and its leaves began to fall and dissipate into small specks of light. At first, the specks were quite small, but as they fell, they grouped together and grew. When the balls of light reached the ground, they were several times larger than the specks that formed them. Not only that, but they now had a clear shape.
«¡Es Seedria!»
The Seedria plant-type monster was small and made adorable noises, but there was no need to be fooled. He still had the same rank as a Troll.
¡Peeek, peeek, peeee-!
Since it is capable of summoning Seedrias, does that mean that this tree thing has the essence of the Crescent Seed summoning type? What other skills do you have, then?
While holding back the seven Seedrias attacking me, I pondered the possibilities, but I didn't have to wait long until he revealed his next ability.
¡Poom! ¡Poom! ¡Pooooom!
With the speed of a machine gun, mana bullets suddenly shot towards us. I recognize the ability as rank four Palpupura Magic Flock.
¡Sheeeeee!
And that dust looked like Fascination Dust.
Overall, I'd say this thing is slightly above rank four.
I waited a little longer to see if I had more active abilities, but I wasn't using anything new. I also wanted to know what his passive could be, but it wasn't reason enough to continue lengthening the fight, so I decided to end it.
Hit!
I hit the hammer with all my strength and split the giant tree in half.
«Oh! Have you killed him?»
However, his body was not dissolving into specks of light as usual.
Because? I asked myself, confused. Does it have any kind of healing capacity?
¿Kyu?
Just when he thought that, a small creature emerged from the felled tree and walked away as soon as he saw us. As a veteran Dungeon and Stone player, I intuitively realized what it was.
«Erwen, kill him! That should be your main body».
As soon as I gave him the order, Erwen raised her bow and already had an arrow pointing at the fleeing monster.
¡Fwoosh!
After a moment, he let it fly and it exploded on contact like a firework.
[You have killed a cave squirrel].
When 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? It's a new monster! Of course we should use a magic vial with it».
Once I gave it the go-ahead, Versyl hurried out a vial and ran towards the essence.
«But the essence of this will not be so useful to us», Amelia grumbled.
«True... We don't know what his passive ability was, but his active abilities weren't that good...».
Interestingly, Missha supported Amelia's complaint. It was a surprise, considering that Missha had been quite quiet since the beginning of the expedition.
Are you feeling more comfortable with the rest of the clan?
It wasn't a conversation per se, but the fact that he said something instead of not participating at all like before was a step in the right direction. Although I would only make things uncomfortable if I drew attention to it, so I kept those thoughts to myself.
«Actually, that may not be the case», I said, contributing my grain of sand.
"¿Because you said so
«Because these types of monsters usually have their own unique essences separate from the host».
There were quite a few cases of parasitic type monsters that were capable of using different abilities depending on the hosts they inhabited. They could have the ability to increase the potency of the host's innate active abilities or use an ability that the host was not capable of.
«We should go back to the library and find out more about its essence later».
«What should we call it?» amelia asked.
«Does it make any sense? Surely the other adventurers who passed through here before have already named it».
«...Well, you never know. Let's call it Nanari».
«Sure, do what you want».
It seemed that if it were not today, our clan would inevitably introduce a monster called Nanari into the world.
«Um... Nanari is not bad. But since he was able to summon Seedrias and use the essence of a Palpupura, it would be better to call him Ver-Palpupura-»
«For. »
What the hell was wrong with Versyl?
«This guy will be called Nanari», I ordered, cutting it dry. «We will keep calling it that until we can confirm if it already has another name».
Versyl blinked and then coughed awkwardly, which I took as a sign of agreement.
Luckily, Amelia seemed to be in a much better mood after that.
Anyway, now that the subject of his name has become clear...
After saving the Nanari (Temporary) essence, we slowly returned to the formation and continued our expedition.
«...What a strange island».
Everyone agreed with Auyen, as we were beginning to realize how strange this place was. The jungle seemed pretty normal on its own, although it was quite dark, we were already used to that kind of thing as adventurers. However, there were strange and out of place little details that made it clear that there was something strange about this place.
«Ugh... I stepped on it again...»
At some point during our desert hike, we began to find strange soft stains that looked like mud under the soles of our boots. But when we raised our feet to see what we were stepping on, what we found were pieces of meat. It was impossible to know what it was.
«This is disgusting. Why the hell is this everywhere...?»
«It could be worse. At least it doesn't smell rotten».
The only good thing about this was the lack of smell. Visually, however, it was so grotesque that even I felt nauseous walking on it. It looked like a bunch of monsters cut and crushed with a hydraulic press.
Why the hell is there an eye coming out of that one...?
Whatever they were, we found these strange pieces of meat all over the ground and sometimes even in the trees. I was getting to the point where I was starting to wonder if the final boss of this island would be a deranged alchemist or something. In any case, we continued to slowly move inland, creating a map as we went.
«Prepare for battle!»
Suddenly, a monster jumped out of the darkness and attacked us. It was Diamont, the monster we had been warned about in advance.
[You have killed a Diamont].
The fight itself was not difficult, but since I wanted to investigate his abilities a little more, we extended the battle for forty minutes. As a result, I was able to find out his passive ability.
It was a passive skill that multiplied the power of all active skills by 1.5 in exchange for giving up an essence space.
He was hopeful, as all of his active abilities were rank three...
I never imagined that his passive would only be rank five. What a disappointment.
If I had had a good passive, I could have been good enough to add it to my final team.
Diamont had the Hellfire skill, which was good enough to use in the endgame, but his passive and other skills were mediocre.
It's okay to find monsters with new skill combinations, but it's going to be difficult to find one with the perfect combination...
«Sir!» Erwen suddenly screamed.
We had barely had a moment to catch our breath after our last fight, and another monster was already coming towards us? I jumped to my feet, on alert.
However, a second later, Erwen gave me other important information. «It's not a monster! They are human».
«Humans?»
«There are four of them. They seem to run as fast as possible, almost as if they are being chased...», he reflected. «But they don't come to us. What should we do?»
What else can we do?
«Let's go after them. I want to know what happened here anyway. Since they came to this island before us, they must know something».
Since we were all experienced adventurers, it didn't take us long to gather our things and return to training. Then we took off with Erwen at the helm.
«We're almost there!»
Finally, Erwen stopped and a group of people came out of the bushes in front of us.
«¿Eh…?»
They stopped when they saw us, struggling to catch their breath, and I saw them react to our sudden appearance in real time.
«Baron... Yandle ...?»
Panic, distrust, surprise, happiness, hope... Their expressions were a tapestry of emotions, but they were all erased a moment later, when their bearers seemed to regain consciousness.
«¡We are alive!»
«...¡Please save us»
They quickly dropped their weapons and ran towards us, not even bothering to ask why we were on this island too. This was the type of person I hated the most.
I understand that you are happy to see us, but at least you should offer the minimum explanation first.
«What was chasing you?»
«A-Ah... Ahhh! M-Monsters! Living on this island...!»
«Were they chasing you? We can't feel anything around here except you.»
«N-No, they didn't!»
«Then why were you running like that?»
«...E-that's because they caught us and dragged us back to their village. We managed to escape, but thought they might chase us...»
«I see.» Since I had already grasped the essentials, I let go of the hand that was clinging to his shoulder and gave orders to my clan. «There seem to be no monsters nearby. But let's not let our guard down».
We went from being combat ready to simply vigilant. After all, there was no need to waste energy unnecessarily. Then I gave some water to the adventurers we had located. As soon as they finished drinking it, I asked them some complementary questions, but their answers only made me tilt my head, confused.
«Now that you've calmed down a little, explain to me a little more. Was there a town?»
«Y-Yes, that's exactly what it was. A village of monsters that live on this island...»
«Don't you mean a cologne?»
«No. I don't know what to call it, but...»
It seemed that the man who was trying to explain the situation to me had not quite gotten the hang of it. Luckily, the woman next to him was able to answer my question instead.
«Your Honor, the monsters there were nothing like the monsters we know».
«What does it mean?»
«First of all, they communicated with each other in a language that we could not understand. The magicians said it sounded almost as if they were speaking the ancient language, but... oh! Sorry, that's beside the point». The woman apologized for rambling and continued quickly. «The town they took us to was huge. Countless monsters lived there... and there were also families and children in the streets. It was as if the monsters that lived there were the natives of this island».
Natives... Well, that was definitely interesting news.