Chapter 4 – Why Do You Do This to Me?

“But why did you take that totem?”

“This?”

She asked as Lucia saw Tiaran draping her broken totem over her shoulder. This is because they broke something on the street earlier.

“Since I can’t use Machia, I have to use it as evidence for subjugation.”

Originally, there was no reason to take it, but Lucia’s attack was so strong that even Machia was destroyed.

It’s not like other adventurers haven’t had this experience, so they often take substitutes for subjugation, and the same goes for goblin totems.

“It’s not as good as taking Machia directly, but it can serve as subjugation evidence.”

It is easy to look down on goblins because their basic level is low, but among monsters, they were one of the monsters with the highest priority for subjugation.

Even if you don’t necessarily receive a request, it is recommended that you subdue it if you see it and take the evidence to the guild. The reason was because they had a habit of imitating human civilization.

Basically, their intelligence is low, so they are generally at the Paleolithic level, but there have already been cases where humans have suffered a great loss if left alone.

Totems were made by shamans among goblins, so they were also useful as evidence. This time, it looks like he was completely burned down by Lucia’s magic before he could properly step forward.

“It’s an adventurer’s tip, right? I should remember it.”

When I glanced at her, I saw her holding a pen and writing down in the small notebook she had taken out. No matter how he looks at it, it is somehow different from the people he has seen.

‘But why do I feel like I’ve seen this before somewhere?’

Because of this, she couldn’t understand why she kept feeling like she was seeing them somewhere.

“Hmmmm! Now let’s continue to the request location!”

I wanted to continue on my way after hearing her words that seemed satisfied, whether she knew his complicated feelings or not.

“Huh? But what about that young lady?”

“Huh? With us just a moment ago…?”

While she was caught off guard due to the unexplained cause, the black-haired girl disappeared and when asked, Lucia saw where she had been following them just a moment ago.

“Uh, where did it go?!”

“If you don’t know, how can I know?”

While concentrating and checking my surroundings, I discovered something strange.

“Wait a minute, that mark.”

Because where the black-haired girl was, the footprints were broken as if someone walking had risen into the sky. Also, traces of something being dragged next to it were noticeable.

“It looks like he was dragged by something.”

“Let’s chase after him quickly!”

As Lucia followed his gaze and hurriedly followed her trail, Tia Ran followed her and fortunately was able to find the missing young lady.

“Let go of this!”

She was struggling with a large spider-shaped monster with a spider web wrapped around her ankles.

“Isn’t it Arachne?”

“Ey! Put Asta down right away! [Raudo Tellum]!”

Lucia, seeing this, immediately swung the lightning bolt created from her fingertips and cut the spider web wrapped around her ankle.

“[Color Kaido]!”

With his feet freed from the web, Asta immediately took his stance and used his Maka. He nodded as he saw the white shining sword cut open Arachne’s stomach.

‘Is it a combination of a warrior and a wizard? The balance is great. If there’s one more position… That’s me, right?’

They hired him right away when they saw the newly created Maka, and it seems they were aware of it as well.

“Buff, good. Arachne split in one hit.”

“That’s right. The duration is easily over 2 hours. Even compared to other blessings, it is very long.”

The problem is that the reason he was contracted was not because of his main job, but because of buffs that he could not even understand the detailed functions of. For some reason, I felt like he, a gold-level adventurer, didn’t say anything even though he stayed behind the scenes. I guess that was the reason.

“But Asta, how did you get caught?”

“I was just walking. A spider web came out, and I was dragged.”

As I listened to their conversation in agony, the sense of déjà vu suddenly lessened.

‘What on earth is it?’

I thought I didn’t understand the strange feeling that kept confusing his mind, so I decided to ignore it and opened my mouth.

“It’s a bit strange for Arachne to act like that.”

“!!”

“I see! Let’s record this separately too!”

Lucia took out a notebook with an urgent voice, but the scribbling did not seem to be recording properly. And he didn’t miss the look of surprise as Asta flinched.

‘There seems to be something.’

In Tiaran’s memories, Arachne liked to surprise people who entered her territory, but did not prefer to move directly like this.

I checked Machia to see if she was a mutant, but it turned out to be an ordinary Arachne. Monsters were even stranger because unless they were mutants or named, the same entities had the same form and function as Machia.

“I guess he was a bit of a weird guy.”

“Whoa.”

Of course, he knew very well that curiosity was poison, so he decided to pretend not to know. Even their sighs that sound like they are relieved.

“This is where the Poison Tentacle appears.”

After that, I was able to safely arrive at my destination without any problems.

“My feet keep falling off.”

“There’s nothing we can do because it’s a swamp.”

For a while, I hope to follow Lucia, who lightly criticizes Asta’s complaints.

“Crrrr!”

“Oh no, it’s a swamp alligator!”

What greeted them was not a Poison Tentacle, but a group of crocodiles. That’s because when requests to subdue monsters come, they are cases where they have left their original habitat and invaded the territory of humans or other animals.

The reason subjugation requests were so troublesome was because of these variables. It can be said that existing plants and animals are rarely friendly to humans.

“Please!”

“Okay.”

“And you!”

“Huh?”

Lucia instructed Asta and called him.

“Don’t say anything!”

“What did I do…”

“Don’t do it anyway!”

Whether Tiaran was upset or not, she turned her head and began to look ahead of her and concentrate, and then, like before, a pale beam of light began to gather above her head.

“[Raudo Fulgor]!”

The scene that followed was different from before, like a different chant. The lightning that gathered above Lucia’s head soared up into the sky and fell exactly on the heads of the crocodiles, one by one.

-Rumbling!

The control of power was also perfect, as the following sound was noticeably smaller than before.

‘Hey, I didn’t think she was an ordinary girl.’

I guessed it earlier when I accurately cut Arachne’s web, but there are few Macasias who can control Maca’s power with such precision and detail.

In general, Makashia usually sweeps away enemies with firepower. Even so, it was a great thing considering that our troops were hit.

“Ah, ugh.”

“Asta?! Are you okay?”

“My body feels numb.”

However, I guess I didn’t realize that this place was full of water. Although it wasn’t a direct hit like her crocodiles, Lucia was startled by the sight of Asta trembling as if he had been electrocuted one after another.

‘Can’t something like this be helped?’

It was common knowledge that electricity conducts well in water, but at least not in this world.

‘If it’s not Maca, what else can you do in a place where you still have to wear a spear knife and ride a carriage?’

Just when she thought there was nothing she could do about it, she noticed something strange. Among the crocodiles that appeared to have clearly fainted, one was approaching Lucia, who was supporting Asta.

“Tsk! Avoid quickly!”

“Huh? What… Wow?!”

“Ugh?!”

But despite his cries, the swamp surged and dragged them up. What was soon revealed were tentacles wriggling as if they were bundles of long, thick earthworm-like things.

“Poison Tentacle specializes in camouflage and surprise attacks!”

“Ah! Why are you saying that now!?”

‘What kind of bastard comes to a subjugation request without knowing that in the first place!?’

Unfortunately, two people appeared in front of him now. I should have thought something was strange from the beginning.

‘I can’t believe these girls were new!’

Still, seeing Lucia’s sharp appearance, I thought she would have done at least some basic research. It wasn’t at all. Tiaran seemed to have some idea of ​​the identity of the sense of discomfort he had been feeling.

‘He was a high-spec newbie!’

He was a newbie who had either done something stupid or had a silver spoon in his mouth. She was mistaken because their skills were too good for a newcomer. Just when I had no choice but to save him.

“Oh, where are you touching? This!”

“Hi! It feels strange.”

For some reason, what was heard was not just a scream, but a slightly, no, very strange moan.

‘Ome.’

Tiaran could immediately understand the reason. This is because the Poison Tentacle was not ripping or tearing at the women’s limbs with its long, thick tentacles, but rather crawling under their clothes and looking at places that were embarrassing to talk about.

“Ugh! We have to get out quickly… Kyaaa?!”

“Ugh, my body can’t move.”

Still, they couldn’t move. Lucia doesn’t have her original strength, but Asta just got electrocuted along with the crocodiles.

‘Now that I think about it, the Poison Tentacle’s poison was paralyzing poison?’

I heard there was one more, but I didn’t pay much attention to it because I heard it doesn’t mean much to men. Unless you brought an antidote.

“Let go of this! Hic!”

“Ahhh.”

‘… You shouldn’t even get your hopes up.’

The tentacles had already torn off half of their clothes, exposing their pure white skin and underwear, and they approached with a sigh.

‘I can’t believe that the story of wanting to ruin newbies really meant something like that.’

I tried to suppress the urge to keep watching and approached him to help him, thinking he was a dead person.