Chapter 145: Highly Toxic Monsters

“Now then, we’ve gathered enough materials, shall we head back soon?”

Since material gathering settled down, I call out to everyone.

“Yeah! I’m starving!”

“We gathered quite a lot of materials, so the Adventurer’s Guild probably won’t need Rotten Earth monster materials for a while.”

“Fufu, that’s possible.”

Chatting with everyone as we fly up into the sky, the figure of the Rotten Earth shadowed by the setting sun comes into view.

“Even so, it’s vast. How far does it extend, I wonder?”

“If I recall, it should extend to the neighboring country.”

To the neighboring country!? That sounds tough for the country over there too.

“Nn? Huh?”

At that moment, Jairo looks at the ground and tilts his head.

“What’s wrong, Jairo?”

“No, isn’t that swamp back to normal? Look, where that huge centipede monster was.”

“Eh?”

Saying so, Jairo pointed to the border between the Rotten Earth and normal ground.

On the Rotten Earth side, there was a Giant Poison Centipede growing out of the ground like a tree and wriggling bikubiku.

“That’s the monster solidified in the ground by Big Bro’s magic earlier, right? That area should have been purified by Big Bro’s magic and returned to normal ground, but it’s a swamp again?”

“Ah, it’s true.”

Now that you mention it, it is.

If I fixed it to the ground with my magic, it would be strange if the area around that Giant Poison Centipede wasn’t normal ground.

The Giant Poison Centipede writhes and struggles repeatedly.

Then, perhaps the ground loosened, its body comes out of the ground little by little.

And continuing to loosen the ground while swinging its body many times, the Giant Poison Centipede finally succeeded in exposing its whole body.

Then it sank its body into the swamp and escaped toward the depths of the swamp.

“Come to think of it, the Rotten Earth is a danger zone of the type that erodes the surroundings like the Demon Beast Forest…”

Liliera mutters as if remembering.

“Even so, isn’t this too fast? at this speed, it will erode to the Royal Capital in less than a few years?”

As Mina fears, indeed this is fast. Isn’t the erosion speed faster than the Demon Beast Forest?

“I heard the church performs a ritual to suppress the corrosion speed periodically. Though the specific content seems to be kept secret.”

I see, so that’s why the country doesn’t seem panicked even at this erosion speed.

“But hey, wouldn’t this be solved normally if Big Bro went around purifying everything indiscriminately? He was purifying normally just now.”

” ” “…” ” “

“No no no, that’s too much no matter what.”

“I understand what you want to say very well, but the range is too vast. Even for Rex, that is indeed too much.”

Liliera and the others glance at me.

“That’s right. High Area Purification made for city cleaning has a limit of about a radius of tens of meters, so purifying the entire Rotten Earth with this magic isn’t realistic. I don’t know exactly how vast the Rotten Earth is, but if it’s wide enough to erode into the neighboring country, it would be re-contaminated by the swamp poison flowing from other places while purifying one place.”

“I see-, thought Big Bro could solve it quickly though.”

“We-Well, even the amazing Rex has things he can and cannot do.”

“Th-That’s right.”

“Now, let’s get lodging in a nearby town before it gets dark.”

” ” “Yees.” ” “

Finishing the conversation, we head back the way we came.

“If I recall, there was a village a little further ahead.”

“Rather than that, let’s go to the city beyond that. Seems like there would be better inns there?”

“Right, there’s a possibility the village itself doesn’t have an inn.”

“Yeah, I think that’s good too. We need to have the Adventurer’s Guild buy the monster materials not used for golem materials anyway.”

“Ah-, there was that. But hey, can’t we make new equipment with these monster materials?”

Jairo asks if we can make something with the materials of monsters hunted in the Rotten Earth.

“You, you just had equipment arranged with dragon materials the other day.”

“But, Big Bro might be able to make something awesome, right?”

“I understand the feeling, but I don’t think there are materials superior to dragon materials so easily?”

“Ah-, I see. That’s right. Our equipment is dragon equipment.”

“Thinking about it like that, feels like we suddenly obtained legendary equipment that heroes get at the end in fairy tales.”

“Since it’s dragon materials after all.”

“No, not really.”

” ” “Eh?” ” “

Everyone turns around at my words.

“Dragon materials are certainly good things, but there are ranks even among dragons, and among other monsters corresponding to S-rank, there are monsters comparable to dragons, or depending on the item, stronger than dragons.”

” ” “Monsters stronger than dragons!?” ” “

“What kind of monsters are stronger than dragons!?”

“Yeah, Magma and Beast King Volcanic Tiger, Ice Snow and Water Ruler Tidal Fisher, Wind and Lightning Emperor Bang Wing, Poison and Miasma Transcendent Venom Beat, these are the famous ones I guess.”

“Wait, aren’t those mythical existences!? That’s a joke no matter what, right!?”

“No, not a joke. They are real existences.”

Yes, they are real monsters.

Well, basically they don’t appear in human settlements… or rather, normal humans can’t live in their habitats.

“Se-Seriously… seriously mythical monsters exist…”

No, certainly rare, but enough to say mythical… ah I see.

In this era, they might not appear much before humans.

After all, Ancient Plants and Bahamut are treated as legendary monsters.

In my previous and the life before that, many people went to unexplored regions seeking their materials, so somewhat intelligent monsters might have found interacting with humans troublesome and changed nest locations.

“Or rather, I’m more curious why Rex knows the existence of such monsters…”

…I shall maintain silence on that.

While doing so, the destination town comes into view.

“Town is in sight.”

“Finally! Let’s eat quickly!”

“Before that, material purchase, right?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to get lodging considering the time? Make purchase tomorrow morning.”

Perhaps because we hunted all day, everyone’s opinions diverge immediately.

“Hmm, then shall we split up? Split into a group getting lodging and a group asking for material purchase.”

“Right. I think that’s good.”

“Alright! I’m the material selling group!”

“Then I’m the lodging group.”

“My magic bag is exclusive to me, so I guess I’m the material purchase group.”

“Then Mina and I will get lodging.”

“Please do, Liliera.”

“Alright! Then let’s go ask for purchase immediately, Big Bro!”

Roles decided, we descended to the highway before the town.

◆

“Wh-What is this massive amount of monster materials!?”

Having found this town’s Adventurer’s Guild, we asked for material purchase immediately, but perhaps because the number was a bit too much, the receptionist was surprised.

“Sorry, we hunted a bit too much.”

“Hu-Hunted too much, these are materials of monsters making the Rotten Earth their territory, right!? Aren’t they all ridiculously dangerous monsters with deadly poison!? How can you exterminate this number!?”

No, Giant Poison Centipede doesn’t have that much poison though.

“Th-This is Inferno Spider!? And this is Pain Needle!? Aah!? Even Murder Spike!?”

“H-Hey, did you hear!? Inferno Spider!? Did they hunt that scorching heat poison monster!?”

“Pain Needle is that, right? Hiding at the bottom of the swamp, stabbing people who approach with poison needles sturdy enough to pierce iron plates, a dangerous monster right? Moreover, if stabbed, you writhe in excessive pain…”

“First time seeing Murder Spike. How did they defeat a sturdy poison turtle covered in a shell with thorns having poison needles all over!?”

” ” “And in such large quantities!?” ” “

Huh? Strange… the receptionist and adventurers are oddly surprised…

“Fuffuun, right right.”

Amidst that, for some reason, only Jairo looked boastful.

“Hah! Come to think of it, I heard about it! I heard that at the Royal Capital’s Adventurer’s Guild, an outrageous antidote started being sold!”

Nn? Royal Capital’s Adventurer’s Guild? A story evoking déjà vu…

“What did you say!?”

“That antidote seems to be an amazing antidote that detoxifies even that Inferno Spider‘s deadly poison.”

“No, isn’t that just a normal Inferno Spider antidote?”

“No, apparently that antidote is an all-purpose antidote effective on any poison.”

” ” “All-Purpose Antidote!?” ” “

Umm, is it different from the Low-Grade All-Purpose Antidote I taught?

“Hey hey, seriously? If there’s such an antidote, we don’t need other antidotes, do we?”

“Calm down, even if such a thing existed, it would be too expensive to afford.”

“Th-That’s true too.”

“No, apparently it’s quite cheap, not that exorbitant even compared to normal antidotes.”

“Seriously!? If there’s such an antidote, I’d buy it too!?”

“All-purpose antidote detoxifying Inferno Spider‘s deadly poison huh… if it exists, I definitely want it. Around here close to the Rotten Earth, I want to have it just in case…”

” ” “Right.” ” “

Hmm, why are those people so frightened of Inferno Spider level poison?

That monster’s scorching heat poison is certainly painful, but it’s a poison treatable enough with Low-Grade All-Purpose Antidote. Normal antidote magic can treat it too, and if you drink immunity medicine for monster poison beforehand, it’s a poison that ends with that…

“Ah, I see! That’s it!”

There I noticed an important thing.

“I see, mutation.”

Regardless of monsters, creatures in the natural world sometimes are born with characteristics completely different from their original species due to mutation.

Simultaneously, mutation sometimes results in birth of those with strengthened original characteristics.

In other words, the Inferno Spider the adventurers are talking about might be a mutation with higher toxicity.

Actually, it seems quite some time has passed since my previous self died, so it wouldn’t be strange if Inferno Spiders inhabiting around here happened to come to possess deadly poison far exceeding the Inferno Spiders of the era I know.

“I see, I see, that was a blind spot.”

Then, the All-Purpose Antidote the adventurers are talking about is probably something different from the Low-Grade All-Purpose Antidote recipe I provided.

“Even so, monsters with characteristics strengthened by mutation exist, huh. Must be careful.”

Probably, it might also be the influence of the Rotten Earth.

Hmm, considering the receptionist’s way of being surprised, other monsters might also have their toxicity strengthened under the influence of the Rotten Earth.

This requires even more caution for future poison countermeasures.

“…”

While I was bracing myself, for some reason Jairo was staring at me silently.

“Huh? What’s wrong, Jairo?”

“…No, just felt like Big Bro is making some strange misunderstanding.”

Nn? Jairo says strange things.