A Reincarnated Demon’s Life of Wonder

"Hi-yaa!!" - Lily

"*Baa*!!"

"Ho-wha!!" - Lily

"*Baa-baa-BAAAAA*!!"

"Wha-cha!!" - Lily

"*Baa...baa...bleargh*."

Finally. About time that was over. You know, I was going here thinking I've seen everything, but a humanoid chimera VS a sheep made outta bubbles in a fistfight till death? Now that's a new one.

Stupid appearance aside, it was pretty entertaining watching martial arts-type Combat Arts for the first time. Lily is running the [Brawler] class as her main, making her a mean fighting machine when it comes to not using machines...or any other type of equipment for that matter. And she makes good use of that through her [Pugilist] class, another Path of Body class that is centered around the usage of those martial arts I just mentioned.

"Can I finally stop wasting my mana on healing this girl now?" - Noire

"Hmm, for today, at least. Lily, take five!" - Garami

She didn't need any encouragement. The chimera girl flopped onto the ground no sooner than I had finished speaking, exhausted by her rally of punches and kicks.

Combat Arts are different compared to magic spells in their nature of being able to be quickly released at a moment's notice without the need for any annoying chanting or charging. You can even combo them together, creating a flurry of attacks. As long as you have the stamina. All Combat Arts requires SP, a resource that's not easy to recover while in the middle of a fight. You need to rest or eat to recover those points. And, for all I know, there aren't even any skills out there that can recover SP. At least, not any common skills.

In short, the girl ran out of fuel. And weren't Growth Chimeras supposed to be big eaters? Is she going to be alright with this SP-heavy build?

"*Sigh*. How are things going over there?" I asked the others who had gone to collect the Everfoam Wood while we were doing this training exercise. My answer came in the form of a giant, bluish tree with bubble-like fruits and moss covering it, crashing into the spongy, bubble-looking grass.

"Jackpot!" - Mira

"You overdid it..." - Revi

"There's no kill like overkill~!" - Mira

"Not when it comes to deforestation, you fool!!" I shouted while dishing out a good smack to the idiot Sprite's empty skull with a paper fan I had kept in my Storage for just this kind of situation. I know my idiots well.

"Ouch! Hey, if others can do it, why can't we?" - Mira

"*Nod, nod*." - Revi

Great. Now cute lil' Revi's starting to catch "muscle-brained-ness" from our resident swordsmaster. I did see the few stumps left of other Everfoam Wood trees, but those are damn old. They must have been taken down by other adventurers because they grew too old and frail, turning them into potential hazards for adventurers and monsters alike. I wouldn't want a giant bubble tree crashing into my head. And definitely when there aren't any to shout "LUUUUMBEEEER!!" nearby.

While rubbing my aching head, I turned over to see how Iron was faring. He was responsible for occupying the other monsters so Lily could have one-on-one matches instead of being ganged up on by the mob of mobs. I didn't pay much attention to him, but he's tough, plus I summoned some Smoke Ghosts to cover for him, plus the beasts here are at most weak E-ranks, so he should be...

Yup. "Muscle-brained-ness" seems to be seriously contagious these days. These no-good ghosts have defeated all the monsters before I gave them the okay to do so. Sure, Lily has already given up for the day, but still, there's a principle to keep here.

"Princess. There are no more hostilities." - Iron

"Sure, I can see... Hold that thought." - Garami

I cut myself short and picked up my giant scythe that I had been resting against one of the still-standing trees, and changed it to the Magic Dagger. A blade of dark magic enveloped the dagger's original edge, causing it to look more like the lightswords seen in sci-fi movies.

*BANG!*

*SWISH!*

With close to no warning (for anyone without danger-detection skills like [Intuition]), a large noise, similar to a gun, was heard from the bushes a little away from us. Accompanying the sound was a bullet. Not the conventional type, but a bullet made from a blast of air. It might not sound scary, but this bullet could probably easily blow someone's head off rather than just leave a bullet hole behind.

Still, it's not that scary when you know it's coming AND where its line of fire is. So, I swung my magic blade, parried the bullet with a Combat Art belonging to both the [Parry] and the [Assassination Arts] skill, aka "Killer Arrow Parry", and sent the bullet right back to the sender. And yup again. That thing had enough power to blow someone's head off. At least after "Killer Arrow Parry" gave the attack a critical hit chance boost as part of its effect.

More red lines, warning signs from [Intuition], started to appear before my blindfolded eyes. But the shooters must be amateurs. They're all huddled up in one location. Spread out, people! Sheesh.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

More shots came flying, but as I said before, Combat Arts can be combo-ed, even the defensive ones. The more common "Arrow Parry" alone is strong against non-magic projectiles, even if it's difficult to aim for most people. "Killer Arrow Parry" shares the same weakness, but I've got enough DEX and personal affinity for parries to send them all back and score three new parry headshots. Yay~.

"Now. Now there aren't any more hostiles," I said, a tad smugly, to Iron. And FYI, this small shoot off had only taken at most 10 seconds, rounded up. And while I'm at it, am I allowed to brag about my Guild members who managed to go into anti-snipper positions after just the first shot? Special probs to Iron, who got in front of the half-fainted Lily with his shield pointing towards the first shot's location.

Hearing from me, the only Scout-type main class user (we definitely need to recruit more Scouters, now that I think about it), Mira went into the bushes to see what had attacked us. I ordered the Smoke Ghosts to help her, along with a pair of Skeletons I now summoned. It didn't take long for us to hear "What the ****!?" from our Sprite swordswoman.

"Garami, didn't you say there were only fae beasts in this forest?" said Mira while throwing the corpses of our attackers onto the ground disrespectfully. Hey, careful about that. Those things might be worth something. Materials, food for our hungry recruit, not to forget about the Necromancy Counters they can provide if we go that route.

"What in the world are these? Rather, why are these creatures here?" - Noire

Oops. Got lost in my thoughts again. Inspection, inspection...... Why? I mean, why? Why are there crustacean versions of Sahuagins here in this fairy forest? I mean, that's the best way to call 'em. They resemble oversized shrimp, approximately the size and shape of a human. A human boxer that is. The reason I used boxers as an analogy is that these shrimp's claws are thick and muscular, making them resemble boxing gloves.

"Princess, mind enlightening us about what these guys are?" - Mira

"Well...aha. They're 'Mantis Shrimp Sahuagins'. That figures." - Garami

"Mantis? As in the bug?" - Mira

"Can they not decide whether they are insects or shrimps?" - Noire

"Wow, good thing Alf's not here to hear this. Mantis shrimps are common crustaceans, with these guys being demi-monsters based on them and Sahuagins. Some of them can apparently punch with enough force to rival gunshots, or something along those lines. It seems the demi-monster version got a bigger upgrade to that ability." - Garami

"Huh, cool. Then why are they here?" - Mira

"They're not fae beasts..." - Revi

"Beats me," I said while shugging my shoulders, giving up on thinking of a way to explain why these shrimpy Sahuagins suddenly decided to attack us in the middle of an underground forest. Maybe there's some weird fairy magic at play here? I don't know.

"In any case, demi-monsters aren't illegal to kill, but according to the Kigal-Note, they'll give you food poisoning if you try to cook their meat, so no seafood on the menu today." - Garami

Which is kind of a shame. It would be fun to see how these punching menaces would help a certain chimera improve her straight right, but not for today. Even if she's groaning "...seaaaaafooooood..." there in the background.

---

A while later, we found the rest area provided by the Adventurers' Union. If someone asked me to describe the place, the best thing I could answer would be to have them imagine "a fantasy secret elf village or something similar, with an added touch of giant magical glowing mushrooms". This "village" has no fences surrounding it for protection against monsters, but faint magic traces can be seen emanating from the largest mushrooms that circle the town. I see. They're going for the magic barrier-type then.

This barrier protected the whole town, but a "gate" of sorts, guarded by a group of adventurers hired by the Union. We showed them our Union cards and were given passage.

Following the instructions of the guard adventurers, we found the "bounty storage center", a building that the Union rents to people who want to store their game before heading back to the surface. It also doubles as the Union's information center, where one can obtain info about things aboveground and deliver any new information that adventurers have discovered while exploring the Underwoods. Such as...

"What did you say?! Mantis Shrimp Sahuagins?!"

Figure that they'd be flabbergasted over this find. Reporting to the Union scored us some nice rewards, ready to be picked up when we return to the Union's surface offices. They said they'll be sending out quests to investigate the misaligned sealife, but I humbly declined their offer of joining the investigation team, only providing them all the knowledge we had about them, along with the monsters' corpses.

"Too bad we didn't get anything big out of that," said Mira after we left the storage center.

"Hey, ain't the report money good enough for you?" - Garami

"A big part of it is going to feed this girl, isn't it?" - Mira

Aha~. I looked at the girl napping on Mira's back, a low groan coming from her tummy.

"We'll skip any weird monster dishes today. Let's focus on getting the quests cleared, then we can think about what to feed this chimera for her power-ups." - Garami

"Oki-doki~. Now, where did the others go?" - Mira

"The cafeteria area," I replied, remembering the adventurer guards' recommendations when we asked them where to find dinner. "According to the map, it should be this way..."

Iron, Revi, and Noire had been given the task of scoring us a good table for today's dinner. I'm not sure what will be served in this underground fairy forest, but let's hope food poisoning is off the menu tonight. ...Hmm? A commotion?

The moment we set foot into the cafeteria area, we could see a group of adventurers surrounding something. I left Mira and Lily behind to sneak through the crowd to get a look at what...is...... IRON!?

What the-, HUH?! What's going on here?! Iron, he's completely KO-ed, knocked unconscious, flattened on the floor! THAT Iron, he's been beaten so hard that parts of his armor have been carved in! People around us are looking like they're seeing a corpse. Don't tell me...! Phew, he's safe. He's out cold, but there's still "life" left in him. As much life as one of the undead can have, anyway.

"Iron, speak up!" - Garami

"What is...!? Iron!?" - Mira

"Hey, that guy is already..." started one of the peanut gallery before getting smacked on the head by one of the other adventurers.

"Amateur. That's an undead."

"F-for real!? Wow, first time I've seen one..."

"Stop gawking! Someone attacked him, so stop wasting air standing there and go and find them!" - Garami

My shout shocked the adventurers back to their senses, and they started to move. Some went to bring the guards, while others helped secure the scene of the crime. I cast undead-friendly healing spells on Iron, an action that others with healing magic in their arsenal started copying. Our combined effort caused Iron to come back to his senses.

"Iron! Are you alright?!" - Garami

"Ugh... Sorry. They took..." - Iron

"Stay calm and speak slowly. Who did this to you?" - Mira

Uh, it seems Mira is the one with a cooler head out of us two. Even Lily, who had woken up from her starvation-induced slumber, looked worriedly while lying on a nearby bench, but was far from as panicked as I was. Now I'm feeling embarrassed...

"The...Church of Chaos. They...they kidnapped...the two..." - Iron

Did I say embarrassed? I mean INFURIATED!! If those Church jerks have no intention of leaving us alone, then they'll need a real church after I'm done with them. A church with a graveyard that is!!