The World Is Overflowing with Monster, I’m Taking a Liking to This Life

Chapter 95: Magic Stones and Wild Animals

Whats there is a giant rat. A rat that is as large as cats is moving about with a rustle. If regular rats are to be enlarged, they would look like this one.

Uwah gross.

My thoughts accidentally leak out of my mouth. Seeing the enlarged figure of an animal that I have seen countless times before is more eerie than I expected. This is my first time encountering such a creature. Does it count as a monster? No it feels somewhat different. Its presence is similar to that of Momos. An existence that is neither a monster nor a regular animal.

Ah, perhaps

Arriving at a certain thought, I feel amazed. Perhaps the rat is an animal that defeated monsters and consumed their magic stones, just like Momo. Since there is a precedence in the form of Momo, this premise is not unfounded.

Because we have only been dealing with monsters, I forgot about such possibilities. It isnt strange is there are animals like Momo that hunt monsters, raise their levels, and eat magic stones to gain skills. Also, there are a lot of magic stones lying around in the city from fallen monsters. Some animals might have eaten the magic stones that were left untouched.

Is the rat also like that? The rat is keeping its nose down and watching out its surrounding. It is highly likely that it has some skill. In a sense, animals might be better than humans at survival. After all, living in the wild, animals should be used to being attacked by others stronger than themselves. Now, what to do What happened, Kudou-san? What is it?

Ichinose-san opens her mouth, likely worried about my silence.

Ah, sorry about that. I was thinking about something the creature was not a monster, but rather a gigantic rat. Rat?

Yes, but its not a regular rat. Its a rat which has strengthened itself through devouring magic stones. !

Eh? Whats that? What do you mean? Whats a magic stone anyway?

I can hear Ichinose-san taking in a deep breath. On the other hand, Rikka-chan doesnt seem to get what Im saying.

A magic stone is a stone which falls after a monster is defeated. When other creatures eat it, their bodies become stronger and they obtain the defeated monsters skill. Legit? I mean, I did see stones falling after the monsters were killed, but to think they were such amazing stuff. Well, its reasonable that she didnt know until now. In the first place, I wouldnt have known this either if I didnt have the Item Boxs list function along with Aka and Momo.

Should we hunt it down?

Indeed

I contemplate at this point. Our opponent this time isnt a monster. While its big, its still a normal animal. Yet There is a possibility that it carries pathogens. Also, there is a chance that its aggressive towards humans Its better to slay it Momo. Wan!

Along with my signal, Momo extends her shadow towards the rat. Rikka-chan raises her voice in surprise.

What?! The shadow is stretching? How come?

Its one of Momos skill. There isnt any danger to this, so please be quiet.

Ah, okay amazing

During our exchange, the shadow approaches the rat. Good, lets restrain it and kill it at once.

Chii!?

However, the rat notices Momos shadow before it arrives. And then with astonishing agility, it avoids the shadow.

What!?

Watching its movement, I exclaim out loud in astonishment. Youre kidding? What a speed. To avoid Momos shadow, it requires the speed of a lesser no, a shadow wolf.

Chichichi!

Furthermore, it is avoiding Momos shadow by running horizontally on the wall. That has to be a skill. Also, it should possess some sort of a detection skill. Im not certain whether its Crisis Detection or Hostility Detection, but unless it possesses such a skill, it isnt possible to dodge Momos shadow like that a second before it hits.

Chichi!! Chu!

Shaking off the shadow, the rat runs away. In the blink of an eye, it disappears from our sight.

So it ran away

Kuuu

Momos voice expresses regret.

Its okay, Momo. Our side didnt receive any damage, so I dont mind.

I stroke Momos head. The fact that it escaped probably means that its combat ability is not so high. Also, Crisis Detection didnt show any intense reaction. Its strength should be below that of a goblins. Perhaps its enhancement is geared towards agility or means of escape. I mean, Ill be troubled otherwise.

I dont sense any other thing around us. We should be fine now.

Having heard that, the two puts their guards down. Still, animals enhanced with magic stones huh? This is troubling Monsters are a threat, but this could become the source of another threat. Stray cats and dogs. Crows. There are many animals in the city and 5 days have already passed. Enhanced animals like Momo and that rat would keep increasing in number. What if bears, boars, and poisonous snakes from the forests were strengthened? If animals that initially possessed outstanding physiques get even more powerful, how are they different from the monsters? One more thing to worry about Even so magic stones.

By eating them, monsters and animals can strengthen their bodies and gain skills. But is this the only way to use them? Or are there other uses that we havent found yet? In games, theyre standard items used to power up weapons and abilities.

On a different note, why can animals eat magic stones while we cant? Oh, how I want to have Appraisal. While mofu-ing Momo, I wonder how I can obtain the Appraisal skill.

-Meanwhile-

Scary. Scary. Scary.

The rat was running desperately. Suddenly, something black had assaulted it. He knew right away that it was something dangerous. Hence, it ran away. It escaped with its life on the line. It was a mistake to come above the ground on a whim.

It had swallowed a peculiar stone, making it bigger and obtaining some strange power. It felt as if it could do anything. But that was an illusion. There was always someone better and stronger, so it didnt want to experience painful memories. It decided to live carefully underground like before. Thinking so, the rat ran.

Chichichi.

The hole which it crawled out from appeared in its view. A little bit more. A little bit more, and it would return to its dwelling. The rat relaxed momentarily from relief. However, that created a fatal opening.

Chi!?

At once, its movement stopped. Rather, it was forced to stop. Why couldnt it move? The more it struggled and tried to move, the more restricted it felt. The rat finally noticed that which was tangling its body. It was a myriad number of threads.

Chichi!? Chichichichichi!

As it looked around, it noticed that the threads were covering various parts of the surrounding. And then it appeared before the rats eyes. From the hole where the rat tried to return to, a spider emerged, letting out eerie sounds.

.tsu..

The rats instinct was raising an alarm at maximum volume. Scary. Scary. Scary. Scary. Scary. Dont want to die. Dont want to die. Dont want to die. But it was too late. The predator was right before its eyes. It wielded sharp claws and fangs. The rat could see countless bones scattered inside the hole. That was the last that the rat ever saw.