"Hey, Lion. How much longer until we reach Kukuri Village?"
"Um... if we've been following the map, I'd say two to three days? Even if it is our territory, I don't have every last detail memorized. Besides, I've never actually been to Kukuri Village."
According to Lion, the area we were currently in was somewhere past the halfway point of the journey from Shellhide to Kukuri Village — a place with no towns or villages nearby.
"Still, there's not a soul in sight as far as the eye can see."
We were passing through grasslands, so visibility extended several kilometers from the carriage in every direction, but there was no trace of any people.
"Well, there's not much out here. From spring to summer, you'd see the occasional person out here cutting grass."
The cut grass was used as feed for horses and other livestock, and served as a valuable source of income for inexperienced, low-earning novice adventurers. The price was just over 100 G per 10 kg, though, so even if you collected 100 kg and sold it, the earnings would be mostly eaten up by lodging and food expenses for the day.
"Still, if you use cheap inns and work efficiently, you can turn a decent profit safely. Save up that money to buy slightly better weapons and armor, then take on extermination quests to gain experience... That's basically how novice adventurers operate around here. Oh, and while cutting grass, you'll occasionally run into weak monsters like Horned Rabbits that give a decent return. Plus, adventurers who've taken grass-cutting quests a certain number of times get preferential treatment within the Border Count's domain."
The pay was modest, but it was steady side income and a way to gain experience — an indispensable quest for both adventurers and Shellhide, where horses were the specialty product. The preferential treatment included slightly higher rewards on future grass-cutting quests, or small discounts at inns and restaurants run by the guild or the Border Count's household.
"For newcomers with low income, that's a pretty good deal."
That benefit must be why this quest had become the standard for novice adventurers. Otherwise, they'd set up shop somewhere with overflowing work — like the Royal Capital or a Dungeon City.
"Although, the inn and restaurant discounts were added after the Kukuri Village incident."
There was an element of trying to prevent adventurers from leaving and lure back those who'd already gone, but even so, battle-ready adventurers hadn't returned. Well, battle-ready adventurers wouldn't take grass-cutting quests in the first place, and a benefit that small wasn't enough to justify relocating to the Border Count's domain when they could earn more where they already were.
"In any case, as far as securing future fighting strength goes, I think it's a meaningful policy."
"Yeah, as long as you don't let trained fighters slip away."
That was a problem every territory faced — the question was how much attachment fighters would develop before growing strong. Or rather, you had to make the place appealing enough that they'd want to come back even after leaving.
"That's the future Border Count's job, then."
"Yeah, I'll do my best!"
"Tenma, it's about to be your turn."
While Lion and I were talking, Cain offered to swap shifts, so I gratefully accepted.
"Alright then, Albert — swap with me too."
Lion called out to Albert to swap along with me, but—
"Lion can't go! If the guide disappears, won't we get lost?"
He was blocked by Cain. After that, I heard Lion shouting, "We just need to go straight — what do we need a guide for!" but he didn't call out to Albert again, so I figured Cain must have talked him out of it.
"Hey, Tenma. Merlin."
We'd been rolling through nothing for a while when Cain suddenly opened the carriage window and called out to us.
"There's a swamp ahead that Lion's never heard of before."
According to Cain, about fifty meters ahead there was a depression in the ground where muddy water had pooled into something resembling a swamp.
Grandpa and I got off the carriage to take a look, and sure enough, there was what appeared to be a swamp filled with muddy water — but it was obviously suspicious.
"Grandpa, that swamp looks man-made, doesn't it?"
"It does. Most likely, there are frogs hiding in there."
Grandpa seemed to have a pretty good idea of what creature had made the swamp. I used Appraisal to take a look, and sure enough, several creatures called "Mud Poison Frogs" were lurking inside. It was hard to tell exactly how many — possibly because of the distance, or because the frogs had Concealment — but either way, there didn't seem to be that many.
Everyone else who'd been in the carriage heard about the frog monsters and came outside, looking intrigued.
"What's in there is almost certainly Mud Poison Frogs. When winter approaches, multiple individuals gather together and create a bed for hibernation. Normally they'd make these in forests or wooded areas, but occasionally they'll build one in an open space like a grassland. Of course, building a hibernation bed on a grassland usually ends with them freezing to death, since there's nothing to block the wind."
Adventurers who underestimated the frog often got a nasty surprise and ended up being turned into winter nutrition.
"Despite the name, these frogs are several meters across at minimum. The one I saw in my old days was nearly five meters. And people tend to avoid them because of the 'poison frog' label, but the meat is actually quite delicious. On top of that, the materials are very useful."
The meat tasted similar to poultry, the skin had elasticity, and the sinews could be used for bowstrings. However, being rich in both material and food value came with certain complications.
"First, blunt attacks don't work well. The frog's skin and flesh absorb impact, so blunt weapons like hammers are nearly useless. Blades cut through fine, but the surface of the frog's skin has poison on it... If you're willing to discard the meat, you can repurpose the materials as weapons. That said, I wouldn't recommend close combat."
Frog characteristics that came to mind included "changing color to match surroundings," "extending their tongue to catch prey," and "powerful jumping ability" — and all of these applied to Mud Poison Frogs as well.
"In other words, before you can even get close, the frog's tongue strikes at you, and even if you close the distance, it uses its impressive jumping ability to retreat. Blunt attacks are ineffective, and cutting damages the materials. So the most efficient way to defeat them is magic — specifically, freezing or paralyzing them is best. In terms of raw strength, these creatures sit around C to B rank, but if you're after the materials, the difficulty jumps to A-rank."
Incidentally, when Grandpa had defeated one in the past, he hadn't been after the materials, so he'd used wind magic to sever its head, skinned it before the poison could seep into the meat, and only eaten the hind legs. As a result, most of the meat had to be disposed of, but since the hide was in perfect condition, the wholesale guild had been quite pleased.
"Should I go deal with it alone, then?"
"That would be best. Rather than going with you, I'd be better off staying here in case any frogs dodge your magic and come charging at the carriage."
Hearing that blunt and cutting attacks were both ineffective, Lion and Amur — our frontline pair — looked slightly disappointed. But the promise of delicious meat made up for it, and they watched me with eager eyes. Behind them, Shiromaru and Solomon — our glutton duo — wore the same look. Being stared down by four pairs of eyes in total, I steeled myself — failure was not an option.
"First, I'll put out the Golems... Now, advance!"
Following Grandpa's advice that it would be better to lure the frogs out with Golems before approaching the swamp, I summoned about five human-sized Golems. The material was just dirt from the ground, so they'd probably be destroyed in a single frog hit — but as long as their cores weren't broken, it was fine. And since they were decoys, getting destroyed wasn't a problem.
The Golems lined up abreast and advanced toward the swamp. And then—
"It worked! ...Whoa, careful!"
Four of the approaching Golems took frog attacks, but the power behind them was far beyond what I'd imagined. The speed and force of the frogs' strikes.
When the Golems were about ten meters from the swamp, the frogs sensed the approach and emerged from the water. I'd been walking behind the Golems for cover and was about to blast them with lightning magic, but before I could cast, the Golems burst apart. All four of them simultaneously. The debris came flying at me with tremendous force, so I frantically leaped backward.
"Their bodies move slow, but their tongues are as fast as bullets. Well, it seems like I'm out of range, though... Whoa!"
The position I'd retreated to seemed to be beyond the reach of the frog's tongue. They were slowly advancing toward me, but just in case they might leap, I took them out with the Stun effect from my lightning magic before they could.
Even with tongues that could achieve bullet-like speed, being out of range left them helpless, and all the Mud Poison Frogs toppled over on the spot.
"They don't seem to be in the swamp anymore. Let me fill it in for now."
I ordered the sole surviving Golem to recover the cores of the destroyed Golems and fill in the swamp, while I used water magic to clean the surface of the defeated frogs.
"When those Golems got destroyed, I was worried for a moment, but it looks like everything turned out fine."
Once Grandpa and the others confirmed the frog extermination was complete, they all came over to me.
"Ugh... Small ones are cute, but at this size it's just gross."
"For me, it's less 'gross' and more 'terrifying.'"
"Either way, I'd rather not fight a frog that's more than twice my size. Especially after seeing what it did to those Golems."
At Lion's words, everyone simultaneously looked at where the Golems had been destroyed. The scattered remains of the destroyed Golems had been collected — cores retrieved by the surviving Golem — and were being tossed into the swamp one by one as part of the filling material.
"If Miss had dealt with the frog, she could have ended up like that, couldn't she?"
"Not just Amur — Lion too."
At Reni's words, Amur's face went pale, and at Cain's words, Lion's face twitched. Well, if Grandpa hadn't explained things first, these two would have charged in immediately, so the probability was pretty high. Incidentally, if Lion had charged in, Albert — who would have gone to support him — and possibly Chris, who might have approached the swamp to stop Lion, would have also turned slightly pale.
"Jeanne, from now on, when we go outside, make sure you can deploy the Golems Tenma gave us at any time..."
"You're right..."
Having been captured and put in danger in the past, the two of them were belatedly double-checking their Golems.
"The most valuable takeaway is that everyone has renewed their sense of caution. Now then, Tenma — do you know how to butcher a frog?"
When I answered Grandpa's question by saying that I'd butchered normal-sized frogs before but never one this large, he said he'd teach me during the break.
"Lion, is there a water source nearby?"
"The closest one would be a river about ten kilometers ahead. It's not a very large river, but I think it'd be a good spot to rest in this area. Also, upstream from that river there's a small village, but that would be another twenty to thirty kilometers beyond our destination."
Ten kilometers was only about thirty minutes on Raiden, and even the village beyond that could be reached in about two hours.
"Then let's rest by the river. And for tonight's lodging, we'll rent a place in that village or nearby."
Going directly to the village upstream wouldn't have been a problem, but considering we'd need to butcher the frog, doing it right next to the village might cause a nuisance.
And so, we set out for the riverbank Lion had originally mentioned. Just as we decided on our destination, the Golem had nearly finished filling in the swamp, so I retrieved its core and loaded up the carriage.
"We're here!"
We arrived at the river a bit ahead of schedule and split up to prepare for our rest. As usual, we set out chairs and such near the carriage and did a quick sweep of the surrounding area, so it didn't take long. As for the most important part of any rest — the meal preparation — Reni volunteered to handle it this time. Usually it was centered around me, with Jeanne and Aura helping, which meant I had some free time.
"Grandpa, while we're waiting, could you teach me how to butcher the frog?"
"Certainly. Well, Tenma, you'll pick it up quickly. And anyone else who's free and interested, feel free to join — it's a somewhat unusual method, so it'll be good experience."
At Grandpa's words, Chris and Albert's group of three signed up. Amur tried to join as well, but Reni grabbed her and dragged her off to help with cooking, so the students numbered five including me.
"Alright then, I'm heading out — Slarin and the others, keep watch on the surroundings."
There didn't seem to be any threatening creatures in the area, but to be safe I asked Slarin and the others to stand guard, and we headed to the river.
"First, the methods for butchering a frog. There are broadly three. The first is to simply skin it and cut it apart. The second is to hang the frog from a tree or similar structure and butcher it that way. The third is to partially freeze it first, then butcher it. The first method requires someone to hold the skin down, or you can't get a clean dissection, but it's the most fundamental approach. The second method requires something large enough to hang the frog from and the strength to do so, but once you're practiced at it, you can separate the parts more cleanly than working on the ground. The last method requires partial freezing — not complete — which demands more magical skill and magic power, but lets you maintain the freshness of the meat while making the skin easy to remove."
So Chris and the others would use the first and second methods, while I'd use the third. Personally, I was curious about the second method since it reminded me of the traditional way of butchering monkfish, but I'd try it only after nailing the third method first.
"Oh, and before butchering the frog, wash its surface thoroughly. The skin often has poison on it, and besides, it's filthy. Also, this particular frog has a poison sac near the shoulder blades, so remove that first."
The poison wasn't typically strong enough to kill a person — in most cases it just caused numbness and slowed movement. But it could be dangerous for children, the elderly, or anyone with a weakened immune system, and even adults could die from shock if they accidentally ingested a large amount, or go blind if it got in their eyes. So caution was necessary.
"In the old days, some places used this kind of poison for fishing. But occasionally the poison wouldn't fully leave the caught fish, and in narrow waterways like small rivers, there was a risk of wiping out entire populations. So it's now banned in many places."
As a result, we didn't wash the frog's poison into the river — instead, we scooped water into buckets and cleaned it at a distance from the water.
"Going for it! Heave-ho!"
"This side's tied! How's Cain doing?"
"Over here is fine!"
The three of them were struggling to hang the frog from two earthen walls that Grandpa had conjured with magic. Presumably, once it was hung up, they'd wash the frog.
"Ugh... It's so slimy and squishy."
Chris was washing the smallest frog by herself with a scrubbing brush — though "smallest" was relative, as it was still well over a meter and a half.
"Looks like everyone's having a hard time."
I had two Golems hold the frogs while I used water magic like a high-pressure washer to strip away the grime and slime.
While cleaning, I felt eyes on my back and turned to find Chris staring at me intently. Then she silently extended her hand.
"You need a hand? No wait, that was a joke."
I tried a lighthearted quip, but when Chris wordlessly began scooping up the slime pooled at her feet with both hands, I quickly handed her two medium Golem cores.
Once Chris started using Golems, her work speed shot up dramatically, and she quickly overtook me, Albert, and the others. Well, that was only natural — she'd started with the smallest frog, and her workforce had gone from one to three (including two laborers who'd do the unpleasant work without complaint).
Albert and the others, watching Chris, naturally wanted to use Golems too. But since the task that needed Golems most — hanging up the frogs — was already done, and Albert's group had plenty of people, the Golems would actually have gotten in their way.
"Everyone's looks turned out nicely. The rest is just like butchering any other animal — remove the internal organs, peel the skin, and cut it into manageable pieces."
Once the slime and grime were removed, the remaining steps were standard procedure, so there was nothing particularly difficult. If I had to pick anything, it was that Albert's group, who'd been butchering their frog while hanging it up, had it the easiest.
"The meat is a nice color. It looks and feels similar to poultry, so it should work in similar dishes."
I cut off a small piece, lightly grilled it, and tried it — and sure enough, the taste was close to chicken.
"It's delicious, but... eating it while thinking about frogs gives me mixed feelings. Just the mental image seems to have knocked the flavor down a notch."
"Is that so? Doesn't bother me at all."
"I get where Chris is coming from. This frog definitely loses on the appearance front."
"Well, if you eat it without knowing what it is, it wouldn't bother you at all. As butchered meat, there's no issue."
They were unanimous in praising the taste alone. As they say, presentation matters when it comes to food.
"So I can claim all the materials as my share, since I'm the one who dealt with it, right?"
"No objections here. If Tenma hadn't handled it, Lion almost certainly would have ended up in serious trouble, and the rest of you — Merlin aside — could have been seriously injured."
In a way, that frog might have been the kind of monster capable of one-shotting the unprepared. To defeat it, you had to get close, which meant facing its tongue attack, and even if you tried to defend, the force was too dangerous.
"We should spread word of this frog's existence when we reach a village. If this area is supposed to be the basic training ground for newcomers, then this frog is far too dangerous. I don't know where these creatures came from, but since they've actually set up here, we can't guarantee they won't come back."
At Grandpa's warning, Lion nodded with a serious expression. Well, if this kind of dangerous monster was lurking in a place meant to give newcomers experience, adventurers might stop using this area as their base of operations. To prevent that, it might be worth having the Border Count commission veteran adventurers to investigate.
"Either way, I'm grateful to have gotten such interesting materials. The meat seems delicious too, and I'd like to make some equipment using these materials."
The only part of the frog that couldn't be used was the internal organs. Apparently, for creatures that lived in muddy environments like this, the innards tended to be foul-smelling and riddled with bacteria. While they weren't entirely useless for medicinal purposes, the processing was troublesome and they didn't fetch a good price, so we dug a hole and disposed of them by burning.
The most interesting material, in my estimation, was the tongue muscle. From what I'd briefly researched, it had properties similar to rubber. If it could serve as a rubber substitute, it would have all sorts of applications. However, there wasn't enough tongue muscle to use for serious experiments, so I'd be doing various tests with the frog's skin and sinews as substitutes for the substitute.
With several design blueprints floating through my mind, we made our way back to the carriage, where the meal preparations should have been completed.