Forest Snacks and Water Source Patrol
The next morning, Ulrika was glaring at me with a sulky expression.
“…Mongrel-san, I thought you were a gentler person…”
Apparently he’s angry about last night’s massage.
“That kind of thing isn’t about being gentle. Even you thought yesterday’s session was good, right, Ulrika?”
“Th-that’s… but it felt rough…”
“Be honest. Say ‘it felt good.'”
“…It did feel good, but… it hurt too…”
“In that kind of massage, the pain is part of what feels good. Good grief… Ulrika, you’re still just a child.”
“N-no I’m not! I’m an adult!”
I put on my jacket and squinted at the dazzling morning sun.
Yeah, it’s another refreshing morning today.
“Well… next time your body gets stiff, just tell me. If you want another massage, I’ll do it for you again.”
“…Again, that? That kind of thing…”
“Only when I have time though. I could do it at my inn too. Of course, I’d charge you for it.”
“Y-you’d charge money…!?”
“Well, there are shops in Legol that do similar things… to maintain a healthy market, I have to charge what I should charge. Don’t worry, it’s not much money… for a skilled Silver Rank guild member, it’s like pocket change. If you can get treatment again for that, it’s not a bad deal, right?”
Ulrika made a complicated expression… and eventually nodded.
Kukukuku… Well, I have work too, so it’d really only be when I’m truly free, you know.
Once you’ve tasted pleasure that blows away fatigue, it’s hard to say no, isn’t it…
I’ll be waiting about once every three months… for you to drop a little money my way…!
But right now, I’m not a masseur—I’m a guildsman.
A guildsman has to do guildsman work, doing whatever job he’s given. Let’s work hard today too.
“I’ll handle clearing the brush around the hut, so could you take care of the patrol, Ulrika? I’m terrible at that kind of thing, so I’d like to leave it to you.”
“Sure thing. I prefer scouting over manual labor anyway. I’ll check the water source while I’m at it.”
Our job is to maintain this remote work hut and its surrounding environment.
According to the schedule, forestry workers are supposed to arrive at this hut tomorrow. We need to make the hut safe and comfortable for use by then.
Well, there are plenty of people who half-ass this kind of work, but I’m an exemplary guildsman. I’ll do it seriously and properly.
“Secret sword technique: Grass-Cutting Sword”
Also known as the Grass-Cutting Bastard Sword.
With my reinforced blade, I slice through the weeds around the hut with satisfying cuts.
Since it’s autumn, there isn’t much, but it’ll get in the way if we leave it when we’re working from here as our base. I carefully cut the undergrowth.
“Guess I might as well gather some firewood too. We’ll be using it ourselves anyway…”
While I’m at it, I clear troublesome brush and trim branches to collect fuel.
My bastard sword cuts through everything easily, so it’s simple work.
If you don’t trim regularly like this, the fast-growing trees will take over and become a real problem.
Especially Baroa wood—it’s some ridiculous mystery plant that supposedly adds a growth ring every month. The people of this world seem to consider Baroa trees just another type of normal plant, but I have my suspicions that this tree might actually be some kind of monster.
“…Oh?”
While I was doing moderate thinning work, I heard sounds coming from where I’d cut the undergrowth.
Looking over… long white ears, adorably clutching a branch with fluffy fur.
No mistake about it. A Mallet Rabbit.
“Oh… so you pound weeds to eat them?”
The Mallet Rabbit was thump-thumping the cut grass with the branch it was holding.
It looked exactly like a rabbit making mochi. Though it’s more like a pestle than a mallet.
While these rabbits rarely attack humans, they’re still classified as monsters. In terms of danger level, they’re much less threatening than goblins.
However, this Mallet Rabbit is deeply hated by humans because of its eating habits—it uses its “mallet” to crack open nuts and grains with hard shells.
Their diet overlaps with humans. They damage crops. That one point alone was more than enough to get them classified as monsters. It’s sad, but I guess it can’t be helped.
“But looking at it like this, it’s quite a charming little guy…”
With its fluffy body clutching a tree branch, working hard to turn some pitiful weeds that look like cat grass into food by pounding them.
What a wholesome and adorable sight.
Since breeding or keeping monsters without permission is a serious crime, I can’t keep it as a pet or even feed it, but being able to witness its mealtime through this chance encounter is pretty rare and nice. It’s healing.
This is still manageable because it’s a Mallet Rabbit, but if you tried to breed goblins, there’s a chance things could get really bad. Those guys are prone to producing mutant varieties…
“Kyu?”
“Oh my, how cute.”
Perhaps noticing I was watching, the Mallet Rabbit looked this way and twitched its nose.
I don’t know what it’s thinking, but don’t worry. I’m a kind guildsman.
Feel free to eat that cat grass-looking stuff. It’s not food for us humans.
…If only we could manage this kind of dietary separation, maybe you and I could live together peacefully…
“Ah, a Mallet Rabbit! Take this!”
“Bugyuu!”
“Aaaaaaahhhhh!”
“Eh!? What, what? What’s wrong, Mongrel-san!?”
“…No, it’s nothing… nothing at all, Ulrika… Good aim, well done…”
“R-really? Well, if you say so…”
The Mallet Rabbit had been cleanly pierced through the head and died instantly.
…W-well, I guess… at least it passed away without feeling any pain…
“Well anyway, once we remove the organs and skin it, it’s just meat.”
“? Well, of course. Though it won’t fill you up much. What should we do with the fur?”
“You caught it, Ulrika, so do whatever you want. Mallet Rabbit fur sells pretty well, right?”
“Yeah. It’s popular for gloves and stuff. They’re super expensive to buy though.”
The Mallet Rabbit I’d momentarily grown attached to became just food once it was meat.
I casually cut it up, sprinkled it with salt, and we enjoyed it as simple grilled meat. This is today’s breakfast-slash-lunch.
“The legs are nice and firm, really tasty.”
“Mm-hmm. It has more substance than regular rabbit.”
“Makes me want some alcohol…”
“Ah, I heard from Raina that corn whiskey? That was delicious?”
“Oh, Sheena let me try some. It was pretty good. Didn’t you drink any, Ulrika?”
“I passed. I’m not good with whiskey—it’s too harsh and bitter.”
“It’s good once you get used to it.”
The small rabbit quickly became just bones, completely devoured.
After this, the plan is to look for monsters and hunt them if we find any.
“The water source was a bit rough, so let’s patrol there together. It seems like nearby monsters have been using it, so it might be safer with you there, Mongrel-san.”
“Sure, leave it to me. …Was the water source dirty?”
“Not dirty since there’s a current. But there are lots of fresh footprints, and some mud traces that concern me.”
“Mud means Crazy Boar.”
“Probably. But the mud traces are old, so there’s a chance they’ve already moved on…”
Being natural, water sources inevitably become popular spots.
All animals need to drink water. It wouldn’t be strange for monsters to appear in the area.
I walk toward the river with Ulrika.
It’s somewhat far and inconvenient, but considering it’s a danger zone where monsters gather, this distance is probably safer for the workers.
“Deer droppings. But old.”
Along the way, Ulrika points out monster traces one after another, revealing information about the field.
He’s like a forensic investigator. I think it’s kind of cool. It’s not even a skill or anything, and I think I could do it too, but I don’t feel like I could develop this kind of professional judgment even after years of practice.
“This bark shows horn marks, the undergrowth has been eaten all the way over there… but again, it’s old.”
“So there are Deer and Boar?”
“Yeah, but all the traces are old, so it’s hard to say… Mongrel-san, want to try luring them with your voice? If there are any aggressive ones with territory here, they might come closer.”
“Ah, sounds good.”
That’s actually more my preferred method.
Since monsters attack people, I deliberately make noise to draw them in and hunt them. I’m used to it.
“Wooooi! I’m gonna turn all this land into a bare parking lot!”
“Ahahahaha!”
I bang the tree trunk with my bastard sword while shouting loudly.
This usually pisses off most monsters and they come charging.
Bears from my previous world would run away from this, though. Monsters are weird.
“Hmm, nothing’s coming.”
“…No, something is coming. I can hear it.”
Really? I can’t tell at all.
“Pretty big… ugh, bipedal, something’s coming!”
“Eh, seriously? An ogre? A goblin?”
“From those bushes in the back! ‘Weakness Detection’!”
As Ulrika activates his skill, I step forward and ready my sword.
By then, I could finally hear footsteps and the sound of something forcibly pushing through the underbrush.
Indeed, it’s definitely big. The presence of something breaking branches and leaves as it walks…
What eventually appeared from beyond the bushes was a large single eye.
“It’s a Cyclops.”
“Wow, quite a big catch… huh? But it’s skinny.”
“…Yeah, really. It’s incredibly thin.”
What emerged from beyond the bushes was a pitifully emaciated Cyclops, skinny as if it hadn’t eaten for days.
Compared to the individual I encountered with Raina before, the difference in intimidation and threat is like night and day.
“Huu… Huu…!”
“Somehow, I feel like we could outrun it. It’s already half-dead.”
“Right. Maybe it’s sick? Its eye is slightly clouded too… Mongrel-san, should I finish it off?”
“Yeah, go ahead. Do it. I don’t want to dirty my sword.”
“Right. But can you prepare a hole for burying the corpse?”
“I can do that much.”
This guy was probably an individual that couldn’t find food. Unable to hunt prey, with nothing edible nearby, it couldn’t maintain its massive body and was dying.
Well, it’s nearly 3 meters tall. Maintaining that requires considerable food. Without food, it naturally weakens and approaches death.
Actually, I see these worst-condition humanoid monsters fairly often. These guys are struggling too. Not that I can show them mercy.
“Sorry for calling you out. ‘Power Shot'”
I’ll spare the detailed description, but the sickly Cyclops died from a single arrow Ulrika shot at its belly.
It probably intended to eat us noisy intruders to make a comeback, but tough luck.
“Ugh, I don’t want to harvest the eyeball… I might get sick…”
“Lightly smoke it. It’ll rot if you leave it too long.”
“Right…”
In the end, that day’s patrol around the water source ended with an encounter with just one Cyclops.
Maybe this was the Cyclops’s hunting ground, and all the monsters that had been nearby were already hunted to extinction by this Cyclops.
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