Chapter 35
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Harac Moles and Taming Dreams
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*Rumble rumble rumble!*
The Harac moles barreled forward, clawing up the earth with their thick talons.
“Ha ha, pulling two large wagons and still moving at this speed!” It was incomparable to the six horses that had hauled them before. Even compared to when Bankers pulled.
If the dwarves hadn’t reinforced the wagons to handle the weight of the Yadus ore, they surely would have shattered mid-run. They were that fast, yet the moles showed no signs of tiring.
“We’re already out of the tunnel!” River shouted loudly.
They’d covered the distance Bankers had taken two days to traverse in just half a day.
The ceiling, once glowing with luminescent light, began to crack open, and moonlight poured down onto the road after so long.
Harac moles couldn’t move under the sun, but fortunately, it was night.
They could make it all the way to Leighton Village like this.
Given the hour, the monsters’ assault on Leighton was underway. The wagons even overtook monsters rushing to join the attack.
“Ha ha! I see the stone walls. It’s Leighton Village!!” “I didn’t expect it to be this fast…….”
The villagers of Leighton, who had been preparing for the assault from atop the stone walls, spotted the wagons and hurriedly opened the gates.
“You’re back!”
As Dirk greeted them warmly, Dane climbed up to the stone walls to watch the villagers hunt. Sandbill was too busy directing the hunt to pay attention.
‘They’ve completely changed in just a few days.’ Like casting a net over a school of flopping fish, they now precisely speared and captured edible monsters. They had fully escaped the clutches of hunger.
Now, they deserved to be called predators.
* * *
While the assault paused, the Lucas Hunting Party briefly caught up with the Leighton villagers.
“We received your letter via carrier eagle. Harac Bar won’t be advancing on the continent, will it, Slayer?”“For now, that’s right. But…… calling me that feels a bit uncomfortable.” Dane waved his hand awkwardly at Dirk’s words.
“You’ve picked up quite a few nicknames in just a few days. Slayer, King of Hunters, and all—ha ha ha!” Bankers clapped Dane on the back playfully, and Sandbill chimed in with a laugh.
“Did they call you the King of Hunters in Harac Bar? I don’t know the story, but it’s a nickname that suits you well, ha ha!” They greeted each other like old friends.
They held off the assault together, admired the improved butchering and cooking skills, shared food, and exchanged stories of the past few days until morning arrived.
It was time to leave soon.
“It’s a shame we have to leave the moles behind.” Bankers said as he swapped them out for the horses they’d left earlier.
“Six horses won’t be enough to pull two wagons. We don’t have any spares, unfortunately, but if you’re heading to Mekardo, you’ll soon pass ‘Engola Horse Pasture Village.’ They tame wild horses and supply them to the root villages and cities, so it’d be best to resupply there.” The Lucas Hunting Party took Dirk’s advice.
“Leighton’s carrier eagles are spirit beasts. They remember where they’ve been and understand their master’s words, so you can send them anywhere you want. Find us anytime, anywhere.” Leaving Sandbill’s kindness behind, the wagons departed.
The pace was agonizingly slow.
* * *
“This worked out conveniently, all things considered. You said the delta requires rank 5 or higher anyway. We can stop by the nearby relay station in Engola to check if our rank went up, then head east while picking up root village requests.” Dane said, lounging leisurely on the roof. The scenery drifted by slowly.
The days were gradually warming. Dane no longer wore his decent suit or wool cloak, enjoying the breeze against his bare skin.
Bankers glanced up and said, “You’re starting to get a real sense of the world’s shape now, eh?”
Dane nodded and handed down a sheet of paper.
River took it and unfolded it—a crudely hand-drawn map.
She looked up at Dane with an incredulous expression.
“You drew the Garond Continent?”“Yeah. I listened to Tuparak and made it easy to read.”“Easy…… to read? What’s with these letters?” River pointed at the place names Dane had written.
“Oh, I wrote them in code so only I could read them.” He didn’t know the language here, after all.
River scoffed as if it were some grand secret and pointed to each spot on the map.
“Even a child knows all this. Central capital with the World Tree, key cities in each direction around it, and the ends: north Tike, east Muhudu, west Ginikan, south Taraya, plus that delta you’re so keen on.”
From the central World Tree, thick roots extended precisely in the four cardinal directions.
The delta referred to the four triangular patches of land between these thick roots.
With neither thick nor fine roots reaching those areas, monsters roamed freely there.
To Dane, it was a mouthwatering prospect. As if sensing his inner thoughts, Bankers drew a line.
“Choosing Mekardo as your destination for the Yadus ore trade was quite reasonable. Still, think carefully about the delta. It’s too much for us right now.” It wasn’t just about catching monsters.
Even root villages provided supplies and maintenance, but the delta offered nothing of the sort.
Barbarians and beastkin living independent of the roots were unpredictable in location and unlikely to be friendly.
That made the delta a place where one wrong step could lead to irreversible consequences.
Dane said, “Harac Bar is friendly now, but the embers aren’t fully extinguished. If war breaks out, we’d be the ones who suffer, so we must seal the Yadus deal. Finding a solid trading company in Mekardo is crucial for that—and for everything else. To trade with other key cities beyond the delta, we need scale, right?” Bankers’ advice fell on deaf ears. To Dane, heading to the delta was already a done deal.
Only a large-scale trading company could cut time by crossing the delta. It was out of reach for ordinary adventurers or hunters.
Trading companies knew the routes to key cities, dealt with midway barbarians, and rested in their villages while traversing the continent—their power in the delta surpassed even hunting parties or elves.
If Dane was considering even that, giving up wasn’t easy. After all, he’d succeeded in hunting inside a massive monster’s belly. He’d pull this off somehow too.
“Fine. Just promise me you won’t stroll through the delta as leisurely as this.” River said with a sigh. Dane strongly agreed and voiced his thoughts.
“Hmm…… We might need to think more flexibly ourselves.” His gaze was fixed on monsters fleeing in shock from the massive wagon train.
Bankers asked, “What do you mean?”
“Even adding more horses in Engola won’t fix our mobility.”“So…… you want me to pull one wagon?” Bankers asked in a hurt tone.
“That’s not a bad idea, but more than that—do we really need more horses? Dwarves tame moles, so why not tame some docile monsters to pull the wagons?” A monster’s strength far outmatched ordinary beasts. Even a mid-to-large one could pull a wagon more easily than six horses. But it was just theory.
‘To hear this nonsense again…….’ River thought with a dumbfounded look.
Someone had always insisted that taming monsters would make them filthy rich.
If taming monsters were as easy as horses, she wouldn’t be in this situation, she thought. Casually, River suggested to Dane, “You’ve got plenty of time before rank 5 anyway, so take it slow. Mekardo’s at the delta’s entrance, so finishing the taming before we get there would be ideal.”
She hoped it would delay their Mekardo visit.
Dane and Bankers enthusiastically agreed it was persuasive and eagerly debated which monsters would work best.
It was amazing how well her offhand comment landed. Dane and Bankers both had a childlike side.
The monster-taming chatter continued past sunset.
After camping along the thick root path and spending a day, they pressed east nonstop until a fine root relay station came into view.
It was a bit further northeast than the first one they’d visited.
Dane finished reporting the Leighton requests, shook his head at his waiting comrades, and approached.
“Rank didn’t go up, looks like. When I touched the Tienun, it called me 7th-rank hunter Dane.”“Even taking down two mid-to-larges, it only counts as one request completed. You’d need ten-plus results like Horhe’s just to maybe rise a rank.” River comforted Dane, telling him not to be impatient.
Dane regretted that catching the large Kabakshuuz in Harac Bar didn’t count toward his hunter rank. If it did, he’d get a high evaluation score.
‘I’ll just have to hunt diligently.’ Shaking off the thought, he said, “Looks like it’s quite a ways from crossing this forest to Engola Village proper.”“Yeah. Makes sense given the village’s nature.” Bankers replied, urging the horses on.
Engola, entirely grassland, made its living pasturing and taming horses.
Naturally, it was also a place run by a strong militia to protect the horses from monsters.
“Management’s good—hardly any monsters in sight. We’ve got monster meat in the Yadus storage, but let’s grab one or two more for a solid meal.” With that decided, Dane leaped from the wagon and dashed toward the vast open plains.
River let out a long sigh as she watched him vanish in an instant.
“Bankers, wait here. Engola’s militia is tough—they don’t like outsiders running wild. I need to keep an eye on him in case he causes trouble.” With that, River chased after Dane.
He was already out of sight, but tracking him wasn’t hard for hunter River.
* * *
Dane ran straight toward one point.
‘This place feels monster-free, yet something’s ringing the meat bell like crazy?’ It was odd.
The vast pastures on either side held horses grazing freely in a pastoral, peaceful scene.
Fine root fences surrounded the pastures, making nearby monsters unlikely.
‘This is mid-to-large size.’ After eating the Kabakshuuz tail, Dane’s abilities had upgraded again. Among them, the meat bell’s precision in detecting monsters outstripped all other senses.
-Meat meat meat meat……
Trusting the meat bell, he crossed two pastures. Far from the wagons now, he found the source.
A creature he’d never seen, but its name sprang to mind.
‘Mid-to-large monster Tricerator.’ Fitting its name, it resembled a dinosaur triceratops—amusing.
Thick hide like armored plating. A huge frill encircling its broad head like a crest, two long horns jutting from the top, and one on its snout.
It looked like an upper form of Galaromotor, but inside was totally different.
Four stomachs intertwined in a complex structure.
‘Herbivore monster.’
To Dane, though, it was just meat.
‘Similar to Galaromotor hunt…….’ He decided quickly and charged straight at it. Sensing the ferocious predator aura pouring toward it, the momentarily startled monster unleashed a long roar.
“Els…… Elszm!!” It lowered its head, aiming its three horns at Dane, and pawed the ground as if to charge.
‘Pattern’s similar.’
*Rumble rumble rumble!*
Just as he timed a leap to the earth-shaking sounds!
*Shraaaak!!*
Something flew in and tangled his takeoff foot, binding it—and *boom!*
Dane was flung back even faster, impaled on the Tricerator’s horns.