Chapter 19

"Hey, really!? There really was a Square Boar!? In this mountain!? Why didn't you tell me earlier!?"

Plati, who accompanied me into the mountain, was acting strangely excited.

Back when I first started my pioneering life, I encountered a rough welcome from the mountain beasts during an exploration.

What appeared was a boar with a pair of horns on its head, a creature that was completely out of place in the world I used to live in.

Since that near-death experience, I have been avoiding the mountains out of fear, but I think it's about time for a rematch. Now, I have a reliable companion, Plati, and I've obtained a holy sword as my main weapon.

I won't end up in such a disgraceful situation as last time.

Probably.

"Square Boar♪ Square Boar♪"

And today, Plati is all excited to accompany me. Comparing my experience with her knowledge, it seems that the horned boar I encountered last time is indeed the monster known as the Square Boar.

It is a boar-shaped creature with a pair of horns on its head as its most distinctive feature. The name "Square Boar" comes from the fact that if you connect the tips of its two horns and the tusks it already has as a boar, it forms a square, just as I had imagined.

It is a monster that is considered very delicious as food, and some adventurers enter dungeons specifically to hunt it.

"…The monsters in this world are used in various ways, huh."

The other day, I stored the skins and bones of the monsters I defeated in the teacher's cave dungeon carefully.

Come to think of it…

"Monsters are born in dungeons, right? Was the Square Boar born in the teacher's dungeon?"

And then, did it escape from the dungeon and settle in the mountains?

"No, that's not the case. The teacher, as the dungeon master, manages the dungeon properly. Since he says, 'I haven't let any monsters born in my dungeon out,' we can confidently say there are no stragglers."

"Is that how it works…?"

"Besides, the teacher's dungeon is a cave type, right? Square Boars don't spawn in caves; they come from mountain types."

"Huh? That means…!?"

There might be another dungeon separate from the teacher's, and the horned boar, now known as the Square Boar, came from there.

"By the way, this is it."

"Here? What is?"

"A dungeon. This mountain has been dungeonized."

It turned out to be not just a place they drifted to, but their main base.

No way!

This mountain is a dungeon!?

"Even though it's only a day's walk from the teacher's dungeon… It's rare for mana pools to be this close."

"Is that dangerous!? Should we consider moving!?"

"It would be dangerous for a normal person, but it doesn't matter for you."

Plati spoke with a tone that seemed to place full trust in me.

"For someone as strong as you, a dungeon is just a hunting ground. Having two of them nearby means it's a prime location."

"I'm not that strong…!"

"You're being modest again."

I can fight monsters thanks to the 'Bearer of the Supreme' ability. It's not because of my own strength or hard work.

I need to keep that in mind and never become complacent…

"Speaking of which, here they come."

As we proceeded up the mountain path, which was overgrown with vegetation, several pairs of eyes glared down at us from above.

There were at least ten or twenty of them.

They were the familiar, aggressive eyes of the horned boars.

"This time, they came as a group!?"

"Finally, we meet the feast on the ground!!"

Fear and joy.

Plati and my reactions were clearly divided.

"I'll take them down one by one! Sir! Try to kill them as cleanly as possible! The meat will become inedible!!"

"Don't make the conditions for killing them so strict!!"

The moment they saw us, the horned boars attacked. Is this their instinct as monsters!?

Are they carnivores!?

Are they trying to eat us!?

I asked Plati out of frustration, and she said, "No." They just want to charge and trample anything that moves.

That's annoying.

If they're that annoying, there's no room for sympathy.

I'll cut them all down and make them into delicious dishes!!

* * *

"…The holy sword was thirsty for blood tonight."

I don't know if the holy sword really was thirsty for blood or not.

Following Plati's instruction to "not hurt them too much," I used the holy sword to split their skulls and kill them with one blow.

I repeated this eighteen times.

Eighteen dead horned boars lay around us.

Actually, I'm used to calling them horned boars, so I don't care about the official name, Square Boar.

Some of them were also killed by Plati's magic potions, so there were probably about twenty-five in total.

There were a few more, but they escaped during the hunt.

If they were going to run, they shouldn't have attacked in the first place.

We must extinguish the sparks of fire. The law of the jungle.

We will follow this law and enjoy the lives we have taken with our own hands to the fullest.

"Meat I've only dreamed of! Meat of the beasts on the ground!!"

Plati danced in front of the meat.

She gobbled up the vegetables and dishes I made with great enthusiasm, a gluttonous mermaid indeed.

Anyway, if we're going to enjoy the meat, there's something we need to do first.

Butchering.

We need to cut the captured horned boars into usable and non-usable parts, and properly process the usable parts to prevent them from spoiling.

……

Processing twenty-five of them.

Now, I realize.

I caught too many.