Chapter 24: A Swarm of Chimeras
As the three of us were walking through the forest, a large shadow leaped out.
It had the body of a bear, the head of a snake, and bat wings on its back.
There was no mistaking it.
It was the monster in question.
The Magic Brigade might have struggled, but for the three of us, it was an instant kill. I pierced its heart with a dark spear, Mizuha stabbed its brain with her sword, and Rosette blasted its entire body with lightning. That was the end of it.
“Good. It’s fortunate that we were able to secure the corpse intact. Now, after using a ward to keep people away, we can inform the Magic Brigade of its location, and the mission will be complete,” Rosette said.
Rosette snapped her fingers, and a pigeon descended from the sky with a coo. After tying a letter to its leg, the pigeon flew off in the direction of the Royal Capital.
“The youngsters can investigate it from there,” Rosette said with a relieved tone.
However, the next day, a commotion broke out at the Adventurer’s Guild. A veteran adventurer had encountered a monster they had never seen or heard of before and barely escaped with their life. Apparently, this monster had the body of a horse, the head of a bull, and the tail of a centipede.
The three of us exchanged glances upon hearing this.
It was a synthetic creature (Chimera).
But it was different from the one we found yesterday. The Magic Brigade should have already collected that one.
The other adventurers who heard the veteran’s story laughed, saying, “There’s no such monster. You must have seen something wrong.”
We couldn’t laugh.
We immediately went to the forest.
And we defeated the monster with the body of a horse, the head of a bull, and the tail of a centipede.
But that wasn’t the only one that appeared.
There was a monster that was basically a rabbit, but its two ears had turned into plants, and it was releasing suspicious pollen from the flowers at their tips.
A monkey with the head of a horse.
A turtle with eyeballs on each of its shell plates.
A mysterious mass of flesh that looked like a tangle of octopus tentacles.
And so on and so forth…
Mysterious monsters, whether they were new species or synthetic creatures (Chimeras) created by someone, appeared before us.
“There are too many. It takes even me months to create just one synthetic creature (Chimera). And these… how many are there? They keep appearing one after another. If these are artificial synthetic creatures (Chimeras), it means a huge organization is secretly operating to produce them…”
“Even if it’s such a powerful organization, it’s unnatural for them to release synthetic creatures (Chimeras) in this backwater and cause such a minor disturbance,” I said.
“That’s right. But I’ve never heard of a natural phenomenon causing a mass outbreak of synthetic creatures (Chimeras),” Rosette replied.
“Let’s put the thinking aside for now and just break through and return to the village. Then, we need to warn everyone not to approach this forest,” Mizuha said.
“That’s the priority. But there are so many. Have we passed twenty? It would be easy if we could just clear the whole forest,” Rosette said.
“No. The forest is connected to the lives of the people in the area. Unless it’s a more desperate situation, we can just defeat them and go home,” Mizuha said.
“Good grief. Mizuha-san is as serious as ever,” Rosette said.
“Since Mizuha is saying it, don’t damage the forest, Rosette,” I said.
“And Akito-san is so soft on Mizuha-sama!” Rosette said.
We exchanged light banter while defeating the monsters that seemed to be synthetic creatures (Chimeras).
During that time, I thought I caught a glimpse of a human figure.
I turned around, thinking it was an adventurer, but it was a young girl. She was a young girl, about the same height as Rosette and me. Her hair was a rare light pink color. But her clothes were those of a typical village girl.
Why was such a girl so deep in the forest?
Did she get lost?
In any case, if she were attacked by a monster that even the Magic Brigade had trouble with, she wouldn’t stand a chance.
I gathered my magical power to defeat the monster approaching the girl.
But then, the girl’s aura changed to that of a strong person.
It was as if she could fight alongside the three of us without being inferior.