The Vine Monster
"Captain Gauss, are you sure you don't need our help?"
"It's just a wandering Vine Monster. There's no need to make such a fuss. You can get back to your own commissions."
Gauss casually waved away Toga, his squad leader, when she asked.
According to the commission details, this Vine Monster had a Challenge Level of around six or seven. He had deliberately chosen it as their target because they hadn't killed one before.
Vine Monsters were commonly found in wetlands and rainforests. They looked like a huge mass of tall, animated plants.
Although they were plants, their diet included every kind of organic life.
They tirelessly devoured any plants and animals they encountered along the way. But compared with other monsters, they moved slowly, so they weren't considered a particularly serious threat to humans.
They usually lived in the wilderness and didn't deliberately attack human villages.
And though they weren't fast, their plantlike appearance let them hide easily in forests and swamps. As a result, they managed to thrive even in human territory.
This one had been discovered because it had wandered near a village, where a sharp-eyed hunter passing by spotted it.
Since they weren't sure whether it would move toward the village, the villagers had reported its presence.
"Is that so?"
Toga, the female dwarf, couldn't help wiping at her forehead, though there wasn't a bead of sweat on it.
The monster Gauss dismissed so casually was a powerful enemy that their dwarf squad probably couldn't defeat, even if they gave it everything they had.
Yet the captain spoke of hunting it as if he were out for a stroll, had reached lunchtime, and decided to try a different tavern for a change. It seemed utterly routine to him.
If she hadn't become much