Chapter 21: Magic Eater

Chapter 21:
Magic Eater

 

GOOD GUY gave us all the information he had on the thieves. According to him, there were about twenty in total, and they lived in a hideout on top of the mountain. They were all quite skilled, but only a few were stronger than Good Guy and, even then, not by much. Given all that, I thought we might be able to pull off a surprise attack.

“The leader’s the only really special one. He might even be stronger than you. So you’re going to have to watch out.”

“What kind of abilities does he have?”

“He uses a spear, and he has all sorts of other strange techniques. Anyone who goes up against him ends up weakened.”

“Weakened?”

“I asked him how he does it, but he wouldn’t tell me. He’s wary, so he hides his abilities from others.”

Good Guy was a subordinate, so maybe he hadn’t been trusted. People who are always on guard like this thief leader seemed to be are kind of a pain to deal with.

<What do you intend to do, Noir?> asked Tigerson.

“We should attack tonight.”

There was a good chance that we could catch them off guard after dark. I had a Night Vision skill, so I had the advantage then. Tigerson already had pretty sharp eyes, but Bestowing Night Vision on Emma and Luna seemed like the next move. When I explained the plan, Good Guy was impressed.

“You’re truly something special, Noir. I’ve never met someone with such powers.”

“I’m just lucky, that’s all.”

“On a related note, their regular patrol should be coming by soon.”

“Let’s grab them, then. If we take them out, we’ll have fewer enemies to worry about later.”

Being outsiders, we were too easy to identify, so we waited inside the chief’s house until the thief patrol came. There, we enjoyed some vegetables and drinks before going back outside. We more or less immediately spotted Good Guy talking to a pair of suspicious-looking people near the entrance.

“Hey, Good Guy, what’s with the new kids?” one of them asked.

“Oh, them? They’re adventurers.”

“Adventurers? Why the hell didn’t you chase them off? You tryin’ to get our asses handed to us?”

Obviously, that was what Good Guy should have done. One of them tried to grab Good Guy, but he knocked them away.

“Gah…”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” the other thief shouted.

I took him out with a kick. We quickly tied the defeated thieves up while they vented their anger at Good Guy.

“You damn traitor!”

“Sorry, but I’m not a thief anymore.”

“The leader’s gonna kill you.”

“Speaking of him, could you tell me about his abilities?” I asked, forcing my way into the conversation.

But the thieves just spit on the ground in front of me.

“Luna, if you don’t mind.”

“You got it.”

“Eeek!”

Luna pressed the muzzle of her magical firearm against the thief’s head, and they both melted into compliance.

“I-I-I dunno anything about his abilities, seriously. But his spear is really sharp. I’ve seen him stab right through an enemy’s shield.”

Hm. His weapon probably had skills, then. I would have to be cautious of it.

We left the two tied-up thieves in one of the village’s sheds. When we were finished, Emma looked concerned. “Hey, Noir, I’m happy you want to give me a Night Vision skill, but are you going to have enough LP? I don’t want you overdoing it.”

“Ugh, you’re right, I don’t have quite enough. Making the skill even once costs 200, but Bestowing it would be 450 for you, and then another 400 for Luna.”

I was just shy of 600 LP, so I needed to earn way more for this to work. When the chief and other villagers heard of my predicament, they all volunteered to help.

“If there’s anything we can do, just ask,” said the chief.

“Anything, huh…?”

My first thought was delicious food, but that was probably hoping for too much. The thieves had robbed the village of most of its valuables, but given the village didn’t have much to begin with, that meant they mostly stole agricultural products. In other words, the thieves were keeping the village under their thumb to fill their own bellies. That meant I’d have to go for the other method.

“Um, so, this is kind of embarrassing, but I, uh, get stronger when attractive women are nice to me…”

“Goodness! Luckily, we still have some young women in the village. We obeyed the thieves partially on the condition that they wouldn’t kidnap any more of them.”

The chief quickly assembled all the remaining women in the village. I broke out into a cold sweat when I realized that many of them were married.

“What age range are you looking for?”

“Umm, from sixteen…no, fourteen…” I had received LP from Alice and she was only fifteen. Although, it worked with Dory too… “Fourteen…no, eight.”

“Uhhh…isn’t that a little disturbingly low?!” said Emma. “You’re joking, I hope, Noir.”

“I’m not some kind of creep! The LP thing is just…weird…so it seems to work with literally anyone of the opposite sex…”

“Really? You have no interest in eight-year-olds?” Emma teased.

“Of course not!”

“I’ve assembled women from age seven to thirty—these are the sexiest women in Amon Village.”

I wished he hadn’t said that so cheerfully.

“I imagine, given your age, that a woman over thirty might be beyond your interest, but this woman has the best body in the village. She is married, however.”

“Knock it off, chief! That chest belongs to me alone!” shouted the man who was probably her husband.

“Just share it for a bit! The fate of the village depends on it!” said the chief.

“How can you ask me to do that? She’s my wife!”

“You can be the chief in the future.”

“Really? That’s a promise!”

“I won’t make this offer again.”

Just how many kids does this chief have…

The chief cleared his throat and continued. “They may not compare with your lovely Lady Emma, but our women are unquestionably excellent. Do you think they could earn you some LP?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Then, Amon Village Honeys, share your affections with the great Noir.”

“Yay! Excuse us, Master Noir!”

“Whaa?!”

The women were way more into the whole idea than I’d expected.

 

***

 

580 LP → 1650 LP

 

In the end, I earned quite a bit. I pretended I couldn’t see the sour looks on my friends’ faces and gave both Emma and Luna Night Vision. After that, I still had 800 LP left over.

“It’s about an hour’s walk to the hideout, so we should probably get some shut-eye before we head out,” I said somewhat awkwardly.

We had dinner at the chief’s house, then lay down for a little nap. But before I could sleep, I shot up out of bed. There was an uproar in the village.

“Chief! Come quick! It’s a magic eater!”

“What rotten timing. You all should hide. This monster comes to the village every so often.”

“Ah, that’s the monster Lola warned us about.”

She’d said it was a powerful enemy that appeared near the village. As I remembered that, I found the villagers were all murmuring with the chief and looking over at us.

“Wait…surely, Noir and the others could defeat it.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. That thing is no normal monster.”

“But—”

<We will not know until we try, will we?> Tigerson cut in. <I think it would be best to run if things seem too dangerous, however.>

“Yeah, I hear you. Let’s go.” I at least wanted to figure out how strong it was.

While we set out, we had the villagers do what they usually did.

“We’re going to retreat to our shelter,” they said. “Promise us you won’t do anything unreasonable.”

“We won’t, promise.”

We’d heard the magic eater showed up about once a month. When we left the chief’s residence, we saw what had to be the monster slowly wandering into the village.

From a distance, it looked like a person, but when I got closer, I could tell it was no such thing. It had a bald head, gray skin, and no eyes or mouth. The lack-of-mouth thing definitely freaked me out a little. What it did have was a massive, round, fanged hole in its stomach. It also stood at about six feet tall, and its movements were sluggish. Emma and Luna looked thoroughly disgusted.

“What is that thing? It’s horrifying…”

“At least it seems to be slow…”

<Move, I shall approach first.>

Tigerson sprinted toward the creature without hesitation. But the magic eater didn’t seem remotely startled. It just continued its lethargic march. Tigerson used one of his powerful forelegs to swipe the creature, and the magic eater’s body lifted off the ground.

<Hngh, it is harder than it looks.>

Despite Tigerson’s violent attack, the eater stood back up like nothing had happened.

<What is the meaning of this?>

“Hang on.”

 

Name: Magic Eater

Level: 80

Skills: Eat Creature; Eat Magic; Physical Resistance (Grade A); Slow

 

Hm, so it was exceptionally strong against physical attacks. It did have the one negative status effect skill, but overall it was at a much higher level than the other monsters in the area.

“It’s strong against physical attacks. And it can eat magic.”

“Yeeuck, do you think it eats with that mouth on its stomach?”

“Probably! I’ll aim at its face, Emma, you go for the arms. Luna, you take the legs, please.”

“Got it.”

“Leave it to me.”

We made a point of avoiding its greedy stomach and aimed to attack multiple other points all at once. We matched our timing and fired off our spells.