Chapter 154 I Am Also Skilled at Being a Veterinarian

Three days later, deep in the middle section of the Magical Beast Forest, the trees were several times more lush than those on the outer periphery. Practically every few steps, one would encounter a century-old tree, and the ground was choked with thorns, leaving almost no footing for anyone. For ordinary mages, this place was a forbidden zone; anyone below the level of a Grand Mage would not dare to venture this deep, and further ahead, even a Saint-level mage would have to tread carefully.

"BOOM!!!"

A gigantic pillar of golden energy erupted from the tip of Myuna's finger, shooting forward. Anything within its range—trees, thorns, or even some unlucky magical beast—was instantly vaporized and vanished into thin air.

"Let's go."

Seeing the path ahead flattened into smoothness, Myuna nodded with satisfaction, patting Red Bean underneath her to signal that it was time to move. Red Bean let out a look of utter despair as it stepped its hooves into the still-steaming, scorched earth.

"Go my foot! If you scare all the magical beasts away like this, who am I supposed to find!"

Ruby, who was observing the terrain from the top of a large tree, was utterly enraged by Myuna's random magic blasts. He jumped down and knocked her on the head. This woman had zero understanding of ecology or animal conservation; if she were back on Earth, she would undoubtedly be shredded to pieces by animal and plant protection associations.

"But this ghost of a place has a tree every two steps and a ditch every three! Do you want to rattle me to death?"

Myuna rubbed her struck head in protest. She was a delicate young lady, all right? Did he seriously expect her to scramble around like a monkey the way he did? To be honest, she truly admired how this guy could navigate such a wretched place without a single leaf touching him, acting practically like a savage who had lived in the jungle since childhood.

"That's why I said, wait until I find a place to settle down before you come along."

"No way. If I leave, who's going to protect you?"

Myuna had her own persistence. The environment in this wretched place wasn't exactly pleasant, but she could endure it for Ruby's sake—though whenever she couldn't stand it anymore, the aforementioned scenario would happen: clearing the way with magic cannons.

"Do you take Lord Dragon for a transparent decoration?"

"Aren't you just a walking poker?"

Anyway, Myuna and Dragon were the type to look down on each other, but their bickering didn't last long this time because, within their field of vision, a small mountain was moving toward them at an astonishing speed.

"What is that? A bear?"

It was Ruby's first time seeing such a gigantic creature. Standing on its hind legs, its height was probably well over a hundred meters, practically as massive as the monsters depicted in certain Earth tokusatsu films. Every step it took made the ground tremble as if from a magnitude four or five earthquake, and the fierce wind stirred up by its forward stride was enough to make Ruby unable to keep his eyes open.

"Oh ho, finally something sturdy enough to play with. A Tier 10 magical beast, the Earth Bear. But why would it appear here?"

Myuna immediately used spatial teleportation to move both Ruby and Red Bean within a safe distance, watching as the foolish bear wantonly trampled the lush trees on the ground. Under the heavy stomping of its paws, the dense forest was quickly cleared into a barren patch of bare earth.

"Stop playing around, something looks wrong with it."

Ruby was also bewildered. Weren't Tier 10 magical beasts supposed to be extremely rare? For one to just pop up like this—was it planning to challenge the Saint-level maiden standing beside him? But the moment his words fell, this unstoppable magical beast—one that looked capable of destroying half an empire single-handedly—collapsed with a thunderous crash, smashing a huge crater into the ground and lying motionless within it.

"Is this... a voluntary offering of a head?"

Myuna was also baffled by this sudden turn of events. Could it be that the reputation of the esteemed Saint Mage had recently been spreading like wildfire, and this beast had come to add another tally to her battle record?

Ruby and Myuna walked up to the Earth Bear's head to investigate. Seen up close, this head looked nothing like a head at all; it was as massive as an airport terminal, and the gaps between its teeth were wide enough for two people to walk through side by side.

It wasn't dead yet, but it seemed to be in excruciating agony. Its closed eyelids trembled continuously. Notably, there was a deep scar across its right eye, which seemed already blinded, but that was an old wound. The source of its current suffering was presumably something inside its body.

"If it's a bear, it's not the type we're looking for. Let's go."

Although he felt a bit of pity for the bear's plight, Ruby had no intention of treating it on the spot. Heaven knew how to treat a monster of this size; even if he moonlighted as a veterinarian right then and there, it would be utterly impossible.

Just as they were about to leave, however, they heard the sounds of a herd of beasts approaching from a distance. Ruby immediately darted into the Earth Bear's mouth, hiding behind one of its giant fangs to observe in secret. Before long, many bear-like magical beasts gathered around the Earth Bear's head.

To Ruby's surprise, these bears circled around their boss and began to wail miserably, crying in the most hideous fashion while pulling out the food they had brought along in hopes of waking their leader up.

"Chieftain! Oh, Chieftain! Wake up, your favorite honey is here!"

The speaker was a brown bear, significantly larger than its peers, standing about ten meters tall, though still somewhat smaller compared to the Earth Bear. It held up yellow honey resting on green leaves as it spoke in a lamenting voice.

"Chieftain, here is the meat you love most, all fresh and bloody. Please wake up and take a bite!"

Another black bear, roughly the same size as the brown bear, also clutched food and spoke the human common tongue in an extremely grating voice. Presumably, in the eyes of magical beasts, if you felt unwell, eating something would make you all better.

"Big Bear, do you even have a brain? Have you forgotten the Chieftain said its stomach felt uncomfortable and it didn't want to eat!"

"Bigger than yours!"

"Your brain is as small as a peanut!"

"I'll go to your grandma's!"

"That's your grandma too!"

"Pfft, why are magical beasts communicating in human language?"

Myuna was nearly killed by laughter from the conversation between the bear clan members, sneaking over to Ruby's side to complain and ask at the same time.

"Who knows? Probably the number one law of the universe."

"Then what do we do? It smells so terrible here."

Myuna was nearly choking from the stench and had to cast an Air Bell on herself and Ruby to purify the air just so she could breathe.

"If we go out now, given their intelligence, they will definitely suspect we harmed this bear. I know what you're thinking—you want to slaughter your way out. But we didn't come to the Magical Beast Forest to stir up trouble; better to avoid extra complications."

"Why not! They're just wild beasts!"

"Hah, Myuna, let me ask you: what defines a human, and what defines a beast?"

Seeing Myuna gearing up for another massacre spree, Ruby couldn't help but sigh. This time was different from the magical beast tide; there was no need to fight to the death.

"Um, well... the ones that walk on four legs?"

Myuna scratched her head in reply. She hated it when Ruby asked these philosophical questions the most.

"Creatures that can speak, possess their own emotions, have their own culture, share human-like intelligence, and can think—if you kill their family members, they will weep before you and hate you. Can you still treat such creatures as mere wild beasts?"

"Fine, fine, fine. I can't argue with you; whatever you say goes. By the way, the way you put it makes me think Aqua is pretty much identical to them."

"You..." Ruby tapped Myuna on the head. Her attitude clearly showed she had given up thinking, and she even wore an expression reminiscent of Aqua while throwing shade at the mermaid miss.

"Wait, what are you doing? We just got to the Magical Beast Forest and you're already playing out a scenario of 'meeting one's end in a bear's belly'?"

Myuna cried out as she saw Ruby start walking toward the Earth Bear's tunnel-like throat. Looking at him like that, it seemed as though he was preparing to offer himself up as a gourmet meal for the beast—no matter how she looked at it, that was wildly inauspicious!

"Since they said it's a stomach issue, let's go inside and take a look. If it can be cured, we'll cure it; if not, we'll slip away."