by Unknown
Hearing Doehring Cowart’s words, Linley’s lips pursed.
That went without saying!
The Mountain Range of Magical Beasts was enormous. How could he be so unlucky? But if he was, Doehring Cowart, who survived only as a spirit, would not be able to assist him in any way. A Saint-level Grand Magus without mageforce had no way to attack.
“Grandpa Doehring, I know this already. Be quiet and don’t distract me.” Linley said discontentedly.
Doehring Cowart immediately chuckled. Stroking his white beard, he no longer spoke.
The Mountain Range of Magical Beasts was a place of deep mountains and ancient trees. The trees were so thickly clustered that virtually all of the rain was blocked, with just a few drops occasionally sprinkling down. After walking for a period of time, he realized that this outer region was indeed not that dangerous.
Linley exerted some strength with his legs, and almost as if he were floating, leapt up on top of a seven or eight meter high tree branch as he carefully scanned about.
“Boss, far away to the right, there’s a wild pig.” Bebe’s voice sounded out in Linley’s mind.
Hearing these words, Linley couldn’t help but turn and look. Indeed, approximately a hundred meters away, a wild boar with a single horn was carefully scanning his surroundings. If Linley didn’t have such a high vantage point, Linley perhaps wouldn’t have been able to see this Unicorn Boar.
“Unicorn Boar, a magical beast of the third rank, an earth-element creature. The only technique it has is that of the ‘Earth Spear’ technique.” Some information regarding the Unicorn Boar came to Linley’s mind.
“Even though it’s just a beast of the third rank, at least it will serve for dinner. Boar flesh is quite tasty.” Nimbly and vigorously, Linley crept through the trees as he stealthily approached the boar. Due to the density of the local flora, the boar had not noticed Linley either.
When he got within ten meters of the boar, Linley lay down flat in the grass. Peering through the dense grass, he could still make out the outline of the Unicorn Boar.
Whoosh!
Like a serpentine dragon leaving its lair, Linley leapt out from the grass. When the Unicorn Boar turned his head and stared in shock, Linley fell down upon it like a gust of wind. The Unicorn Boar let out an indignant roar, and thrust its long, thick horn straight at Linley.
“Hrrg!” Linley reached out with his left hand and grabbed the horn and gave a tremendous tug.
That huge Unicorn Boar, weighing several hundred kilograms, was tossed up seven or eight meters up into the air by Linley, who then began to fiercely kick at it with his left leg, using it like a giant claymore and slamming it into the boar’s head with thunderous power and speed.
“Thud.” With a sickening, bone-crunching sound, the Unicorn Boar was kicked into a tree. When it fell down to the ground, the very earth shook. The bones of the Unicorn Boar had already been shattered, and brain matter had already begun leaking out from its shattered skull. A trail of fresh blood streamed forth from its mouth. Its four limbs quivered momentarily, then grew still.
Just based on his prowess as a warrior, killing a Unicorn Boar was not a tough feat for Linley.
“Although the magicite core of a magical beast of the third rank is only worth ten or so gold coins, I can’t let it go to waste.” Linley withdrew the straight chisel from his backpack, and with just two or three simple slices, he cut the boar open. An entirely unremarkable earth-colored magicite crystal rolled out. Linley wiped it off on the grass, then placed it in his backpack.
And then, with practiced ease, Linley skinned the boar and cut off the boar’s legs.
After casually chopping down a few branches, with a flick of his wrist, Linley summoned forth a small flame. As the fire began to grow, Linley began to roast the boar legs.
The little Shadowmouse, Bebe, began to drool. His eyes were fixed on the boar legs. “Boar legs are delicious. Boss, hurry up, hurry up. Why don’t you just directly use your fire-element magic to roast the boar, wouldn’t that be faster?”
“Fire-element magic? I only have a bit of fire element mageforce. And what’s more, when it comes to cooking, using higher temperatures isn’t necessarily superior.” Linley smirked as he spoke, withdrawing some coarse salt and other ingredients from his backpack.
When Linley had originally tested for magical aptitude, he had exceptional affinity for both earth and wind elemental essence, but just average affinity for fire elemental essence. Honestly speaking, for an ordinary person, average affinity for an elemental essence was quite good. But for someone like Linley, he couldn’t be bothered to spend time and energy working on his fire magic.
After all, if he wanted his abilities in fire magic to match his abilities in wind and earth, he would probably have to spend ten times as much time.
Thus, Linley would usually just casually refine a little bit of fire element mageforce. He did, however, definitely have enough to generate some fireballs without any problems.
After finishing roasting two boar legs, Linley and Bebe each shared one while Linley began to work on roasting the other two.
“Wow. Delicious.” Bebe chatted while eating enthusiastically. “This wild boar tastes so much better than those farm-grown hogs. It tastes so fragrant. But naturally, your roasting abilities also played a big role, boss.” Bebe was so happy that he even began flattering Linley a bit.
Linley couldn’t help but start to laugh.
“Boss, I want more.” After finishing one leg, Bebe looked at Linley with a pitiful expression.
Seeing Bebe’s sad gaze, Linley didn’t feel sorry for him in the slightest. He sternly lectured, “This boar leg is way larger than a roast duck. One leg is more than enough for you. The other two legs will be dinner.” After speaking, Linley turned away and ignored Bebe’s pitiable face.
After finishing roasting the two legs, Linley used two large leaves to wrap them up, and then placed them within his backpack and began hurrying along the road with Bebe.
*
Book 3, Mountain Range of Magical Beasts – Chapter 10, The Mountain Range of Magical Beasts (part 2)
Within the countless peaks of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts were innumerable ageless trees and forests that made travel through the range very difficult. What made it even more difficult was the constant need to pass through one peak and ravine after another, or perhaps take a circular path.
“When traveling within the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, don’t carve out a path through the pre-existing thorns and brush. It’s best to take an alternate path.” Doehring Cowart continued to provide the benefit of his experience to Linley.
Linley listened carefully as he proceeded forward.
“Remember, the biggest mistake you can make in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts is to constantly make noise. This will cause many magical beasts to pay attention to you. Even if you are forced to make some noise, you need to immediately leave the nearby area.” Doehring Cowart continued. “Remember, if you are injured, you must immediately do your best to staunch any loss of blood. The stench of blood will attract beasts as well. The noses of magical beasts are far more sensitive than we humans.”
Linley nodded.
The massive crowns of countless trees covered the entire sky. Looking at them, Linley was reminded of some information that he had gleaned from books at the Ernst Institute. In a place like this, where even the sun was all but blocked out, one had to learn how to distinguish north, south, east, and west.
As agile as a monkey, Linley leapt past a series of disorderly tree roots and vine growths, but just as he walked past…
“Whoah.” Linley sucked in a cold breath as he saw something not too far away.
The corpses of three men and two women were a few dozen meters away from him. The five corpses had not yet rotted much, but the bite marks on them were very visible. The corpses had all been dismembered. A male corpse had half its leg eaten, and a giant hole ripped in its belly, with h
is severed intestines laying strewn about. Half of a female corpse’s head had been eaten, leaving behind a single eyeball and a white skull bone with a few strands of hair attached.
Linley’s face turned pale, and he forgot to breathe.
“They should’ve died three or four days ago.” Doehring Cowart appeared next to Linley, carefully inspecting the corpses. His face was still quite calm. “Linley, take a close look. On the chest of every single person, there are some similar, unremarkable wounds. If my guess is correct, these five should’ve been killed by humans, and most likely, by a single person.”
Linley started.
“Doehring Cowart, you’re saying that a person killed them?” Linley looked at Doehring Cowart, shocked.
Doehring Cowart smiled calmly. “Linley, this is your first visit to the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. Once you’ve been here a bit longer, you will come to realize that in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, in addition to dealing with the attacks of local beasts, you also have to guard against the attacks of other humans.”
“The attacks of humans? Why would other humans attack?” Linley felt a bit of rage beginning to grow in his heart.
In the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, the local monsters already held a huge advantage by virtue of their countless numbers. He didn’t expect that the humans here would fight amongst themselves as well, instead of helping each other.
“This is very normal. Why do humans venture into this mountain range? The vast majority come here in the hopes of acquiring magicite cores. If they kill a magical beast, they will only acquire a single core, but if they kill a human being, that person might have several magicite cores in their backpack, or even more.” Doehring Cowart stroked his white beard.
Linley finally understood.
Greed!
It was all due to greed. Some people here wanted to easily acquire a large number of magicite cores, and indeed, killing the other human beings here was a good way to do so.
“Linley, you must be careful. Based on what I’m seeing, the person who killed these five must possess astounding ability. If you look closely at these people’s clothing, you can see that four of them should be warriors, while one of them was a magus. But all five of them were killed at about the same time by a clean blow through the heart. The ruthless precision of this assault is chilling. However, since we don’t know how strong these five people were, it’s hard to estimate the strength of their killer.” Doehring Cowart frowned. “But for these five to be willing and able to brave the dangers of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts suggests that they were not weak. From this alone, we can safely say that the person who killed them is, at the very least, no weaker than you.”
Linley stepped forward to take a closer look, then nodded in agreement.
The killing blows were very clean and direct.
“This is still just the outer perimeter of the mountain range. Hurry on in.” Doehring Cowart laughed.
Linley nodded, then continued on his journey deeper into the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. On his journey, the sight of corpses of both men and monsters became quite common, as well as many rusted weapons. Linley also occasionally ran into a few weak monsters.
Nightfall. Linley and the little Shadowmouse were resting while each munched on a leg of boar. Linley was seated on the ground, while the little Shadowmouse was seated on his shoulder.
“At night, one cannot light a fire in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts.” Doehring Cowart once again instructed.
“Understood, Grandpa Doehring.” Linley knew quite a bit about the basics of survival here. This place was no ordinary wilderness, and the beasts here would not be afraid of fire.
Seated on the ground, Linley calmed himself down and closed his eyes, while beginning to sense the flow of earth essence and wind essence around him. The feeling of elemental essence around him was akin to the feeling of being in one’s parents’ embrace.
Due to his exceptional affinity with earth essence and wind essence, Linley could sense them quite clearly.
“The Pulse of the Earth. The Flow of the Wind.” A peaceful smile was on Linley’s face, as he began to drift off into sleep. Linley had total confidence that any tremors on the ground caused by something approaching, or any disturbances in the wind caused by something moving rapidly to him, would immediately awaken him.
These were the abilities possessed by earth magi and wind magi.
The night slowly grew deeper. Curled in front of Linley, the little Shadowmouse ‘Bebe’ also began to emit extremely light, quiet snoring sounds. The night wind grew cool as well, but right now, it was summer in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. Only at night would it feel cool and refreshing. In the day, it felt stiflingly hot.
Late at night. All was dark.
“Rustle, rustle.” The soft sounds of something rustling against the grass could be heard.
A pair of powerfully built Windwolves with gleaming blue fur were pacing about within the forest. Their green-tinted eyes were carefully inspecting their surroundings as their powerful limbs silently stalked through the area.
Their cruel white fangs gleamed with a cold light in the night.
*
Book 3, Mountain Range of Magical Beasts – Chapter 11, Wolf Pack (part 1)
Still seated cross-legged, Linley’s eyes suddenly snapped open and he immediately stared southwards. But there was nothing to the south aside from a mass of vines and rattan growth. This was one of the reasons why Linley selected this location for resting. With so much forest growth, even if a magical beast neared Linley, they might not notice him.
“Two magical beasts are nearing me, and right now they are around forty meters or so away.” Based on the vibrations from the disturbances in the local air elemental essences, Linley was certain that there were two beasts.
Linley silently walked to the edge of the mass of vines. Peering through the vines, he saw that thirty meters away, a pair of powerfully built Windwolves were slowly pawing towards him. Based on their route, they would come very close to him. Suddenly, Linley felt a weight settle on his shoulders, and he knew that Bebe had already arrived on his shoulders.
“Boss, it’s just a pair of Windwolves. We’ve seen them several times at the Ernst Institute.” Not worried in the slightest, Bebe chatted casually with Linley.
Linley’s gaze was fixed on the two Windwolves. “Yes, they are Windwolves. Amongst the wolf packs, there are three major types: Fangwolves, Windwolves, and Frostwolves. Frostwolve packs are the strongest type, while Fangwolves are the weakest. Windwolves are squarely in the middle. In a pack of Windwolves, even the weakest will be a magical beast of the fourth rank, while elites might be of the fifth or sixth rank. Supposedly, the strongest a Windwolf can be is a magical beast of the eighth rank.”
Even an ordinary Windwolf was of the fourth rank. A Unicorn Boar simply wasn’t on the same level.
My power as a warrior is just of the fourth rank. Based on physical skills alone, I can’t overcome these two Windwolves.” Linley was feeling a bit excited. “But this will make it a challenge.”
Watching the two Windwolves draw nearer, Linley’s lips began to mumble the words to a magic spell as his eyes grew cold.
“Shrrrk! Shrrk! Shrrrrk! Shrrrk!”
A deep roar noise could be heard as within the dark night, ten or so large rocks, each at least one meter long and earthen-colored, suddenly flew towards the Windwolves, smashing at them. But the Windwolves quickly raised their head. Seeing the danger, they immediately began to flee at high speed.
The low thud of an impact.
In the short period of time before the rocks struck, the Windwolves were able to respond with uncanny swiftness. Of the two Windwolves, one had a back leg smashed, while the other managed to adroitly dodge every single rock.
“They live up to the name of ‘Windwolves’. They are so fast!”
Linley thought to himself, even as he began mumbling the words to another spell, the wind-sty
le ‘Supersonic’ spell. Simultaneously, he pulled out his straight chisel blade, then charged directly forward at high speed at that injured, retreating Windwolf.
A warrior of the fourth rank, aided by the Supersonic spell, had roughly the same level of speed as the uninjured Windwolf. Naturally, the injured one was much slower than Linley. The injured wolf frantically fled in terror while baring its fangs.
“Swish! Swish! Swish!”
A string of knives of air appeared out of nowhere and hacked at Linley.
“Hrmph, all wolves have heads as hard as copper and tails as hard as steel, but their waists are as soft as tofu.”
Linley was extremely agile. With three simple motions, he dodged the wind knifes and drew even closer to the injured Windwolf. Like a tornado, Linley kicked out with his left leg, snapping forward viciously like a whip onto the Windwolf’s waist.
“Woooo!” The Windwolf was sent flying by the kick, and he let out an agonized howl.
With another step, Linley once again drew close to the injured Windwolf. The straight chisel in his hand flashing with a beautiful, cold, pitiless light, he chopped at the Windwolf’s chest. Linley felt as though the straight chisel in his hand had struck a tough, resilient cloth. He was only able to just barely cut through, causing blood to spurt out.
“The Windwolf’s waist is fairly weak, but its fur is quite tough. Or perhaps a better way to put it is my straight chisel isn’t sharp enough. It can cut through simple stone, but the fur and skin of a magical beast of the fourth rank is a tougher matter.” Linley thought to himself as he carefully kept his gaze on the other Windwolf.
The other Windwolf didn’t actually move. It was just standing there, staring at Linley. Within its cold green eyes was a murderous aura, and low growls were constantly coming from its maw.
“If the Windwolf isn’t injured, then just based on my prowess as a warrior of the fourth rank, there’s no way I can kill him. That’s just a dream.” Linley knew quite well that Windwolves specialized in speed. If he hadn’t been assisted by a wind magic spell, he wouldn’t be able to match it in speed.