Chapter 42: Mandragora

Chapter 42: Mandragora

Looks like this area only has Zombies and Skeletons. The Skeletons are the usual sluggish and slow-reacting type, their attacks being monotone like some badly programmed A.I., they’re your average mob monsters. Zombies consist of the Small Zombies, and the more human-like Adult Zombies. Though unlike Skeletons they don’t carry weapons, Zombies can detect us and as a result, start shrieking and rushing at us, which is a pain.

When encountered at corners, they’d instantly go into battle mode and come at us, so it’s quite nerve wracking. But Futaba-san has the guts and ability to calmly cut down those Zombies no matter what starting distance. Up until now, no matter what surprises came our way, she could always get the upper hand.

It’s not like we usually can’t see them coming, so Zombies aren’t that big a deal. If we see them without them noticing, I can set up my Rotten Bog in advance, and Futaba-san can get their attention with her stones, fishing them out easily.

If there aren’t many, we can just wait behind the bog and the Zombies will jump in and melt on their own. If there’s more than 5 or so, some of them can bridge across stepping on others that are still melting. Most of the time when that happens, the surviving numbers aren’t much and they fall prey to Futaba-san’s axe.

When there’s still more, I use Blackhair Bind for support, and we can get a slightly bigger safety margin. Of course, Zombies aren’t like that Orthrus, they can’t breathe fire nor do they have any sharp nails or bladed weapons. They can’t easily escape my blackhair’s grasp.

Well, they’re usually moving so fast, sometime’s the ankle would just tear off from the momentum. So when I do bind them, I make sure to get both legs or the trunk.

Like that, we arrived to at the end of the tunnel at a large clearing which I could describe as a graveyard forest. Once there, we beat a fairly large horde of them safe and sound, and pretty easily to boot.

“Fuuh, finally. All cleaned up, Momokawa-kun”

“They’re easy to beat, but it sure is a lot of effort”

In games, you certainly have strategies where you lure in small parts of a group of mobs towards you and whittle down their numbers, but that get’s boring real fast. Most of the time you’re just waiting to get to a high enough level or chance upon a good weapon to deal with them all at once. But that’s a feeling strictly in games.

“I feel like I could take on around this much myself”

“If there’s an easier way, we should just use that. Safety first right? Taking risks should be only when there’s a boss and you don’t have much choice.”

Like really, this isn’t a game, but real life, with that life on a fine line. Safety is like the best luxury you can get. It may take more time, more effort even, but I’ll happily put in the work for that option.

The only downside: we can expect no cores from Skeletons as a given, but none at all from any Zombies either.

“Let’s get going. There could be more Zombies behind the trees so stay alert”

From the tunnel, it looked like the Zombies were cleared out, so we stepped into the graveyard forest.

I say graveyard, but basically, it’s a forested dome where the ground has tree branches sticking out like grave markers. Though they can look like normal graves at a glance, they may as well be something completely different.

All of these branches show signs of being broken, so it’s clear that they didn’t grow naturally, and were put there by something else. Maybe the Goma decided to make this place their gravesite, or maybe there’s a monster that likes to break off branches and stick them into the ground. I wouldn’t know.

But yeah, I can’t associate this scene with anything other than a graveyard. Plus, I don’t know whether they’re trying to save on power or just broken, but the light panels on the ceiling here are especially dim here. If someone’s trying to set the mood or something, please stop.

“... Hm”

We were walking according to the magic compass while being vigilant of our surroundings, but something caught my eye all of a sudden.

“Futaba-san, wait a bit”

There’s no, what’s wrong, or any question of the sort. With a simple, “Yeah” of confirmation, she got into position as lookout and guard. I feel like Futaba-san’s quality as a bodyguard rose at some point without me noticing.

“Hmm”

I’ll leave my impression of Futaba-san aside for now, and concentrate on that thing that caught my attention. Growing along the base of one of the thicker grave markers, it was a bundle emerald green grass. It may seem like ordinary weeds at a cursory glance. But a vividly poisonous purple from its root portion, something like a fruit, was peeking out from the ground. My guess would be that something like a carrot is buried in there.

Well then, since I’m curious, I’ll just investigate this mysterious magenta with my Intuition Pharmacy—

“A plant that resembles monsters, and has ominous human shaped roots. Against predators, or any who try to pull it out, it resists with a shrill noise released via a form of telepathy. Since ages past, it has been used for miracle drugs, wonder cures, and even deadly poisons. Due to its unique ecology, it is said to have a profound effect on the human psyche.”

Intuition Pharmacy’s usual casual explanation became all legit all of a sudden. What’s up, ya look it up on Wikipedia or something?

Anyway, aside from just how that whimsical skill works, a single name popped into my head from that description just now.

“So basically, it’s a Mandragora right?”

“Ah, that, I’ve heard of it”

Yeah, the name itself is pretty famous after all. It’s a familiar ingredient item in games, and it’s a frequent staple in all sorts of fantasy media.

It usually goes something like: it’s got a human shaped root, and starts screaming when pulled out, granting death to whoever shall hear. There’s also the mandrake. The name being similar, it’s the plant that became the basis of the legend. But from the description, looks like it’s not the Mangragora we know from Earth, and it’s somewhat different from the ones in fantasy stories too. This should be a similar, but different plant peculiar to this otherworld.

“Let’s try pulling it out”

“Eh, doesn’t that kill you!?“

“It didn’t say instant death, so we should be fine?”

It supposedly resists via telepathy, an amazingly fantasy behavior. I’m somewhat curious as to what that is. And naturally, as a Shaman, I simply can’t let go of excellent material like this that may as well become miracle meds.

“You’re sure? Really sure about this, right? If it looks bad, let it go right away alright!”

Leaving be Futaba-san, who’s transformed into a model overprotective mother, I grab onto the Mandoragora’s leaves with expanding curiosity.

“Eii!”

Yelling out, I pull hard. And in doing, a shrill bird’s cry, or like a very high-pitched human voice rang out in my head.

I see, so this is that shrill telepathic noise. Hmm, it’s not much. Nails scratching on a blackboard or shattering glass would be more painful I guess. Also, isn’t this a little too low volume?

“Ah, it’s out”

In no time, it easily popped out.

“Momokawa-kun, you’re alive right!?”

— And curse the body!! Red Fever!!

Now that I’m properly position in rearguard, my role is only to support Futaba-san. First, I aim a curse at all the Goars. The effect is negligible as usual though. I can only pray it’ll dull their movements a bit.

“Yahh!”

It’s currently unknown whether my back-up was meaningful or otherwise, but Futaba-san slayed a Goar with a full swing nonetheless.

That’s the 2nd one now. Futaba-san is holding position a little ways away from the entrance. Just close enough that I can use Blackhair Bind in a practical manner. At this rate, she can finish them off by herself no proble— Wait what? There’s only 2 Goars around Futaba-san. Where’s the other—

“Uwaah!?”

“BaoOOOOOoh!!”

Raising a piercing roar, one of the Goars were running towards the tunnel entrance. This fucker, it ignored Futaba-san and went for me instead!

“One got passed, Momokawa-kun! I’m coming right—”

“I’ll handle it, you focus on the ones there!”

Futaba-san turning around and coming to my rescue at this point won’t end well for either of us. The two Goars around her look like they’re just waiting for a chance to pounce while maintaining distance. But more importantly, I can see another three, four of them poking out their heads from deeper in the forest. If that whole pack starts attacking all at once, even Futaba-san can’t hold out.

That’s why, I gotta be able to take down at least one of these smallfries.

“What’s wrong, come get some!”

I provoke it with a jittery voice from the other side of the pool. My enemy Goar was clearly wary of the Rotten Bog.

Tch, those brainless Zombies would be jumping into the dubious crimson mud no questions asked, but guess it won’t go so well with a monster based on real live animals. Its instincts as a living creature must be alerting it against danger.

Huffing in rough breaths, for a while, it paced in front of the tunnel. Next, the Goar drew away. Did it give up, I wonder, but then it turned back towards here again, and started sprinting like no tomorrow.

Is it trying to cross over from the momentum— nope, I have a good idea about its ploy.

“O-oooh no you don’t!!”

Just as I thought, the Goar was going to use its monster-strength legs to jump across. The bog is 4 meters in diameter. If a highschool boy can make 4 meters in long jump, for a monster like this it should be child’s play. Which implies, with my Rotten Bog only this big, it’ll only be a low-tier obstacle for a Goar.

Naturally, once it gets in, I have no hope of taking on this member of the Jurassic in a close combat situation. Relying on Pain Return won’t lead to any kind of victory either.

“Fall into Heeeeellll!!”

So I dropped it. Mid air, right around where it was above the middle of the bog, I pull the Goar down into hell.

Already lurking in the depths of the bogmud, a monster-like jet black tentacle flies out. I’m talking about the one and only, Blackhair Bind.

Getting to this point, I’ve been using it again, again, again, and again agains’t Zombies, and even when Futaba-san didn’t need any help at all, I kept practicing to the point of idiocy, and have become much more skilled at it since the battle with the Orthrus. It’s thicker, longer, and with a grip like never before.

“GyAoOAAAAAAAAA!!”

With fierce splashing, the Goar that was defenseless mid jump is yanked into the toxic swamp by the abyssal tentacle. The fizzling, liquifying sounds are much louder than when Zombies were plunged in. It’s no wonder, its body is much bigger than a Zombie, so naturally there’d be more fizz.

“oOAAAAa! Bauh! BaAAAAa!!”

“Shut it, stay there... sink dammit!”

I further bind the writhing Goar with my blackhair tentacles. I call forth two more braids. One to hold down its tail rampaging on the mud, and the other to close its shrieking mouth filled with fangs. A total of 3 Blackhair Binds tied it down into the powerful dissolving bog.

How’s that. When I realized that Blackhair Bind isn’t affected by the Rotten Bog like my body, this was born as my most powerful killer combo.

“Bao! BAa... oo...”

Never able to fully free itself, my dangerous battle with the Goar came to an end. My curses aren’t strong enough to hold down that kind of monster head on.

Looking at that Goar struggling so much, then completely losing its vitality and collapsing at the center of the poison bog, I was released from being on edge, and just stared vacantly for a bit.

“Haah... Haah... HA! Futaba-san, where’s—!?”

Realizing that the fight wasn’t over yet, I hastily look around with a start.

“Momokawa-kun, everything alright? The pack ran away already”

Looking around, there were the massacred corpses of seven Goars scattered about, and Futaba-san looking at me with a wholehearted expression of worry.

Just wow, while I was doing deadly 1v1, she’d taken care of seven of them like nothing... these combat specialized vocations are just amazing.

“Ah, yeah... no problem, alive mostly. Not a scratch in fact.”

“That’s great to hear. I’ll go look for cores then”

Looking at Futaba-san using her knife to fish out the Goar corpses so cheerfully, I kinda seriously thought, I can’t live without this girl anymore.

Futaba-san, I can’t thank you enough.

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[1] Yes, radish the root vegetable.

[2] You... might disagree with the translation of ゴア — Goa — Goar. In Kuro no Maou, it’s kinda established how it should be Gore (with all the translators using that), but tbh, I just don’t like it. Goa, I believe, is the dinosaur roar sound effect, so it makes sense to me to tl it as Goar, resembling Roar. If anyone’s got a good argument for Gore, or a better TL, I’d be glad to hear it. (joke) Also, “baubau!” sounds so boring lol, so I imagine it as Sam L Jackson saying “Baubau muhfugga, I’m here to fug u up!”