Mage? Magic Engineer!-Chapter 94 - 91: The Crude Imitator

Rorschach condensed the cyan flames, no longer in the form of a Projectile, but rather a Ray.

It was a ray compressed to a minuscule diameter, capable of severing any tree in his line of sight with a dual effect of kinetic and thermal energy. The main issue was his inability to pinpoint the attacker’s exact location. Otherwise, piercing its head or another vital spot would have been a swifter, more efficient, and more focused use of his Magic Power.

Of course, this method at least spared the Caster from the searing heat of the Fireball form. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

’If I could just shorten the warm-up and charging phase, and raise the temperature even further...’

’Shoot to kill, Divine Spear!’

’Oops, wrong anime. As cool as that sounds, the name is just bad luck.’ Rorschach cut his thoughts short and joined the others to examine the bisected monster.

The monster, though split in two, still twitched, stubbornly clinging to life. The old mage Kou Bo summoned vines to tightly bind its separate halves. Master Humboldt, blaming himself for his momentary lapse, silently resumed his watch over the group.

Thanks to Mr. Rorschach’s clean work and the neat incision, it was easy for everyone to piece together the monster’s appearance. It was undoubtedly ugly and disproportionate. Its skin was a rough, grayish-green, covered in twisted, warty scars that nearly layered into a form of Leather Armor.

Its atrophied head lacked any normal facial features—only fleshy growths protruding from its sides, two holes on its face, and a fissure that stretched to the back of its skull, which must have been its mouth.

The monster’s torso was human-sized, yet so shriveled that no bone structure was visible, resembling a dehydrated tuber. Its limbs were disproportionately long, like the overstretched arms of an ape. Had it been standing as it did in life, a single forearm would have towered over everyone present.

It was precisely because its forelimbs and hindlimbs were nearly the same length that the two monsters Rorschach and the others had seen moved with their torsos parallel to the ground, like beasts with undifferentiated limbs.

However, the developed ends of its forelimbs, its short neck, and its forward-facing eyes (if they were indeed eyes!) were all traits of an intelligent, upright-walking creature.

"What the hell is this disgusting thing?" Cavendish was spooked as well, and he kicked the carcass.

"Careful. It could have toxins or harbor parasitic microorganisms." Peterson’s well-intentioned warning gave the rookie from the Tower of Stars a second fright.

In truth, Peterson had already made a rough assessment that there was no such threat. All he could smell was the odor of burning—no rot, no stench, not even any other scent. This was a preliminary indication that the monster was not some sort of plague-carrier.

"Does it need dissecting?" Rorschach noted his scorching ray had left only a carbonized layer on the cut surfaces, obscuring its internal structure.

"Yes, but don’t make direct contact yet."

Rorschach used [Decomposition Skill] on the monster. With his current proficiency, he should have been able to handle it...

However, his [Decomposition Skill] only managed to pierce the monster’s epidermis, revealing the structure inside. This meant the inner body still possessed Vitality or Magic Power.

"It’s not completely dead," Rorschach concluded, using the limits of his own Magic as a test.

Peterson had already donned gloves and a beak-like mask. An Apprentice handed him a small, silver cutting knife.

’You guys from the Tower of Forest really have a wide range of styles...’ Rorschach didn’t even feel like making a sarcastic comment.

Peterson’s scalpel sank deep with little resistance. Muscle-like structures, tangled together in bundles, now revealed a ringed cross-section where they had been cut.

Even with his past life’s biology knowledge—which stopped at the high-school level, not even earning him points on the bonus questions—Rorschach could tell that the cross-section’s structure was plant-based.

As Peterson withdrew the blade, its spine lifted a trail of white, viscous fluid. The moment the thread-like substance left the monster’s body, it dried out and disintegrated into gray dust.

"Its nerves?" Peterson faltered.

Mage Kou Bo, emboldened by the fact that he was using a doppelganger, touched it directly. He rubbed the dust between his fingers. "Yes and no. Taken on its own, this is mycelium."

Cavendish was very interested in this as well, but he remembered Peterson’s warning and didn’t recklessly lean in for a closer look. "So, you’re saying it’s a plant? Like a Wood Elf or something?"

"Wood Elves aren’t that ugly, that... crude." Peterson removed his beak-like mask. "Those elegant, beautiful creatures vanished after the Divine War. If you wanted to find them, you might be able to in Silvanos’s Divine Kingdom. Then again, perhaps He and His Divine Kingdom are gone as well."

"We might just get a chance to see them at the end of this journey, you know. In the Core Area of the Black Forest, hehe..." Great Mage Kou Bo used a hand-chop to slice off a piece of the monster’s tissue, then opened his own torso and absorbed it. "This kind of monster... it’s just a pile of plants cobbled together to imitate a pile of animals."

"A crude imitator."

"Everyone, now is not the time to linger," Master Humboldt reminded them, warning against staying in a dangerous place for too long. He withdrew his Guardian Domain and once again took the lead.

Cavendish stared at his precious Alchemy Map. "We’re almost at the settlement... There’s a settlement this deep in the forest? Oh, it’s an Elf one. There’s still an Elf settlement? Oh, it’s already been destroyed..."

"Are you feeling okay?" Rorschach had a feeling Cavendish hadn’t been in a good state of mind ever since he’d come down from that earthen platform. He used [Mage’s Hand] to pass the Apprentice a piece of Brown Sugar.

"Oh, thank you, Rorschach Mage..." Cavendish popped the sugar into his mouth and, instead of letting it dissolve, immediately began chewing on it. CRUNCH, CRUNCH.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, the party took another long rest, with Great Mage Kou Bo acting as the Guardian. They didn’t light a fire to cook this time, instead eating emergency rations of roasted flour and compressed milk. The meal felt especially oppressive in the pitch-black surroundings.

Rorschach checked his watch, then snapped it shut. It was perpetually night. He’d lost count of how many times he’d been buffed with [Dark Vision]; the Magic had now appeared on his status panel.

’The principle is actually quite simple. You concentrate Magic Power in your eyes, then apply a ’Feedback Perception’ modifier to enhance your photosensitivity, allowing you to form images even with extremely limited light.’

’But I’ll just keep bothering Peterson for the buff,’ Rorschach thought, ’carefully studying the sensation to learn it myself. I would never mess with my own eyes before I’ve mastered the skill—concentrating Magic Power into one’s eyeballs... accidentally awakening the Sharingan would be the least of my worries. Actually blinding myself would be a real disaster. I wonder if a Natural System Recovery Magic could even fix that...’

"The former Elf settlement is just ahead," Cavendish reported.

"Halt."

’Master, have you ever noticed that nothing good ever happens when you tell us to stop?’ Rorschach mused. ’But I can’t blame Great Mage Humboldt. It’s his caution that gives us a chance to prepare when something is wrong. Still, I can tell he’s been much more careful since he lost that perception ability.’

"HOOT, HOOT~" Having lost his special senses, Humboldt could only fall back on the fundamentals from his apprentice days. He used vocal mimicry to summon a Wood Owl. After a brief exchange, he gently stroked the bird and gave its highly flexible, 350-degree-rotating neck a gentle squeeze.

After enjoying the petting for a moment, the Wood Owl stretched its neck, flapped its wings, and took off toward the village ruins ahead. Humboldt closed his eyes, now sharing the sight and hearing of the Night Owl.

In a field of crumbling ruins overgrown with vines and green moss, new trees had sprouted from the earth, breaking through the clay roof tiles.

Monster after monster wandered aimlessly through the village wreckage. Some hummed muddled tunes, while others cycled endlessly through shrieks, sobs, and Roars...

The closest monster turned, tilting its head. Its hollow eyes met the Wood Owl’s.

Its mouth began to contort, the upper half of the slit growing sharp. It flapped its long forelimbs, as if mimicking a bird’s wings, slapping them against the ground again and again.

"HOOT."

"HOOT, HOOT, HOOT..."