## Chapter 429 – Undine, the Water Spirit
“Katt, you took down the Undine all by yourself?”
“Piece of cake. Your Oppa one-shotted it.”
Cloudy seemed really interested that I had one-shotted the Undine. It would have been better to show Cloudy the fight, but I just ended it in one blow.
“So, a mid-grade spirit is no match for Katt? Does that mean you’ll be able to take on high-grade spirits soon?”
“Hehehe. You know it. Of course, I will. Just trust me.”
“Hehe, Mama believes in Katt.”
But the difference between low and mid-grade isn’t that extreme, while the difference between mid and high-grade is huge. And anything above high-grade is just out of the ordinary.
For example, the Martial Arts Guild.
Low-level instructors, like that Mariel, are somewhat skilled and can overwhelm ordinary people, but they’re just chumps to me. Mid-level instructors are the same. They know how to throw a punch, but they’re still chumps.
But the high-level instructor, Lisette, is half a step or a step stronger than me, and the guild leader, Lisztina, is as strong as Karin.
There’s a huge difference between Lisette and Lisztina.
If we compare it to Karin and my positions, it’s pretty similar.
That’s how the power rankings are divided: chump – strong guy – strongman – true badass.
They say that high-grade spirits have to be dealt with by mercenary groups or armies, so they must be damn strong. Anyway, that’s how big the difference is.
They’re still a bit too much for me to handle alone.
“So, did you find anything here?”
“Ah. Sorry, Blackie.”
At my words, Winia picked up a stone from the ground and said.
“I was going to leave as soon as I found Unni, but another spirit appeared here. We just finished it off.”
“Another spirit appeared?”
There’s another spirit besides Undine?
Well, I did take down Undine in an instant, so there wasn’t much of a time difference. Winia found Cloudy while I was fighting Undine, and it seems they encountered the new spirit right then.
“This.”
Winia held out a green, sparkling stone.
—Sparkle.
Not jade… more like peridot. If this is the spirit’s core, then it’s probably a wind spirit?
“It’s the core of a Sylphid. It suddenly appeared, and Unni killed it in one strike. That just happened.”
Killed it in one strike.
At those words, Cloudy rubbed her face against my neck as if asking for praise. I took off my gauntlet and stroked the back of her neck as I listened to Winia.
“Sorry for leaving Blackie alone? I was about to leave, but Blackie came first.”
“No need to be sorry. I asked you to bring her. Well, I did come quickly. Undine was a chump anyway.”
“Yeah, that’s a relief.”
She would have come right away even if I had waited a little longer.
“But Sylphid?”
“It’s a mid-grade wind spirit.”
Winia added a brief explanation about Sylphid.
Judging from the light green skin and green hair, it looks similar to a dryad, but it flies around and uses aggressive wind magic, so it must be an even more vicious monster.
“The main magic it uses is Wind Cutter. If your carotid artery gets cut, you’re done for, so you have to be careful. But Blackie always wears armor, so there’s not much to worry about.”
“Armor is important, after all.”
Wind Cutter.
A vicious killing magic that sends out blades of wind.
They say that if it touches your skin, you’ll get a wound like you’ve been cut by a dagger, and that’s enough to make a person fall. If it hits a vital point, you’ll die from excessive bleeding or your movement will be restricted, and you’ll get finished off.
That’s why you have to wear armor.
The reason why low-level adventurers die so easily is that they don’t have the money to buy armor. And originally, wearing armor gives you confidence, which increases your attack power.
Anyway, Wind Cutter’s basic power is about this much, and if a skilled magician uses it, it can literally cut through bones. That’s what a high-grade wind spirit can unleash dozens of at once.
That’s really scary.
“But the contract only mentioned Undine. Did the villagers hide it?”
“There’s no reason for that. I think it just suddenly appeared… It’s a little suspicious.”
As Winia said, it’s suspicious.
Mid-grade spirits aren’t that common, and when they do appear, they cause damage to the village, so they put in a request for subjugation. But a Sylphid appeared without the residents knowing?
“Maybe it’s Undine’s friend?”
“Maybe?”
One possibility is that the two spirits were friends and came to visit, or that the spirits are gathering in this area for some reason.
If that’s the case, it’s quite unfortunate for the villagers.
It’s not certain, but other spirits might appear again. The lives of ordinary people are always precarious. It seems hard to live, but the farmers in the village who aren’t serfs earn a decent amount of money.
It’s like danger pay.
“But did Blackie get the Undine core? You didn’t drop it in the water, did you?”
“Of course, I got it. Have you ever seen me miss something like that?”
“Hehe. That’s right. There’s no way Blackie would drop something like that. So, if we combine the quest reward of 20 silver and the two cores, we might end up with a little less than 30 silver.”
“Huh!”
Come to think of it, a low-grade spirit’s core was worth about 1 silver. A mid-grade spirit’s core is definitely more expensive. Thinking about that made me smile.
As expected, having skills means you can make good money.
“Oh, right. And this canteen.”
I opened the lid of the canteen and showed it to Winia. I told her that I had collected the blue liquid that Undine had shed… or rather, bled.
“I collected some of the blue fluid that Undine shed. Can you check it out?”
“Just pour it on the ground.”
“Pour it?”
“You’ll see if you pour it.”
—Glug, glug.
I immediately took out the core and poured the liquid onto the ground. The water wasn’t blue. It was perfectly clear and transparent. It was so clean that you couldn’t believe it was shed by a murderous monster who was shedding crocodile tears at the last moment.
“Undine died, so the magic power scattered and it turned back into ordinary water. Blackie was expecting something again, like an idiot?”
“Damn it, I was expecting something.”
“Our Blackie must be upset.”
“I’m really upset. Ah.”
That damn Undine.
As expected, monsters are useless. I got pissed off and kicked the ground where I poured the water to vent my anger. Winia chuckled as she watched me.
“Oh, are you that angry? Do you want to touch Blackie’s boobs?”
“I want to!”
Winia let me touch her breasts over her robe.
After a while, my anger subsided.
“Really, does Katt like boobs that much?”
“Of course, I do. They’re the best.”
“Hehe, should we go back now?”
Cloudy said.
Go back.
“But aren’t there more spirits around here? It could be a coincidence, but seeing two of them, there might be a reason why they gathered, don’t you think?”
“Hmm, Blackie’s right.”
“Let’s look around a little more. With the three of us, it’s more than enough. If we get a few more cores, it’ll be a profit.”
They nodded at my suggestion.
If we find just one more mid-grade spirit, we can get close to 5 silver. We can’t get into Isvant even if we leave now, so let’s investigate during the remaining time.
“Cloudy. Did that spirit say anything?”
I asked in case she might have said something.
“Hmm, I don’t know. I killed it as soon as it appeared.”
“As expected, it’s refreshing. Yeah, there’s no need to talk to those guys. Just kill them as soon as you see them. They’re not the kind of guys you can talk to anyway.”
“Katt… Mama is satisfied with your aggressive thoughts!”
Cloudy hugged me from behind.
“Let’s kill them all, hehehe.”
“That’s a very good hostility. Yeah, that belligerent nature is one of Katt’s greatest strengths.”
We searched the forest while chatting like that.
The Sylphid appeared not far from where Undine’s spring was. I have a feeling that there’s something more nearby.
Originally, there’s always a special reason for something special happening.
We’re going back tomorrow morning anyway, so we have time until tonight. It would be nice if we found a few more, but it doesn’t really matter if we don’t. I’m just thinking of doing a little more work while we’re here.
We were moving deeper into the forest.
—Twitch.
Cloudy’s ears reacted as she was moving while guarding her surroundings. That means she identified a sound. She immediately stopped and went to stand next to a tree.
“Cloudy?”
“I hear a sound nearby. It sounds like something’s coming.”
“If it’s an uninvited guest, we’ll have to make it an unwelcome one.”
I wondered if another spirit had appeared, but it could be another monster or someone moving nearby. We waited while being careful, and soon someone appeared while pushing through the bushes.
—Rustle.
“A person?”
What appeared was a man with a gloomy impression wearing something like a poncho.
“…”
He was holding a staff, but he didn’t look like a magician because he already looked like a serial killer. He looked so gloomy that I could believe he killed people as a hobby.
If he was holding a bloody knife instead of a staff, I might have attacked first.
“…”
The man, who suddenly appeared, looked at us with eyes that seemed sharper than his impression. He kept his mouth shut and only rolled his eyes. Looking at him, he looks a little young.
I grabbed my sword and stepped in front of Cloudy and Winia.
It’s so obvious, but I’m not a killer. And I don’t judge people by their appearance. Kim Katt is a man with the right ideas.
Even if he looks like a serial killer, he’s not necessarily a serial killer.
Even if a person I meet outside the boundaries of a city or town is a potential threat who might do something to me, I can’t just suspect a complete stranger and stab them as soon as I see them. If you kill people as soon as you see them, what else would you be but a serial killer?
If he doesn’t have any hostility towards me, I don’t intend to harm him.
Of course, I’ll have to kill him if things go wrong, but anyway.
“Greetings. If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask what you do. Ah, we’re adventurers. We’re being cautious because you suddenly appeared, so please understand.”
When I greeted him in a voice like Copsen, he raised his head like a machine and answered.
“…The presences of Undine and Sylphid have disappeared.”
“Un, what? What are you talking about? Their presences disappeared? Did you lose your companions in the forest?”
Surprisingly, those were the names of the monsters we just killed.
Is this guy an adventurer?
I pretended not to know, thinking that he might have found traces of the spirits nearby and was going to hunt them.
If I made him think that I had stolen his prey, it would cause a conflict.
“I can feel their energy… It’s small, it’s weakened.”
Suddenly, he stared at me and spoke as if he didn’t care about this world. It was a languid tone, as if he was high on drugs.
It’s like he’s talking about something imaginary.
“What are you talking about? It’s scary, so stop it.”
“They’re trapped in a narrow place and suffering. I can hear them asking to be taken out.”
“All I hear is a dog barking.”
I felt a sense of foreboding and my senses began to activate. This guy doesn’t seem like a simple madman.
Finally, he glared at me with sharp eyes.
The way his mood changed from moment to moment reminded me of an actor.
“You killed them.”
And then he says this.
“What the hell are you talking about? What did I kill? You son of a bitch, I’m listening to you, and you keep talking nonsense? You son of a bitch, if you’re going to talk, talk so that people can understand you. Didn’t your mom and dad beat you for talking nonsense? If you don’t want to die, shut up and throw your staff over here and kneel down, you son of a bitch. I’ll check your identity.”
“Let them go.”
“You fucking piece of shit, you can’t understand a single word. What’s the point of talking? Are you really going to die?”
Enraged, I raised my mana, expanded my senses to the limit, prepared to kill him, and slowly walked forward with my sword pointed at him.
That’s when it happened.
—Rustle.
Something’s shadow was created behind him.
“Mid-grade spirit! Blackie! That guy’s a spiritist! Kill him!”
