Translator: P411

Editor: Xia

Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!

Chapter 34: Ugh, Gross…

[ Attention : Insect ]

“Rook, Rook.”

Currently, I am doing some research in real life.

I looked through the game’s official homepage, the forum, and many other places.

And what I found was.

On the official page, there was no such character called ‘Rook’.

There might be players with that name, but I wouldn’t bother with them..

The name ‘Rook’ didn’t pop up on any of those mainstream, reliable bulletin boards, nor did I see it on the shadier ones.

“I don’t know anymore…”

And when I found out that officially, there was no such job as [Alchemist], I actually considered removing it as my public job title. 

No matter where I searched, I couldn’t find any information on the alchemical materials I used. 

It had been a long while since I had done any online research like this, but surprisingly, there were many players who were getting along well with townspeople in-game. 

There were quite a number of posts saying, “I got a special quest from an NPC in the city!”

There was even a board dedicated to [ Special Quests ]. 

It didn’t seem like Seven had been following these posts, though. If he had, there was no way he would’ve been able to ignore them like that. Especially since he had a crafting job. 

“Rook, huh…”

Even after all that, I still couldn’t find anything on him after all. 

I should just give up and go see Vidello-san instead. 

I got up from my chair, grabbed my VR gear, and headed towards my bed.

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When I logged in, the first thing that came into view was the familiar ceiling of my workshop. 

I got up and stretched. They say that doing this would make you taller. ¹

It didn’t seem to make much sense, but I was in a game, after all. 

Let’s see.

Today, I would take a job from the pharmacist’s side. 

Crash said he didn’t have enough potions in stock.

I looked into the stock of herbs in the storeroom. I only had enough materials to make around fifty High Potions, so I stood up, ready to go collecting materials again. 

Once again, my destination was Kyle-san’s farm. 

Lately, it felt like I had only been to Crash’s shop, Kyle-san’s farm, and Vidello-san’s place. 

Pondering this, I put on my robe, preparing to leave. Even though I said I was preparing, I was really just checking the items I had inside my inventory. 

I moved all the extra monster materials in my inventory into the storeroom, cleared out my inventory, and set out from my workshop. I made sure to not forget to take the key to the workshop. I also reminded myself to go see Vidello-san.

Finally, the feather Vidello-san had gifted to me hanging from my chest, I headed to Kyle-san’s plantation.

Come to think of it, the feather’s attribute percentage had increased to 4%. Why would it increase? I needed to check it out later. 

“Kyle-san, give me some herbs please~”

“Ah. Take as much as you want.”

Kyle-san, who was out in the field like usual, waved his hands in welcome. 

He brought me a mountain of herbs. I was delighted, since the herbs here made for extra-effective potions.

As I was putting herbs into my inventory one by one, a thought popped into my head, and I decided to ask him about it.

“Kyle-san, have you ever heard of ‘Rook’?”

“ ‘Rook’? No, I don’t know anyone like that…”

“I see. Thanks.”

When I thanked him, Kyle-san said he was sorry that he couldn’t be of help and shrugged his shoulders.

“Rather than that, the fields are doing really well. Even since I sprayed your pesticide, the places that were sprayed have been producing an abundant harvest, and I was able to get a strange/weird thing.”

“Eh, a strange thing? What’s that? I want to see it.”

When my eyes sparkled at Kyle-san’s words, he beckoned me to come here a bit.

And at the place where I was guided…

“Ugh…..Gross.”

“Don’t say it like that. This thing is like a panacea.” ²

The thing that was at the place where I was guided was…

A caterpillar with a size as large as a small-breed dog, and there was a strange plant growing on its torn back. From the looks of it, it looked quite like ‘that’ thing.

Wasn’t this ‘that’ thing? That caterpillar fungus-like thing? ³ Ugh…., gross. Or rather, wasn’t it a lie looking at how big that thing was?! The real thing was only palm-sized!

“You can make a tonic with this. It’s your speciality, right?”

“I can make a tonic with different materials… Just from its appearance, it’s out of the question…” 

Just when I was about to refuse him because I didn’t want to touch it, Kyle-san casually said,

“For now, why don’t you try using it and test out how different the efficacy is compared to others?”

And he started putting a bunch of those insect carcasses that were the size of a small dog in my hand. 

“GYAAAAAA!”

“AHHHHHHH!!”

Kyle-san burst into laughter hearing my scream. Don’t laugh!

After frantically putting those things in my inventory with teary eyes, feeling goosebumps all over my body, I wiped the dirt off my hands with Kyle-san’s clothes in order to forget this slightly strange softness and cold sensation on my hands. Kyle-san, who was looking at me while laughing at my action with a look that wasn’t a big deal to him, saw my hands become dirtier from wiping his clothes, and burst into laughter even more. Damn! But I was able to slightly calm down from that indescribable feeling, so I will settle with this for now. 

“Ugh……what’s the price of this gross thing….? Now that I’ve received this, I’m going to grind them immediately and reduce it to a state without a form and shape…”

When I asked him while fighting against these goosebumps that hadn’t yet calmed down, Kyle-san frowned and waved his hands saying,

“No.”

“Mack, what you’re saying is by far more gross… That, be careful of a green liquid when you crush it. And, you don’t need to pay for this. Anyway, I got a lot of these caterpillar fungi, so I want you to take them.”

“A lot….”

I gulped down hard. 

“Here,” said Kyle-san brushing aside the corn-like stalks in front of him. 

And there were swarms of insects lined up without strange things growing behind them. 

GYAAAAAAAAAAAA!

I-I shouldn’t have looked at them….. Now, I didn’t want to see any more fiddlehead ferns.

When I thought of it, I suddenly realized. 

“Huh, that thing growing on their back, just how many kinds of them….?”

In a hurry, I tried to use [Appraisal] on the Caterpillar Fungus in my inventory.

[ Caterpillar Fungus: A plant that can be a raw material for making tonic. It parasitizes the insect monsters, and grows by absorbing nutrients from monsters in soil rich in nutrients. ]

That meant, this insect was a monster. It looked like it had a terrifying effect as it absorbed nutrients from monsters. Scary.

And I didn’t want to look at them that much, but with goosebumps, I still picked up a caterpillar fungus that looked like it had a different plant growing behind it.

[ Caterpillar Fungus: A plant that can relieve paralysis. It parasitizes the insect monsters, and grows by absorbing nutrients from monsters in soil rich in nutrients. ]

[ Caterpillar Fungus: A plant that can be a raw material for stimulants. It parasitizes the insect monsters, and grows by absorbing nutrients from monsters in soil rich in nutrients. ]

“This, all of these three have different effects.”

One had a small, tall and thin umbrella-like white mushroom, another one had Fiddlehead Fern-like blackish, curled head, and the last one had a strong stem with small leaves attached to them. All of them had different effects. 

It was amazing. But what was this ‘stimulant’? The first time I had heard of this. 

“Kyle-san, do you know what this [Stimulant] is?”

“ Stimulant? It’s that thing. It’s the medicine for those who can’t become adults even after they receive the coming of age ceremony.” 

“Which means?”

I, who still didn’t know what the coming of age ceremony was, tilted my head, asking for more information. 

“I see. You haven’t received the coming of age ceremony yet. My bad, my bad. You’ve already done adult things with Vidello, so I almost forgot it.”

“No, no, leave that aside for now! And, what’s about it?” 

“It’s exactly that. Even after they become adults, occasionally there are some guys who can’t get it up and can’t have children. So if you just give this [Stimulant] to those guys, they can properly get it up. Though I never plan to use that kind of drug for having a good time. But, you can make a fortune with this. There are not many pharmacists who can make this, and the materials don’t appear often in the market to begin with. So, this is a raw material for that drug. I didn’t know of this, either.”

Ah, so it was a Viagra-like drug…. Listening to Kyle-san’s various explanations of that thing, I unconsciously had a distant look on my face.

To those men who can’t get it up….if they ever found out that this was the source of that ridiculously expensive drug, they would faint on the spot. Frankly speaking, I didn’t want to drink it. 

Kyle-san was staring at the caterpillar fungus that he picked up like he had seen something amazing. For me, I couldn’t. 

“Then, do you know what’ll happen if a normal person drinks it? It looks somehow dangerous.”

“My bad, I don’t know. But, growing this caterpillar fungus is quite difficult. I can make a fortune with this, but if I sell this, this plantation will draw the attention of those people from above, so I’m thinking of giving this to you all. If I sell this, I might be able to get enough money to lead an idle life, but I don’t want to live being tied down by those people from above. I still want to do farming freely, so I feel bad, but please take it all.”

“Uggghhhhh…….My-my bag is full of those insects…..?! But where do these insect-type monsters come from…..?”

 “I think a lot of them might have been here (in the first place). I burned them, all of those adult ones that have been gobbling up my children(herbs). There might be their eggs left somewhere, but I think they got parasitized by plants instead.”

“Ahhh….. I think I remembered those insects.”

Remembering those dried herbs, my shoulders dropped dejectedly. 

Come to think of it, a large number of insects. No, plants that grew from insects. If the fungus infested only in their larva stage I still didn’t mind it, but they still parasitized even after that ⁴, and from the looks of it, it was already out of the question. Let’s quickly grind them into powder. I seriously meant ‘quickly’.

While almost in tears, I stuffed my bag with corpses/carcasses of those insects given one after another by Kyle-san. Ugghhhh…

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PK: Apparently, the price range of 1 pound of Caterpillar Fungus = 45,300~69,000 $$$$. Look the Money, Not the Insect.