Kujonin Chapter 37

Marcus-san’s mushrooms aren’t red with white spots, they’re the normal brown mushrooms.
However,
“These mushrooms make the monsters giant.”
The effect is like THAT example.
“I failed at mastering my skills. My Skill to enslave monsters didn’t rise much. The only ones I could enslave are just these guys, ne.”
When Marcus-san said that, the masmascarl running about our feet gathered.
It’s 2, 3 times the masmascarl I’ve seen in the city.
There are also ones that have defecated near the mushrooms, so I know these ones have substance.
“Their reproductive abilities are also quite high; they increase rapidly so they’re handy.”
“Are these masmascarl going to get bigger than this?”
Velsa asked.
“Aa, there are individual differences, but around this size is the masmascarl’s limit. If they evolve, that’s another matter, though. Before that I’ll release them.”
“Release?”
Perhaps the masmascarl horde when we came to this island was Marcus-san releasing them.
“Once every 10 days, I release the masmascarl who have increased too much outside. Because the giant-isized monsters on this island will eat them. The masmascarl who are still alive will bring back corpses of giant monsters to the dungeon. I take out the magic stone from those corpses and use them to manage the dungeon.”
Marcus-san pointed at the giant field boar corpse.
“Why do the masmascarl bring the corpses to the dungeon?”
“I think it’s probably a homing instinct. About that, I did take notes on it just in case, but would you like to see it later? I want to try asking a profession monster researcher.”
“Of course! Please show me!”
Velsa’s eyes shone.
“By the way, yesterday I released them, and that night they immediately came back bringing monster corpses. That has never happened before, but was that because of you guys?”
“Aa, that was probably the fault of this.”
I took out the confusion bell and showed it to him.
“This is?”
“When they hear the sound of this bell, monsters have a fixed probability of become confused. Yesterday I used it when the masmascarl horde came attacking so they started eating each other, and some also evolved into poison masmascarls, and the horde at some giant monsters.”
When I honestly answered, Marcus-san examined the confusion bell.
“Confusion, huh. I see. You have an interesting thing with you,”
he muttered.

Observing the mushrooms and masmascarl with Velsa, after a while, for some reason the masmascarl gathered around me.
“Aa, it’s because monsters will approach people with high magic power. If you can control your magic power, try suppressing it as much as you can.”
I haven’t done it much before, but when I tried to do so, it wasn’t perfect, but I managed it.
Somehow, I think the masmascarl who came over are also reducing in number.
Just that several of them are winding about my feet without leaving.
“Hahaha, they like you, na. Before you get peed on, let’s go to my workshop.”
Bringing us along, Marcus-san headed to a place like the office of a warehouse.

The workshop seems to be Marcus-san’s private room, so there’s a large workbench and bookshelf, as well as things like a small kitchen and potted plants area where unidentified vegetation is growing.
There’s a door that seems to lead further inside.
“Next door is the bedroom.”
While saying that, Marcus-san lit a fire in the cooking range in the kitchen and placed a pot on top.
Velsa quickly went to the bookshelf and began to select books.
“A, around that area is all notes and records.”
When Marcus-san told Velsa, Velsa piled books on top of the workbench and began to read them greedily.
Looks like the books are handmade with monster leather.
“You’re skilled.”
“No, I messed up on a number of books. Look, the spine’s binding is all messed up.”
Certainly the book on the end of the bookshelf had a poor shape and was all messed up.

From within a small cask, Marcus-san took out dried tea leaves and began making tea.
“A, do you have a tea plantation?”
“I do! Actually I haven’t been managing the dungeon. Recently I’ve been going this direction. Want to see?”
“Yeah, if it’s okay.”
“Alright! Have a little tea and we’ll go!”
“A, if you’d like, do you want to put the tea in this bag and drink it at the tea plantation?”
“O, you can do that? Nice!”
“Velsa, what do you want to do?”
Velsa, reading books like she’s drooling over them, didn’t move her gaze from the books and,
“I won’t got,”
and turned the page.
With her like this, then she won’t be needing tea either.
Leaving just a water skin, Marcus-san and I put the pot and teacups in the item bag and head over to visit the tea plantation.

We reach the tea plantation quickly from the workshop.
With a bang as we descended a well, there’s a compact tea field.
The ceiling is, like always, a blue sky.
The room’s size isn’t that large, but it’s well-maintained.
“I also offered it to the ghast terrors, but they don’t seem to like it much. It’s just for my use, so it’s this big.”
“I see; it’s a good tea plantation.”
In actuality, it’s very quiet and a pleasant wind is blowing.
“Thanks.”
I take Forest Rabbit furs out from the item bag and make a rug.

While drinking tea, Marcus-san told me about the hard times when he had tea seedlings and how to make the rush mats, and we had a heartwarming time.

“A, that’s right. Marcus-san, do you know anything about resistance skills?”
“A~, that’s a transmigrated person for you, naa. I do know of it, but I don’t recommend it.”
“E? Why is that?”
“You see…”
Marcus-san, when he had seen how easily this world’s adventurers die, immediately learned the Resistance Skill.
He didn’t look at production skills and magic skills and the like.
“For the attack skills, your physical strength is originally strong so I didn’t take as many. Anyway, I was desperate to raise defensive type skills and the Resistance Skill. I didn’t want to die, and at that time I also had comrades I didn’t want to part with.”
Somehow, it seems that he had comrades during the time he was the Hero.
“When I had raised all the defense type skills, a unique skill appeared, called [Immortal Body]. I had the shield role, so I quickly put in skill points. Another reason might also be because there was an elf I liked in the party.”
Elves are long-lived races.
He might have thought that if he was immortal, they could be together for a long time.
“Even so, in a certain dungeon we were wiped out.”
“E!?”
“Naoki-kun, what do you think will happen when you remove a dungeon core?”
“U,um. I don’t know.”
“The dungeon will swallow everything.”
The fingers of Marcus-san, who is remembering old memories, are trembling.
Was it a greatly terrifying memory or a painful memory; it’s probably both.
“It was 3 months after the dungeon collapsed. I returned to the surface. I was the only immortal, so I survived. All my other comrades were swallowed up by the dungeon and died. Within those 3 months the Demon King was defeated. All I had left was the dungeon core grasped in my hand, and this undying body.”
I couldn’t find the words to say, and could only suck in my breath.
“People who have skills are overconfident. What you need isn’t an undying body, but knowledge on how not to die. And for that, I made a dungeon on this island to research within.”
“… Is that how it was?”
What I squeezed out were merely words with no meaning.
I regretted my question.
“Therefore, to my fellow transmigrator, I will give a warning. Skills are, in the end, just skills. It’s better to use you skill points to make your life enjoyable.”
For me right now, Marcus-san’s words are heavy words.

“Should we return?”
Marcus-san said as he raised his hips and stood up.
“Yes.”
I do the same and stand up.
“A, right. Naoki-kun, is it alright to make a request of you as an adventurer?”
“What is it?”
“If there’s a chance that you visit the elves’ country, I want you to look for a girl named Sonia. When an elf dies, their soul returns to under the world tree in their birthplace in the elf country, and are reborn.”
“Understood.”
It must be from before, the elf that was Marcus-san’s comrade.
“And then there’s one more thing…”
Not good. If the other request is what I’m expecting, I can’t take it.
“I don’t have any intentions of learning a skill that can still someone’s kill. Of course, I don’t even know if such a skill exists, and even if I somehow get that skill, I wouldn’t tell Marcus-san.”
If a person lives for over 300 years because of a skill, is the skill was suddenly gone…
That, it’s just like murdering Marcus-san so I can’t do it.
“… Haha, no, would you come for tea from time to time?”
“A, sorry. I got the wrong idea. Got it. From time to time I’ll come to this island.”
I’m completely embarra.s.sed and apologetic.

“Are you able to see the future…?”

As I was folding the forest rabbit furs and stuffing them in the item bag, I thought I heard Marcus-san saying something in a small voice.