Jujutsushi Wa Yuusha Ni Narenai - Chapter 108.2
Chapter 108.2 : Pot
「BAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?」
And then, Arachne’s thread pulled its prey into the acid pool while I was busy with manipulating 『Redhair Twine』 to reduce those Gomas’ combat prowess.
Naturally, I wasn’t naive enough to assume that this plan was enough to annihilate all of the Gomas. There were still so many left. An army of Gomas was still outside both Arachne and my line of fire. I would have to tread a bit more carefully this time. The Gomas gripped their weapons so tightly that their knuckles turned a ghostly white, charging ahead towards before they stopped before the acid pool. The green acid bubbled ferociously, as if it was hungry, yearning for more. Little spittles of acid flew high in the air like flares and popped threateningly. The Gomas were clearly hesitant to plunge themselves into the acid pool, however it was the only way to get to us, who had killed so many of its brethren. The Goma were faced with only two possible options- cross the acid pool to reach us, or die. Indecision warred on their faces, broadcasted by every single movement like the shuffling of their feet as they paced along the length of the verdant pool.
「GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
The Gomas who were caught in their dilemma, quickly became victims of Rem the first. Her axe glinted cruelly as it slashed through one Goma after another in rapid, ruthless succession. She raised a screeching war cry as she weaved back and forth through the makeshift battlefield. She was practically chaos incarnate, her fighting style disorganized and random as she dived in the acid pool and crawled back out in irregular intervals, making the fullest use of her convenient advantage of remaining unaffected while swimming in the acid pool.
「GUORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
Gomas were dropping like flies between our combined assault. There was a resounding, bellowing, enraged warcry as the Macho Goma finally snapped. Seeing the miserable plight of its subordinates, the Macho Goma ultimately stepped in, ready to end the fight. He came charging from the back of the formation as the other Gomas ahead of him got out of the track of his raging warpath, scurrying like little mice, trying not to get underfoot. Alright. I braced myself. The boss is coming.
「SHAAAA!」
Arachne Rem fired an extra thick bundle of adhesive thread towards the Macho Goma.
「UOGAAA!」
The bundle of sticky thread shot through the air towards the Macho Goma. He wildly waved his axe as it inched closer every second. The bundle of adhesive thread couldn’t be cut properly by the honed blade of his axe. To think that he was able to cut through some of Arachne’s thread, his blade was that shar…no, I couldn’t be sure. There was always the possibility that he used 『Martial Art』 just now. From the looks of it, I guess it used the『Slash』 attack which was often used by Kenzaki or Natsukawa-san back in the old days, when I used to party with the class rep.
Tch.Even though it was just a Goma, it had the potential to learn martial art. The Goma seemed doubly dangerous, not only due to its towering frame but also because it had the ability to wield the martial arts.
「What a nuisance…」
Oh well, it’s not like I didn’t have any plan to counter his attack. You could study battle tactics, all you wanted but, it couldn’t compare to getting bloodied on the battlefield. Real life experience was the best teacher, those lessons really stuck with you, you know? One nugget of information that I learned in battle was to always prepare a back plan.
「KISHAAAAA!」
「――『Blackhair Bind』」
Arachne and I worked in unison, communicating our strategy wordlessly. Arachne began to spit her gooey thread from all 3 of her orifices at the same time. Spindly white thread shot out of her mouth, butt and both of her hands, streaking through the air in a flash of white as I began to activate my skill of 『Blackhair Bind』simultaneously.
Though the Macho Goma once again tried to use 『Slash』, he was only able to cut through the length of thread that Arachne Rem was launching from her butt. The Macho Goma got caught in our trap as it failed to defend itself from the thread that was emitted from Arachne Rem’s mouth which caught it by surprise as it came from another direction. All throughout, while the Macho Goma was distracted, my use of the 『Blackhair Bind』 technique created these writhing, black shadowy tentacles which entangled Macho Goma’s feet.
「MUGAGAGA, NGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
While Arachne Rem’s thread disabled the Macho Goma’s ability to use his arms, mine wrapped around both its calves and thighs, binding its legs altogether. Like
「GUGAAAAAA!」
Rem the first didn’t miss that opening. Her keen eyes didn’t miss a single detail
「GAGA!」
However, Rem the first’s attack was far from over. She traced along Macho Goma’s previous wound and aimed her axe directly between the open wound, which was gushing rivers of blood. Her aim rang true and she ended up slicing his body in two on the second strike of her axe. However, just like me, Rem the first was not the kind of person to take any chances. She swung hard, swerving her whole body and using all of her momentum before finally decapitating Macho Goma on her third and final attack. She lightly kicked the corpse of the once ferocious beast, scoffed and stalked in another direction.
「GAGAAA!?」
「BUGEAAAAAAAAAA!」
Upon witnessing their leader’s death, it seemed that the reality of the situation was starting to settle in. The quick, effortless defeat of their boss seemed to cast a gloom cloud and destroy their motivation. They quickly dropped their weapons and escaped at breakneck speed, whizzing past my eyes as if they were running and the speed of light.
「Pfft, seems like those guys aren’t a big deal after all. Thank you, girls.」
Around 30 minutes after we defeated that Macho Goma and its army, we finally arrived at the Fairy Plaza.
「Haah…finally, a resting place.」
The Fairy Plaza was like a safe haven, its value doubled for soloers such as me
I sprawled across a length of lush, verdant lawn as soon as I threw the various pieces of luggage from Arachne Rem’s back. Relieved, I felt boneless as I lay down, the fatigue slowly draining out of my body, I instantly felt a blanket of sleep begin to cover me before my eyes closed and I was lost to the world.
I woke up with a start, it felt like only a few minutes had passed but the sky was already shaded into a gradient of deep, majestic blues and light purples.
「…. Uhn?」
I slowly emerged from the sea of dreams to be greeted by the crackling and popping sound of the camp bonfire. Blearily, I tried to open my eyes. My head felt funny, as if it was loaded with cotton. The golden glow cast by the dancing flames didn’t hurt my eyes as they finally got accustomed to the light. Upon taking a closer look, I discovered it really was a bonfire.
「GAGA!」
「Ah, morning.」
I snapped my head in direction of noise before realising it was only Rem. She moved until she stood in front of me. The beginnings of a playful grin were surfacing on her face before she gave an extremely exaggerated greeting by bowing her head. I couldn’t help but bark out a laugh at her antics before catching up on the events that had taken place while I had been lost in the land of sleep. It seems that Rem had made a bonfire for me after I had passed out cold. Beside the bonfire, rested a slab of rose colored meat with faint streaks of white running through it placed on top of a huge leaf. My stomach rumbled rebelliously in hunger.
「Could it be that is the Great Boar’s meat?」
「GUGA.」
Rem nodded in agreement, as if saying yes.
「KISHISHI.」
There I saw Arachne Rem holding on to the water-filled PET bottle and fairy nuts.
「Thank you, you guys are lifesavers, I seriously needed this meal.」
A wave of emotion flowed through me as I looked upon the Rems. They had grown so much, in terms of skill and emotional intelligence. I had never imagined there would be a day that Rem would prepare a meal for me, especially without me having to request it. They were so thoughtful and took such good care of me.
Although I had just woken up, I was eager to dig in. If my memory serves correct, the last time I had gotten to eat meat was when I ate those broiled snakes with Randou-san and the rest of the company at the fairy plaza in marshland. My already starving stomach raised a revolt as I tried to wait for Rem to finish grilling the meat. Her technique of grilling the meat seemed to resemble Mei-chan’s somewhat roughly, although she didn’t have the same amount of experience and skill. Well, it was fine, she didn’t have that much time to learn from Mei-chan anyway.
「――Um, it still retained a bit of its originally gamey smell, but it wasn’t anything unbearable. This much was fine by me.」
Yup, as I thought, the taste and texture was pretty close to pork. It was a definite possibility that the gamey smell would disappear from the meat if the meat was prepared a bit better, in a correct manner. If Mei-chan was here, she might have been able to turn this Great Boar into a splendid ingredient, the likes that would upon being combined with her natural talent for cooking would end up being an amazing, flavorful meal. My mouth was dripping with saliva just upon the thought of it.
I resolved to meet up with her as soon as I could so that I could make my dreams come true and share this boar meat.
「Thanks for the meal.」
Well then, after a peaceful, refreshing sleep and partaking in a hearty meal, I guess it was time to think about my next move. There was a high probability that I would be exploring the dungeon by myself , at least for the time being. For now, it seems as if the route I had chosen, which passed through the incoming inner part of the dome forest was my best bet. That was the direction pointed by the dungeon compass anyway, so I should trust in that path.
「I want to go to the next checkpoint as soon as possible but….」
Although Rem the first and Arachne Rem were extremely reliable comrades, I couldn’t help but feel slightly anxious. I didn’t have any other allies besides the two Rems right now. Both of the Rems had improved immensely but somehow, I couldn’t picture our current line up winning against something like the boss of underground lake, the alligator-like lizard man.
「There’s no point needlessly and obsessively worrying about it. Well, the best I can do is make the adequate preparations beforehand so I wouldn’t be caught off guard if the situation really did arise.」
Whether it was Mei-chan or Randou-san and her company, I wanted to meet up with them as soon as possible. It felt like forever since I met them. I felt a nagging feeling rise up within my mind- caution. That was right, I guess nothing good ever happens if you try to rush through it. Finally, I made up my mind. It sounds like a great plan- let’s take time to prepare as much as we can.
「Come to think of it, I haven’t had the chance to test this out yet….」
『Witch Kettle』:Literally what it sounds like- a witch’s kettle. It was most definitely not something as commonplace as a mere cooking tool. It was actually a tool of chaos, used to create poison, curses and other forms of magic.
Yes, Ruinhilde-sama gave me “Vessel”’s series, namely 『Vessel of Poison』 along with 『Vessel of Chaos』.
I had obtained this curse much earlier. She had given it to me when I had defeated that terrifying basilisk. I was in possession of this curse ever since but so much had happened that I never found myself with a chance to test this “Creation” curse’s series. My reunion with Higuchi then a fight to the death against him, being picked up by Randou-san…this string of rapidly changing comrades kept me too busy.
「I’ve got just the right materials to create poison too…」
Even though it has been quite a while since I received my official designation as a Shaman, I guess the time was finally ripe for me to make my debut as a poison master. I couldn’t help but smirk in anticipation. Brace yourselves, it’s going to be a wild ride.