Chapter 6
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: 2. I Got a Job at a General Store.
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Wyvern.
A wingspan of nearly 5 meters when spread.
A powerful jaw and claws that can tear through steel.
A truly terrifying monster, befitting the title Ruler of the Skies.
Even one of them could turn an entire village into a wasteland.
So what happens when seven of them descend to attack a village?
"Uwaaaack!"
"Kyaaack! Save me!"
"Aaaack!"
That answer was unfolding right before the eyes of Claude's party.
"F-Fuck... Fuck!"
People were being snatched up by wyverns and dragged into the sky, only to be dropped and crushed.
Swallowed whole by those massive maws.
Clamp Village turned into a hellscape in an instant, and the villagers began fleeing desperately, abandoning their homes.
"This can't... This can't be happening..."
Claude stared at the scene with a dazed expression, as if he couldn't believe it.
His right shoulder, bitten by a wyvern, was gushing blood, making it impossible for him to even hold his sword properly.
In short, he was in no condition to fight, no matter what the wyverns did right in front of him.
'How the hell did it come to this?'
A horrific catastrophe.
Claude had been certain he could beat them.
With his abilities, it should have been possible.
But the result was plain to see.
He just couldn't understand how it had gone so wrong.
Rewinding time to a few hours earlier.
Hero Claude's party arrived at Clamp Village in their carriage.
"Ah, you must be the ones from the Adventurer Guild."
As soon as they arrived, an elderly village chief greeted them warmly.
Since they had come to help with the crisis plaguing their village, he treated them with utmost hospitality.
Of course, Claude's party didn't feel grateful—they took it as their due.
"Haha. With Hero Claude here, no need to worry."
"Ooh... To think a titled Hero has come. This is reassuring."
The village chief and villagers alike smiled with relief at the mention of Claude being a Hero.
In truth, they had been a bit worried since only three people had shown up.
How were three A-Rank Adventurers supposed to handle a wyvern pack?
They had feared it might be an unspoken refusal of the request.
"Ever since those wyverns nested, every day has been filled with anxiety. Who knows when they'll burst out and snatch us away..."
It happened to be wyvern breeding season right now.
They nested on suitable cliffs or canyons, laid eggs, and raised their young.
While incubating, the wyverns stayed to guard the nests and didn't venture out, so things were manageable.
But the moment the hatchlings emerged, hell began for nearby creatures.
The mother wyverns went on a frenzy, hunting wildly to feed their young.
Naturally, Clamp Village— not far from Twilight Valley—fell within their hunting range.
Several other nearby villages were in the same boat.
Though Clamp Village had taken the lead on the request, it was funded collectively by all the villages in the danger zone.
'Hmph, wyverns are no big deal.'
Wyverns guarding nests were especially vigilant.
They'd raise hell at the slightest approach.
It was only natural, protecting their eggs.
But Claude wasn't worried.
He believed his skills could handle any number charging at him.
'Heh, wyverns in breeding season. Can't pass this up.'
'Wyvern eggs fetch a high price.'
Unlike Claude, who just planned to wipe them out and rack up achievements,
Mary and Sophia had their eyes elsewhere.
Wyvern eggs.
Some nations hired beast tamers to buy and hatch wyvern eggs, raising them from birth to form wyvern air squads.
Wyverns were incredibly powerful and ferocious, but properly controlled, no aerial force could match them.
Wealthy collectors or freelance beast tamers sought them too.
Thus, wyvern eggs sold for exorbitant prices.
Mary and Sophia were coveting eggs worth several times the request reward.
'Hehehe, after partying with that so-called Hero and even sleeping with him, we deserve a little something.'
'I mean, I went to bed with him—fair's fair, right?'
They loved money, trading their bodies to strong male adventurers for it.
Those in the know avoided them like the plague.
Of course, publicly they were A-Rank Adventurer Blazing Mary and White Angel Sophia,
renowned for their pretty faces and receiving plenty of praise.
Spreading rumors was possible, but no adventurer wanted the hassle, so even those who knew kept quiet.
Claude himself had a poor reputation—talented but with rotten character—and wasn't well-liked among adventurers.
So no one bothered telling him; they figured birds of a feather flocked together.
"Shall we get going then?"
"Let's move."
"We've rested enough—time to head out."
After the lavish reception and ample rest, Claude's party set off straight for Twilight Valley.
Towering canyon walls rose on both sides.
The wyvern nests were up there.
"Rise, Fly."
Mary cast the auxiliary spell Fly, lifting the party into the air.
They couldn't just climb those sheer cliffs.
Vwoooom—
Thanks to Fly, they easily reached the cliff top.
As an A-Rank mage, she had the mana to hoist three people up what must have been a 100-meter drop.
"There they are."
Once atop the cliff, the wyvern pack came into view in the distance.
Nests on the cliff, females perched atop them.
Those were the hens.
The males...
"Kieek! Kek!"
Were circling low, patrolling the area.
They'd noticed Claude's group approaching and were on high alert.
But they didn't charge first.
Probably wary of leaving the nests vulnerable to attack from elsewhere.
"Should we head straight in?"
Claude eyed the nests as he spoke.
Eight nests, eight female wyverns.
Four males circling above.
Total of twelve.
Charging head-on meant facing all twelve.
Even Claude, brimming with confidence, deemed that too risky.
"I have a good idea."
That's when Sophia proposed a plan.
Her strategy was simple:
"Rush in fast, grab the eggs without fighting, and bolt. The riled-up wyverns will chase. They won't all come since they have to guard the rest—maybe three or four. We pick them off one by one?"
"Spot on."
It was a solid plan.
Whittling them down a few at a time gave them a huge edge.
Honestly, twelve at once was dangerous, but three or four? He could handle that solo.
Claude thought.
"Let's do it."
Operation underway.
Sophia buffs him with blessing magic, boosting physical prowess.
Then Mary's Blink teleports just her and Claude deep into the nests.
Mary could Blink right out.
Claude's base physicals were elite, plus mana-enhanced strength for swift movement.
Sophia hangs back, prepping support spells.
"Keeeeek!"
Timing it as the females charge in fury, they dive in, snag an egg, and flee.
The circling males and the egg's owner go berserk, pursuing them.
But they couldn't easily catch a mage with Blink or a Hero-titled powerhouse like Claude.
'Easy.'
Mary glanced back, saw only three pursuers, and sneered derisively.
Then she spotted another female charging alongside.
'Gap...'
Not yet clear of the nests, so a few females were still charging.
Leaving other eggs exposed.
'One more... Just one more wouldn't hurt, right?'
Greed took hold.
But that was a fatal mistake.
One egg? Maybe.
But a second? The wyverns would realize their eggs were being picked off one by one.
They'd abandon individual pursuits and swarm as a unit to eliminate the threat.
Eggs could be laid again.
Better to ditch them and prioritize removing the interlopers.
If Edin were here, he'd have warned them emphatically.
With his full grasp of wyvern ecology—like any monster— he'd say never touch a second egg.
All twelve would come crashing down.
But this party had no such voice of reason.
Just greed driving them.
Mary Blinked to a nearby nest, snatching one more egg.
"Kek?!"
"Kieeek!!"
And in that instant.
The females, who'd been fending off theft from their own eggs,
and the two remaining males guarding the area— their eyes changed.
"Wh-Wha?"
Sophia, watching from afar, let out a bewildered noise in panic.
All twelve wyverns spread their wings and took to the air.