DPAA 43

chapter 43

It took me a moment to interpret Felix’s words.

The tree dandelion’s main diet is baby monsters.

“?”

Something seemed off.

As my face filled with confusion, a rustling sound came from a nearby bush.

Was it a rabbit? I stared at the bush without much expectation, only to flinch as a strange creature suddenly jumped out.

At first glance, it looked like a giant rat.

The enormous rat, about the size of a small Chihuahua, was unnaturally plump and wagged its furry, spotted tail.

“Chik.”

When it opened its mouth, a metallic sound came out. Its thick gray fur around the mouth was soaked in dark red blood, remnants of whatever it had just eaten.

“Shh.”

Felix stepped in front of me and put his index finger to his lips.

Glancing at Aiden, I saw him tracking the gray rat with a bored expression.

Then the anomaly occurred.

“Squeeeak!”

The tree moved.

The hole at its base split open, and in an instant, the tree swallowed the gray rat whole.

Crunch. The sound of bones and flesh being chewed echoed sharply.

Glug. Burp. The tree finished devouring the rat, burped, then extended its trunk to suck up the blood scattered around it.

“!”

I was dumbfounded.

There are plenty of carnivorous plants on modern Earth, but none that could consume such large animals.

“Do they eat humans too?”

“They do.”

Aiden answered matter-of-factly.

Of course, the idea was absurd.

“No… it’s a tree, for crying out loud…”

As my head spun, Felix carefully stepped forward and motioned me along.

“Follow me. If we find this one’s trail, we’ll be able to see the monster cluster too.”

Felix moved aside the bushes from which the monsters had appeared, seemingly intent on tracking footprints, saliva, and remnants of small animals left behind.

The problem was that such “tracking” took longer than I expected.

I watched Felix for a while and then stepped forward myself.

[Tracking (D)]

Using the tracking skill on a dead monster, the path it had walked was highlighted in deep purple.

All I had to do was follow the clearly marked trail instead of piecing together broken traces.

No need to explain which was easier.

“Escliff?”

When I moved in a different direction from Felix, Aiden, who had been following, called my name in confusion.

“I think I can handle this.”

I took a step forward and smiled slightly.

“Want me to take over?”

The two of them, who had been looking at me suspiciously, quickly fell in step behind me without looking back.

“You can’t just track like that. You need to observe your surroundings… Canis? Are you even listening?”

“No.”

“At least pretend to listen!”

I ignored Felix’s yelling.

“Enough, Agrife. She’ll figure something out.”

“Seems like she’s just going by instinct.”

“Well, she is the strongest among us.”

“That may be, but…”

Aiden’s rebuttal drew a groan from Felix, who reluctantly followed.

“If we don’t find them today, I’ll be mad.”

He didn’t skip the grumbling either.

By standard measures, his method would have been correct.

But in a world where skill surpasses common sense, conventional wisdom is useless.

Soon, Felix was amazed.

“Those are monster teeth marks.”

He checked the tree stump, now stripped to its base, and examined the clear bite marks on the rings.

“The scent matches these traces… Seems we’re on the right track. How did you do this?”

With a skill.

Instead of answering, I just shrugged.

Following the purple footprints, more and more monster traces became visible. Eventually, we arrived at a small canyon where a cluster of gray monsters appeared.

‘Dogs? No, wolves?’

The smaller monsters looked like rats, but the adults were all canid in form.

They were roughly 1.5 meters tall on all fours, large dog-like creatures.

On the highest rock in the canyon lay the largest of the monsters—a black-furred wolf.

A mid-sized gray rat-like monster approached it, and the black wolf opened its mouth.

In a flash, it gently grabbed the young monster, placed it beside itself, and began licking it carefully.

Watching this, Aiden muttered,

“That’s strange.”

“Yeah, definitely strange.”

Unlike the bewildered me, Felix immediately seemed to understand Aiden’s implication.

“Adult Cerberus are supposed to be white or at most gray, but a black Cerberus…”

Muttering to himself, he tilted his head.

“Just a mutant, maybe? Still, that color’s unsettling.”

Aiden stared at the black wolf with a slightly uneasy expression.

Me?

I felt no sense of discomfort. Whether mutant or not, I didn’t even know that these rat-wolves were called Cerberus.

In a world where dandelions eat small animals, having three eyes—or even a black wolf—was hardly remarkable.

“What do we do now? Kill them all?”

“Do you want anything left if you scorch them with electricity?”

“…Yeah, true.”

Even with power adjustments, no one wants to touch burned, charred monster corpses.

Of course, other magic could be used, but I didn’t feel like revealing too much yet.

Felix, for whatever reason, confidently stepped forward.

“We can handle that cluster between the two of us. You can rest for now.”

Aiden nodded and added,

“If a strong one appears, provide support from the rear.”

It was basically an instruction to relax, as he and Felix could handle most of the monsters in the vicinity.

‘You want me to freeload?’

Group projects are like that. You form a team of four with people you barely know,

[Me: What should our topic be?] 5:04

(Next day)

[Me: We should decide the topic soon, anyone have ideas?] 2:21

[Me: Everyone?] 2:23

[Me: T_T] 2:27

After repeated empty cries, I finally gather opinions under my lead—then freeloaders appear.

Type 1: Read-and-ignore.

They skip meetings, don’t contribute, and even if present, won’t say a word.

Type 2: Copy-paster.

[Friend 2: I’ll do the research!]

But just copies the entire wiki and hands it over. I end up revising from scratch—same as Type 1.

Type 3: Formatting villain.

Claims to make the PPT, but just dumps the wiki data Type 2 sent into slides, spacing messed up. I, wanting the scholarship, rewrite every slide. I know the content, so presenting falls to me, and even motivated teammate A stumbles under simple questions, passing the mic to me.

Group projects are inherently like this. Those who freeload clearly have no conscience.

Yet they make such an absurd offer to me, who has suffered through this before…

‘Even better.’

The knight isn’t the passenger—it’s a free ride. And since they suggested it first, I feel no guilt. I quietly fell back, cheering for free food.

As expected, before the monsters could attack, Felix and Aiden dashed forward, cutting throats in one swift motion.

I rested my chin on my hand, watching Aiden’s back.

Having carried loads in dungeons before, I might not be a fighter, but I know how to observe.

Especially swordsmen—they’re common, so comparisons are easy.

Flawless stance. Every motion, from leg support to sword swings, was steady.

“Should be done quickly.”

Thanks to their disregard for blood, they could probably clear the area within twenty minutes.

I, used to combat, slumped onto a rock. Standing for long periods is honestly painful.

• Kyaaak!

• Gnn!

• Squeak!

‘Hmm, kinda pitiful.’

The first small one was fine, but seeing fully grown Cerberus split in half at a gesture wasn’t a pleasant sight.

What bothered me most: these monsters cared for their young.

This wasn’t hunting monsters—it was… animal cruelty.

I groaned, staring at the rock. The crimson eyes flickered back at me.

While other monsters threw themselves forward to buy time, and the young struggled to escape, the black wolf didn’t move an inch.

It was ominous.

Suddenly, I shouted to the person closer to it.