As expected, no monsters charged at us while we were filling our stomachs.
Well, if a supporting character died trying to fulfill the protagonist’s request, that would be the beginning of a tragedy.
But if the protagonist’s suggestion to eat caused the supporting character’s death, that would be nothing more than a laughably failed dog.
So this was an extremely natural outcome.
“Want some dessert too?”
The protagonist of another novel said this as he held out a chocolate pie.
The red wrapper had the Chinese character for ‘affection’ written largely on it.
At this point, I could just let things like this slide.
But the fact that the protagonist of another novel was planning to eat dessert even in this situation was what amazed me.
“They say sugar intake is the best when you’re feeling down.”
Reysir, perhaps reading the disbelief in my eyes staring at his face, smiled sheepishly and added those words.
He wasn’t offering me one because he wanted to eat it himself.
He took out the chocolate pie and gave it to me because he wanted me to cheer up.
There was no way I could refuse after hearing that.
‘I can’t just keep being consumed by negative emotions!’
My stomach was full, a sweet taste lingered in my mouth, and the baby dragon’s soft mane tickled my palm.
I focused only on these sensations and tried to empty the negative thoughts filling my head.
I couldn’t become completely okay right away, but these efforts weren’t meaningless.
Because my heart had stabilized enough for a third party to notice.
“Looks like you’re feeling better now?
Then, shall we—”
“……?”
Reysir, who had been carefully observing me, smirked and opened his mouth.
But he suddenly closed it without finishing his sentence.
I felt curious and was about to ask why, but I couldn’t execute it.
Because Reysir raised his index finger to his lips and made a ‘shush!’ sound.
- slither, rustle rustle
Silence flowed between us.
The sound of something like a snake crawling and leaves rustling could be heard.
They were faint enough to barely be perceived, but I could instinctively tell they were coming from not too far away.
The monster was gradually getting closer.
Still, the sound came from only one direction, and it didn’t seem like there were many of them.
If few, one.
At most, about three?
I focused more and listened carefully to the sound.
I could sense neither caution nor excitement from it.
If I had to guess, it wasn’t approaching because it noticed our presence.
It was just wandering around aimlessly.
“What shall we do?”
“I want to confirm what kind of enemy it is.”
When I lowered my voice and asked carefully, the other person also answered in a whisper.
Considering it hadn’t detected us until now, the monsters here probably had poor perception abilities.
So, if we could hide somewhere.
Wait for the monster to pass by, and in the process, if Reysir could use his [Eye of Truth Reading] to identify its abilities, that would be wonderful.
Unfortunately, due to the thorny bushes that had grown along with the magicalization, hiding in the undergrowth was impossible.
Wanting to confirm the enemy’s existence in this environment was practically the same as saying we wanted to fight the monster once.
It was pointless to listen to the sounds and try to avoid the approaching monster.
The original author would surely create a situation where we had no choice but to fight them anyway, so escaping this place without combat was impossible anyway.
‘And if we run in the opposite direction of the sound only to have enemies approach from that side too, it’ll be a headache…’
‘To avoid becoming like the filling in a sandwich, it’s better to take care of the enemy approaching us first.’
And since this was a fairly relaxed situation.
We’d probably be able to secure time for a strategy meeting after the battle.
Therefore, I nodded while meeting Reysir’s eyes.
It signified my agreement to fight right now.
“Alright.
Then, can you first cast buffs except for [Elation]?”
Since we hadn’t identified the monster’s identity yet, it was better to avoid making loud noises to secure the first strike advantage.
That was probably why the original protagonist had postponed using [Elation].
Understanding this, I nodded once more and immediately used my buff skill.
First, I granted the [Encourage] buff to myself.
Next, using the keywords ‘My Possessed Body’ and ‘My Existence’ for myself, and the keyword ‘My Acquaintance’ for Reysir.
And for Yor, applying six keywords including ‘My Familiar’, I activated the [Encourage] skill.
Then—
“Yor, I’m counting on you.”
“Meow meow.”
“Reysir.
You, well… you’ll manage on your own.”
“I appreciate you trusting me to manage on my own, but can’t you say you’re counting on me too?”
“……Fine.
I’m counting on you.
Are you satisfied now?”
“Yeah, I’m satisfied.”
Through this process, I finished using the [Encourage] skill.
And right at that moment, the monster of this place revealed itself.
Reysir, gripping his spear shaft tightly, ran toward it and shouted.
“Karbaldr!
Use [Elation] on me!”
I was already planning to do that even without him saying it.
These words also fell under the category of ‘words that didn’t need to be said.’
So I silently swung my whip and activated the [Elation] skill.
“This monster’s skills are [Seed Bomb] and [Germination], two types!
[Seed Bomb] is literally shooting seeds with explosive power, and [Germination] is… the ability to grow seeds, apparently?”
Reysir deftly dodged and deflected the plant vines swung by the monster while reading its skill window and sharing the information with me.
It was a very insufficient explanation.
So, for the sake of my dear readers, I’ll add some supplementary explanation.
The monster that just appeared is called ‘Seed Bloom,’ and it appeared in the original novel.
True to its name, it’s a plant-type monster that spits seeds from its mouth located in the center of a giant flower.
Instead of rooting itself in the ground and staying still, it uses its vines and leaves to push against the ground and move as if swimming.
It actively seeks out prey.
‘And while it moves slowly normally, it has the option of drastically increasing its speed when it finds prey and chases after it.’
Right now, only one appeared, probably as a sample, but it’s not an individual that always acts alone.
In the original work, over ten of them swarmed in.
Even though it’s a plant, its intelligence is decent.
‘Of all things, a Seed Bloom… This is really troublesome.’
Its pursuit speed is fast, it can act in groups, and it has intelligence.
Just these factors alone proved that dealing with it wouldn’t be easy just between us.
But the truly frightening aspect of this monster lies elsewhere.
It’s the [Germination] skill that Reysir just mentioned.
According to what I read in the original novel, this monster shoots two types of seeds.
One is [Seed Bomb] with explosive power.
The other is a seed for [Germination].
While the [Germination] seed embedding itself in the body doesn’t drain life force or anything, since a plant does grow, it’s naturally extremely painful.
And since it doesn’t need to absorb nutrients, once it finds a spot—whether on the ground, on a rock, or anywhere—it just sprouts and grows.
Then it blooms blue or white flowers…
‘Blue flowers spew poisonous powder, white flowers spew sleep-inducing powder.’
Poison is fine.
Readers of this text might think, ‘What the hell is this nonsense?’ but there’s a reason I say it’s fine.
While it’s true that if the substance accumulates in the body, life becomes endangered, it’s not immediately fatal.
Above all, since it’s ‘poison,’ drinking an ‘antidote potion’ will solve it.
And I’ve been carrying a number of highest-grade antidote potions like emergency medicine since a long time ago.
While the probability that Karbaldr voluntarily ingested it is overwhelmingly high, anyway, ‘this body’ nearly died from poison, so I kept some just in case.
‘Still, since there are limits to the quantity, if I can avoid inhaling the poisonous powder, that would be best.’
Anyway, the biggest problem is the ‘sleep-inducing powder.’
From a modern medical perspective, the human body recognizes medicine ingredients as substances to detoxify, breaking them down and excreting them.
And an antidote can’t selectively remove only the toxicity—it also neutralizes or suppresses treatment ingredients with a similar structure to the target substance.
However.
In this fantasy world, ‘antidote potions’ only remove the toxicity attacking the body.
In short, if you get hit by sleep powder, drinking antidote potions is useless.
In other words, it means you have to stay asleep until the sleeping agent ingredients naturally dissipate.
‘If I fall asleep in front of a monster, it’s perfect for going into an eternal sleep!’
But looking at him, it seems the current original protagonist doesn’t know yet.
What the monster he’s dealing with can ‘germinate.’
Even though [Eye of Truth Reading] should have been enhanced by the [Encourage] skill, the monster’s skill description didn’t mention what grows from the germinated seeds…
Right now, only one monster has appeared, and the baby dragon is assisting by creating and shooting aether arrows.
Perhaps because he’s had multiple sparring sessions with me who uses a whip, Reysir is leisurely dodging and counterattacking the monster’s whip-like vines.
At this rate, it doesn’t seem like I even need to join the fight.
No, rather than that, I couldn’t step in right now.
‘First, that monster needs to use the [Germination] skill before I can tell Reysir to be careful of the pollen…’
But that doesn’t mean I was just standing there playing around.
Since Reysir wouldn’t be on guard at all against the plants growing from seeds and the pollen they release, I had to be on guard for his share.
I gripped my whip tightly and prepared to dash out at any moment so I could respond immediately when the monster used the [Germination] skill.
But even when the original protagonist finally reached the monster’s front, thrust his spear into the center of the red flower, and pushed a powerful electric current through it.
Until the monster fell and its movements completely stopped.
The Seed Bloom only shot [Seed Bomb] seeds and exploded, but it never used the [Germination] skill even once.
*’No matter how low the proficiency of [Eye of Truth Reading] is, it’s been enhanced by the [Encourage] skill…
But the explanation of the monster’s core skill was too half-hearted!’*
No matter how I think about it, the original author’s will must have intervened.
To put us in danger by using the monster’s [Germination] skill at a critical moment.
This arc has me nervous…