Chapter 56 – Floor 9. Is This Edible?

After sorting out the broken potions that could no longer be used and the scrolls that had lost their magical effects, there was still enough space to fit everything into my original bag.

In terms of ratio, it was about a 30% loss of the total.

It was a painful loss, but let’s just consider it as using items to survive. Rationalization is an important element in flexible thinking.

“Is that enough now?”

Blue Tongue, who had waited for me to recover the scattered items and put on my armor, seemed to instinctively sense that I had finished my business and rose from the stump where she had been sitting.

“How about it? Quite impressive, right?”

The image of a knight with a white greatsword slung over his shoulder and plate armor covering his entire body.

It’s a fantasy that every man can’t help but admire.

Although my evasion rate had significantly decreased due to wearing a full set of heavy equipment, it’s much easier to fight by reducing damage through higher defense rather than avoiding a hit or two.

Besides, enemies’ attacks have become frighteningly sharp, making it quite uncomfortable to fight in thin armor.

“Hmm. When you were naked, your scars were more visible, which made you look more like a warrior. Still, it’s similar to what those humans who occasionally came shouting about conquering this jungle wore. They all died, though.”

“Just go ahead and curse me…”

I couldn’t help but click my tongue at Blue Tongue, who threw out disparaging remarks without any malice.

“Rather than that armor, you’d look much better wearing this child.”

“Even if you lower it by 10 GOLD at a time like a home shopping channel to reduce the first digit, I still can’t afford it.”

I finally couldn’t hold back and gave a head slap to the Suspicious Merchant who calmly recommended that 39,990 GOLD breastplate again.

Thwack!

“Ugh-”

The Suspicious Merchant dropped the breastplate they were holding and rubbed their crown as if in pain from the blow.

And I knew they weren’t hurt at all.

The merchant, who had revealed themselves as a so-called dream demon, had a Level of 30, so getting hit by a mere Level 10 scrub like me would barely cause a scratch.

“Customer, that’s too much.”

“Isn’t it your conscience that’s too much, trying to force-sell to an unfortunate neighbor like me? Let’s take a moment to reflect on ourselves.”

I could strongly feel the gaze staring at me through the mask, but I turned my body completely away to show my determination never to succumb to force-selling.

Somehow the gaze from behind seemed to be growing more intense, but it must be my imagination.

“So, how do you summon the Guardian?”

More importantly, we needed to recreate the Guardian before capturing Alraune.

Currently, I couldn’t use Kali, who had a good compatibility, and both Severa and the slime didn’t have good compatibility against Alraune, who used magic.

As Alraune was a mini-boss, it was hard to tell due to her high specs, but she was basically a mage, though strong even in close combat.

Of course, she wasn’t an orthodox mage with high firepower like Severa, but she was a debuffer who spread area-of-effect spells that caused slight damage to an entire room and inflicted poison or other status abnormalities. If she was weak to magic, she would be helpless.

‘Naturally, without a way to deal with status effects, it would mean instant ejection to Floor 1.’

The most comfortable method would be to drink purification potions or invulnerability elixirs, but those weren’t easy to obtain, and if this Guardian could properly suppress Alraune, I had to use it.

“We need to perform a ritual by placing the statue and the potion on top of the medium in the village.”

Blue Tongue blinked her eyes and put the statue and potion I handed over into her pack.

“But before that, we need to catch a slime mass.”

“A slime mass?”

“Yes. As I said, the Guardian is a magical creature based on a slime mass. That human wizard said it was a method that artificially recreated the way local bosses emerge.”

At those words, I recalled the explanations written in the boss texts.

The Giant Slime that mutated through cannibalism, the King of the Sewers that grew massive by consuming the magic of the underground sewers, Alraune born from the concentration of the tropical rainforest’s magic.

‘Does it mean forcibly stuffing it with magic to make it grow?’

Certainly, if such a thing were possible, it might also be possible to create bosses directly.

Although I didn’t know much about magic, I could infer this much from the text.

“Come, let’s go catch a green slime mass. There’s a habitat nearby.”

If there were blue slime masses in the underground sewers, then there were green slime masses in the tropical rainforest.

A true palette swap with the same level, health, and other stats – just a different color.

I had wondered why they included such things, which weren’t even stronger, but it seemed to be lore.

Seeing my silence and perhaps thinking there were no objections, Blue Tongue turned to leave. I recalled the slime sleeping in my backpack and fell into thought.

Then couldn’t the slime also become a Guardian?

“Hey, Blue Tongue. Wait a moment.”

“Hmm? What is it, human?”

Blue Tongue’s body turned at my call, and her tail swept the ground, drawing a semicircle.

“Can only one Guardian exist at a time?”

“The wizard strictly said never to make two Guardians. If something went wrong, they might cannibalize each other, mutate, and escape control.”

Certainly, if the Guardian, already at a mini-boss level, were to mutate like the Giant Slime, who knows what kind of disaster it would become.

“Then if Alraune were gone, would the Guardian no longer be needed?”

“…Human, what are you thinking?”

“I don’t particularly intend to cause harm. I’m just asking. What value would you exchange the Guardian for?”

As Blue Tongue showed a slight sign of wariness, I raised my visor to show my face and joked around.

The Lizard Great Warrior, Blue Tongue, didn’t worship the Guardian like a god, as in novel clichés.

She merely recognized it as a created creature and viewed it as a tool to be used as needed, with no emotions beyond that.

If so, if the dangerous element that necessitated the Guardian no longer existed, perhaps I could transfer it?

“…Even if the Flower Queen is killed, the Guardian protected the village from those green-skinned creatures when I went hunting. They eat their own kind.”

Grind-

Rare anger could be felt from the reptilian eyes that usually showed little emotion.

“The Orcs are about to leave this jungle. I burned down their entire village.”

“What…”

Blue Tongue’s jaw, which had been grinding her teeth, opened wide in surprise, revealing a blue mouth and tongue that contrasted with her red-scaled skin.

“I caught that thief, burned the Orc village that competes with you, killed the dangerous Composite Being, and if I clean up that troublesome Alraune too.”

The three bosses of the tropical rainforest, the Labyrinth of Osiris, and the Orc faction that divided the region with the Lizard faction.

If I eliminated all of them.

“Wouldn’t it make sense to give it to me?”

She wouldn’t be able to refuse.

***

Clang─!

The spear blade was pushed back, sending sparks flying off the flat of the greatsword.

Extending my arm directly at the pale light orb being shot from behind, I rammed the cross guard into the lizard’s solar plexus and then threw myself sideways.

“Kiheuk-!”

With a short scream, the lizard stepped back, clutching its chest, while the light orb flew far away.

My body grew heavy from the mud and water entering between the armor plates, but I quickly rose, briefly shaking off the mud.

“Do you not need help, human?”

“No. I need some practice.”

『Lizard Follower』Level: 13

Health: 44/76 ■■■■■■□□□□

【A Lizard who worships a grotesque idol.】

I shook my head at Blue Tongue’s offer.

In front of me were two Lizard Followers with spears and staves. However, Blue Tongue and the merchant were watching my battle from a distance.

This was because I had stubbornly insisted on fighting alone, feeling that my combat sense had dulled from not properly fighting for several days.

Moreover, I wanted to properly try out the greatsword I had created by completely overhauling the Orc search party’s equipment.

『White-Winged Bird Greatsword』

【A greatsword thought to have the same color as the feathers of the white-winged bird, which has the whitest feathers of all. However, unlike its delicate color, it is heavy.】

At Tier 4, it’s good enough to be used effectively even in the next region.

Wearing a solid set of plate armor, I could easily handle two ordinary enemies like these.

“So when are we going to look for Headless, customer? It’s past feeding time.”

“Come on, it doesn’t even have a head, let it starve a bit!”

“Customer, that’s too harsh.”

Saying it in a “Daddy, I really hate you!” tone doesn’t do any damage to someone like me who doesn’t have a daughter to say such things yet.

The weapons I had used until now were mostly light ones that could be used with one hand.

But this White-Winged Bird Greatsword required both arms to wield, making it quite tricky to handle.

I swung my arms wide, bringing the blade behind my back, then extended my right hand while lifting it, using gravity’s help to bring the greatsword down.

The movement might have seemed slow, but “tremendous” was the word that suited the destructive power of this downward strike, enhanced by gravity using the greatsword’s mass.

Woong- The greatsword sliced through the air, and the Lizard Follower held the spear shaft horizontally to block it.

The result was devastating.

Crack─

The greatsword easily broke the spear shaft and shattered the lizard’s skull, causing its eyeballs to pop out from the pressure and fall into the mud with a splash.

[You have defeated a Lizard Follower.]

“Ugh, that’s disgusting.”

“Kiheuk!”

Tung─!

After splitting the Lizard Follower’s head in half, the spell from the Lizard Follower who had been chanting behind hit directly through the large gap.

“Kuhuk!”

『Magic Bullet』

The magic bullets that the Lizard Followers shot were from the mystery school rather than the elemental school like fireballs, ice shards, or thunder drums, which were low-level magics.

While mystery school magic is considered a level below the elemental school that can perform area attacks, it’s still magic and has the effect of ignoring defense to some extent, making it an excellent weapon given the right circumstances.

‘If Severa had used it, my armor would have been pierced?’

But the Lizard Follower’s mental stat was on the low side.

Thanks to that, even though some of my defense was ignored, I was safe.

Pang─! Boom!

As I struggled to get up, freeing myself from the mud that was pulling my body down, I heard the sound of air compressing and bursting, followed by something exploding.

Splash.

In the blink of an eye.

The body of the Lizard Follower, now missing its head, collapsed onto the muddy ground, raining down a mixture of flesh and brain matter.

The cause of this scene was a spear.

“Sorry, human. It looked dangerous, so my hand moved on its own… Was it unnecessary?”

Blue Tongue walked over with heavy steps, pulled the deeply embedded spear from the ground, and looked at me while flicking her blue tongue.

“Ah, no…”

I’d better not act cocky.