Volume 2, Chapter 4

Volume 2, Chapter 4

Translator: Einbedo

Editor: Weasalopes

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「The soil’s OK, the Man Eater stem is OK, we’ve plenty of seeds and fertilizer ready.」

The next day, seemingly without damage, Hiroshi was standing in front of the flower pot with a manic grin on his face. He had hardly eaten any breakfast in his excitement. They were in an empty building that had been cleared of any inhabitants. A few vacant houses just like this one could be seen around the village, they functioned as temporary lodging for any visiting outside races.

「Are you feeling alright?」

「As A’ight as I’ll ever be.」

「I certainly hope so…」

Haruna hesitantly nods, unable to conceal her concern for Hiroshi whose excitement had been getting out of hand. She was worried about his well-being, despite it being the umpteen gazillionth time something similar had happened. There haven’t been any negative effects so far but that doesn’t mean there won’t be in the future…

However, what really concerned Haruna at the moment, was how thoroughly had she been exposed yesterday? Asking would be like walking through a minefield, so she was reluctant to do so. As it is, it was an accident, and nothing could make it less.

「Try ta keep clear of the vicinity while the experiments are underway. Pay extra close attention to Artiem, lord knows what might go down if she got too close, keep ‘er out of ‘ere at all costs.」

「You can count on us.」

Haruna nods gravely realizing the stakes at hand. If Artiem was to so much as get anywhere near a Man Eater some off-color sequence of events would inevitably unfold.

「Are you sure you can handle this all by yourself?」

「If I wasn’t sure about it I wouldn’t be standin’ ‘ere right now, now would I?」

「Fair enough.」

When it comes to making things Hiroshi’s calls can be reasonably trusted, which can’t really be said for any of his other knowledge. While he does occasionally make one or two blunders like with the gargantuan Pomey incident, unlike the mad scientists of fiction, he’s yet to cause any real damage and that seemed like reasonable grounds to trust him on.

「I’m dealin’ with a carnivorous plant ‘ere, ain’t no way I’m lettin’ my guard down around it.」

Haruna nods back and exits the room. Her being there would only complicate things.

「How ’bout we get this show on the road starting with the Man Eater.」

There can be no experimentation without a target to bring down. Hiroshi places the potted plant close to the middle of a magical barrier and, as standard procedure would dictate, adds in the dirt, sticks in the Man Eater stem, waters it with nutrient infused water and leaves it to sit for a while.

「Should be done in about an hour.」

He begins working on the Man Eater killer, following the exact same standard procedure, while spouting some crazy-sounding stuff.

「Let’s see how well the scientific method works out.」

Hiroshi cross-pollinates same family plants, which had grown to absurd extents in the blink of an eye and had already began blooming, and plants their seed in the same flower pot as the Man Eater.

「Well, what did I expect?」

As expected, the moment it began sprouting it got immediately overpowered by the Man Eater. It’s not like weeds lack in power or anything it’s just that it’s difficult to put up a good fight against something that falls under the monster category.

「If the scientific method doesn’t pan out within the next few tries, alchemy it is then.」

Through trial and error he was able to invent a type of weed that managed to put up somewhat of a fight without the need of alchemy coming into the picture. And as such, the first day of selective breeding had come to a close.

「Do you think they’ve made it there already?」

While Hiroshi was busy assuming the mad scientist role, Fum, Teres and Nora were idly chit-chatting while partaking in a later than usual lunch. Lime had her share of lunch earlier in the day and was taking a nap, Layla, having finished lunch alongside Lime, was out shopping and delivering goodies to Merizza’s place while she was at it. Just to be clear, there was a one hour time difference between Wulls and Teres’ village.

「They should have already made it there a while back, considering the speed of that golem-drawn carriage.」

「Don’t know how I feel about saying this but they could have gotten lost on the way, that village’s in such a remote spot with virtually no proper roads leading up to it after all.」

The remaining members fall into thought upon hearing Teres’ point which implied that the area hadn’t been mapped.

「That’s odd, no matter what angle I peak at it from, I can’t imagine them being set back by something like that even if it was the case.」

Teres and Nora nod in agreement. It’s them we’re talking about, even if they were to get lost there was no doubt they’d make the most out of it. No matter their circumstances, they’d find a way to survive.

「He’d be all up in smiles making another one of their crazy thingamajigs with some peculiar material he happened to come across.」

「Either that or he’d be squandering all their spirit yarn working on something that he’d try to pass of as ‘makeshift’ while it’s actually needlessly high-effort because they totally needed it at the time.」

Fum shakes her head in agreement to every single one of the hypothetical Hiroshi-esque situations Teres and Nora had brought up. Hiroshi’s crafting addiction was a thing of legends, as long as he could get his hands on the right tools and materials, you’d be sure he’d be crafting something regardless of context.

「They’ve downed wyverns and rock boars before, so as long as something absurdly strong or something in absurd numbers doesn’t pick a fight they’ll weather it through just fine.」

「Although if he doesn’t return every once in a while I have a feeling that we’re going to plateau sooner or later.」

They crack a self-deprecating smile in response. While they have managed to get a hang over potion making and can whip up perfectly passable seasoning that’s not curry powder by the gallon, they’re still not quite consistent enough to comfortably tackle anything class eight. Not to mention that they’re alchemy and enchanting skills still need some serious polishing.

They didn’t necessarily need Hiroshi to hold their hand through everything, since they could use their currently possessed knowledge as a base for self-learning, but there was this inexplicable feeling that they’d hit a dead-end right after cleaning their hands of class eight. They could attempt to delve further through experimenting with unknown materials, but for that they’d need experience, which they didn’t have in spades.

There’s also the fact that ever since Hiroshi and Mio set off their learning pace had dropped very noticeably. They weren’t yet at a level where they could dive into the unknown with just their intuition, they still needed a mentor. Upon becoming aware of this it’s not hard to see why they’d be concerned about their future endeavors.

「Don’t lose faith, there’s still room for us to grow by ourselves, it hasn’t even been a full month since they’ve made it out.」

「You’re right, how silly it was of me to fret over some imaginary brick wall in the way when I’ve not even made it to that point in the road yet.

Teres, inspired by Fum’s words of encouragement, gets up from her chair and gets right to work. There have been countless orders for miso, soy and various other sauces ever since word of their existence spread through the royal palace, so she had her hands full. It’s not like the recipe was kept a secret or anything but, by virtue of being the trailblazers in this regard, Azuma’s brand was widely considered the best out there. The amount they were capable of putting out, in relation to their rivals, was also incomparable. That being said, everyone was careful not to sleep on their laurels because all of that could change in a heartbeat.

That, however, does not mean that they’ll be catching up any time soon, seeing as how even the girls were advancing at a snail’s pace every time they made seasoning. In fact they’ve only recently managed to get the recipe down, so it’ll take a long while till they are able to say the same when it comes to taste. Furthermore, due to being able to pump the spices out at a comfortably fast pace, the workshop’s produce could be sold for a cheaper than average market price, edging out the competition. There was room for competitors to make their move since, at the workshop’s current production rate, the goods could only get in the hands of the affluent, so there was untapped market potential there. That wouldn’t prove to be as simple as it sounds, however, considering the head start the workshop has in terms of both equipment and employee number.

「Is anyone there?」

Just as they had gotten in the perfect mood for cracking down on the most numerously ordered item – soy sauce, a familiar voice makes its way into the room.

「Alive and well, as you can see, Elle.」

Fum picks up on the voice and gets up to greet their guest

「Greetings.」

「Greetings. What brings you to our humble abode?」

「Could I get five hundred grams of niboshi, three kombu slices and lastly two katsuoboshi pieces.」

Aeris nonchalantly lists off the goods, all of which would be astounding to hear from the lips of any other princess, but this one did all of her own cooking in the temple’s kitchen.

「They’ll be ready in just a moment.」

Teres begins gathering the goods. Azuma Workshop only ever does in-shop dealings with either the royal family or members of the Adventurer’s Association, occasionally with a select few, personally close individuals, but that’s a rare sight. This has been the case ever since Hiroshi became head of the workshop but, more importantly, it resulted in the workshop building up a questionable reputation of sorts, especially considering the quality and scarcity of their products.

「Don’t be shy, come on in.」

「Aren’t you busy with work?」

「We usually tend to finish our daily quota by noon, anything we make afterwards is for the sake of honing our craft, that and building up a stockpile for a day or two off, and wages.」

Nora responds along with all the juicy behind the scenes details. Their basic living expenses are covered by taking a cut off of the sales of the products they had a hand in making. Their actual wage, however, wasn’t set in stone and they could technically take all the profits for themselves with a little business know-how, but considering their impoverished background there was no way any of them would ever even think of doing so.

As such they take the incoming orders and organize them in order of due date, calculate the predicted earnings of each one and put them up against their living expenses to determine the minimum amount of work needed to be done for the day. At present every one of their products go for a lot and the due dates are, for the most part, incredibly generous and as such their work can easily be done by noon.

And so that’s exactly what the three choose to do, they finish up all their work by noon and either do tomorrow’s batch in advance or deal with abrupt special requests such as the one right now later on in the day.

「We’ve been testing out a bunch of possible new additions to add to our repertoire, such as tea or teacakes. They’re still in the testing phase though, so it’s not like they’ll be available for purchase any time soon.」

Teres says as she returns with the requested items and tea with biscuits to go alongside it at hand. Said biscuits were rusks – thinly cut pieces of bread fried in oil with some sugar sprinkled on top.

「These are delicious. Teres, did you make these all by yourself?」

「Elle, I was under the impression that you were perfectly aware of my cooking ability…」

「I-I’m so sorry!!!」

Aeris hastily apologizes to Teres, who had a dark cloud looming above her. It’s not like she was completely incompetent when it came to cooking, it’s just that her ability was inferior when put up against that of Fum’s or Nora’s, and so much as mentioning her name alongside Aeris and Leyla would be sacrilegious.

「Well it’s not like everyone here is a master cook or anything…」

「Makoto’s a shining example of this, she’s completely clueless when it comes to cooking.」

「Makoto’s a full time party member, it’s only natural she wouldn’t bother wasting time on a secondary skill like that, It’s everyone else who’s actually odd for dabbling in it for no real reason.」

Fum and Teres crack a strained smile at Nora’s remark. Under most circumstances adventurers don’t bother learning to make anything by themselves. At most they’ll maybe be capable enough to mock-up a makeshift trap on the spot with what they have lying around, but that’s about as far their expertise goes. That makes sense since they’d much rather be spending that precious time honing all of their combat related abilities instead of skills that are only really good for saving money, like potion making or blacksmithing.

Naturally there exist exceptions to this rule, none of them quite on the level of Hiroshi but exceptions nonetheless. It’s not a rare sight to see practitioners of professions like potion making or blacksmithing, where independently procuring materials is a necessity, train themselves up to the ninth, possibly eight, level of adventurer. However not every profession requires this and, strictly in the context of adventurers, that is the case as well.

「No real point in singling out Teres’, from boss man’s and Haruna’s perspective we’re all equally as rookie as the rest anyways.」

「Their threshold is something as comically high as being able to prepare a rock boar dish after all.」

「That doesn’t really make me feel any better…」

Nora’s and Fum’s words only made matters worse. Teres’ pointy elf ears were drooping, indicative of her demoralized mental state. To her it wasn’t so much a problem of societal expectations forcing her into feeling bad for not being able to cook, as can be seen in human society, it was more a matter of craftsman pride, even though she was still an apprentice by all accounts.

Gender boundaries are, by and large, blurry in elven society and, as such, there exists no othering of women who can’t cook or pick up a needle to save their lives. Men get assigned physically intense jobs, while women get the long term endurance heavy jobs, but that’s about as far as the gender divide goes. Every other task that isn’t particularly demanding in any of those aspects is done by whoever happens to have their hands free.

As such being inept at cooking does nothing to hurt a woman’s pride in the larger societal context. However, being inept at cooking in a more local context where almost everyone around her is immensely superior to in terms of skill is plenty damaging. Cooking skills also happen to carry over to alchemy and potion making proficiencies, so it’s not hard to see why she’d take it a bit personally.

「All of that aside, Eru, how’s your little brother and sister doing these days?」

「They’re still infants so it’s still too early to say for certain but, at least for the time being, they’ve yet to contract any major diseases and are doing just fine.」

Aeris goes along with Fum’s fumbling attempt at changing the topic, not wanting the awkward atmosphere to linger on for any longer than necessary. There wasn’t much to work with, seeing as how it’s only been a month since their conception.

「The crew had plenty of work on their plate back then.」

「Now that you mention it, weren’t they frantically going about trying to sew some fancy-looking baby clothes?」

The ladies gossip about the premature royal family’s babies over a cup of homemade herbal tea. The two were twins, both legitimate children of Elena and Layotte, much like Aeris.

Hiroshi had been tasked with the burdensome chore of urgently putting together an extra pair of baby clothes, seeing as how not only were the two twins but prematurely born to make matters even worse. With Farlane’s current advances in medicine it was impossible to tell if they were twins beforehand, meanwhile Alfemina, who wanted it to be a surprise, did not communicate the fact to Aeris in their exchange. The only one who had a vague feeling that might be case would be the queen herself.

After the realization had sunk in they had their work cut out for them, brewing all the baby friendly medicine they could think of and providing the queen with specially modified food fit for a well-balanced post-pregnancy diet. After all was said and done they set out near the end of February and an entire month had already passed since then, symbolizing the first milestone in the newborns’ development.

「When’ll you be publicly announcing the news?」

「After the first month’s physical examination and the blessing procedure take place.」

Newborns are known to kick the bucket at the drop of a hat, they’re feeble, fragile little creatures at the end of the day, and there’s only so many miracles medical technology is capable of pulling. That’s why it’s a Farlane custom to put off any public announcements regarding the successful delivery of its royal family’s latest addition until about a month or so after the fact.

Naturally since there was no active effort in trying to conceal neither the queen’s pregnancy nor the babies birth, rumors spread across the city like wildfire. However them being twins, and other fine details for that matter, were unknown to the public, so even now they’re excitedly waiting in anticipation for the announcement.

「Will you be the one doing the honors?」

「Yes, that is the princess priestess purpose after all.」

Aeris responds all in smiles and proceeds to gracefully finish off the remainder of her tea. Just from this little episode alone one would certainly not get the impression that this princess was actually quite the glutton.

「That aside, how’re things going back there?」

「The town’s people seem to be on the edge of their seats in anticipation for the announcement, but asides from that its business as usual. Without boss man and the crew around there’s no one to introduce any new spices or some odd dishes to shake things up.」

「Well there is this one thing.」

「Fum, have you got something to add?」

「There’s this soba shop that recently opened up near the market district and its owner is an old guy who boss man got along well with. I’ve done some poking of my own and word is that it’s the top dog when it comes to soba in Wulls.」

Aeris face lights up at the mere mention of soba. Needless to say she had no restraint to anything soba related. Hiroshi taught her all the various ways of partaking in the dish, making her the unofficial Farlane soba connoisseur.

「I’d hate to burst your bubble but the food quality isn’t going to be anywhere near what boss man and Haruna make.」

「I see…」

「Look on the bright side, once soy sauce becomes more readily available the number of soba shops will increase, allowing people to enjoy scrumptious soba at an affordable price range. Kombu and niboshi aren’t that pricey after all.」

Aeris was bursting with joy at the prospect of soba sweeping Farlane. Wanting to see others appreciate the same things one does is only human.

「There is a way to accelerate the process even further.」

「What do you have in mind?」

「If we spread word that the princess priestess personal favorite dish is soba and get the state to openly support soy sauce and katsuoboshi production it’d be a piece of cake.」

「That… actually sounds like a decent idea.」

Aeris thoroughly chews over Nora’s suggestion. The state openly supporting their production was off the table. However if word got around that soba was a personal favorite of the priestess princess, to the extent that she’d have some on new year’s eve, coupled with the easy accessibility of cup soba for those unable to find the time to make some themselves, it might just be able to join the ranks of Farlane’s national foods within a few years, give or take.

「That’s fine and all but I can’t help but wonder what everyone’s up to right now.」

「It’d be nice to know if they even made it there safely in the first place.」

「No need to worry, Alfemina assured me of their safe arrival about two or so days ago.」

「Why on earth’s a goddess concerning herself with such insignificant matters?」

「Alfemina’s got quite the soft spot for Elle… doesn’t she?」

Teres and Nora find it hard to get over Alfemina’s off-handed use of power. In their minds a god was to be above such matters.

「Are you sure it’s fine for her to be tossing around prophecies left and right like it’s nobody’s business?」

「Well I’ve been receiving them on a daily basis for quite a while now, so I don’t believe there’s any issue?」

「On a daily basis, huh…」

Aeris’ and Alfemina’s relationship was more akin to that of some inexplicably influential ladies and her beloved puppy dog of a child than that of a goddess and an oracle. Even taking a look back, the only other instance of a priestess princess being as favored as Aeris was the very first generation one. From that fact alone it was hard not to tell how truly special Aeris was in Alfemina’s eyes.

「To be fair it’s not like we need a prophecy to tell us that they’re either working on another one of their weird thingy majiggy’s, trying out new recipes with some never before seen ingredients or getting themselves into a whole heap of trouble.」

「Teres, what kind of food is standard in your village?」

「Besides the fact that there’s little in way of meat and that our staple food is not a wheat per se, it’s not all that different from here.」

「What do you mean by ‘not a wheat per se’?」

「Lars wheat, a type of cereal. It doesn’t grow around these parts so it’s no wonder you’ve never heard of it.」

Everyone listens on in awe about the mysterious crop. What none of them knew, having never seen the real thing, is that it was actually a type of rice. Just to be clear all three of Hiroshi’s apprentice knew what rice meant and that it was a cereal.

「Do you ever get an urge for it?」

「On occasions, though there’s a bunch of food here that I’ve never even seen or touched before, so that’s keeping me busy from getting overly homesick in that regard.」

「I see.」

「If it ever gets too unbearable I’ll just arrange a trip back with the party.」

「Sounds like a solid plan.」

Aeris breathes a sigh of relief seeing Teres lovingly smiling. What she didn’t know at the time was that, around halfway through April, Teres would be making frequent rounds to the village and back, having succumbed to said rice urges. Teres would spend the time leading up to April in ignorant bliss, unaware of what the near future had in mind for her.

「Razor-clawed jaguar meat is an acquired taste.」

「Man eaters are anything but…」

「You can say that again.」

The very next day after the girls gossiping session and Hiroshi’s experimenting, Haruna and Mio found themselves stuck with downed man eaters and some other spoils Takeya and Makoto had hunted down on their way back to the village. They would be making Doria for dinner, so for lunch they had to make due with what they had on hand.

「Man eaters aren’t worth the hassle, let’s give up on the idea of putting them in our stomachs.」

「They’re usable for potions and consumables.」

「We can use them for practice later, just be sure to teach me what and how can be made from them.」

「Roger.」

Man eaters weren’t suited for human consumption. After all, even Haruna’s expertise got them nowhere, so it was much more logical to just use them for something else.

「Could razor-clawed jaguar meat be made into a cutlet?」

「Mask the stench with spices, throw in some perilla and serve with cheese. That sounds like it could work.」

「What about eliminating the stench and smoking it?」

「I could see that working out as well.」

The razor-clawed Jaguar, being a carnivore, had a distinct stench attached to it. Granted it was nowhere near as bad as the Cerberus, which was downright inedible, but it still required some working around to make it tolerable. On top of that it could only really be either fried or baked, boiling the meat would render it hard as a rock, so it’s not fit for something like curry. As a result the forms it can take on a plate were fairly limited.

Its qualities were much like the other inner southern forest carnivore – the blood stained wolf. Except that this one was a bit easier to make strength enhancing potions with, so it made much more sense to use it as for that purpose over ham-fistedly forcing it into a food item. Both of them tasted almost identical as well, so it was a no brainer at that point.

「Good thing the exploda-bear meat didn’t turn out to be half bad.」

「Yea.」

「How does bear meat and fresh veggie Doria sound for today’s menu?」

「Mouth-watering.」

Despite being an active monster and a bear to top it all off the exploda-bear was, surprisingly enough, a herbivore of all things. Its primary source of food were carnivorous plants such as hunter trees and man eaters, because it liked its food with a little bite to it. It’s one of the most powerful monsters within the compounds of said forest, capable of unleashing deadly explosive balls of pure energy in battle. But alas, there’s one single weakness holding it back – its deadly vulnerability to oxygen rings, the kryptonite of all animal type monsters.

「What’re we going to do with its fur?」

「The razor-clawed jaguar’s white fur is a rarity, so we could use it for cloaks, I guess?」

「Who’d even wear one of those?」

Mio looks at Haruna in complete and utter disbelief upon hearing her silly question.

「It’s indispensable for any serious rapier user.」

「Wait, I’m the one supposed to be putting that thing on?」

「Do you see anyone else around?」

「How exactly do rapiers and cloaks go hand in hand? I don’t follow.」

「God’s will. The people’s will. The mmo’s will.」

This time Haruna’s the one to stare on in disbelief as Mio lists off a bunch of nonsensical, nonspecific reasons.

「Haru, what was your in game gear like?」

「Well I did have the epic quality Starlight blade and the Mirage armor set.」

Mio listens intently, absently nodding after every word. The starlight blade’s specifics were a mystery to her, while the Mirage set was fairly high priced yet could be easily found on the market on most days, so Mio was well aware of its specifics. It was one of the iron plate sets, so it’d be more accurate to say that anyone with over two years of game experience was well aware of them.

The set pieces, which are a mixture of cloth and leather, drop from mobs in the sweltering tower wing of the Scorching Desert instance. Upon completion of the set a certain special effect occurs, what’s known as a set bonus, and its set bonus in particular was the most widely known. It’s not as hardcore as something like the hell class instances but it’s certainly one of the harder ones to clear and, as such, has some nifty stats to show for it.

It’s really no wonder why so many backliners loved it to pieces: It had a low grade magic resist buff, a twenty percent enemy hit chance debuff and enormous additional hit chance and dodge penalty passive to any sight reliant enemies. It had anything they could’ve ever dreamed of.

That being said, it was considered a joke set by any serious melee classes due to its lacking physical resist, its overall durability being one of the lowest among special armor sets and the fact that its passive effect, the enormous hit and dodge penalties for any sight reliant enemy, was next to useless against a vast majority of hell class foes. Said passive was its main, and perhaps only, selling point, the stats by themselves weren’t impressive by any means. Just to get an idea of how relatively meager they were – Hiroshi’s self-crafted wyvern leather armor set had around a third more magic resist and twice the physical resist.

「Why steel plate?」

「All of the other available sets weren’t stat well for battlemage builds.」

「Makes sense, just one thing though.」

「Go ahead.」

「Doesn’t that set come with a cloak?」

Haruna lets out a strained smile in response. The mirage set was designed specifically with musketeers in mind so it only makes sense that it’d come with a cloak. Thankfully the design team didn’t go too overboard with the set because it didn’t include neither a felt feather hat nor a masquerade mask, but if it did and Haruna’s in game character was to put all three on at the same time, she’d be lucky to get away with a nickname as tame as ‘the enigmatic musketeeres’ at the best of times.

While Haruna’s character did differ from her real life self with the light brown eyes and hair the real kicker was the ironing board like bust. Sadly there wasn’t any deeper reason behind it, no complex of any sorts nor any subconscious desire to avoid being coddled by the more ‘gentlemanly’ side of the male playerbase, it’s just that at the time she had just entered her first year of middle school, so she had no real assets to speak of. Her height was automatically adjusted to reflect reality free of charge but editing the character’s body would require a whole few clicks, so she just left it as is.

Unsurprisingly Haruna wasn’t the type to be hung up over breast size. In her mind either setting had its advantages and its disadvantages, so she simply didn’t bother playing around with the sliders as it would be a waste of time and energy.

「That settles it, let’s get sensei to whip you up a neat cloak.」

「Do I get a say in this?」

「Yeah, no. Imagine all the possibilities, you could bind your opponents weapon or cut them to pieces with its sharpened edges.」

「That’s quite the imagination you got going there, now ain’t it?」

Haruna catches herself playing the straight man to Mio’s antics. This never happened when she interacted with Hiroshi, as she’d just go along with the madness, but for some reason she could never do the same when it came to Mio’s brand of absurdity.

「Have you ever…」

Haruna mutters as she looks over at an orderly line of materials and food items specific to the inner southern forest. It had everything: from downright unusable materials to ones with so many uses it would make one’s head spin, and some vendor junk to top it all off. The sheer volume of all of them was also noteworthy.

「Have I ever, what?」

「Have you ever stopped to think why our first instinct is to either craft or cook all these items instead of just vendoring or trading them?」

「Weren’t we already past that?」

「Well, you’re certainly not wrong there.」

Haruna gets stopped right in her tracks by Mio’s observation. They had already been at a point where, before even diving into any actual combat tactics, they would unconsciously sift through all the possible practical uses for the dropped materials of any given monster they happened to be facing. In other words they were past the point of no return in a way.

「In all seriousness it’s all thanks to our kooky leader over there.」

Mio says as she turns her head towards the neighboring house. Needless to say Hiroshi, being the crafting fetishist to top all fetishists that he is, was completely absorbed with his mad experiments.

「He has a point though, it’s a lot more practical to put all of those materials to good use rather than vendoring them for nominal sums.」

「Sure, but couldn’t we spare at least a tiny portion of it for rank increasing?」

While funneling all the materials for Hiroshi to play around with had some substantial upsides, as a result acquiring proof of subjugation became much more difficult and their adventurer level had begun stagnating. There wasn’t much reason to raise it too high but they’d have to deal with certain complications if it wasn’t at least at six.

In order to level up, however, they’d have to take on more demanding, potentially life-threatening, contracts. Thanks to Hiroshi their expenses were minimal but if they were to carry on with their current safe approach to questing, it would only be a matter of time till their inflow of gold starts decreasing. Granted they had plenty of it to spare but that didn’t mean that their coffers were bottomless and they could dry up rapidly if the party wasn’t paying enough attention.

「I’m back.」

「Artiem’s back.」

「So she is.」

Artiem’s arrival lightens up the mood just as the conversation had started heading in a darker direction. She had been tasked with gathering as many peak season produce from her village as she could get her hands on.

「There wasn’t much to go around, the timing was a bit awkward…」

「No worries, it’s not your fault.」

Haruna calms down Artiem who was being overly apologetic for a factor out of her control. She lets a sigh of relief and begins going through the contents of the basket.

「The only ones particular to this season were the BrutaLotus root and the Spudle-Driver.」

「Those names sound no good, are they monsters by chance?」

「The BrutaLotus is certainly a monster, the Spudle-Driver, on the other hand, is just your regular potato, asides from its rhizomes which are like massive sharpened rocks, that is.」

Spudle-Drivers were capable of planting their roots in even the hardest of bedrock and could grow them out beyond the average human’s height.

「Hold it, where did you get those from?」

「Well they’re potatoes, you just dig them up.」

「One more thing, are they perennial? And do the roots wilt after being dug up?」

「Yes and no.」

「Could it be possible that it’s just another plant that happens to resemble a potato?」

「The spuds grow on the roots, there’s no doubt about it.」

Artiem explains as she shows off what can only be described as a type of potato. It had an uncanny ability to avoid wilting even after having its rhizomes dup up, as one would expect from a bizarre parrarel world. In case anyone was wondering how they were being harvested when their roots were that unforgiving, the answer is simple – some roots ran along the ground, so with just a little digging they could be harvested easily.

「Fair enough. What about the BrutaLotus?」

「It’s a type of lotus root that’ll try to fly away when dug up and if one tries to snatch it mid-flight it’ll turn right back and dive head-first straight into anyone unfortunate enough to earn its wrath.」

「What a way to say hello…」

「You can say that again, it hurts, a lot. Last time when Foeldan tried to stop one from escaping he got knocked right off his feet and flew over fifty meters from a direct hit to the chest.」

「Yikes.」

Haruna and Mio go through some light cognitive dissonance at the disconnect between their understanding of a lotus root and this one they’re hearing of that effortlessly knocked a heavy forest giant over fifty meters back.

「This might sounds rich coming from the one who asked for this but are you sure it’s okay to have this thing around?」

「It’s been neutralized so we should be fine, I think…」

「You think?」

「It’s similar to pomey’s in a way, occasionally the killing blow will be just off the mark and once it senses it’s being cooked it won’t hesitate to retaliate with full force.」

「Double yikes.」

Haruna and Mio would’ve been better off not asking. Pomey’s were a dangerous plant type along the lines of the BrutaLotus but at the very least they wouldn’t pick a fight over something as simple as being cooked, although if they happened to be caught in the crossfire of some explosion they would be just as relentless in their self-defense. The BrutaLotus must take it self very seriously.

「Speaking of Brutalotuses…」

「Hold it!」

「Okay?」

「We can never be too careful, get in battle position!」

「Way ahead of you, Haru.」

Artiem’s alarming exposition sets the two off. They were convinced that the conversation they just had was foreshadowing for what’s about to come and even if it wasn’t, it never hurts to be too careful.

Artiem puzzlingly looks on as the two get into serious battle mode over what’s essentially a vegetable. It would have been understandable if they just pulled out their weapons and remained cautious but Haruna had begun working on her defense buffs as though in preparation for the real deal. They didn’t have any armor on at the time so it was somewhat understandable but they would be facing off against a BrutaLotus – a monster that’s not all that powerful. If it was the villagers wouldn’t be taking the risk of cultivating it.

「Can I, umm, take them out now?」

「Go ahead.」

「Whenever you’re ready.」

Artiem faintly smiles at the absurdity of the situation while taking out four BrutaLotuses out of the basket one by one. Just as she begun to think it was a false alarm after all, she reached out for another one and…

「Ah!?」

「I knew it!」

「Drat!」

The BrutaLotuses initiated a four way attack. Both Haruna and Mio, who were still on their guard even after the first few successive attempts had almost given them a false sense of security, instantly take down two of them. Artiem meanwhile had been caught completely off guard, but luckily she had somehow managed to just barely move out of the way.

「Aaaah!!!」

A single Brutalotus manages to crash its way through Artiem’s skirt due to a miscalculated turn. Artiem freezes on the spot in complete shock over what had just went down. The impact tore her skirt into pieces, while the BrutaLotus got taken down by Mio’s slashes just as it was about to collide into the ceiling.

「That, however, didn’t mark the end of things to come.」

「Woah!」

The last remaining BrutaLotus delivers a swiftly accurate blow to Artiem’s solar plexus. This sends her flying right through the wall into the neighboring house. The blow was so strong that, were it not for Haruna’s defense buff, Artiem would be in a whole lot of pain right about now.

Also the neighboring house was currently occupied by Hiroshi who was just… minding his own business.

「Haruna… Isn’t sensei in there?」

Haruna and Mio were greeted by a completely bewildered Hiroshi, who didn’t appear to suffer any real damages.

「Hiroshi, are you okay!?」

「Aye, am perfectly fain. It’s just that…」

「It’s just that?」

「Do ye e’er find yerselves questionin’ god’s will?」

Haruna and Mio tilt their heads in confusion to Hiroshi’s cryptic answer. Hiroshi, deciding that it’d be quicker to just show not tell, takes the two over to his workspace.

「Oh dear…」

「Yeesh.」

「Don’t this seem a bit o’erboard?」

「Yes, yes it does…」

Haruna and Mio shake their heads in agreement. One of Hiroshi’s experimental plant types had locked the man eater down in a cobra twist while simultaneously pinning down Artiem in a less than child friendly manner.

「How did it even get to this?」

「At first it merely ‘eld ‘er upside down by the legs, but then…」

「But then?」

「After Devourin’ the lotus root that came flyin’ outta nohwhere it just kinda happened in a moment’s notice.」

「Oh my…」

It seemed as though that particular lotus root was a lecherous one. Upon absorbing its lecherous energy the unknown plant couldn’t help but channel its inner tentacally self and do… that to Artiem.

「Now, how do we go ‘bout solvin’ this dilemma?」

「Don’t look at us, we don’t want to end up like that.」

「Fair ‘nuff.」

「I’m too young to be defiled.」

「Less talking more saving, for the love of god!」

Artiem screams for help as the three nonchalantly discuss the situation at hand while awkwardly looking away from her general direction. What was clear for now is that this unknown plant would need some serious adjustments before being passed as usable.