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Heracberg
After witnessing the victory, I pulled out a healing potion from my item holder and poured it over my head to recover from my injuries.
[Pain Inhibition] didn’t really have a lot of drawbacks but it does make it hard for me, the user himself, to understand just how serious the injury I have taken is.
Considering how weak my body feels, I have to assume that I took quite some damage but………
Since I didn’t lose consciousness and was able to see through Snow and Ralf’s fight’s end, I don’t think the injury is that serious either.
“Chris-san! Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I just used a healing item as well, it’ll heal given some time.”
“Should I use mine on you as well? Looking at the wound, a intermediate healing item alone won’t fully heal it.”
Esta came dashing straight towards me full of worry, and a little later, Fecilia and Mielle also joined her.
Esta was understandable, but even Fecilia and Mielle seemed worried for me, and handed over a high class looking healing item to me.
“………you sure? I’m not gonna pay extra for this one alright?”
“What kind of miser do you think I am? Rather than you become a burden for the rest of us, giving you the healing item and letting you recover is a much more safer option, that’s all.”
“In that case, I’ll gladly use it without holding back.”
Thanks to the healing item I had already used, my headache was already getting better and my vision was also recovering but, I poured the healing potion I got from Fecilia all over my head once more.
Then I drank the remainder, and was thinking of waiting until it started showing its affect but……….
“Hm? Ooh! It’s already working. My headache’s almost gone, and my vision is clear again as well.”
“I can still see the swelling on the right side of your forehead but you’re right, it seems to have mostly healed………..just how precious was this healing item?”
“Since only a limited amount of these are in circulation, the [Moonlight Fangs] basically exclusively handle the wholesale distribution of this healing potion. A single one costs 1 platinum coin, you know?”
“One platinum coin……..!? Are you sure you really don’t want money for this?”
“I mean if you want to pay I’ll gladly take it but, will you?”
“For Ch-chris-san’s sake, thank you very much!!”
Esta panicked at the very mention of having to pay for this but, it’s true, one platinum coin for a single potion is crazy expensive.
Or rather, that’s about as much I was going to pay her for helping with the Roza forest’s exploration, but now I was worried Fecilia was going to not be convinced and ask for much more.
“Hey Chris, you alright? Snow’s killed the beetle monster already!!”
“Yeah, I was watching. Ralf and Snow, both of you did very well, creating openings and attacking.”
“All thanks to you holding it down for so long all by yourself really, that’s why Snow was able to fight so feely. Right, Snow?”
“Aurf!!”
Snow was wagging its tail happily hoping to get some compliments but, with the state my body was currently in, even Snow was cautious to not jump on to me for it.
But, looks like thanks to Fecilia’s healing item, I’ll be able to move my body soon enough.
“Everyone, sorry for the troubles. But thanks to the healing items, I can move normally again. Let’s take a short break here in this room and then——–continue further inside.”
With the gatekeeper, the Heracberg, dead, the path that lead further inside the cave was finally open.
The corridor that went deeper inside was entirely covered with vines and ivy even on the ceiling, and this completely green path had a really odd atmosphere about it.
“So is this fruit of skill really inside this place?”
“There does seem to be strange amount of greenery here, so it feels like the Fruit of Skill will be here but, I wonder if it actually exists or not?”
“We won’t until we check with our own eyes but……..with all the pains we’ve been through, I sure hope it actually does exist here.”
It was mostly a wish rather than deduction but, it has been on my mind ever since I saw the Heracberg waiting here in this area.
If this environment really is the right place, the fruit of skill should in fact exist at the end of that corridor.
“It doesn’t mean much to me but, I’m still getting excited! Let’s hurry up and go already!”
“Wait a minute. We don’t what else we might run into inside, so let’s take a breather and heal up before proceeding………..Ralf too, your legs are still shaking from fatigue you know.”
While calming Ralf who was getting impatient, we took a moderately long break in this open area.
In the meantime, I approached the Heracberg’s corpse and began analyzing the headless body of the monster.
The octopus monster had been completely eviscerated and turned to ash thanks to Fecilia’s [Lightning Rising] but, this Heracberg’s body was still mostly intact if severely damaged.
Even though it’s head was ripped off, some its fingers were still twitching even in death, and so while feeling slightly paranoid that it might jump up again, I approached closer to the corpse and began my investigations.
The glossy blue shell of its had lost its shine and lustre, and its colour had turned to a more blackish muddy green instead.
It’s outer shell was still as hard as before but, touching it properly made me once again realize just how ridiculously sturdy this thing was.
Even though I had multiple openings where I could have attacked it with my sword, my attacks would have never made a dent especially since I was entirely focused on using purely defensive skills, so I made the right decision to not rush in to attack it seems, even if that was only by coincidence.
The part from its wrist to its elbow was especially hard, and I could tell that this part specifically was the probably the hardest part of its shell on its entire body.
I wanted to extract this part out because it seemed like it could be useful, and I also wanted to see if there was some special organ in its body that allowed it to accumulate mana like it did.
Considering the amount of mana it was able to hold, it wouldn’t be strange if it even had Magic jewel embedded inside but,……..it’s shell was so hard, I wasn’t able to examine its innards.
If I used all my skills to cut at it, I’m sure I’ll be able to cut through to the inside but, it’ll be too hard to adjust just the right amount of power and there’s a high chance I end up completely destroying everything inside unfortunately.
If I had a leeway with time, I would have loved to slowly examine its body but, the interior of this cave was not that kind of place.
I stopped at only just ripping off the shield like part in its arm, and then moved on to check on the severed head instead.
A severed head that was still stuck with an expression of pain didn’t make for a nice watching experience but, I still closely investigated it like I did with the body.
………..there wasn’t much of note when it came to its head except of course, the one big long horn growing out of its forehead.
I don’t know if I could use it in some way but, it was good at conducting mana and was extremely sharp as well.
I ripped off the horn somehow alongside a part of its forehead, and with that, the investigation of the Heracberg was finished.