Monster Hunting (2)

Chadwick couldn't hide his bewilderment. Any ordinary cadet would know better than to chatter so freely in front of him — that much was only proper.

"Why so quiet? You're making things awkward here."

That cadet, Lee Tae-hyun, was so at ease it went beyond comfort into outright insolence — utterly without reserve. Where on earth did a confidence like that come from?

It's one of two things. Either he was that sure of his own abilities, or he was too dense to know when to hold his tongue. Chadwick's judgment leaned toward the latter.

"I hear... today's lecture concerns monster hunting."

Today's lecture was indeed monster hunting — a practical exercise in which cadets were free to hunt the monsters of the mountain range as they saw fit, and passed simply by returning with proof of a kill.

"If you return having slain a monster of intermediate grade or higher, I shall personally write you a letter of recommendation to the White Sun Knights."

"!"

"Whoa!"

Startled reactions burst out from the cadets all around. There was a world of difference between a letter of recommendation and being scouted. A recommendation was, quite literally, just that — you would still have to sit the proper entrance exam, and even passing meant starting from the bottom as a squire.

A recommendation from the White Sun!

For the White Sun Knights, whose entrance exam pass rate was legendarily brutal, a letter of recommendation carried even greater weight. It was practically a certificate of acceptance. A faint hope began to spread among the cadets.

He said intermediate monster, right?

Would he give me a recommendation if I caught one?

It's mine. I swear it's mine.

An intermediate-grade monster. Honestly, at cadet level that was a formidable opponent — but not so impossible as to be out of the question. If the creature happened to be in poor condition, a cadet could bring it down with ambushes, traps, whatever it took. The recommendation was worth gambling that much for.

"Hey, then me too."

In an instant, Lunan had sidled up beside Chadwick and cut in.

"Lee Tae-hyun, was it?"

"Yes."

"I'll offer the same terms. Bring down a monster of intermediate grade or higher, and you get a recommendation to the Black Moon Knights!"

With her joining in, the cadets didn't even try to hide their reactions anymore.

The Black Moon too?!

I don't care if I die out there hunting... today I'm giving it everything I've got.

EVERYONE OUT OF MY WAY!

It was, quite literally, a chance to turn their lives around, dangling right before their eyes. The man on the receiving end of all those promises, however, was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠decidedly less dramatic about it.

"Sure, why not."

"Jeez. All that fanfare over one lousy recommendation letter."

I grumbled as I climbed the mountain trail. "Anyone watching would think they were actually going to recruit me."

I never imagined one botched salute would snowball into this. Not that the other cadets seemed to have heard it.

I could hear it.

Then again, you'd have to have actually done a kingdom-style salute for that to happen.

Anyway — I'd caught their interest, however accidentally. Good enough for me.

This time, the objective was to subdue a monster of intermediate grade or higher. But stopping there would only earn me a recommendation letter, and that would be the end of it.

If I wanted to rise high enough to take part in major events like the Grand Mandate ceremony or a royal coronation — to be granted an audience with the prince...

...I would need to join a knight division properly, right away. And for that, a mere intermediate-grade kill wouldn't be enough.

"I'll bring back an upper-intermediate."

That was the revised goal, anyway.

"Though what exactly counts as intermediate, and what counts as upper-intermediate?"

Hunters usually graded monsters by the difficulty of the gate they came from. Monsters out of an S-rank gate were S-rank; monsters out of an A-rank gate were A-rank. Every so often something beyond classification, like an 'Epic Monster,' would appear, but that was strictly the exception.

"An upper-intermediate monster... would that be about B-rank gate level?"

Definitely not those runts in the tall grass, though — the ones eyeing me right now.

"I know every last one of you hiding over there."

"Grrrrr!"

Soon enough, gray-skinned monsters began to emerge from the forest one by one.

"Trolls, huh."

A relatively low-grade monster, the kind often seen in D-rank gates. The tricky part, though—

"Kraraaaar!" "Krek!" "Kehahahat!"

—was that they lived in packs of a dozen or more. Individually weak, but when they pushed forward by sheer numbers, they were nasty enough to drag down C-rank hunters with uncomfortable frequency.

But.

I wasn't alone this time.

"Let's go, Rir."

My shadow rippled, and in a single bound Rir sprang out of it.

"Woof!"

"Rir, get them!"

"Grrrrrrr!"

Rir spun on his forepaws and darted nimbly in among the trolls.

The blades of wind shredded their hides, scattering blood and viscera.

"Kraaaaaar!"

"Good, good."

In the blink of an eye, that whole pack of trolls had been cleared out.

"Oh."

Rir's level had gone up. Unlike my status window, it seemed a spirit's experience was filled through hunting monsters.

"Woof woof!"

Having finished off the last one, Rir came bounding over and flopped down, belly up.

"Good work, lucky pup."

"Woof!"

Well, since it had come to this, I might as well grind Rir's levels until I found an upper-intermediate monster. After giving that soft belly a proper rub, I headed deeper into the mountains.

About three hours had passed since the hunt began.

Rir's level had quietly climbed past 10.

"Woof woof!"

"...Huh. You've gotten bigger, haven't you?"

"Whuff?"

With the level-ups, Rir's appearance had changed a little too. He still had a youthful look about him, but his frame had grown larger and his mane fuller. Levels, it seemed, weren't merely about getting stronger — they were tied to the growth of the spirit body itself.

"If you get even bigger, maybe I could ride you around?"

"Woof? Woof!"

Whether he'd understood me or not, Rir turned his back to me and pawed excitedly at the ground.

"You're too small to ride just yet."

"Whiiiine?!"

"So let's level up faster, got it?"

"Woof woof!"

Rir burned with fighting spirit.

"Oh?"

A skill that looked genuinely useful. And the timing couldn't have been better.

Thud! Thud!

Something was closing in on us right now.

"Rir, you feel that monster coming? Try taking it down with that new skill of yours."

"Woof!"

Rir sprang into action without a moment's hesitation.

The source of those tremors was none other than a one-eyed ogre — a creature better known as a 'Cyclops.'

The kind that shows up at the top end of C-rank gates and the bottom end of B-rank ones.

The moment its huge eye fixed on our position, it came charging like something demented. Thud! Thud! Thud! CRASH!

The instant its crude fist swung down at us—

Rir ran — a swift, buoyant movement, like a mountain breeze given form.

"Uwooooah?!"

"Grrrr!"

Riding up the length of that long arm, Rir reached the ogre's head.

FWOOOOOOSH!

Rir gathered a whirlwind in his mouth. But this time it wasn't wind alone — something alien was laced through it.

A wind blade shot through with crimson energy sheared across the ogre's neck.

Shrrk!

The flesh of its throat was carved away in one piece, and blood burst forth.

"Uaaah! Gyaaaaargh!"

With the bleed effect stacked on top, the torrent gushed even harder. PSSSHHHOOOOSH!

Like watching a hot spring erupt, the streams of blood soaked the ground with ferocious intensity.

"Uuu...gh..."

Even without a single follow-up strike, the ogre swayed, then toppled over.

Dead on the spot. Well — bleeding that much, how could it not be?

"'Bleeding Strike,' huh..."

Another rather splendid skill. Rir growing stronger was, in the end, the same as me growing stronger.

"Come here, you pretty thing!"

"Woof!"

I ruffled Rir's fur to my heart's content. The more means of growing stronger I had, the better. Especially the fact that I now had a fighting force beyond myself — that meant more than my own power simply increasing.

If I could save even more souls...

Who knew — I might be able to grow stronger in all manner of new ways. The mere thought set my heart racing.

"Sniff, sniff..."

At that moment, Rir's nose twitched and began to dance.

"Rir? What is it?"

"Arf!"

Rir rose to his feet, sniffed the air again and again, then began ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠walking slowly in one direction — tossing his head back at me, as if to say follow me.

"What's over here, huh?"

For now, I followed in silence.

A short walk later, we came upon a cave set deep into the mountain.

"Arf arf!"

Rir trotted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠straight inside. Reacting like that...

Is something in there?

I lit the darkness with Karma Flame and stepped in after him. The interior of the enormous cavern unfolded before me — walls carved with an unnatural, almost surgical smoothness.

This cave wasn't formed naturally.

Wary now, I approached the center of the cave. There, a massive stake had been driven deep into the ground.

"Woof woof woof!"

"What kind of stake is as tall as I am?"

Unsurprisingly, it was no ordinary stake. It was wrapped layer upon layer in sealing sigils, and at its center, characters charged with the power of mana had been carved in.

"I don't know what it is, but something tremendous is sealed down there."

Judging by the sheer effort involved, a fairly powerful monster had to be sleeping beneath it. Which means... this thing was at least upper-intermediate, wasn't it?

"Heave-ho!"

I braced my legs and wrenched at the stake with everything I had. As befitted a seal, it was wedged in tight—

—but before my grown strength, it was merely a mildly troublesome piece of wood. THUNK!

I had the stake out of the ground in no time. RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!

The entire cave groaned as a monstrous tremor swept through it.

"Come on out, then."

The ground split apart, revealing an enormous eye — a vertical slit pupil set in a balefully glowing amber.

"Who... dares... to unseal this great one...!"

"Oh. It talks."

The thing writhed, slowly dragging itself out of the fissure. A head like a horse's, wings like a bat's, its entire body cloaked in blackish-red fur.

"KHAHAHAHA! Freedom, for the first time in centuries! At last the hour has come for the world to be dyed anew in the colors of I, Lord Balrok!"

The monster, naming itself Balrok, loosed a triumphant roar.

"So you are the human who broke my seal!"

"Looks that way, yeah."

"Kheheh! My thanks!"

Balrok smacked his lips, glaring down at me.

"And in payment for that gratitude, I shall make you my nourishment!"

The beast spread its enormous maw wide and advanced, intent on swallowing me whole. Who on earth says thank you like that? Sealed things were sealed for a reason, all right.

FWOOSH!

I wreathed my spear in Karma Flame.

The gathered flames plunged straight down Balrok's gullet and churned through it.

"Uuuuugh! Gweeeeeeck!"

The Karma Flame seared its throat raw and roared up through its upper body. I'd half expected its head to go flying right off.

"Pretty tough, huh?"

"K-kehoough! Wh-what in the blazes are you...!"

Surviving that means... it was a creature from at least an A-rank gate. In other words — upper-intermediate or higher.

"Perfect."

The real monster hunt began now.