Re:Monster Day 91-100 (1/2)

Day 91 ~ 100

Day 91

We departed the forest yesterday at noon.

Enough time had passed, that if we had let the skeleton centipede run, which can move without resting, –since it would have stood out too much if we had left it like that, I disguised it as some weird self-propelling covered wagon. It was still conspicuous, but it was better than a skeleton centipede… I think?– at full speed, we would have already been able to cross the vast grassland that lies beyond the forest, traverse the hilly area, leave the mountain pass behind, and maybe even reach the highway leading to our destination, the fortified city of ≪Trent≫.

However, since we had spent a night in a village in the plains, we were still in the grasslands.

The village we stayed in was called “Clueto” and had a population of about 300. They did some minimal farming as a fallback, but mainly went to our birth forest, which was called the “Big Kuudrun Forest” by the humans, to collect high quality wood, –Here also, probably because of the spirits gathered by Velvet’s dungeon, apparently there were ancient trees with traces of the spirit’s powers– which was used to craft unusual chairs, instruments, and other things, which were then sold for income in the city.

I had them show me their products, and they were magnificent. The power of the spirits, though only slightly, dwelled within, and I could understand why the rich would buy one of these as a kind of a status symbol. I imagine that those with Jobs that use instruments like 【Minstrel] would seek to buy one of these, as they had an abnormally high performance.

I heard that originally, this place was empty like the surrounding grassland, but as craftsmen with confidence in their skills gathered, seeking the high quality wood you could get from the forest, a settlement was formed, and an increase in apprentices working under the craftsmen resulted in the creation of this so called artisan-village. In a few years, the size should increase even further.

As there were some master artists among the craftsmen who specialized in trading with aristocrats, through the noble client’s arrangements to guard the village, there were five manmade magical creatures, the 【Guardians]–Long story short, they were golems made of iron. Their physical power was weaker than an Ogre’s but stronger than a Hobgoblin’s, so they were not especially strong, but because they were made of iron, their endurance was extremely high– that were stationed there. In addition, as precautions towards external threats, they installed watchtowers, moats and a wooden wall.

According to Redhead and the others, this was one of the villages that were blessed with an environment that could be considered quite safe in this world.

However, if that were the only thing about this village, I would have just casually stopped by –There was some trouble, as I was an ogre, but I will omit that part. Also, I changed my conspicuous black skin color with one of Velvet’s legacy items, the 【Shape-shift Ring], to brown, the same color as normal Ogres. I plan on eating the ring afterwards– and after saying my greetings around the neighborhood and handing out business cards, or rather, business metal plates containing one of my clones, which gave it a communication function, I would have left for the city.

The reason we didn’t do so was because a problem had recently broken out in this village and the villagers were troubled by it.

The problem was as follows.

Since around ten years before this village was founded, the people would safely gather high quality wood from the forest by offering a couple female slaves or a certain amount of food or weapons every half a year to the Orc tribe living in the forest. It seems that the Orcs protected them from the monsters in the forest.

Apparently, that was the most convenient solution at the time the village was founded, and that had continued until today.

Nevertheless, recently, the Orcs had not only broken their promise, but also started attacking as they were lumbering, and because of that, around three young female apprentices had been kidnapped. Not only that, they had even attacked the village several times.

The 【Guardians] were monsters that were strong enough to easily kill Orcs, but they weren’t enough if they came in great numbers. Although the 【Guardians] couldn’t be destroyed, with just five of them, they couldn’t cover the entire village. In order to protect the village, the baffled villagers took up arms and fought, and as a result, although there weren’t any deaths, people got injured one after another, their fields were devastated, and they couldn’t safely gather their material, the high quality wood, anymore.

The villagers wondered why the Orcs, who had been friendly for the past ten years, would carry out such barbarous acts, and it seems that they concluded that Orcs were nothing but monsters in the end.

They still had a surplus of wood, but if this situation were to continue, it would hinder their delivery period and, in a worst case scenario, they would lose their customers and the village would decline in prosperity. That would turn this place into a ghost town.

Its history was shallow and most of the villagers weren’t born and raised here, but if you lived somewhere, you were bound to grow fond of that place. Especially for the senior craftsmen who had been living here for ten years since the foundation. They were frustrated at the thought of the village being deserted and it was obvious that, as a human, you would try to avoid losing your job.

They had even started talking about sending an Orc subjugation request to a Guild in the near future, rather than having something like that happen.

In other words, um, we were the root cause for the critical situation in this village.

Our current headquarters once belonged to the orcs. We then snatched it away by killing the Orcs. At that time, we annihilated their main force, or rather, their leader and the mages, which were the brains of the tribe, and ate them.

As a result, only those who were not in the mine at that time, that is to say, the Orcs who were in the settlement, survived, and as a result of examining them with my clones, I confirmed that only Orcs who lacked intelligence were left. Although their number had diminished as they were killed by the 【Guardians] and the villagers when they had attacked Clueto village, there were still around thirty survivors.

The results may have been different if there had been some clever survivors, but in reality, the work and food distribution system set into place by the leader and the mages collapsed with their deaths and the Orcs acted on instinct, recklessly eating their food supply, which led to them being troubled by food shortages. It was an understandable flow of events.

Orcs were strong, but they weren’t very skilled at hiding their presence, so it was not hard to imagine that it would prove to be difficult for them to catch enough animals and monsters from the forest, which were sensitive to presences, to ensure that none of the Orcs starved.

Recently, the Orcs had become thin. You could tell by their appearance that they had not eaten anything proper.

The remaining Orcs, who had been driven into this corner, then resorted to looting the humans as a way to somehow stay alive. This was because humans were way easier to hunt than the beasts of the forest.

Since they would also get crops from the fields, there was even more reason to do this.

Then the Orcs attacked the village.

So yeah, in that sense, the cause lay with us, especially me.

Even I couldn’t bring myself to just ignore the problem I had involved these strangers into. All the more if I was the origin. Besides, well, actually, this is my real motivation, but if the villagers sent out a request, the location of our base would probably get leaked. From the fact that the Orcs occasionally sold the elemental stones that they had dug up in this village, the cave would definitely be searched for and investigated.

Elemental stones were valuable. If you sold them in the right place, you could earn vast amounts of money. There was also a demand for them as an ingredient for high quality magic items. I couldn’t imagine that humans would overlook such a money tree. It seemed that they had not been investigating and had kept the information hidden because of the contract with the Orcs, but that was now all in the past.

If you asked me, I would like to avoid having them search. The base was still in the middle of being fortified. I wanted to prevent as much information from leaking as possible. Keeping the base a secret was top priority.

Therefore, I talked with the mayor of this village yesterday, and since we lost time agreeing on a contract for us to protect them while they felled the trees, we ended up staying a night.

He thought that they would be betrayed like with the Orcs, but Redhead and the others were able to pursuade him. As I thought, in times like these, words from members of the same race could carry a lot of weight. Although, me healing their wounded without charge may also have been one of the main factors.

Anyway, we reached an agreement with Clueto village. We settled on having a short-term contract along with several promises for now, and after seeing how it went, we could make an official long-term contract. We agreed that they would not look for elemental stones, so it should be fine for now. I also threatened the mayor by saying that we could not guarantee what would happen to this village if they breached the contract.

Since we compromised a lot on the reward and such, this much was probably fine.

With the problem solved, we received our breakfast and departed from the village.

When we established our contract –in other words, around yesterday evening– I sent an order to the group back at the base, and within a few hours, the remaining Orcs had all been turned into roast pork, so the Orc problem was already solved.

The reason why we killed them rather than enslaving them was that we didn’t need slaves on the level of Orcs, and also because they tasted pretty good, so I had them eaten to boost the energy of those defending our base.

As for the three kidnapped women, –As you could tell from their name, and from the ability I gained from them, Orcs were pretty much bottomless in that area, so they were dirtied quite a bit, but I’m sure the villagers would do something about that– we saved them, so today at around noon, I plan on having ten Goblins led by a Hobgoblin Mage, a party of eleven, take them to the village when they visit them.

It would be fine if we started building up their trust from now on.

Also, we decided on taking in the several surviving female slaves that the Orcs had kept.

I think their living environment will be better than before.

You could say that that these were pretty good omens.

While being rocked by the skeleton carriage, I consumed the bracelet.

【Ability 【Shape-Shift] Learning Complete]

For now, I’ll only change my body color. The red tattoo is still visible, though.

Day 92

I gave up on the idea of getting to the city quickly. This was because I wanted to devote my energy to thoroughly investigating our surroundings and eating monsters.

Our current location was the hilly area just beyond the grasslands, where, in addition to the Bicorn we had killed and eaten in the grasslands, we found many other species we hadn’t encountered before. For example, the “Boarfolle”, a mix of a rhinoceros, buffalo, and a boar,  the “Turtle Snake”, a two meter long snake with a red 30 cm diameter turtle shell in the middle of its body, the “Horn Rabbit”, which was probably a higher rank of the Horn Rabbit with a sharp 20 cm long blade growing from its head, and the “Harpy”, which looked like a human that had switched its limbs with those of a bird.

I was sure that I would gain abilities I had never gotten before if I ate them. I was looking forward to it.

It’s just that, there weren’t many places to hide, unlike in the forest. Dhammi-chan and I could somehow manage, but it would be really hard for Redhead to approach the enemy by hiding in a blind spot and launching a surprise attack.

Given our situation, we decided that Dhammi-chan and I would strike first with a magic attack, and while the enemy was knocked back, I would ride the Demon Bear Kumajirou with Redhead and approach the enemy.

Dhammi-chan’s ≪Familiar≫, the Triple Horn Horse, was left at our base for various reasons, so she was riding Kurosaburou, who was now a Orthrus.

I could have finished everything by myself, but then Dhammi-chan, Redhead, Kumajiro and the others wouldn’t receive any experience points, so this was the best strategy.

However, I still wonder why Dhammi-chan was looking at Redhead so enviously.

Our first target was a herd of Boarfolle. There were 10 of them. I decided that we would turn at least one of them into a ≪Familiar≫ as a camouflage, to make it look like it was pulling the skeleton centipede.

Well, since people were surprised at the skeletal wagon when we stopped at the village, I decided to make it look more proper. I could have used Kumajirou, who was lying around on the luggage rack, but since we planned to use him as a mount in emergency situations, I dropped that idea. And since Kurosaburou is skilled at raid attacks, it’s much more efficient to have him move on his own, rather than riding him.

Getting back to the story, we succeeded in hunting down Boarfolles.

According to Redhead and the others, the horns of a Boarfolle can be sold at a high price as an ingredient for medicine, so I tore them off.

It seemed that you could also sell the meat, but for now we ate around five of them for breakfast.

【Ability 【Crushing Rhino Body] Learning Complete]

【Ability 【Desensitization] Learning Complete]

The amount I ate was quite a bit, but since they were weaker than me, I only obtained two abilities. Well, I think that’s about right. They both seem pretty useful, so it doesn’t bother me and I have no complaints.

Rather, the quality of the meat was so good that there was no way I would be dissatisfied. I cooked it like yakiniku and I couldn’t stand the texture of how the meat melted when I put it into my mouth, and how the deliciousness spread around. Having this flavor despite its looks, you couldn’t help but think that you were being tricked.

TL Note : Yakiniku is thinly sliced meat (usually beef) roasted on a metal net over an open fire.

In this case, I think it was natural to scream out that Boarfolle meat was delicious.

I didn’t miss the chance to have my blood clones run around and fill out the map in my head while eating. After the meal, I changed the shape of the skeletal centipede so that the Boarfolle, who was turned into a ≪Familiar≫, could pull it, and we set off towards the hilly area.

After a while, we discovered a Blade Rabbit. Despite the Blade Rabbit being larger than a Horn Rabbit and having a sharp weapon, to me and Dhammi-chan, it was only small fry that could easily be trampled, so we let Redhead hunt it down.

I decided to watch with Blacksmith-san and the others while drinking some black tea that we got from Father Elf.

It looked like Blade Rabbits were unexpectedly nimble. Over short distances, it was moving even faster that the Red Deer that Redhead used to chase down and slaughter. Redhead was being toyed with by its speed and its strange movement pattern. The number of small wounds she sustained as they crossed each other kept growing and blood was spilling out.

A small cry rose from the sisters each time, but Redhead kept her cool and continued observing the Blade Rabbit. Yes, she may be losing in speed, but she had only received scratches and had not yet sustained a fatal wound. This was likely the results of our daily training showing.

After around a minute, Redhead, who had gotten used to the speed, swung down her kukri knife and precisely hit the neck of the Blade Rabbit, tearing through its flesh and neck bone.

After picking up the head and the body that were rolling around on the ground, Redhead turned towards us. I nodded. Seeing that, she began devouring them. That is, raw. She ate the blade on the forehead as if it were a rice cracker.

Since she hadn’t drained the blood, the fresh blood splattered out and dyed Redhead’s mouth and leather armor red.

I could tell that even Alchemist-san, who usually kept her cool, had her breath taken away by the gory scene.

Seeing that, I told them, “That is a necessary measure to restrain the side effect of Redhead’s 【Noire Soldier], so there’s no worry about her getting sick.”, but they replied disappointedly, “No, that’s not the problem…”.

Then they chuckled, laughing at me.

I wonder why.

Well, whatever. Since I was set at ease by patting Redhead on her head, who was happily saying that eating the Blade Rabbit had raised her ability stats with a red stain around her mouth, I let that slide. By the way, I completely removed the huge amount of blood stuck to her leather armor with 【Hydro Hand], so there wasn’t even a trace left.

At noon, I discovered a den of the Turtle Snakes. It seemed that Turtle Snakes made their nest underground by digging holes, just like ants. This was strange behaviour, but I found out that a lot of them were sleeping underground, thanks to 【Echolocation], so I decided to attack them all at once.

Using 【Earth Control], I pushed out every single sleeping Turtle Snake. The momentum was so strong that they flew high into the sky, so Dhammi-chan, Redhead, the three Lords we brought along, and I split up and cut off their necks.

The races of the Lords were a 【Gale Lord], a 【Flame Lord], and the last one was an 【Illusion Lord].

The fact that the 【Illusion Lord], who wasn’t a melee type, took time to chop off the heads while Redhead hunted down more, goes without saying.

I heard that the shells of the Turtle Snake could be sold at a high price, so we were careful to not damage the shell. When we counted after finishing, there were 88 Turtle Snakes. I had killed 38 of them.

Red was shocked, saying that I was too fast, but since Blacksmith-san and the others were praising me with excitement, saying how amazing I was, I was in a good mood.

I stored the shells we collected in my item box, and we turned the snake meat into kabayaki and ate it.

Tl Note : Kabayaki is a way of cooking eel in Japan where the eel is split down the belly, filleted, skewered, and then grilled.

The kabayaki, which we weren’t able to do with the Night Vipers, was very delicious. Its compatibility with Elf Sake was outstanding. I wanted to eat this again. Or rather, I chose in my heart to definitely eat this again.

【Ability 【Hide in Shell] Learning Complete]

【Ability 【Dormant] Learning Complete]

The taste was good, but the abilities I got were iffy. I’ll definitely sell those shells at a high price.

Actually, I wanted to try eating the Harpies flying in the sky, but leaving Dhammi-chan and Redhead aside, I thought it would be bad for the mental health of Blacksmith-san and the others, so I’ll eat when they’re not around. I’ll hold myself back for now.

At around three in the afternoon, we thought we had done enough, so we decided to set off towards the mountain path beyond the hilly area.

As I had already completely mapped out the hilly area with my clones that ran around, I had no special regrets.

Now, I wonder what kinds of monsters we will find on the mountain path.

Day 93

There seemed to be three mountain paths, namely a path which was the shortest, but ran along a perilous cliff, a basic, wide path which was average in both danger level and distance, and a path which had the lowest danger level, but followed a long river.

This goes without saying, but I chose the route which was the shortest, but was along the perilous cliff.

When it was said to be perilous, there was the fact that the road was rougher than the others, but above all, the strongest monsters, comparable with the Hind Bears, dwelled along this cliff, and there was even a boss-class monster like the Red Bear.

Furthermore, it seemed that the strength of this boss-class monster living here surpassed that of even the Red Bear.

The strongest species that inhabited the cliff  around these parts was said to be huge eagles with four wings and brown feathers, called the “Falaise Eagle”. Their average body size was about two meters, and the sight of them flying as they spread out their four wings, which were more than twice as big as their body size, overwhelmed observers. Furthermore, it seemed that they had high flight speeds, were more maneuverable than their huge frames would indicate, and could secrete a paralysis poison from their talons to slowly weaken their prey, which was rather troublesome.

TL Note : The Kanji for the Falaise Eagle literally means four winged large eagle. – Cookie

I also heard that the boss that led them –a 【Falaise Eagle Subspecies] with jade colored feathers– was even bigger, and due to the abilities from the 【Divine Protection] of one of the gods, it could attack its targets by generating small tornados from its mouth, or by transforming the wind born from the flapping of its wings into blades that chopped through the enemies. In addition, it had enough intelligence to command its subordinates.

Ever since this guy started living here, it seemed that there were barely any people who used the path along the cliff.

Indeed, it was a troublesome story. The Red Bear was strong, but in the end, it moved alone. However, this time, I should probably think of the enemy as a group.

Blacksmith-san and the others explained all this to me very thoroughly before we entered the cliff route, but I said that it was OK and pushed on, so there wasn’t anything special to worry about.

Certainly, the flight speed of the Falaise Eagles was very fast. In addition to the speed, it was difficult dealing with them because they came flying out of the many blind spots along the cliff path. However, since I had 【Detect Presence], it was a piece of cake for me to aim for the exact moment they would come out of the blind spot and capture them by using my thread.

Once you knew about a surprise attack before it happened, it was really easy to counterattack. Just like that, after removing the parts that could be sold from the 18 Falaise Eagles we caught, we cooked the rest as Karaage or Yakitori and ate them.

TL Note : Karaage is deep fried chicken and yakitori is grilled, skewered chicken, usually glazed with a teriyaki sauce. – Cookie

The meat had a refreshing flavor and tasted pretty good.

【Ability 【Panic Voice] Learning Complete]

【Ability 【Feather Generation] Learning Complete]

【Ability 【Knowledge of High-Speed Flight] Learning Complete]

【Ability 【Wind Reading] Learning Complete]

【Ability 【Paralysis Talons] Learning Complete]

【Ability 【Paralysis Resistance] Learning Complete]

As we were proceeding like that, at around two in the afternoon, we reached the widest part of the cliff path. There were all sorts of animal bones scattered across the ground, and rather than a path, it looked more like something’s nest. Upon closer inspection, you could find the remains of several human bones and equipment. It was as if they were the remains of those who had come to subjugate the beast living on the path, but had the tables turned against them.

As I was thinking that, from above, the loud flapping sound of wings rang through the air. A sudden gust blew violently against our skins.

I wasn’t surprised, as I had already felt their presence with 【Detect Presence], and I looked up into the sky.

There, I saw, in addition to five Falaise Eagles, a 【Falaise Eagle Subspecies] with jade-colored feathers –a “Jade Eagle (tentative name)”. The sight of its body, which was more than twice as big as a normal Falaise eagle, flying powerfully through the air, was overflowing with an overwhelming presence.

It was even larger than a Red Bear, and the intimidation it was radiating was on a whole different level.

Our eyes met. I felt an uncomfortable feeling around the nape of my neck. It had definitely come here to kill us.

Its jade-colored feathers sparkled, reflecting the sunlight like blades, and its diamond-like beak and talons were constantly moving, as if they were aching to quickly tear apart the flesh of the prey. Talon scraped on talon and sparks flew.

I could sense intelligence in its yellow eyes looking down on me. It had enough elegance to make me think that it would be a waste to kill it.

Unfortunately, I try to eat enemies I see for the first time whenever possible, and this Jade Eagle was a subspecies. If I ate it, I would probably obtain 【Divine Protection]-type abilities, just like with the Red Bear. For me, it was an enemy I had to eat.

Entrusting the protection of Redhead and the others to Dhammi-chan and the three Lords, I used 【Insect Wing Generation] to grow insect-like wings from my back, and flew towards the airborne enemy that was looking down on me.

I had a Halberd grasped tightly in my hands.

I think about an hour had passed.

As expected, the sky was the Jade Eagle’s territory.

The flight speed and turning ability brought forth by the four wings were exactly like the wind. Thanks to the 【Knowledge of High-Speed Flight] I had just obtained, I was able to better understand how amazing it was.

I was toyed around with by the Jade eagle, who freely flew around the sky like the wind. My flight had faced difficulties as it was shaken by the turbulence created by the eagle’s four wings, my wings were torn off again and again by the small tornado spears it shot from its mouth, and its huge paralyzing talons had gouged out flesh from several places all over my body.

My whole body was stained in blood and I was continuously losing body fluids. Moreover, the jade feathers were sharp and hard, cutting my flesh with the slightest graze. This was extremely troublesome..

Since I couldn’t dodge all of its attacks, my right arm, which I had been using to shield myself, was cut off by its diamond talons, and my left leg was bitten off by its diamond beak. There was probably some anti-healing property to its saliva, because blood continued flowing out from my left leg without stopping, so I had to resort to forcing the blood to stop flowing by clenching my muscles.

Fortunately, I had 【Severe Pain Resistance] and 【Desensitization], so even if I were this severely wounded, the pain didn’t distract me. However, I was being slowly driven into a corner.

As expected, while airborne, I had difficulty perfectly executing the many martial arts I had mastered. This was because, in the end, they were merely methods that were developed and passed down by humans. It was difficult to demonstrate their full effect while in the air.

With that said, it didn’t mean that it was a one-sided fight.

I had already cut down all five Falaise Eagles that had tagged along.

The right leg of the Jade Eagle had been cut off by my halberd, there were several holes in its four wings and there was a deep wound in its torso. The jade body feathers were dyed red here and there.

It wasn’t that I was losing in terms of individual power in any way.

However, the sky was an unfamiliar battleground. The enemy’s territory was weighing me down.

I must have been an easy target for the Jade Eagle, since my mind was slightly disarrayed, due to being exposed to strong winds caused by its raging whirlwinds and having to fight and fly simultaneously, which I wasn’t accustomed to, and because of this strong damage, my initial flight speed had declined significantly.

The intensity of the attacks increased and at last, the halberd in my hand fell onto the cliff path. Luckily, the Halberd fell and stuck into the ground in the direction the skeleton centipede was travelling, and didn’t fall down the cliff. Nevertheless, it was not in a place where I could pick it up immediately.

The Jade Eagle, probably seeing me losing my weapon as a good opportunity, took a larger distance from me than ever before and came flying straight towards me, seemingly intending to pierce through me with its diamond-like beak.

Along with that came storm-like winds.

The Jade Eagle, riding the sudden gust it probably generated with its 【Divine Protection] abilities, flew at a speed that couldn’t be compared with anything until now. It seemed like it was flying towards me with its actual, full speed.

It made me think that it did a good job, going so far with such a tattered body.

A cry rose from Redhead and the others.

Pierced by its beak, I would meet my end in the sky.

I felt that the Jade Eagle, firmly believing in its victory, smiled a little.

I clenched my teeth with a vexed look.

I tried putting on such an act.

No, to be exact, this was simply the result of me limiting the abilities I would use, and so it ended up this way.

As expected, it seemed that this wasn’t such an easy enemy that I could win in its territory without using any abilities. Well, they were stronger than Ogres as a race, so you could say that it was obvious.

I stopped the fight that I was treating as training to raise my own strength and I decided to seriously go and kill it.

After estimating the timing at which the Jade Eagle would fly into me, I activated numerous abilities, one after another, that I hadn’t used in the fight until now.

I ate my right arm, which had been cut off but I had secretly collected, and thereby fulfilled the activation conditions for 【Infused Liquid Restoration], and by stacking 【Rapid Regeneration] and 【Rapid Recovery], I instantly healed all of the wounds on my body. Even my chopped off right arm and my torn up left leg regenerated immediately. In exchange, I used up a lot of energy and I got hungry, but there was food right in front of my eyes, so that wasn’t a problem.

Next I changed my appearance into something like a red stag beetly using 【Exoskeleton Equip]. The exoskeleton not only had a defensive function, but also enhanced my physical strength, and by simultaneously activating 【Black Ogre’s Tenacious Body] and 【Dragon Scale Armor Formation], I transformed into something like a stag beetle with dragon scales.

I sprouted golden threads from my fingertips and entangled the Jade Eagle, who had been witnessing my instantaneous transformation, and additionally used 【Gravity Law] to manipulate gravity to pull him in the opposite direction he was flying in, and forced him to lose momentum.

Several of the golden threads were cut by the wind blades surrounding the body, but some of the threads remained, and since it was not able to go against the intangible gravitational pull, the amazing speed had already disappeared.

I swung both my fists down onto the head of the enemy, who couldn’t change its trajectory at such a late point.

I didn’t use an ability. I just simply swung down my arms at full strength. If I did this with my current enhanced physical strength, the results should be as clear as day.

The Jade Eagle was thrown onto the ground at a high speed. It was an attack that resulted in a small crater where it hit the ground. It was on a level that normally would’ve sent limbs flying and killed it instantly.

However, maybe because of the especially tough vitality of this monster, it was still alive. Still, it was only to an extent where you could say that it just wasn’t dead yet. Although, I thought it was impressive just by the fact that it didn’t die.

I recovered the halberd I had lost and put an end to our fight by beheading the Jade eagle.

I collected the jewel-like eyeballs from the head that had fallen off and put them in a small bottle filled with a liquid before eating the skull with its meat. Delicious. It felt as if the Jade Eagle’s life force was flowing into me.

After being satisfied, I took apart the body as usual, by removing the skin while being careful that the blade-like jade feathers wouldn’t fall out and by preparing the meat I chopped off. As I was cutting around the heart, I felt the sensation of my hunting knife hitting something hard. I knew that it wasn’t bone from the feeling, and when I curiously investigated, I found something like a jade-colored, ten centimeter large cobblestone.

Thinking to myself “What is this?” I used 【Appraisal] and found out that it was an item called the 【Lord of Falaise Eagles’ Spirit Stone].

As I turned towards Blacksmith-san and the others, wanting to ask what this was, the four peddlers were immediately standing next to me, staring at the stone in my hands as if they were ready to devour it.

They came so fast that I wanted to ask when they approached me. It really startled me.