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Chapter 45

The girl with sky-blue hair launched herself at me without changing her expression.
A textbook-perfect high-angle downward strike.

I lightly sidestepped it without blade contact.
The girl quickly retaliated, sweeping horizontally at my torso.

Kakin!

A sharp metallic sound echoed through the cave.
We were in a standoff, but the status of our power and our raw strength had an immense gap between us.

This girl compensated for her lack of strength with the sharpness of her high-ranked weapon and boasted superlative combat skills due to her innate speed.

Naturally, there was no way she could engage me in a head-to-head clash.
The girl seemed to know this well and soon gave up the test of strength, retreating with a backstep.

Perhaps she was preparing to start over.
I let my guard down, and it didn’t turn out well.

A searing sensation raced across my cheek.

No, this wasn’t heat; it was blood.
I’d experienced it many times on the battlefield: lacerations from blades.

「A throwing knife… You’re quite versatile.」

While backstepping, the girl switched her sword from both hands to a one-handed grip on her left and, as if it were a tip, flung a knife from her pocket with her empty right hand.

「…It’s obviously poisoned, how considerate of her.」

But recently, in preparation for the upcoming solo play, I’d made sure to acquire skills and items related to status abnormalities.
I’d also learned how to deal with poisons because it was vital for solo play in areas like forests and mountains.

After all, healers were unreliable, and I couldn’t expect any support from magic users.

「Unfortunately, it won’t work.」

「…Unfortunately?」

「I’m immune to poison, you know.」

With a faint smile, the girl’s figure blurred right before me.

「Huh…?」

Suddenly, the altitude of my field of vision dropped significantly.
It seemed like I was now kneeling.

「…Ex Mandracora. Even whales, through oral ingestion,will get instantly intoxicated. There’s no way the likes of you could be sober after a direct attack to your blood vessels in your brain.」

Wait, what did she just say?
Mandracora’s harvesting difficulty is at least A-rank.
The highest-tier species is even categorized as S-rank or beyond…

It is legendary stuff, right?

「Why… What is that? Why do you have something like that?」

「…What… What do you mean by that?」

She answered my question with another question.

But this isn’t good.
My head is throbbing, and my vision is spinning.
My inner balance is completely haywire.

「Why do you have something like that? Even if you somehow obtained it somewhere, it’s far more valuable than our bounty rewards…」

Ah, I see, I nodded in understanding.

The girl, expressionless, confirmed my suspicion.

「…This time, the cost doesn’t matter.」

「The cost doesn’t matter?」

「…We have money. Or, more accurately, we have high-value items for exchange. We have an abundance of it.」

The girl’s retainer behind her wore a troubled expression and said,

「Seriously… I mean, we do have a lot, but…」

「…?」

「…Meaning, you’ve been selected as my experimental subject. Start understanding your place, you piece of trash.」