Chapter 42
"It's quite dark even though it's daytime."
"The trees are huge."
"It's already giving off a creepy vibe."
The inside of the guard compartment wasn't particularly bright to begin with, but after entering the swamp, it became so dark that they couldn't see each other's faces well without turning on a light.
"Is the swamp always like this...?"
Edward, who had thought it would be at most a bit humid with a lot of muddy ground, slightly parted the canopy of the guard compartment and looked up at the leaves densely blocking the sky.
Then Kain, who was sitting next to him refining his mana, replied.
"Only trees that can withstand excessive moisture survive and grow in swamps. Many of these trees are tall, and as such, they need a lot of light, so they spread their leaves wide."
"Ah... That's why there are only big trees."
"There might have been smaller trees too, but if tall trees block the light, they would have a hard time surviving, so eventually only the big trees would remain."
Furthermore, he explained that on the ground, decaying plants and fallen leaves accumulated in the humid environment, naturally creating muddy soil continuously.
"It's amazing that anything can live in a place like this."
At Edward's words, Bolio crossed his arms and said,
"Well, they live in the middle of the freezing snowy mountains; why wouldn't they be able to live here?"
Anias also nodded.
"Even though it looks like this, I've heard that a surprisingly large variety of creatures live in swamps. If the environment is suitable, it's entirely possible for things that used to live here to become demonized and settle down. I don't know if the monsters that have been discovered recently are cases of that."
Monsters are largely divided into two types.
In the distant past, some of the non-human races on the continent that possessed mana lost their reason and became bestial, eventually becoming the monsters of today.
Examples include orcs, trolls, and werewolves.
And another type is when ordinary animals living in a habitat are continuously exposed to a specific environment and then suddenly mutate into a variant.
Snow rabbits, snow leopards, and ice bees fall into this category.
'There are also monsters that don't fall into either of those two categories, though...'
In any case, as Anias said, the possibility was open.
Kain planned to slowly observe his surroundings from now on and narrow down that possibility.
'I can't deduce it just from the flow of spiritual energy like I could in the snowy mountains.'
The Garil Snowy Mountains were like the backyard where Kain spent his childhood in his past life.
So, he knew all the cycles of spiritual energy flow and the best locations to perceive that flow.
However, the southern swamp of Hyperen wasn't a place he frequented often in his past life, and even when he did go there, he crossed it without stopping, so he didn't have the leisure to observe it closely.
'At a glance, the surrounding ecology doesn't seem to have changed much...'
Kain steadily looked out the window while traveling and observed.
"We will take a break around here!"
When the wagon briefly stopped, he carefully gathered information about the surroundings while also keeping watch and searching.
"Kain, what are you doing? Why are you suddenly putting your hand in the mud... Ugh! W-wait a minute! Let's wash your hands first before we talk!"
"Young Master...! You shouldn't eat tree bark!"
"I didn't eat it. I just took a bite because there was something I wanted to check."
Kain spat the crumbly tree bark into his hand.
'Even though it's close to the swamp, it's retaining less moisture than I thought. And, the mana too.'
He had felt it ever since they entered, but this swamp had a more mana-rich environment than he had expected.
Even if the quality of the mana was low, so it wouldn't be of great significance, the mana itself was distributed quite evenly and well, at least.
'If it was just a lack of moisture, insects or small animals could be the cause, but if even the mana has been drained...'
Especially since he had deliberately taken bark from a layer deeper inside with a knife, it meant there was definitely a specific cause.
Kain spoke to Fohn, who had followed him into the shallow swamp wearing boots.
"Be careful. There might be poisonous toads or similar monsters living nearby."
"P-poisonous toads? Wh-where? Hu-uh! Su-surely that, that's not one, is it?"
Fohn, his face turning white at Kain's words, turned his head this way and that, then screamed while stepping back after discovering something.
"No. That's just a toad that lives in the swamp. The poisonous toad monster can grow up to 1 meter in body length for the largest ones..."
While Kain was explaining, looking at a harmless toad puffing out its small cheeks and blinking its eyes.
"Aaaah! M-my arm won't move!"
"Over here! Kill it quickly!"
"Be careful not to burst its poison sac!"
The mercenaries' screams were heard from over there.
Running over, it seemed that three of the mercenaries who had been searching separately had been ambushed by a poisonous toad.
Kain pointed at the poisonous toad that had just appeared and explained.
"Yes, that's a poisonous toad. The type of poison differs for each individual, which you can distinguish by looking closely at the color of the poison sac attached to its jaw..."
"Master Kain! Please help us over here! Please!"
***
"Fireball!"
"Fire Arrow!"
As Kain and the disciples intervened, the battle was quickly resolved.
It wasn't that dangerous of a monster, and the number that appeared wasn't large either, but the mercenaries had been caught off guard by a poisonous monster, putting them at a disadvantage from the start.
"E-even if you're confident in your fighting skills, being hit by poison at the start puts you at a disadvantage... You never know when they'll suddenly pop out in a place like this..."
"Didn't ask."
"Yes, sir."
The mercenaries, who had grumbled that Kain was monopolizing the monsters and were now embarrassed by what had happened, shut their mouths.
"We will be more careful from now on."
"Good. The frequency of monster appearances will increase as we go deeper into the central region, so from now on, at least five of you should move together during searches. That's what we're already doing."
At Kain's words, Edward opened his mouth in an "ah."
"There was a reason you said we should all go together instead of splitting up like before, Kain!"
"Y-yeah... If we had gone around by ourselves, we might have been poisoned."
Fohn also nodded repeatedly.
"Not me."
"Not me either!"
"You would have been."
"Wouldn't have!"
Anias and Bolio bickered as usual, but when Kain glanced at them, they cleared their throats and fell silent.
Fortunately, the poison the mercenaries had suffered was a paralyzing toxin that would wear off on its own with rest.
If it had been a necrotic poison or something similar, they would have had to use an antidote or medicinal herbs immediately, but since it wasn't, the mercenaries sat down and waited for it to wear off.
Meanwhile, Kain and the disciples widened their search area and hunted the remaining poisonous toads.
"The poison sacs can be sold separately, so try not to damage them if possible."
Bursting them during combat could be dangerous as the poison could splatter, but more importantly, they were worth money when intact, so they tried to capture them without damaging the sacs.
"Are we selling the sacs, or the poison inside?"
"Both. The sacs are quite durable and elastic enough to hold the poison, so they're useful as is, and the poison is in demand everywhere."
"Ah-ha!"
"Just be careful not to touch the poison directly when separating the sacs. After cutting the top and separating it, twist the end like this and tie it off to be safe."
"Got it! Thanks, Kain."
Edward gave Kain a thumbs-up, saying "Just like Kain," and then separated and tied off the poison sac as instructed.
"Did they appear on your side too, Master Kain...? What. Why are you guys like that?"
A little while later, they met the group led by the mercenary leader, who had been moving around hunting poisonous toads on the other side.
"Well, we were ambushed by paralyzing poison..."
The resting mercenaries said in hushed voices, and the mercenary leader sighed.
"Hmph, pathetic lot. Even when a chance to hunt comes along..."
Then he bowed his head to Kain and the disciples who had protected his subordinates.
"Thank you for your help. My men showed an unsightly side."
"It's fine. From now on, even if it takes longer, divide the personnel into larger groups."
"...Yes, understood."
The mercenary leader looked at Kain, who didn't even glance this way and was diligently working to separate the poison sacs.
The series of actions he took to cut open, tie off, and store the sacs with his knife was, even to the leader's eyes, flawless.
'...Just what kind of guy is he?'
To be fair, he had thought Kain was unusual ever since he had skinned the snow leopard.
A mage who looked so delicate, as if he had never gotten a drop of blood on his hands, had processed a snow leopard as big as himself so quickly and cleanly that even the mercenary leader himself couldn't guarantee he could do better.
'Okay, the snow leopard could be an exception.'
After all, he was a child who had grown up in the snowy mountains, so he might be familiar with the monsters of the snowy mountains.
But to be so knowledgeable about the swamp monsters, which he might have only visited once?
"Kain, but are all these things written in books?"
"You can easily find this information just by going to the second floor of the records room."
He even said he learned it from books.
'Can you really do that just by reading the explanations...? Did he learn magic that way too?'
He had come with disciples of his age, but it was clear to anyone that Kain possessed overwhelming skill among them.
Just how much talent was he born with to be able to use that level of magic at that age?
'Alright. Fine. I'll concede a hundred, no, a thousand times that magic could be like that.'
There were bound to be geniuses who learned and mastered anything, including magic, far faster than others, and even the nearly fallen Siers clan could have one such lucky individual appear.
However.
Most such young geniuses easily overestimated their own talent, and having lived lives where they could afford to do so, they were arrogant and presumptuous.
In short, they were rude.
'Hmm, he does seem to be a bit rude in some ways...'
But aside from the fact that he had started using informal language as if it were natural from some point, despite being only sixteen, Kain, unlike other rude geniuses, had clear boundaries.
'Come to think of it, he was polite until we provoked him first.'
It was the mercenaries who crossed the line anyway, and Kain had responded to them each time they did so in a way that fit his standards.
Yet, as if he had scales in his head, he never exceeded those standards in his response.
'Since he warned us in the snowy mountains, he hasn't come to us acting superior or demanding anything.'
Even though they had all their prey snatched away in the upper regions, that leash was gradually being loosened as they moved further down.
Just now too, if Kain had really wanted to, he could have quickly moved around and swept away all the poisonous toads in the vicinity first.
They were already prepared to protest if he tried to monopolize the prey even here, but his control of pace was truly astonishing.
'How did we end up getting involved with such a monster... Hoo.'
The mercenary leader sighed softly.
For now, all he could do was be grateful that someone with such talent and skill wasn't openly causing trouble.
He watched Kain, his hands full of the collected poison sacs, waddling towards the wagon.
"K-Kain. Want some help?"
"It's fine. Just take care of what's over there."
"Young Master! I'll carry those, give them to me!"
