Chapter 268
Chapter 268
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 268
Chapter Title: Divine Beast Hunt (3)
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“How do you use it?”
“……Just say ‘Heavenly Rune, use. Location save’ or ‘teleport,’ yo. But if you use a regular rune instead of the Heavenly Rune Book, it’ll consume 20 uses and then you can’t use it anymore.”
The method of use wasn’t complicated.
The difference from the terrestrial rune was that it allowed location saving and teleportation without needing a mark scroll, but it was a consumable limited to 20 uses.
Of course, you could make a Heavenly Rune Book for near-permanent use, but gathering five Heavenly Runes for that was still a distant prospect.
“Hmm, should I save this place first?”
That left Rokan deep in thought. Should he settle for saving this spot for now and plan for later, or hold off since Heavenly Runes seemed hard to come by and save a better location down the line?
It required a certain casting time without taking damage, so using it mid-battle would be impossible.
“Heavenly Rune, use. Location save.”
Woooooong!
After some deliberation, Rokan activated the Heavenly Rune. Hoarding something too much would just turn it to shit anyway.
With the location saved, he could now move about with a much lighter heart.
He gauged the direction roughly and began walking slowly toward the village, his original destination.
“No divine beasts around here?”
Then, a certain fact popped into his mind, and he asked Drokshy.
Even without heading to the village, catching a divine beast was all that mattered, right?
Drokshy flinched under his gaze and answered hesitantly.
“Ah, well, you see…… There is one, but…….”
“There is?”
“If this is the place I’m thinking of, there’s only one divine beast nearby, yo. It’s…… a unicorn, yo.”
“Unicorn?”
Rokan knew of unicorns as divine beasts. He’d never encountered one personally, but it was pretty famous, wasn’t it?
Incredibly gentle, but highly wary and rarely seen, with a massive, sharp horn that could impale an elephant in one go if provoked.
‘That horn holds mystical power and is hailed as a priceless treasure.’
That made it a prime target for hunters, but the problem was how rarely it showed itself.
“Hmm…… I feel like there was some method.”
He wasn’t sure if it matched the legends perfectly, but if it did, there might be a way.
“Let’s go for now.”
Rokan racked his brains and moved to a new spot.
Even though it was part of the heavenly realm, the outskirts meant monsters could pop up anytime.
Fighting for experience was fine, but hunting a divine beast took priority.
“Uh…… You’re really planning to hunt a unicorn, yo?”
“If possible. Any issues?”
“Unicorns are…… important even to the heavenly race, yo. Hunting one would surely anger the heavenly folk…….”
“Oh? That’s perfect then.”
It was a predictable response.
Weren’t divine beasts like that by nature? They were sacred animals, or more precisely, animals of the gods.
So it made sense for the demon race to task him with killing one.
It might even be a requirement to join them, but from the moment Rokan chose neutrality, both heavenly and demon races were his enemies.
And now he was supposed to stop hunting divine beasts out of fear of the heavenly race?
Other divine beasts might change the equation, but Rokan had no such intentions.
‘Maybe…….’
There was one possibility that came to mind.
Drokshy probably meant the pure-blooded powerhouses of the heavenly realm, but Rokan didn’t care and kept walking.
“This the place?”
Reluctantly, Drokshy led him to a forest brimming with an eerie aura.
The so-called Fairy Forest.
It was home not just to unicorns but all sorts of fairy folk—actual fairies, different from elves or spirits.
Think Tinkerbell types.
‘The problem is their nasty tempers.’
They loved tormenting and pranking others but couldn’t tolerate even the slightest harm to themselves.
In that way, what difference did they have from demons or devils? Still, to Rokan, they were just prey.
He’d avoid provoking them until he caught the unicorn, though.
“Alright. Let’s head in.”
With a plan forming in his mind, Rokan stepped into the Fairy Forest without hesitation.
-Kyarruruk!
As he ventured deeper, fairy laughter echoed like ripples.
They’d noticed the new intruder.
Rokan exchanged glances with Drokshy and pressed further in.
[Fairy Dust exposure.]
[Hallucination effect activated.]
Soon after, hallucinations set in.
The fairies’ signature prank.
Rokan and Drokshy promptly squeezed their eyes shut and summoned someone to deal with them instead.
“Kai!”
Kyut!
Kai burst forth, whipping up a fierce whirlwind that scattered not just the fairy dust but the fairies themselves. It bought them some breathing room.
“Let’s go.”
They couldn’t miss this opening.
Rokan and Drokshy clung to Kai, who had bulked up slightly and flew swiftly with them in tow, deep into the forest.
“Giant Pupa, summon.”
At a certain point, Rokan tossed an Orb of Submission, deploying a Giant Pupa off to the side before quickly withdrawing.
He aimed to tie up pursuing fairies with the pupa’s taunt effect.
It wouldn’t hold every being in the Fairy Forest, but buying even a little time would suffice.
The fairies’ pranks wouldn’t work on the Giant Pupa, so it could stall them for quite a while.
‘There!’
After flying some more, they reached the Fairy Spring.
The one miraculous spring in the Fairy Forest.
Legend said even a sip granted tremendous recovery, so wouldn’t it draw a unicorn?
Rokan leaped off Kai’s back and swallowed hard.
“First things first.”
A unicorn’s appearance wasn’t guaranteed, so he’d secure what he could for sure.
He scooped up spring water quickly, then hid in the brush to wait for the unicorn.
“…….”
But even after 30 minutes, no sign of it.
Expecting to meet a legendary divine beast in just half an hour was laughable, but with fairies potentially closing in, he couldn’t afford to dawdle.
“……Ah.”
Then it hit him.
‘Unicorns only appear before pure-hearted girls.’
Part of unicorn lore.
With their intense wariness, unicorns only showed themselves to the pure of heart—especially young girls—making sightings rare.
In return, they’d open up to such souls, even using their laps as pillows to sleep, leading to tales of capturing them with pure maidens.
‘Damn.’
Realizing this, Rokan was half-resigned. He wasn’t exactly pure-hearted, was he?
Unless you counted being purely insane.
Drokshy was no different, so calling, let alone catching, a unicorn seemed impossible.
“Guess we should head back…… Shh!”
As he started to rise, something approached.
[Divine Beast Unicorn][Lv 400]
His all-seeing eyes identified it: a unicorn.
‘Why?’
Was it different from what he knew?
Rokan hunkered down, signaled Drokshy, gripped his battle axe haft, and watched silently.
‘Ah…….’
The next instant, seeing what it did left Rokan dumbfounded, like he’d been struck.
Kyut? Hiiing, hiiing.
It was playing with Kai.
Like reuniting with an old friend, nuzzling cheeks, frolicking, and tussling affectionately.
‘……Was Kai female?’
Only then did Rokan recall something he’d never considered.
Well, whatever—the important thing was things were going better than expected.
Holding his breath, he watched as the unicorn played with Kai, lowered its guard, and lay on the ground. Just like the legends, settling in for sleep.
True to its wary nature, it relaxed fully around trusted company and dozed off.
Rokan waited patiently until it was fully asleep.
‘Now?’
Once it seemed deep in slumber, he finally rose.
‘It’s a shame, but…….’
Deep asleep indeed—the unicorn didn’t stir even as Rokan approached.
Kyuu?
Beside beaming Kai, it just snored contentedly, even picking its nose.
“No clue if this’ll work.”
Instead of his battle axe, what Rokan raised was something else.
He’d planned to ‘hunt’ it at first but left one possibility open.
“Now, be a good girl and come in.”
Whoosh. Plop.
What dropped onto the unicorn was none other than the Orb of Submission.
Hunting it would complete the quest, and with luck, yield its horn as loot. But if he could tame it as a mount? With wyverns and fearsome aerial monsters swarming, mobility worries would vanish.
Thus, as his Heavenly Bone Horse’s value waned, the unicorn’s appearance was a godsend for Rokan.
‘Work, work, work…….’
He watched anxiously as the orb activated, ready to fight if it failed.
[The Divine Beast Unicorn has submitted to you.]
[Register the Divine Beast Unicorn as a mount? Registration will delete your currently registered terrestrial mount.]
“Huh?”
It worked. But something was off. Tamed via Orb of Submission, yet it was classifying the unicorn as a mount for registration.
“Register.”
He had a hunch but accepted first.
[The Divine Beast Unicorn has been registered as a mount.]
And indeed, it registered as a true mount, like Kai raised from an egg.
“Ah, there it is.”
Confirming that, Rokan immediately checked his Giant Pupa.
Hadn’t the rule been one monster per Orb of Submission?
Surprisingly, the Giant Pupa’s taming held.
The unicorn counted as a genuine mount, not a tamed monster.
Rokan had effectively gained an extra slot.
“Crazy…… You actually tamed a real unicorn?”
If anyone was stunned by the absurdity, it was Drokshy. Even the heavenly race hadn’t tamed one, had they?
Maybe they chose not to, but the knight who’d roamed the heavenly realm for ages gaped, mouth agape, unable to close it.