[Aha, I see. I'll send you an image!]
An image? What... As he was thinking that, a 3D map-like image unfolded in Yeon-woo's mind. Dotted lines indicated distance and height, red for goblins, and blue for himself. Yeon-woo clicked his tongue at the intuitive form that anyone could understand.
Something like this was possible? It was incomparably more convenient than the mana maps materialized by Hunters skilled in search.
While marveling at Shar's competence, he threw himself at the goblin approaching, following the faint scent remaining in the pile of bushes. He knocked it down by pressing on its Adam's apple with the wooden sword. Immediately, he mounted it and stabbed the stone spear into its heart.
As its body was small, so was its strength. The goblin, strangled and unable to scream, met its death helplessly.
'That's two.'
Beep, a buzzer sounded, and the red dot right in front of the blue one on the map in his mind disappeared.
You did a pretty good job, Shar. You could go out as a programmer right away.
[Are you satisfied?]
'Of course. I can't not use something like this.'
That didn't mean he could underestimate his own senses, though. There was no telling when a crisis might arise where Shar couldn't help him. The important thing was whether Yeon-woo could use it or not.
As Yeon-woo was about to dispose of the goblin's corpse once more, a red dot nearby suddenly started running towards him.
Did it smell blood?
He hid behind a tree in the direction it was coming from, carrying the corpse on his shoulder. And as it came into view, he threw the corpse at it.
"Kiek?!"
The goblin, knocked over by its comrade's corpse, screamed. There was always one that made a noise. It was annoying, but as he said, it wasn't a problem.
He quickly moved his hand and pulled out the stone spear he had stuck in the ground, throwing it towards the goblin's chest. For Yeon-woo, who had to be proficient in most weapons in his past life, spear throwing was a basic skill. After all, he was a spearman before his return.
"Kieek!! Kk, kik, kaak..."
Thump. Along with dirty blood, the goblin's scream also burst out. The goblin tried to pull out the spear, but the spear thrown with mana was stuck in the ground and showed no sign of coming out. The iron sword clattered to the ground. It was a stupid creature for the leader of a hunting party.
"Two left now."
At this point, it was nothing. Yeon-woo ran towards the goblins coming through the bushes.
The wooden sword and rusty iron sword in his hands drew different trajectories, cutting off the necks of the two goblins.
* * *
"Ugh, it's dirty."
[Hunters have to touch things like this...? I'm not doing this even after I hatch...]
Hey, you guys don't do this...
Yeon-woo used the iron sword the leader goblin had to extract five pairs of eyeballs and the small magic stones near their hearts, then he peeled off the rags of one of them and wrapped them up.
Of course, he had to see parts he didn't want to see in the process, but Yeon-woo's stomach wasn't churning.
He was used to this kind of thing...
Since he wouldn't get paid if they were damaged, and he didn't want to get his school uniform dirty, Yeon-woo wrapped them up as carefully as possible with the rags and turned around.
He had left five goblin corpses behind, so it was highly likely that even if something that claimed this area as its territory appeared, he would be safe, but it was only a possibility. There was no reason to gamble his life on something that wasn't a hundred percent certain.
'Shar, what do you want to eat today?'
[You have an appetite, Dad... That's amazing...]
Ah, right, what I saw, Shar saw too. Right. He just hoped her stomach would settle by the time they reached the wall.
.......
It was when Yeon-woo had left the forest and was running along the main road. He heard the sound of an owl. There was no way he could mishear that unique cry.
"The Night Stalker is still around at this time."
[What's a Night Stalker?]
"Where do I even begin to explain this..."
It was a fact one could learn by taking on forest-related requests from the Guild, but the forest was divided into north, south, east, and west sections, regardless of depth, with the center as the reference point. And each direction had one rule, making four in total.
For example, the eastern part of the forest Yeon-woo had just been in had the rule of "Leave more than half of your prey." And the reason for this rule was the "Night Stalker," the owner of the owl cry he had just heard.
"There are four high-ranking monsters living there. Each dividing the territory."
From the east, clockwise, there was the Night Stalker, the Purple Shadow, the Grand Serpent, and the Elder Tree. It was rare for monsters to have nicknames. Especially if it wasn't inside a Gate but in the field. Because if dozens of Hunters attacked, they would somehow be defeated.
[But how are they still alive?]
"It's true that there's no need to conquer the western forest right now, but those guys... they cooperate when humans come to defeat them."
[...Monsters?]
Yeah, that's right. So when the time came to conquer the western forest in his past life, there were truly countless casualties. It wasn't just that they fought separately, but they even coordinated their attacks against them.
"We'll have to defeat them someday, but it's absolutely impossible now. They're not called high-ranking monsters for nothing. Right now, I could die without even realizing it if the Night Stalker attacks."
[A, an ambush? That's cowardly.]
"If Shar helps, we'll be able to defeat them quickly."
[Hehe, of course. Who do you think I am?]
As the wall came closer, Yeon-woo approached the gate while having a mental conversation with Shar. He decided to have chicken for dinner today. Shar would surely regain her appetite with chicken.
