Chapter 31: Mutant #5

Chapter 31: Mutant #5

Garden Vigilantes.

In a word, these guys are like flies attracted to a latrine.

They’re a nuisance if left alone, and surprisingly quick, making them hard to catch.

“Die-!”

With a ferocious roar, a Vigilante swung his axe.

WHOOSH-

Mitchell was pushed back two steps by the momentum.

“You elf bitch, you’re from that bar-“

“What bar? Me?”

“Aha, so you’re those arrogant bastards. Perfect timing. I’ll kill you all here!”

The Vigilante holding the axe was breathing heavily.

Judging by his eyes, this guy was on the verge of going mad.

He seemed thoroughly soaked in poison.

He might not have much time left even if left alone.

However, you shouldn’t let your guard down, especially against someone like this.

A wounded beast’s final struggle is dangerous.

WHOOSH- WHOOSH-

The Vigilante continued his frenzied axe swings, burning away his dwindling lifespan.

Mitchell, calmly maintaining distance by stepping backward, found her back against the wall.

There was nowhere else to retreat.

Mitchell muttered a curse with her lips.

CRASH-!

At the next moment, Wagner appeared with perfect timing and blocked the axe that was lunging at Mitchell’s head.

“I’ll join in, Mitchell.”

“Don’t be ridiculous- I can handle it alone?”

“Don’t brag. This isn’t the time to consider your feelings.”

“Ah, this damn bear is so annoying.”

Leaving Wagner and Mitchell bickering, as if their coordination was good yet not quite…

I, along with Flora, took on one of the Vigilantes.

“You tiny little thing-!”

The guy roared, with his fallen comrade’s corpse beside him.

I had made a hole in his comrade’s stomach with a Magic Arrow, so he seemed quite angry…

Don’t be too sad.

I’ll send you to your friend soon.

I cast the next Magic Arrow.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

The Vigilante crossed his arms and threw a dagger.

As expected, the Vigilantes have a certain level of skill.

They seem to know how to deal with mages.

His judgment is correct.

You must interrupt magic casting midway.

However, he overlooked a crucial fact.

First, his current condition is not normal due to the poison.

It would be difficult for him to throw the dagger properly with arms that can barely hold him up.

And second, even if the dagger miraculously flies towards me…

“Don’t worry, Estel!”

A sturdy Magic Shield protects me.

CLANG-

Most of the daggers flew uselessly far away, and the one that did make it was blocked by Flora’s shield, rendering it futile.

“Now it’s my turn?”

In the meantime, the Magic Arrow was fully charged.

I aimed at the Vigilante with the tip of my index finger.

“Tsk…!”

He raised his buckler.

It seems he intends to block the most crucial vital point, the head.

This is not a bad judgment either.

However, he should know that such a lukewarm choice cannot save his life.

“Who said I was only shooting at the head?”

CRACK.

A beam of laser blew off the Vigilante’s knee.

There’s no way that small buckler could block his entire body.

The target area is too wide.

If you were going to hold a shield, you should have at least held a large one like Wagner’s.

It’s too late to regret it now.

“Aargh…! You damn bitch! Kyaaa-“

The Vigilante, collapsed on the ground, writhed in pain and cursed loudly.

The shadow of despair had already fallen deeply upon his face.

The look of someone who has foreseen their death.

“……”

Slice.

I cut his throat with my Frost Blade, and he soon fell silent.

The unpleasant sensation of taking a life left a deep scar on my fingertips.

“Ah-“

Flora, who had been watching, froze with a surprised look.

“If we didn’t take them down, we would have been defeated, Senior.”

“Ah, yes. That’s right, that’s right…”

Flora muttered incoherently and took a deep breath.

She seemed to be trying to calm her startled heart.

It’s difficult the first time for anyone.

It was the same for me.

When I borrowed the power of a Night Wolf in the forest to take down a highway robber, my stomach churned that day, and my head felt foggy all day.

The shock is much less now.

I just feel like I did what I had to do.

Flora will also get used to it eventually as she continues her adventurer life.

“It looks like they won over there too.”

Mitchell was seen wiping blood from her fist.

Unlike the novice adventurer Flora, Mitchell and Wagner seemed to have experience in such situations.

They silently collected the equipment and belongings of the Vigilantes and sank their bodies into the waterway.

“Kid, are you okay?”

Mitchell said, patting my shoulder.

“Yeah. As you can see.”

“You don’t seem to be injured… That’s a relief.”

The ones who left are gone, but their equipment remains.

Roughly estimating, the value of the equipment obtained by killing the three Vigilantes was quite substantial.

‘Selling their equipment might be more profitable than dungeon hunting.’

I could understand why adventurers abandon their main jobs and focus on hunting humans.

It might be more profitable to hunt an adventurer party in the same amount of time it takes to kill a hundred or a thousand monsters.

Of course, easy money comes with a price.

If you keep killing people to make money, you’ll eventually lose your human heart forever.

The fate of that is clearly shown by Dawson and the Vigilantes.

In the end, they will degenerate into monsters wearing human shells.

“Three Vigilantes. That’s strange. I don’t know why they ventured into the underground waterway.”

“Three? No.”

At Wagner’s words, Mitchell shook her head.

Come to think of it, even after the battle ended, Mitchell hadn’t relaxed her tension.

Her elf ears, highly sensitive like sharp antennas, kept twitching.

“Far away… there’s still one left.”

Mitchell muttered, staring intently into the darkness.

***

We continued to backtrack through the Contaminated Deposit.

I don’t remember the exact number of Vigilante search parties in the game, whether it was six or seven.

But I’m sure there was a leader leading the search party.

Was it Max or Max, anyway, it was a name similar to my grandmother’s pet dog…

It bothered me that he wasn’t visible.

‘He might have fallen into a trap, but…’

A premonition flashed through my mind.

If the unidentified lurker Mitchell sensed is that guy.

Perhaps, has he transformed into ‘that field boss’?

‘I don’t know yet.’

A mix of anxiety and anticipation stirred in my heart.

My walking speed unconsciously increased.

After walking diligently for about ten minutes-

“⋯So that’s the smell. The dog-like smell that’s been wafting since earlier-“

Mitchell, who was walking at the front, stopped abruptly.

The smell of blood, and the smell of rotting flesh.

Everyone frowned at the pungent stench that pricked their nostrils.

“Damn, what is that?”

The entire passage of the Contaminated Deposit was blocked by a large chunk of flesh.

Flesh, organs, and bones mixed together and swelled arbitrarily, a grotesque appearance.

It looked grotesque, as if a surgically removed tumor had grown disproportionately large on its own.

“Is it… a monster?”

“It seems so, cough, ugh-“

Mitchell couldn’t hold back and gagged.

For an elf with more sensitive senses than humans, the stench emanating from it must be even more unbearable.

‘It really appeared.’

Only I know.

That bizarre mass of flesh is the hidden boss of the Contaminated Deposit.

The field boss, “Blessed Experiment Subject,” which appears when a human falls into toxic wastewater and mutates with a low probability.

As the emergence conditions suggest, to summon this guy, you need to sacrifice living humans.

Not just one or two, but continuously until it appears.

I thought about skipping it, as I couldn’t sacrifice all my party members just to defeat one of them, but here it is again.

‘Lucky me.’

Rumble-

Soon, one side of the experiment subject’s flesh bulged, and a human head popped out, tearing through the flesh.

-Hoho, so it’s you guys-!

Although there were almost no traces of its human past left, I could recognize who it was.

“⋯Max of the Vigilantes.”

-It’s Max! You should remember people’s names correctly, you little brat…!

“Aren’t you Dawson’s lackey? Why are you there?”

-Hah, who are you calling a lackey? Do you still say such nonsense after seeing this powerful body? You must be envious of this beautiful body reborn…!

Every time Max shouted, the giant mass of flesh pulsed like a heart.

Does that appearance look beautiful?

I don’t think so.

Indeed, people’s tastes vary greatly.

Even if everyone thinks it’s a grotesque monstrosity, the person concerned is satisfied.

-I don’t need Dawson anymore. I’m the strongest. This body is the king of Garden…!

Max cried out, his eyes filled with madness.

WHOOSH-

Intestines, stretched long from the flesh, whipped through the air like a whip.

“What a ridiculous thing to see!”

Mitchell leaped nimbly and dodged the intestines.

A sharp kick, continuing smoothly like flowing water.

Mitchell’s axe-like kick severed the monster’s intestines, but…

-Kuhaha- It’s useless!

Max effortlessly swelled his flesh and pulled out more intestines like threads.

「Cell Division」.

The boss “Blessed Experiment Subject” is notoriously troublesome with its tenacious regenerative ability.

No matter how much you hit, cut, or attack it until you’re tired, it regenerates endlessly.

It’s not an all-you-can-eat buffet.

“Be careful. This guy also uses acid attacks!”

Wagner, who narrowly dodged Max’s corrosive liquid, caught his breath.

‘As expected, it’s tricky.’

At this rate, a long-term battle would be disadvantageous.

I already know the strategy to defeat it.

However, the problem is the physiological aversion I feel when I try to execute it.

‘But this is not the time to hesitate.’

After spitting on the ground.

I ran from behind Wagner towards Max.

“Kid, what are you doing!”

“Wait, Estel!”

My panicked party members called out to me, but I didn’t stop.

There are times when you have to do something you don’t want to do.

And there are urgent moments when you have to act without seeking others’ understanding.

This is that time.

“Estel!”

Flora’s scream continued long from behind me.

Max’s hideous body approached before my eyes.

-Foolish kid, did you come to be killed on your own volition!

The flesh monster, no longer human, burst into laughter.

Soon, its belly split vertically like the mouth of a giant beast.

-I’ll digest you just like this.

The bright red lump of meat instantly lunged at me.

Its other attack pattern, “Swallow.”

It’s a type of instant-kill pattern where it shoves nearby enemies into its belly and slowly dissolves them with corrosive liquid.

Literally, a finishing move.

Normally, it’s a threatening attack that must be avoided, but…

Didn’t someone say?

Turning misfortune into a blessing.

A crisis is a true opportunity.

‘You came to be killed?’

Max, you’re seriously mistaken.

Absolutely not.

I came to kill you, you bastard.

Because I know your strategy, which you yourself don’t know.