“Boyon, boyon.”

The lively sound made a sound like that. Regarding Meneas, I could only stand still, feeling unsure of what to say.

「It isn’t doing anything, is it?」

『Cute』

『Cute?』

『It’s not cute』

『This is kinda interesting』

Was it in a nonaggressive state? The huge slime was just bouncing around. The level difference between us was about two times, and it didn’t look like an opponent that blunt force worked well on, so I’d clearly say it: I didn’t feel like I could win.

Likely, this is what A-chan was talking about when she referred to what was on the interior of the perma-scorchlands.

While looking at it and thinking that blunt and slash-type damage didn’t look effective against it, and it might be weak against magic, Meneas changed a part of its body and slowly stretched out something like a tentacle.

Unrelated to my vigilance towards it, Meneas was poking at the menu card. It was like it was trying to convey something, but I was totally unable to understand what it was saying.

「I wonder what it is?」

『Tentacle play?』

『↑ Oi, stop that』

『It’s kinda cute』

『Does it want something?』

『Doesn’t it want some ores?』

「I see.」

When I tried taking out a heavy metal, the tentacle slapped it away.

Even just lightly grazing me, 40% of my HP was blown away. You’ve gotta be kidding, right?

「So heavy metal is not to your liking….」

If I made a mistake twice more, wouldn’t I die?

Ignoring the fact that more tentacles were touching the menu card, not restricting myself to only ores, I looked through the items for something Meneas might want.

Well, of the only things I had right now that seemed to be rare, would the red metal be the best choice?

There was also one more thing, but it was my valuable material though….

For now, I tried taking out all the red metal in my possession. Although, saying that, I just had three ingots.

When you wanted to make a fire attribute weapon, the best ore to easily mix in was the red metal, which was a mineral that had those kinds of characteristics.

Regarding Meneas, who looked to be a fire attribute being, this was probably the one it was most likely to be interested in.

“Bo-boyon, boyon.” Bouncing its body, Meneas wrapped its tentacle around the red metal and then melted it with the blazing flame inside its body, turning it into a liquid state. Then it started absorbing the liquid ore.

I thought it was a waste, but it was an item you could get three in three hours. I could just gather them again.

I had totally no idea what Meneas was thinking, but it seemed like it stopped trying to ask for something with its tentacles.

Bubbling inside Meneas who was absorbing the red metal, it was shivering as if it felt really good. At least, it didn’t seem to dislike it.

It seemed like the absorption would be taking quite a while. Although, if I just ran away, it would be kinda a waste, so for now, I just drank a potion and watched over the situation.

「Ah.」

Though I might have lowered my guard, Meneas snatched away the potion from my hand, and then after shaking the bottle a number of times, it put the potion inside its body, bottle and all.

「Hmmm….I wonder what it wants to do?」

『I have totally no idea』

『What a mysterious creature…..』

『I want to try touching it』

『I want to be melted』

「Abnormal fetishes are not allowed here.」

Though, it really was a mysterious creature. Right now, I didn’t feel any malice from it, but I had received damage from it.

The watchers were pressing me to do something like a chicken race, which was seriously a ridiculous idea. I would like them to understand that if I got hit once, I would immediately be sent to respawn.

I had probably waited for around ten minutes. Meneas had finally digested the red metal. It created something like a gem from the flame inside it and vomited it out.

And then Meneas grasped it with its tentacle and passed it over as if throwing it.

Looking at the item I received, it was a jewel much more vividly red than a ruby, which left me admiring it. Seeing that even just holding it makes me feel hotter, as I thought, this was most likely a gem with the fire attribute.

Putting it inside my inventory, I used the menu card to check the details of the item.

――

Item: Crimson Jewel

Rarity: High Rare

Effect: A transparent crimson jewel. It contains the extreme heat of an area like a volcano, and it very rarely appears in the area where red metal can be mined. After raising the red metal’s flaming nature, it appears. It can synthesize with any and all kinds of metal or it can synthesize with materials with the fire attribute.

――

Based on the description, it was an item that could be combined with materials with fire attributes or that were metals, either worked.

It differed from red metal in that it didn’t need to have the red metal as the base. For example, with this, you could enchant the fire attribute onto a heavy metal-made weapon.

It was actually not my first time getting a rarity: high rare item. Earlier, the item I had resolved to take out in the worst case scenario was also a high rare item, the 《Water Dragon Crystal》.

Excluding items with rarities of epic or legend that you couldn’t just thoughtlessly get, among the basic items, its rarity was on the higher side.

『Mini Quest: Hunger of Meneas Cleared』

「Wut?」

Suddenly being surprised with a short round of fanfare, I reflexively let out my voice.

Just what was this mini quest?

『What happened?』

『What’s the matter?』

『Was it an awesome item?』

『So pretty~』

『Large Great God Chikuwa(Chikuwa DaiMyoujin)』

「Well, somewhat…..I kinda cleared a mini quest, the notice is….wait a sec, what’s ‘large great god chikuwa?’」

『Kusa(lol)』

『I lol’d』

『So it was a quest』

『You did it』

『Mini Quest?』

『Mini Quest is a randomly happening quest, just like the ‘mini’ in it, its contents are simple and a lot are errands. Though I haven’t heard of anything like that happening with Meneas though…』

『Its the fast typing bro!』

『I see』

「I see.」

To the comment from one of the watchers which instantly explained it, unintentionally everyone muttered ‘I see.’

In short, was I just lucky? No, well, from what A-chan said, it might be a fair assumption that it was kinda a monster where you would definitely be killed, so I thought that it might just have been good luck that I didn’t die instantly.

Meneas, who was in a good mood, bounced around while petting my head with its tentacles, and then, as if saying “bye bye,” it started waving its tentacles.

It seemed I wouldn’t be able to get anything new from staying here longer, and obviously I wasn’t aggressive enough to start a fight in this situation either.

For some reason, somewhat feeling that we got along a bit, I had gotten a rare item out of meeting Meneas, so that was surely a reward.

「Well then, next time I come here, it will be when we are going to fight, okay?」

Lightly touching its tentacles that were waving bye bye, I wondered if it understood or not. Meneas just vertically bounced its body.

While thinking that it was such a cute thing to the end, I left the perma-scorchlands.

Meneas was waving its tentacles for quite a long time, but after taking a distance of one kilometer, it started releasing huge rocks again.

That was probably something Meneas did on full automatic whenever something entered its territory.

Although, still, it wasn’t pointed at me and was instead directed toward the mountain, so that probably meant that players other than I had ascended the mountain in the perma-scorchlands.

Wishing luck to that unfortunate player, thinking only about what had happened, I was chewing on the fact that I had experienced something rather rare.