episode_0060

After the barrier was lifted, the appearance of the mutated Mandragora was nothing short of shocking.

“Excuse me, is that a medicinal herb? Did you grow it?”

“Yes, I did.”

He wasn’t a guild master, but a mad scientist.

What kind of experiments is he conducting?

The Mandragora that appeared was a large, clearly alive, muscular ginseng-like creature.

Moreover, there was a blaze of magic fire on its head.

“By the way, magic doesn’t work on this Mandragora. So, it’s a bit tricky to deal with, but I managed to contain it for now, which worked out well.”

Clearly, that creature is dangerous.

Is it okay for the guild master to create such a thing?

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The Mandragora began to move its heavy body.

Each step it took sent vibrations through the ground.

“Ugh, it’s so creepy!”

“Go for it, Yunoa senpai!”

Meruru and Sylphy were cheering me on from a distance.

Philstone was also watching me from a slight distance.

Alright, make sure to watch me take down that giant ginseng with your own eyes.

I’ve faced tougher opponents than that.

Plus, I have the foreign magic I obtained from Einblad.

I immediately filled my sword with magic and charged towards the Mandragora.

Since my magic control is still lacking, I shouldn’t use any techniques and just slash to defeat it.

As I charged, the Mandragora swung its thick arms towards me.

Thud!

I easily dodged the attack, sidestepped, and grabbed the Mandragora from behind.

With the guild master watching, I needed to swiftly and decisively deal with it to make a strong impression.

I leaped up, landed on the ground, and slashed the Mandragora vertically from its head to its torso with my magic-infused sword.

The blade easily sliced through the Mandragora’s head and torso like cheese.

I didn’t use any special techniques, but the quality of magic in my sword increased its destructive power.

The mutated Mandragora was split in half in an instant, turning into two large medicinal herb pieces.

It was an unexpectedly easy victory.

“Is it over now?”

I looked at Philstone triumphantly in front of the Mandragora’s severed body.

Philstone approached the motionless Mandragora piece, touched it, and nodded.

* * *

As promised, Philstone vouched for my experience and skills.

Sylphy and Meruru submitted documents to the guild to prove that I had defeated the Mandragora.

I was truly grateful to them, but I didn’t feel any gratitude towards Philstone.

If it weren’t for his strange stubbornness, I wouldn’t have had to do this.

“Yes, it’s all done. Your final rank is Silver. Well done.”

Tina processed my registration documents and congratulated me.

Without the guild master’s endorsement, I wouldn’t have been able to receive this initial rank.

With this, my adventurer rank had somehow been restored to its original state.

If I wanted to work in another guild in a different area, I would have to submit a transfer declaration unless I held the rare Gold rank, which exempted me from the initial declaration.

It was a simple procedure, but I still needed a temporary document from Kubele to do so.

Now that I had regained my rank, there were no more restrictions on moving between guilds.

But still, there was a lingering sense of unease.

“Tina, I have a question. According to the records kept by the guild, I died once and the new Yunoa became the adventurer I am now, right?”

“Yes…”

I’m not some kind of undead.

The fact that such a record exists is unsettling in itself.

“Thank you for your hard work, Tina.”

After this incident, my perspective on the receptionists working in the guild had changed significantly.

It wasn’t just because of the heavy workload that I was suffering, but because I had chosen the wrong guild master.

All day long, it was paperwork, paperwork, paperwork.

Tina’s dark circles seemed to deepen every day.

The spacious interior of the guild counter was filled with documents.

If the documentation of tasks is excessive, it might actually reduce efficiency rather than improve it.

I suddenly became curious.

“Tina, do we keep all the documents written in the guild?”

“Yes. The amount that comes out every day is so huge that there is a separate warehouse for storing documents. You know the building behind the guild without a sign? That’s where we store documents that have been around for a while.”

While Tina answered me, she was also processing other documents with her hands.

“What happens to the guild if all the stored documents are lost due to an accident?”

“It would probably be a huge problem…”

Well, that makes sense.

Anyway, I have regained my adventurer rank.

I didn’t like the way Philstone did it, but I can’t help it.

Now I feel like I’m back to the daily life I missed.

I thought I would go back to being a normal adventurer, taking on requests and earning money starting tomorrow.

But suddenly, a narration popped into my head.

“Finally, Yunoa, who had restored his adventurer rank, was looking forward to returning to his normal adventurer life starting tomorrow.

But he didn’t know. What kind of consequences would arise from dealing with the variant Mandragora as Philstone demanded?”

The content seems a bit strange.

I definitely split the Mandragora in half and dealt with it decisively.

Although it was a bit creepy that the herb was alive and moving.

Could it be that it’s still alive even after being split in half?

No, that’s unlikely.

It’s not some kind of starfish.

I decided not to worry about it and just take a break today.

Late at night.

Philstone was attempting to refine the variant Mandragora in his refinery.

Mandragora was a rare herb known to be impossible to cultivate.

However, he had independently researched a way to cultivate Mandragora long ago and finally bore fruit.

He injected magic into Mandragora as fertilizer every day and raised it with great care.

The size of Mandragora grew larger and larger, and Philstone injected more magic to maximize its growth.

Was that a mistake?

One day, Philstone’s Mandragora mutated, turning into a monster and starting to attack its surroundings.

Philstone tried to subdue the Mandragora, but his magical attacks were ineffective.

So he had no choice but to confine the variant Mandragora in a barrier and contemplate how to deal with it.

It was during this time that a man named Yunoa came looking for the adventurer records to be revived.

Philstone didn’t particularly want to deal with him, so he sent him away, but he came back.

And while maintaining the guild rules, he proposed a way to restore his rank.

The issue with the Mandragora was awkward to officially request through the guild.

Above all, since Philstone had personally raised it, he wanted to quietly resolve the issue without unnecessarily raising the matter.

In that regard, Yunoa seemed like a useful man.

Although his records had been erased, he was also a silver-ranked adventurer and, judging by the sword at his waist, not a wizard.

So, I decided to use this man to solve the Mandragora problem.

And the result was now.

Philstone was satisfied.

The variant Mandragora may have different effects from the regular Mandragora.

He brought the split Mandragora to the refinery, cut it into eight large pieces, and placed them in a box.

He had planned to carefully experiment with the effects of Mandragora sap in the purification process.

But then.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

The box containing the Mandragora pieces made a strange noise.

Filstone was too focused on the purification to pay attention to the sound.

Clang. Clang. Clang. Thud!

However, the box that had been making noise suddenly broke.

Turning around, he saw that the eight pieces of mutated Mandragora had resurrected into different entities.

Although they had shrunk to one-eighth of their original size, the flames of magic were still burning on their heads, and they retained their twisted appearance.

“What… what the…”

Filstone hurriedly tried to contain them with a magical barrier.

But he wished they had remained as the original larger one.

The eight mutated Mandragoras, each the size of a young child, suddenly burst out of the box and scattered in the wind, making it impossible to contain them.

“Wow… ahh!”

In the deep dawn, screams echoed from Filstone’s purification chamber.

And the escaped mutated Mandragoras began their rampage towards the center of Kubele under the moonlit night.

***

I was sleeping in an inn when I heard a commotion outside.

Looking out the window, it was still dark outside, but something was clearly wrong.

“Fire! Fire!”

“It’s a monster! Walking monsters everywhere!”

“Ahhhh!”

Walking monsters… everywhere?

The image of the mutated Mandragoras with their twisted fiery appearance flashed through my mind.

I quickly got up and rushed outside.

It was chaos outside.

Mandragoras the size of elementary school students were running around the streets, setting fires in all directions.

The flames of magic on their heads were spreading sparks everywhere.

Some people who seemed to be adventurers were already engaged in battle with the Mandragoras.

“The mutated Mandragoras were divided into eight pieces by Filstone.

But these mutated Mandragoras, who had consumed excessive magic, did not die easily.

If not completely destroyed, they would split into different entities based on the number of pieces. ”

Thud! Thud!

One muscular Mandragora was grabbing an adventurer by the hair, striking his stomach with its fist.

Another Mandragora was climbing up a building, while another was wildly shaking the flames on its head and running around.

“I can’t believe this is happening…”

Other adventurers who had rushed out to the noise joined forces to subdue the Mandragoras.

However, to their surprise, they were struggling against the Mandragoras, whether it was the strength of the creatures or the weakness of the nearby adventurers.

“Listen up! If you just cut them down, their numbers will increase! Make sure to defeat them completely and eradicate them without leaving a trace! I will help too!”

I drew my sword and jumped into the chaos of the streets, shouting.

According to the narration, if not handled properly, the numbers will only increase.

I struck down countless of them with my sword, turning them into minced garlic and trampling them underfoot.

Even then, the muscular Mandragoras were grabbing people by the hair and beating their stomachs.

They seemed to enjoy hitting the abdomen.

What the hell did Filstone raise?

I continued to help people and take the lead in subduing the rampaging mutated Mandragoras on the streets.