Chapter 38
A huge mountain range curved like a crescent moon.
Within the towering range, a broad, hollow plain stretched out.
The Northern Mountains rose like the walls of a massive fortress, as though guarding the heart of the region.
It was a land where not a single tree could grow, only thick grass.
There wasn't a trace of ordinary wildlife on the plain, let alone any sign of monsters. Whenever the bleak wind blew, the entire grassland rippled like waves.
Elena slowly swept her gaze along the mountain ridge, from one end of the plain to the other.
Matching it against the map Mister had given her, she reconfirmed the route they had decided to search this time.
"This is the place, right?"
"Yeah. This is it."
When Elena asked, Mira nodded, realizing that this was the section they had visited yesterday.
Elena walked along the mountains around the plain's outskirts with her party members, familiarizing herself with the terrain.
The Northern Mountains were vast.
The range was so extensive that the entire area was simply referred to as 'the north'; there was nowhere else that could be called the Northern Mountains.
They couldn't complete a circuit in a single day, and combining a boundary patrol with the search made even a quarter circuit difficult. They would have to be prepared to camp around the midpoint.
"I've said this once already, but today we're searching for mana grass as well. Keep in mind that we'll be moving slowly because we have to stop whenever we find medicinal herbs."
At Elena's instructions, the party members replied that they understood. Hans and Duke moved forward while scanning the surroundings for medicinal herbs.
Mira kept watch for approaching monsters with the broad field of vision she had developed as a hunter.
"This is what he told me to use, right?"
Elena took an incense pouch from her belt pouch.
It was what Mister had handed her that morning.
It looked like an ordinary pouch, but apparently it was a magic tool. When she pressed the pouch with her hand, a scent rose from it and brushed the tip of her nose.
It smelled nice.
It was a scent she felt she had smelled somewhere before, and it made her feel calm whenever she breathed it in.
It was a strangely reassuring scent.
Elena held the incense pouch in her hand and spread her mana through it as a medium.
As the fragrance spread around them, it emitted a faint halo of light.
One ray of light formed and extended toward somewhere in the grass.
As Elena followed the scent, a faint glow brightened in a patch of grass.
"Found it."
She turned toward her party members.
"Over here!"
The party members gathered around to examine the medicinal herb known as mana grass.
Duke asked first, curiosity getting the better of her.
"Is this mana grass?"
"Probably."
Elena recalled Mister's warning.
Anything that reacts to the pouch, collect it without exception.
She dug into the earth with her bare hands and carefully pulled the plant out by its roots without damaging them.
The soil gradually gave way, revealing the roots, and the moment she pulled the plant free, the halo of light that had begun at the incense pouch faded and disappeared.
Elena held up the mana grass and smiled.
Duke stared at the mana grass, thoughtfully recalling something.
"It looks like an ingredient for low-grade potions. I've seen it before."
Duke, in the form of a small girl, pointed out the mana grass's appearance.
"That's true, but it's not exactly the same. Mana grass doesn't refer to a specific type of plant."
Hans, a refined beauty, explained mana grass like an instructor.
"They're originally ordinary medicinal herbs, but the term refers collectively to herbs that have absorbed an unusually large amount of mana after being affected by the mana around them. Mana grass itself is rare, so many people will buy any plant identified as mana grass."
"Oh."
Elena marveled.
The other party members also let out quiet exclamations of admiration.
"How do you know that?"
"My family used to be in the medicinal herb business."
Hans gave Mira a short answer.
"Then the more we gather, the better, right?"
"They won't be easy to find. That's why they're valuable."
"That's fine."
Elena grinned slyly.
"I have something Mister gave me. With this, we'll be able to find mana grass in no time."
Elena confidently held out the incense pouch and infused it with mana, spreading its scent.
When the scent reached the mana grass, the part of the fragrance that reached it began to glow and showed them the way.
"Found it!"
"Wow! We're going to be rich!"
"Amazing."
"This shouldn't be possible. Mana grass isn't supposed to be this easy to find..."
Only Hans, who knew how difficult mana grass was to find, couldn't rejoice wholeheartedly.
Alongside the joy, Hans felt a sense of wonder.
'This is A-rank?'
The magic tool Eck had given her made finding mana grass effortless. Hans was left stunned, wondering if this was the power of the A-rank he had only heard about in rumors.
Elena wrapped the mana grass in cloth and put it in her bag.
"Let's find more."
The search continued smoothly after that.
Before the sun had even reached its zenith, they found three more plants of mana grass.
Every time they found one, Mira made a fuss, Duke marveled, and Hans let out a hollow laugh.
They all enjoyed themselves.
"Elena, over here!"
Mira waved from where the fifth patch of mana grass was growing.
A medicinal herb grew between the rocks, its leaves imbued with a bluish light as its roots clung to the crevice. The light from the incense pouch reacted especially brightly.
Elena had just put her hand into the crevice and was carefully trying to dig out the roots.
Rustle.
Mira was the first to react.
Her head whipped around, and she instinctively shouted.
"Behind us! Monster!"
Mira let out a warning close to a scream as she drew her bow.
She nocked an arrow and reflexively fired toward the monster's presence.
The arrow vanished beyond the grass, which grew as high as a person's head, and moments later the monster burst from it as if the whole patch had exploded and charged at them.
"Kaaa———TOOM!!!!"
A four-legged monster with horns curled around its head like a crown charged straight at Elena, then smashed a boulder apart with its head.
CRASH!!
"D-danger! It's a B-rank monster! A Crown Goat! Run!"
The Crown Goat looked back at Elena's party from the center of the shattered boulder.
Mira, Hans, and Duke met its eyes, and their bodies went rigid.
Duke raised a shield as large as her own body, but against the Crown Goat that had destroyed a boulder with ease, her flimsy shield was inadequate.
The Crown Goat scraped the ground with its foreleg, thrust its head forward, and kicked off the ground.
"Ghk...!"
Duke couldn't move. She tensed every muscle, bracing herself to take the full force of the impact, but the Crown Goat veered past her.
Drawn out by the scent of mana, the Crown Goat ignored Duke and went after Elena.
Elena witnessed the monster's sudden acceleration and threw herself aside.
The gust kicked up by the Crown Goat swept over her entire body, making its power clear.
"Run, Elena! We have to get out! How can we beat a B-rank monster with no preparation! Elena?!?!!"
At that moment, Elena charged toward the Crown Goat instead.
'Mister told me.'
He had assured her of it when he handed her the incense pouch.
'He said that, as I am now, nothing here can stand against me!'
The beast's two eyes turned toward Elena.
It stamped the ground with all four feet, then charged.
The Crown Goat covered the short distance in an instant, its horns swinging toward Elena.
At the moment of impact, no one saw what happened.
Elena would be sent flying and incapacitated by the Crown Goat's headbutt, and the abnormally excited Crown Goat would rape her.
A human body couldn't survive being raped by a beast intact.
Mira had experienced it before. She held her breath and unconsciously closed her eyes at the moment of impact.
After Elena, they would be next.
Mira's body froze with terror. Even though she knew the horror of being assaulted, merely forcing herself to stay put instead of running away was the limit of what she could manage.
Hans and Duke, now women, looked destined to have their first time with a beast.
If their legs were forced apart until their joints dislocated, they would be threatened by monsters all the way back to the city... And if treatment was delayed, they would become paraplegic, leaving them no way to survive except by spreading their legs in a brothel.
Hans was one thing, but what about Duke?
With that small body, even taking the impact would crush her internal organs and kill her.
"N-no..."
A memory from the past flashed through Mira's mind.
The memory of the moment a goat had raped her while making an ominous bleat.
She had quit being a hunter afterward, but eventually became an adventurer, only to find that past experience unfolding before her eyes again.
But she regained her composure.
It couldn't happen again.
Mira, her face gone white, clutched her head and faced the scene unfolding before her.
The first scene.
Elena and the Crown Goat stood with their backs to each other as Elena sheathed her sword.
The Crown Goat dropped to its knees and collapsed.
"Huh...?"
Twitch. Twitch.
The Crown Goat spouted blood from the back of its neck like a fountain every time it gasped for breath.
"I was a little short."
Elena drew her sword again and drove its tip into the Crown Goat's neck.
"Huh...?"
The strength drained from Mira's trembling legs, and she sank to the ground.
Huh? It's over?
It ended just like that?
"B-but it's a B-rank monster?"
"You only just killed the troll, and already?"
"Elena, you're amazing."
"I train directly under Mister. This much is only to be expected."
Blushing at the praise, Elena asked her party members to butcher the Crown Goat.
"Thank goodness."
Elena miraculously found a perfectly intact mana-grass plant among the pile of fallen rocks.
***
I watched Elena's party recede into the distance.
'They should be able to find everything on their own.'
There were no monsters in the Northern Mountains capable of threatening Elena in her current state.
A-rank monsters, known as boss-level monsters, were not common, and most of them had fixed locations, so they wouldn't encounter one as long as they remained careful.
I turned around and returned to the city.
I went to Fila's workshop.
I knocked on the door.
Tap, tap.
From inside came the sound of glass shattering, followed by a loud clatter and crash.
"J-just a moment...! I-I'll be right out...!"
A short while later, the door opened halfway.
Fila poked her head through the gap, then her eyes went wide when she saw me.
Her tangled pink hair hung all the way to the floor, and she looked at me through crooked glasses.
"I-I said I'd send someone...!"
The door closed again.
After the sounds of brushing her hair and shaking out her robe, the door opened once more.
She straightened her crooked glasses as she opened the door to welcome me.
Fila greeted me wearing the exact same robe she had worn three visits ago, two visits ago, and last time.
Unable to raise her head, she let me inside.
"C-come in. I was just about to call you, since I finished the sealing."
Piles of parchment were stacked like a mountain on the workbench, and the magic sword Vitalia hung from a hook beside them.
The magic sword had returned to the original blade shape I had seen the first time.
Not a trace remained of the boss monster's power that had pulsed while parasitizing the blade.
Fila kept her head bowed and fidgeted with the fingers of both hands.
"I-I finished the work last night. Now all that's left is to awaken the magic sword. I'm sorry, but you'll have to do that part yourself, Eck. I'm sorry. I was supposed to finish everything."
I wasn't going to blame her for something that was physically impossible, but she seemed dissatisfied with it.
"Still, I've completely separated the soul, so you can use it without worry."
"I'll put it to good use."
I took the magic sword from the hook, gripped its hilt, and lifted it.
It felt like an ordinary sword, but I infused it with mana, filling the magic sword with it.
The mana-filled magic sword generated mana on its own, causing the vessel that was the sword to overflow.
The magic sword, filled with my mana and awakened, clung tightly to my hand.
"A-amazing, Eck. Did you activate it with that little mana?"
Fila had watched anxiously, afraid that I wouldn't be able to awaken the magic sword. Her eyes widened, and she revealed the face she had been hiding as she marveled.
Her face was stained with soot.
She clapped her hands and hopped in place.
"Amazing! Eck! Even an A-rank adventurer can't do this easily, but you did it in one go! If you compared it to nobles, that's talent on the level of a Swordmaster!"
Fila's face flushed as she grew excited.
....
The magic sword, Vitalia.
A weapon desperately needed by Eck, who lacked mana. It stole the mana of whatever it cut and returned it to its user. Even without that ability, it was a legendary-tier weapon.
At last, it was in my hands.
'Elena, I have no intention of letting you catch up to me yet.'
With this, I can overcome Eck's innate limitations.