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Chapter 5

Chapter 5

How much time has passed since then? From that cursed-doll-like form, I had finally managed to evolve into something that could plausibly be seen as human.

Well, mostly.

The Mandragora flower on my head couldn’t be removed no matter what I did. So I decided to sprout other flowers and plants around it, making it look like a stylish hat covered in blooms. I worried that if it was just the Mandragora flower, people might get suspicious, so I wished to be able to grow different kinds of plants—and gained a new skill called 「Diversification.」 It allowed me to grow any plant I’d previously consumed, using my own magic as fuel.

(That skill cost me 10 evolution points. I was surprised, but… good thing I had enough.)

Evolution points increase by one with every level up. Monsters use them to enhance themselves. …But I might be the only one spending dozens just to look like a human.

Since then, I’ve fought several more battles. Before I knew it, I’d reached level 99.

【Species】 Mandragora (Unique)
【Level】 99
【Vitality】 A
【Magic】 Unmeasurable
【Skills】 Voice Spread / Medicine Creation / Status Display / Diversification
【Evolution Points】 32

【Description】
A top-grade Mandragora grown in dragon-infused soil and saturated with magic. As a material, it can create any known potion, but it has grown powerful by consuming countless other monsters. It is impossible to capture.
Its voice is a guaranteed curse-induced death; countermeasures are essential.
It mimics the appearance of a human to lower defenses, approaching before spreading its voice to attack from unseen distances.
Can replicate and extract properties from various plants to create a wide range of chemical compounds and afflict enemies with status conditions.
Engaging it without perfect resistance to both curses and status effects is inadvisable.

A threat to humanity. A disaster-class monster. Unless you are a hero, you should run for your life.

(Wow… That’s… a seriously villainous-sounding description. Also, who exactly is this written for? Still… I thought I looked pretty human by now. Is it still that scary?)

I peered into the pool of lotus flowers. It resembled Monet’s Pond, beautiful and clear. These lotuses were highly toxic, so there were no fish or animals, making the water remarkably pristine. It reflected my image clearly, if not quite like a real mirror.

Back when I looked like a cursed doll, my 「hair」 was a wild mess of brambles. Now, I had sleek, glossy locks with soft waves. (Well, they were technically vines, but they looked like hair.) The colors faded from green to pink in a gentle gradient, which was just the natural pigment of the vine. It gave off a slightly mystical vibe, but I figured I could pass it off as dyed hair.

I had adjusted my height, too, using the humans I’d seen as reference. One point didn’t add much, so I’d spent ten just to reach a height about one and a half heads shorter than those men. Any more than that felt like a waste of points, so I’d stopped there. If I ended up too short for a human woman, I could just wear heels or something. Besides, I doubted I’d gain more levels, so I wanted to conserve my points.

(Yeah… when I first hit human height, I looked like a cursed mannequin. It was terrifying.)

Like something out of a haunted mall. It’d have been impossible to show myself to anyone. After that, I carefully adjusted my skin tone, removed the webbing between my fingers, and reshaped my face and limbs to finally resemble a person. That alone had eaten up more than ten points. Minor inconsistencies could be hidden with clothes and flowers.

(Speaking of clothes… yeah. They’re not bad, considering the water’s reflection.)

Once I had a recognizably feminine, human-like body, I had to deal with the issue of clothing. My conclusion: if it doesn’t exist, make it. I could grow and manipulate plants freely, after all. Clothes are made from plant fibers, right? I could replicate that.

So I roamed the forest, sampling all sorts of plants to find the best materials for clothing. Once I found them, I sprouted them from my head and wove them into fabric. …But when I tried to separate those fine vine strands, it was painful. With just one or two, it was tolerable. But hundreds, thousands, were agony. I gave up on removing them.

In the end, the clothes I 「wore」 were still connected to the base of my 「hair.」 I increased the volume of my hair to about waist length to cover everything, so it shouldn’t be noticeable.

(I’ve got to minimize exposed skin… One touch and I might suck the life out of someone.)

I designed a form-fitting green dress. It was simple, so I sprouted a few flowers on it for decoration. …Okay, sure, it looked a bit too floral, but it was still within human norms. People would just assume I was really into flowers.

More importantly, gloves. They extended from my sleeves all the way to the fingertips, hiding my root-hands entirely. People might wonder how I got dressed like that, but I couldn’t risk showing my bare 「skin.」

Thanks to experiments with monster corpses, I knew that interacting through vines or clothes wouldn’t trigger absorption. So even if I touched someone, as long as it was through the vines, they’d be safe.

It made for a rather eccentric fashion style, but that was fine. Better to be seen as weird than accidentally killing someone.

(I even figured out how to control the screaming. I should be safe blending in with humans now.)

Being a Mandragora had made me absurdly timid. I would scream at the slightest surprise. So I created a lid over my vocal organs. Unless I consciously chose to speak, it stayed shut, preventing accidental screams. …The downside was that I couldn’t reflexively scream in self-defense anymore. But it was a small price to pay to avoid hurting people.

What’s more, the lid would clamp shut even tighter when I wanted to scream, pulling my face into a strained, unnatural smile. So in situations where I wanted to scream? I’d end up grinning.

…I repeatedly told myself it probably wouldn’t be too creepy. Probably.

(Alright, then. Time to head for the human realm!)

Of course, I had no idea where that was. But this place was clearly highland terrain, so I decided to follow a river downhill. Humans need water to survive, so they usually build settlements near rivers. Assuming humans in this world weren’t vastly different from the ones I knew, I’d eventually find a village or town.

(When I meet someone… What should I say first…? A greeting?)

Crap. I’d completely forgotten how to interact with people. I’d just been screaming and running around. Maybe I should practice a bit first.

As I walked along the stream, I noticed a rabbit peering at me from the bushes. It was a monster-type rabbit, with strange horn-like shapes poking out—poorly hidden.

Might as well use this for practice. I tried speaking in the gentlest voice I could manage.

「Oh my? Why in such a place?」

No, wait. That wasn’t right. I should’ve started with something like 「Hello」 Let me redo that—

Before I could open my mouth again, the rabbit’s horns flopped sideways, and it collapsed.

(Wait. …Was that not a scream? Just regular speech? It still killed it?)

Mandragora screams cause unconsciousness or death. I thought it was only the screaming that was dangerous. Maybe I was wrong.

There was a small chance the rabbit was playing dead. When something dies from a Mandragora’s voice, their chest area turns dark black, so I moved closer to check the body in the bushes… If the rabbit really died from that, it would mean that I can’t speak in front of others.

「Leave… me… alone…」

Beyond the rabbit, a human lay on the ground, covered in blood.…Wait. Did he hear my voice just now? Isn’t this bad?