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Many vines, thick like whips, keep swinging my way. I twist my body to evade them, and use my magic blade to cut those I can’t dodge.

The Purple Steel gauntlets Mir made for me before leaving Bamel feel really comfortable. They’re built specifically to make using the magic blade easier.

The magic blade is made up of mana from my body, and the leather gloves I had before were poor mana conductors, so they broke apart really quickly. But Purple Steel is an excellent conductor, and it’s the same material as my nerve threads. So I can essentially turn the gauntlets into an extension of my body and they don’t suffer any damage from the magic blade.

That also means that there’s no interference when making the magic blade too, and it cuts even better.

My current opponent is a large and violent carnivorous plant known as Man Eater. They look different from the common(?) image of Man Eaters on Earth, they are parasitic plants here. They are vines with thick stalks that cover trees like snakes, sucking out the nutrients from the tree while emitting a sweet smell to lure their prey closer. I always kept their appearance in mind after I saw them in the monster reference book.

Now, why am I fighting one of these now? It turns out their fruits are actually really good, and I saw ripe fruits on this one.

Did I feel bad?

Not really, this is what hunting is all about.

“Kyshaaaaaaa!”

The Man Eater bares the mouth hiding inside a large flower to intimidate me. But I’m not some small animal, so I’m not afraid of that. I’m actually smiling under my mask, having encountered a monster I had only read about before.

The fruits I want grow next to the flower, they’re like pomegranates the size of watermelons.

I dodge the incoming vines like whips before jumping in.

The Man Eater finally senses danger and disentangles most of its vines, leaving only a few to support the fruits on the tree. The loose vines begin joining together, forming a similar body to Biollante in the movies.

“Shah!”
“Woah there.”

The Man Eater spits some liquid towards me. I easily dodge it, but then notice a sizzling sound and smoke from the ground where it spilled. Digestive acid maybe? Still not too menacing though.

I shoot out my left arm. My left arm and the magic blade on it pierce the flower, but it did not stop. It goes through the entire monster and gets stuck on a nearby tree.

“Shah, shah.”

The Man Eater keeps trying to move, but my arm keeps it pinned to the tree.

“Alright then.”

I reel back the nerve threads on my left arm and use the magic blade on my right hand to cut off the fruits, letting them fall straight into an opening to my magic storage that I opened below.

“Shahhhh!”

The Man Eater began letting out cries. Sorry bud.

“I’ll only take the fruits, so let’s just forget about this okay?”

I jump back far enough for the Man Eater to not be able to reach me, undo my magic blades and pull back my left arm.

Man Eaters are plant type monsters, so it should recover eventually. I should come back after some time to check if there are new fruits. They can move from one tree to another, so there’s a chance it might abandon this one, but I’ll see then.

I’ve been in the forest for quite some time already, but I still can’t find a Tyrannoghavial. It’s like my desire for it jinxed my search.

There’s plenty of other monsters, or regular animals like rabbits and deers, but there was nothing worth trying my new weapon on, so I just chased everything away. Some would insist on dying, but there wasn’t much I could do about that.

So far the Man Eater’s fruits are the first true fruits of my trip. I really want to taste the fruits, so I sit under a nearby tree and take out a knife and cutting board from my magic storage.

Now why do I have a knife and cutting board there? It’s just part of my maid duties.

“Alrighty.”

I lay down the cutting board, place a fruit, and prepare to shove my knife into it.

“Kyahhhhh!”

Slump!

That’s such awful timing I feel exhausted for some reason.

Why now of all times? I thought I was finally going to get to taste the Man Eater’s fruit. But I can’t ignore that scream either…

I quickly shove everything into my magic storage and reluctantly go towards the direction I heard that scream from.

After a bit of running I find a party of four fighting a monster.

A human male with a spear and a dog demi-human with a sword are on the front, while a female elf and a beautiful girl with blonde hair are behind. At first glance they remind me of the stereotypical party, but the blonde girl seems to stand out too much.

The two on the front are really hurt already, a constant stream of blood flowing from their wounds. They’ll probably die of blood loss if they don’t receive treatment soon.

They should’ve known that much before coming to a place like this, so in a way it was their own fault. But I was more interested in the monster attacking them.

“Grrrr…”

They’re fighting a large monster that lowly grunts at them. A Tyrannoghavial. Thank you for screaming! I thanked them loudly in my mind.

This Tyrannoghavial is smaller than the one I defeated with Mir, but it’s still too strong for this party. The two front liners are already past their limits, and their magician seems to be confused or nervous, stammering halfway through her chanting and failing to activate any spells. The other girl doesn’t seem capable of fighting.

Stealing someone’s hunt is kinda rude, but I guess no one will complain if I swoop in now?

“Grworr!”

The moment it opens its mouth to charge at the party, I dash out from a thicket and stab my magic blade into its throat.

Finishing it off with only Black Hawk could be tricky, but now I have this.

I take out White Viper and place the muzzle on the monster’s forehead before pulling the trigger. The gun starts shaking in a pleasant rhythm as a large number of magic bullets spew out. I planned on emptying an entire magazine.

The Tyrannoghavial’s eyes go white and its body loses strength, so I finish slicing the throat. A large quantity of blood spews from the wound, forming a red puddle on the ground.

“Sorry, did I get in the way?”

I turn to the party and ask just in case, but they’re still processing what they saw. They had been minutes away from dying, so it’s a lot to process.

“Ah, no, not at all. Thanks actually.”

The adventurers still look confused, but at least they calmed down enough to talk.

“Everyone, could you come here so I can treat your wounds?”

The blondie who had stayed back gathers everyone to start healing them. But that doesn’t go as planned either.

“Huh?! We’re out of healing herbs and potions?!”
“I just used the last we had.”

I hear the adventurers start to argue.

“Umm, I’m really sorry…”

I turn to the man with the spear, who looks apologetically at me.

“I’m really sorry to ask this after you already saved us, but do you have any medicine we could borrow?”

From the look of things the party had used up everything they had. I feel like just about any magician in their party could’ve helped though. Thinking that I look at their magician, her face looks pale and she slowly shakes her head.

“She’s completely out of mana too. Really, I’m sorry we have to ask you.”

I guess they really don’t have any other options. I still have the potions I made before. I used to sell them in Bamel’s guild, so they should be at least as good as any in the market.

“Alright.”

It’s not like I’m part of their party, but I’d like to avoid any conflicts because of this. Or actually, maybe I can claim the entire Tyrannoghavial in exchange this way.

“How many potions do you need?”
“Three should hopefully be enough.”
“I see. You can have this one extra if you want to. Just ask if you need more.”
“Thanks. You’re a lifesaver.”

I take out the requested potions from my magic storage, and add a mana potion as a bonus. While they focus on treating their wounds, I go butcher the Tyrannoghavial. This feels easier now that I can form my magic blade with less interference. Though the bones still feel hard to cut.

“Thank you again, seriously. I’m Giese by the way. We’ll go back to the city for now, but could you tell us your name so we can properly thank you next time we meet?”
“My name..?”

Darnit.

I went through all this trouble to move around anonymously, but if I tell them my real name and they ask for me in the city Olivia might find out. My face is covered by a mask so it won’t be too easy, but the chance isn’t zero. I need to give them a fake name.

“I’m Reiji.”

I repeat the first name of an assassin that pops in my head. I’m surprised I thought of a character from such an old anime in this situation.

I finish butchering the monster and stuff the trimmed meat into my magic storage. There’s still plenty of space left.

“Huh, what did you just do?”
“That’s… magic storage, isn’t it? And you fit an entire Tyrannoghavial?”

They’re acting like they’ve just seen something really strange, but I ignore them. I’ve accomplished my mission, and it’s starting to get late, so I should head back. I don’t want to go together with the adventurers, so I take random detours on my way back.

I’m back in the dorm, but Olivia still hasn’t returned. Today’s the dorm mother’s free day, so I have to prepare dinner myself. I quickly start changing clothes first.

I’m sure the other students will want to eat too, so I should make a lot. I guess I can see what I can make with Tyrannoghavial meat since I just got some. I could make soup or salad as side dishes too, but I’ll focus on making steaks for the main dish.

I’ll also make some dessert with the Man Eater fruits, but only the first students to eat will get some. It’s not my fault there isn’t enough for everyone. That decides tonight’s menu though.

Click!

“Natalia, I’m back.”
“Ah, welcome back.”
“…”

Hm? Why isn’t Olivia entering the room? Her eyes are locked on me…

“Ah…”

I’m still changing, and I just took off the towel that was covering me.

“M-My apologies!”

I quickly cover my chest, but it’s too late. She had already seen everything.

“N-No, I’m sorry. I’ll wait outside okay.”

Olivia turns around and quickly leaves the room.

Ugh that’s so embarrassing. I usually change way before Olivia wakes up in the mornings, so I didn’t even consider this could happen.

Though hey, I’m still a dude inside the body of a magic automaton, I don’t know how to feel about changing now.