Gathering Intelligence
The foundation of any hunt is gathering intelligence.
You must thoroughly understand not only your target's appearance but also its habits and movement patterns, preparing accordingly, to hunt it successfully.
However, Radie and I hit a wall right from the start.
The moment we began asking around, the merchants proved to be utterly uncooperative.
“The monster attacking people every night? What's it to you?”
“You're gathering information to hunt the beast? Another obvious scam.”
“You talk a big game, but you're just planning to pocket the deposit and run, aren't you? You think I haven't seen swindling bastards like you before?! Get the hell out of here!”
The street vendor throws his utensils in a fit of rage!
The merchants' distrust has reached its peak! Angry as a stirred hornet's nest, the merchants will no longer speak with you.
“D-damn it...!”
Why?
Radie and I clutched our heads and scrambled out into the street.
We had only asked what the monster looked like, but their reaction went beyond mere wariness—it was outright hostility.
This must mean...
“It seems there were adventurers before us who took the deposit under the guise of subjugating the beast, only to vanish into thin air.”
“Indeed, Doran-nim... and judging by how tense everyone is, it wasn't just one or two of them.”
“Damn it... we need more information to catch this thing...”
To hunt a beast in a place this vast, gathering information was essential. But with the merchants keeping their mouths shut, normal inquiry was impossible.
“Damn... if Malton were here, this would have been so much easier. That guy's sociability is no joke.”
“True... Is there no other way, Doran-nim?”
“Well... I'm trying to think of something, but...”
Exhausted by the constant rejection, Radie and I slumped on the roadside, staring blankly at the passersby.
But as we sat there with our heads together, racking our brains, I spotted a small gray shape wriggling beneath a stall.
Squinting to get a closer look, I saw a rat rummaging through a trash bin.
In that instant, a flash of inspiration struck me like lightning.
“That's it! A rat!”
“Wh-what? Why me...?!”
“No, not you—that rat over there! I just thought of a great way to deceive the merchants.”
After all, isn't there a saying that walls have ears, and rats hear everything?
As my lips curled into a smirk, Radie caught on. Her brow twitched, and she grabbed me by the collar, whispering fiercely.
“Are you serious... you crazy man! Don't tell me you're planning to transform into a monster to eavesdrop...? If anyone catches you transformed into a monster, we'll all be dragged off as heretics...!”
“Aren't we in the same boat?”
“Well, yes, but...”
Radie grimaced and groaned, but after a brief internal struggle, she let go of my collar.
“...What do you need me to do?”
“Nothing much. Just keep watch.”
I stepped into a nearby abandoned tent with Radie.
Let's see, surely among my transformation list...
“...Found it.”
• A low-grade monster in the shape of a large rat!
• It has no sharp teeth, nor does it possess any outstanding physical abilities! If you disguise yourself as this monster, you might be eaten by a stray dog and die a pathetic death!
• Unless you have a specific reason, transforming into this monster is not recommended!
It was a monster I had hunted while crossing the plains back when I first met Malton.
“Keep a close eye on the outside.”
Leaving Radie to peek nervously outside the tent, I focused on my Disguise skill.
As I closed my eyes and concentrated, the noise of the world faded, and my senses slowly sank.
What did a Lesser Rat look like again?
About the size of a quokka or a guinea pig. Overall stubby, and extremely diminutive, fitting its description as a 'degraded monster rat.'
And its inner nature?
A life at the absolute bottom of the monster ecosystem, constantly fraught with danger.
The desperate urge to survive, to scavenge crumbs tenaciously and reproduce, even while scurrying through the wretched, miserable sewers.
The moment I grasped the essence of the Lesser Rat, the incantation floated into my mind.
“Squeak, breadcrumbs! Cheese! Trash! Plague! Squeak!”
As I uttered the rather childish incantation fitting for a monster's intelligence, crack! My bones began to twist and my body reshaped itself.
My spine curved, my limbs shrank rapidly, and coarse gray fur began to sprout from my skin.
When the transformation finally stopped, I squeezed out from my heap of discarded clothes and stood unsteadily on my hind legs.
What a bizarre sensation...
Because my perspective was so low, I had to look up at everything.
My vision was poor too; the entire world felt blurry and distorted, like looking through a dusty action camera.
It was a highly unpleasant feeling, almost nauseating.
But soon, a completely different sense took over.
Sniff, sniff!
As the wind fluttered the tent, a massive wave of various scents rushed in.
The smells felt vivid and exotic, almost like colored fog.
You have disguised yourself as a [Lesser Rat]!
Your stealth is excellent, but it would be wise to avoid combat!
Some humans will feel disgust and avoid you upon seeing you.
'Radie' is agitated! Agility increases by 2.
Looking up, I saw Radie staring down at me with wide eyes.
“E-even seeing it again, it's amazing... To think you can transform into a monster so instantly...”
Squeak!
I flicked my long whiskers with a paw as if it were nothing, then scurried out of the tent.
Immediately, everything familiar became colossal and alien.
With signs and billboards looming overhead as if to swallow me whole, I felt like a toy soldier exploring the land of giants.
Squeak... I need to take a route where people won't spot me!
I began to move, hiding inside the drainage ditch.
It was a thrilling, precarious feeling—as if I would burst like a grape if a passerby's foot stepped on me.
Dodging terrifying leather boots, I finally reached my target, the market street, and was greeted by a chaotic bustle.
The smell of bread, spices, and cleavers chopping up bright red slabs of meat filled the air.
Squeak...! This is a literal buffet!
I picked up a large piece of cheese dropped on the ground and took a spot behind a sign. Fortunately, the merchants were gossiping about the monster of the hour.
“Did you hear? The monster appeared again last night... They say that gnome fence over there got attacked this time. It appears out of the shadows, claws them in an instant, and vanishes. It's like a ghost.”
“And it's so cunning that it avoids every single trap. Those arrogant adventurer bastards just took the deposit and ran off in a panic, never to return... Fuck, what the hell are the knights even doing?!”
“Shh, quiet down. If you keep shouting, we'll lose the few customers we have left, and we'll be the ones starving to death.”
Squeak...!
It jumped out of the shadows to attack...? Could it be the monster I'm thinking of?
No way. That species is so rare that an ordinary person wouldn't see one in their entire lifetime.
Half-doubting, I climbed up some ropes and scurried above the merchants' heads to eavesdrop further.
But the testimonies gathered from various people all pointed to a single, consistent target.
A sleek, leopard-like build, pitch-black leopard spots, elusive movements, and ambushes through shadows...
Like puzzle pieces, all the clues fell into place.
Damn... this changes things.
As I was nibbling on a leftover bagel left by a customer and pondering, a sudden scream rang out.
“Kyaaaaaah!”
A customer eating at a stall looks up, spots you, and panics!
To street vendors, rodents are objects of pure hatred! Run!
Agility increases by 2!
Oops, spotted...!
The shopkeeper immediately tried to swing a club at me, but I used my wits and chewed through the rope holding up the sign.
The wooden board crashed down, hitting the shopkeeper on the head and sending him sprawling.
Another merchant wearing a baker's hat lunged at me, but I landed nimbly on a sack of flour and tore it open with my claws.
White powder exploded into the air like a smoke bomb, throwing the market into instant chaos.
A trash can tipped over in the process, splashing some mysterious liquid on me, but who cared?
This is actually perfect.
“*Cough, cough!* Catch that rat!!”
Squeak!
The nearby merchants banded together and charged, but I dove straight into the crowd instead.
As I darted back and forth between people's legs, people began screaming and scrambling in all directions to avoid the filthy rat.
While shaking off the merchants who were chasing me with fire in their eyes, I spotted a fluttering lace skirt, and a mischievous idea popped into my head.
Squeak!
I leaped straight under the noblewoman's skirt.
“Kyaaaaaah!! A-a monster...! A hairy monster crawled up my skirt!!”
“Aaargh!! Something is crawling under my clothes!!”
I quickly hopped onto a nearby adventurer and gave his chest a playful nip, causing him to freak out and thrash wildly.
As people screamed and the commotion escalated, the street buskers looked at each other and simultaneously began playing a fast-tempo tune on their instruments.
Someone swung a club in a panic and hit the person next to them, who retaliated with a fist, causing the brawl to spiral out of control.
Bark, bark!
In the midst of it all, a hound unleashed by someone charged at me, barking fiercely—
Squeak... squeak!
But I snatched a skewer of grilled meat from an adventurer's hand and threw it far away. The hound immediately switched targets and vanished down an alley.
After easily slipping away from the chaotic crowd, I returned leisurely to the tent. Radie stared at me with a bewildered expression.
“I just heard a massive uproar coming from the market... You didn't have anything to do with that, did you? And is it just my imagination, or do you look more muscular than when you left...?”
...Squeak!
The market has been thrown into massive chaos! This is a monumental achievement, unbelievable for a tiny rat!
• Strength increases by 10!
• Agility increases by 8!
• Luck increases by 5!
• Intelligence increases by 2...!
Is this what a gym-rat feels like!
After savoring the lingering feeling, I deactivated the transformation. As I returned to my human form, my sense of smell dulled as if my nose were stuffed, and my perspective rose back up.
I took my robe from Radie, who let out a short shriek and covered her eyes, and said:
“I found out what the monster is.”
“Please give me a heads-up before you transform back!! ...You found out what the monster is?”
“Yeah. I'll explain later, but let's get out of here first. We need to prepare before the sun goes down.”
“...Alright. But before that, come here for a second.”
Radie brushed the flour out of my hair, then followed me without another word.
Night is approaching.
Prepare for the monster's attack!
As dusk began to settle, we stood in an isolated clearing quite far from the market street.
As I busily stacked firewood in a brazier in front of a tent we had rented, predicting the monster's path, Radie spoke up.
“So... I did as you asked for now, but what kind of monster is it that requires this much preparation?”
“It's a monster called a [Night Stalker].”
“A Night Stalker...? I've never heard of that name before.”
Radie tilted her head and asked, but I shrugged indifferently.
Of course she hasn't.
The Night Stalker was a sleek, intelligent jaguar-type monster.
It was a monster so rare that it was practically treated as a semi-mythical beast.
Even I had only spotted it a handful of times during my ten years of playing Velheim.
Unless you happened to see a stuffed specimen in a noble's treasure vault, or catch a glimpse of one kept as a pet by the gods, it was a monster you would virtually never encounter.
I had no idea why such a creature was roaming around here, but if it was indeed a Night Stalker, it made sense why the merchants couldn't identify it despite numerous sightings.
“A monster that rare... Are you sure you didn't mistake it for something else? Like a normal leopard...”
“Among the things I overheard from the merchants, there was a testimony that it jumped out of shadows to attack and then vanished. Around here, the only monster with that kind of ability is the Night Stalker.”
“Leaping through shadows... That's an incredibly tricky ability. But how do we catch a monster that elusive?”
“Fortunately, it can't use its ability if there are no shadows. So, if we flood the entire area with light, we can seal its power.”
“Ah, so that's why you had me set up kerosene lanterns all over the clearing.”
“Exactly. We're going to eliminate every single place it could hide.”
Since the Night Stalker was an incredibly rare monster, the side profit from defeating it would also be substantial.
If we could skin it and obtain an intact pelt, we could make a fortune in one go.
“But... how do we lure it here? Even if there's a high chance it'll pass through this area, there's no guarantee it'll stop by this exact tent out of so many...”
“I've already taken that into account.”
Conveniently, I had just the right item for this.
To think I'd end up using this here.
• An item obtained by extracting and preserving the heart of a Naga that inhabits rivers.
• Nagas use their unique mana and scent to lure and prey upon monsters! If used correctly, it can attract a large number of monsters!
Upon seeing the contents of the container, Radie gasped in surprise.
“Th-this is... a Naga's Heart! Where on earth did you get something so precious...?!”
“When I first met Malton, we were ambushed by bandits. I looted it from them back then.”
No matter how cunning it was, as long as it was a monster, it wouldn't be able to resist taking the bait.
“This will definitely lure it in. ...Then, I'll go do a final check on the traps I set up further away.”
“Sure.”
While Radie stepped away for a moment, I went back inside the tent and made a small cut on my finger with a dagger.
As I dripped my blood onto the piece of the heart I had taken out of the container, a notification popped up.
Activating the alluring power within the [Naga's Heart]!
Creatures drawn by the magic will track you down, lured by the scent of your blood!
Now, if I waited a bit, the monster would walk right into my trap.
But in that exact moment, the candle burning inside the tent suddenly went whoosh and died.
What was that? The wind?
As I tilted my head in confusion and approached the candlestick to relight it, goosebumps broke out all over my body.
The flame hadn't just blown out—the middle of the candlestick had been cleanly sliced through, as if cut by a razor-sharp blade.
“It's already here?!”
The moment I drew my sword and spun around, I locked eyes with a pair of glowing yellow pupils staring from the darkness.
And in that split second, I couldn't help but freeze in shock.
Because in the beast's eyes, I sensed a cold, calculating intelligence that should never have been there.
Wait... something's wrong...
The moment I sensed the anomaly, the beast lunged at me in a flash.