Practical Mission: Troll Mountain

Monsters assigned for practical missions are supernaturally born lifeforms that stand as humanity's natural enemies. They charge at any human they see, hell-bent on killing them. No matter how many you slaughter, more always crawl out from somewhere, like cockroaches that refuse to die. In any realistic sense they were incomprehensible, impossible to explain, but if you broke it down like a game, the answer was laughably simple. Respawning monsters.

If something that simple in game terms existed in reality exactly as described, it would be an absolute headache.

“Don’t you worry one bit!” the knight department instructors and professors called out as they moved among the cadets. “All the third-year seniors going with you are veterans!”

Yet not a single cadet was foolish enough to feel reassured by those words. At that moment, the ones standing there without a trace of tension fell into exactly two categories: those with absurd confidence in their own skills, or those whose third-year partner was simply that good.

Kyle belonged to both groups.

“Fancy seeing you here again, Kyle.”

“So it seems.”

Kyle’s partner was Ruby Alderica, president of the Swordman Club and a full-fledged Expert-level master. He found the faculty’s decision to pair the two of them together rather suspicious. Even if they didn’t know he was a Master, the instructors were well aware he operated at Expert level. After all, he beat the self-proclaimed Expert Hundred nearly every day, so it was only natural they knew. Yet they had deliberately tied two Experts together? It clearly meant they had some scheme in mind.

‘What’s going on?’

He couldn’t figure it out, but he wasn’t particularly worried. A Master and an Expert. They were powerhouses who could safeguard their own lives no matter who they ran into. Ruby, who didn’t know he was a Master but assumed he was at least Expert rank or higher, seemed to share the same mindset. She quickly unfolded the mission orders.

“……Hmm. They want us to go here?”

“Why? Where is it?”

“Troll Mountain.”

“Troll?”

The most classic fantasy monster of all. Also known as the Knight Slayer.

Trolls were massive creatures. Their raw strength was powerful enough to uproot trees and swing them like clubs, and their hides were so thick that ordinary blades could barely scratch them. None of that posed much of a problem for knights who could wield Aura, however. An Aura user could slice through a troll’s tough hide without difficulty.

The reason they earned the nickname Knight Slayer had nothing to do with their size or strength. It was their special ability: ultra-regeneration that healed severed limbs in the blink ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of an eye. The moment a blade cut them, the wound would vanish as if it had never existed. That ability rendered knights completely ineffective.

‘It’d be so much faster to bring a mage…’

Set the wound on fire, freeze it solid, or curse it to reverse the regeneration process. With just one mage, the monster could be dealt with ridiculously easily. Yet for knights alone it was practically impossible. The fact that they were sending only two knights made Ruby voice her confusion outright.

“What the hell is this?”

She went to the instructor claiming something seemed wrong, but the man simply shook his head. The destination given to each cadet had been chosen as the most suitable location based on their abilities, he said. It was such a ridiculous answer that Ruby nearly laughed, but she first turned to Kyle.

“You don’t happen to have any Force abilities, do you?”

“I don’t.”

“Then what the fuck is this? I’m going back to ask again.”

Ruby spat out a string of curses unbecoming of a noble lady and sought out the professor once more. When she returned this time, her expression was one of pure frustration.

“……They said that if it’s us, we should be able to handle it. What the hell does that even mean?”

Had any other professor said those words, she would have told them to stop talking nonsense. But apparently the one who had spoken was Gawain. The academy’s sole Aura Master. The very idol every knight cadet looked up to. Even Ruby couldn’t argue with his judgment, so she obediently climbed into the carriage bound for Troll Mountain.

“Ughhh…… Is this really okay? For real? Seriously?”

Leaving Ruby behind as she whined like a grizzled sergeant being dragged out for field training in his final years, Kyle pondered why Gawain had sent him here. Trolls were called knight slayers, but that title only applied to Expert-level knights. Once someone reached Master rank, the story changed completely. A blade of light that could cut through anything was more than capable of severing even a troll’s regenerative power. Wounds left by an Aura Blade did not heal.

‘Is he telling me to use Aura Blade?’

Yet both the headmaster and the duke had ordered him to conceal the fact that he was a Master. Taking that into consideration, perhaps the intent was for him to handle the troll without resorting to it. Or perhaps it was neither. The destination was Troll Mountain, but the orders had never explicitly said they had to hunt trolls. There was always the chance that some new monster besides trolls had taken up residence there……

“Kyle?”

“—Ah, yes, Senior Ruby.”

“What are you thinking about so hard? Are you that worried?”

“No, it’s not that.”

“Haha, don’t worry, kid! This big sis will protect you, so you just stay beside me and guard my back properly.”

With those words Ruby yanked Kyle into a headlock. There was no chance he would be dragged along by her in either strength or technique, but he let himself be pulled in anyway. Her chest pressed firmly against his head, squeezing. Kyle was quietly enjoying that soft pressure when the carriage suddenly lurched to a stop, nearly throwing him forward and back.

Ruby kicked the door open and stepped outside as if she had been waiting for exactly that.

Troll Mountain. A special zone located near the academy’s territory. If one asked why a mountain teeming with monsters existed so close to the academy, there were two reasons. First, this game had a player character attending the academy as its protagonist. Naturally, the closer one got to the academy, the more dangerous the monsters became. Second, troll blood was an extremely valuable magical ingredient. To the magic department professors it was something worth drooling over, so the academy had deliberately allowed the mountain to remain.

With both the game’s logic and real-world practicality working together, Troll Mountain continued to thrive.

“Kyle, open the mission orders.”

“Yes.”

“What does it say? Since they sent us to Troll Mountain, I figured it’d be to collect troll blood.”

“Pretty close.”

Listening to Ruby, Kyle quietly closed the mission paper. The contents written inside were as follows.

‘So it really was a convenient errand.’

Having roughly figured out why he had been sent here, Kyle gave a bitter smile.

Mages as a whole tended to be eccentrics with strong experimental tendencies. They had taken great interest in the trolls living near the academy, and among their experiments were hybrid monsters created by crossbreeding.

What would happen if you mixed a troll with a goblin? An orc and a troll? An ogre and a troll?

A troll’s ultra-regeneration was an incredibly tempting trait. If that characteristic could be combined with other species, the mages believed they could create the ultimate monster. Setting aside the question of what they would actually use such creatures for, the mages had succeeded in making them. They had created a chimera that combined an ogre’s brute strength, a troll’s regeneration, a cyclops’s magic resistance, and the traits of countless other monsters.

‘Its name was Hecatoncheir… I think.’

A name taken from the giants of Greek mythology. True to that name, the chimera had become an absurdly powerful monster. So powerful that sending only one Master and one Expert seemed almost laughable.

‘Do these idiots not even realize what they’ve created?’

Even after more than ten years since playing the game, Kyle still remembered the Hecatoncheir’s overwhelming presence vividly. The scene of his carefully raised player character and companions being swept away like fallen leaves with a single gesture. He had lost count of how many attempts it had taken to defeat it. It was a monster that could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only be hunted after dying over and over again. Ten Masters had been mobilized in the process, a number that couldn’t be gathered even if the entire academy and the whole empire were searched.

‘They can’t seriously be telling me to go die…’

Of course, if the Hecatoncheir had been that powerful from the beginning, it would have appeared the moment the game started and wiped out everything. The fact that it hadn’t meant one simple thing: the creature had not yet reached its full strength while the player was still in first year.

‘Can I take it down now?’

Or he could always run away. With that thought, Kyle began climbing Troll Mountain. Ruby trailed after him, sticking close.

Halfway up the ridge, Kyle spotted a troll blocking their path and charged forward without hesitation. His sword swung lightly, slicing through the creature’s neck. Before it could regenerate he struck again, completely severing the head. Super regeneration meant nothing when the head was gone. There was no coming back from that. As he prepared to continue upward, leaving the fallen troll behind, Ruby suddenly tilted her head with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a puzzled expression.

“……Wait, Kyle. You—”

“Ah, Senior. About that……”

“Where are you going?”

“……Pardon?”

“I mean… we’ve already gathered this much blood. Isn’t that enough? Don’t tell me we need even more?”

Only then did Kyle realize he had forgotten to tell her about their actual mission. Since he couldn’t simply abandon her, he finally explained the real objective.

“……What?”

“It’s not regular troll blood. We’re supposed to get the blood of the chimera troll waiting at the peak.”

“What kind of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠insane mission is that? Are you a Master or something?”

“……I suppose so.”

Listening to Ruby’s words that struck right at the heart of the matter, Kyle felt a cold sweat begin to form on his back.