## Chapter 55 – The Black Magician’s Request
From atop the hill, hidden from view, I watched the kobolds’ cave entrance. Soon enough, some welcome friends began crawling out from inside.
“They’re here.”
—Kyusat kyusat.
—Kyusasasasasat.
—Kyoo~ssat.
A total of four kobolds emerged from the cave, looking around. There were no kobold warriors among them, only weak-looking workers. They probably came out to gather berries or edible roots from around here.
“We need scale wolves, not kobolds.”
“Dude, who doesn’t know that? They’ll come out to eat those things.”
“I hope so, yeah.”
Ever since our argument, Maurice’s attitude had been consistently sour. There’s a crude saying about people who eat their age through their ass, and it seemed to apply just as much in this world as it did on modern Earth.
He was an utterly unpredictable man. Even the most complex woman’s heart would be relatively easy to read compared to Maurice’s mental state.
—Kyusat.
—Kyusatsat.
The kobolds crawled along the ground with their noses buried in the dirt, chattering in their own language that we couldn’t understand. Since they couldn’t see, they relied on their sense of smell.
They seemed quite peaceful.
Happy, even.
—Grrr…
Until the predator appeared.
“There it is.”
Emerging stealthily from the thicket was a scale wolf, its fur the color of cement. Unable to contain its trembling excitement, it approached the kobolds, muffling its footsteps.
—Kyusat?
—Kyusat?
—Krrk…!
Thwack! The scale wolf, leaping like lightning, bit the neck of a kobold who had turned around dumbly.
—Kyooo, ssaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!!!!!!!
The kobold, its neck bitten, cried out in agony. It was a scream of pure life. The kobolds’ happy picnic turned into hell in an instant with the arrival of the powerful predator.
—Ku, kusat!
—Kyusat!
The other three kobolds, seeing this, panicked and tried to return to the cave. They collided and fell over each other in what was truly a scene from the Hungry Ghost Realm.
—Grrr, kreck!!
But the scale wolf didn’t allow them to escape. It quickly chased them down one by one, biting their necks and killing them. It didn’t even take a minute to slaughter all four kobolds so cruelly.
“That thing… it’s pretty skilled.”
Having turned all four into corpses, the scale wolf finally seemed satisfied, leisurely choosing one of the kobolds and starting to devour its belly.
—Crunch crunch.
—Crunch, crack.
Hmm, now that I think about it, isn’t this a complete stroke of luck? I can suddenly get three kobold heads for free. Taking just the brains would make me feel like a dick, so I should just take the whole heads.
“Katt, what do you think? Seems like a good time to go, right?”
“That bastard still hasn’t learned his lesson. If we ambush him now, we can send him to the afterlife. Gibson, and… Maurice. Let’s go.”
Even dogs don’t get bothered when they’re eating, but we decided to gladly attack the creature that was currently enjoying its meal.
Even if the four of us just charged down in a line, the cliff face with the cave behind it would prevent it from escaping. The only thing I’m a little worried about is the possibility of it running into the kobold cave in a desperate situation.
—Thump thump thump!
We ran straight down the hill. As we descended, we spread out into a horizontal line, like a net cast towards it.
—Krrk?
The creature, its snout stained red, raised its head and looked at us. It was so shocked that it looked like it had seen its dead mother come back to life, and it immediately turned and tried to run away. But there was a cliff.
We had already blocked its sides long ago.
“Hehehe… you’re dead meat now, you ball-less bitch.”
—Grrr…
I twirled the tip of my sword, trying to hypnotize it as I spoke. It had no effect.
Damn it.
— Bark!
The scale wolf, looking around, gave up on escaping and charged at us. A desperate last stand. It targeted Gibson. In that moment of life and death, it chose the smallest one. I have to give it credit for its judgment.
“Ugh!”
Gibson, parrying the charging scale wolf with his sword, threw himself to the side. It didn’t seem to do much damage. As expected, being a teenager, he lacked some bulk. I quickly ran to block its escape route.
“You bastard! Gibson!”
Claudia and Maurice were on the opposite side. I shouted a battle cry, trying to drive it towards them so the three of us could beat it to a pulp, but the creature seemed to take the battle cry as a provocation and charged at me.
I lowered my stance. I extended my sword forward to protect my body. A sword is both a weapon to kill the enemy and a shield to perfectly protect oneself. I focused my mind. Waiting for the timing…
“Die!”
—I slashed.
A diagonal upward slash landed.
—Kreck!
The scale wolf’s left front leg flew into the air as it charged. Clear blood vessels stretched like threads between the severed surfaces. Should I slash again to finish it off? No, the distance is too short.
“You bitch!”
I then applied the [Knee to Crush Balls] technique I learned from Karin, forcefully slamming my knee into the creature’s chest. Crack! I heard the sound of its bones shifting. The scale wolf, sent flying about two meters by the Muay Thai-like strike, fled to the opposite side of me.
Claudia and Maurice were where it was running. It was already surrounded. There was no way it could escape alive. Having lost one front leg and dislocated its shoulder blade, it propelled itself forward, dragging its body along the ground with its hind legs.
…It was slow.
Maurice raised his axe high. A disciplined stance. You couldn’t achieve that stance with just a couple of axe swings.
“Hup!”
Maurice, letting out a shout, split the creature’s head in two.
The situation was over.
“I killed it again.”
He said it as if he had killed it entirely on his own, but at least Maurice had the skill to finish off what his teammates had softened up.
“I didn’t do anything again. Well, I’ll skin it.”
As she said, Claudia hadn’t really done anything. I was secretly expecting her to show off her skills, so it was a shame. She took the dagger from me and began skinning it again.
“Gibson, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Ah, I’m fine. I made a mistake.”
After asking about Gibson’s condition, I approached the kobolds’ corpses. Now I had to extract their heads. Risha said she needed kobold brains… I send my infinite thanks to the scale wolf for conveniently providing the corpses.
The kobolds’ necks were already half-torn, so they were easy to separate.
I carefully placed them in the sack I had slung over my back. I tried to drain as much blood as possible, but I figured it would quickly become a bloody mess, with blood dripping everywhere.
“Why are you taking those? Trophies?”
“Huh? Ah, something like that.”
“Do you have some kind of religion? Or is it a Mirkesha custom?”
“Um… not really… It’s a request. Someone asked me to.”
“Is there even a use for kobold heads?”
“I don’t know, I’ve been wondering that myself. Why would anyone want me to bring them this kind of thing?”
Claudia, who had already finished skinning the wolf, approached and said this. Her hands were covered in blood again. I opened the lid of my canteen again.
With this, we obtained two scale wolf hides and three kobold heads. Adding in the five magic herbs, our quest completion rate had suddenly skyrocketed.
After that, as if it had smelled the blood, another scale wolf came looking for us.
“Huh? Another one’s here.”
We prepared for battle again. But this time, Claudia stepped forward, stopping the others, saying she would do it herself.
“Everyone stay back. I need to do something too.”
There was a contradiction in her words.
Just skinning the hides properly was worth more than one person’s share.
—Grrr…
The one that appeared this time seemed a little starved, its eyes glowing red as it slowly approached. Couldn’t it see the carnage here? Hunger may have clouded the beast’s eyes, but you had to give it credit for its guts.
“…”
Claudia walked towards it at a similar pace. Her gait was light and graceful. Somehow, that appearance, combined with her long legs, created a model-like atmosphere. As she walked, she suddenly lowered her stance.
And then.
“Huh.”
Wait,
She seemed to disappear.
“Goodness.”
—Krelelek!
The scale wolf, just about to jump, let out a death cry.
It happened in an instant.
—Fwoosh!!
Claudia, approaching so quickly that it seemed like she had briefly disappeared, unleashed a Starburst Stream (for real), and the scale wolf was torn to shreds and fell to the ground.
“Hmm~. I wonder if the scales got damaged? I tried to be careful.”
“I’m going crazy.”
My jaw dropped in astonishment.
Claudia had swung her twin swords at an incredible speed, almost invisible, as if ‘spraying’ them. The scale wolf, still in mid-jump, was ‘carved up’ and killed by that storm of blades.
This girl… is a veteran!
Why is she an E-rank adventurer?!
And the fact that the hide was hardly damaged was amazing. Looking at the wounds, it was clear that she had avoided the scaled hide and only cut the neck, armpits, and the places where muscles connected.
Her skill was terrifying.
That unbelievable technique from just now seemed like a mystical power that transcended humanity, like a mage wielding mana. Could she be a mana user? If so, that would explain her strange movements.
“That was amazing… Claudia, why are you only E-rank with that kind of skill? I think you could aim for C-rank or even B-rank!”
“Really? I haven’t been in the city for very long. I started because I was tempted by the idea that higher-ranked adventurers earn more, but they say you need achievements to get promoted, right?”
“The wall of achievements that even masters can’t overcome!”
Claudia’s skill was literally at the level of a sect leader, a supreme master. Wait, is this a martial arts novel? I was so flustered that I misspoke. In other words, her skill seemed to be similar to that of a knight.
Anyway, even though she was that skilled, she hadn’t been here long, so she was stuck at E-rank, barely making a living. As an outsider, she didn’t know much about the city’s ecosystem, so even with her skills, she probably hadn’t been able to seize opportunities to earn big money.
It’s lucky for us.
“That was an incredibly amazing movement. And yet, the hide was hardly damaged despite those sword strikes.”
“Monster weak points are all pretty much the same. It’s nothing, this much. My hometown, Shurdik, is a nation of warriors who worship the Night Sky Battle God Hell-Khan. I’ve been practicing martial arts since I was a child.”
So Shurdik is a nation of human weapons with a religion that reveres martial arts. With the desert and her brown skin, it feels like something similar to Islam or Egypt. Combining her light clothing and two curved swords, a specific image of a ‘fighting woman’ comes to mind.
Anyway, now that we had the third hide, it was already well past noon. It would be ideal if we could catch one more and each take one.
Perhaps, since Claudia’s skill was far beyond ordinary, we could get twice as many hides. Of course, that’s only if we could find that many scale wolves.
Just because you’re strong doesn’t mean you can kill a lot of monsters. Monsters have brains too, so they run away and hide. If they swarmed like a pack of dogs, you could massacre them, but that doesn’t happen in fields like this, even if it might in dungeons.
“If we catch just one more, we can each get a hide,” Gibson said.
“Then let’s look for one last one.”
