I Became a Tentacle Monster Blooming in the Academy Garden 357

## Chapter 357 – Under the World Tree (1)

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The story that Lielnia, or rather, Liel, brought began with her race, the Elves.

From what I gathered, their race is called “Elven,” but honestly, I don’t see much difference between that and “Elf,” so I’ll just call them Elves.

The Elves seemed to fit the image I had in my mind.

A pointy-eared race of handsome men and beautiful women who love nature, slightly superior to humans in physical aspects, and a type of demi-human that could be called an Otherkind.

“Humans…? What are humans?”

When I asked them about humans, they didn’t know what they were, which suggested they were beings from another world existing separately within this dungeon world.

‘Can something like that exist…?
Living their whole lives in a place like this…?’

When I had previously heard about the common sense of this world from Vivian and Aurora, I remembered them mentioning that Elves and similar Otherkin existed in their world.

Perhaps Liel’s race was isolated and living in this dungeon world through some means.

However, their race didn’t insist on only eating tree roots or fruits, like strict vegetarians.

They sometimes ate meat, which made me wonder if they were closer to Dark Elves than regular Elves.

‘But their skin is white, isn’t it?
No, wait, what I’m thinking of is fantasy anyway…
Who knows, maybe Dark Elves are white here?’

Anyway, their village was hidden deep in the forest, about three days’ walk from here, and that forest was the only terrain that never changed despite the numerous geographical upheavals.

“Never changes?
Is that true?”

Having seen so many things, from trees falling due to earthquakes to plains turning into mountains and hills becoming swamps…

As soon as she heard about a place that didn’t change, Rea’s face lit up.

For Rea, the forest was truly a blessed place to build a home.

After all, there was no better place for a spider to build a web than in the trees, and in a forest that was like a treasure trove, there would be no need to worry about being eaten.

But something else was bothering me.

‘Three days away…
Could it be…?’

The place we were currently in was about a day away from the outpost, so their village was essentially four days away from the outpost.

Considering that humans could easily travel distances of about a week, their village wasn’t that dramatically far from the outpost. I was initially filled with a foreboding feeling that the humans who had entered the dungeon might have caused some trouble.

If it turned out to be my fault for giving Vivian permission (not really permission) to manage the dungeon well, I would feel uneasy.

“It’s not like that at all?
Could you tell me what humans are first…?”

Fortunately, as I listened to Liel’s story, which mentioned a completely different reason, I was relieved to know that it wasn’t my fault.

So, the conclusion was that they had no food.

It seemed that her attempt to catch Rea stemmed from the desperation of needing to catch and eat something, anything, right now.

“No food? In a forest?
How can there be no food in a forest?”

The forest where the Elves lived.

It wasn’t called a treasure trove for nothing.

Having a forest meant having trees, and trees bore fruit, and there were small animals that ate those fruits.

If there were small animals, there would naturally be predators that preyed on them.

Even in a dungeon inhabited by monsters, such laws wouldn’t be completely overturned.

Moreover, if it had consistently maintained its form as a forest, it was natural for animals that instinctively knew this to flock there.

So, it was only natural that Rea’s voice grew louder as she thought it made no sense.

Liel, looking bewildered as she answered, had her face gradually distorting, and her tear ducts, which seemed to have stopped, burst open again.

“That’s… it’s a long story…
Our village is blessed by the World Tree…
We were just living peacefully… *sob*…”

Because she was talking while sobbing so much, it was hard to understand her. To summarize, a strange monster had appeared in the forest of their village, where they had been living peacefully.

They didn’t know what it was, and the only information they had was a sighting from a village girl who had glimpsed it.

At first, many people thought the girl had mistaken a tree shadow in the night, so they ignored it.

But after villagers, both men and women, began disappearing one by one, the Elf village, unable to find any other cause, listened to the girl’s words again and prepared to hunt.

As expected of an Elf tribe with many hunters who also hunted monsters, her father and the male Elves of the village all went together to hunt the monster causing the trouble.

After that day, they suddenly lost contact with them, and even the last men of the village who went to search for them had all gone missing, and now their whereabouts were completely unknown.

“I haven’t seen my dad since that day…
After that day, everyone didn’t know what to do…”

The Elf village, now only inhabited by women, had become a scene of utter chaos.

The men who had protected them had all disappeared, and there weren’t many female Elves with hunting skills.

It was realistically difficult for the women, who had mainly been in charge of gathering, to fully provide the food needed by the village, and to make matters worse, the villagers were still being targeted by the unidentified monster.

“The sisters who are good at archery… *sniff*…
Can’t go hunting because they have to protect the village…
We’ve been surviving by eating tree nuts little by little…”

It was an obvious fact for an omnivorous animal that could also eat meat that they couldn’t get all the necessary nutrients from that alone.

In the meantime, due to malnutrition and a confused mind, she couldn’t even distinguish poisonous nuts and added them to the cooking, which became a critical blow, and the remaining women in the village began to fall ill one by one.

“I put them in… I did…
*Sob*!! If I had just been in my right mind…!!
I found jerky in the corner of the kitchen…
If I hadn’t tried to secretly eat it all by myself…
I would rather have shared it with my sisters… and my mom…”

Liel, who happened to have added the poison due to the timing, was the only one who didn’t eat the dish because she was blinded by greed.

She was able to regain some strength thanks to eating the jerky, but after her hunger was gone and her mind cleared, it was already too late.

“I have to go back quickly…
I have to catch something… something quickly…
If I catch something big and take it back!!”

After seeing everyone collapsed and complaining of pain and hunger, she was tormented by guilt and borrowed the bow of a fallen neighboring hunter Elf and reached this place.

Whether she could find food and return would determine whether the remaining Elves could avoid being annihilated.

Therefore, she, who had little experience in hunting, thought that the large Rea would have a lot of food and set her as the hunting target for the village Elves.

In a way, it was a reckless story, and even Rea, who was listening to it, was holding her forehead, and I was shaking my head.

‘Is this… right…?’

“Haa… Okay, let’s say I was caught.
How would you take me to the village?
Isn’t the village three days away?”

“That’s… with the World Tree’s blessing…”

“While you’re waiting like this, aren’t the women in the village starving to death?
Without a way to carry a large load, how far can you go with heavy steps?”

“Sob… *sniff*…”

‘Don’t be too harsh, Rea.
She’s not a regular hunter, you know.’

“Hunting is not easy.
How can taking a life be so simple?
If even half of this girl’s plan had succeeded…
I would probably be left to rot on this floor…”

It seemed that Liel’s inexperience had touched the hunting philosophy of a professional hunter.

Even if she said that, it was probably advice not to be greedy and create waste that she couldn’t handle, but to do hunting that she could properly manage.

Rea also hunts many prey, but she knows how to process them, such as eating them or preserving them.

Moreover, the fact that Liel hadn’t encountered anything for three days and that the first prey she targeted was Rea was, in a way, a stroke of luck.

‘If she had met another monster with that archery skill, she would have been eaten long ago.
Honestly, I can’t deny that…’

“Crying like that won’t bring prey into your hands.”

“Sniff… but…”

‘Then how about this?’

“Husband? That’s… hmmm…”

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Two days later.

We were rapidly traversing the terrain, moving in one direction.

‘We might as well live in that forest anyway.
How about thinking of it as helping them out this time?’

“Give help?”

‘It’s never bad to get close to the natives.
If we help them first, they’ll look favorably on us, right?
We’re going to live in the Elf forest, after all.’

“That’s a problem that can be solved by letting them die…”

‘Hey!! They said another monster is targeting the village!!
If the Elves die, we’ll have to face it alone, right?’

“Hehe~ So you’re saying we’re increasing our meat shields?”

‘That’s too blunt. I think there’s a better word, like “cooperation”?’

“Well, I’ll keep that in mind.
Thinking about it again, it’s not a bad idea.
As expected, my husband is my treasure ♡”

Frankly, the Elves themselves are beings that have nothing to do with us.

But as always, if we can easily make allies with a little effort, there’s no reason to refuse.

With my persuasion, Rea, who had loaded various meats on her spider back, was busy moving her legs and heading towards the Elf village that Liel had mentioned.

Behind her, slightly lagging behind, was the Elf girl, panting and running.

“Hukk… Hek… Haa…
Wai… wait for me…!!”

It seemed that Rea was carrying so many things that there was no space or weight for Liel to ride.

But we didn’t know the way, so we couldn’t abandon Liel. Liel was repeatedly riding on Rea’s back and getting off to run.

Still, perhaps because she was a race that lived in the forest, she was quite healthy, and her height was quite impressive compared to her seemingly immature mental age.

Liel somehow kept up with Rea’s speed and desperately ran.

After traversing the distance that would have originally taken three days on foot in just two days, Liel finally collapsed from exhaustion, and we were finally able to reach the village in the forest that we were aiming for.

‘What can I say…
It’s a unique sight.’

One large tree, the size of a small building, located in the center of a wide clearing in the forest, and numerous huts surrounding it.

It was called a village, but it wasn’t very grand. At most, it looked like huts made by weaving together slightly thicker fallen branches.

Still, considering the number of huts, it seemed like it could be called a village.

“Indeed… there seems to be something here.
Be careful, very careful, husband.”

Even as she entered the village, Rea seemed to sense something suspicious and was looking around, not letting her guard down.

Seeing Rea’s unusually tense expression, I also opened my senses as much as possible and looked around to help her.

“Mom… Mom!!
I brought food!!”

But even in the midst of that, Liel was so happy to have arrived at the village that, even though she had been lying down for two days from running, she didn’t look back and jumped off Rea’s spider back.

She then limped with her tired legs and ran towards a certain place.

“Mom…!! Thank goodness… *sob*…”

Listening to the sounds coming from the hut, it seemed that her mother was fortunately still alive and well.

Since the first goal was to save the Elves in the village, Rea narrowed her eyes and continued to be wary of her surroundings, while also placing the monster carcasses she had been carrying on her spider back on the ground.

“Come here quickly.
You have to feed them something to revive them, right?”

“Yes!! The cooking is here…!!”

Thanks to Rea, who quickly skinned the monster carcasses, bones and all, the cooking that Liel was in charge of could proceed very quickly.

As soon as the cooking was finished, she quickly took it and began busily moving around, feeding it to each house.

“Sister…!! I brought food!!
Open your eyes, sister!!”

“Auntie!! It’s food!!
Ah!! There’s more, so eat slowly!!”

Of course, even if she felt sorry for Liel, who was running around alone, Rea couldn’t help her.

Imagine.

You open your eyes and suddenly a monster (?) is feeding you?

In the first place, there wasn’t enough time to explain everything, and it didn’t seem good for the mental and physical health of people who were already suffering from monsters.

Having finished her work, Rea sat down in a corner of the village and shared the remaining raw meat with me, waiting for Liel to finish her work.

Among those who had regained their strength little by little, the relatively young and energetic ones came out of the huts first.

“Mon… Monster…!! Gurgle!!”

“Sister!! It’s not!! So…
It’s similar, but it doesn’t hurt!!”

“Ah… Ugh…”

“Yurne!! Wake up!!”

After Liel somehow explained the situation to the Elves, who were screaming and foaming at the mouth after seeing the unheard-of Arachnella.

We were finally able to receive a kind of welcome in the village as beings that were not enemies.

“The welcoming ceremony is quite grand.”

‘I agree…’

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