Master of Monsters 12-1

This chapter is super long so I decided to split it into 2 parts:


12. Monster

Previous chapter’s synopsis:

The Hero's and Rose's embrace....

... happened while Lily was out hunting

"Ha?! Somehow I feel like I missed an important moment?!"

12

The next day, morning.

"Good morning Master"

"Good morning"

After all it seems like I fell asleep like that yesterday. While embracing Rose's breast I woke up and was greeted by the strangely happy smile of Lily.

Apperently she was happy to see that her protegee Rose managed to make some friends.

Yesterday, when Rose called her "Lily-onesama" I wondered but it seems like she makes a suprisingly good older sister.

***

"Changing location?! Why?!"

After breakfast, when I brought up the topic, Lily started clinging to my arm and looking at me with her black eyes, as if she was trying to say that here is her place.

"Is this about the story you heard from that senpai yesterday?"

Unlike Lily, Kato understood right away. Rose was surely listening aswell, but she didn't join the conversation and continued to carve wood like every day.

I nodded towards Kato and started to explain to Lily:

"If the story I heard yesterday from Kaga is correct, then there is a possibility that a powerful monster which is capable of even killing cheat ability users is living in this area. It would be dangerous to stay here."

"Oh I see. The aformentioned story about the mutilated bodys of 5 people who were members of the Expedition Unit.

But is that realy true? I can't trust that story"

"I can't trust it either"

I shrugged my shoulders

"However, there is no reason to take the risk"

I replied like that to Lily who was not able to believe, but regarding this matter I had allready determined that Kaga said the truth.

For example another thing Kaga was talking about : "I know more details about the Expedition Unit's plans" that was surely a lie that he told to catch my interest.

In comparison to that saying " I found 5 mutilated bodys of which one was a cheat ability user" would be a lie that held no benefits for Kaga.

He had no reason to lie. Kaga was an idiot who was faithful to his own desires, but he was not a bragger who would spread a lie without any meaning at all.

Firstly I think it is for sure allright to think that one of those 5 was a cheat ability user from the Expedition Unit.

A common Warrior should be able to defeat most of the Monsters of this forest easily with his power

A Monster that was able to kill someone like that.

I want to get away as soon as possible from a place where such a dangerous monster dwells

"Even though, that monsters who could kill cheat ability users even exists..."

Even I can't believe that... I don't want to believe that, but its a fact.

I also considered the possibility that they were surrounded by many, but there were no corpses of other monsters in that place. It is reasonable to think that this was a massacre by only one monster.

"Is it that mysterious?"

"Isn't it mysterious to you Lily? The cheat ability users who came to this world can even kill a dragon with their bare hands. A monster that could kill them is unimaginable to me."

"Bu.. But for monsters there is also a ranking"

"rank?"

"yes"

Lily nodded and rubbed her face against my arm.

"What do you mean?"

"Well"

Lily thought about it for a while and started explaining

"What the students who were transferred into this world are calling "monsters" are creatures who have magic powers. You know that much right?"

"yeah"

"Basically the more magic power a monster carries, the stronger it is."

This I understand " A big bear who doesn't carry any magic power would not be able to win against a mouse who carries magic power" You can think about it in extreme examples like that.

"And the strength of an average monster is propotional to the amount of magic power in the plot of land, right?"

"Wait a second. What do you mean by amount of magic power in the plot of land?"

"Hm? Oh yes master is not able to percieve magic power."

Lily sticked out her tonge as if she had made a joke.

" Originally the magic power depends on the land. It flows in the atmosphere and through the rain it is soaked into the ground and takes root in the land. Afterwards we monsters absorb it into our bodies where it concentrates."

" Ehh . So can I imagine it like harmful heavy metals that are discharged through waste water from big factorys?"

"That is correct but you put it in a very negative way"

Perhaps because of the image was too negative Lily showed a nasty look.#

Well, certainly the image was the worst but I think it makes the phenomen easy to understand.

Heavy metals dissolve in water and get absorbed by plankton which gets eaten by small fish , who will then be preyed on by bigger fish... Finally humans will be harmed by eating them.

"The small animals and vegetation of this forest contain very small amounts of magic. Of course there is also some in the air. That accumulates in monsters. That is why you should actually define monsters as "living creatures that accumulate magic". This magic power is absorped from the land, so of course, if the land is overflowing with magic than the monsters will have a high amount of magic power thru that."

"So detailed"

"Well that is because it affects our own ecology."

"Ecology?"

"yes"

Lily nodded

"If you have accumulated a certain amount of magic... That is to say there is a magic capacity for every individual and if you have lived for long enough you can do reproductive activities in fixed intervals. To say it plainly to produce children."

"Oh.."

Whats that.

When you hear a cute girl like Lily say "reproductive activities" it becomes a very complicated feeling.

I understand that it is a serious topic.

"I wonder if it is asexual reproduction. A monster that is born that way has a slightly different magical capacity and I don't know if everything is correct. Sorry I don't really understand that part. Anyway for Slimes like me and Magical Puppets like Rose it works that way. I don't know how it works for animal type monsters like the Fire Fang."

"So that means... If the amount of magic stored in the land is too big wouldn't the amount of monsters increase as well?"

"Yes the strength of monsters is dependend on the amount of magic in the land. However that is only the story for normal monsters"

"Normal monsters?"

So that means there are also abnormal monsters?

"For clarity I will divert some knowledge from a game from Miho Mizushimas memory... In contrast to common monsters there are monsters who perform reproductive activities like I mentioned before they are like Queen Monsters."

"They would be stronger than common monsters of course?"

"Considerably. However, since the magic power drops every time they reproduce their strength is not constant. Next there are monsters like me, which you would call... that's right " Unique Monsters".

"When you say unique you mean there is only one?"

"Thats right. An irregular born thru asexual reproduction... A mutation. Well I think it is something curious. Just because it is a unique monster doesnt mean it is particularly strong. Especially me since I'm just a slime type Unique Monster."

Certainly Lily originally does not posses a lot of battle power.

However her mimicry ability is a one and only so the name Unique Monster fits her perfectly.

"And Rose would be a Rare Monster"

" What? Rose isn't a normal monster either?"

Suprised I instinctly turned around to Rose

She only bowed modestly.

"Didn't you realize that Rose is a little stronger than a normal Magic Puppet?"

"Now that you say it there were instances were I felt that she is exceptional."

"It doesnt measure up to Lily-onesama's excellence"

Rose cut into the conversation. But I don't agree with her.

Lily also gave a little troubled laugh looking at Rose and continued her story.

"And then above the Rare Monster would be... You would probably call them High Monster."

"What about them is different to the Rare Monsters?"

"Just about everything"

Lily stated with a determined voice.

"This might be harsh to Rose but the ones I call Rare Monster are actually of the same class as Normal Monsters just that they are a little superior. Even though suiting the name, they are pretty scarce, there is about one in thousand. At one point they can even become Queen Monsters. Hower High Monsters are in a class of their own."

Lily's expression was so serious it was almost scary.

"They are outside of the ecosystem. They don't perform reproductive activities like the Queen Monsters. I wonder if they even have a limit on how much magic power they can store."

"So the amount of magic power decides the strength of a monster?"

"Thats right. That is why we are definetly no match for them. Fighting would be useless. If you oppose them you will be killed. Even fleeing would depend on your luck. For example a long time ago I saw a group of around 100 Fire Fangs annihilated by one individual. That was a true "Monster"(T/N: written in Kanji as opposed to the the normal Monster which is written in romaji).

"A monster among monsters huh?"

Fighting against a thing like that doesn't sound very appealing.

If we were found we would have to run immediatly. Afterall it is safer to just change our location so that we don't meet one.

Before we could decide on our plan from now on there was one thing that still bothered me.

"Hey Lily"

"What is it?"

"Would a High Monster be able to kill a cheat ability user?"

"Yea I think it could."

That kind of half assed answer was given.

"It depends on the situation, but I think in a face to face battle it would be difficult"

"difficult huh?"

"yea"

I sighted, not being able to reply anything to Lily's reply

I wonder how far outside the norm cheat ability users really are.

As I thought the really dreadful ones would be the humans.

"However there could also be powerful Monsters that I don't know about. Since I'm just a Slime my range of activities wasn't really far. Rose might know of others though."

"No even I did not see anything aside from the Unique Monsters and Rare Monsters that you talked about, onee-sama."

After listening to those two it seems that the propablility of meeting a so called High Monster is pretty low.

"Anyway, since this is a place were we could meet such a monster, we should leave as soon as possible. Too bad for Kato-san though."

When I summarized the story I lastly glanced at Kato-san.

If Kato-san were to wait here, it would be pretty likely that the Expedition Unit would find her here.

But if we moved from here the situation would be back to square one.

When I mentioned this Kato-san looked down, playing with her braided hair with her fingers.

She didn't seem too disappointed.

I mean, like always, I couldn't tell her feelings at all.

Although she recovered quite a bit she is still far from her normal condition. In the first place its doubtful that she will be able to fully recover her spirit. If there was a some kind of motivation for her that would be great, but I can't provide that.

"I... don't really mind"

"Is that so? Than lets hurry up and leave this place"

Since we decided that way there was no reason to wait.

We quickly assembled our luggage.

So far Rose has produced 3 swords, 2 spears and 2 axes. Furthermore shields and breast plates as well as protection for the lower body.

Lily uses a spear as main weapond and a sword as sub weapon.

Rose uses a one handed battle axe and carries a second axe on her back.

I usually wear my sword on my waist and another one on my back and a big shield in my hand.

Everybody is wearing breast plates, but aside from me everybody is using a round shield because the big ones might get in the way in case of a fight.

Honestly, since Kato-san's offensive potential is even lower than mine, I wanted her to wear a big shield as well, but no matter how light we made it her physical strength was not enough. That's why we are going with this formation for now.

Aside from the weaponry Rose also produced a lot of useful things for every day life. But since it was inconvinient to carry those we decided to throw them away.

If we needed them Rose could just make them again. This would take Rose some work, but she understood and agreed.

We stuffed our clothes in the backpack that we took from Kaga and the handback from Kato-san. We put the smoked meat and other food in Fire Fang hide which we cut into square shapes and tied together at the four corners. We did the same with Rose's spare parts.

"Did we pack everything?... Allright ! Lets go!"

Thus we left behind the cave in which we were accustomed to live.