WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the EX-Rank Pet Maker Hunters Obsess Over ◈
Chapter 99: Spy Magical Beast
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The man in the tailcoat.
No... Magician Mask, White.
He spoke as though a great catastrophe was certain to happen, as if he had seen the future.
‘Well, something probably will happen.’
Since this was an Anomalous Gate, one of the Transcendent factions might try something.
But calling that a great catastrophe wouldn't be quite right. The catastrophe this man spoke of was surely the disaster that “Plague” would bring.
Yet I could say with absolute certainty that I had no intention of doing anything.
That was exactly why I was staying put at the base camp on the outermost edge of Sichuan.
Seeing that I still looked unimpressed, he continued.
“Oh dear...! You still don't seem to believe me. Well, I'm only so certain because of something I saw with my own eyes. Then let me offer some information that might lend my words a little more credibility. Surprisingly, there have been several unusual signs here in Sichuan Province...”
“No, hold on. More importantly, why did you suddenly come to me with a magical-beast commission?”
“Hmm?”
Honestly, I wasn't even curious about a disaster that wasn't going to happen. It was obviously nonsense born from the masks' misunderstandings anyway.
What mattered more was why Magician Mask had come to see me at this particular moment.
‘Considering he's been farming fruit too, he seems to belong to some faction and be busy exploring... So why come now?’
There wasn't a proper cultivation setup here in Sichuan.
All we had were a few small incubators and an intermediate incubator that had arrived recently.
Those could only cultivate magical beasts for building fortifications, or A-rank magical beasts at best.
White surely knew this wasn't a good time or place to commission a magical beast, so why visit now of all times?
‘Does he know something I don't?’
I voiced my doubts first.
“Setting aside the commission itself, as you can see, I don't have suitable equipment right now. I can't make a proper magical beast here. Is there a reason you need one made right away?”
“Of course! And I don't think the magical beast I want will need a particularly high rank.”
“...?”
He pulled a card out of thin air.
A joker.
A card that symbolized versatility and unpredictability.
“The magical beast I'd like to commission is... a spy magical beast...!”
The unexpected request caught me off guard.
A spy magical beast?
“What do you mean?”
“Hear me out. My side has discovered a rather unusual case.”
Magician Mask, White, explained.
A party belonging to a certain faction had been wiped out while farming fruit. The faction had only learned of the incident about two days later.
At the scene, they found equipment the Hunters had used, along with limbs and other body parts.
Yet, surprisingly, the magical beasts that had accompanied the Hunters were still alive at that horrific scene.
They weren't uninjured, but they had clearly been treated differently from the humans.
After finishing his explanation, Magician Mask's gaze changed.
“Do you understand? There are no ‘monsters’ here.”
He was right.
Unlike other Anomalous Gates, Sichuan was an unusual region where the enemies were not “monsters,” but “magical beasts.”
Mutated magical beasts created by a magical-beast biohazard appeared here in place of monsters.
“...Are you saying the mutated magical beasts don't identify the Hunters' magical beasts as enemies? No... To be precise, they leave them alive because they're useful as hosts.”
White had only said the Hunters' magical beasts were alive. He hadn't mentioned their exact condition.
“Exactly! You've saved me the trouble of explaining! Excellent insight! Every magical beast they found had been infected by plants.”
“Hmm... Then you want me to make a magical beast on the assumption that it'll be infected. Or one the mutated magical beasts will recognize as an ally.”
Then we'd attach something like a camera to it and send it into the deepest part of Sichuan.
If we attached a camera to an ordinary magical beast, it would only wander around nearby once it was infected. He seemed to want a magical beast that we could control well enough to send all the way in, even after infection.
White nodded.
“What do you think? Couldn't we turn the infection to our advantage and obtain information about the deepest part of Sichuan Province? Information about the area around that enormous tree shrouded in mystery!”
True...
White's proposal was very interesting.
So far, most of the information about the giant tree had been based on speculation.
Its trunk was about as wide as a decent-sized city.
It was so imposing that I wondered if this was what a World Tree would look like if one existed in real life. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about the ecosystem that had formed inside it.
This information would certainly be a huge help in future explorations.
‘This guy... He plans to gather information this way, then share it at the Round Table meeting.’
Since we'd selected Sichuan as our next target for subjugation at the last meeting, information about it would be valuable.
Information from the deepest area would naturally draw the most attention.
I could practically see him snorting with excitement at the thought of his plan succeeding and attending the meeting with information no one else had.
I folded my arms.
“I understand why you came to me. But if you want a spy magical beast, couldn't you ask an alchemist from your own faction to make one?”
“Well, that's true. But even if I searched the entire world, you're the only person who could make a magical beast suited to the task in no time at all. Am I wrong?”
“...”
He wasn't wrong. Designing and cultivating magical beasts at incredible speed was my specialty, thanks to the EX-rank Magic Beast Alchemist Trait the God of Jelly Dogs had given me.
After a little thought, I decided to accept the commission.
I didn't have any particular reason to refuse.
It was a chance to gain both information and fruit.
“All right. A spy magical beast... Let's give it a try.”
I gave him a rough estimate of the time needed to cultivate it.
“Heh heh... Just as I expected. What an absurd speed! I'll look forward to seeing the finished magical beast. Now, I'll take my leave.”
Even his exit was flashy. He vanished amid glittering effects like a magician.
‘Does he have no intention of hiding his identity...?’
That guy definitely wasn't right in the head either.
* * *
A few days later, White returned to the base camp.
“Th-this is...!!! Oho...!!!”
He kept exclaiming in admiration at the completed magical beast.
Chwee, chwee...
It looked oddly close to humanoid, with vines wrapped around its body. That matched the features of the mutated magical beasts that appeared farther into the region.
It had been given an appearance that would blend naturally into the surroundings. And in such a short time!
‘He certainly lives up to his reputation...! No wonder Emperor's Mask is so eager to back him!’
A neutral magical-beast maker with this level of skill, willing to make magical beasts for anyone regardless of faction, as long as they paid.
‘It certainly won't hurt to stay on friendly terms!’
Magician Mask nodded, thoroughly satisfied.
“Truly excellent! Just as the rumors said!!”
“For now, I'm planning to have our people send it farther in. Is that all right?”
“Ah, of course. Through the renowned Jelly-polis Alliance's forward bases, it should be able to reach the interior in no time.”
And so, we began transporting the fully cultivated spy magical beast with the help of our people from Jelly-polis.
The roads leading to our forward bases were very well maintained, so getting it in wasn't difficult.
Jelly-polis's current front line was Forward Base 3.
S-rank magical beasts appeared nearby, so only elite Hunters could be stationed there.
About six hours after we began transporting the magical beast on a giant floating Jellykko, we finally sent our spy farther into the region.
Chwee, chwee...
* * *
White and I watched the footage from the camera installed on the spy magical beast back at the base camp.
“The image quality is excellent. Very good. And no mutated magical beasts have attacked it so far!”
“Hmm... Just to be safe, we should deliberately let some plants infect it. We still don't know exactly how the mutated magical beasts identify allies.”
“It pays to be thorough in a situation like this!”
The closer one got to the interior, the more the woods spreading out from the giant tree moved like animals.
If a living creature stayed in one place, vines would soon stretch toward it. The plants would cling to its body, and over time, they would begin to parasitize and fuse with it.
After we kept the magical beast in place for about an hour, we confirmed that plants had attached themselves to its body.
It was somewhat contaminated, but I had given it resistance in advance, and there didn't seem to be any major problems. I sent it toward the giant tree again.
Watching the footage from the camera, White spoke with interest.
“Oho... It certainly seems resistant! But how are you giving that specimen orders?”
“Strictly speaking, that one's closer to a shell. This is its main body.”
I took a magical beast resembling a round ball of white fur out from inside my clothes.
Chwee, chwee...
As with the Charybdis Alpha and Beta models, this model's main body remained beside me.
Even if the plants invaded the spy magical beast, there was no risk of completely losing control unless they took over its entire body.
It began making its way deeper and deeper into the region.
If it had encountered other Hunters, they would have mistaken it for an enemy and hunted it down. Fortunately, the only Hunters around here were from Jelly-polis, so it was able to proceed safely.
Then White, who had been watching the footage, cried out as though he'd seen something horrific.
“Gasp...! Look at that!! How horrible!!! What a hideous mutated magical beast!!! That crude imitation of a human is deeply unpleasant and an affront to nature!! As expected, things grow more disturbing the farther in we go... This too may be an omen of catastrophe...”
I checked the magical beast that had startled him, then spoke quietly.
“...That's Lantern... I mean, a magical beast belonging to one of our Hunters.”
“Oh, dear...! On closer inspection, it looks very imposing and dependable! Ahem...”
The spy magical beast continued onward until nightfall.
There were no more Hunters in sight, and the giant tree now filled the screen. Every magical beast that occasionally appeared looked threatening and bizarre.
They walked on two legs and were clearly close to human in shape, but they were things that could never be called human.
I felt bad for thinking it, but every one of them was as grotesque as Lantern. Strange creatures with an awkward assortment of human body parts.
How should I put it? They looked like chimeras made by combining humans with other life-forms in a display of terrible taste, then implanting plant parasites in them.
Fortunately, they ignored the spy magical beast as though they hadn't seen it.
At last, the spy magical beast slipped between the roots and entered the giant tree.
It was evening, and beneath the giant tree's shadow, it was pitch-black. But there was a faint light in the distance, so I kept it moving toward that.
Then it entered the space the light was spilling from...
“Oh...?”
“Wow...”
A golden field came into view.
There was clearly no opening for light to enter, but the golden flowers blooming across the field gave off their own light, illuminating the entire space.
White seemed genuinely amazed.
“To think a place like this existed...”
“Wait, there's a door over there.”
Tree roots formed the shape of a doorway.
The spy magical beast headed toward it. It was enormous, seemingly about four meters tall.
Once it passed through, it found stairs.
The magical beast slowly climbed them while we watched with bated breath.
Considering the size of the giant tree, the path it had traveled so far covered only a tiny part of it.
‘And yet, these are clearly shaped like artificial structures.’
Partway up the stairs, it found another doorway and went inside.
In the dark space, large glowing objects clung tightly together in scattered patches on the walls formed by the tree's trunk.
“...”
“...”
We watched the footage in breathless silence.
The magical beast slowly approached the wall... and examined the nearest glowing object.
It was shaped like a capsule.
At the sight of it, White cried out. This wasn't his usual exaggerated reaction. He sounded genuinely shocked.
“...Th-this is insane...! What on earth is this!! Wh-why is something like this here?!!!!”
He looked deeply shaken.
I felt much the same.
The interior of that enormous tree... was all too familiar to me.
‘A cultivation facility...’
But the cultivation capsules weren't what had shocked us... It was what they contained.
I put a hand to my head and spoke, my gaze somber.
“...It looks like everything we've assumed so far was wrong.”
The shapes inside the incubators were far too familiar.
“...These things are growing people.”
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