Mystic Eyes of the Catoblepas

"Have you ever heard of the monster known as a Catoblepas before?"

The elven guildmaster Relisha broke the ice by bringing up some kind of

monster.

I thought that she'd taken me aside to talk about the guild branch, but it

didn't seem to be the case.

"No, I haven't. What kind of monster is it?" Relisha opened up the book in her

hands and showed a certain page to me. It looked like the monster

encyclopedia that I'd seen in a guild reading room some time ago.

"They have the face of a pig and the body of a bull, but their necks are very

long. The way their heavy heads hang low to the ground is considered to be

their trademark." The page Relisha thumbed to had the illustration of a monster

that fit her exact description on it.

"They spit poison gas so noxious from their mouths that they kill plants just by

breathing on them. But what's most fearsome of all is their mystic eyes. Anyone

who makes eye contact with a Catoblepas ends up paralyzed on the spot, and

before long their entire body turns to stone."

"What?! Stone?"

"Yes. They are classified as a red rank monster on the same level as a low-tier

Dragon due to their eyes, but no higher than that due to their overall peaceful

personality. On to the main point. A quite large and uncharacteristically

aggressive Catoblepas has made a nest in the Melicia Mountain Range. It is

believed that three parties consisting of around thirteen people total have

already died fighting them."

Thirteen people, dead...? And the Melicia Mountain Range is just north of

Brunhild, wedged between the Kingdom of Belfast and the Regulus Empire...

"Naturally as guildmaster I couldn't just ignore this problem, and so I hired

two silver-ranked adventurers in Regulus to take care of it. Unfortunately, it

seems that they too were turned into stone."

"Even silver-ranked adventurers couldn't handle them?"

"Indeed. I heard that this Catoblepas is not a normal one, but rather one that

has evolved and has begun growing massively in size. I can only imagine the

havoc it will wreak if left alone. That is why I would like to request that you lend

your services as a gold-ranked adventurer, my Lord. To say nothing of your

immense strength, your null [Recovery] spell should be the key to defeating this

beast. Not only can you nullify any petrification cast on yourself, but you may

also be able to save the adventurers that have already been petrified." I get it.

The Catoblepas' petrification is nothing to be afraid of because of my magic. A

Catoblepas without its demonic eyes should be a piece of cake to take down. It

won't be able to turn me to stone just by looking at me, after all.

"Under normal circumstances I would never bring an adventurer's quest such

as this to one of your royal status, my Lord, but I heard that you yourself were

seeking quests to complete and thus I took it upon myself to make this request

of you." Yeah, I did say I was looking for quests to do. It's all about the money. I

need money and a lot of it. Partially to make some Frame Gears, partially to

support my royal knights.

"By the way, what would you do if I declined this quest?"

"Under normal circumstances I would offer the quest to other adventurers of

your rank, but the only other gold-rank adventurer in the world is the former

king of the Lestia Knight Kingdom. Naturally I could never bring this quest to a

seventy-year-old retired king, so the end result would be our guild declining this

quest in its entirety. I believe the Belfast and Regulus royal knights would then

work together to defeat the beast, but I am unsure." No need to worry about

that. I'll take it. Can't just leave it there and let more people die. I also wouldn't

want to force Belfast and Regulus to take care of it.

"How much is the reward?"

"This is how much the neighboring towns and villages will pay. And this is how

much the neighboring countries will pay as a sign of appreciation. And this is

how much you will earn by selling parts of the Catoblepas to our guild."

Oh man. That's a lot of money.

I grinned after seeing Relisha calculate just how much money in total I would

earn from taking this quest.

It was exactly the kind of big bucks I needed.

"Understood. I'll accept the quest and go take down the Catoblepas."

"A Catoblepas, huh? That's a pretty rare monster." Leen started talking to

Linze while the latter looked over the Catoblepas page in the monster

encyclopedia I'd borrowed from Relisha.

"That's because nature has no need for strong species to proliferate. Not to

mention, it must be difficult for Catoblepas to form bonds."

"Eh? What manner of difficulty might they find, Leen-dono?"

"Just imagine how much trouble they'd have trying not to turn each other to

stone!" Leen answered Yae's question with a laugh.

What? Catoblepases can turn each other to stone? Isn't that a bit much?

"Does that mean they would both turn into stone after making eye contact

with each other? ...I feel that there's something sad about that." Lu spoke with

a pained tone. She had a point. That would also mean they can't directly look at

their children.

"It seems that it takes several months for newborn Catoblepases to develop

fully functional mystic eyes. The parents leave before that happens. If they

stuck around until their children mature far enough, they might end up being

turned to stone." So the kids only get to look at their parents for a few months

in their whole lives, huh? And even then they never get to look each other in the

eyes. Makes sense that they'd end up being lonely.

Yae looked like she was close to crying a little. Couldn't blame her, she was

probably imagining how the Catoblepases feel.

"Anyway. Can you turn the petrified adventurers back to normal with your

spell? I mean, they've been stuck in stone for months. Won't they have starved

by now?"

"That's a good question, Elze, but I heard that when a person gets petrified,

their bones and organs turn to stone too. That's why I should be able to

completely heal anyone whose stone statue hasn't broken." Although

petrification turned one into stone, the stone itself was weak enough that wind

and nature itself would be enough to break down the statues of petrified

adventurers after a few years. If I were to use my magic on a worn down statue,

blood would likely go everywhere... I decided not to think about it.

"Alright then, I'm gone. I should be back before the sun sets."

"Eh? We're going with you, though."

"Huh? Why?" Yumina's question threw me off. There was no need for them

to come somewhere so dangerous. I'd be able to easily take care of it, too.

"You'll be able to protect us from being petrified, Touya, and we all want to

see what a Catoblepas looks like."

"Not to mention, it's been awhile since I've fought any monsters. Ever since

coming to Brunhild, there hasn't been much need for me to do any fighting."

"I too wish to wield my Touka in battle. It has been too long, it has. It would

be unreasonable for me to duel the royal knights in a serious life or death

battle, it would." Lu, Elze, and Yae all seem really eager to come with me.

What?! Not only do they want to come with me, they want to fight too? This

quest is for gold-rank adventurers, though. It is true that with my spell, they

don't need to worry about being petrified. And the Catoblepas itself doesn't

seem to be too strong on its own... Yumina and Linze look like they want to join

too... That's pretty much everyone. Why do they all want to go so much?

Thankfully, Leen said she didn't want to come.

Ehh, this isn't going to be a picnic or anything, but... Sure, why not? We'll fly

there on Babylon. Naturally they don't want to fly through the air using magic,

so Babylon is our only choice. The Babylon was pretty big with the garden,

workshop, alchemy lab, hangar, tower, and rampart all docked to it at once.

Cesca took care of controlling Babylon on the whole. She was more or less the

captain of the ship. To carry on the ship metaphor: Rosetta and Monica were

the mechanics, Flora was the doctor, and Liora was the navigator and gunner.

Not sure if I could call Noel the engineer considering how she just napped all

the time.

"Master. We have reached the airspace above our destination." Towering

mountains were all over the place below us. We'd reached the Melicia

Mountain Range, located directly north of Brunhild. The mountains were

covered with a thick layer of snow and thick green forests.

"Where's the Catoblepas?"

"It is somewhere in the plains to the east of the mountain below us." The

monolith in front of Cesca was displaying video footage of what appeared to be

a Catoblepas, recorded from one of the Babylon's sky cameras.

So it was in Regulus. Relisha's report was right, it must have nested there.

I shouldn't just rush in and fight it immediately. There are petrified

adventurers all around it. If I'm not careful, they could get broken... And if that

happens, there's no helping them. It'd be the same thing as killing them.

We needed to get off somewhere and approach it quietly.

Everyone else agreed with me, so Yumina, Elze, Linze, Yae, Lu, and I all got off

Bablyon using its onboard teleporters.

"Which way is the Catoblepas?"

"Wait. We should save the petrified people first." I turned in the opposite

direction of the Catoblepas and headed toward where most of the petrified

adventurers were.

I soon found three stone statues within the forest, each wearing terrified

expressions.

They were in a bunch of difference poses, with one in particular cowering on

the ground, but they all seemed to be in one piece. Even their clothes turned to

stone. What an awful curse.

I guess to be more accurate it'd be better to say that if you make eye contact

with a Catoblepas both you and your immediate surroundings turn to stone.

"Touya, hurry and use your magic on them."

"Wait, hold up." I don't want them to get mixed up in my battle with the

Catoblepas. I'll use my magic on them later. For now, we'll just recover their

bodies. "Storage doesn't work on living beings. How will we carry them?"

"I think it'll be fine since they're stone right now and technically not alive...

See? It worked." I successfully used [Storage] to recover and store their bodies,

thereby washing away Linze's doubts.

According to Relisha, there were fifteen adventurers confirmed to have been

turned into stone: thirteen red-ranked adventurers and two silver-ranked

adventurers. Since I just secured three of them, that left twelve to take care of.

"Touya, there are statues over there too." I looked where Lu was pointing and

saw four adventurers all frozen in place with similarly terrified expressions on

their faces. I stored those four as well and started looking for the rest.

I advanced while paying attention to my map and steadily stored adventurer

after adventurer. Luckily, not a single adventurer ended up being broken.

I successfully recovered thirteen statues and then finally found the last two.

That was all of them.

"These two are likely the silver-ranked adventurers. I can tell from their

expressions alone." Indeed. These two were wearing expressions of vexation

and anger, not fear. Their equipment also looked pretty good. These two were

definitely the silver ranked adventurers.

"This must be the shield one of them was using. It looks pretty new, not worn

at all." Elze picked up a big shield and indeed, it was shining brightly and

reflecting light like a mirror.

"They were probably trying to use this to fight the Catoblepas without looking

directly at it." The hero Perseus took down Medusa the same way in a Greek

legend. Seems like these two failed in their efforts, even though their plan

worked for Perseus.

I took the shield from Elze. It was surprisingly light. It was likely made from

Mithril. They must have polished it for hours until it reflected light like a mirror.

The whole thing shone madly. They probably got turned to stone after dropping

it by accident.

I decided to store it along with them. I'd give it back to them later.

"That should be all of them. I'm glad none of them were broken."

"The Catoblepas must have lost interest in them after turning them to stone.

Unlike living humans, stone statues can't be eaten." Oh yeah. I wonder if

Catoblepases are carnivores. If they turn their prey to stone, they can't eat

them. Maybe they try to eat them before turning them to stone.

"So, where's the Catoblepas now?"

"It's in the forest to the south of us. Let's approach it from downwind."

Naturally, all of the girls had the [Recovery] skill thanks to their wedding rings.

Even if they looked the Catoblepas directly in the eyes, they should've been

able to cure themselves of the petrification curse immediately.

Yae, Elze, and I took the front with Yumina and Linze in the back and Lu in the

middle as we approached the Catoblepas.

"There it is...!" It seemed to be eating an animal it had killed. A deer or a

horse. That ruled it out as a herbivore.

But more importantly, it was way bigger than I expected. It was a little hard to

tell from behind, but it looked to be about as big as a fairly large wagon. The

Catoblepas turned its long neck around to look in our direction. Its face looked

more like a boar than a pig. Not to mention the bull horns sprouting out of its

heads. It had the body of a cow, but for some reason its fur was fairly long.

I quickly looked toward its feet so I could avoid making eye contact with it.

"The best defense is a good offense. Linze and I will attack it with magic.

Everyone else, rush it down while we distract it. If you accidentally make eye

contact with it, quickly use the [Recovery] spell through your rings." After

seeing everyone nod in understanding, I gestured toward Linze and we started

casting magic at the same time.

"Shimmer forth, Light! Dazzling Brilliance: [Flash]!"

If the Catoblepas had eyes that caused petrification, we just needed to make

it unable to use its eyes. These spells would probably only serve as a

momentary distraction, but that'd be more than enough time for Elze and

everyone else to close the difference between them and it.

"GRAAAW?!" The Catoblepas let out a roar after sand was kicked up into its

eyes alongside a flash of blinding light.

That roar served as a signal for Elze, Yae, and subsequently Lu and I to charge

forward with our weapons in hand.

"Hyah!" Yae's Touka easily cut straight through the Catoblepas' large tail. No

surprise there, considering Yae's strength and the sharp edge of her blade. That

Touka of hers could cut through even solid steel like butter.

"Take this!" Elze's follow up punch hit the Catoblepas in the side and caused

its skin to rupture.

"BGGRAAAAH!" The Catoblepas flailed its body and spits out purple gas from

his mouth. That stuff was definitely poisonous. It coated nearby plants, causing

them to wilt and die instantly.

"That's poison gas! Be careful!" Unfortunately, since we attacked from

downwind, the poison gas was heading straight in our direction.

We split to the left and right to avoid the gas while once again charging

toward the Catoblepas.

Lu's twin blades were made from Phrase Crystal, and thus successfully cut

through the Catoblepas' hide as well, but they were too short to cut deep into

it. Despite that, it looked like she did some pretty heavy damage.

It looked like I'd need to use a gravity-assisted swing to finish this thing off

once and for all. I took my Phrase longsword out of storage, but the moment I

moved to swing it, the Catoblepas looked my way and made eye contact with

me.

I immediately felt my body starting to harden. A cold sensation crawled up

from my toes as if I had just stepped into ice cold water.

I couldn't feel anything below my ankles. I looked down and saw that my

shoes had begun turning to stone.

"Ngh! [Recovery]!" I cast the healing spell and felt the sensation returning

back to my feet. But something happened that I never expected.

[Recovery] didn't turn my shoes back to normal. They were still stone.

"S-So heavy!" I couldn't fight wearing stone shoes. I immediately went to take

them off, but it wasn't so easy to take off shoes made of stone.

"Get off!" I kicked a nearby tree and smashed the stone shoes to bits. They

may have been made of stone, but it was overall easy to break them since the

stone was as thin as the fabric that was used to make my shoes. I hated to lose

my shoes like that, but it wasn't the time to be worrying about that kind of

thing.

...Crap. My socks were turned to stone too. Now I'm in my bare feet.

Bang! A bullet flew by my head, interrupting my silly antics.

The bullet from Yumina's Colt Army Model 1860 hit the Catoblepas directly in

its left eye before detonating. Seems she'd used the [Explosion]-imbued ammo.

"GOOOAAAH?!" The Catoblepas raged around, swinging its long neck

everywhere.

"Entwine thus, Ice! Frozen Curse: [Icebind]!" Linze's magic steadily froze the

Catoblepas' legs. It tried to free itself, but Linze's magic ice wouldn't break that

easily.

I used that opening to jump toward the Catoblepas and swing down my sword

as hard as I could right at its neck.

"[Gravity]!" The weight of my swing increased tenfold thanks to my magic,

and thus my blade decapitated the Catoblepas like it was nothing.

Its head hit the ground and rolled away while its giant body sank to the

ground, blood gushing from its neck.

"Whew. That was a little close." I let out a tiny sigh and collected myself.

Ouch. Walking in the forest with no shoes on is pretty rough. I took out some

new shoes from storage and put them on. The bottom of my pants turned to

stone a little, but they were mostly fine. I could keep them on.

"Are you alright, Touya?"

"Yup yup, I just let my guard down for a second." I smiled wryly at Yumina.

That was a pitiful display if I do say so myself. I told everyone else to be

careful, but I ended up being the one nearly getting turned to stone.

"Kyaaah?! [R-Recovery]!"

"What's wrong?" Lu fell back onto her butt and hurriedly cast magic from her

ring. Looked like she went to check out the Catoblepas' decapitated head.

"I-Its eyes are open, a-and I made eye contact with them! E-Even though it's

dead, its mystic eyes, c-can still cause petrification!"

"Please calm down, Lu. The Catoblepas' mystic eyes remain dangerous for a

while after their owner dies." Lu clinged in terror to Linze, who proceeded to

explain what was up.

Apparently the mystic eyes petrification power would wear off before long,

but they'd retain the power to cause paralysis when charged with magic power.

The eyes were therefore very valuable as magical tools and could be sold for a

high price.

Yumina looked a little sad after hearing that. Probably because she destroyed

one of its eyes.

I shut the Catoblepas' eyelids so nobody would accidentally make eye contact

with it again. I figured it'd be fine like that.

"Lu, are your legs okay?"

"Y-Yes. Somehow. It seems that my shoes are a lost cause, though..." It looked

like Lu's feet were still petrified, but it was probably just her shoes that

remained stone. Same thing that happened to me.

While sitting, Lu took her short sword and smashed its hilt against her

petrified shoes, causing them to shatter. And as expected, the tights beneath

her shoes were turned to stone as well.

The thin stone tights broke easily from Lu moving around just a little bit,

causing her feet to become completely exposed.

"Do you have any spare shoes?"

"Yes. In my ring's [Storage]...!" Lu stood up, causing stone chunks to noisily

fall to the ground by her feet.

"Eh...?! N-No way...!" Lu blushed bright red and pushes her skirt down.

"Huh?"

"T-Touya! P-Please turn around!"

"Huh? What?"

"Oh...? Ah! T-Touya. Please do as she says. Hurry!"

"G-Got it." I wasn't not sure what was going on, but I turned around just like

they wanted me to. What the heck is going on? "Lu, did your...?"

"Uuuh... Yes, they did..."

"Eh? Even your panties got turned to stone? But why? Do you know, Linze?"

"I-It probably has something to do with how petrification is earth-type magic.

I would bet that the petrification process starts from whatever body part is

closest to the ground or something like that... After all, you had just fallen onto

your butt, Lu..."

"Aha. So that's how it is. This is a tragedy, it is."

Wh-Wh-What?! Her panties? Her panties turned to stone? Then those stone

fragments that just fell to the ground used to be her panties?

"Do you have a spare pair?"

"I do have one in storage, but..."

"You want to change all of your clothes, I bet. Since your tights and skirt both

got pretty messed up too..." I heard the sound of rustling clothes from behind

me. The gentlemanly thing to do here would be to close my ears, I thought.

I looked around aimlessly, heart beating quickly... And suddenly heard loud

rustling in the nearby forest.

"What?!" I looked toward the noise and saw a Catoblepas significantly larger

than the one we just took down. It was glaring in our direction with its mystic

eyes. There's another one?! C'mon Cesca, pay more attention up there! Wait, I

should have too, I guess! Crap! I made eye contact with it! I lost the feeling in

my feet just like before and I saw my shoes turning to stone again. "GAAAH! I

just changed theeem!"

"Ngh! [Recovery]! Be careful, everyone! There's another Catoblepas!"

"EEEH?!"

"W-Wait just a second! My skirt is still! MY SKIRT!" I looked away from the

Catoblepas and, after smashing my stone shoes, started casting magic to

distract the beast from my companions.

"Come forth, Wind! Helix Spear: [Spiral Lance]!" I morphed a whirlwind of air

into a spear and launched it at the Catoblepas, destroying one of its horns in the

process.

Yeah. This thing is definitely way bigger than the last Catoblepas. This one has

horns that look like a buffalo's more than a bull's. The shape is totally different.

Maybe that last one was actually a girl? And this one is her mate or something?

"GRAAAAAAAHHH!!!" The Catoblepas roared and charged in my direction. I saw

that out of the corner of my eye and ran in a direction away from everyone

else.

I snuck a peek at Lu in the process, but it looked like she somehow managed

to put a skirt on in time. ...Not that I was hoping for her to have failed, or

anything.

"Pierce, o Ice! Frozen Point: [Ice Needle]!" Linze summoned a ton of ice

needles which rained onto the Catoblepas. Her best magic was fire-based, but

since we were in the middle of a forest, she couldn't use any of it. Since she

wasn't so good with light magic, water was the only element left for her to use

here.

"GRAAAAAAHHH!!!" The Catoblepas shook off the ice spears that shallowly

pierced its body and spewed poison gas in my direction.

"Whoa, gotta dodge that! [Fly]!" I cast my flight spell and avoided the poison

gas by soaring into the air. I couldn't run without my shoes on, after all.

"[R-Recovery]!" Linze cast [Recovery]. She must have made eye contact with

the Catoblepas after it turned around. What a shame, her shoes were ruined.

I flew toward Linze, picked her up, and took her to safety.

"Are you okay?"

"Y-Yes. I was a little... A little scared." Linze hugged me close as I princesscarried her through the sky. It wasn't the time to be thinking about such things,

but I couldn't help but notice how soft she was and how nice she smelled. Get a

grip, man.

"Ngh, this one's more aggressive than the last."

"And its mystic eyes are preventing us from making a solid attack, they are..."

This Catoblepas was smarter than the last one. If we looked away just a little, it

craned its neck to petrify us anyway. If I looked away a lot, it exploited my lack

of visibility to launch a surprise attack.

"If we could just cover its eyes they wouldn't be a problem, but..." Linze

murmured to herself in my arms.

This is tough. Not like it'll just put on a blindfold for us. If only we could put a

black bar over its face like they do in magazines. Or maybe mosaics...

"Ah!"

"Wh-What is it?"

"There's a magic that can block one's line of sight! I read about it when

searching for the flight spell! [Mosaic]!"

"Guoooh?!" The Catoblepas lets out a roar of confusion after having mosaics

suddenly appear before its eyes. This "mosaic" spell wasn't about the art style.

It was a real-life application of the blurring technique.

"Fuoooh?! Guoooh?!" The Catoblepas started to panic due to the mosaics

blocking its vision. It began rampaging around the forest wildly, swinging its

head everywhere.

This thing was definitely going to be harder to take down than the last one,

but we didn't need to worry about its mystic eyes anymore.

"Now!"

"Ah! Hayaah!"

"GRAAAAH?!" Elze rushed forward and punched the Catoblepas in the side of

the head.

"Shred, o Wind! A Thousand Blades Born of the Gale: [Cyclone Edge]!"

Yumina launched a wind blade toward the Catoblepas, cutting deep into its

body. Yae then followed that up by rushing the Catoblepas down with her

Touka in hand.

It sensed her approach from the sound of her footsteps, or possibly her smell

in general, and spewed poison gas in her direction... But she was no longer

there.

"Kokonoe Hidden Style — Rising Phoenix!"

"Guoooh?!" She had jumped up into the air and came plummeting back down

with her Touka aimed at the Catoblepas' neck. Naturally, she decapitated it

easily.

It smacked its head and hit the ground with a heavy sound. There were still

mosaics around its eyes, so honestly it looked pretty weird. Eugh. I can't just

remove the mosaics right now, though. It's still dangerous...

"Wah... I was unable to do anything..." Lu murmured to herself in vexation

while fixing up her skirt. I could see tears forming in her eyes. Nobody could

expect her to fight in the situation she was in.

"Speaking of which, something like this happened in the past too, didn't it?"

"Oh yeah. You're talking about when we fought the Mithril Golem, right? A

second one came out of nowhere back then too." Linze and I chatted after we

settled back down on ground. Huh. We fought those Mithril Golems in the

Melicia Mountain Range too.

The guild paid us double back then since they didn't investigate things

thoroughly enough. Hopefully they do the same this time too. Can't help that

the monsters in these higher-ranked quests are way stronger than normal ones.

In return for our struggles, we should get paid more. Makes sense to me.

Afterward, we returned to Brunhild and I used my [Recover] spell to free the

petrified adventurers.

I didn't think things through, though, so they all ended up naked after their

armor and clothes broke apart instead of going back to normal, just like my

shoes.

Nobody was happy to see a group of confused older dudes standing around

naked.

Needless to say, Yumina, the other girls, and all the female guild employees'

screams nearly burst my ear drums.

I didn't plan on doing so, but I ended up casting [Mosaic] on the older

adventurers to cover what was typically covered by a mosaic in my world.

Sorry, guys.