Spice Hunt

Day 14

Well, I had had enough of this! Eating raw meat was disgusting. Way too disgusting even for me. It had almost been two weeks since my reincarnation and I still definitely wasn't used to any of these. Minerva on the other hand was eating it like it was nothing. Then again, a few years eating this would probably make you think nothing of it.

'Ne, ne, Minerva-san! Don't you have any spice for your food?'

"Spice? What is spice?"

'You know, that thing you add to meat to make it taste nice.'

"Nice? Add?"

'Uwaa! Agent! Help me out here!'

<<Notice: In the West of the Larm, there exist creatures called Caulala. They produce spices whenever they sing>>

'Eh? Seriously? That easy? Caulala, huh? Where are they found?'

My holographic map popped up and it was in the zones I hadn't explored yet, so I didn't have a detailed mapping of it, but at least I knew where I had to go.

'Minerva-san, can I go out today while you're napping?'

"Hmm? To find the spice?"

I nodded my head in response.

'You see, it'll make the food taste a bazillion times better!'

"Bazillion?"

'Yes! Bazillion! That's like, really, really big! It'll be so nice!'

"Will it be as good as the elder's?"

'Uhh… I don't know who the elder is, but sure.'

"Oou! Yes! Go out, Tori-kun! Get us spice!"

'Very Well!'

And so my adventure for the day was set. I just needed to find a caulala, grab it and go back to the cave to eat some yummy food. Or so I thought. On my way there, I ran into the hob-goblin mage from the goblin village. Her name was Oda. She was battle something called a bull deer this time. I helped her kill the bull deer, acquiring the skills [Horn Protrusion] and [Stomp]. I thought that would be all for the day, but she ordered the goblins to take the bull deer back to the cave, then tried to follow me around.

I decided to ignore this however, but she was scaring the crap out of me. I tried flying away, but she ended up finding me either way and since I couldn't communicate with her, it was getting creepier and creepier. In the end, I gave up and simply decided to walk next to her since she had no malicious intentions.

"This may be weird to say, but thank you."

The hob-goblin said something rather unexpected. I looked at her from the corner of my eye and she was sort of blushing.

'Eh?'

"You may not understand me, or even remember, but I think you were a chick when we first met. You saw me injured and didn't kill me back then. Thank you for that."

'Oi… did I land the kuudere jackpot or something? Hob-goblins are really different from actual goblins, huh.'

I was certain that if I could talk, she would be stammering this out like some tsundere. But because I was an animal, she didn't seem to care much. Still, why was she blushing?

"So, I wanted to let you know that, I'll try my very best to help you in your endeavors as well."

'Ah… I'm a chicken, you know? A chicken! You don't try to help out chickens! What possible endeavors could we face? Ah whatever, I can't say no to a cute monster girl in the end.'

I simply nodded for her to know that I understood her.

"You understood that?"

I winked to show her that I understood everything word for word. She really lacked energy in her voice. She was sort of like a machine. Ah well.

It wouldn't take long for us to reach the caulala's area. I would simply nab this creature and go back to Minerva. Normally, I should have asked Minerva to come with, but she might have scared the creature away with her aura.

Lalalala!

It didn't take long for us to hear singing. It was a calming voice, humming a beautiful tune. Slowly, we approached and we were stunned to find 5 large flowers in a patch of grass, singing gloriously under the sun's rays.

"Caulala? Is this your goal?"

I nodded to her question.

"Huh? Does the Mad Witch want this? Ah… never mind. This is dangerous. We can't get the flowers on the Caulala."

I wanted to ask why, but that question was soon answered.

"Water ball!"

Oda screamed, shooting a ball of water at the flowers.

'Ah! That will destroy them!'

Or so I thought. The patch of grass rose up, taking the water ball easily like it was nothing, then returned back to the ground, looking like regular grass.

I gulped.

'W-What the hell is that?'

The patch of grass on which the Caulala grew suddenly started to morph. It was waving and from it emerged a massive creature. It was a marsh-like thing with yellow glowing eyes and a pissed off attitude.

STATUS

[Name: -

[Species: Caulala Originator Level 21/40

[Status: [Angry]

[Age: 1 year

[Rank: C-

[Race rank: Tier 3

[Titles: |Of World|, |Fertile One|

[Blessings: [Goddess of Fertility, Zengari's Blessings]

[Level: 51

[Health: 1360/1360 Stamina: 5000/5000 Mana: 1100/1100 Strength: 720 Speed: 400 Defense: 790 Dexterity: 520 Intelligence: 40 Luck: 40 Magic: 120

[Skills: [Rooting], [Chorus], [Encore], [Spice splash], [Echo], [Solar Absorption], [Seismic sense], [Whip Lash], [Soothing Aroma], [Voice over], [Spice Storm] [Spore Generation], [Sap spores], [Poison Gas Creation], [Spawn spores], [Co-ordination], [Mana Absorption], [Mana Control], [Amorphous Body], [Earth Affinity], [Earth Magic], [Earth Magic: Stone Shot], [Water Magic Resistance], [Wind Magic Resistance], [Earth Magic Resistance], [Fire Resistance]

'Sa sa!'

I tried to use a simple [Fire breath] attack to check how well it resisted fire attacks and the result was me pissing it off. I flew around it, trying to scan for weak points. Vines shot out from the creature's back and they were aiming to whip me. I narrowly swerved the first vine, but the second, I wouldn't be fast enough. At least I thought so, but my body glowed with a blue light and my stats went up.

<<The Hob-goblin Oda has used the magic [Aqua] on you. Your physical abilities have gone up>>

The agent explained for me while I dodged the vine. I thought that was cool, but now wasn't the time to relay that information. I used [Sprint] and [Peck] to try for [Spearhead], but I passed right through the patch of grass. The grass even wrapped around my legs and flung me into a tree.

Oda shot a water spear at the creature and it roared at us. She ran towards me, probably trying to heal me, but the creature went on all fours and the flowers on its back grinned like mad.

'That doesn't look good.'

Oda looked back and her eyes widened.

"Cover your ears!"

She put her hand over her ears and crouched. I did the same with my feathers, but it wasn't effective. I could still hear it. The annoying sound of caulala singing. Like a coin being scratched across a metal pipe or chalk being scraped across a board. Very annoying, but this time a hundred times more lethal.

The sound blasted us some metres away and I lost some health points. I looked at Oda who was still crouching.

At this point, I knew that we were a bad match up against this originator. Our stats and abilities, it had a counter to or they simply wouldn't work, but I still didn't want to leave here without achieving anything. I simply needed to get one caulala. If I couldn't get even that, I couldn't get strong.

I got up and flew towards the originator again. I shot my threads at it, but it would keep destroying them with its vines and whenever I flew in close, the caulala on its back would immediately use their [Echo] skill to attack me. It was tough, but at some point I even attempted flying through the skill.

It didn't work. The originator was however then worried by Oda throwing her water balls at it. I then used my [Timber Wolf Howl] to stun it and shrank myself so my speed would go off the charts in addition to [Sprint]. I managed to get in close and pluck off one of the caulalas, but that was the only part I had planned.

My landing was horrible, seeing as I hit a tree. The originator looked pissed after what I did and it roared even angrier than the first time. I gulped then looked at the caulala in my claw. It was withering quickly.

'Sa sa! You can't just be dying when I got you! Hey Oda, think we can do something about the caulala?'

She didn't understand me and was rather busily running away. I followed after her, and the originator gave chase, his caulala destroying everything in his path with [Echo] and [Voice Over].

I threw the dying caulala into Oda's hands and grabbed her by the shoulder, trying to fly off with her. She was heavy. Or maybe I was weak. I didn't know. All I did know, was that we were screwed.

"Tori-kun? Why are you wet?"

Minerva asked me. She looked a bit surprised, but her eyes switched to the person behind me.

'Uh… long story. I got us spices though.'

Oda brought up the sleeping caulala. It was still in her water ball. Apparently, it wasn't easy for her to keep up that water sphere for so long. It took an insane amount of concentration and mana from her. Although I assumed it would be easier to channel a ball of mana in front of her and use the [Water Affinity] to transform that ball of mana into water, rather than constantly pouring mana into forming a shape.

According to the agent, that was a very practical use of mana, but Oda was too dumb to think of it. Or should I say because she hadn't received proper tuition she simply didn't know how to do it? According to the agent it was most likely the latter, given that monsters that evolve and suddenly have the capability to do something should have had an instinctive know-how for these sorts of things at a basic level and that instinct could be tainted by someone teaching them something else.

That meant, Oda's teacher was dumb as hell. Oda was just a blind sheep following a confused shepherd. I couldn't ask her who this teacher was so I simply ignored it as a matter for later.

Oda was taller than Minerva by a few inches so Minerva looking up at her was kind of cute, but Oda was flinching so bad I thought she was going to pass out. And with good reason too. She had constantly been throwing mana into something useless for about an hour now.

I quickly dug up a hole next to the cave and signaled for her to drop the caulala into the ground. She quickly dropped it into the whole and covered it up. Soon, a patch of grass grew around the flower and it started waving around.

Its mouth opened up and it started growling at me. To some extent it reminded me of the shrubs.

'Crap! I forgot those little guys!'

I was suddenly reminded of my kids. Eh… erhm, servants.

'Well tomorrow will come and I'll go search for them.'

I told myself then looked at Oda. She looked really pale, almost like she was going to die.

'Ah… Oda! Don't die! Minerva. Can she sleep here tonight?'

Minerva's head was tilted, her bangs falling to one side. Her hand was to her chin and she looked like she was trying to figure out something.

"Did something happen to Tori-kun?"

I looked at Minerva. Why? Had something happen to me?

'Is something wrong with me?'

Minerva shook her head.

"No. Tori-kun is more… bold?"

'Eh? Seriously?'

She nodded her head and I could only blush.

Well, the reason to what she noticed was probably because of the fact that I now knew what I wanted to do. It may not be well thought out, but I wanted to become strong enough to end fights like they weren't even worth my time. To be able to do absolutely anything I wanted. I wanted strength beyond any others. This may sound edgy, but that was my goal and I wouldn't stop till I achieved what I could only term "True Strength".

DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS

[Tori acquired 50 stat points]

[Tori consumed 1 soul]

[Tori acquired 500 experience points]

[Tori added +20 stat points to speed stat]

[Tori added +10 stat points to strength stat]

[Tori added +20 stat points to defense stat]

[Tori acquired the skill [Horn Protrusion]]

[Tori acquired the skill [Stomp]]

[Tori obtained a Caulala]