The dungeon has been parasitized

Chapter 11 Pod Shooter

By the campfire at night, Yanami was frying pork chops on a stone slab. Many strips of meat were hanging above the fire. Yanami planned to smoke some dried meat to eat slowly.

She would occasionally sprinkle a little salt from the two bags, filling the plantation with a wonderful aroma.

After flipping the pork chop several times, Yanami used a wooden fork to skewer it, and then she held it up in front of Klein.

"Klein, look, what a beautiful pork chop!"

The pork chop has a golden-brown, slightly charred surface, with firm, thick, and plump meat. Its glossy surface even reflects the flickering campfire.

"Your cooking skills are excellent."

"Yeah, it's a real shame Klein can't have any."

"You can eat it."

"Then I won't be polite."

Yanami put the pork chop into her mouth, then bit off a piece and began to chew vigorously. Her lips, which were originally a little dry, were now covered in grease and glistened.

It looked good, but Yanami frowned. She ate for a while and then swallowed it.

"How is it?"

"Ugh... the meat is too firm, this won't do."

"After all, it's a battle-hardened wild boar, its body is full of firm muscles."

"Is that so? Was choosing thigh meat a mistake?!"

Of course.

"It seems that the tenderloin is the most tender cut; you can try it."

"good!"

After finishing the remaining pork chop in two bites, Yanami stood up and walked towards the small mountain of meat not far away.

"But, Klein."

She suddenly turned around again.

"Where is the tenderloin?"

"...It's the flesh on both sides of the spine."

"good!"

After the steel-tusked boar died, the dutiful gardener, Anna, kept most of the meat and buried the entrails underground, intending to use them as fertilizer for Klein.

The demonic sword was still stuck in the little mountain of flesh, devouring the flesh and blood of the steel-toothed wild boar.

In reality, Yanami couldn't possibly finish all that meat. Leaving so much meat behind was all Klein's arrangement. He wanted to use the Demon Sword's ability to devour flesh and blood and turn it into magic power.

[Ability: Consumes flesh and blood and converts it into magic power. The accumulated magic power can be used by the wielder or transformed into sword energy.]

In other words, Klein can quickly recover his magic power by using the Blood-Eating ability of the Demon Sword, and then use the recovered magic power to use skills—to gain experience!

The experience gained from accelerated growth has reached 94 points. A few more uses and it will be able to level up. The biggest reason for not being able to level up is that Klein's magic power is in short supply.

Accelerated growth is not only a means of survival but also a means of attack. If accelerated growth can be upgraded, it will be of great help to Klein.

Right now, the Demon Sword Blood Eater is still replenishing its magic power.

Yanami walked to the carcass of the Steel-Toothed Boar, drew her Demon Sword, Blood Eater, and began to cut off the tenderloin of the boar before putting the sword back in its place.

During this hunt, Klein successfully killed the Steel-Toothed Boar, thus gaining a lot of experience and successfully leveling up to level ten.

[Level: LV10]

Experience: 504/1000

[Option to be chosen ×1]

I gained about 1,500 experience points. This battle was relatively quick and not too difficult, so I don't think I gained much experience. In other words, I gained more than 1,500 experience points from just one Steel-Toothed Boar.

It would be great if we could kill a few more, but if a few more came, my plantation would probably be in trouble.

Okay, let's see what options are available this time...

[LV10 Options:]

[1. Base growth rate × 10%]

[2. Basic plant toughness × 10%]

3. Basic plant hardness × 10%

[4. Root absorption rate × 10%]

[5. Mana recovery speed ×10%]

6. Magic Bullet Tree's Pods: Consumes magic to fire wooden bullets.

The Magic Bullet Tree's... pods?

In other words, once you have this, you can shoot a gun?!

Choose! This is an extremely rare ranged damage method!

Klein chose option six without hesitation.

Although Klein wanted to immediately generate a pod to test its power, he had something more important to confirm.

Klein opened the talent panel, and after reaching level ten, each of his talents gained a new skill.

[Individual Talent: Parasitic Plant LV2]

[Remote Control LV1: Remotely control unconnected seeds and offshoots. Accuracy decreases with distance. Mana cost: 10 points per minute.]

[Individual Talent: Reincarnated LV2]

【Magic Replication LV1: Records the target's current spell, cast without incantation. Storage capacity is one.】

Mana cost: 500 points

Both of these new skills are great. With remote control, you can directly control the offspring remotely instead of manually controlling them.

Magic replication allows you to gain more ways to deal damage.

In short, these are all very practical skills.

Leaving the control panel, Klein wanted to quickly test the effects of the Magic Bullet Pod.

Activate skill: Accelerate growth

Using skills consumes magic power, and generating the pod also consumes some magic power. One of Klein's vines grew rapidly and eventually became an oval-shaped pod, about the size of a fist.

Klein could feel the magic he had consumed gathering at the tail of the oval-shaped pod.

"Klein, what is this?"

Yanami stood to the side with the freshly roasted pork tenderloin, and Klein quickly reached out with his vines to push her a little further away.

"Ah! My barbecue!"

Yanami was caught off guard and pushed, causing the freshly grilled pork chop to fall to the ground.

"Sorry, but this thing is dangerous, so don't get too close."

"Ugh... okay."

Yanami picked up the pork chop and obediently took a few steps back.

"I'm going to test its power, so be careful."

"Let's use this pork chop for the experiment then? Don't waste it."

"……All right."

Klein used vines to bring the pork chop to the front of the magazine, and then fired the magazine.

Pong!

The magic was detonated, and the wooden bullet hit a corner of the pork chop. Even so, the entire pork chop exploded, and bits of meat rained down on the plantation.

That's incredibly powerful...

Isn't this just a pistol?

However, the pork chop was already overcooked and was made from the tenderest part of the tenderloin, so it wasn't actually very potent.

"Klein... he's amazing."

However, the drawbacks are also obvious. The accelerated growth and the fact that the pod itself requires a full 100 points of magic power mean it can only be used once or twice in actual combat, and accuracy is also an issue.

However, once planted, they can be left to stand indefinitely, so it seems the only option is to plant a small amount in the plantation for defense.

The power is decent; if it could be reduced, Klein would like to use it to launch seeds.

Klein's seed itself is nothing special, but Klein has the ability [Parasitism].

Parasitism requires seeds to take root in the target; in other words, to parasitize a target, one must first control the target.

It took a lot of effort to parasitize the man-eating plant back then. Although the man-eating plant can't run away, it will fight back when it senses danger.

If the launch doesn't damage the fragile seed, and with the [Remote Control] skill, Klein can use the seed as a bullet to shoot it into the target's interior, achieving remote parasitism and reducing many unnecessary risks.