Chapter 8 – Herbalism Quest #4
Trudge.
The finned horse slowly approached me and my companions.
Ethan, the most senior adventurer in this place, looked at his words intently before opening his mouth.
“That monster is a kelpie.”
“Kell, what is it?”
“Kelpie. It’s a kind of water horse that lives by the lakeside. It has gills so it can breathe underwater. Somehow, horseshoes are stamped around the lake, but that guy seems to have settled in this Lake Mersil.”
A monster named Kelpie left a bite whenever it stamped its hoof on the ground.
The ground under the kelpie’s hooves became wet as if it had rained.
The hooves my party and I saw during the day seem to be traces left by kelpies.
“Why did that monster appear in front of us?”
Ethan answered my question by touching his chin.
“It seems he’s mad that we took our food. He’s got to be mad because he took all the delicacies nearby.”
“Are you a star?”
“I’m talking about the moonlight plant in the sack.”
Ethan pointed his finger at the sack Rebecca slung over her shoulder. Rebecca, who accidentally caught our gaze, put on a puzzled expression.
“You mean herbs? Is this what that weird horse eats?”
“Yes. There are kelpies living around my village, and I know what they eat. Their favorite prey is the wild-flowering moonflower. If any other creature tries to pluck it, they will run and attack. .”
“What, then! That wild horse is trying to attack us?”
“It’s very likely. Just looking at a kelpie’s eyes, can’t you feel it? The feeling that we’ve been fucked.”
“Ugh!”
Rebecca, her complexion pale with fright.
Fortunately, Ethan must have come up with a way, and he raised her hand and gestured for reassurance.
“But there is a way to survive without fighting. I will try to negotiate with the kelpies in a peaceful way.”
“Negotiation! What kind of negotiation are you doing with a vicious monster!”
“Not all monsters are incomprehensible. Some highly intelligent monsters understand human speech and negotiations work. I was called by a nickname-.”
Ethan cleared her throat and opened his mouth.
“Monster Behavior Expert Ethan-.”
I put on a puzzled expression at that grotesque nickname.
Monster Behavior Specialist, is it possible to be Kang Hyeong-wook of another world?
You may think you’re cool, but to the listeners, you’re like an idiot.
But Ethan didn’t care one bit about Rebecca’s reaction to me.
He seemed to have confidence in his nickname.
“I’ll take some moonlight candles.”
“Uh, huh? Got it.”
Ethan pulled out a fistful of moonshine from the sack.
Then, without hesitation, he approached the kelpie and said:
“Stop.”
Puhin hin-.
A kelpie howling as if in response.
“I understand your feelings, Kelpie. You must be angry that I plucked the moonlight plant by the lakeside. But we were only commissioned by the adventurer’s guild. I didn’t even know you settled in this lake. I never pulled out the moonlight plant on purpose. Let me tell you what I didn’t.”
Puhin hin-?
“Let’s make a deal. I’ll give you some of the moonlight we’ve been growing. In return, don’t attack us. Be calm and take the moonlight and go back to the lake where you live.”
Ethan carefully held out the moonlight candle in his hand toward the kelpie.
The kelpie, who had been looking down at the short Ethan for a moment, stuck out her snout and began gorging on the moonshine.
Me and Rebecca, who were watching the scene, couldn’t help but be surprised.
“What, what! Do monsters really understand people? Did that wild horse accept the deal!”
“I-I don’t know? Even monsters have different personalities. Monsters that understand people and behave docilely can exist somewhere on the continent. But I heard that the odds are very slim.”
Could it be that Edan was really Kang Hyeong-wook of another world?
A genius halfling trainer who communicates with monsters instead of dogs?
“That slim probability is happening right now. He deserves to be called a monster behavior expert.”
“Oh My God…”
Kelpie finished eating while me and Rebecca chatted.
After chewing and swallowing a handful of moonshine plants, the kelpie burped and turned away.
As the kelpie turned around, Ethan looked at me and Rebecca and shrugged his shoulders.
“Did you see it? Everything ended peacefully. Only beginner adventurers choose to fight monsters…”
It was when Ethan was chattering with a little excitement.
At that moment, I caught something unusual and quickly shouted at Ethan.
“Eh, Ethan! Get down!”
“Hmm? What do you mean? Why should I fall down?”
Puck-!!
At that moment, Ethan’s body floated into the air.
Ethan was hit by the back kick from the kelpie who was turning around.
Ethan’s body flew in a parabolic arc and landed on the ground.
“Ethan! Are you okay?”
“Kuhhh…! That spoiled horse foal…!”
Seeing that he could talk, he wasn’t dead yet.
However, due to the recoil from being hit with a back kick, Ethan was unable to move from his lying position.
In an instant, one of the party members was killed.
Monster Behavior Expert Cut!
Me and Rebecca broke into cold sweats as we looked at each other.
“Fucked.”
“Fuck! Luke, what should I do now! I’ve got a monster behavior expert!”
“He’s coming! Draw the knife!”
This made it clear
Kelpie didn’t just obey Ethan’s words in order to negotiate. She pretended to follow in order to eliminate one enemy from the start.
As a monster with high intelligence, he caught us off guard.
If I had known this was going to happen, I would have attacked from the beginning.
Puhin hin-!
The kelpie started running with a violent cry.
It wasn’t me that the kelpie was targeting, it was Rebecca carrying the sack.
Kelpie, who had no choice but to steal the moonlight candle, opened her eyes and aimed only at Rebecca.
“Fuck—!!”
A high-pitched shriek that resonates across the plains.
Rebecca ran away from the kelpie with a wild scream.
She was so frightened that she couldn’t even swing her drawn knife and ran away.
Certainly, anyone would be frightened if a wild horse over 2m was chasing him.
“Help me, Luke!!”
“Calm down!”
“How can you be calm!! You’re going to be eaten at this rate!!”
I raised my crossbow and fired arrows at random.
But when he saw that his arrows couldn’t pierce the kelpie’s skin, he groaned.
The penetrating power of my crossbow is enough to pierce a small wild beast.
It was enough to pierce the skin of a goblin, but it was difficult to hit powerful monsters above a certain level.
“L-Ms. Rebecca! Are you okay?”
“Does this look good?!”
Fortunately, Rebecca was holding up pretty well.
Perhaps because of her excellent reflexes, Rebecca rolled around and evaded the kelpie’s attacks.
Of course, the person rolling over and over would taste like dying.
“Hold on a little longer! I have a secret weapon!”
Rebecca gave me a sign that she understood me with a short gesture.
Of course, his trump weapon is the magic missile that he has been learning so hard.
The hit rate was low, so I treated it as a skill that didn’t exist until now.
‘This is the only way to hit the kelpie.’
The magic sphere that broke the stone floor.
If it gets hit, it will surely take a blow that even a kelpie can’t ignore.
I took a deep breath and made a hand sign to summon the sphere.
As I made a complicated hand sign, a white orb protruded from my palm.
I smiled with delight as I gazed at the sphere.
“I’ve been looking for you, horse kid.”
Rebecca and Kelpie scuffle nearby.
I let out a scream and fired the magic sphere.
“Avoid the magic!! Go to the corner!!”
“Eh? That, is that magic?!”
Rebecca tumbled back with a startled expression.
In an instant, the magic sphere that split the air made a loud crashing sound.
Bang-!
Could a miracle happen?
What if the magic sphere that you couldn’t hit even if you died during practice hit it right away in real life?
However, the moment I confirmed what the magic sphere had hit, I muttered with a puzzled expression.
“Ah, this is a miss-.”
Expectations were betrayed.
The magic missile, which was shot with great force, missed the kelpie by a long time.
It was destined to miss from the start, judging from the fact that there were traces of a collision left at a distance of about 3m to the right.
Heck, that’s fucking embarrassing.
Well, you can’t be discouraged if you don’t get it right once.
“Magic Missile.”
I calmed down and signed my hand again.
Since then, countless spheres of magical power have crossed the air, but none have hit one so much that it brings tears to my eyes.
The expression on the kelpie’s face as it stands still and looks in my direction is bothering me.
“Don’t look at me with that expression, you motherfucker.”
Puhin hin-.
A look that looks so pitiful.
How can a horse foal make such a human face?
“That’s magic right?! But why can’t you hit even one!”
Feeling embarrassed at Rebecca’s urgent question, I lowered her head.
It’s like a poke ricin that confidently punched Q into the air on a roll.
Are you watching Mr. Clem?
In this world, I am inheriting your will.
Reincarnated in another world, I became a poking wizard today.
“Oh really!!”
Rebecca burst into exasperation and tossed with the kelpie again.
With her sack still clenched in her hand, it seems that she never intends to hand her sack over to the kelpie.
She feels her tenacity to make her request a success.
“Luke! Do something!”
“I’m running out of money now! I’m actually a Bronze level adventurer! Please don’t expect too much from Bronze!”
“Then try again with the magic I showed you earlier!”
Rebecca intimidated me, and I had no choice but to sign.
Even though he was busy moving his fingers, he didn’t have any expectations.
Because my confidence was so low, I didn’t think I would be able to hit the magic missile at all.
“I shot!”
A glowing orb shot from above my palm.
This time, the angle was slightly off, and it was when I let out a deep sigh.
Suddenly, Rebecca jumped forward.
When I saw Rebecca move, I was so surprised that her heart broke.
It was because the direction Rebecca was moving overlapped with the movement of my magic missile.
That means she could get hit by her magic missiles.
“What are you doing! You’re crazy!”
“I’m not crazy!”
Rebecca threw her hilt back and held the hilt with both her hands.
Rebecca’s gaze was fixed on her high-speed orb of magic.
Puhin hin-!
The kelpie ran toward the burlap sack that had fallen to the floor.
At that very moment, Rebecca struck her orb with a sword.
He hit her orb like a bat with the sword blade of his thick, curved sword.
Kkung-! With a clear metal sound, the magic sphere bounced in a completely different direction.
It was none other than the kelpie’s elongated brow.
“Right!”
