A few minutes later—
"Careful miss, those things are extremely sensitive to touch! I'll be checking on you later! I wish you good luck!!" Mr. Rick shouted from afar as he made his way out of the field and left Syla alone.
Once his figure was out of her sight and the sound of his footsteps couldn't be heard anymore, Syla then turned her head to the abundant amount of mandrakes infront of her, with a wooden basket that was initially used for carrying harvested crops, Syla approached one of the mandrake that was closer to her, its body was buried under the dry soil and only the top of its head was seen protruding from the ground, it was black, spiky, and ugly.
"Right, let's start." Syla said.
Although she told herself that she was going to start with the extermintion, Syla instead stood still motionlessly for a few seconds, her face seems nervous and multiple drop of sweats began to form across her forehead.
'Ah this is bad.. I didn't think of this— I was originally planning to block mandrake's shriek using the bucket, but i completely forgotten that the soil here has been dried out, they're basically a semi-concrete now, i can't dig into it without cracking a few holes, if i pushed the bucket too hard into the ground, then it'll break, and my ears would be destroyed if that happened..' Syla thought, her eyes was shaking, as if her pupils had turned into a spiral.
'What do i do now.. I have to think of a new idea, i either have to find a way to block the mandrake's shriek, or find a way to kill the mandrake before it screamed.'
Syla was puzzled, her plan that she thought would be a feasible and easy way to clear the quest now had been shattered into pieces, if the bucket that was given to her were made out of metal, then she probably could execute her plan, however she was instead given a basket made out of straws, which is a brittle material that could break at the littlest of force.
"These mandrakes won't feel threatened by just noises alone, like Mr. Rick said, they're sensitive to touch, so anything that touches them would wake them up..." Syla whispered, "If i remember correctly, the reason why they're like that is because they're deaf, they can't hear, so their shrieks have no effects on them, that's why when one of them screamed, none of the other mandrakes around it followed along—
"Im tempted to try stabbing it with my sword.. But that wouldn't kill them instantly, it wouldn't be a B-Rank quest if they can be killed that easily, i have to split them in half horizontally, so that their body will be severed from its roots." Syla mumbled to herself, she observed at the mandrake as hard as possible, trying to find some way to cut them from their roots while also not triggering their shrieks.
She walked around in circle, racking her brains until she had an idea, and after approximately 5 minutes of thinking, Syla came up with something that might work.
"Hmm.. Will that work?" She said, doubting the idea at first. "—Urgh, i guess i'll have to find something to cover my ears.."
Syla looked around the dry field, searching for something that could possibly be used to cover her eardrums, something squisy yet durable and can block most noises from outside.
"Leaves? too brittle.. Wheat straws? They're dry too– Rocks?– Uhh, too heavy.. Damn, i guess having a pair of wolf ears comes with disadvantages too.." Syla said while furrowing her eyebrows out of frustration.
She observed far and wide, her eyes glancing at every object that caught her attention, but no matter where she looked, Syla couldn't find anything that can possibly cover her fluffy ears, after a few more seconds of looking, Syla let out a sigh and was about to give up.
"My last option is to pull the mandrakes out and cut them in two with my sword, but then that would mean injecting myself to their deafening shrieks, i can only hope that it wouldn't destroy my hearings— Hm!?" Syla suddenly noticed something in the corner of her eyes, her head instantly turned to see what it was that just briefly crossed her vision, that's when she saw it, in the distance, out of the farmland, a group of slimes was meddling between the grassy plains.
"...—No way– But.. Rather than deafening myself.." Syla hesitated, her body froze right infront of the mandrakes as she was faced with a decision, one that would only be made by gathering her courage.
"—There's nothing else." Syla said before walking towards the slimes.
After jumping out of the wooden fences, Syla arrived at the grassy plains, similar to a playground field, with quite a few trees standing in the area, she then approached the group of slimes that was absorbing a horned grasshopper, the poor insect slowly dissolved inside slime's body and Syla who saw the scene was hesitated once again.
"Ugh, right.. They can do that– But from what i've read, a normal slime with bluish color like this, usually never attacked any humans– Im pretty sure slimes that eats humans are the ones with the color green and red, this one—" Syla picked one of the slimes up and forced it to look into her eyes.
"Yeah, i can pick it up safely, it doesn't seem interested with my body." Syla said.
After confirming that the slime was harmless to her, Syla suddenly raised both of her hands that was holding the slime together, she inserted the slime into one of her ear and let its slimy body slither through her ear hole, actively blocking any noises that tries to get inside as the squishy slime body stretched to fit into Syla's earlobe.
"Hyah!?!" Syla accidentally squeaked, feeling ticklish as the slime in her ear tried to settle inside, as it turns out, the inside of her ears was filled with small earwax, since slimes are similar to a decomposer, it can eat anything such rotten corpse or even body excess.
'H- Huh? I can't hear anything in my right ear?..' Syla noticed that her right ear was completely silent, she couldn't hear anything except the sound of the slime inside splashing around.
'This is it! Thankfully the slime can't go any further, or else it'll reach to my skull..' Syla thought.
Although a demihuman ears was supposed to sensitive, Syla managed to hold the ticklish feeling and began picking up the next slime to occupy her left ear.
"There we go.." She said as she inserted the last slime inside.
And as she had expected, the slimes worked as an ear blocker, the sound of the winds that previously was loud now disappeared in an instant.
Syla then goes back to the mandrake field, now with having two slimes inside both of her ears, she pulled her sword out of the scabbard and prepared for the extermination.
"Urk.."
'I feel like my ears are constantly getting rubbed over and over again..'
When it was the time to face the mandrakes, Syla's face suddenly turned red, then after a slight hesitation, she pulled one of the mandrake out of its burrow.
SHRIEEEEKKK!!!!
Immediately, loud screeches echoed throughout the field, the noise was insanely loud that Syla could feel the ground shaking just from its soundwave alone, however despite all of the insects around her dropping to the ground like flies, Syla remained calm, her face was unfazed and with one swing from her sword, Syla cuts the mandrake in half, severing its body from the roots before its shriek died down.