Author’s note: This chapter is a little gruesome. There is a summary at the end for people who might not be good with this sort of thing.
“Kuh! I have to fight these weaklings!?”
Rihalzam said while taking out a scroll.
“《Activate》.”
The scroll opened and floated in the air. It seemed quite old, with its edges scrapped and looking yellow due to exposure to the sun.
“《Inter-Dimensional Connection》, 《Lodge In My Flesh》, 《Parasitic Transmuted Beast Nº1 (Crash)》.”
A magic circle appeared in the scroll, and Rihalzam plunged his left hand into it. It continued sinking deeper.
“Guoh!”
With a thick sounding yell, Rihalzam pulled his arm out, almost falling backwards.
Something big appeared to be dragged out of the magic circle and biting into his arm. There were numerous giant mushrooms, similar to caterpillar fungus, but each was over a meter tall. They were all growing out of his arm, as if biting into it.
“Guooh!”
It sounded painful. Rihalzam shouted while swinging his left arm, and a large quantity of spores were released from the mushrooms, falling onto the snake vine monsters that were closing in.
The spore then entered the slimy monster’s bodies through any gaps in their skin.
The snake vine monsters exploded upon making contact with the spore. Their flesh was eaten from the inside by hypha, and mushrooms burst from below their skin. The mushrooms were developing at a speed that would normally be unthinkable, and it did not take long for the ground in front of Rihalzam to be covered with mushrooms.
But still, one snake vine monster crawled beneath the mushroom-covered corpses of the other monsters to get near to Rihalzam, before jumping towards him.
“Aaaaaah!”
Rihalzam let out a thick sounding scream and swung down his left arm covered in mushrooms, crushing the monster with its huge mass.
The monster was smacked hard to the ground, raising a lot of spores and dust.
However, another monster took the opportunity to sneak up from behind and wrapped itself around Rihalzam’s leg. There were a lot of snake vine monsters, but this appeared to be the last one.
It climbed Rihalzam’s leg until it reached his oily thigh and gouged it with its fangs.
The thigh’s skin was pierced, and the fat and muscle beneath it was ripped. The monster then attempted to enter Rihalzam’s body through this opening.
“Gyaah!”
Rihalzam screamed in pain at something he was not expecting.
“You…! Weak weak weak!”
He desperately tried to grab the snake vine monster poking out of his body, but it was too slimy, and evaded his hand.
“Uorah!”
Seemingly without thinking, he swung down his left arm and grazed his own thigh.
The giant mushrooms being used as a hammer ripped apart the snake vine monster’s body and sent it flying, leaving the head inside Rihalzam’s thigh.
Rihalzam’s heavy breathing echoed, now that there was no more noise.
He looked around to confirm, and plunged his left hand back into the scroll, before screaming again.
When he pulled out his left arm, it was completely clean of mushrooms, leaving only innumerable wounds.
With a shaking hand, he took out a potion from his pocket and drank it in one gulp.
His body began to shine, and when it stopped, all the external wounds on his body were gone.
He struggled to his feet, looking rough with sand and all kinds of bodily fluids covering his body.
“It’s all that guy’s fault. He’s gonna pay for this. I’m not gonna let it end easily for him. Yes, I’ll do that. I’ll fill him with hope before plunging him into the abyss of despair. I’ll let him have the joy of returning to the association and then I’ll crush him!”
While mumbling what could only be described as incoherent muttering, Rihalzam made his way towards the camp while dragging his leg.
《Summary》
Rihalzam was injured, but he managed to defeat the monsters attacking him. However, his healing potion was not enough, and part of a monster remained in his body.
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The healing potion wasn’t enough, but I wonder…
Healing potion + portion of monster = regenerated monster?
Gross, to be sure. But it’s a setup that just needs a slight nudge.
As we’ve heard about healing the white lizard, regular human medicine can be lethal to monsters, due to excess of magic elements.
So it seems unlikely, unless the arms alchemist had a particularly crappy healing potion.
When you are so weak you need offer your own flesh to summoned beings to summon ones powerful enough to fight.