Xu Milu crouched down and poked the limp corpse of the seven-headed serpent. The familiar system encyclopedia popped up:

[Seven-headed jackal snake: A highly venomous ingredient. Its head resembles a jackal, its neck has snake-like features, and its body resembles a wolfhound. It is a very precious ingredient. (Note: This type of snake needs to be bled to remove its internal toxicity before being cooked with calendula.)]

Isn't that a coincidence?

Right in front of her was a seven-headed serpent whose blood had been drained by the Bloodthirsty Rose.

New varieties of ingredients have been added.

Xu Milu patted the snake's body with satisfaction, already planning in her mind how to hold her "meat tasting party" when she got back.

...

...

Just as the group was dealing with their spoils, a heated argument suddenly erupted from the crowd not far away. The adventurers, who hadn't even had time to clean themselves, were now red-faced and agitated, surrounding the knights:

"No! This isn't fair!! You can't take all of this with you!"

"By the God of Light! How could you treat us like this?!"

"This violates the rules! By what right are we being deprived of our right to allocate the prey!"

"We need to see the lord!! Damn it! This is completely different from what was agreed upon beforehand!!"

Behind the crowd, slaves wearing leg irons were loading processed animal hides, snake bones, and snake teeth onto the cart with their heads down. If they slacked off even slightly, they would be lashed hard by a whip.

The knight Kru, whom Xu Milu had seen before, was riding a horse, with soldiers of the knightly order behind him. The lances that had just been used to fight off the magical beasts were now being used against the adventurers.

"You lowly commoners, it is already a great honor for you to follow Lord Aigard in this campaign. According to imperial law, all property within self-established unclaimed territory belongs to the settler, that is, Lord Aigard. In other words, you who have entered the forest—"

Kru grinned, ignoring the hostile stares from those around him, and slowly drew his conclusion:

"Everyone was supposed to pay Lord Aigard a 'hunting tax' of four silver coins, but because of Lord Aigard's mercy, the spoils of this battle will be used to pay the debt... Hey!"

At this point, Klu seemed to notice Xu Milu not far away, and a hint of greed flashed in his eyes:

"It's you! The little girl with the weird yellow fat chicken on her head! You also need to pay taxes, including that magical tool you just used that could extract pure beast blood. As long as it's within the territory of Westco County, you need to pay taxes!"

Everyone in the room instinctively looked at Xu Milu, some even muttering something under their breath:

"Indeed, what a fat chicken."

"hiss……"

Xu Milu took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to draw her knife, and practically forced out the words through her teeth:

"First of all, your tax collection system has obvious problems. Secondly, I have no intention of handing over my spatial bag. Finally—I've already said it, this isn't a chicken, it's a phoenix, a phoenix, you bunch of bastards!!!"

【Gah——】

As the girl roared, a black shadow suddenly appeared in the sky above the forest, large enough to blot out the heavens, as if the world had collapsed, night and day had been suddenly reversed, and towering trees collapsed in swathes, like fragile tender grass:

"Crackling sound—crackling sound—"

"Thump!"

"Thump!"

"Thump!!"

Accompanied by footsteps that seemed to split the earth, the forest seemed to tremble. A huge, dark green beast head appeared at the top of the tree, and a pair of pure black beast eyes rose from below, looking down at the humans on the ground without any emotion.

【quack……】

A strange, rough roar rose in a low voice, as if coming from all directions, or like a warning from an ancient behemoth from the ground.

No one spoke, no one tried to escape, and no one even entertained the thought of running away.

There's no escaping it.

There's no escaping it.

In the eyes of such a colossus, humans are as insignificant as a group of insects holding toothpicks.

Of everyone present, only Xu Milu understood the true meaning of that cry:

[Mom!! I'm here!]