Let none say that Isha was at all a terrible host, she fed me, and drained my balls. And actually helped me pick out the secondary material reward for the quest to purge the goblins.
"So if you are looking for a short-ranged weapon that you can use in your off-hand or taking it out of your inventory... I recommend a good strong chopper, you already have an enchanted heirloom quality smaller great sword. You just need something you can carve through enemies with." Isha explained before adding on. "Plus having a good carving weapon will make acquiring the materials and pieces off monsters a lot easier in your life."
So with her advice, I took a sort of Ghurka-style small machete or large knife that had a thick blade that she explained was for ease of sharpening and to allow it to pry scales off or use the blade as leverage to shatter bones for when you are pulling monsters apart for valuable innards.
The curved heavy front half of the blade made it great at chopping into flesh and with it being forged by her, she promised me I could literally use it to chop wood with. If I had the strength and inclination for that.
And so with my secondary reward given, I still needed to return back to New Atha to get the deposited reward she left for the success of the quest. "Well Isha, thank you for being such a great host, but I gotta get going now." I said with a bit of reluctance making her chuckle huskily and she patted on my shoulder as she replied confidently.
"Jake, if you are in the neighborhood... Nothing is stopping you from making a quick pitstop right?" She questioned raising an eyebrow and I could only nod to that. It only took my level 1 ass a day to fly here. Who is to say I wouldn't be able to fly far faster in the future to the point that it would only take half an hour or so to fly here?
So with that, I got back on the road and headed into the nearby forest following Isha's directions to the small hunting/village that was where the gale wolves were. Along with the supposed horny harpy who was looking for food and a mate who was being a nuisance to the villagers.
While Isha made me breakfast this morning, she was also kind enough to point me out the local Galewolf pack along with the information I would need for killing them. She told me how Galewolves were just downgraded from Stormwolves who instead of being able to send out wind blades from their mouths to carve into their prey. The Galewolves could only conjure balls of dense wind that they could shoot from their mouths.
With those windballs only being able to knock the air out of people, the mission was considered fine for Wood-ranked adventurers to go on.
I walked deep into the forest taking good care to watch out for my surroundings, as just because I was on a low-ranked mission, that didn't mean I couldn't just wander into some kind of higher-level monster. Which, Isha made sure to enlighten me about how the forest had plenty of such creatures that were way out of my league.
I kept walking into the forest and although I picked up signs and tracks of some monsters and other life forms. I didn't track them, I just kept on my path towards the hunting village as I knew they could point me out in the direction I needed to head towards.
But eventually, a low growl rang out as I carefully walked through the forest. Isha told me not to fly over the forest, lest I piss off crowds of bird monsters without the ability to deal with large numbers of flying bird-type monsters.
I looked over to the side and I frowned as from a burrow that had been dug into the roots of a large tree, came a stream of Galewolves, or more accurately a whole pack of about a dozen plus wolves came out of the burrow.
"Wasn't I supposed to track you guys down?" I muttered as I took in the multicolored wolves that all had a green streak across their bodies going from their muzzle all the way down to their tails. But they were honestly the normal size of a decent-sized wolf.
My only answer was a spitting snarl from the supposed alpha that was a good couple of inches taller, half a foot longer with probably a couple hundred pounds on the other wolves in comparison. Without a word I pulled out my sword Siren with one hand, holding it at the bottom of the handle. And with my other hand, I held the khukri that Isha gave me.
I took a breath as the alpha inched towards me, and as I saw a green haze fill its maw that signaled it was building up a windball. I blinked forward and with a crunching noise, I slammed the curved blade of the kukri into the alpha wolf's throat.
An explosion rang out with a pink blast of mist shooting out from the wolf's ruined mouth as the air bomb exploded within its mouth and blew off its lower jaw. But I didn't pay the alpha any more attention as I strode forward yanking out the blade as I did so, and as I strode towards the pack. I swung my sword Siren with as much strength as I could while the wolves were yelping in fear at my sudden teleport.
Their howls of surprise and fear were cut off as my sword carved a line through the wolves as I pivoted on my foot to enhance the power of my sideways slicing motion. 'I cannot hear them speaking with my ring?' I thought as the wolves barked and snarled at me as they charged with at me with fangs glistening in the early morning's sunlight.
I could Blink, regardless of level or scenario, once every five seconds, and in that time I had killed or dealt a killing mortal wound to the alpha, and possibly dealt killing blows to a couple more wolves but as three brave wolves directly charged me from the front the sides slightly, the timer for my Blink had eclipsed and seeing the last quarter of the unharmed portion of the pack were charging up wind-balls in the back while in safety I instantly Blinked again.
Teleporting some ten meters behind the pack of wolves to fall upon with a fury of swinging blades into the wolves that were charging their bloodline spells.
Just because I had the Antimagi Armor which allowed me to ignore hostile magic, that didn't mean I was willing to test to see if the kinetic aspect of a bomb going on in my face would harm me.
With my armor, my channeled lightning, and of course my blades. I tore through the wolves over the next couple minutes until the last couple realized their pack was all but slaughtered had just sprinted off into the depths and more dangerous portion of the forest leaving me standing, breathing deeply with the exertion of the heavy combat weighing on me as I I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to reset my mind.
"Alright... The quest needs the green fangs in their mouth." I muttered as I began taking out the green-tinged fangs in each wolf's mouth that were used as an alchemical product apprently.
{Level Up! Stats Distributed!}
{o-------------------------o0o-------------------------o}
Name -
Jake Barris
Race - Human/Dragonkin
Level - 8
Health: 500
HP Regen: 45pm
Mana: 230
MP Regen: 15pm
-
Status, Potential
Strength-36 S
Constitution-36 S
Intelligence-15 C
Agility-25 B
Charisma-25 B
Magic-29 A
{o-------------------------o0o-------------------------o}
With my stats increased by three levels, I felt a slight heat in my body as the stats settled within my form and I could feel... Just better than I was before. With hindsight, to say nothing of my dragonkin blood. Just the eight levels I had acquired, I could visibly tell the difference in me from before I was isekaied already.
With that done, I continued on, walking along the hunting trail that was left from decades of foot and cart travel on this road leading to this hunting village.
And thankfully with me on the path, I didn't come across anything except for some angry bird monsters that just screamed at me for daring to walk past the tree they were on.
The hunting village was just a collection of small but thick and sturdy log cabins without even a wall like the town had. But even a good mile away from it, I could smell the smoke coming from the outpost and the smell of drying pelts as they smoked their kills to keep the pelts fresh for mass transport.
When I got closer however I heard a hearty male voice call out. "Hold good man!" And I paused as the voice continued and I looked up as I heard the branches above me in the thick tree's rustling. "Are you the adventurer here for the supplies delivery, or the harpy mission?" The voice continued and with the continued voice's existence, I was able to pinpoint its position.
Being a large male wearing leathers clad across his form and bearing a large great bow that had what looked like a small fucking spear mounted in it, which was unerringly pointed at me.
"Yeah, Jake Barris, new Wood Rank adventurer here for the Harpy punitive mission!" I called out and with my explanation I saw the man lower his large bow and I shivered hearing more rustling as more un-naturally well-camouflaged men popped out of the tree lins all holding large bows that had large deadly arrows drawn and ready for battle
A couple of seconds later, the large guy I announced myself towards huffed and then his tree rustled as he dropped out of the tree with a precision that spoke of years of training as he casually grabbed onto branches at certain points to break and control his fall until his feet landed with a strong thud onto the ground.
The man was... Middle-aged maybe, his muscular and scarred form was clad in leaf lined furs and he had dark brown hair that was speckled with gray that matched his full beard that was also speckled with some grey hairs of age.
"Hmm... The guild sent you out alone, did they? Well I can smell the Galewolf blood on ya, so it's likely you got fighting strength to survive." The guy mumbled before he clapped his hands together and spoke with a kind smile. "Alright boyo, the harpy is going to eat your sweet little ass alive. So don't think about going in there trying to kill the monster." He spoke while I heard snorts and giggles in the trees above me making the man roll his eyes.
"Get back to work you fuck wits! I swear to the light goddess, if our furs get burnt because you wanted to watch me give some survival advice, I will fucking skin you and see if those dumbasses in the capital will buy your scalps!" He roared and there was a haunting laughter that rang out through the trees as a dozen forms jumped from tree to tree toward the village or going further into the forest.
'How would I even pick out their presence around me?' I thought with my hand that was around Siren tightening at the sight. 'I may have got plenty of anti-magic and mind-control protection... But good old stealth assassination is a big problem.' I finished the thought with a frown.
But regardless the man turned back to me with a cheerful smile across his face as he continued to speak. "Anywho, Jake was it?" At my nod, he continued. "Yeah, the Harpy is the exiled queen who was forced out of her position by her daughter breaking her wings and throwing her out of the local cloud island her flock lived upon... She is well over a level hundred, do not believe for a split second that you can kill her, even if she cannot fly anymore beyond a bit of gliding." He said seriously with a dark look crossing his face.
He sighed and shook his head. "I do not for the life of me understand why the mission was placed as a Wood rank mission... Just because she is noted as being unhostile and thus making the mission easy? Bullshit..." He scoffed before coughing and saying wryly. "Look, you need to convince Tempeste to move to another area... I don't care how you do it. But all my boys are on contract and she is ruining our game hunting with her high level suppressing all the nearby monsters into hiding with her running around pissed off in a breeding rut."
Ah... My mind went back to the Guild test and I remembered there was a test question about a harpy who had captured a male and held him prisoner to have him seed her. As harpy's needed a male for up to three months straight for constant fucking to ensure proper impregnation due to them giving birth to a whole cutch at once... They were noted for capturing men and said men sometimes once released died trying to make their way back to civilization.
I frowned at the news and after a moment I nodded as I said respectfully. "Thank you for the info... I thought, and the guild mission just said she was an average harpy?" But the man scoffed and with clear intention of this conversation being over, I just asked where I needed to go for the harpy and he gave me highly detailed information and even marked on my map some locations for higher leveled monsters or clans of monsters I seriously wanted to fucking avoid.
"So yeah, the fucking Driders over there will use their ovipositors to literally shove their eggs into your ass and through their terrible bloodline magics while inside you they can take on your natural magical signature to act as the sperm to fertilize themselves... So avoid the fucking spider clans. As not even the New Atha military is willing to burn out the area due to the number of losses they will take from those sadistic cunts." He growled before shaking his head and without another word he turned around and leaped up like twenty meters straight into the branches of a nearby tree within a couple of seconds his blurring form had merged with the trees and I lost him.
'Everyone wants the hot monster girls... But people forget that monsters are monsters... And most monsters aren't even monster girls to begin with.' I thought wryly as I continued on in the direction he pointed out.
"But seriously... A harpy queen named Tempeste?" I muttered with an amused smile.