The dense deciduous forest marked the foothills of the mountain range.
“Let’s get moving.”
“Understood.”
Leading Jevan and his mercenaries, we began our ascent.
Perhaps because it was still the foothills, there were some people around. Despite being called a mountain range, the lower elevations didn’t seem particularly dangerous.
“What was the name of your mercenary group again?”
Climbing to the middle section would take time, so I casually struck up a conversation with Jevan.
Now that I thought about it, I’d only been calling him Jevan and never learned their group’s name.
“Oh, us? We’re the… Black Wolf Mercenary Corps.”
“The Black Wolf? That’s you guys?”
“…Just a name we came up with in our younger days.”
“And now a group like that is hunting werewolves. How ironic.”
From what I’d heard, they captured reasonably sized monsters like werewolves by pulling out their teeth and claws, wrapping them tightly, and stuffing them into sacks.
Humans really are the most ruthless creatures.
“Hah…”
At least the weather was nice.
Cool and breezy—perfect for a hike.
Clank. Clank.
Well… maybe not in full gear.
I only carried the buffed coat and sword I’d been gifted, along with a water bottle I’d just received.
Behind me, though, the mercenaries trudged in full armor, weighed down by backpacks filled with supplies.
“Not carrying anything?”
Among them, Jevan looked as light as me. Clearly, being the leader had its perks.
“They may look like that, but everyone here is a Silver-ranked adventurer. This is nothing for them.”
“Silver rank, huh?”
Silver-ranked adventurers could handle mid-tier monsters alone.
These folks weren’t people; they were practically orcs.
We continued walking through the foothills until the broad-leafed trees started thinning out, replaced by small conifers and rocky outcroppings.
The incline grew steeper, and the ground damp—this must be the middle section of the mountain.
“We’re in the middle section now, right?”
“Yes, this is where we’ll set up and begin the search.”
Searching this vast mountain range seemed like an endless task.
Unlike the well-trodden paths of the foothills, this area was practically untouched.
It was clearly a dangerous zone—ordinary people wouldn’t come here. Only mercenaries ventured into such places.
“How do you conduct the search?”
“For beast-type monsters like this, we usually look for footprints or droppings.”
“Oh? You know how to do that?”
“I learned from a hunter I once knew.”
Specialized, in their own way.
For this era, it was probably the best method available.
“Check near the rocks!”
The mercenaries began searching around the rocky hills nearby.
Apparently, wolves and similar monsters favored such spots.
While Jevan’s men searched for signs, I called him over.
“Jevan, come here.”
“Yes.”
“While they search, let’s use the time for something useful.”
Since I had no intention of joining the search, I decided to teach Jevan Fleet during the downtime.
“Are you really going to teach me?”
Jevan still looked skeptical about learning Fleet from me. It seemed like knights were such distant figures to mercenaries that this felt almost surreal to him.
Well, considering the pride of most knights, it wasn’t surprising they wouldn’t bother teaching their techniques to mercenaries.
Not that I was a knight. I didn’t care about such things.
“First, let me show you what Fleet is.”
With those words, I used Fleet to move behind him.
“Eh—what?”
Jevan turned his head, startled to find me gone.
As he started to turn further—
Smack!
I hit the back of his head.
“Wha—when did you…”
“That’s Fleet. It’s a speed most people can’t track with their eyes.”
And so, I began teaching him Fleet, much like Lowell had once taught me—roughly.
**
“Huff… Huff…”
As the sun dipped lower into the afternoon sky—
“That’s enough for now.”
“Understood…”
Thud.
Jevan collapsed onto the ground, thoroughly worn out from the training.
“Do you feel like you’re starting to get it?”
“Yes… I think I understand the basics now.”
Jevan was a surprisingly quick learner.
It wasn’t a fluke that he’d awakened his own Aura—he absorbed what I taught remarkably well.
Thanks to Jevan’s prior habit of rapidly circulating Aura in a crude imitation of Fleet, he seemed poised to learn the technique quickly.
“How’s the search progressing?”
“Huff… Hah… I heard earlier that they found some traces.”
“So we’ll head out tomorrow for the real search?”
“Yes. For now, we’ll camp here and resume in the morning.”
Since I started teaching Jevan Fleet, his attitude had become even more respectful.
He treated me as if I were some kind of benefactor, likely because he had secretly yearned to learn Fleet for some time.
“Don’t forget what I’ve taught you—keep practicing.”
“Understood.”
“We’ll see the results of your practice on the next mission.”
“The next mission…?”
“I’ve got more materials to gather.”
The troll fang was only one of the ingredients I needed for the sword.
In fact, it was just the starting point—there were plenty of other materials on the list.
Some of the ingredients made me question whether they were really meant for forging a weapon.
Still, I doubted Gareth would play games with something like this.
Even if some of the materials seemed unnecessary, it might just be his way of testing me.
Artisans tend to be eccentric like that, after all.
Anyway.
“Did you bring camping equipment?”
“Yes, we’ll set up the tents. You can rest comfortably.”
“Sounds good.”
The mercenaries returned and quickly set up tents. They even cooked a simple soup using dried meat they’d brought along.
“How’s the taste?”
“Not bad.”
Compared to the meals at the mansion, it wasn’t worth comparing, but when I thought back to my time in the Colosseum, this was perfectly acceptable.
And so, we camped for the night.
The next day, we started tracking footprints in earnest.
“This area seems to be its territory.”
Observing the mercenaries’ search method, I noted how they identified the territory based on footprints and then searched the surrounding area.
It was a method that could provoke the monster, but they must have been confident in their skills.
Well, with me here, they probably felt even safer.
Even a mid-tier monster like a werewolf wouldn’t be a problem, even if it filled an entire wagon.
The group of a dozen seasoned mercenaries scoured the mountain throughout the day.
Finally—
Grrrr…
“There it is.”
A single werewolf stood before us.
“Has it been driven out of its pack?”
“Yes, that seems to be the case.”
Looking closely, I noticed scars around its eyes.
This one seemed to have been cast out from its group.
“Let’s deal with it quickly and move on.”
This wasn’t the target we were after, so I drew my sword and approached.
“You’re stepping in personally?”
“I’ve got something to test.”
It had been a while since I faced a monster.
The werewolf growled as it noticed me, but I felt a strange sense of welcome rather than fear.
Grrrr…
The creature seemed hesitant to approach, perhaps sensing my Aura or instinctively recognizing me as someone who had slain many of its kind.
Since it wouldn’t come to me, I’d have to go to it.
Pointing my drawn sword at the werewolf, I closed my eyes briefly to focus my Aura.
Shhhk!
When I opened my eyes, the forest scenery ahead looked clearer.
And behind me—
Thud.
The werewolf collapsed to the ground, its head severed cleanly.
A flawless execution of Fleet.
Even without using Track, my precision had improved significantly.
“That was incredible….”
“It’s nothing.”
Though werewolves were sturdy monsters, it had been sliced cleanly.
It seemed I was making progress.
As expected, the sword was exceptional.
Sturdy and heavy enough to deliver destructive power, yet still incredibly sharp—probably the sharpest blade I’d ever wielded.
After dealing with the werewolf, we turned our attention to its trail.
“That thing came from over there. Let’s head up and see where it leads.”
“Understood.”
Following the direction the werewolf had come from, we resumed our exploration of the mountain.
After a long stretch of tracking and combing through the area—
“These footprints look fresh.”
Finally, we discovered tracks that seemed to belong to a pack of wolves.
“There’s a lot of droppings around too. They must’ve stayed here for a while before moving on.”
“Yes, if we keep following these, we should catch up to them… but there are other footprints mixed in.”
Looking closer, I noticed larger tracks among the werewolf prints.
“This… could it be…?”
“They look like Giant Wolf tracks.”
The mercenaries confirmed my suspicion. Giant Wolves, huh?
What was this?
A wolf monster social club?
Normally, werewolves didn’t even group with their own kind, so this was definitely unusual.
“Well, at least they’re nearby. Let’s stir them up a bit.”
“Are you sure? This seems like an unusual situation.”
“At worst, it’s just one higher-ranked monster.”
There wasn’t anything to fear. With that, we started deliberately disturbing the forest and rocky hills to provoke a reaction.
“Everyone, hold position.”
At Jevan’s signal, we stopped. Up ahead, the bushes rustled.
“Looks like they’re here.”
“We’ve been irritating them plenty—it’s impressive they held back this long.”
At that, the mercenaries readied their weapons.
Rustle, Rustle.
The bushes shook from all directions. A strong, musky scent of beasts filled the air.
Then—
ROOOAR!
Bursting out of the undergrowth came a pack of Giant Wolves, their massive bodies closer in size to tigers than wolves.
“Urrahh!”
The first to act was the burly mercenary who’d initially been skeptical of me. Swinging his enormous hammer, he aimed for one of the Giant Wolves.
Thud!
But the wolf’s reflexes were lightning-fast.
Dodging the hammer with ease, it turned its head and lunged at him with jaws wide open.
However—
“Hyaah!”
Stab!
A mercenary armed with a long spear impaled the wolf through its open maw. Clearly, these two worked as a team.
Elsewhere, other mercenaries were engaged as well.
One wielded a longsword against another Giant Wolf, while someone else had drawn a bow and taken position. At the front, Jevan led the charge, slashing skillfully with his blade.
Although ambushed in the middle of the forest, we clearly had the upper hand.
It wasn’t for nothing that this mercenary corps was so well-known.
With them handling the pack, my attention turned further ahead—toward another patch of rustling bushes.
From that spot, werewolves were watching us, waiting for their opportunity.
Those mutts, testing their luck against me?
Drawing my sword, I dashed forward.
Trees and foliage blurred past as I surged ahead, and in no time, I was face-to-face with the startled werewolf pack.
That’s how it was.
I immediately activated Fleet to take out the one furthest back, focusing my Aura for a clean kill.
But—
“Hm?”
A sharp pain tugged at the back of my neck—a vivid sense of danger.
Whoosh.
Reacting instinctively, I used Fleet to retreat.
Kwaang!
A massive wolf landed at the spot where I had just been.
This one was 1.5 times larger than the Giant Wolves we’d already seen.
Grrrrr…
Rising to its hind legs, it glared at me with an intense, predatory gaze.
“Well, there you are.”
Clearly, this beast was the leader of the pack.
