Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 11 - Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

The Desert Ecosystem 

OUR JOURNEY ACROSS the desert began the next morning. 

The attack by that Succubus had at least woken me up to the dangers we were facing here. I’d spent the last few years in a nice, safe university town, and it might have dulled my instincts. They hadn’t been that sharp to begin with, but I’d definitely gotten a bit too relaxed about things. 

We were on the Begaritt Continent now. This place wasn’t nearly as safe as the Central Continent. I needed to get my head in the game, or I was going to get us both killed. 

“Let’s try to stay covered up for now,” I suggested as we got underway. “Make sure you keep yourself hydrated too. Let me know if your canteen runs dry.” 

“Of course.” 

The two of us were wearing coats and had hoods over our heads. Exposing any skin could be dangerous out here. If we’d brought Cliff along, I had a feeling he would have been complaining about being so bundled up in this heat. 

Although we were in the middle of a desert, I could refill our water supply with magic whenever it was necessary. Still, neither I nor Elinalise had any experience with this kind of terrain, and there was no telling what we’d find on the road ahead of us. There was a risk I’d get heatstroke and find myself unable to use any spells at all, for instance. We had to play this carefully. 

“Shall I set our course due north, then?” Elinalise said. 

“Yeah, please do.” 

Nanahoshi’s map indicated that the nearest town lay in that direction, although it was rough at best. 

Elinalise didn’t need a compass to orient us—a relatively well-known elven ability. They never lost their sense of direction, even in forests so thick you couldn’t see the sun. With that ability, along with the skills she’d picked up over the years, I was confident she would keep us on track regardless of any obstacles we encountered. 

Come to think of it, I’d met quite a few people who could find their way through tricky terrain using nothing but a basic map. I guess it was a skill you developed with enough practice. 

“It really is hot out here, though…” she sighed. 

“I could try to whip up a rainstorm around us, if you want.” 

“Let’s not, dear. It would probably attract hordes of monsters.” 

Desert animals were always on the lookout for sources of water. The thought reminded me of the hordes of lizards that had emerged during the rainy season in the Great Forest. Still, I’d heard it said that the monsters on this continent couldn’t endure cold. If we ever got swarmed, I could try freezing the air all around us…as long as I could do it without accidentally hurting Elinalise. 

For now, though, I just followed along behind her. 

This was my first time walking in a desert. It felt like my feet were sinking into the ground with every step. Fortunately, I’d gotten used to moving through the snow up in the Northern Territories. This wasn’t exactly the same, but my ability to step lightly still came in handy. I felt like I could keep it up all day without getting too worn out. 

This initial optimism proved to be a bit misguided, though. Only a few hours later, I found myself growing increasingly exhausted. The sun beating down on us was the main issue… That and the scorching winds that kept blowing in my face. I could tell my temperature was elevated, and I was starting to feel a little dizzy. 

I was rehydrating as often as I could, but that sense of fatigue was still building fast. Maybe I ought to have summoned up a cloud or two above us after all. 

In comparison, Elinalise was still in surprisingly good shape. “You don’t have as much stamina as I expected, Rudeus.” 

“The sand isn’t that much of a problem, since I’m used to walking through the snow…but this heat is really brutal.” 

“To be fair, I suppose Cliff or Zanoba would have collapsed by now. It was the right call not to bring them along.” 

It never ceased to amaze me how monstrously tough the warriors of this world were. Maybe this unnatural stamina had something to do with that battle aura thing too? I was more than a little jealous. 

In any case, this heat was bad news. It felt like the sweat was vaporizing before it could even trickle down my face. 

Up in the Northern Territories, cold had been the major problem. Back then, I could generate a pocket of heat around me using magic—a practical application of the spell Burn in Place. Maybe there was a variation that would make this place more tolerable. 

“Oh, that’s nice and cool,” Elinalise said. “Did you do something, Rudeus?” 

“Yeah, I’m trying to lower the temperature around us just a little.” 

After a little trial and error, I managed to cool things down by about five degrees Celsius. It was still brutally hot, though. The sun was just too powerful; I had a thick hood on, but it still felt like the top of my head was on fire. Maybe we should have brought parasols or something. 

For now, I supplemented my cooling spell by magically freezing the water inside one of my canteens and slipping it inside my clothing. I could just freeze it again when the ice melted. 

These adjustments made things a bit more tolerable. I wasn’t comfortable, but I could withstand the heat. 

We encountered multiple monsters that first day. 

The first creature we ran into was a giant scorpion perhaps two meters in length. Its tail was split in two, and it could lash both sides around independently of the other. Elinalise told me afterward that it was called the Twin Death Scorpion. Its sting delivered a very dangerous poison that could only be cured by Intermediate-level Detoxification magic, which made me glad I’d taken the time to learn that tier. 

The creature had a relatively tough carapace, but it wasn’t too nimble. Elinalise pinned it in place, and I shot it dead with a Stone Cannon in about two seconds. The thing was supposedly a B-rank monster, but it posed no threat at all to us. We worked well together. 

If Elinalise had been here on her own, though, she might have had a harder time. I wasn’t sure if her attacks could do much damage to a heavily armored enemy. 

“Phew. Those things certainly are large, aren’t they?” said Elinalise. 

“I don’t know. It seemed normal enough to me.” 

“Well, it was about the same size as the monsters on the Demon Continent, wasn’t it?” 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” 

The monsters of the Begaritt Continent weren’t supposed to be comparable to those of the Demon Continent. It was a bit odd that the first one we encountered was so large. I’d been expecting something maybe half this size. 

“Maybe the scorpions are just unusually big?” Elinalise ventured. 

“Sure, maybe. Sometimes you just run into the most dangerous monsters right off the bat, don’t you?” 

“Not particularly often, I’d say.” 

“Hmm. Maybe the monsters in this area are just on the stronger side, then.” 

“That seems a bit more likely.” 

Still, we kept moving at our usual pace. 

The next monster we encountered was a Treant—a common foe this time. This one was a spiky green Cactus Treant, rather than a walking tree. It was a C-rank monster capable of shooting needles at its enemies and using basic earth magic. But once again, it didn’t pose us much of a challenge. 

“It’s almost reassuring to run into a Treant, isn’t it?” said Elinalise, wiping off her blade after we were done. 

“I guess so. They really are everywhere, aren’t they? Almost like slimes.” 

“Hm? Slimes? But those only live deep inside caves.” 

“Sorry, just ignore me. Anyway, it’s too bad the ones out here are cacti, not trees. We can’t exactly use their bodies for firewood.” 

“Yes, they’re far too saturated with water, I’d imagine. That might be helpful in its own right, but we already have our magic.” 

By now, Elinalise could use basic water magic spells herself. I’d assumed she was skipping all her classes, but I guess she managed to learn what she needed to. 

The next threat arrived suddenly and without warning. 

“We’re under attack!” shouted Elinalise, leaping back to my side. 

A split second later, something gigantic burst up out of the ground just ahead of where she’d been standing. It was a worm. An extremely large worm—maybe a meter thick and at least five meters long. It let out a strange barking sound in mid-air, then plunged back into the sand and disappeared. 

“Good lord, that startled me…” she said. 

“What was that thing, Elinalise?” 

“A Sandworm, I suppose. A very large one.” 

Sandworms were monsters that sat waiting patiently under the sand, then burst up to attack when prey happened to pass nearby. I’d never seen one before, but apparently there were similar creatures in the Great Forest. Their sizes differed greatly, though. The forest-dwelling ones were only about twenty to thirty centimeters thick, and they could maybe bite off your leg at worst. 

“I hear they have big ones in the Demon Continent as well,” Elinalise said. “You’ve never seen one?” 

“Most of the monsters I ran into there were just snakes and wolves. Oh, that and some weird walking armor thing.” 

“Walking armor? What was this, a Soulbreaker?” 

“Nah, they called it an Executioner. It’s the one with the big sword.” 

“Ah, those are a stronger variety. You don’t want to run into one of them when you’re on your own.” 

It seemed the Sandworms here were unusually large too. I’d caught a glimpse of five meters of its body, but the rest was still underground; it might be as much as ten meters long in total. That made them large enough to swallow a man whole. If you happened to wander over one without noticing, it was the equivalent of stepping on an instant death trap. 

Still, they didn’t pose much danger as long as you could avoid their initial attack. 

I churned the ground where the Sandworm was rooted, chopping it up with blades of hardened sand. It died without even a shriek. A small puddle of fluid formed around the part of its body that had burst from the surface. 

“If they’ve got caterpillars that big around here, I wonder what the butterflies are like,” I mused. 

“Maybe that’s what they call the Succubi. They’re a bit like butterflies of the night, aren’t they?” 

“Ha ha. Does that mean you started off as a bug yourself, Elinalise?” 

“Heh, well…we all have our awkward early years, you know.” 

Hmm. So she wasn’t denying that she was a Succubus. Now I was curious about her caterpillar years, though. Was she hanging around the school library with a big pair of dorky glasses? Working the fields in a pair of dirty overalls? 

Either way, I had the feeling Cliff would get really excited if he could see a photo. It always tickles a man’s heart to see an unexpected side of a girl he loves. 

The last monsters we met that day were a group of ants. We spotted them after crossing over a particularly large sand dune. The next instant, Elinalise threw me down to the ground. We ended up sliding halfway back down the hill we’d just climbed. 

“Hey! What are you doing?” 

“That’s an army of Phalanx Ants!” 

That didn’t mean much to me. But I followed Elinalise’s lead, slowly crawling back up the dune. This involved staring at her butt for quite a while. Always a sight for sore eyes. Would Sylphie end up rounding out like this in a few years? Her butt was beautiful just the way it was, but I wouldn’t mind getting more of it. 

“Be quiet, Rudeus. We don’t want to provoke them.” 

Pressing ourselves flat against the slope of the hill, we peered out over the crest at the Phalanx Ants below—bright red creatures, marching along in an orderly formation. Each ant was maybe thirty centimeters to a meter in size. Some were on the larger side of that spectrum, and others were noticeably smaller. They also came in different shapes; I saw a few with wings, and even some who had oddly human-looking lower bodies. 

Despite the variations in their ranks, the creatures were marching single-mindedly toward the same destination. It was basically a river of oversized army ants down there—the line stretched as far as the eye could see on either side. I couldn’t even begin to guess how many of them there were. 

“Given their size and numbers, that’s definitely an S-rank threat,” Elinalise said. 

“Wow, really? Mind explaining? I’m a little curious.” 

“Phalanx Ants are one of the most dangerous monsters out there. They’re known for their insatiable appetite and their ability to consume anything in their path. Those ones are particularly massive too. They must be a species unique to this continent.” 

It seemed Phalanx Ants were mutant versions of a more typical species of army ants. Unlike other ants, they didn’t establish static colonies but spent their lives in constant motion, eating everything in their path. They did have a number of natural predators, but their sheer numbers made them capable of overwhelming any terrestrial foes—even stray dragons. At certain intervals, they would pause their journey to make a temporary nest, where they bred, replenishing their numbers with the next generation. Similar to the behavior of normal army ants. 

However, since these were monsters rather than normal animals, they were smarter and more aggressive than the species they’d developed from. If we started strolling casually along the dune, they would swarm us in the blink of an eye—even if we weren’t aggressive toward them. 

“None of the individual ants are that powerful. Those ones down there are probably E rank. Maybe D or C for the larger ones.” 

“Well, C rank’s nothing to scoff at…” 

And from the looks of things, there were thousands and thousands of them. The danger a monster posed wasn’t evaluated in a vacuum, anyway; you had to consider their tendency to move in groups. Even D- or C-rank monsters would be a rank A threat if you got a dozen of them together. In a group of thousands, they’d definitely be a high S. 

I’d played a few video games in my old life where you battled ants three times the size of a human being, but there was no real need for them to be this big. Especially considering how quick and powerful monsters were for their size. 

“Oh! That must be the queen.” 

Elinalise pointed out a particularly large ant among the crowd. It was at least two meters in length, and had the upper body of a female human. Reminded me a bit of a boss in an old RPG I’d played once. 

In my old world, even the queen army ants were maybe fifteen millimeters in size. These things had to be, what, fifty times larger? That was scary, all right. There were lots of monsters that traveled in large groups here, and they tended to be very good at working together in battle. If I threw out an attack spell, they’d probably form up into perfect Roman army formations and charge me from all sides. For all we knew, there might even be some with long-range or magical attacks. 

Maybe we’d stand a chance if I used some massive spell to hit all of them at once? No… If I tried to hurl a nuke that big, it would probably end up hitting us as well. 

“Uh, Rudeus? Why do you look like you’re getting ready to fight?” 

“What? I’m not.” 

“Well, you’re clearly thinking about how you’d try to kill them.” 

Was it really written that clearly on my face? What was I, some kind of battle-hungry barbarian? “Sorry. I was just thinking about how to get away if they noticed us.” 

“All right, then…but we’re just going to sit here and wait until the whole army marches past, you understand?” 

“Right,” I said with a nod. “Got it.” 

It wasn’t like I was going to get any EXP for smashing my way through half a million killer ants. Their body parts might be worth something as a raw material, but I couldn’t imagine dragging those heavy carapaces around in this brutal heat. And our objective was to make it to Rapan as soon as possible, not to make a name for ourselves as ant-slayers. 

This was basically a scouting mission. I needed to remember that. 

It took about an hour of waiting, but eventually the massive army of ants finished marching past our position. 

In the desert, the sun turned red as it set. The sand began to glow crimson, and pools of shadow formed underneath the dunes, transforming the scene from a monotonous sandy brown into a striking pattern of vivid red and blacks. It felt like we’d stepped into a different world. 

Still, a desert was a desert. The Sahara back in my old world had probably looked like this in the evening as well. 

“The temperature’s going down fast,” I observed. “We might be able to make more progress in the night, honestly.” 

“I suppose you’re right. Let’s keep moving for now, then.” 

“Sure, I’m… Hmm?” 

As we were speaking, I heard something flittering through the air nearby. Looking up, I spotted a group of bats about fifty centimeters in length. They were flapping around loudly and circling the area. I hadn’t noticed any of these during the day; they probably came out at night to feed on bugs or lizards. 

“Those are Giant Bats, Rudeus.” 

“Oh, they’re monsters?” 

“A borderline case, but they move in groups. We should be careful.” 

As a monster, the Giant Bat was probably an F-rank threat, or maybe E rank if you got a large enough swarm of them. They didn’t have much in the way of offense or magical powers and weren’t aggressive toward humans. The main issue seemed to be that all the flapping could get kind of annoying. 

“Huh? W-wait, what’s the matter with these things?!” 

For some reason, though, these ones were flocking around Elinalise. They didn’t seem to be attacking her, but they had her all but surrounded. Were those all males, maybe? 

“Hey! Rudeus! Don’t just watch. Help me!” 

“Yeah, sure.” 

Nimble as Elinalise was, she couldn’t very well keep moving with a wall of bats surrounding her. I’d have to knock them all away with a little tornado or something. 

“Hm?” 

But just as I was preparing to cast my spell, I noticed one particularly large silhouette inside the swarm of bats. It was a humanoid figure with bat wings, and it was skipping toward us in a weirdly slinky way…and there was a hint of something sweet in the air. 

It was a Succubus. 

“Oh, crap! Stone Cannon!” 

I smacked my big, hard rock right into the little seductress. Grimacing in agony, she clutched at her stomach and hopped backward, then turned to flee. I’d unconsciously dialed back the spell to a non-lethal level. It was hard for me to kill something that looked so human. 

It was time to face the facts: I was not cut out to be a Succubus exterminator. I couldn’t bring myself to kill the things, and whenever I got a good whiff of their scent…or their pheromones, or whatever…I sort of lost my grip on reality. If I ever found myself in close combat against one, they’d beat me easily. 

Of course, as long as I had the benefit of distance, I could take them out with a single Stone Cannon shot. If I could see them coming, they weren’t a threat. 

In terms of combat ability, a Succubus was probably the equivalent of an E-rank monster, but it was usually classified as a C rank instead. Its ability to mesmerize made it powerful. 

Good thing I wasn’t a virgin anymore. If I didn’t have those sweet memories of my nights with Sylphie to fall back on, I wouldn’t stand a chance against those things. 

Even in my previous life, I had a soft spot for Succubi. The ones in that world tended to wear a ton of makeup, but that was fine, as long as they never let you see what was really underneath the paint. You just had to let yourself believe the illusion. 

Long story short, it wasn’t my fault if I got really horny and grabbed Elinalise from behind after we cleared out the last of the Giant Bats. I was a victim of the circumstances. 

“Hey! Rudeus? Get a hold of yourself! Use that Detoxification spell already! Gah, stop rubbing yourself against me!” 

“Come on! Please? Just a little? I won’t even put it in all the way! Why don’t I just use the back entrance? That doesn’t count as cheating, right?!” 

“Stop being such an idiot!” 

“Guhoh!” 

My persistent groping was answered with a vicious shield chop. If Elinalise was a character in a visual novel, they’d probably call her a “childishly violent heroine” on the internet. Not that she wasn’t fully justified, of course. 

In any case, the pain restored my sanity somewhat, and I used my Detoxification spell. 

“Haa… haa…sorry for the hassle, Elinalise…” 

“That’s all right. It’s the monster’s fault, not yours.” 

Man, it really hurts where she smacked me… she swings that thing like a club… 

“Honestly, I hope we’ve seen the last of those awful creatures… Ugh, now you’ve got me all worked up.” 

Smacking her flushed cheeks, Elinalise shook her head vigorously. My mating rituals had apparently done some damage this time. It was the Succubus’s fault, at the end of the day, but that didn’t matter. She’d been justified in hitting me. 

My jaw was going to be aching for a while, but these things happen. 

“Those bats seemed like they were under the Succubus’s control, didn’t they?” 

“Yeah, I guess so.” 

The Central Continent had monsters that commanded weaker monsters as well. The first monster I’d ever seen in this world was one of them, in fact. What was it called, again? I’d only seen it that once, so it had slipped my mind. Some kind of boar-like creature that walked on two legs. 

Apparently, the Succubi could control swarms of Giant Bats in the same way. When they saw men and women traveling together, they’d order the bats to attack the women, and take that opportunity to seduce the males. They brought the men back to their lairs, where they’d wring them dry and then literally eat them. 

I could take the things down at a distance with a single attack, but a swordsman or warrior used to melee combat would probably be in deep trouble. How could you possibly deal with that scent up close? The longer the fight lasted, the harder it would be to focus. Even the most pure-hearted of knights would eventually fall to their knees. 

Gay men were probably the only people who stood a fighting chance. 

“…What is it this time?” 

Not long after our battle with the Succubus, a two-legged lizard that resembled a velociraptor popped up over a nearby sand dune. More quickly followed, and soon they were moving toward us. 

They weren’t especially large, but there were more than a dozen of them. A few made an immediate beeline for the fallen Giant Bats and started to feed on them. 

“I’ve never seen these things before,” said Elinalise, raising her shield warily. I also readied my staff and watched the creatures carefully. 

“I’m surprised. I thought you knew about every creature out there, Elinalise.” 

“I’m not a professional monster researcher, you know…” 

For once, Elinalise couldn’t rattle off the name of the enemy we were facing. That probably meant it was a species only found on the Begaritt Continent. 

When they spotted us, the raptors hissed loudly, and a few jumped to attack. It looked like they were trying to protect their meal more than anything else. Not that they’d really earned it, considering that we’d killed the bats. 

The raptors were quick, and they had sharp claws, but they weren’t particularly dangerous. The two of us took out seven of them in a few seconds, cutting their numbers to about ten. The survivors, realizing the danger they were in, backed away from us warily. 

It seemed easiest to mop up the survivors with a single big Earth spell, but— 

“Rudeus! Be careful! Something huge is coming!” 

A group of larger monsters had been sneaking up on us during the fight. They were giant chickens, maybe five meters in height—basically feathered dinosaurs. Their crests were an eye-searingly bright shade of red. 

Apparently, these things were natural predators of the “velociraptors.” The pack immediately assaulted the lizards, killing most of them and sending the others fleeing frantically. The chickens consumed their victims violently on the spot. 

“That’s got to be a variety of Garuda…” 

On its own, a Garuda was considered a C-rank monster, but those that moved in packs were usually classified as B-rank threats. These ones were unusually large to boot. We were probably in A-rank territory here. Since their battle with the raptors was happening some distance from us, though, the oversized chickens were content to throw a few threatening cries at us rather than attacking. 

The few surviving lizards were still desperately trying to escape, but they wouldn’t last long at this rate. And once the Garuda finished eating them, they’d probably turn on us next. We might be able to handle them, but… 

“Let’s get out of here while the getting’s good, Rudeus. Something even bigger is coming.” 

Elinalise’s sharp senses had already picked up on a truly massive predator approaching from behind the monstrous chickens. 

“Got it.” 

As we retreated, Elinalise managed to grab one of the smaller raptor corpses to take with us. It would probably make better eating than the bats. 

After putting some distance between us and the site of our battle with the raptors, we found a quiet spot to make a temporary shelter. This would be where we spent the rest of our night. 

Rather than relying on our provisions, we decided to cook and eat the dead raptor that very night. We still had plenty of food, but any adventurer worth their salt tried to supplement their supplies when they could. 

Today had taught us that the desert was a very different place at night. Once the sun went down, the monsters had just kept coming. If we’d stopped to fight the Garuda, we’d probably have found ourselves facing down a new threat only minutes later. 

Elinalise speculated that the Succubus’ pheromones had attracted the other creatures to that spot. The scent was sweet to males and intolerably foul to females. It was hard to say if that applied to monsters too, but perhaps they’d learned that there was prey to be found when they followed that odor. 

And of course, the Succubi targeted human males…which meant that groups of people would naturally attract swarms of monsters in this desert. The first Succubus we’d encountered hadn’t brought any Giant Bats or other creatures with it, but there had been a magical barrier protecting that area. Maybe that Succubus had just managed to slip inside alone, somehow. 

Oh, crap. What if it was a friend of Orsted’s or something? 

N-nah, that can’t be right… it wouldn’t have just attacked me, in that case. It would have asked if I knew him or something, right? 

Hold on, though. What if it was all just a big cultural misunderstanding? What if that was just how a Succubus said hello? In Japan, people like to get to know someone by taking a bath with them. Foreigners could never seem to wrap their heads around that one. Maybe this was something similar. 

That would be really unfortunate, then. I might have accidentally killed an old friend of Orsted’s. Was it too late for us to go back and dig her a grave or something? Maybe he’d be less outraged if he saw we’d shown her some respect… 

No, no. If he’d posted a guardian out there, Nanahoshi would have mentioned it. And thanks to his curse, most people instinctively hated Orsted. That probably applied to humanoid monsters too. 

It was probably just a coincidence, all things considered. 

“Fwaaah… I must say, the Begaritt Continent’s not much like what I envisioned.” Elinalise’s yawn echoed inside our little shelter. I envied her ability to relax. Maybe she’d be a little less carefree if she had any idea what Orsted was like. 

Still, I was just overthinking things at this point. We couldn’t start worrying about whether every monster we encountered was actually somebody’s friend. The thing had tried to eat me. We’d fought back to protect ourselves. It was that simple. 

Pushing this unproductive line of thought away, I turned to reply. “Yeah, I guess so. There’s a lot more monsters than I expected.” 

In terms of the encounter rate, this place seemed even worse than the Demon Continent. Hopefully we hadn’t screwed up and landed ourselves on the Divine Continent by mistake or anything. 

“Well, we’re managing all right for now, and that’s what matters.” 

“Sure. Doesn’t mean we can get careless, though.” 

“I don’t need you to tell me that, dear. Still, if we can keep doing what we did today, we should be able to deal with anything that attacks us.” 

“Just make sure you’re ready to deal with it if a Succubus gets me again, okay?” 

“How about you be a little more careful?” 

Our first day in the desert was finally over. It had felt more like a week, honestly. 

We had a long road ahead of us.