Chapter 79: The Ghost Bear Hunt (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 79: The Ghost Bear Hunt (1)
Rin had made up her mind to kill the Ghost Bear.
Her fear of the beast and her relationship with the Fox Clan had been major obstacles, but thankfully, she had overcome them. More than anything else, she had prioritized her master’s command, which was proof that her affection for Karami had reached its peak.
Every time his slaves followed his will above all else, Karami felt a sense of accomplishment and pride.
The decision was made. Now, the only thing that mattered was whether Rin could actually kill the Ghost Bear. She would have to fight alone. There was no one to help her.
The fortunate thing was that Rin’s master was a transmigrator and a diehard gamer who had played so much TOS that the line between reality and the game had blurred. He had the strategies for boss monsters like the Ghost Bear memorized by heart.
“First, I’ll tell you the basic things to watch out for. The first is the mist. It’s the Ghost Bear’s breath.”
Karami crouched down and casually sketched a bear on the ground with a twig.
“When the Ghost Bear gets angry, it starts huffing and puffing, breathing out mist. The mist in White Cloud Valley has long since left the Ghost Bear, so its power has dissipated, but you must avoid inhaling the mist it breathes out directly.”
“What happens if I do?”
“You’ll find it difficult to wield your spiritual power.”
In the game, when the Ghost Bear used its breath attack, the slaves’ MP would plummet. They would have to build their MP back up, causing their skill timing to be a beat too late.
In a turn-based game, having your skill timing thrown off completely was fatal. That’s why players would either equip MP-restoring items or bring slaves that didn’t use MP. Or a character with fucking insane sustained damage.
Fortunately, while the attack had been an unavoidable pattern in the game, it could now be defended against depending on how Rin reacted.
“The second is its roar. It will roar as you attack it. Hearing it will make your head spin.”
An AoE stun.
She had to cover her ears at the right moment.
He continued to explain the Ghost Bear’s patterns and strategies in as much detail as possible, though he had to modify them to fit the current situation.
Battles in TOS were fundamentally five-person affairs. In story battles, one main slave was mandatory, while the other four were freely chosen. However, even those four characters received a debuff that drastically reduced their stats. In other words, the game was designed to be impossible to clear unless you raised the story slave.
So, players would usually just bring buffer characters and form a one-trick carry deck built around the story slave. But right now, there was no one but Rin. She had to do everything herself.
This was why Karami had been concerned about her contribution level dropping if she hunted it with other people.
The good news was that slaves bound by a soul contract were stronger than they were in the game. Karami judged that Rin would be more than capable of hunting it alone.
Mulling over the strategies Karami had taught her, Rin stood at the entrance—and exit—of the fox den.
The eerie mist flowed in from the valley outside.
The unsettling wails of yokai.
It was a familiar scene. To ensure the Fox Clan could safely gather herbs and hunt for food, Rin had taken on the role of luring the yokai.
Every single day. Rin had stood in this very spot thousands, tens of thousands of times.
And every time, she had been afraid.
There was never a single time she had wanted to go out. But if she didn’t do at least this much, she would be abandoned by the Fox Clan. She had no choice.
It’s different now.
Rin looked behind her. The same foxes as always were there, frowning and silently urging her to leave as quickly as possible. Because of them, she could never linger and was always chased out. This time, however, she didn’t even see them.
“I’ll be waiting, so do a good job and come back safe.”
A new person, someone who hadn’t been there in the past, stood among the familiar foxes, smiling at her. He was waiting for her to return, not just for her to leave.
As a pinkish emotion bloomed deep in her chest and enveloped her entire body, Rin couldn’t suppress a sudden impulse and threw her arms around Karami.
She buried her face in his chest, inhaling his scent as if to absorb it, while simultaneously using her tails to mark every inch of his body with her own.
Then, she lifted her head slightly, a sly, bewitching smile on her face.
“Don’t you dare touch any other foxes. Just wait for me quietly. I’ll be back to mark you again before my scent fades.”
“Whoa.”
It was Rin’s version of the classic hero’s boast: I’ll be back before the wine gets cold.
Karami let out a dumbfounded sound at her audacious declaration.
A satisfying reaction. A smirk tugged at the corner of her lips as Rin, for the first time, left the fox den with light steps.
*
Rustle. Rustle.
Rin walked through the mountain of dense fog, unable to see even a step ahead.
The mist coiled around the forest as if it were alive. Damp leaves swallowed the sound of her footsteps. Branches reached out like the hands of the dead, only to scream and burn away in her fox fire.
This was a den of yokai, where unpredictable threats lurked. Unlike in the past, when she had fled without a moment to breathe, Rin’s steps were now filled with composure.
She was Rin, who had unlocked five of her gumiho tails. She was no longer a being that some low-level yokai hiding in a forest could dare to challenge.
They merely used the mist as a curtain to hide, their howls like warning bells.
Rin paid them no mind. It was a waste of time to care about every single one of those lowly creatures.
Thud.
A vibration shook the mountain.
The mere act of the Ghost Bear walking sent tremors throughout the entire mountain range.
Thanks to that, finding it wasn't difficult.
“…”
Rin stopped in her tracks. She craned her neck back, looking up.
What filled her vision instead of the sky was a bear. A bear so colossal that calling it one caused a sense of cognitive dissonance.
He wanted her to hunt that. In the past, she wouldn’t have even dreamed of it, but things were different now. Her mind was filled with only one thought: finish the job quickly and return to her master.
I’ll hug my master.
And I’ll take a huge whiff of his scent.
If she delayed, those filthy females might try to seduce him. After all, her master exuded a tantalizing scent that bewitched female beastkin.
The Ghost Bear hadn’t noticed her yet. It seemed like a good time to attack, but Rin didn’t move rashly.
She remembered the plan Karami had emphasized over and over.
‘For the first attack, you can take your time. Hit the Ghost Bear’s weak spot with your strongest move. The Ghost Bear always attacks second.’
It was a strategy she still didn’t understand.
The weak spot Karami had told her about was the scar on its chest. If she got that close, even a creature as massive as the Ghost Bear would surely notice her. A powerful attack required time to prepare, and the Ghost Bear wasn’t some gentleman who would just stand by and wait.
Shouldn’t I maintain as much distance as possible and bombard it with ranged attacks? That was Rin’s thought, but…
No.
She shouldn’t dare to doubt her master’s words.
She just had to follow his orders like a doll.
Thump!
With a light kick off the ground, Rin leaped up, gracefully using the terrain to climb to the top of a tree.
Thud…!
The Ghost Bear passed by her. Only after climbing so high that the ground was obscured by mist did she find herself at eye level with the beast.
Rin watched the Ghost Bear’s movements. She summoned her Fox Orb and ignited her fox fires. One by one, the flames flickered to life like waking stars, beginning to glow.
One, two, three, four… a total of seven fox fires.
It wasn’t just the number she could control that had increased. The size of the fox fires was also several times larger than before.
But it didn’t stop there. The seven fox fires began to circle around Rin, then started to merge into one.
The unified, azure fox fire swelled like the moon, growing so immense it created the illusion of two moons hanging in the sky.
And still, the Ghost Bear didn't react. It didn’t even glance at the ball of fire blazing right in front of it.
The Ghost Bear’s absolute, unchanging rule of attacking second.
In a turn-based game, opponents took turns attacking each other. Naturally, since attacking first was advantageous, game companies made various efforts to maintain balance, like giving the second player more resources or an extra card draw.
However, in some games with shitty balance, the first turn was so crucial that the second player could lose without even getting to attack once.
Because TOS’s Ghost Bear had an absurd pattern that eliminated the player’s MP, it unconditionally gave the player the first turn.
In other words…
‘This means if I stack all my buffs and debuffs and then unleash my ultimate, I can take off half its health from the start!’
Too scared to go out, but too anxious to just wait, Karami peeked his head out of the fox den to watch the sky. It was still covered in mist and impossible to see, but the fog shimmered with a faint blue light.
“Go! First strike wins!”
As if responding to the voice she couldn’t possibly have heard, Rin controlled the fox fire. She didn’t forget Karami’s instruction to always chant the skill name when using a skill.
“Blue Fire of the Azure Sky.”
The massive fox fire moved slowly, then erupted in a huge explosion against the Ghost Bear’s chest.
BOOOOOOM!
The fox fire burst with a deafening roar. The expanding shockwave blew the mist away, clearing the sky for a moment.
GRWAAAAAAAR!
The Ghost Bear let out a scream that vibrated through the air and tilted backward. Its massive shadow covered the ground, devastating the area.
Hiss—
A vast amount of breath poured from the fallen Ghost Bear’s mouth. The mist settled slowly, once again blanketing the newly cleared White Cloud Valley in fog.
Following that was a roar that deafened the ears. The yokai and mountain beasts caught in the roar couldn’t withstand it and collapsed on the spot.
But Rin, who had been informed beforehand, was different. A pink barrier unfolded from her Fox Orb, blocking the sound. It only trembled, having no effect on her.
He was right…!
Karami’s information was correct. Everything was proceeding according to plan, so smoothly that it felt almost too easy.
Rin felt a shiver of awe at Karami’s foresight, which was comparable to the Heavenly Eye. If she just followed her master’s words, defeating the Ghost Bear would be easier than choking down a dry potato.
Rin ignited another fox fire.
The Guardian of White Cloud Valley?
What’s that?
If you’re a guardian god, then I’m a fox god.