Chapter 23
I try to observe the man eater from a distance away. It is simply a huge pitcher plant. It is about six meters in total length, and it has many branches. (It is too troublesome, so I call them tentacles.) Yurika’s corpse is hanging from one of those tentacle. The Fang wolf is also hanging in the same manner, like preserved food.s
By the way, Yurika is now stark-naked. I think her clothes were just a hindrance for the man eater. That couldn’t be helped. I can see that because we are going to fight against the man eater. But…
Mio is right. If I see a lifeless girl being strangled, I only feel pity. I don’t have any erotic feelings, at all. Is that the way it preserves its food, or does it has another use for it?
…For real?
[Phew! I think it was a good idea to come here,] I begin. [Let’s drop our status a little and use this as battle training.]
[Understood,] Sakura says. [How should we fight this time?]
[Let’s do something different from usual and focus on long-range attack.] I begin. [Sakura and Mio will be the main damage dealers, and the rest of us will support them. The man eater’s movement is quite slow, so poison and acid aren’t much of the threat at long range, either. I think we will be safe as long as we stay out of the tentacles’ range.]
[I intend to recoverYurika’s body after this.] I say.
[Why?] Maria asks. [Do we actually have a reason to do that?]
[It is nothing personal, but I want to stop that man eater.] I reply.
[Understood.] Maria says. [I will try to recover her body.]
Maria volunteers to do that. She is the quickest among us. I think she is suitable for this job.
<
That is the case, too. Because Dora’s
[It is possible,] I say. [However, Dora doesn’t have much experience in dog fighting yet. It is too dangerous if you don’t have prior experience before. So I will leave this role for Maria this time.]
[Please leave it to me,] Maria says. [I will complete it without fail.]
<
< [Why? Although I was chosen, why do I feel such regret?] Maria asks.
[fuwa~, hauuu…] – Maria
[Maria, you go recover Yurika’s body and then use “Warp” to return to us.] I say. [Yeah… Uh… No, it’s all right,] Maria begins. [I’m going to cut down any tentacles during my return.]
[If you are in danger, use “Warp” immediately.] I say. [Yes, I will.] Maria says. g By the way,everyone has Sakura’s
< < <> – Sakura says.
Maria jumps out at my signal. She jumps down the slope close to the man eater, cuts the tentacles and recovers Yurika’s body. Since the top of the slope is a blind spot, we used it to our advantage, allowing Maria to approach the man eater quickly. This is good because our purpose is just recover Yurika’s body and get out of there as soon as we can. When Maria cuts the tentacles, the man eater notices this and sends other tentacles to attack her. However, she just cuts them down when they come closer.
Sakura casts her magic. Since she shoots it at high angle, her magic doesn’t hinder Maria’s action, at all.
Mio shoots an arrow. She is in a different location than Sakura because it is better to attack from two sides rather than just concentrating on one side. Since fire magic is really effective, a lot of tentacles are taken down with each attack. I’m protecting Sakura while Dora and Sera are protecting Mio. Maria is going to join me later. Sera doesn’t use her shield, she just dual-wields both her sword and spear, one on each hand for better maneuverability. Maria and Sera are dealing with those tentacles while Dora and I are dealing with the other monsters. This is the basis of our strategy.
I hear Maria’s shout. Her evasion is something I couldn’t believe with my own eyes. She avoided all tentacles that came from behind her. Oh! She uses Maria is really close to us. There isn’t much threat from the tentacles at this distance. Most of its long-range attack and tentacles are aiming for Sakura and Mio, but they aren’t hard to deal with. The man eater approaches us, little by little, but considering our mobility, it doesn’t matter. [[[[Yes!]]]] everyone exclaims. <
[It will end soon. Be careful not to hit the acid sac in the center.] The man eater suddenly makes a move after its HP is lower than 30%. [Monsters are approaching us from all sides!] [An enraged mode, I think?] Mio asks. (Spec: Wow! This is like a raid boss.) Oh, this is common in games. When boss HP is low, it will be strengthened, and the companion is increased, too… All of the monsters in the vicinity are approaching here, all at once. Did it just shoot out a strange pheromone? < [Be careful about the man eater’s movement.] I warn. [It might do something strange.] [[Yes!]] Maria and Sera reply.
[Only a few HP remains.] I say. [Let’s burn it all at once!] [[Yes!]] Mio and Sakura exclaim.
It doesn’t take much time for the man eater’s HP to reach zero. It was defeated. Acid is splashing around and making a sizzling sound. [You are right,” Sakura begins. [But it is natural, considering the status. The other party’s status is quite high, too.] [Yeah. Sakura and Mio, how was it?] I ask. [I mean about being the main attacker in long range group attack?]
[You are right,” Sakura said. [We could fight unexpectedly well, but I think it would have been difficult without guards.] – Sakura [Well, we didn’t need to worry because someone was guarding our back.] Mio says.
[Because the chance we will be attacked from behind is low, we could take time and attack without worry.] Sakura says. [That’s right. We have enough time, so we didn’t need to use magic from [Well, the bow isn’t a rapid-fire weapon, after all] I say.
It can’t be helped sincethatt is one of the weapon’s characteristics. This world doesn’t have guns. I guess this is because of the different rule, and it might not as powerful as we expected in this world. We might able to replicate the firing mechanic and make guns, but we can’t expect it to be as powerful as our former world. And what is the use of a rapid-fire weapon if it can’t hit? I guess Mio has no choice but to give up.
[Come to think of it, Sakura…] I say. [What is it, Jin-kun?] Sakura asks. [Can you revive a dead person with
[It is impossible.] Sakura begins. [Not enough MP.] [So… Does that mean it’s possible if you have enough MP?] I ask. [Yes, perhaps…] Sakura says.
[Huh? Master, are you planning to revive Yurika-chan?] Mio asks. [Just in case…] I begin. [I didn’t do this because of my good will since we might kill someone who wasn’t hostile to us by accident too. This was an experiment.] Wait… If Yurika isn’t treated as missing in action and this anomaly in this forest isn’t dealt with, the large-scale extermination will happen. If they couldn’t find Yurika’s remains with the anomaly in the forest like this, she would be considered killed in action. So… We should clear this forest, so it won’t have any anomaly. [I understand what you mean, but how could we do that?] Sakura asks. [How about exterminating all plant monsters and wait for nature to return it to its former environment?] I ask. [So this is an extermination mission?] Sera asks. [This is finally a chance for me to show my skill!] < For now, our object is the extermination of all enemies. We won’t have a problem because we have
[All right!] I say. [Well done, Maria. Let’s burn it without reservation from up here.]
[What is that!?]
[Dora, concentrate on extermination of those monsters!] I exclaim.
[Phew!] exclaims Mio. [We unexpectedly defeated it from a long distance this time.]
By chance, it isn’t funny if we fail to use resurrection magic when our ally is dead. This will be a good experiment before that really happens.
[For the sake of Yurika being treated as missing in action, let’s return this forest to normal. In the case of a normal forest, missing is considered worse than death.] I say.
Dora, you shouldn’t say that. Was it because of me?