Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Fiends (4)
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He'd set a long-term goal of challenging other spells through a Secret Manual, but that didn't change the actions Galen needed to take right now.
If it were something easy to get his hands on, it wouldn't be called a Secret Manual in the first place. Unless he was strong enough to storm any mage family and seize one.
There was no telling when he might obtain it, which was exactly why it was a long-term goal.
So he tucked it away in the back of his mind and focused on the short-term objective: raising the level of the magic he already possessed.
Galen spent the next three days diligently trailing Terti and hunting fiends.
He hadn't faced any particular difficulties from the start, but with practice, he gradually got the hang of it.
Not so much the knack for the magic itself, but rather for delivering lethal force. The relationship between the amount of water used, its launch speed, and a fiend's durability could only be mastered by smashing heads firsthand.
In those three days, they'd encountered nearly seventy fiends. Terti had taken down about half, but it was still a solid enough record that no one could call him a freeloader.
And on the fourth day.
About two hours after an early breakfast and departing camp.
Terti halted and pointed ahead with his finger.
"You see that up front?"
Their position on the ridgeline, alternating between ups and downs, was a minor peak.
Ahead stretched peaks far taller and more treacherous by comparison, lined up one after another. Just looking at them crushed any urge to climb.
"That must be where the main Partlas Mountains begin."
"Correct. It's also where fiends start appearing in earnest."
"The Guild said there's no need to go there, right?"
"Indeed. I plan to head back to yesterday's camp after lunch. From experience, it's no place to get a proper night's sleep."
"Ah, yeah, that's a problem."
The biggest issue when traveling with just the two of them was the nights. They had to either stand watch every single night or take turns pulling all-nighters.
Terti, with his far superior stamina, had been generous and stood the longer shifts for Galen's sake, but hiking mountains all day and bedding down on the ground hardly allowed for proper recovery. Both Galen and Terti were running on fumes.
They wouldn't be swarmed by fiends the moment they entered the main range, but the higher spawn rate meant a greater chance of sleepless nights.
They weren't holding some fiend-slaying contest, so there was no need to push through the exhaustion. Galen had already gained plenty of real combat experience.
"Let's just take a quick look around and call it sightseeing."
"Yes."
The two proceeded in silence. To be precise, the increasingly rugged terrain quickly wore Galen out, leaving him too breathless for conversation.
"Just a bit longer. If my memory's right, there's a creek coming up soon. We'll rest there."
"Huff... Understood... huff."
Galen's sense of "soon" differed slightly from Terti's, but a creek did eventually appear.
"Ughhh..."
Galen's sharp eyes spotted a flat boulder. He staggered over and flopped down. Terti dipped his hands in the creek water and chuckled.
"Why not wash your face first?"
"I'll do it like this."
Galen used Water Flow Manipulation to draw water from the creek and splashed it straight onto his face. The refreshing chill washed away a bit of his fatigue. Being able to wield magic so deftly even in this state—did that count as concentration training?
Limp and sodden like a squid pulled from the water, Galen muttered.
"Wish I had money."
"Out of nowhere?"
"One sip of Holy Water would blow away fatigue like this."
"What'd I think it was. Just build up your stamina. That's way easier."
"I'll get sick to my bones first."
He said that, but after resting, he felt decent enough again. Youth was a wonderful thing.
As he kicked off his shoes to dry his sweat and knead his legs, Terti spoke up.
"We'll rest a little more, then head leisurely downstream along the creek."
"Along the creek?"
"It's a long enough stream to serve as a tacit boundary line. Don't hunt beyond it."
"Aha."
"We'll take it slow like that until lunch, eat, and head back. Sound good?"
"Perfect."
After resting long enough for Galen to recover his energy, they set off again. The gentle downhill made it far less taxing.
About thirty minutes later.
As trees thinned out and rocks grew more numerous, opening up the view, an unexpected sight caught Galen's eye.
"Huh?"
Terti stopped as well. With even sharper eyes than Galen's, he could see it all the more clearly.
There was a fairly spacious clearing below, and several people visible within it.
"Mercenaries. From this subjugation team."
"You can tell?"
"Don't know them personally, but I memorized faces at the start. A few stuck out."
"But what's that? Looks like they've set up a whole homestead."
It was a slight exaggeration, but not entirely off-base.
Several tents pitched, campfires dotting the area here and there. With cooking gear and all, it felt just like an established camp.
"Judging by the camp's size, it could house at least twenty, maybe up to thirty."
"Didn't this subjugation team number just over fifty?"
"Exactly—means about half are in on it. No wonder we ran into more fiends than usual on the way here. With twenty or thirty hunkered down, the hunting naturally suffered."
That had meant more fiend fights for them, which was ultimately a gain for Galen building combat experience, but it didn't make the mercenaries' actions any less unsavory. Terti furrowed his brow and said.
"Let's go down. See what they've got to say."
The camp spotted them descending from upstream soon enough.
People resting scattered along the creek or near tents began emerging one by one. Ten in total.
"Pardon the interruption."
"Visitors, eh."
A female mercenary with her spear at ease stepped forward in response to Terti's curt greeting. She appeared about Terti's age—mid-thirties, going by actual rather than apparent.
"You're Terti, right?"
"That's me."
"And that's the rumored mage beside you."
"Hard to see what's rumor-worthy beyond the beer incident."
"That's the one that spread. Mercenaries are sensitive to gossip."
She smiled brightly. Accounting for the lack of time for primping, she was quite pretty—but Terti seemed oblivious. He cut straight to the chase without even asking her name.
"To the point: what were you doing here?"
"As you see, staying behind to guard the camp."
"Others went hunting? Beyond the creek?"
"That's right."
"You must know the creek's a tacit boundary."
"Tacit... boundary."
She emphasized the words, breaking them apart.
"The Guild didn't explicitly forbid it, did they? Honestly, drawing the line at one creek is pretty arbitrary."
"Guild funds are finite. They didn't dispatch the subjugation team so people could game the rewards like this."
"That's exactly why we're doing it. You sweep everything up, leaving scraps for the rest of us."
"...What?"
Terti's eyebrow twitched. She continued politely but firmly.
"Sure, you're participating as volunteers, but that doesn't mean you're really giving up rewards, does it? Especially now that you've suddenly brought a mage along—everyone else's shares just got smaller. What choice do we have? Risk it or go hungry."
"So it's my fault? Incredible, whether you mean it or not."
Terti let out a hollow laugh. His chilling gaze put three mercenaries on high alert, but he took no further action.
"Fine. Do what you want. If it's because of me, I can't very well tell you how. Just don't forget why the Guild warned against going further."
"Thanks for the advice."
She retreated with wary eyes, showing neither gratitude nor intent to heed it.
Terti gave the camp a quick once-over, then resumed walking. Still keeping the creek at their side. Galen trailed obediently behind.
Once the camp was out of sight, Terti muttered.
"They won't last."
"Pardon?"
"Those lot. Once mercenaries start cutting corners, trust erodes—they never climb higher."
Terti clicked his tongue.
"This subjugation was low-risk, low-pay to begin with. Cleared regularly, so no way fiends are plentiful or tough."
"True."
"Fiends don't flock just because I show up. The number I can take down is limited anyway—squabbling over who sweeps what is ridiculous. They're just using me as an excuse to hunt the profitable ones."
"The Guild doesn't know about this?"
"They turn a blind eye up to a point. If they managed it strictly, they'd announce the boundary and set tighter deadlines."
Terti shook his head at Galen's question.
"But... well, this case feels a bit extreme. They seem to have planned from the start to ignore inner-boundary fiends and only target the outer ones."
"Come to think of it, I recall hearing the outer boundary's dangerous for Bronze ranks."
"They're betting on numbers to overcome it. With proper squad formations, they figure it's safe enough."
"Safe... with that?"
"If they're lucky."
That was when it happened.
"Gaaahhh!"
A deathly scream echoed from not far away.
The source seemed to be behind them—the direction of the camp they'd just passed.
"...Looks like they weren't."
"Greed blinds you, and that's how it ends. If the attack had come minutes earlier, we'd have been caught up too."
Terti snorted and glanced back, only for his expression to twist suddenly.
"Damn them."
"Wh-what is it?"
"Nuisances to the bitter end. Gear up for combat."
Terti's superior eyesight spotted the anomaly first; moments later, Galen saw it too.
"Waaahhh!"
The mercenaries were screaming as they fled toward them.
Whether figuring the downhill made escape easier or remembering Galen and Terti had come this way.
Chasing fiercely behind the mercenaries was a fiend.
For the first time, Terti dropped his pack to the ground and spat in a bored tone.
"Troll."