Chapter 27 (1/2)
The Shaman can't become a Hero
Act 4: Two-Headed Hound
Chapter 27: Mud Doll
Looking up, a ceiling so high it only soantic Forested Dome The exit from the Fairy Square was a wall, better said, it was like a snificently vertical cliff extended to the left and right, the ends of which are out of visual range Advancing along the walls like always, seemed quite the detour
And spreading out in front, would be a densely packed lush forest One could iine hidden beyond that verdure, a torrential sum of Monsters
But, scariest of all is the field that is known as forest In underground passages, the view isn’t obstructed, and detecting enemies is easy You only need to be cautious around corners and near rooetation become an infinite supply of cover, and ambushes are facilitated all the more Yet further, the Monsters that lurk there are ones that e is fully on the home team
Passing through even those small Forested Domes almost made my spine freeze over To think we’d have to walk God kno h that kind of place, frankly, it’s just depressing
“—Right, let’s just go”
Still, we advance For survival
Brilliant white light like that of the sun shi+nes down fro This place is bright like midday all 24 hours of the day Thanks to that, it’s fairly bright in the forest as well
“I guess these Forested Doe much”
“I think, they got the same type of plants But it’s possible we can find some awesome herb here, so let’s check around the vicinity for now”
For me with my Intuition Pharmacy, a forest lush in flora is like a mountain of treasure And in fact, it’s because I found those two Redshrooms soon after I was thrown into this world, that I was able to finish off the Armor Bear
I’m sure, there’s a bunch load of useful plants here in this forest, that are just anxious for us to find theet this Forested Dome capture started— but before that,
“Wait a sec Futaba-san I got granted a new Curse, so I’d like to try that out”
“Ehh, really!? That’s a!”
If you ask who’s a, it’s pretty much Futaba-san who’s actuallythat kind of reaction froirl isn’t bad at all It’s hostess club customer mentality[1]
“A or not, I won’t know till I try it but yeah, you shouldn’t really get your hopes up”
I let her know just in case being incompetent as ever, and now I shall commence the experiment for the brand new Curse No 5
“Uhh first, you collect some earth”
The reason I proposed to test the new Curse as soon as we got here is primarily because the first condition was already cleared Around here I can get my hands on all the earth I want, but in the stone built areas, its surprisingly hard to find And just in case, we can run from here back to the Fairy Square lickety-split
I squat down and concentrate on digging out the dirt Futaba-san’s standing right beside uess she’s curious so she’s occasionally peeking at my hands
“Next, you add water and make mud”
The 500 the way, is all used up all of a sudden It should be fine to get it refilled after It’s a pain though
“Once the mud is made, let’s now shape it into human form”
Taking the arten It’s saddening that I have to start eon, but I convince myself that this too is a necessity, and seriously build it into a human shape
It’s not clay but ure round like a relief is the limit The size is more or less 30 cm
“You’ve made it here, just a bit more You can do it”
“Hey, Mo all this to?”
“Ah, please don’t talk tointo my brain”
“S-sorry”
Futaba-san finally retorted looking atsome children’s toy, but I’d like her to understand than I’ around here Really this, if I don’t speak it out while doing it, I feel like I’ll forget the invocation procedure
The aria is deeply engraved into my head but, it’s likely, that this explanation is a one-off thing I don’t know the theory behind it, but it’s designed annoyingly like this Well, it’s not like the steps are difficult, so I’ll remember it if I do it once
“Now that you’ve made a splendid human form, let’s now add some of your blood”
Adding in blood, it’s kinda gotten Curse-like Maybe it’s finally ti a bit excited
“Eh, b-blood”
“I guess I need to cut ot the ointment”
Hii, goes Futaba-san as she turns subtly blue in the face watching ine she’s the same Berserker who massacred all those Goirls do right?
With those light suspicions, I swipe the boxcutter over h, a ball of fresh blood forms and drops land on the mud person Huh, how et it hmm, several drops should be ok
“And then you simply recite the aria, oh, is that it for prep work?”
Leavingthe Curse
“Rise from chaos, bind in foul blood, stand on stained earth— Vile Mud Doll”[2]
After chanting the aria without break, the change starts
The blood that had soaked into theon the human shape Me and Futaba-san both went “Uwah!?” inadvertently at the disgusting process
Blood boiled and enveloped the entirety of the human shape— wait, this is clearly oin’ on Anywho, I don’t get the logic, but the huht or not, but this ti sucked into the ground
“Eh, it’s over?”
I voice a doubt after around 10 seconds of silence, but just then, the human shape moved
“Woah, this, it moved!?”
A voice of surprise is raised a 2nd time
That which was a plain human shaped clu out froround, the Mud Doll mechanically rose to its feet
Its forhtly deviated froely bigger, the liths distortion design[3]
“W- Momokawa-kun, so this is”
“Ah, yep, you guessed it, this is the Vile Mud Doll”
Vile Mud Doll A Puppet that moves to the will of its master Absolute Obedience
For now, this is all I get for s you can tell at a glance, so as for what this thing can do, or if it can use any special techniques or ic, all the important bits are left in the dark
Also, it’ll onlyto iant robot , at this point, I don’t buy it
“Eh?”
This kind of thing, rather than voice co about it should be the standard for starters, start walking!
“Wah, it’s , Momokawa-kun!”
“Ohh, you’re right!”
On this rare occasion where so to s and started walking It started circling arounduntil it turns to butter if I don’t tell it to stop
“Stop”
I said, and it stopped It’s unknohether it heard my voice, but it’s un like telepathy No, this Mud Doll doesn’t have an ego so I should think of it like a radio controlled gadget
Now then, how precise is this thought control method, this calls for a test I say that, but what should Ito deeply seems useless, so for now, I’ll just try whatever comes to mind
“Radio Calisthenics No1”[4]
As that hope-filledmelody, a tune any japanese country the rhyth the Raise your Arms and Stretch your Back
“And, one, two, three, four—”
“Woah, a radio calisthenics!”
The Mud Doll was different from some lazy brat, and performed the exercise with proper e, but it correctly deciphered the inforly practiced motions
“Yup, so like that”
“Ah, we’re stopping?”
Futaba-san looks a bit disappointed Doing all the radio exercises right here is a bit waste of ti poses so I don’t really re but the first part
“Operation gets full points, but the probleht”
“Yeah, it doesn’t look too strong”
Exactly This here looks to be as fragile as the appearance denotes
I try touching it, and it’s the sa any sort of special hardiness, wasn’t included
“Anyway, let’s keep walking together along with this It won’t put up ”
Thereupon, We, along with the as per usual unreliable Curse-made Mud Doll, dove into the deep forest spread out before my eyes
“Still, feels like we’d get lost if we go just a bit off track”
Noalking inside the forest, the sense of direction is all but lost Everywhere I turn, it’s trees, trees, trees nothing distinguishable about them
If eren’t on this anio
“Ah, wait a bit”
“Ok”
As I raise a voice to stall, Futaba-san i awakened as a Berserker, she would noonto my clothes’ corners, but would boldly walk ahead and lead the advance With her sub-weapon of the hatchet in one hand, she cut away the foliage obstructing our route, looking at it from behind she seemed quite sturdy In fact, her back ider than twice my own
Why I stopped the advance was for none other than harvesting
The discovery being Redshrooh power to kill an Ar that was evidently expended, the Sharannys that venture out to pick wild edibles, I began harvesting the poisonous mushrooms and inconspicuous weed-like herbs