Chapter 23 – The Rock Predator
“Wow, that’s crazy…”
When the shaking that seemed to indicate that the mine was collapsing ended, the Hero party, excluding Horde, got up one by one and brushed the dust off their bodies.
The warrior who shook off the dust from his body approached Horde, who was still sitting on the floor, and held out his hand.
“Mister Horde, are you okay?”
“Yes… It’s okay…”
The Horde had been traveling with the warriors for several months, but today was the first time they had seen such a beast.
It was the same with the hero, who, as always, asked Lina, the most experienced person in the party.
“Reena… Do you know what that demon is?”
“Huh. It’s only once, but it’s a monster I’ve subjugated along with other colleagues.”
That monster’s name is Mental Arithmetic Devourer.
It is a demonic beast that mainly inhabits rocky mountains or mines with many ores. As its name suggests, it has the ability to eat rocks and ores to energize its body, or store them in its body and shoot them at once.
As a very dangerous beast, it is a rule to subdue it immediately upon discovery, but the reason for this is that, due to the nature of the body being swollen whenever a huge rock is eaten, it is difficult to handle if left unattended.
“Once upon a time, the one our party caught was about 10m long, but that would be about 20m long.”
“Okay? How strong is it?”
“You who have been stuck will know best, but even if several are dangerous, one or two will not be so dangerous.”
Like Lina said, she was repulsed earlier, and although she received support, Hero alone blocked the charge of the mental arithmetic predator.
It’s the first time I met Masura, so I was embarrassed. If I hadn’t fought in a narrow place that was advantageous to mental acid predators, I would have subjugated them instead of repulsed them.
“Then, let me explain what you need to be careful about…”
Although she only did it once, Lina, who had subjugation experience, explained what she should be careful about.
The mental arithmetic predator was a powerful beast that had to be prepared for a fracture or death just by brushing against it due to its large size, but his movements were monotonous.
It might not have happened to Yuria or Martha, but it wasn’t a danger to Mirian or Lina, who had a lot of experience in warriors and close combat.
“The thing to be most careful about is the rocks it shoots. Since he stayed in the mine for a long time, he must have eaten a lot of iron, and if he gets hit from the front, you too will have to prepare for death.”
If the rocks fired by the mental arithmetic predator hit the hole, it was obvious that the party would be annihilated as there would be no place to escape.
“Then… I’ll have to lure them in somehow and fight them in a wide area. Or, when they see signs of shooting, they rush right in and cover their mouths…”
“Or, there may be an option to defeat the executives of the demon lord’s army who breed those monsters.”
“Yes… But if you control so many people, it doesn’t seem like there’s just one person.”
“I know… Once the executives are defeated, there will be no cooperation with each other, so those first…”
While thinking about the cadre in the mine, the hero remembered the cadre in the cave that led him to come here.
“Excuse me… Reena. The reason we came here is the Yook Sung-seok in that cave.”
“Huh? Why?”
“I said earlier that rock predators could shoot out the ores and rocks they ate, but I guess that’s how they collected the growth stones too, right?”
“Yeah… There’s no way black magicians could figure out that much, so common sense would.”
“… And you said earlier that you can shoot iron ore if you eat it. So, isn’t it that he was secretly gathering other ores as well as collecting gemstones? And the ores collected in that way…”
“… Uh?”
As soon as I understood what the hero was trying to say, the party members felt goosebumps running down their spines.
It’s not that big of a mine, but this mine is inaccessible to humans because of the monsters in the depths, so there must be a considerable amount of reserves.
It is said that it has been several years since the Witchbeasts were driven out of their habitat, so how many strategic materials have been leaked during that long period of time?
“… When a mental arithmetic predator moves, doesn’t it make a loud noise? But if you dig deep underground, wouldn’t it be possible to transport iron without being noticed?”
“… It won’t be impossible.”
It wasn’t hard to imagine what might lie where the mental arithmetic predators were headed.
“… The initial plan was to subjugate the mental acid predators and the demon lord’s officers lurking in this mine, but I’ll change the strategy a bit.”
He could never miss this situation where he might be able to know the supply base of the Demon King’s army.
“I know you don’t have to say it, but first of all, you must never kill a mental arithmetic predator so that the Demon King’s army officers in this mine don’t notice it.”
The more you load it, the harder it will be to kill it, but anyway, you should never have killed it.
“Yuria, is there any magic that can track a specific demon beast like Mirian’s demon compass?”
“… There is magic that can engrave a pattern to track down an opponent who has fled, but if a wizard with some skill sees it, he will recognize it at a glance.”
“Then it’s a bit difficult…”
“Ah, if that’s the case, I have a good magic tool!”
Saying that, Lina went through Horde’s backpack, and then she took out 10 red sticks and 10 blue sticks.
“What is it… ?”
“It’s a magic tool that I used before acquiring the Demonic Compass in the past. It’s good that you didn’t throw it away and kept it.”
This magical tool is a pair of red and blue sticks, and if the red stick is put into the beast’s body, it melts and turns into a part of the beast.
The blue rod started to turn red as it approached the witch who fed the red stick, and it was a magic tool that tracked the witch to this extent.
“Somehow we feed these sticks to the mental arithmetic predators. It’s big, so you probably won’t even notice it?”
“Good idea. And… After you’ve put all this in, I’ll tell you. Let’s leave the task of tracking down the mental arithmetic predator to the guild’s scouts.”
“… To the guild’s skirmisher? What… Not a bad idea, though.”
When she heard that she should give half of the ball to the adventurer’s guild, Lina felt sorry for her even though she thought it was a bit lame.
If she goes on like this, she should be able to take all the credit, so why is she giving it away?
She said that Rina was not the only one who thought so, and Miian, who was next to her, also said.
“Hero, do you really need to save face for the adventurers guild? Wouldn’t it be okay if we figured it out among ourselves?”
This time, no matter who saw it, it was a mistake by the adventurer’s guild and the mayor for carelessly managing important items like iron.
Even if the hero monopolized the ball like this, there would be no complaints about it.
“There are face issues, but… You don’t even know when it’s time to transport iron. I don’t know how long it will take if we try to figure it out on our own.”
If so, it would have been much better to leave it to the guild and train during that time.
And most of all, when you subdue the Demon King’s supply base, you should get help from the guild and army, but there was nothing good about pretending to be with them.
“And what if you can’t get the ball? You’re not fighting the demon king army to make a mark.”
Having said that, the other party members could only nod their heads without saying anything.
“Then… Now I have to feed this stick to a mental arithmetic predator…”
I didn’t dare to go into the hole on the other side and chase after it because I thought the same situation would repeat itself.
Inevitably, the hero’s group chose to hide in front of the hole.
The reason for this was that it was calculated that rock predators would frequent this place, as the hole had not been seen for a day or two.
“Warrior… Shouldn’t we think of a way to escape after somehow driving the stick in?”
“Huh. I can’t kill you, so I’ll have to do that.”
“If that’s the case, I have a good idea!”
Having said that, Martha put her hands together and activated her miracle, creating a scaffold made of a protective shield in the air.
“Judging from the deterioration of their eyes, those monsters didn’t look very good. So, if we are floating in the air like this, won’t we be able to find us?”
It was a plausible plan, and in fact, when the warrior saw it up close, the mental predator’s eyes didn’t look too good.
She looked at Lina just in case, Lina said.
“He’s sensitive to vibrations, so he’s probably relying on vibrations rather than sight to move.”
“Okay? Then… All that remains is to wait.”
So Hero’s party sat on the ground for a while, eagerly waiting for the rock predators to arrive as soon as possible.
The warriors’ party had gone awry several times to catch an elusive monster or criminal, but it was several times more difficult as the place became an underground mine.
Even though the air was purified to some extent with the mask, the air was still dirty and chills rose from the cold floor.
But the most unbearable thing was not the cold air or the air, but the insects, and every time an insect rode up my body, I got goosebumps all over my body.
After enduring the dirty air, the cold, and the insects, the long-awaited swarm of mental acid predators finally arrived.
Although it was a monster that was so hated, the hero felt that the ugly face of the mental arithmetic predator was lovely at this time.
When dozens of mental acid predators came from the hole, Hero and the others acted according to the strategy they had planned while waiting for the mental acid predators.
Martha activated a miracle and created a platform in the air, and everyone except the hero and Lina jumped onto the platform.
“Hero, I’m sorry, but please.”
“Okay!”
This job required quite a bit of sniping ability as I had to put a red stick in the mouth of a mental arithmetic predator.
And in this party, only Lina and the hero had that ability.
“Hero, your skills haven’t dulled after a long time, right?”
“Don’t worry. I practiced a lot at night because this might happen.”
The warrior clutched a bow from his backpack and watched the mental acid predator running towards him.
Then, aiming for the opening of the mental acid predator’s mouth, he hung an arrow with a red stick tied to the bow string and shot it straight into the mental acid predator’s mouth.
– Whiiing!
The arrow flew with the sound of cutting the wind and pierced the gap in the mental acid predator’s lips and flowed inside.
And at about the same time, Lina, like the warrior, succeeded in feeding a mental acid predator with red sticks.
“Warrior! Let’s move slowly!!”
Both wanted to take another shot now that the arithmetic predator hadn’t recognized them yet, but the arithmetic predator was faster than expected.
When the hero and Lina left, the mental arithmetic predator felt the vibration and rushed towards the hero and Lina.
The hero exquisitely avoided the struggle of the gigantic beasts that were tens of meters tall and shot an arrow.
The number of mental arithmetic predators was so great that there were unavoidable attacks in the middle.
“A bog!”
Every time that happened, Yuria who was above shook the ground to break her stance and helped the hero and Lina by turning the ground into mud.
‘Now, one last step…’
And when the last arrow was left, the hero shot an arrow into the mental arithmetic predator’s mouth and shouted at Lina.
“Lina has finished this side!!”
“This one too!! Let’s bounce quickly!!”
After saying that, Lina started running towards the Hero, and Hero also ran towards Lina.
And when the two gathered in one place, the tails of dozens of mental arithmetic predators attacked them as if they were aiming for them.
However, faster than the tail of the mental arithmetic predator could turn the two into minced meat, the hero holding Lina jumped high into the sky and landed on Martha’s shield.
“Kueeeee!!”
The group of mental arithmetic predators that missed the enemy screamed and ran amok, and dust rose.
I didn’t know that the dust that rose with the screams would settle for a while, and by the time the dust had settled, the predators of the acid had disappeared as if they hadn’t existed in the first place.
