Nana-san and I left the village to conduct an experiment with a revival potion, and we were searching for giant rats in the nearby forest.
「There are none, huh」
「…Does it really have to be a giant rat?」
「But that is kind of the rule…」
Nana-san was right. There was no strict reason it had to be a giant rat.
Still, I had always done experiments using giant rats. If I was doing this again, I wanted to use a giant rat this time as well.
…At the very least, I did not feel like experimenting on a horned rabbit. Experimenting on a horned rabbit would hurt my heart. Giant rats did not hurt my heart nearly as much.
「It has already been about an hour since we started searching, you know?」
「Hmm. At this rate, we might be spending the next several days just looking for giant rats」
「Eeh…」
Searching for wild giant rats really is hard.
If we went to the dungeon, there would be as many as we wanted, but those monsters get absorbed by the dungeon immediately after being defeated.
「This feels nostalgic. We once tried to do a potion experiment like this and ended up searching for giant rats for days」
「Ah yes, you did do that…」
「I remember it taking a long time back then too. How long was it again?」
「――Three weeks」
「…Huh?」
「If I recall correctly, Master wandered the forest for three weeks trying to find giant rats for healing potion experiments」
「Did I really do that for that long…?」
Three weeks…?
What is wrong with me… How stubbornly did I search for rats…?
「That said, you were not blindly searching only for giant rats the entire time. You would return home after defeating other monsters as well」
「Ah, I see」
「You were also having trysts with Diana-sama」
「Trysts…」
…Ah, right, now I remember.
I would reach Lukmine Village without finding any giant rats, then meet Diana-chan before going home. That kind of day repeated for about three weeks.
「That brings back memories… And that was when Ralina-chan got mad, right?」
「…I do not want to search for giant rats for three weeks, and I truly do not want to make Ralina-sama angry」
I do not want that either…
「No, but Nana-san, even so, without a giant rat――」
「Ah」
「Hm? What is it? Did you find one?」
「No, I did not find a giant rat. However, I just realized something. ――The revival potion. We can use the revival potion」
「Huh? Use it how?」
「Master has a hobby of collecting giant rat hides, correct? If you apply revival potion to one of those hides and revive the giant rat, that would solve the problem」
「To a giant rat hide…?」
Ah, I see!
Instead of going out of our way to look for a living giant rat, we could just pour revival potion on the hide!
I see, I see. That hide is, in other words, a giant rat corpse. So if we pour revival potion on it then… wait?
「But Nana-san, the giant rat hide I have is, um… this one」
I took a giant rat hide out of my magic bag and showed it to Nana-san.
「This dropped in a dungeon, right? That means it is not really a giant rat hide, but a no-kill giant rat hide, does it not?」
「Ah, now that you mention it… Still, it is a giant rat, is it not?」
「Is it though…? It is not a naturally born giant rat, but one created by a dungeon. And this hide is from a dungeon-created giant rat too, right? That feels a bit different…」
「When you put it that way, that is true…」
「If we pour revival potion on this hide, maybe something strange will come back to life…」
To begin with, it is unclear whether monsters born in a dungeon can even be revived at all.
That experiment feels like it would turn into something entirely different from what we intended this time.
「There would be too many strange variables, so let us just look for a wild giant rat after all」
「Sigh. I suppose it cannot be helped…」
Nana-san seemed reluctantly convinced, so the two of us started walking again in search of giant rats.
「Ah, and Nana-san. It is not like I am actually collecting giant rat hides――」
「Ah」
「Hm? Did you find one?」
「It is a walking mushroom」
「Yikes」
Where Nana-san was pointing, there was not a giant rat, but a walking mushroom strolling along. I shot it for now.
「Yeah. That should have killed it」
「That was an instant kill」
「Well, it was just a walking mushroom… Let us collect it for now」
We approached the fallen walking mushroom, sliced it up briskly with a knife, and stuffed it into the magic bag.
「When we get back, let us shove it onto Ralina-papa before we go home」
「I like mushrooms, so I would not mind taking it home as is, but…」
「Then maybe I will keep just your share, Nana-san. The rest can go to Ralina-papa」
Nana-san says she likes them, but walking mushrooms do not suit my childish palate. I am already fifteen, but they still do not suit me.
I think I will eventually come to like them, so until then, I will keep pushing them onto Ralina-papa.
「Alright, let us move on, Nana-san. Let us find giant rats. We do not need any more walking mushrooms, okay?」
「Even if you say that, they come walking over on their own――ah」
「Hm? Did you find one?」
「It is not a giant rat, but I have found something that looks like giant rat bones」
「Bones, huh…」
When we moved closer, it really did look like giant rat bones. It looked like a giant rat skull.
「What should we do? Shall we try experimenting with this?」
「Hmm… Is this really a giant rat’s bone?」
「Probably」
「Probably, huh」
When I experimented together with Yggdrasil-san before, she found a giant rat’s lower jaw for me, and we used that.
But back then, Yggdrasil-san properly identified it. That was why we could experiment using a bone that had fallen on the ground.
This one is only a 『probably』. A 『probably giant rat bone』.
Is it really okay to revive something like that…?
「Giant rats have lots of evolutionary paths too… What if it is not a giant rat, but a super rat bone?」
「A super rat? That sounds dangerous. …Is it dangerous?」
「Well, I do not really know either… But if it calls itself ‘super’, it probably is dangerous, right…?」
After all, it is a super rat. It has to be dangerous.
And even if it is only a super rat, there could be super rat 2, super rat 3, or super rat god. That is dangerous.
「Then let us refrain, I suppose」
「Yeah. Let us search the hard way」
Leaving behind the bone that might have been a giant rat, or might have been a super rat god super rat, Nana-san and I started walking again.
After a while—
「Ah」
「Hm? Did you find one?」
「Yes. That one」
「Oh, nice one, Nana-san」
A giant rat. We had finally found a giant rat.
I thought we would go through a few more rounds of finding something else first, but we managed to find a giant rat safely.
Just over an hour until discovery. That is pretty lucky.
「First we defeat it normally, right?」
「Yeah」
「May I kill it?」
「Hm? Yeah, sure」
「Then excuse me――『Circular Saw』」
After getting close enough, Nana-san released 『Circular Saw』 at the giant rat—
「Ugh…」
With a very, very unpleasant sound, Nana-san’s 『Circular Saw』 defeated the giant rat.
It was the kind of sound and image that felt like it might become traumatic.
There was no blood flowing from the monster, so it was not that splatter-like, but that was about the only saving grace…
「I do feel a little sorry for it, but this is also for the advancement of medicine」
…I do not think medicine will advance at all from this experiment.
next chapter: VS Giant Rat 9
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