"A-are you sure we should do this with just the three of us? It's a beast! An earth legacy one! W- we're going to die…"
An annoyed-looking Sal looked over at her stuttering companion.
"Dude. That bear ripped your brother up. You should want revenge! Also, didn't you volunteer for this?"
Edol kept his gaze trained on the forest ahead, trying to ignore his companions. Immediately after leaving the village, Yoma started shaking in fear and drifted to the back of the group. Now, the supposed guide was hiding behind Edol instead of leading the crew.
'How does this happen every time? First Willow, now this dude? Arg, why do I have a 100% pick rate on trash teammates? Well, at least Sal seems decent.'
At the front of the trio, the female hunter was crouched down, examining the trail of scuffled leaves and splatters of blood dotting the forest floor.
"Damn, sure is a lot of blood. I'm amazed your brother escaped. Why aren't you more like him? He's brave enough to run this far while bleeding out, but you're afraid to just walk around? Trash."
Sal glared at Yoma, a faint look of disgust visible in her eyes. A moment later, she stood up and continued walking forwards.
"Edol was your name, right? Why'd a kid like you volunteer to hunt down the bear?"
'Kid? I'm twenty years old!'
"Money."
Edol gave a one-word response, and the hunter stopped.
"Then turn back. A beast isn't a foe to look down on. They are every bit as strong, fast, and stealthy as you, and are probably smarter. You're just going to be food for it. I can handle this on my own."
A leering voice cut into Edol's mind as Ghost spoke up, complementing Sal's speech.
"Ha! She called you dumb. Get wrecked!"
'Yeesh, I take back what I said. Another bad teammate. At least Willow was pleasant to chat with.'
"I can handle myself. So, what's the deal with beasts? Are they just animals that have legacies? How strong is it?"
Previously when the duo was in 'hell', their biggest opponent was Mr. Spider. The massive hellish beast skittered around with the speed of a vehicle, and any of its attacks would instantly kill Edol or Ghost. It was a terrifying enemy. Even still… it had never used any visible magic. By the time the duo was summoned, while working together, they were able to kill it most of the time before it killed one of them, but the fights were a bit of a toss-up.
If a legacy was added to the terrifying beast, even with Sal and Yoma's questionable fighting prowess, they wouldn't stand a chance.
"I never actually fought a beast outside of a dungeon before, and the ones inside dungeons are likely weaker than those outside. I lived on the eastern side of the western continent for most of my previous life, an area populated enough to not have any beasts roaming about. Still, they shouldn't be anywhere near as strong as that hell spider."
While Ghost was explaining, Sal was also speaking.
"For you? Super strong. For me? A slight bit dangerous."
She flicked her hand to the side, raising her head to look down at the Brit.
"I've hunted down six beasts before, and have never been injured. Don't get in my way, you'll just die."
After a moment, the hunter continued speaking.
"Since you probably won't be useful, naturally, you won't be taking the pelt and all the money for yourself. I'll give you… half, if you stay out of my way. You can have Yoma's portion too, since I know he'll be useless as well."
"Well, at least she isn't trying to use you as cannon fodder, right? Ai, we are getting a ways into the woods, though. We should keep our guards up."
Ghost hopped down from Edol's shoulder, spreading his massive wings to glide down to the ground softly.
"Hey, kid. What use is having a bird if he's hopping around on the ground? Even if he can't fly, at least put his eyes to use!"
After a bit of discussion, Edol and Ghost had decided to only reveal a single element legacy to anyone else. Among beasts as well as eastern humans, they were known to only be able to use a single element. If a multi-element beast were to suddenly appear, it would likely be hunted down and dissected.
As such, Ghost could only use one element around anyone who wasn't absolutely trusted. The chosen element was the life legacy. Being able to grow potatoes and other plants was extremely useful, and it would be a huge waste to leave the element unattended. All the other elements were useful, but there was a good reason the life element was the favorite of all humans everywhere.
Still, since Edol had an earth legacy, it was easy to cover up Ghost's use of the element as his own.
"He, uh, has a good nose."
'Shit, do eagles even have noses?'
Sal watched skeptically as Ghost hopped around a few times and turned to Edol, squawking quietly.
"Nothing yet. I'll stay on the ground for now, I'll be able to sense any incoming earth magic a long way out."
Ghost's massive mana pool allowed the bird to sense and use earth magic at a much greater distance than Edol. With the bird on the ground, any ambush involving an earth legacy was sure to fail, and the bear would even give away its position if it used magic.
The trio continued walking, now with Ghost hopping along to the side.
A short while later, the bird's pace slowed a nearly unnoticeable amount, and his voice broke into Edol's mind.
"Yo. Thirty meters ahead, behind the shrubs to the right. Keep walking normally, let's take it out when it jumps out!"
Edol quickly relayed the info to the rest of the party, speaking as casually as possible and trying to avoid looking in the direction of the bear so as to not alert it.
"Huh? You're claiming your pet bird can… smell… a bear that's thirty meters away, and pinpoint its exact location?"
"...Yes."
"Ok. You better not be bluffing and trying to show off."
Sal readied her spear, aiming it at where the bear was hiding.
The bear, noticing it had been spotted, gave up its plans of an ambush and lumbered out from the bush, its imposing figure looming over the group.
"...Sal. What part of 'Act natural, don't alert it' didn't you get?!"