Leaving the tailor, White entrusted the rucksack to Richard. After all, he didn't think of carrying it around unless he was going to camp out. Since he was only going to the city outskirts and would return before the day ended, White only brought the things he needed with him.
For instance, the rucksack contained a sling pouch which held 3 [Lesser HP potions]. It had small pockets to store the small vials, and didn't look very heavy so he took it with him.
〚 Use Red Potion ♦ Lesser HP potion ♦ Uncommon Grade ✠ Consumable: Recovers 10 HP over 10 seconds.〛
The potions contained a murky red liquid inside, comparable to the texture of red-bean paste. He supposed that the quality of a potion is determined by its purity; a more expensive potion would likely be a more transparent, and smooth fluid. Admittedly, the Lesser HP potion didn't look like it would taste well, but White hoped that he wouldn't have to come down to drinking it.
As advertised, no one gave him any trouble by Halvan's gates when he revealed the bronze trinket on his neck, allowing him to have a smooth transition.
As White ventured around the outskirts looking for the monster animal in question, more grass began to enter his field of vision. Now he was in a territory where he had to be alert. It didn't take long for him the height of the grass to reach up to his waist. White was about 1.8 meters tall, so the fields were clearly overgrown for some time now. It was perfect for critters like rabbits to roam around freely.
He had learnt that Horned Rabbits are only Level 2s. And even if one was a Level 1, Ascendants did not have much trouble with them, but White thought differently. He wanted to experience the entire encounter by himself before he made his own conclusion on how easy or how strong a Horned Rabbit was. He wouldn't think to leave anything by chance.
White's combat experience was close to none, thus he rationalized his plans better to make up for his lack of skill: He planned to isolate the Horned Rabbits one by one when he found them, and prioritized defeating them in one single stab. Since moving in the grass would make a lot of noise if he forced his way through, White slowed down his pace and perked up his ears for any shuffling sound apart from his own. He had learnt this from Shinri, and he knew that pre-emptive strikes would give him an advantage. While it might sound simple, it was actually difficult to keep a calm state of mind while doing this. Any erratic movements would reveal one's location easily. And usually in a situation where a low-ranked monster is involved, they would exhibit a violent nature immediately after that, leading to an inevitable melee. Fortunately, White had practised this a few times so he would know what to expect, although just barely.
A few minutes later, he picked up the presence of another creature about ten meters across his left. His eyes brightened up from the encounter, he had gotten lucky finding one so quickly.
As White squinted his eyes to check, it was indeed the creature he was looking for:
Horned Rabbit LV 2 ❙❙❙❙❙❙❙❙❙ ◈ / 9 HP
Race: Mutant Beast ◈ No Class ◈
Healthy ◈ Strength 1 ◈ Dexterity 1 ◈ Luck 3 ◈ Intelligence 3
A grey rabbit with a sharp pointy horn on its forehead, a harmless creature which didn't seem worthy of the fuss he had worked himself up for. Yet White didn't drop an ounce of caution even after seeing it. On the contrary, his body tensed up further as if telling him to prepare himself.
The quirk of the Horned Rabbit was its sharp spiral horn. He thought that the only way he would lose control of the situation was if it made use of its agility to charge up a spearhead and injure him. Apart from that, Heinesia told him that the Horned Rabbit would only retreat if it sensed danger similar to what a normal rabbit would do. They actively avoided high-leveled adventurers like their bane. This made it difficult for an adventurer to farm these creatures continuously for a long time, as it was inevitable for them to grow out of the intended level range. But for White who was still a newbie fresh from Level 2, it was the perfect fodder.
The rabbit seemed to be unaware of his company, and was nibbling on its feet carelessly. It seemed to be taking a break, and White judged that this was a good opportunity to lose some distance. Gaining on the distracted creature, White slowed down his movements significantly and drew his dagger, the Moonsift Fang. With「Moon Flow」which gave him increased critical damage, he had confidence that he would be able to kill it in one strike. When he was two meters away, the ears of the rabbit finally twitched. It seems that White had to strike now before it could react! That was what he did, the young man threw himself towards the critter and lunged at its body with the dagger---! There was feedback from his thrust, and he felt the blade entering deep into the body of the creature.
"----!" Blood splattered onto White's body, some had even gotten on his face. He had watched the status of the Horned Rabbit the entire time to confirm it. There was no mistake, the Horned Rabbit was killed instantly.
Everything happened in that single moment, and White was left at a distance from the monster corpse, gasping heavily.
He had done it. He killed the monster. Although there was a little bit of a nauseating feeling, White suppressed it immediately by hitting the back of his neck. The dagger had fallen from his loose grip, and his knees fell to the ground.
Killing a monster wasn't like what he had expected. He knew he couldn't be soft, but White had never killed another living creature with such intent before. Was this really a monster that threatened the lives of humans?
"..." White came to after a few seconds. Wiping away the blood on his face, he approached the corpse with plodding feet. If he didn't want to hesitate against a monster in the future, the young man had plenty of chances to get used to it now. It was a necessity. Perhaps he would become more resistant to it if he did it a few more times, White convinced himself.
A piece of the corpse slipped out as soon as he touched it, the raw slab of meat was the only thing that came out of its innards cleanly.
〚 ♦ Rabbit's Meat ♦ Common Grade ✠ Material 〛
⤷ The meat of a Horned Rabbit.
White had gotten one of the two monster drops a Horned Rabbit could give. After keeping the meat into a larger pocket on his pouch, he observed the corpse from a distance and waited patiently. There was something he was still curious about. After the monster drop was taken, the corpse started to turn grainy. It didn't take long for it to completely vanish, almost as if it had disappeared into blue particles. That's right, it was the color of mana essence. White did not know the name of this phenomenon, though he had similarly seen it before in the Rotting Forest. He was told that without the monster drop which possessed the main part of its mutation, the atmosphere would reabsorb the mana lingering in the monster carcass and possess another creature that had the potential to turn into a monster, thus repeating the cycle again. It was an intriguing sight no matter how many times he saw it.
Additionally, he had gained some experience. He was now close to the next level. After taking a small break, White returned to looking for the next one.
It was then that he saw two figures in the distance. When he got closer, their figures became clearer. The closer one towards his direction was a man much taller and bulkier of the two, and the other had a more petite figure. Looking at the equipment he was wearing, White was sure that this man was an adventurer like him. However, he couldn't see the trinket on his body anywhere. The man was also probably in his late 20s from a general assessment and judging from the creases formed on his wrinkled expression, he was also clearly not in a good mood.
The man's companion was a girl, but something seemed strange about her expression. White had a suspicion that the two weren't as close as he had assumed. His doubts were proven in the next instant, when he heard the distinct clanking of metal coming from the pair. The man had yanked a link of chains forcefully, causing the girl to lean and fall forward violently. It turned out that the collar attached to her neck was connected to the other end of the chain.
The girl fell onto the grass with a part of her face stuck in mud, but she did not seem to be putting in any resistance or showing any attempts to get up. Much to his astonishment, there was also a peculiarity about her appearance.
(Animal ears... and a tail at her back. ... A demihuman?)
It wasn't until the girl had gotten up from the man's angry shouts that White had snapped out of it. As he watched the two finally venture deeper inside the plains, White began to form his own conclusion from the bits and pieces of what he had just seen. He was almost certain, that the girl was a demihuman slave.
So it existed in this world too, he thought with complicated feelings.
He had initially intended to make use of the entire day fulfilling the 20-rabbit quota, however things had now changed. For some reason, White didn't feel like leaving the girl alone. Call it a sense of self-righteousness, or some form of egoism that remained in his earthly morals, but he still wanted to act on these emotions.
That's right, White had deviated from his initial plans. He decided to follow them.