Chapter 232 : Animal Registration
Chapter 232: Animal Registration
From spring to summer.
From summer to autumn.
From autumn to winter.
And from winter back to spring.
The seasons had repeated themselves hundreds of times...
Ppoeng! Ppoeng!
Beneath the blue Forget-me-not, the round brown frog remained where it was, endlessly waiting for the man.
...Then, last year, during the final days of summer in August.
Someone carrying a parasol approached the frog.
"You are still crying."
The figure wore a dark summer coat.
With her bright blonde hair cascading over the coat and her neat attire, she looked like a young noble lady.
Her crimson eyes gazed down at the frog.
"Your natural enemies will soon arrive here. Like the others of your kind, you will not escape death."
Ppoeng...!
"Even while Mother was being sealed away, she was consumed with rage. She declared that she would no longer stand by and watch our kin continue to die."
She knelt before the frog and extended her hand.
Between her slender fingers rested a single black jewel.
"No... a 'Fragment.'"
"This will protect you."
The jewel—or rather, the 'Fragment'—resembled pitch-black obsidian.
Yet something about it was strange, as though an ominous power had been compressed within it.
"When your natural enemy draws near, it will awaken its power. Your natural enemy will never be able to find you."
Ppik! Ppoeng! Ppoeng!
The frog looked at the Fragment before violently shaking its head, as though refusing it.
"This is the only way for you to survive."
Ppoeeeng-!
"A promise... is it?"
The young noble lady let out a scornful laugh.
"Are you still clinging to such foolish hope? If Mother heard this, she would surely be furious."
She bit her lip.
"It has already been a very long time. That liar is never coming back. We were abandoned. So let go of your expectations."
Ppoeeeeeeeng-!
"...You stubborn little fool."
She gently placed the Fragment atop the frog's head before standing.
"After the seasons change six more times, Mother's seal will finally be undone. When that happens, Mother will begin to move. Until then, all you need to think about is surviving."
She walked a few steps before turning back toward the frog.
Her eyes brimmed with profound hatred toward the world.
"Beneath an inescapable wrath... until every single human upon this land has been driven to extinction."
You've discovered an Animal Friend!
There's an Animal Friend within a 1-meter radius!
XXXX XXX
Level: ???
Traits: ???
It had been a very long time since I'd last seen the recruitment system.
Lapin's intuition had been exactly right.
'No wonder I couldn't bring myself to attack it from the beginning.'
My instincts hadn't been wrong either.
'...Why couldn't the system recognize that it was a Spirit Creature right away?'
A bug?
No.
Dismissing it as a mere bug was far too simplistic.
'Its body was completely covered by some pitch-black substance.'
And the very moment I purified it using Pau's ability...
The system notification appeared.
'Then...'
Only one possibility came to mind.
The rare item that had a low chance of dropping after clearing this dungeon in the game.
...The Fragment of Calamity.
And this Spirit Creature was the boss monster connected to that calamity.
'Don't tell me... was it because of that Fragment?'
Just as the final pieces of the puzzle fell into place—
Bwaaaaaaa-!
The creature roared, and the portions of its body that had been purified were instantly stained black once more.
At the same time, the system window disappeared like a mirage.
'...Damn it. It doesn't stay purified after just once.'
I had just taken a step back.
Bwaaaaaaaaaa-!
As if making one last desperate struggle, darkness poured from its body in every direction.
'Ramji!'
Ppiii-!
A flying squirrel tore through the golden magic circle suspended in the air.
Ramji flapped its wings powerfully, and a fierce gale scattered the mysterious black mist.
Ordinarily, I should have used that wind pressure as propulsion and activated Pau's ability once more.
But I couldn't.
'Damn it... the cost is too high.'
Pau's ability consumed a staggering four Cost.
I simply didn't have enough remaining to use it again.
Ramji's powerful wind eventually died down.
Yet the boss continued spewing darkness without end.
Bwaaaaaaa-!
While watching it...
Ding!
The system appeared once more.
Sudden Quest!
Among the hundreds of XXXX hiding here, find the real one!
Reward: ???
'...This.'
The final desperate pattern that activated when the boss's health became critically low.
It was essentially a game of hide-and-seek.
You entered the darkness created by the boss and had to locate the real body within a limited amount of time.
Most players found this pattern annoying.
Instead, they usually burst the boss down with one final attack and skipped the mechanic altogether.
On top of that, making a mistake during the mini-game could easily lead to fatal consequences and a failed raid.
...But.
'Now that I know this little guy is a Spirit Creature... there's no way I can kill it.'
I knew it was inefficient.
I knew it was incredibly dangerous.
But I had already made my decision countless times.
If it was for the sake of a Spirit Creature...
...Then I would choose even the most inefficient path imaginable.
Standing before the wall of darkness, I turned toward Lapin.
"Lapin, don't come inside. Stay here and wait."
"...Okay."
Lapin slowly nodded.
"I'll wait."
Even within the darkness, her eyes shone with limitless trust as she looked at me.
"I'll be back."
Without another word, I threw myself into the black mist.
Pitch-black darkness instantly swallowed my vision.
"Ahhh, what should I do...?!"
Philip anxiously paced before the enormous curtain of darkness.
The darkness before him continued expanding...
Until it finally swallowed his seniors whole.
"Senior?! Can you really not hear me? Please answer!"
Only silence answered him.
No matter how many times he called out, there was no reply.
"If something happens to Senior... Ahhh, I never imagined the boss would be this powerful... It's all my fault..."
Philip slowly took out his wand.
"I have to go help them too..."
After taking a deep breath, he was just about to step into the darkness.
Grab!
Someone seized his shoulder.
"Waaah?!"
Philip screamed in fright and collapsed onto the ground.
He quickly turned around to face whatever had grabbed him.
...A very, very familiar face stood there.
"E-Elza?!"
"Honestly, I can't leave you alone for even a moment."
Philip tremblingly raised his wand.
"E-Elza's ghost?! But you look exactly like Elza! I can't attack you... Ugh, what do I do...?!"
"It's dangerous, so put that down. Surely you haven't forgotten your own fiancée's face."
"...The real Elza?!"
When Elza showed him her ring, Philip immediately stood back up and tucked his wand away.
"H-How did Elza get here...?"
"That's what you're curious about right now? You told me you were staying in the dormitory."
Drip...
Cold sweat rolled down Philip's face as he nervously watched her.
"Anyway, Philip. You were about to go in there just now, weren't you? Why would you do something like that?"
"I... I thought Senior might be in danger."
"Wasn't that simply your own assumption?"
"I suppose it was..."
Elza sighed.
"Magic is completely sealed inside there."
"...How do you know that?"
"I have my own ways of knowing."
She was right.
Even Elza, who could see through every corner of the forest...
Could not see inside that darkness.
Her Clairvoyance was completely ineffective there.
It had to be a place where both magical power and mana were entirely blocked.
Elza had never told anyone about her unique skill, Clairvoyance.
Not even Philip.
So she couldn't explain it in detail.
"There's nothing we can do. Even if we went in, we'd only become a burden."
Philip couldn't argue.
"Besides... I don't think those people are weak enough for Philip to be worrying about them."
At Elza's words, Philip slowly nodded.
"...You saw everything, didn't you? They were unbelievably strong."
Staring into the darkness where nothing could be seen, Philip continued.
"Their abilities were on a level that simply couldn't belong to students. The Finders Department... I knew it was a department filled with geniuses in combat and exploration, but I never imagined the gap would be this enormous."
Elza blinked.
"The Finders Department?"
"Ah, yes. You probably didn't know, but they had the Finders Department's compass."
That Villed...
...Was in the Finders Department?
I'd thought he was surprisingly capable.
But I never imagined he was a senior from one of the Three Great Departments, the gathering place of geniuses.
"Philip, do you happen to know their names?"
"No. I don't even know what they look like. They were wearing masks."
Just as expected.
Philip hadn't the slightest idea that it had been Villed.
"...Philip, just stay here and don't do anything reckless. Even if we went inside, there wouldn't be anything we could do."
Elza gently held Philip's hand.
He stood silently, wearing a bitter expression.
"...Being weak is painful. Having to stand here unable to help while they're right in front of me... I really feel like an idiot."
"Don't blame yourself so much, Philip. We came to this Academy precisely so we could overcome feelings like this."
Elza also turned toward the darkness.
"I suppose this is another growing pain on the path to becoming stronger."
"...Yes, Elza."
The two of them could do nothing except silently stare into the pitch-black void.
A world of absolute darkness.
Ppoeeeng! Ppoeng!
Small, round creatures cried out from every direction.
There were too many to count.
Among all these countless duplicates...
Only one was real.
Attacking one of the fakes would result in a poisonous attack that slowly corroded the mind.
But if you drove your sword into the hidden real body...
The boss would be defeated, and the dungeon would end immediately.
Step.
Step.
I kept walking.
Walking.
And walking.
Because I already knew exactly where the real body was hidden among all these fakes.
The location was perfectly clear in my mind.
My feet moved forward without the slightest hesitation or doubt.
Ignoring the countless cries surrounding me...
I finally arrived at the deepest part of the darkness.
There...
Unlike the others...
One small round creature trembled violently.
"...Found you."
I walked over, knelt on one knee before it, and gently placed my hand upon its body.
To concentrate...
I closed my eyes and poured every ounce of my focus into my hand.
'...Pau.'
Paaang!
Golden light burst forth explosively.
The darkness surrounding the creature was completely washed away without leaving even a trace.
At last...
Its soft brown skin, lightly mixed with white, was revealed.
"What the..."
I'd always wondered about this boss whenever I encountered it in the game.
Its appearance had been both incredibly simple and strangely unique.
It had always looked like nothing more than a pitch-black sphere.
Players had given it names like pufferfish, pill bug, basketball, slime, or billiard ball.
Once defeated...
It simply turned to ash and disappeared.
No one had ever seen its true appearance.
No one had ever known.
But now...
I was looking directly at the hidden truth.
"So that's what you really were."
It wasn't a pufferfish.
Nor a pill bug.
Nor anything resembling a basketball.
"...You were a frog?"
I'd seen one a few times in wildlife documentaries.
'A Desert Rain Frog.'
Unlike ordinary frogs...
Its body was round and adorably chubby.
Ppoeng!
As though asking why I'd taken so long to find it...
It hopped toward me.
But calling it a frog almost felt wrong.
Its jumping ability was absolutely terrible.
Watching it flip over and flail helplessly made me burst into laughter.
The little guy struggled back to its feet...
Then immediately buried itself in my arms.
Ppoeeeng-!
"Do you want to come with me too?"
Ppoeng-?
"I have a farm. It's actually a pretty nice place."
Hwayo.
Boogi.
Shark.
Pau.
Ramji.
Inkko.
An image flashed through my mind.
A peaceful scene where creatures that should never have gotten along lived happily together.
"There are lots of friends there. I promise you'll have a much better time than staying here."
Ppoeeeeeng-!
"Good."
I held out my little finger.
Without hesitation...
The little frog placed its tiny hand on my finger.
"...Animal Registration."