Chapter 21 - When I was Enjoying All-You-Can-Eat Monsters, the Signs of Creatures Disappeared from the Forest
I'm Alraune, an ordinary plant monster girl who gets hungry a lot as of late.
Just a moment ago, I have poisoned a Wahnschwein to death.
Wahnschwein is a boar-type monster that boasts the power of a heavy tank and the ability to break through any obstacles. That kind of creature was charging straight at me. Could you imagine how scary it was? If our bodies collide, I, a mere plan, would surely be blown away like a joke. However, I'm not so stupid to take him head-on.
I transformed my vines into thorny vines with Plant Generation and built a thick wall with them. When the boar crashed into it, the vines wrapped around his body like a net. No matter how powerful his charging was, with countless thorns biting into his body, it would put some breaks to his momentum. In addition, I coated those thorns with poison. My poison was pretty strong that most enemies could be dealt with it.
The Wahnschwein was gradually losing his strength as the poison started to take effect on him. Not wasting the chance, I hurriedly released poisonous pollen as finishing blow. The Wahnschwein finally collapsed and then died not long after.
Anyways, without further ado, let’s dig in!
*swallowed*
Even so, I feel like I've been getting a lot of visitors these days.
I'm still living a plant life while photosynthesizing, but things are not so peaceful around here. There are just too many monsters to count. Sometimes they come solo, sometimes in groups, and sometimes in lines. No matter how I think about it, this number is obviously abnormal.
I can produce about a hundred thorny vines currently. You know what? I just realized that I'm surprisingly good at one-to-many battle, as long as I'm not up against big guys. Thanks to that, I had to digest everyone who came to visit me every day. I've never been able to eat all I can like this before.
Well, despite everything, I'm still the same as before, just preying on the prey that comes to feed on me like an insectivore. You can even say I'm enjoying my plant life in peace and quiet right now.
Yes, that’s right. I’m quietly eating all kinds of monsters, after all.
Speaking of which, the forest became noisy since the day I ate the anaconda. Maybe is it due to the disappearance of one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the forest? If that is true, the situation might be even more serious because of another member of the Four Heavenly Kings, Mr. Hellwolf, had already been eaten by Daddy Bear. That makes two seats vacant at the moment. In addition, I have a feeling that Daddy Bear --- the lord of the forest, is so enamored with my honey ball right now that he never leaves his den. This situation triggered a turf war throughout the forest and disrupts the ecosystem.
That’s just a wild guess of what’s happening right now, though.
I personally find the current situation ideal because I don't have to worry about food anymore.
I hunt using a wait-and-see method. Because I'm a plant, I can't walk around, so I lure my preys with honey and then catch them. Under normal circumstances, there are days when I don't eat, but lately, the preys wander in so fast that I'm overfed.
What am I going to do if I get fat? This is a body that can’t go on a diet even if I want to.
I don't mean to brag, but no matter what kind of monsters coming my way, they are no longer my opponents. I'm also growing up ---- as a plant monster, that's it. Unless they are those of the Four Heavenly Kings level, I wouldn’t even break a sweat.
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It's been a few weeks since I preyed on the anaconda, but I have yet to face any worthy opponents. My live was never in danger during this time, which is a good thing.
Oh, I think we have a visitor.
Good day, Mr. Tiger.
If I remember it correctly, it's a tiger-type monster called Creek Tiger. It's a monster about the size of a large truck that is well-known as battle maniac. Yes, in sort, it's a tiger that loves to fight.
There's a certain anecdote about this monster. It's said that once upon a time there was a Creek Tiger that barged into the human battlefield during the war and started killing soldiers from both sides indiscriminately.
They are a genuine battle race that there was such a fierce tiger among them. However, it seems that Mr. Tiger didn’t live up to that anecdote. I mean, look, he is already dead.
I welcomed the approaching Mr. Tiger with dozens of thorny vines. Only a few of them hit the target, but that was enough. My real attack was the poison --- my specialty. Mr. Tiger who got wounded by the thorns collapsed due to the poison not long after. Then, I released poisonous pollen as a finishing blow. The battle ended in the blink of an eye.
This is my current sure-winning tactic. Mr. Tiger didn't even seem to notice that the thorn was poisonous. Yeah, it was surprisingly an easy battle.
When I first saw him, I thought "This guy must be the last Four Heavenly Kings of the Forest!". However, I didn't struggle as much as when I fought the anaconda. I couldn't help but having a second thought about certifying him as one of the Four Heavenly Kings.
Mr. Tiger would be unbeatable against the other forest monsters. I feel that he was as strong as the anaconda and the hell wolf in terms of raw strength. However, he was not my opponent.
Let's call him one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Forest (provisional) for now. Do your best getting rid of the provisional part and rising to the official Four Heavenly Kings of the Forest, Mr. Tiger.
I guess it's impossible since you are melting in my stomach right now. Then, do your best in the next life. I'm also doing my best in this next life.
If you reincarnate as a plant, you will understand my feelings. Let's get along as fellow plants at that time. Of course, I will still eat you as a material for my Plant Generation.
Hmm, it's been on my mind for a while now. Is my poison much stronger than before? I feel like my ability to kill has improved since I fought Daddy Bear and the anaconda. I feel like something inside me have evolved.
I wonder if my survival instincts as a living creature had kicked in when I faced a near death situation which resulted in my poison became deadlier.
Is that how much I have grown? Now that I think about it, I'm just a newborn sprout of Alraune. You can even say I am still a toddler. When I grow up, I'm sure I will be even stronger.
Maybe now is my growth spurt period? Speaking of which, I can grow more vines and thorns than before. Yeah, everything makes sense. Perhaps this is also the reason why I get hungry a lot as of late. Instead of overnourished, my body is undernourished. I wonder if this is really what’s happening right now….
Oh well, I just need to eat a lot and grow up to be a big and splendid flower. And one day, I will finally defeat my greatest nemesis.
I don't want to remember that humiliation anymore.
I will survive in this warring states period of the forest.
I will become strong and live a peaceful life.
After that, I turned dozens of monsters into nourishment one after another. But then I noticed that there was no longer any sign of life around me. No one came to visit me anymore.
There used to be so many of them, but where have they disappeared to?
It's mysterious, isn't it?
Oh well, the sunlight is delicious and the water also tastes good.
Thus I went back to my slow life doing nothing but photosynthesizing since there was no more visitors coming. However, those days of peace and quiet soon came to an end. A guest, an acquaintance, I hadn't seen in a long time, showed up.
Oh, hello there.
It's been a long time, isn't it?
I glad to see you are doing well, Daddy Bear….
I was so engrossed in all-you-can-eat monsters that I had completely forgotten about his existence. Come to think of it, another month has passed since then. It's not surprising if Daddy Bear has already finished eating the honey ball. Even so, I really didn't expect this. Daddy Bear is not alone. He came here with someone.
Daddy Bear, who is that next to you? Please introduce us.
What? The lady next to you is your wife? That's a bit of a surprise.
So, Mommy Bear? Nice to meet you. I thought you were his sister because you look just like him.
I mean, it should be obvious that there's Mommy Bear. Daddy Bear couldn't give birth to that bear cub a.k.a honey-loving perverted bear, after all.
The two bears, Daddy Bear and Mommy Bear, started marching toward me together.
I see. So that's how it is….
Apparently, this couple is crazy about me.