Volume 3, Chapter 13 – The Threat of Deadly Scorpi (2)

CLANG!

Chris-san’s sword struck the scorpion’s shell with a dry, metallic ring, only to be stopped dead.

“Kgh, it’s tough!”

Chris-san yanked her sword back and kicked off the ground, leaping quickly backward.

Immediately after, the Deadly Scorpi’s poison stinger slammed violently into the spot where she had just been standing.

Hmm, I feel like this exact sequence of events has happened before. Is this going to be okay?

Getting bitten by a scorpion is definitely a “no thank you,” though.

While that was happening, Lu-chan put some distance between herself and the Deadly Scorpi.

“Chris-san?”

“No, um… my aim was just slightly off.”

“Um, are we continuing with the plan?”

“Chris-dono, I shall deliver the final blow. Fiene-dono, I entrust the protection of Lumia-dono to you,” Shizuku declared.

“Kgh, fine!”

I’m a little worried that Chris-san’s pride seems to be cracking piece by piece lately.

Is she doing alright? Alright, let’s try this.

“I understand. Chris-san, you have the dangerous and vital role of creating an opening in the enemy’s defense. I’m counting on you!”

“Fiene-sama…! Leave it to me!”

Yep, there we go. It’s helpful that she’s so easy to read.

“Lu-chan!”

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“Yes, Onee-sama!”

Lu-chan fired another arrow. Using that as a signal, Chris-san and Shizuku-san split up.

Clink!

Lu-chan’s arrow bounced off the hard exoskeleton. The Deadly Scorpi lunged at Lu-chan again, just as it had before.

Thank goodness. It doesn’t seem to be as clever as the Dark Dragon King’s Fragments.

I intercepted the attack with a Barrier. The same scene played out like a replay of before.

Then, Chris-san launched an attack from the Deadly Scorpi’s left. However, that attack was also blocked by the pincers.

The Deadly Scorpi tried to blow Chris-san away as it had before, but this time she held her ground and succeeded in pinning the monster in place.

Perhaps irritated that it couldn’t knock her back, the Deadly Scorpi swung its tail to drive in its poison stinger.

In that instant, Shizuku-san, who had circled around to the creature’s rear, charged with tremendous momentum and sliced the tail clean off with a single flash of her blade.

Giii-giii-giii!

The Deadly Scorpi let out a strange shriek—though I had no idea whether it was actually in pain.

Taking advantage of the opening, Chris-san thrust her sword into the creature’s left eye and leaped far back.

Then, while it was reeling, Shizuku-san sliced off the right pincer and leaped away, putting plenty of distance between them.

Giii-giii-giii-chigi-chigi-chigi!

The Deadly Scorpi charged toward us, wildly swinging its remaining left pincer.

“Defense Wall!”

I created a Defense Wall in its path, stopping the Deadly Scorpi’s charge completely.

Whether it was angry at my Defense Wall or not, the creature pressed its pincer against it, straining with all its might to force its way through.

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Seeing the pincer stop moving, Shizuku-san lunged in and sliced off the final remaining pincer.

Then, as the finishing blow, Chris-san thrust her sword into the right eye and crushed it.

Giii-giii-giii!

Having lost its means of attack and its sight, the Deadly Scorpi began to thrash about frantically.

“Hmm, Barrier.”

For the time being, I cast a Barrier around the Deadly Scorpi to ensure it couldn’t get out.

“What incredible vitality. What should we do about this? Shizuku-san, can you deliver the finishing blow?”

“I could manage the joints, but I truly cannot cut through that back shell,” Shizuku replied.

“Fiene-sama, I have heard that for these scorpion-type monsters, the belly is the weak point. If we can flip it over, perhaps…”

“And how do we do that?”

“That… I shall think about now.”

Hmm. Now what?

“Onee-sama, can’t we just wait it out? I don’t think a prey that’s lost that much blood can stay energetic forever…”

“””True.”””

And so, in a rather understated fashion, we waited until the Deadly Scorpi stopped moving.

It took about an hour, and waiting for a bleeding monster to breathe its last wasn’t exactly a pleasant way to spend the time.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Fiene-sama, isn’t it dangerous to use your bare hands?”

“It’s fine, Chris-san. I’m resistant to poison.”

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I was collecting the venom from the Deadly Scorpi’s tail.

This venom is actually a raw material for a specific cure for a disease called Blood-cough Disease.

Thanks to Shizuku-san slicing it off cleanly from the base, the tail’s venom gland remained entirely intact.

If the patient were right in front of me, I could manage with Disease Treatment Magic, but patients aren’t only located where I am.

If I bring this back as a souvenir for Shishou, I’m sure he’ll be pleased.

“Chris-dono, I would like your help flipping this over.”

“Ah, got it. Fiene-sama, please be careful.”

“I will.”

After seeing Chris-san go to help Shizuku-san, I inserted my knife into the segments of the tail and cut it.

I can really feel that I’ve gotten much stronger, probably thanks to my increased Status.

In the old days, I wouldn’t have been able to cut it and would have gone crying to Chris-san.

I then used the knife to cut out the part where the venom gland connects to the stinger and quickly placed it in a bottle.

After cleaning the grime away with Cleansing Magic, I sealed the lid tightly and put it into Storage.

I’d only studied this in the library, but I think I did a pretty good job.

“Chris-san, look, I got it. I’ll help you over there too.”

“Thank you.”

Chris-san and Shizuku-san were inserting their swords into the soft part of the belly to peel away the Deadly Scorpi’s exoskeleton.

The reason we were doing this is that Marco-san had offered to buy this shell for 100 gold coins. I, of course, refused that offer.

After all, if someone is willing to pay 100 gold coins for something so bulky in the middle of a desert, it probably sells for ten times that amount.

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Transport costs, the need to discard part of the current camel cargo, and the fact that it’s not a product the caravan usually handles—even with all these negative factors, the fact that he wants it means it’s undoubtedly a very rare item.

Therefore, I’m stocking it in my Storage as material so I can reap the selling profit later.

Actually, I bet Aslan-san’s place would pay a pretty good price for it, right?

Eh? I’m being greedy? You want me to act more like a Saint?

Now now, I’m unemployed.

Between lodging, carriage fees, and food, my expenses just keep piling up, and I’m in the red every month.

If I don’t earn while I can, I’ll go bankrupt, won’t I?

“Now, I’ll purify it. Purification!”

I reached my hand into the hole Chris-san and the others had made in the Deadly Scorpi’s belly and cast Purification Magic.

According to Ingolvina-san, miasma is bad for the body, so this was a precautionary measure.

I felt a solid resistance during the purification. I think it felt more substantial than when I purified that Vampire in Tukat.

I see, the miasma inside a monster’s body is quite powerful.

I tried purifying it once more for good measure, but this time there was no resistance at all.

“Yep, looks like it’s all good now.”

“Thank you, Fiene-sama.”

After that, we broke through the belly shell—which was “soft” but still seemed quite hard—with a series of loud cracks, and peeled away the back shell.

The peeled back shell and the extracted magic stone were cleaned with Cleansing Magic before being put into my Storage.

And so, after about an hour, the dismantling was complete.