Chapter 232 – Special Missions
“An unidentified monster?”
Roin, who was eating lunch, opened his eyes wide.
“Huh. Remember Southern Forest Camp?”
“Ah… Where did you catch man-eating bears and trolls before?”
“Huh. That’s right. There have been several casualties there, but I can’t figure out what kind of monster attacked them, so they said they’ll give you money if you investigate the traces. They say that the monster’s grade is estimated to be at least 1st grade.”
“Good for you. I still had to check how strong the skeletons had become.”
Natalia happily nodded her head. All that remains is Roin.
“What will Roin do?”
“I had to make some money, too, so that’s good. Besides, if it’s tracking the traces of monsters, I’m pretty good at it.”
“Um, yes…”
Come to think of it, Roin is quite good at following traces like footprints. Roin also tracked down the man-eating bears in the past.
“Good. When are we leaving?”
“You said you were on a mission to find traces and were still saving people, right?”
“Huh.”
“Then I think it would be best to leave now. If you’re late, the request may end. Besides, if you caught that unidentified monster and it’s 1st class or higher, the price for the by-products alone will be quite high.”
It is high risk high return. As dangerous as it is, the reward is sure. If you’re confident in your skills, there might be quite a few guys aiming for you.
“Then why don’t we pack up and leave right now? Is Natalia alright?”
“Yes. Now, even if the ogre appears, I think we can win.”
“Ogre…”
I’ve seen it in a book in the library. Did they say that he was a green-skinned giant with a huge stature of up to 5m?
It is a special class monster that is like a walking disaster. Its leather is so thick that most arrows and knives cannot pass through it, so it is said that it can destroy a village by itself. I remember reading in a book that 100 well-trained elite soldiers can only deal with one.
Come to think of it, the monster that usually appears after the troll is the ogre. Could it be that the unknown monster is an ogre or something like that?
After eating, I immediately packed my things. In fact, he didn’t have much to pack as luggage.
In the past, I put all my camping equipment in one bag, so I just need to pack that bag and I’m ready.
I loaded all of my camping gear onto the Mud Golem I summoned after a long time and left the house.
“How long has it been since you went to work as a mercenary like this?”
“It’s been a really long time.”
The last mercenary job he received was an exploration of ant burrows. After he finished the anthill, he made Elena my woman and Germi my woman, and went to the West Way to help Germi and conquer the Black Moon.
This time, it is my turn to defeat the mysterious monster and make Elina my woman. I am already looking forward to the day when the mission is over.
“Hmm… ID verified. Pass!”
I showed my ID to the guard and went through the southeast gate. A well-maintained dirt road and an endless forest to the left and right caught my eye.
There is a clear difference between the city center where people live and the forest with one wall.
Walking with Natalya and Roin on either side, the feeling is new.
In the past, I walked this road and thought about how to make an old man like Cheetos my woman. Now, she has completely become my woman and we are walking together.
“It’s been a while since we walked together here. I didn’t know it would turn out like this at the time.”
Roin looked around and smiled as if he was thinking the same thing as me.
“I know. Even back then, I was walking around with a skeleton like this. Oh, but it’s Natalie.”
“Yes?”
“Are the skeletons stronger?”
“Yes.”
I looked at the steel skeletons and troll skeletons surrounding me.
Visually, there is no difference at all.
“On the outside, they look the same.”
“First of all, it’s easier to control than before.”
“Has it become easier to pilot?”
“Yes. Before, every joint was moved by me.”
“… Every single joint?”
“Yes.”
“You mean it moves like a marionette doll?”
“Marionette Doll… Oh, you mean moving by hanging a thread? Yes. It’s similar. Skeletons need to attach magical power to each joint, so you’ll need more threads than that.”
I thought these skeletons were almost automatic until now.
However, if you think about the magic education you’ve received from Nataliya so far, controlling the skeleton is using mana extracted from the body like an invisible hand, attaching dozens to each skeleton and manually manipulating them one by one.
I looked at the skeleton. Joints, each one… Even if you only have one right hand, it gets complicated when you include the knuckles, but you can control such a skeleton with 5 troll skeletons?
“I suddenly became curious, do you usually summon several skeletons like Natalia?”
In response to my question, Natalya extended her index finger and made a gesture as if reminiscing about the past, stroking her lips.
“Hmm… Among the necromancers I’ve seen, the one who controlled the most controlled up to 5 machines. But I don’t know why, but after about 30 minutes of movement, the skeletons’ movements were twisted. Weird, right?”
“…”
When playing a game, it is difficult to perfectly control one character, but Natalya was moving naturally with five or six such skeletons.
What an incredible multitasking! It’s literally a level where you can’t even slap a pro gamer on the cheek and break all your teeth!
“It’s easy to do if you focus a little bit, but most of the other people say 2-3 gigabytes is the limit.”
“Hmm…”
They say geniuses don’t understand the minds of ordinary people. Natalya’s innocent smile began to look sinister for some reason.
“As expected, Natalya is a genius.”
“Yes? Ahaha. It’s nice to be praised like that.”
At my praise, Natalia smiled shyly.
She’s like this cute girl, so…
“I see a camp in front of me.”
I turned my attention to Roin’s words. In the distance, I could see a wooden barrier blocking the end of the road.
A deforestation camp in the southern outback. I never thought I’d come back here.
Soldiers approached from the camp, probably seeing us coming.
“Are you a mercenary?”
“…”
Are you saying that when did you see this bastard?
Annoyed to reply, I was staring at it when Natalia, who was next to me, took out her ID and showed it to me.
The reaction of the soldiers who saw that Natalia was a nobleman was somewhat different.
“Has confirmed. I will guide you to the driver in charge.”
Followed the soldiers into the camp.
When I came before, there were obviously small personal tents set up in a disorderly manner in the camp site inside the barrier, and workers were running around here and there, but now there are no such small tents to be seen.
In the center was a huge tent, larger than the one Smith, who was in charge of the camp, looked like a combination of two military tents. On top of the tent was a hexagonal flag representing the symbol of Count Arpagon, so the knights must be having a strategy meeting inside that huge tent.
There were dozens of relatively small tents set up next to it, and I could see people washing dishes and carrying luggage here and there.
“They don’t look like knights, do they?”
“Since the knights were dispatched, those people are probably servants who do chores.”
“Aha…”
Yes, if you are a knight, you must have servants who can put on your armor. Seeing this, I feel it all over again.
Watching the knights in fancy armor and the servants following them at first glance, I followed the soldier to the side of the knights’ tent, when I heard a woman’s voice behind me.
“Soldier. What happened?”
You can tell this just by listening to his voice. Obviously a beauty
I immediately turned my head and saw the person talking to me from behind.
The silver armor glistened in the sunlight. And her long hair, almost pure white, the same as the armor, reflected the sunlight and dazzled her eyes. Even though he must be an article who does a lot of outdoor activities, his skin was clean without a single blemish, and his lips were red as if he had applied cosmetics.
Two bright brown eyes shone brightly.
“Miss Abeili. More from the mercenary guild.”
“I get it. Go back to your original seat.”
The soldier bowed his head and retreated at the decree of the female knight to celebrate.
Availly. It was obviously Abeilly. Is this female knight in charge? I thought he was a man A beautiful woman came out. You pass
Abeili, who had been looking at the pocket watch from his bosom, raised his head and looked at us.
“You came quite late. The other mercenaries came early in the morning…”
Abaili’s eyes turned to Natalya and Roin. After staring blankly at them for a moment, Abeili cleared her throat and put the pocket watch in her pocket.
“Hmm, hmm… My name is Pel Aveil.”
“I am Hanseong. May I call you Lord Abailey?”
“Okay. First of all, I will briefly explain the current situation.”
As if there was no need for trivial conversation, Availie immediately started talking about work.
Well, what kind of conversation would the knight have with the mercenary bastards?
A Bailey, placing his right hand on the hilt of his sword, began to explain the situation.
Workers who went out at night disappeared without a trace, or a worker who heard a strange sound while cutting trees went into the forest and disappeared screaming.
“… This is roughly the current situation. Any questions?”
“If there are footprints or traces… ?”
“Today is the first day of the investigation, so no traces have come out yet. Workers disappeared in a wide area throughout the forest to the south of the camp. If you find traces of monsters, take care of them and bring them. There are several alchemists who study the ecology of monsters here, so if they can infer the identity of the monster by looking at it, they will pay you a reward according to your merit in finding the trace. End of explanation.”
His tone is very rigid and businesslike. I just met you, so I can’t help it. Oh Bailey, I like her very much, but there’s nothing I can do about her right now, with her status as her knight. She will run into this woman again when she tries to bring down the Arpagon family. Let’s promise that time.
