V1C2

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

I leave the weird older kid behind and make my way, finally, to the meadow. What I use to secure my meals grows abundantly here. I take a deep, satisfied breath. This is truly a wonderful place that keeps even the poorest kid from going hungry.

After a moment, I find what I’m looking for growing in a little patch. I make my approach carefully and quietly.

“Hey, I said hold on a minute! I still have a bunch of stuff to ask you!”

“Agh, you idiot!”

That boy from before is back, and my prey reacts immediately to his voice.

pew pew pew

The projectiles whistle as they cut through the air straight for him.

“What the hell? Ow! That hurts! Leave me alone!”

The boy raises his voice in irritation, just causing it to react further.

pew pew pew

“I said that hurts! Seriously, what the hell’s going on? …Huh, why does my leg feel all tingly?”

Ah, how very unlucky. If I don’t do something, this guy’s going to end up stuck. I sneak my way behind my prey, trusty knife in hand.

“Hyah!” I cut it down from the base.

“Ahh, what the hell was that? All of a sudden things are flying out of nowhere and hitting me – not that it really hurt, it was just kind of annoying. But they just kept hitting me, and I started to feel numb. Man, for real, what’s going on?”

“Wow, you really don’t have a clue about anything, do you? These are called Shooting Beans. They’re a plant monster that shoots tiny beans at anything that gets close. The beans contain a weak poison that causes numbing on contact. They’re very sensitive to sound, so you have to pipe down if you want to approach them without getting shot.”

This is something that even a kid is supposed to know. It’s strange that he doesn’t. I thought he was weird before, but I’m starting to think he might just be dumb.

Shooting Beans almost exclusively eat rats, squirrels and other small animals. Their poison may only cause a bit of numbness in a person, but it’s enough to paralyze smaller animals. Once that happens, they wrap the animal up in their roots and absorb its nutrients. Sometimes you can even find the dried-out husks of a squirrel or rat that they’ve left behind.

Normally, they’re not a problem for people. Sure, it’s annoying to get hit, but that’s it. But, if you’re like this guy and you just let yourself get hit again and again and again, you’ll eventually go so numb you stop being able to move. I’m pretty sure that a Shooting Bean can’t suck a human completely dry, but the unexpected does happen sometimes, so you can never be too careful.

He starts up again. “So, you’re saying this little soybean-looking thing is from this Shooting Bean monster? Is that it — it’s literally a bean-shooter?” He picks up a bean from the ground with his bare hand.

Good luck with that! I won’t help you if you your hand goes numb and you stop being able to use it!

Ah, just like I expected. The pellet tumbles from his apparently numb fingers.

He turns to me. “So, what are you doing in a place with murderous grass?”

“Me? I’m here to collect some immature Shooting Beans. I mean, you can sell them for a bit at the market. Apparently their beans are pretty good if you boil them in salty water.”

I go after the immature ones because Shooting Beans can’t actually shoot beans until they mature, and, until they can, their beans aren’t poisonous. I’ve heard people say the cooked beans pair really well with alcohol.

“Oh? That sounds just like edamame. Boil that up with some salt and it definitely is delicious.” He pauses for a second, looking puzzled. “Apparently? You’ve never had any yourself, even though you pick them?”

“Why would I? I can sell them and use the money to buy meat and bread. I can walk right up to the stall, plop the coins down, and be eating a delicious meat skewer in seconds. Why would I want to eat something that I have to boil? It’s tough enough already being a kid and living on my own; seems silly to go through the effort of starting a fire too.”

Seriously, guy? Starting a fire is hard work. It’s not like things just boil by themselves.

“Are you being serious right now? It’s super easy to make a fire with a lighter, or… this is an isekai, right? Don’t you have any fire magic? Like Firebolt or something?”

“Are you just making up words? Lighter? Magic? If you want to make a fire you’ve got to use flint. That’s how it works. It takes a lot of work to get a fire started from those tiny sparks.”

I’ve never heard of a lighter or magic before, but it would be wonderful to have something that can easily light a fire. It seems like they have stuff like that where he’s from, wherever that is.

“Ugh, really? This is like the Dark Souls of isekais… But, hold on, maybe I can cheat by using my modern knowledge in this primitive world, like in my light novels. If I just…”

There he goes again, mumbling to himself. This guy sure does seem to enjoy his own company.

Not to mention that he hasn’t thanked me for saving his life, and he’s just been calling me ‘you’ without even bothering to ask my name. He’s definitely old enough that he should have better manners than that.