Ch.393393 – Herb Thief

# 393 – Herb Thief

Hidden in the bushes, I firmly planted myself.

“We don’t know what cowardly tactics the juniors might use. So let’s ambush and take them down in one go, Hestia!”

“Got it. I’ll pulverize them with everything I’ve got.”

A teaching assistant trudging home late at night, holding a keycard made by capable but lazy instructors.

Seeing the dark circles under his face, Hestia tensed her body.

She took a stance like a leopard ready to pounce on its prey, but I stopped her.

“That’s not our target.”

“Then?”

“That’s a teaching assistant leaving after working 70 consecutive hours in another professor’s lab!”

“70 hours? With 24 hours in a day… that’s two days and 22 hours of work?!”

“Shh. Your voice is too loud!”

“…Is being a teaching assistant that harsh?”

“What? No? If you slack off, you can finish in 30 minutes easily.”

“I guess that’s because he’s from the lower class.”

As someone from the upper class, I could work as a teaching assistant for pocket money if I needed points.

Seeing the thought cross Hestia’s face, I considered correcting her misunderstanding but decided against it.

Being a teaching assistant can be fun once you try it.

Let the newbies do whatever they want!

“That person with purple skin definitely looks like a teaching assistant, what do you think?”

“Ah, that’s just a senior.”

“What about the person crawling on all fours?”

“That must be a sophomore who took a crawling potion!”

“And that person screaming about the apocalypse coming, pulling their hair out in agony as they pass by?”

“What is that? I don’t know either. It’s scary!”

“There’s something Oknodie doesn’t know?!”

“Ah, there’s a teaching assistant with a keycard coming. Focus!”

“Wait, the apocalypse is coming?! Is it really okay to casually ambush a teaching assistant heading home with a keycard?!”

“Shh! Your voice is too loud!”

The ambush was simple.

On signal, charge at full speed and take down the senior in one go!

Whoosh!

“!?”

As Hestia burst through the undergrowth like a beast, the senior panicked and flicked his finger.

<Automatic Barrier>

<Deceleration Field>

<Impact Dispersion>

Three protective spells deployed in the blink of an eye!

It was indeed skill befitting a junior, but Hestia’s strike exceeded the senior’s imagination.

<Superhuman Strength>

<Double Strike>

<Iron Fist>

With her lightning-fast charge and strike, shields burst one after another as the senior flew back 5 meters into a tree trunk!

Hestia continued her assault on the senior who had completely failed to defend against the surprise attack, choking him with her forearm and punching him in the stomach.

“Kuhek!”

Despite his painful cry, she didn’t let up, kicking his shin to weaken his lower body and raising her knee to strike his groin—but she hesitated.

For some reason, she glanced at me, then delivered a flying kick to his stomach instead of his groin.

“Urgh, w-why…”

“As expected of a junior. You can still breathe.”

Deciding she couldn’t let her guard down, Hestia pummeled the senior with punches until he finally lost consciousness and collapsed.

Clap, clap, clap.

“Wow, amazing! The senior collapsed without even counterattacking once!”

“Oknodie… we were supposed to catch him together. Why didn’t you help? Do you know how scared I was about getting hit by his counterattack?”

“You were hitting him so well that there was no room for me to join in. So I used barrier magic to prevent any witnesses. Good job, right?”

As expected of chapter boss Hestia.

To think she’s this strong even without activating her berserker mode! Truly terrifying!

“I found the keycard… but didn’t we beat him up too badly?”

“It’s fine. This senior was probably in cahoots with the professor to torment students anyway!”

“No, I’m worried we might have to pay a fine for beating up a senior.”

Ah. So that was the concern.

“Don’t worry. A senior beaten by a freshman would be too embarrassed to report it anywhere!”

Just a passing scholar.

An unidentified passerby.

A mysterious traveler.

Why would there be such people here?

These are just excuses people make when they’re embarrassed!

* * *

[Card key security formula confirmed.]

[Security devices leading to the greenhouse have been deactivated.]

The path to the greenhouse where Professor Redmountain’s students carefully grow medicinal herbs.

Even in their deactivated state, the glimpses of traps caught by my search eye make even an experienced player like me feel a bit creepy.

<Temporary Intelligence Reduction>

Duration – 7 days

Effect – Drool flows from the mouth like an idiot. Forcibly falls into <Dehydration> status, and the probability of insect monsters appearing greatly increases due to the smell of saliva.

<Scent Permeation>

Duration – 10 days

Effect – Emits a seductive scent that makes monsters salivate. Drastically increases the probability of tentacle monsters appearing.

<Mimic Door>

Classification – Monster

Characteristics – This monster disguises itself as a door. The moment you place your hand on the doorknob, your hand gets caught and you’re swallowed into the stomach beyond the door.

With the security devices deactivated, the fountain that sprayed intelligence-reducing liquid stopped working.

The smell perfect for getting caught up in incidents during lectures was forcibly ventilated through the air ducts.

The mimic door rotated the entire wall, becoming a wall with a normal door.

‘Mixing traps that you immediately notice with traps you only realize after suffering the consequences—as expected of juniors!’

The casual way they mixed in these unfair traps is remarkable.

But for an experienced player who knows the strategy, it’s nothing special.

“Please harvest everything from here to there and put them in the herb cases!”

“How are we supposed to carry all of this?”

“Just put them in the backpack!”

Oh right.

I almost forgot about that.

“Wear these before harvesting!”

“I can feel mana… is this a treasure?”

“That’s right!”

As a skilled mercenary, she has a sharp eye for valuable items.

━━━

<Gloves of Herb Resistance (Treasure (+5)>

Grade – Magic Level 6

Description – Gloves specialized for safely harvesting herbs. Wearing these gloves ensures you won’t lose your life no matter what herb you harvest.

Effect 1 – The quality of herbs is not damaged during harvesting.

Effect 2 – Herbs attack the harvester less during harvesting.

Effect 3 – Status ailment onset is delayed during harvesting.

Effect 4 – Provides resistance to curses, burns, and sleep.

Appraisal Value – 150 gold coins, 15,000 points

━━━

Since they’re made from easily obtainable cotton gloves that have been enhanced, their appraisal value and performance aren’t that impressive.

Still, they give you an extra life in the sense that you won’t immediately succumb to the toxins or flames emitted by herbs and have time to request help from a healer.

These <Gloves of Herb Resistance> are treasures that herb gatherers outside the academy are desperate to obtain.

“…Just how dangerous are these herbs that they require such a treasure?”

“You’ll find out when you harvest them!”

I can’t take away the joy of harvesting herbs for the first time.

I waited for Hestia to take the first dig.

After hesitating even with gloves on and trowel in hand, Hestia realized that delaying would only make us more vulnerable, so she sighed and plunged the trowel into the soil.

Bubble, bubble.

When the ground where she inserted the trowel started to make boiling sounds, Hestia was terrified.

“Do I really have to harvest this?”

“If you’re scared, I can do it!”

“…You’re probably just as scared, Oknodie. I can’t act like a coward in front of a child.”

Suddenly determined, Hestia gathered her courage and pulled up the herb.

The identity of the herb, which sizzled and emitted heat haze in the air, was <Flame Herb>.

It was a dangerous herb that could set your hand on fire and cause burns if touched with bare hands.

“The senior who planted this must be quite ambitious. Flame Herbs can burn themselves to ashes if cultivated incorrectly!”

“The nameplate said ‘Mandela Castella☆’.”

“That makes sense!”

Having overcome a dangerous specimen from the start, Hestia began pulling up herbs with ease.

As an experienced player, I naturally continued harvesting herbs effortlessly.

But while diligently pulling up herbs, I spotted something very suspicious.

Traces of deep soil turned over to the surface.

These traces were spread around one particular herb.

It was as if the herb had tilled the soil itself like an insomniac tossing and turning, uprooting itself, moving a bit, and replanting its roots!

“What are you waiting for?”

“There’s a dangerous herb here. I’m just debating whether to pull it up!”

“You treated Flame Herbs like common weeds, but now you’re hesitating? Can that even be called an herb?”

I don’t know?

Anyway, if the game classified it as an herb, it must be an herb!

“Ah, whatever, let’s just pull it up!”

No sooner had I yanked up the herb than a blinding flash erupted.

[Light Blocking Barrier]

Just as I covered the light with dark mana to block it, an even larger energy exploded within the barrier.

[Mana Barrier]

[Heat Blocking Barrier]

[Shock Absorbing Barrier]

Despite layering multiple enhanced shields with special attributes, the barriers hummed with power they couldn’t fully contain.

The herb, wrapped in barriers, furrowed its stem as if raising an eyebrow, then unleashed a barrage of status effects.

[Poison Blocking Barrier]

[Decay Blocking Barrier]

[Disease Blocking Barrier]

[Bleeding Blocking Barrier]

As the herb threw different types of status effects, I kept changing my barrier types to match each new threat!

After an intense battle, victory was mine.

The herb, having lost its strength, stopped resisting and became docile.

<Rainbow Herb>

Cultivator – Redmountain

Characteristics – Professor Redmountain’s trap herb disguised as a student-grown herb. When ingested, causes random status effects or increases random resistances.

“Heheh. Got it!”

“Oknodie. I just made a decision.”

“What is it?”

“After graduating from the academy, if I ever find an unfamiliar herb in a strange place, I will absolutely never harvest it.”

Hestia’s resolve seemed very firm.