When sorting through the loot and seeing the densely piled goblin corpses, Henry immediately got goosebumps.
Fortunately, Henry's mental fortitude was decent. Even though the sight grossed him out a little, he didn't make a fool of himself.
Lynn, on the other hand, was different.
A month ago, when he saw the knight Solon chop off a goblin's ear, he had still felt a slight chill of disgust.
Now, he could rummage through a pile of corpses for loot without batting an eye.
A medium-sized goblin tribe had gathered quite a bit of valuable loot.
Most of it had been contributed by unfortunate passing adventurers.
Now, Lynn could be considered to have avenged those poor souls.
“A longsword... leather armor... Whoa, there's even a fireproof potion here! Doesn't this thing cost about two gold coins?”
Henry was much faster at gathering loot than Lynn.
The guy seemed to have a real talent for looting.
Before long, the two of them walked out of the cave, each carrying a bag packed to the brim.
“This weather... it really looks like it's going to rain.”
Henry was somewhat surprised. The starry sky, which had been completely cloudless just moments ago, had suddenly gathered several dark clouds without warning.
Lynn didn't say much.
“Let's go. We should head back quickly.”
Searching for the goblin tribe had taken a bit more time than expected.
As a result, on their way back to the camp, a light drizzle began to patter down from the sky.
Only when he felt the raindrops falling on his skin did Henry truly believe Lynn's prediction.
It seemed Lynn had likely used some kind of spell to predict the weather changes an hour in advance.
Jogging along behind, Henry looked at Lynn with a trace of envy.
Being a Mage was so nice.
Not only could they hunt Tier 1 monsters even as an apprentice, but they also had such a cool cantrip like Weather Prediction.
If he knew this trick, who knew how charmed Teresa would be by him?
If only he had the talent of a spellcaster...
Henry felt that even the longsword hanging at his waist, which he had long yearned for, now felt a bit tasteless.
“Where did you two go?”
Hilda asked helplessly as she looked at the two soaking-wet boys.
Henry smiled triumphantly and dropped the heavy bag onto the ground. The opening of the bag spilled open, revealing a corner of their loot.
Hilda asked in confusion, “What is this?”
Henry explained excitedly, “Lynn took me to wipe out a medium-sized goblin tribe! We even killed two Tier 1 monsters...”
Henry talked on and on about how interesting the operation had been, how gallantly he had fought the Walking Mushroom, and how easily Lynn had soloed an entire goblin tribe.
But upon hearing Henry's words, Hilda's expression turned odd.
She looked at Lynn.
On one hand, she hadn't expected Lynn, a mere Rogue apprentice, to have the strength to solo a goblin tribe.
Did he multiclass into something else?
Otherwise, even if a Rogue apprentice could rely on single-target burst damage to kill a Gnoll Stalker, it was impossible for them to clear out an entire medium-sized goblin tribe alone.
On the other hand...
Hilda looked at the newly pitched tent and the supplies that hadn't been fully put away.
You two went out adventuring and left me to do all the work at the camp alone?!
Sensing that Hilda's expression wasn't quite right, Lynn quickly interrupted Henry.
“It's about to rain. Have the supplies been secured with the tarp?”
This subject change was highly effective.
Hilda's expression immediately returned to normal, and she began to take stock of their supplies.
“The ground is relatively high here, so water won't pool, but I've still wrapped all the supplies in waterproof oilcloth. Only a few emergency items are left outside. We need to set up a shelter and quickly start a campfire.”
Lynn was about to direct Henry to gather some dry firewood nearby, only to realize that Hilda had already prepared all of it while they were gone.
I feel like I've accidentally treated Hilda as a logistics worker...
Lynn felt a bit awkward, but he quickly went over to help Hilda set up the shelter.
After erecting four long wooden poles and tying the waterproof tarp over them, a simple rain shelter was built.
Hilda had just pulled out a flint and some tinder, preparing to light the campfire, when Lynn stopped her.
“Let me do it.”
Lynn gently tapped toward the campfire.
He tapped again...
Nothing happened.
Lynn, who had wanted to use a cantrip to light the fire, felt a bit embarrassed.
He had just learned it, so his proficiency was still a bit low. Moreover, it was raining nearby, causing the fire elements to respond rather sluggishly...
Left with no choice, Lynn unfastened the staff from his waist. With the aid of the staff, he finally managed to successfully light the campfire using Produce Flame.
Although the process had been a bit convoluted, Henry, who was watching from the side, was still envious. “That's so convenient.”
Hilda just smiled and didn't say anything.
“Oh, right.” Lynn took out the foot of the Walking Mushroom from his belt pouch. “Does anyone know how to cook? Let's eat this tonight!”
“What is this?” Hilda sniffed. “A Walking Mushroom?”
Hilda looked somewhat pleasantly surprised.
This was the first time Lynn had seen her show such an expression.
Most of the time before, Hilda had exhibited a cold, aloof temperament that didn't match her fiery red hair.
This aloofness didn't mean she was cold to others, but rather that she was always extremely polite, giving off a sense of distant reservation.
It seemed his relationship with Hilda had grown a bit closer now.
“Yeah, it's a Walking Mushroom. Is there a problem with that?”
Hilda explained, “These things are very rare on the surface now. Because everyone loves to eat them, the myconids took them underground and protected them.”
For some reason, hearing the word “protected” made Lynn want to laugh a little.
Although he didn't know what kind of relationship existed between myconids and Walking Mushrooms, the word just somehow tickled his funny bone.
Hilda asked with some confusion, “Why did you only bring back a few slices? Where are the other parts of the Walking Mushroom?”
“They were too hard to carry, so I let it go. Besides, I didn't see its body on the way back. Maybe some other animal carried it off.”
“Carried off?” Hilda smiled. “Probably not. That Walking Mushroom is likely not dead. When this kind of creature takes excessive damage, it enters a brief state of dormancy. If it doesn't suffer further harm, its spores will repair its body and reactivate it.”
“So it probably ran away.”
It wasn't dead?
Lynn opened the monster encyclopedia's log.
He found that it was indeed true.
In the notification for obtaining Bloodline Points, it read ‘Defeated Walking Mushroom’ instead of ‘Killed Walking Mushroom.’
This little thing is pretty interesting.
Wait...
Lynn suddenly thought: if that was the case, couldn't he farm this guy and repeatedly farm Bloodline Points from it?
However, breeding monsters was quite costly, and he didn't know if the monster encyclopedia would recognize this method.
He would worry about that later. Who knew when he would run into another Walking Mushroom anyway.
So, “Let's eat first.”
Hilda tucked a few damp, stray strands of hair behind her ear and took the slices of Walking Mushroom from Lynn's hand.
“I'll let you taste my secret recipe.”
Rate on N.U.
