I Became a 6★ Gacha Character-Chapter 533: Terror of the Deep Forest 3
The forest fairy who rushed toward me was on the verge of tears with worry. She probably assumed I couldn't have wandered this deep into the forest by accident, and thought I was despondent enough to give up on life.
She figured no sane human would disarm themselves and grill meat in a monster-filled forest. She seemed like a gentle, kind-hearted fairy similar to the tearful Naias from the village. Seeing what she assumed was a suicidal human carrying an emblem received from her kind only deepened her concern.
A person welcomed as a guest in another fairy village and given a leaf token is trying to kill himself right in front of our village!
That was it.
"...I didn't realize there was another village here."
"Yes, yes, human. Let's go into the village and rest first... No more bad thoughts, okay?"
The spot we'd chosen was a short distance away from the dead adventurer's body. What we'd thought was the site of a named monster attack turned out to be the entrance to a hidden forest fairy village.
The adventurer party attacked by the named monster couldn't enter the fairies' village since they lacked the fairy emblem. How bewildering this must have been for the forest fairies!
It was surprising enough that a human adventurer appeared with a fairy emblem, but then that human removed his weapons and armor at the village entrance, seemingly offering himself as a meal to the terrifying monster that devoured forest fairies... I'd be shocked too.
I glanced around to see if the named monster might approach while we were chatting, but all I saw was an overly concerned forest fairy. As she tried to coax me toward the village while patting me soothingly, my companions burst out of the tent.
"Um, Fairy."
"Eek! A human crawled out of the ground!"
This caused the panicked fairy to stand protectively between me and my companions, creating quite a commotion, but we were able to clear up the misunderstanding thanks to the natural energy in our pockets.
If someone had stuffed it into their inventory again because they found it bothersome, I would've seriously flicked their forehead, but thankfully the viewers' nagging had prevented that. It was a strange situation—finding a fairy village while trying to lure a named monster. I wasn't sure whether to call it good luck or bad.
One thing was certain, though—viewers who had bet on the named monster appearing were now in a frenzy about why a forest fairy showed up instead.
"Well then, let's close the betting house and head to the fairy village~ Don't forget to say thanks before hitting the collect button!"
-LOL she's scraping off the losers here. Does she even have a human heart?
-Who cares, these pointless newbies with no points LOL Hey, who are you guys? Haven't seen you before.
-Jeongbae, are your brains in a drum? Jeongbae, are your brains in a drum? Jeongbae, are your brains in a drum? Jeongbae, are your brains in a drum? Jeongbae, are your brains in a drum?
-How can an elf pop up here? This makes no sense. There should be a special investigation into Han Se-ah colluding with BB Games for fraud.
-Mister, you look like a newbie with no points. Stop whining and go away LOL
The chat turned into a sea of tears, suggesting the overwhelming majority of viewers had expected a named monster. If you collected all the ㅠ and ㅜ characters, you could probably print an entire tear-filled encyclopedia.
I followed the forest fairy while watching Han Se-ah and her viewers, who were gleefully taunting the losers, probably high on dopamine from winning their long-shot bets.
As if to show that all fairy villages were created similarly, the forest gradually brightened. As the gloomy forest transformed into a beautiful sunlit scene, plump, swollen tree-houses came into view. And from inside, forest fairies began to emerge one by one.
"Oh my, humans? ...What a nice smell."
"Not humans lost in the forest, but guests! How long has it been?"
While the first village we'd visited had mostly green-haired fairies except for Naias the water sprite, this one seemed to house more field or earth nymphs, with most fairies sporting amber-brown hair. I wondered if each village had its own regional characteristics.
The problem was the unsettling way the forest fairies were looking at me. It wasn't hostility or killing intent, but a strangely sticky gaze that seemed to lick me all over.
What was this about? What did being human mean to these forest fairies? As I pondered this and pulled out Minthe's leaf from my chest, their gazes grew even more blatant. The look seemed familiar, and after racking my brain, I suddenly realized where I'd seen it before.
"Hehe, so it's not just women here."
"A little snacking should be fine, right?"
"It's not like the World Tree can see us in this world anyway..."
The eyes of noble ladies from society gatherings had looked at me exactly like that.
※
In ancient Greece, "Nymph" wasn't just a term for fairies but also referred to young women. Similar to the term "forest fairy," it had connotations like "lake maiden," "field maiden," or "forest maiden."
According to an anonymous viewer's tip, a word derived from "nymph" was "nymphomania."
When sexual desire becomes abnormally high to the point of mental illness, it's called satyriasis in men and nymphomania in women... satyriasis comes from the goat-human satyr, and nymphomania from nymph.
In other words, viewers were throwing countless donations to inform us that nymphs were lustful creatures.
'...First harpies, now this. It's all female characters everywhere.'
In Heroines Chronicle terms, busty earth and fertility character types apparently came packaged with the "lustful" attribute.
Didn't Greek and Roman mythology feature stories of fairies kidnapping beautiful young men for all sorts of indecent purposes? I suppose this was being historically accurate in its own otaku way.
Add to that the fact that my brilliant golden hair seemed to be more than just attractive to these amber-haired earth nymphs—it seemed to turn them on. The conversation in this second fairy village was heading in increasingly strange directions.
"So, I'd like to ask about the monster near this village."
"Oh, really? Why don't you come to my place for a bit? ...Alone, hmm?"
"But if you're worried about your friends... I don't mind if everyone comes. My bed is very large."
With every conversation immediately turning to seduction, even Han Se-ah, a seasoned broadcaster, was flustered, not to mention our innocent party members.
It was quite ridiculous how they were targeting not just me but all our attractive companions, as if determined to live up to the term "nymphomania." The only relief was that when Irene and Katie rejected them with blushing cheeks, the fairies just giggled "oh my" and seemed to find even that reaction delightful.
Ask a question, hear a sexual innuendo, reject it
Present the leaf, hear a sexual innuendo, reject it
Mention the named monster, hear a sexual innuendo, reject it
Only after defeating their persistent attempts to seduce humans they hadn't seen in ages were we finally able to learn about the named monster.
"A shadow fang tiger that moves through the forest shadows...?"
"This sounds like a complete upgrade of the moss wolf from the 20th floor."
-It does feel like they're bringing upgraded versions of lower floor gimmicks, yeah
-The hunter kept setting traps and running away, now monsters are using stealth ambush LOL The named one probably does too
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-Wait, who was the named monster from the lower forest floor? Was it the Orc Hunter?
-Yeah, it was the Orc Hunter. Regular mobs were orcs, kobolds, deer, and wolves, so they just carried the named one over
-If the trap-setting runaway evolved into a poisoning assassin, that would be super annoying LOL
The owner of the forearm-sized fang was a creature called the shadow fang tiger. As the forest fairies' intuitive naming suggested, it was a beast that could move freely through shadows.
It leaped between shadows in the deep forest, immediately biting the necks of easy prey, while spraying poison at more formidable enemies before stalking them from the shadows. This meant it was smart enough to gauge its opponents' strength and wait for moments of carelessness.
"Does the fang tiger spray poison?"
"Its tail looks similar to a spiny venomous snake. Whether bitten by its fangs, pricked by the spines on its tail, or inhaling the poison sprayed from the venom gland at the tip of its tail, you end up poisoned."
"So... that means it can sneak up, spray poison, and leave."
"That's right. It often just extends the tip of its tail from the shadows and sprays poison on humans' food. That's its main hunting method."
Just hearing about it made it sound tedious to hunt. Maybe my plan to use myself as bait was still the easiest approach.
After listening to the amber-haired forest fairy's explanation, our entire party looked serious, but none seemed to have any good ideas. How could you catch a bastard that only poked the tip of its tail out from the shadows?
Even Han Se-ah and her viewers couldn't come up with a solution despite putting their heads together, so my method still seemed best.
[The terror of the forest that walks through shadows walks through shadows]
[Searching for humans who suddenly appeared and an unknown fragrance]
[Searching for something that recklessly moves a terribly secretive monster]
But what was that supposed to mean?
The first layer had forest fairy villages, a named monster, and now some other unknown thing as well?
Enjoy the chappy!
