Chapter 22 — Materials Gathering [2]
Waited for the Rock Lizard to make the first move.
After a tense standoff, the Rock Lizard leaped toward me.
Kraaaah—!
With a guttural roar, it charged straight at me.
The red dot showed exactly where it would strike.
But this time, instead of blocking— I dodged.
Then, I thrust my sword into the Rock Lizard's mouth.
"Keugh?! K-Keugh..."
I could feel the strength draining from the Rock Lizard's body.
Still, just in case, I stabbed the inside of its mouth once more.
As its throat was slashed again, the Rock Lizard's massive body collapsed.
"…So this works."
It seemed like the best approach was to aim for the Rock Lizard's weak points — its eyes and inside of its mouth.
And if one of them showed up here, that meant there had to be a Rock Lizard habitat nearby.
"Let's just hunt ten."
If I'd had more time, I would've hunted more, but unfortunately, I didn't have much time today.
Besides, considering my current condition, it'd be difficult to hunt too many monsters.
No matter how high a skill level I had, it meant nothing without a weapon, relic, or item to back it up.
'I should at least enhance my weapon to some extent.'
To do that, I'd probably have to put in some hard work tonight.
---
At the same time, in the Lysquare Academy cafeteria.
"Hey, have you heard about someone named Alex?"
"The guy who beat Lady Sara in the Swordsmanship Class duel today? From that baron's family?"
"Yeah, that's him! I heard he blocked all of Lady Sara's attacks and won."
"And apparently, he also blocked every magic arrow that came flying out of the training machine earlier..."
Several students were chatting about Alex.
It was inevitable that his name would come up.
After all, Alex was the only one who had left such an impression on everyone from the very first day of the semester.
"…So I've heard. What do you think, Sara?"
Listening to the nearby conversation, Cedric chuckled.
"Seems like everyone's talking about you and Alex these days."
"…What are you trying to say?"
"I'm just asking what you think about it."
Cedric smirked as he took a bite of his steak.
"If I had to put it another way… how does it feel to be the side character that makes the protagonist of a novel stand out more?"
"Cedric, watch your words. You're in front of the Princess."
"Heh, I don't know. I get the feeling Lady Layla would actually like to hear you say something harsh."
"Fufu, he's not wrong."
Layla, who was sitting between the two, laughed with interest.
"I might actually want to hear Sara say something rough once in a while."
"…I'm sorry, but I would never utter such words in front of the Princess."
"You'll say it someday. And Sara, didn't we agree you'd call me Layla now?"
"Ah, yes. Lady Layla."
"Heehee. But you know, what if we went back to how we were as kids here at the academy? Forget about titles, talk comfortably like we used to."
"Hmm..."
"Uh..."
Both Cedric and Sara couldn't give her an answer.
Seeing their reactions, Layla nodded with a small sigh.
"Alright, I get it. I should consider your positions too. Fine then, let's talk about something else."
"What shall we talk about, Lady Layla?"
"Hmm… maybe we should talk about Alex, like everyone else is. His swordsmanship looked impressive to me. What do you think, Cedric?"
"I agree. It's extremely defensive, but that defense is flawless. I'd like to challenge that perfect defense myself someday."
"But that's the problem—it's only perfect in defense."
Sara spoke with a meaningful expression.
"His attacks were clearly awkward. If you exploit that, then surely..."
"I don't know… I don't think it's that simple. Sara, he might be stronger than you think—maybe even a real tough opponent."
"He's just some nobody. As the daughter of the Isrinbloom Ducal Family, I won't lose to someone like that."
"Then what about today's duel?"
"…Shut up."
Sara glared at Cedric for a moment, then sighed and changed the subject.
"Anyway, I should go see Eleanor later, but the timing's kind of tricky."
"Yeah, I wanted to see her too… but she looked really busy."
"Eleanor's in the Disciplinary Committee now, right?"
"Yes, that's right."
Cedric nodded.
"I heard there was some incident last year, and she ended up being the only one left in the committee. So she's been busy handling everything alone."
"They're not recruiting new members?"
"If I heard correctly, most clubs will start recruiting new members soon."
"I see."
Layla and Cedric continued talking about Eleanor, while Sara quietly ate and looked around the cafeteria.
As if she were searching for someone.
Seeing that, Cedric smirked again.
"Looking for Alex?"
"W-what are you talking about? Why would I—"
"For someone who acts like she hates him, you sure seem curious about him."
"T-that's not it."
"Well, I get it. I'd probably be curious too if I suddenly had a rival. But you're right… Alex is nowhere to be seen. It's dinner time, though."
Cedric also looked around, but the white-haired boy was nowhere to be found.
"Maybe he's not eating dinner? Why isn't he here?"
"Perhaps he plans to eat outside, Lady Layla."
Sara quickly lost interest again and continued eating.
"Let's just focus on our meal instead of worrying about him."
That's what she said, but deep down, she couldn't help but wonder.
What was that man—someone she had to defeat someday—doing right now?
---
"Ugh, this is so damn disgusting."
Catching Rock Lizards turned out to be easier than expected.
But the real problem was something else entirely.
"Why the hell… am I personally separating a lizard's bones and flesh… damn it."
Using the Mistcatcher, I split open the Rock Lizard's corpse and gathered its bones into one pile.
I never imagined I'd ever end up doing something like this in my life.
"The smell's disgusting."
A foul stench rose from the Rock Lizard's blood smeared on my sword, but I clenched my teeth and kept working.
In games, monsters dropped items right after dying, but this world clearly wasn't a game.
I had to personally butcher the monster's corpse to extract the materials I needed.
"Haa… fine. Since I decided to live properly here, I'll just grit my teeth and endure it."
It wasn't like I had chosen to transmigrate into this game, but still—I kept grinding for items with that mindset.
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[To be Continue ]
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