Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 7 Turan spent the day patrolling the city outskirts, successfully bringing down seven magical beasts.
Every time he absorbed mana from their carcasses, a chilling rush of pleasure washed over him. It was a sensation so potent he feared he might become addicted to it. It felt almost like a pity that once he reached his mana capacity, he would no longer be able to experience such a delight.
Of course, sensory pleasure wasn't the only thing he gained from devouring the beasts.
By the time he had absorbed the power of his fifth kill, Turan's mana had grown to roughly 1.5 times what it had been before he met Keorn. At this rate, he could theoretically become dozens of times stronger in just a few months of hunting, but…
It won't be that easy.
Mana growth through absorption suffered from diminishing returns, and it was difficult to grow stronger using the mana of weak creatures. Furthermore, if one stayed and hunted in a single area for too long, the magical beast population would naturally thin out. Was that why powerful nobles supposedly went on pilgrimages to find beasts worthy of their strength?
Because of this, Turan did not kill the two weakest creatures he found—those not even worth absorbing—and instead captured them alive. One was a squirrel with a tail five times thicker than its kin, which it used as a club; the other was a large badger whose fur shifted colors to match its surroundings.
When he brought them to City Hall, bound tightly with rope, the official in charge stared in disbelief.
"Two of them?"
"Yes. Aside from a single blow to the head with a stone, they were captured perfectly intact. That's a reward of 25 Rooms in total, correct?"
"Well, about that…"
The official trailed off as if he were about to pull some trick, but when Turan fixed him with a piercing glare, he quickly counted out the money.
"Here it is."
The joy of earning money was another thing Turan had discovered since coming down from the hill.
As he returned to the inn with twenty-five silver coins in his pouch, the waitress greeted him with a bright smile.
"Hey, young man! You made it back in one piece? You're having dinner here, right? Bread and soup again?"
Turan was about to order the cheapest menu item as he had that morning, but then he changed his mind. He could earn as much money as he wanted now; he wanted to find out why expensive food was considered a luxury.
"Give me the most expensive thing you have."
The waitress's eyes went wide.
"Wow, you must've made some good coin today! I'll go tell the chef!"
He hadn't realized it, but the inn's most luxurious meal took a full hour to prepare. However, looking at the spread placed on the table, it was well worth the wait.
There was wheat bread, soft and fragrant as if freshly baked, served with tart fruit jam; a whole chicken roasted with savory seasonings; and even pork ribs topped with sizzling, melted cheese…
For a shepherd who had lived his whole life on a desolate hill eating nothing but gamey mutton and grain porridge, it was a feast that left him dazed. He tore into the food frantically, and before he knew it, the table had been picked clean.
"…Someone didn't steal a bite of this, did they?"
"Of course not! But wow, you're so thin, yet you sure can eat!"
"I haven't prepared that spread in a while, so I'm glad you enjoyed it!"
Even the chef, who usually stayed hidden in the kitchen, came out to offer a comment, suggesting it was a menu item that rarely sold. Regardless, Turan had finally discovered the joy of fine dining.
*
By the time three days had passed, Turan had succeeded in catching over thirty magical beasts.
He had only collected bounties on five of them, but that alone had netted him over a hundred silver coins. He exchanged some of them for gold coins to make his purse easier to carry.
His mastery of Tracking Magic played a large part in achieving such excellent results. Through several experiments, he had discovered that even if a target wasn't within immediate range, he could track them by finding their traces.
Taking the Blade Crow he had caught first as an example, he would set 'droppings of a crow larger than a child' as his target and move in the direction the traces led until he found the beast.
While Turan was thriving, Midan's gang seemed to have no luck at all. They sat around with dark expressions, grumbling about how they wouldn't even be able to pay for their rooms at this rate.
One day, two of Midan's sworn brothers followed Turan as he headed up to his room to rest, brandishing their fists and threatening him.
"Hey, skinny!"
"We heard you've been making a lot of money lately. How about a little charity for your fellow workers?"
Naturally, in less than a minute, they were soundly thrashed by Turan and sent rolling down the stairs.
After a brief commotion, Midan heard the whole story and bowed his head to Turan on their behalf.
"I sincerely apologize. I'll give them both a stern talking-to. This will never happen again…"
"Are things that difficult for you?"
At Turan's question, Midan hesitated for a moment before answering honestly.
"We are a bit short on funds."
Midan and his sworn brothers were originally thugs from a large city with a population of over a hundred thousand. Two years ago, after meeting someone who claimed to have become a mage by catching a magical beast, they quit their life of crime and switched professions to become monster hunters.
However, it was difficult for ordinary people to track and catch a magical beast. Furthermore, the reality was that bounties weren't paid for carcasses unless the creature was strong enough to be identified as a magical beast just by its remains. Consequently, they had been barely scraping by, traveling from city to city and doing odd jobs while hunting.
To think it took them two years to catch just three.
Then again, they weren't mages or even professional hunters; they were former thugs. How much could they really accomplish? Moreover, if they had to work side jobs to survive, they couldn't dedicate their whole day to hunting.
Hearing their story, Turan began to understand why the official treated monster hunters like vagrants. Why would anyone look kindly upon people who gambled their lives on a slim possibility while others worked diligently?
"To be honest, I don't think we'll be able to pay for our rooms in three days. This city is too small, so there aren't many odd jobs for us. But I have no intention of begging from a young friend. It would be shameless to ask for money after my men pulled a stunt like that…"
"Here."
Turan reached into his robe and handed him ten silver coins. It was enough for the four of them to stay at the inn for about three days if they were frugal.
Midan looked at him with a bewildered expression.
"Wait, why?"
"Even though you were in a tough spot, you tried to include me because you thought it was dangerous for me to go alone. This is in return for that."
The moral code Turan had learned from his mother was simple: treat others as you wish to be treated, and whether it's a favor or a grudge, repay what you receive. From that perspective, the kindness Midan had shown previously was worth at least a few silver coins. As for the transgression committed by his subordinates, he had already repaid that with his fists.
"Still, I feel bad just taking this…"
"If you feel that bad, then give me some information instead. Stories about the cities you've visited while hunting would be fine."
Turan had learned since coming down the hill that information was a commodity. Through Keorn's teachings, he had a general idea of what the world looked like and where the great families were located, but he didn't know the specific details of each region.
Midan's face brightened at the suggestion.
"That much is easy!"
Having spent two years wandering through various cities in search of magical beasts, Midan knew quite a lot. He drew a simple map to other nearby cities and even recommended magical beasts they might find there—though Midan meant for him to avoid them.
Since magical beasts were becoming scarce around Murei City, this information was quite valuable. Traveling blindly like he had before, just hearing that 'there's a city over that way,' was something he only wanted to do once.
Other stories were also very useful, such as which city had ruins left by the Old Empire, or which mage family forbade wanderers from passing through their territory without permission.
What particularly caught Turan's interest was the existence of a library in a relatively close large city.
"You mean there are thousands of books?"
"That's what I heard. I haven't been inside myself, though."
Turan had learned to read and write from his mother, but he had never actually read a book. Naturally, Hisaril Hill and its surrounding villages were far too poor to possess books. Sometimes, Turan's mother would lament that there was a book she wanted to read to him, but she could no longer remember the contents.
Because of this, the concept of a 'book' had been glorified in Turan's mind as a mysterious object containing all the wisdom of the world. And according to Midan, the library in Orem, a city to the northeast, had over a thousand such books.
Furthermore, the entry requirement was merely—
"A mage can enter…"
"Well, I suppose we'll be able to go in once we become mages ourselves!"
Following his desire for money and food, Turan awakened to a new desire he hadn't known he possessed: the thirst for knowledge. It was something he hadn't realized while living his whole life on the hill… He wanted to know more about what kind of place this world was.
"Is this enough to pay you back?"
"It's plenty."
He had been planning to hunt until tomorrow and then leave this city, and now he knew exactly where to go next.
*
Despite the pleasant conclusion of the previous day, the following afternoon, while out on his final hunt, Turan came across one of Midan's subordinates. The man was coughing up blood, his abdomen ripped wide open. His eyes were half-glazed; it was clear he wouldn't survive.
"What happened?"
"Rabbit… magical beast… monster…"
"Where is Midan?"
"Over there…"
In the direction he pointed, a familiar hairy head was rolling on the ground. Midan had died with his strangely clear eyes wide open, as if in protest of his unfair fate. Behind him were two more corpses, their bodies hacked to pieces.
Finally, a rabbit the size of a cat was gnawing on something, glaring at Turan with blood-red eyes. Its front teeth were long enough to touch the ground, and its hind legs were developed to a freakish thickness. Upon seeing Turan, it immediately charged at him with the speed of an arrow.
"Ugh!"
Turan threw himself out of the way. Unable to overcome its own momentum, the rabbit shot past him. Surprisingly, the tree it slammed into collapsed with a loud crack. More accurately, the part caught by its front teeth had been sliced clean through.
What on earth is this…
The creature looked dangerously strong—too strong to experiment with—so Turan immediately pulled out his trump card. He used his sheepskin sling, which he always carried, to hurl a stone.
The stone, propelled by magical power to exceed the speed of sound, flew toward the rabbit, but the creature incredibly deflected it with a swing of its long front teeth.
One shot, two shots, then three.
Turan clicked his tongue at the opponent's unbelievable reflexes. It seemed he had encountered an enemy against whom physical projectiles were useless much sooner than Keorn had warned.
[Kkigik!]
As if mocking him, the rabbit let out a bizarre, sneering sound and tensed its hind legs to prepare for another leap.
At that moment—
[Kkik?]
The rabbit beast was forced to stop in its tracks because Turan had suddenly vanished. A phenomenon where a presence right before its eyes disappeared in an instant? Even for a rabbit that had grown smarter by gaining mana, this situation was difficult to comprehend.
Had he fled? How? Where was he now? It couldn't even catch a scent to track him…
Because it stood still with those questions, Turan was able to approach the rabbit while under Stealth and plunge a dagger under its chin.
[Kkigigigieeeek!!]
Turan quickly twisted the dagger embedded under its chin, let go of the handle, and threw himself backward. Had he not, he would have been sliced to pieces by the front teeth of the frenzied rabbit.
The rabbit hopped around frantically, swinging its teeth to strike its invisible foe, but its enemy had already used Stealth to leap into the air.
After about a minute of mowing down the surrounding trees, the rabbit finally ran out of strength and collapsed, unable to find its target. Only then did Turan deactivate his Stealth and land on the ground, letting out a long sigh.
"Phew…"
He had thought he'd finished off all the strong beasts in the area, but to encounter such a powerful foe out of the blue. Because of its small size, its defense felt a bit low, but its speed, attack power, and reflexes were more threatening than the leopard beast he had first encountered.
If it had been the Turan from before he met Keorn—the one whose only proper attack skill was using a sling—he might have lost. Indeed, when he absorbed the mana, a much larger amount flowed into him than when he had caught the leopard.
Talk about bad luck.
There had been no such creature among the beasts registered at City Hall, so it must have mutated recently. Midan's gang had likely underestimated it because it was just a small rabbit and had been wiped out when they attacked. One could only imagine how they would feel if they knew this rabbit was a creature that could have killed even a noble in an instant if they let their guard down.
After settling the situation, Turan approached the hunter with the torn abdomen. He was still conscious, but he wore a look of horror, having witnessed Turan's fight.
"You… no, you're… a mage…"
"Yes."
"Why…"
Explaining why he had hidden his identity would be long-winded and meaningless, so Turan shook his head and asked a different question instead.
"Do any of the four of you have family to leave belongings to?"
"No one…"
A short while later, Turan buried the dead monster hunters in a sunny spot near the forest. Four mounds of earth were the final share given to those who had dreamed of becoming mages.
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