During the day, the weather is insanely hot.
The air is humid, and the sunlight is without control. It felt like I could die of dehydration if only I didn't bring a water bottle with me. But if I went during night time, or even before dark, the target would become active and it would become much harder for me to hunt it down.
Klane told me to use a carriage since this will be quite far away compared to my previous mission, and I still have 20 Jules from that mission. But riding a carriage would cost me 12 Jules, so I ain't riding shit.
I'll walk. After all, walking does help me increase my strength. It will be counted as a form of training.
After I confirmed my identity to the guards at the south-eastern main gate, I asked them for directions. They explained to me that the place I am going to is a rather close farming village, the closest village to this capital in the south. All it takes to reach that village is simply following the road outside the gate, and it will take me to that village immediately without any crossroads.
My mission today is to slay the wild bear that was threatening the village, in the forest that is pretty close to the village.
With a horse or a carriage, the trip there will only take a few minutes. Walking there, however, was a completely different story.
But no biggie, I wanted to walk far anyway. I needed every last bit of training so that I could get stronger quickly.
"Thank you officer."
After talking with the knight at the gate, I began walking outside the gate. As I studied the horizon, I began to have second thoughts about walking to the village instead of taking a carriage.
It's… so far away…
Ah, strengthen yourself, Rize!! Walk!!
And so… I began to take the heavy steps, marching towards the south.
.
Remember when I described that it's incredibly hot? Well, please double it.
Because of how weak my condition is, the pain of the heat doubles or even triples the amount for a normal person. Even though I have reached the normal amount of magic points, it still doesn't change the fact that I'm still very weak.
That 'Normal' amount was only normal for normal people. I'm an adventurer, I will need a lot more than just normal.
After a long walk, I finally reached the dense forest where trees are covering the road. I used this chance to take a rest, because I couldn't walk for much longer.
I sat down next to a tree right by the road, and I sat on a spot no one could notice. It's not that I don't want to attract attention, rather, I just don't like people.
I grabbed the bag and pulled out a bottle of water. I drank half of it already, and the walk over there is still pretty far. Looks like I will have to refill it in the village, or else I'm going to die of dehydration on the way back.
I should have just done this at night... who cares if the bear is very active or whatever.
After around 15 minutes of break, I continued the walk. After exiting the forest, I arrived on a river with a wide bridge. The bridge is so wide that two carriages can pass at the same time.
And from that bridge, I can see it. The tall windmill building that stood tall above any crops under its feet.
It's the farmers village, but it's still quite far away.
20 minutes later, I arrived at the village. It looks like your average medieval farmers village. There's houses, farm crops, and the tall windmill that I saw earlier. People walking around with fruits on top of their heads, carriages moving around with the horses pulling them, and the residents of the village doing trades on the shops at the side of the road.
The mission scroll mentioned that I have to find the village chief first, the person who issued this request. That way, I can get more detailed information regarding the target from him.
I began asking the people at the shops, at the side of the road. After asking around, they all gave the same answer, saying that the chief lives on the windmill.
I began heading towards the windmill, and the closer I get, the more details I can see. It's a tall building that's about twenty meters tall, with a very large traditional fan at the very top made of wood and animal skin. The building itself is made of concrete, which made it strong enough to withstand fire.
Seeing that the bottom had small windows and a door, anyone can tell that the bottom floor of the building is someone's house.
I approached the door and knocked, waiting for a reply. Beforelong, the sound of a woman answered from inside, telling me to wait. She prepared for a while, and she opened the door to greet me.
The woman is still lifting her young baby in her hands, while her face looks quite tired. She seems like a hard working housewife, but her clothes looked more modern than anybody else I saw in the village.
She saw the sword on my hips, and immediately realized why I'm here.
"Oh, the adventurer. Please, come in."
"Excuse me."
I followed her inside and turned my eyes around to look at the room. It's just like a normal house, despite having a tall fan up there. It's actually quite cozy here in the guest room, and I can peek a little bit to the back, which looks to be the dining room already.
I thought this kind of house is only for the rich. Then again, he probably is. Village chief and all…
She went to the back and called someone. After a while, a man in a white shirt and light brown leather pants came out. He doesn't seem to pass 30 yet, and judging from the baby, this guy must be the father.
His expression looked… quite troubled.
"You must be the adventurer who took the mission. Please, sit down."
He pointed towards the chair near me, so I sat down.
"What's your name?"
He said as he also sat down across me.
"Rize."
"Miss Rize. Have you read the quest description?"
"Yes. Tell me about the bear."
Damn, I felt like an actual adventurer now, asking this and that to my client. But after I asked that question, his already troubled expression turned worse.
"… Sadly, things were not as simple anymore."
He shook his head and then stood up. I watched him pick up an item that was in the corner of the guest room. I studied the item as he returned to sit down again.
It's a wooden shield, but there's a huge... I mean, 'Huge' animal claw marks. It almost struck through the shield and cut the shield in half. The shield can no longer be used due to how damaged it was.
"Take a look at this."
He gave me the shield and I studied it closer. I tested whether the shield was actually strong by knocking it. It felt pretty thick and strong when I knocked it using my fingers, so it shouldn't be that easily destroyed.
"This shield came just this morning, so I had no time to update the mission at the Adventurers Office. The bear that was terrorizing the village somewhat got enchanted into a demon bear, that is at least Purple rank."
"P-Purple…?"
The village chief nods at me heavily as he glares with a worried expression.
"Yes. It has become much more dangerous now. Though the mission does say that it is a Gray ranked mission, so I assumed a group of Gray ranked adventurers would come. You are a Gray rank… right?"
"... I am actually a Red."
"Oh dear… Then, you have to go back with me and report the news-"
"We can report later when it's dead."
I stood up from my chair immediately, which startled the village chief.
"W-Wait, are you sure? But you are just a newbie! Red rank is the bottom rank, you will die if you fight it!"
"Newbie is indeed what I am, but I wouldn't stay on Red forever. Plus, if anyone else had shown up any later, what would happen to the village?"
"But the bear's active time is after sundown. There is still time to-"
"If the bear mutated into a demonic bear, then we have no choice. It could come out during the day and rampage even worse than a normal bear would. Do you know what happened to beasts that got demonized?"
From his expression, it looked like he didn't know.
The behavior of a beast that got demonized turned upside down completely. They no longer needed to sleep, and they no longer kill to eat. They craved blood for nothing but pleasure.
Not only that, their strength will also rise. Their size will become larger, and so will their teeth. Their danger level rose completely by one, so if the normal bear is a Gray ranked animal, then a demonized bear is a Purple.
There is also a part about the beast turned into demonic mode, which can make the danger level rise by one more. But, let's just hope I can kill the beast quickly before it activates this mode.
Thank god I read the book about the monsters of this world deeply. If I didn't, I wouldn't know about any of this.
"If the bear got demonized, then it could attack at any time, since it doesn't have a sleep schedule. Are you sure you want to wait for another adventurer? It might attack during the day."
"I… didn't know this."
Lack of knowledge sure is a problem around here.
I let out a sigh, and I thought about what to do next. My next question would be about the location of the demonized bear, but before I could ask, commotion could be heard outside.
This building is placed in the middle of the wide crops field, and there seems to be a lot of people shouting at the field. The two of us halted our conversation and turned towards the door.
"What's going on?"
I asked him, but the answer came from the door instead.
The door burst open immediately, and multiple men came in hurriedly. Three villagers, all holding weapons, immediately went inside without even caring about ethics.
Instead of apologizing, they quickly shouted at the chief who was with me.
"Chief!! The bear!! It came for real, right now!!"
"W-What!?"
The village chief stood up immediately and headed outside, following the villagers who just broke into his home. I followed silently behind them, wondering what was going on.
I joined the group standing right in front of the house, staring towards the southern border of the village where the forest is at. I turned my gaze there, and found what they were staring at.
Far away, at the border of the forest, a group of men can be seen holding a spear. They seemed to be running away from the forest, and from the loud shouting, it's like they are afraid of something. I was about to ask, but then a massive brown object came out from the trees and crashed through the short wooden fence easily.
The fur, the large fangs, anyone can tell what that thing was from afar.
T-That…
That's the bear I'm going to kill?
The height of the bear looks to be at least two and a half meters tall, while its length is about four meters. That's so god damn huge, even the largest bear that's ever recorded was never that big. The mouth looked like it could fit an entire person's head inside, as easy as chomping it off.
The bear also had this dark purple coloring on its fur, like it was dirtied by a purple mud. It's actually cool looking and scary at the same time.
Normally, I would only tremble seeing a bear like that. After all, it looks monstrous.
But the bear isn't the only one that has evolved.
Around us, the first group of the panicking men who came out from the forest arrived at our location. They began explaining the situation to the chief, completely ignoring the fact that I'm here.
Since they are ignoring me, I'll just excuse myself to walk forward. The moment I arrived at their vision, the chief shouted at me.
"W-Wait!! Where are you going!?"
He asked me panickingly, but I didn't even turn around.
"I'll take care of it. All of you just evacuate. Keep those guys away from me and the bear, I'll try my best to deal with it."
Holy shiet, I sounded so cool.
I didn't even have to think long to say those words. It just came out naturally from my mouth, as if I'm Captain America. Am I Captain Mazino now?
Behind me, the chief had no choice but to obey my words. He and the other men from the group began calling for the far away guys who were still running away from the bear. The chief and his villagers told the running guys to run this way, which meant also leading the bear this way.
I walked calmly towards the bear using the grassy path that intersected the crops. The last few guys who were at the tail of the group ran past me and stopped, wondering what the hell I was doing approaching the bear this calmly, but I ignored them and continued walking.
Now, it's just the bear and me.
"ROAA!!!!"
The bear was only fifteen meters away from me when it roared.
Damn, that wasn't good for the ears... even normal bears wouldn't scream that loud.
I just stared at it with a questioning expression. Seeing that I am standing still right before the bear, it noticed that I am challenging it in a battle.
Demonized beasts are intelligent… far more intelligent than normal beasts. That was only one of the reasons as to why they are more dangerous.
Now that I'm close, I can tell how big this bear actually is. It's already much taller than me, and those paws can easily crush my bones if it were to step on me. Not just that, I saw it running before and noticed that the bear seemed to be quite fast as well.
So… how do I deal with it?
As I formed a plan, the bear started rushing towards me. It's very fast for a bear, and I wasn't expecting it to move so quickly.
But somehow… I can see everything.
It's like time slowed down, and my eyes could see everything clearly. This happens during the fight with that test taker, and also with Jrake when he used the stone pillars to attack me during training. Everything seemed… slow.
Not only that, my body felt lighter than ever. Is this… adrenaline?
The bear thrusted at me with high speed, and yet it looked like a giant toddler was charging at me. It looked ridiculous in comparison to before, and now I have all the time in the world to think of my options that I need to deal with this bear.
So… what will I do?
Let's deal with this simply. I don't like to waste time, after all.
Have confidence… and jump!
FWOOSH!!!!!!!!
My legs felt like it destroyed the ground as I jumped, and I couldn't see very well until I'm already far up in the air. I am now six meters in the air, and the ground is so far away down there.
This is so high!!
I turned my gaze towards the rapidly approaching brown fur, and found that the bear had also leaped upwards to grab me with its mouth. Its massive head is slowly reaching my position in the air, and those teeth do look massive up close.
I realize now that the bear is no longer far from me, and it is in a distance I can attack.
Faster than I can think, I unsheath my sword on my hips at high speed. Without second thoughts, I swung the blade downwards faster than the blink of an eye. I didn't even notice what was happening until I was already falling.
My foot landed on the ground first, and I kneeled on the spot to receive the weight of my body. Behind me, the crashing sound of the bear's body can be heard alongside the loud sound of blood splattering.
I turned around, and found the massive bear lying on the ground, with its face sliced in half all the way.
This… is the result of my training.