「Takato-san! Takato-san!」
I woke up as my body was shaken violently.
──Damn it! I fell asleep!
I sprang upright and saw Miriel and Ladarion in front of me.
「W-what happened!?」
Wait, what time is it? Twenty-two? What? I slept for almost eight hours? That’s way too long!
「Please rest assured. We defeated the Yamaguro. Several people were injured, but no one died.」
I felt relieved at Miriel’s answer. It seems they managed to defeat it without serious losses.
「We decided to leave dismantling the Yamaguro for tomorrow and end things for today.」
「Was it a tough fight?」
「Yes. Even after taking dozens of Ladarion’s attacks, it would not die easily. It is probably a power attribute. Otherwise, it could not have that kind of abnormal stamina.」
Power attribute. That would be the same type as Mokudan. If I remember correctly, that one had a purple magic stone. Honestly, what an unpleasant attribute for a monster to have.
「What about Gorg?」
「I heard they defeated it, but I do not know the details.」
The distance was considerable. There was probably no time to report everything in detail.
「Understood. I will confirm it once, then return to Lasagna Village.」
「Would tomorrow not be fine?」
「No. It bothers me. I will check.」
Thanks to sleeping deeply, my stamina had recovered. The location was not that far from Lasagna Village. In three hours or so, I should be able to reach Gorg’s group and return to Lasagna Village. Once I reach the road, I can deploy Pioneer.
「We will handle the details after I return. You all get some proper rest. There is no guarantee there are no other Yamaguro. Oh, and borrow the glasses from Bisha for me.」
「I’ll go get them.」
While Ladarion went to retrieve them, I switched to my light P90 setup. If I am moving through the mountains at night, lighter equipment is better.
By the time I finished changing, Ladarion returned.
「Please be careful.」
「Yeah. I will not let my guard down until the very end.」
I patted the two of them on the shoulders, put on the glasses, and went outside.
「The Yamaguro is… torn apart? Did they remove the magic stone? More importantly, how did they even dismantle it? It did not die even after taking Lynx rounds.」
I tried pulling out my knife and stabbing it. The blade went in halfway.
What? Is that because it is already dead?
「…Does magic have something to do with it…?」
After learning to use magic, I realized that magic is connected to the body. The stronger the magic, the more inhuman strength one can produce. Physical stamina also improves. In other words, this is a world where magic determines everything.
「Seriously, they should explain something that important from the start.」
With my own magic power, I can only produce about three liters of water. But with a water magic stone, I could generate far more effect. Even with the water attribute, I can recover stamina. If I had practiced earlier, it would have helped with subjugation too.
Well, that can wait. I should head to where Gorg and the others fought.
After about an hour, I arrived at the location we had used as headquarters. The boys were not there, but Misuzu corpses were piled high.
「Did they gather these after defeating the Yamaguro?」
If they had the spare time to do this, then no one must have died. That is good.
Even so, I went to confirm the place where Gorg and the others had fought.
The parent was enormous. Too enormous to even grasp how large it was. It was like a mountain. Even for giants, it is impressive that they managed to defeat it. I heard that even multiple rounds from the enlarged SCAR-L were not enough to bring it down.
「Besides bullet holes, there are axe marks and slash wounds.」
Looking closely, it had clearly been beaten down thoroughly. Giants armed with proper weapons are as dangerous as small-scale giant robots.
「Looks like they removed the magic stone.」
There was a strong, bloody smell, and chunks of flesh were scattered around. Would other monsters not be drawn to this? Or rather, is there anything that would actually eat something like this?
「There is no sign of goblins at all.」
During the day there were barely any, but now there were none within the range I could sense. Did they flee after realizing something dangerous had defeated the Yamaguro?
As far as I could see, there were no heat signatures. No other monsters approached either. The Yamaguro must truly be that overwhelming of a presence.
「Even the cub was abnormal. If things had gone badly, Koraus might have been destroyed.」
Seriously, in a world where something like that exists, goblin extermination is a nightmare-level task. I will buy an RPG-7 with my winter earnings. Without something like that, it is too terrifying.
I returned to the former headquarters site, brought out Pioneer from Home, and decided to rest for a while.
「Come to think of it, what happened to the Misuzu?」
Did they scatter somewhere during the fight with the Yamaguro? That would be fine, but if so, the amount to hand over to the giants might decrease.
While drinking canned coffee and thinking, an idea came to me. Rather than an idea, it was something I wanted to test.
「…Wait, can I gather blood with magic…?」
Blood is a liquid. It contains water. If that is the case, magic should be able to manipulate it.
I dragged one Misuzu from the pile, slashed its neck, and imagined gathering the blood.
「…I actually did it…」
A sphere of blood gathered in my palm.
This… could it be useful for extermination and even combat?
When I gathered more blood, the Misuzu shriveled up. Well, this would make it inedible. I need to drain a reasonable amount, not all of it.
I threw the sphere of blood far away, then cut another Misuzu’s neck and gathered its blood.
「Around seven liters feels about right?」
After doing it four times, I got used to it. This time I tried gathering blood without cutting first.
「As expected, that is impossible.」
But I was able to draw out moisture. If I master this, it could definitely become a powerful attack.
Careful not to overexert myself, I drank water and continued in intervals. Before I realized it, the surroundings had grown bright.
「Not good. I got too absorbed in this. I need to return to Lasagna Village.」
I folded down the back seat, loaded three drained Misuzu into Pioneer, and headed back to Lasagna Village.
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