Getting to the Truth About Kvesna
This world has all sorts of… well, beings I’ve seen plenty of times in subculture from my previous life.
Dragons, duh. Goblins, duh. There are even elves, I guess. There’s magic and skills too, duh.
That’s exactly why, you know, I sometimes think of this world as some kind of game or fictional world.
Well, nowadays I’ve more than half accepted it as reality built on that kind of foundation.
But I still can’t figure out whether this world is a fantasy adventure story or a romance story.
I heard there’s an academy for nobles in the royal capital. When you present that kind of setting, it suddenly gives off vibes of an otherworld romance story.
Well, I mean, if this world really does revolve around otherworld romance, then me being a bottom-tier guild member would be way too off-screen, which would be pretty funny in its own way. It’d be pretty relaxing.
…But.
Even for someone like me who makes meta observations about the world I reincarnated into, there are beings that exist quite routinely that I completely cannot understand…
“There’s a Kvesna subjugation mission, what do you think?”
“Hmm… Kvesna isn’t really…”
“If there were a lot of them it’d be worth doing, but doing it at this time of year would be kind of a waste of time.”
“Then let’s skip it.”
“Just leave Kvesna to some random Iron rank.”
Sometimes, these kinds of subjugation requests come up at the guild.
The seasonal timing is unclear. The conditions are unclear. Before you know it, they appear in groups in Baroa Forest, and… do they harm humans or not? These beings of unclear purpose start wandering around.
They’re called Kvesna. These guys are seriously incomprehensible. I’ve lived in this world for 30 years and genuinely have no idea what they’re based on, and I can’t even theorize about these mysterious monsters. I even doubt whether they’re monsters in the first place.
“Oh? Mongrel-san, are you taking this request?”
“Yeah, I’m kind of in the mood to hunt Kvesna.”
“That’s unusual… The proof of subjugation is the tip of the tail. Please take care.”
“Yep.”
It’s not particularly a lucrative request or anything, but I sometimes take these subjugation requests.
It’s not really about money or contribution points, it’s completely driven by my interest and curiosity.
Well, they just keep adding to the mysteries, but I want to at least investigate them.
The appearance location is the eastern part of Baroa Forest, running along the Charles Highway until you see cornfields, then taking the path into the forest.
It’s the entrance to a desolate forest where normally no one passes through.
After pushing through the animal trails for a little over an hour, I encountered them.
“…Hmm, five bodies.”
In the forest, their body color stands out quite well.
The whole thing is pale gray, and… there are a lot of bone-like elongated parts overall.
…No, this is hard to explain and you probably won’t understand even if you listen, so please just listen casually.
They have more than ten legs. Each has bent parts like human elbows touching the ground, and their walking style resembles insect-like movements.
They probably don’t have arms. There are arm-like parts, but they don’t grab, punch, or restrain anything. Instead of arms, what they have are… like… half-pieces of shrimp tails… gill-like things? They have dozens of these attached, and sometimes they flutter around on the torso…
The torso looks like human ribs, but doesn’t seem to be protecting any internal organs. It’s constructed entirely of bone-like parts. These guys don’t have blood flowing through them, and they don’t seem to breathe either.
The head is the most recognizable. It feels like an animal skull. A herbivore’s… like a horse, or some long-faced herbivore skull. It’s like having a big mouth open is the default. But of course there’s no skin or flesh, and no brain. There are no eye sockets either, so it’s just a form with only jaws.
Can everyone picture this? Though I don’t think you can really imagine it properly.
When I first saw Kvesna, I was genuinely scared shitless… That’s how alien and strange these monsters were to me.
I call this kind of incomprehensible monsters with unknown origins “mystery types.”
There’s no point investigating since you won’t learn anything.
What the hell is Kvesna anyway? Were there creatures like this among deep-sea fish? Or maybe in Cthulhu mythology? Maybe I just don’t know the source material…?
If I were given the right to Google search right now, I might look up Kvesna around the end of the day.
“Hey, there’s a human here!”
When I bang my bastard sword against tree trunks, the Kvesna start turning around as if reacting to the sound.
Their body height is around 160cm. Pretty tall, but they’re weak monsters that even Iron ranks can take down without problems. As individuals, they’re probably weaker than goblins. Though their actual danger level is higher since they spawn in groups.
“I wonder what you guys really are.”
The Kvesna moves its bone-like body with rattling sounds, attempting to charge at me.
The sharpness of movement is like a poorly-made robot that probably got eliminated in preliminaries, but the head-like part does try to bite properly, so I have to deal with that somehow.
“There we go.”
That said, the bone-like parts are fragile enough to be easily smashed even with a sword that doesn’t have enhancement. Just timing it right and hitting the neck-like area makes for easy subjugation.
“Are you guys undead? Cthulhu? Or failed SkullGreymon?”
The point to be careful about is the bone in the tail-like part. I need to remember to collect that. If they fall apart, collecting this part becomes a hassle too, so I have to think about ways to defeat them without making a mess.
“Or maybe you really are monsters from the Demon Continent or something?”
Third one.
Even when their companions are crushed, they show no fear or anger. They just attack me monotonously like robots, drawn to the sound I made.
“Golems secretly created by Sunglaire… probably not, for creatures like these.”
Fourth one. …The bones after crushing apparently have some toxicity, making them completely inedible. Burning or boiling them is meaningless.
From characteristics like being unsuitable for food, my leading theory about their true identity is that they’re monsters with strong reproductive capabilities that came from the Demon Continent… but I don’t have any acquaintances who could verify that for me.
“Well, you’re the last one. …If you’re some kind of scout, and someone behind you is watching… I wonder if they can hear these words of mine too.”
I point my sword at the remaining one. Still no reaction.
I guess these guys really don’t have emotions.
“…Eclipse.”
After carefully checking the surroundings, I tried activating my Gift. This was definitely a first attempt.
[Hey, any reaction to this form? Like “I can’t let this guy live” or “came to pick you up”… doesn’t seem like it.]
Even when I tried asking, there was no particular change in behavior.
It didn’t fly into rage or cower in fear. …Having my Gift’s special nature ignored is kind of annoying in its own way.
Feeling a bit foolish, I deactivated the Gift.
“Phew… Still incomprehensible bastards.”
In the end, I smashed the last remaining one with a crack and that was the end.
These guys are weak individually, but in groups they can sometimes reach up to thirty in rare cases.
When Kvesna spawn in such patterns and appear on highways, there can be human casualties, so subjugations are organized for that reason.
Though they don’t eat people, don’t nibble vegetables, and don’t even drink water, causing no other harm whatsoever. On the other hand, they don’t have any edible parts either, so they have zero utility value. That’s why no one is eager to subjugate them. In that sense, they’re even less worthwhile to subjugate than goblins.
“Huh… where’s the tail bone, the tail… there are only four…? Huh…?”
Also, searching for the proof of subjugation parts after smashing them is annoying.
All the parts look similar, so I really can’t tell the difference.
Seriously, what the hell are these things? Who the hell is Kvesna from where?
“I just pray you guys aren’t some kind of god’s familiars… Oh, found the tail!”
By the way, the subjugation reward is 20 jelly per creature. Complete garbage.
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