Chapter 98
Chapter 98
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 98
Chapter Title: Before Sion Became a Duke
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Before Sion became a duke.
That is, back in the ancient days before the Demon Dragon War had even broken out.
During those years when he'd wandered as a mercenary for about four or five years, Sion had gathered several subordinates and made quite a name for himself as a mercenary.
Sion's mercenary band, consisting of around ten members, was mainly hired for transportation and escort duties, or for subjugating monsters in minor territories.
Among those, monster subjugation was by far the most lucrative.
Transportation and escort work wasn't bad by any means, but factoring in variables like bandits, thieves, and monster attacks made it hard to call it big money. In a word, the cost-performance was poor.
Above all, transportation and escort jobs were tough to plan for.
Bandits, horse thieves, robbers, and monsters didn't exactly announce, "We'll attack the day after tomorrow at 4 p.m.! Get ready!"
In contrast, monster subjugation or extermination contracts with lords were carried out with at least some specifics on the monster's type, numbers, characteristics, and location. That made planning relatively straightforward.
Of course, things didn't always go according to plan.
Any lord coming to Sion's mercenary band, which had already gained fame in monster hunting, had likely exhausted every option available to them.
In other words, they could draw up more precise and reliable plans by learning from past failures.
That was why, after gaining considerable renown, Sion's mercenary band came to be recognized as one of the top three experts in monster hunting in the central region.
During that time, Sion had hunted virtually every monster in this world—at the very least, every one in the Obla Kingdom.
He knew their weaknesses, which weapons were most effective, whether traps worked, whether poison worked, whether they used poison in reverse, how many people were needed to take them down, and where and how to fight them, and so on.
He had amassed knowledge and information on fighting monsters through countless methods, successes, and failures against hordes of them.
If there were a degree in monster studies, Sion would undoubtedly have a doctorate. If there were a national certification for monster hunting, he'd be beyond master craftsman and artisan levels—a technical expert.
Then, a few years later, this doctor-cum-technical expert Sion suddenly realized something.
Just as the pinnacle of tuning was stock, the pinnacle of monster hunting boiled down to one thing.
Overwhelming "power."
Puuung!
"Kuueeek!"
The giant boar's belly literally exploded, and it let out a squeal like a pig having its throat slit as it crawled through the mud.
"Kkeuee...."
The massive wild boar monster—standing two meters tall with a body over four meters long—desperately scraped forward with its front legs, entrails spilling out.
Blades flew toward the giant boar.
"Kuueek! Kuwek!"
Stabbed in its weak points—the eyes and mouth—the giant boar shrieked a few more times, thrashed about, and finally went still.
"Let's go!"
Even though the giant boar would have died soon if left alone, the Sparrowhawk Unit members delivered the killing blow before charging next at the giant mantis, a mantis-shaped monster.
With its long blade-like forelegs, sharp pointed proboscis, and wings capable of leaping hundreds of meters already severed, the giant mantis was no longer a threat.
Its size was still imposing, but focusing attacks on the head and soft underbelly...
"Keee...."
Would make it spew out brains and guts as it died.
Like this, individually terrifying mid-sized monsters were now flopping or crawling in the swamp, deprived of their strongest weapons and strengths.
And the one who had created this absurd scene was none other than Sion.
Puuung!
Even now, a swamp troll struck by Sion's warhammer flew backward and collapsed.
No matter how tough a troll's body was, with all four limbs shattered and its chest caved in, it had no choice but to fall.
"Kill it!"
Worried it might regenerate, a few Sparrowhawk Unit members rushed over and hacked at its thick neck.
With its limbs torn and crushed, the troll could do nothing but accept its beheading.
Meanwhile, Sion pursued the mid-sized monsters that had abandoned their old axioms—
- We don't obey the commands of the weak!
- We are strong, not just me!
—In favor of new ones—
- But something stronger than us has appeared!
- Run!
And with the warhammer in his hand, he smashed their legs, arms, wings, and such, stripping away their means of attack and mobility first.
No matter how tough a mid-sized monster was, once it couldn't attack or flee, it was easy pickings afterward.
Of course, most of them could emit something akin to Sion's killing intent (though far inferior) or low-frequency curses to threaten the Sparrowhawk Unit members.
But having already been overwhelmed by Sion's killing intent, they merely trembled and soiled themselves.
Occasionally, some resisted, but the unit members weren't about to just take hits from monsters they could handle with five or six people even in perfect condition.
Kueee! Kuwaa... Kek! Heung!
Thus, the massacre of mid-to-large monsters that shocked the Brandin Mountains and stunned the Elgreys Swamp turned all but a few escapees into good food—no, level-up materials—for the Sparrowhawk Unit.
* * *
"All done?"
"A few left, but it'll be over soon. You worked hard, Sir Sion."
Priel, her entire body soaked in monster blood, flesh, and fluids, replied with her usual impassive face.
Not just Priel—all the Sparrowhawk Unit members looked the same.
At a glance, it was a scene believable as a psychopath serial killers' convention.
"Instructor, what about the escapees? Shall we track them? If you order it, my South Mountain sisters and I will carry it out."
Stella's stunning beauty was gone, replaced by the look of a female butcher. Yet her eyes sparkled with an even more mysterious and beautiful light, making her seem all the more ferocious.
"No need. I let them go on purpose, so leave them be."
"On purpose, sir?"
"Can't catch them all. Disrupts the food chain. Anyway, there's a reason."
"Understood. Then we'll collect the byproducts."
"Sure."
Stella saluted crisply with a predatory gleam in her eyes toward Sion, then marched off with precise steps.
'The kid's a bit... but she's good-hearted, so it's fine.'
Having fully categorized Stella as "a bit very weird but ultimately kind and obedient," Sion scanned the other Sparrowhawk Unit members.
Some were finishing off the remaining monsters, but most were dismantling the corpses.
With the elf squad members—all experts in disassembly—demonstrating, the others followed suit, their movements perfectly synchronized.
Sion checked their status windows.
Just like Stella earlier, everyone had leveled up.
Some had gained as much as three levels, most one or two.
But the most amazing and encouraging part was...
'As expected... the colors of their innate talents have changed.'
When Sion had first checked the Sparrowhawk Unit members' statuses, the colors for their innate talents were mostly blue, green, or orange.
For someone with an innate talent in archery (B) but mainly trained in swordsmanship without such a talent, it displayed as 'Archery (B)'.
But if they regularly practiced the bow, it would show as 'Archery (B)'.
'And if they trained to the brink of death, raising personal levels and skill ranks...'
It would display as 'Archery (S)'.
For reference, out of Sion's twelve innate talents, nine were purple, excluding three. The remaining three were red.
'Gray, green, blue, orange, red, purple in order.'
Talent ranks went from D to SS in six stages, and it seemed orange was the limit for B and below.
Because the elf rangers, who had handled bows their whole lives, mostly had innate talents like Archery (A) or Archery (B). The A's were orange or red, while all B's were orange.
The elves with A were among the best archers in their tribes, while B's were considered decent shots.
'But even that orange Archery (B) would earn a human master archer title.'
In short, maxing out a B-rank talent made one an expert in that field.
'C becoming orange would make one a skilled craftsman, and D sufficient to make a living.'
That was how Sion understood "innate talent."
Even among ten people with talent in a specific field, weren't the magnitudes different?
Even with equal time and effort, results varied.
Hence, innate talents had ranks from SS to D, distinguished by six colors for proficiency.
And now, several had changed colors in their proficiency.
Those with innate talents in spears or swords, who mainly used those weapons, had all advanced one stage in color.
In other words...
'The kids rode the bus sweet and easy.'
Sion, having overfulfilled his role as the bus driver, felt pleased. Like the best driver who got exam-takers to the test center ten minutes early, averting a near-late disaster?
Savoring that satisfaction as he surveyed the swamp, something caught Sion's eye—something very, extremely, utterly out of place.
"Ah...."
Right. That nagging feeling like he'd forgotten something.
Sion wove through the unit members busily dismantling corpses and sorting byproducts, heading toward that lonely, isolated something off to the side, like a solitary island.
"Kuwoong...."
The ogre, still kneeling from its sliding fall, let out a pitiful whine.
* * *
"...It's eating well."
"Yeah. Really scarfing it down."
"Makes me kinda hungry, doesn't it?"
"You too? Me too, man."
The Sparrowhawk Unit members, watching the unbelievable "ogre mukbang" live, all felt their appetites stir.
The spectacle of those massive fangs tearing into a monster corpse, stripped of all its valuable byproducts, was incredible.
Monster eating monster and humans getting hungry from it? Absurd?
If they'd only heard about it, they'd have wrinkled their noses like it was some pervert's fetish. Those who'd seen monsters devour animals firsthand would react even worse.
But right now, this massive ogre called Big Tusk wasn't eating raw—it was properly cooking with fire.
And Sion was grilling the meat for it himself.
"Tasty? Eat up."
"Kuung! Kuchik kutchik...."
"......"
The unit members were speechless at the ogre grinning innocently (impossibly so, yet everyone felt it) as it ripped into the meat.
Still, after multiple reality-shattering experiences today, the shock wasn't that great.
They had reached the stage of just accepting it.
Besides, hadn't Sion said it?
"This guy's a sort of caretaker."
"Pardon?"
"He usually manages the monsters in the Brandin Mountains, herding them to suitable spots at suitable times. Our unit just hunts them."
"Ah! Like a king's hunting ground keeper?"
"Aha!"
High nobles like kings or grand dukes had private hunting grounds, and naturally, staff to manage them.
The massive monster named Big Tusk was precisely the caretaker of "Duke Sion's Territory Monster Hunting Ground."
"Of course, he can't manage all the monsters. The Brandin Mountains are huge. But he can handle most mid-to-large ones. That's plenty for us."
The Sparrowhawk Unit's mission was hunting the suddenly surging monsters.
According to Sion, this was likely a worldwide phenomenon, irreversible to the past.
Other territories and regions would be scrambling for survival, nine times out of ten.
At a time like this, Duke Sion's Territory systematically managed mid-to-large monsters while hunting them regularly.
Absurd as it sounded, this was a jackpot.
And the existence guaranteeing that jackpot not just once, but ongoing, was...
"Want more? I'll grill some up. Take it to go?"
"Kuung!"
The ogre, shaking its ferocious head up and down while gnawing on the crispy manticore ribs.
(To be continued in the next chapter)