LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 6: A Hunting We Will Go
In the many deep forested areas of the Hillsbrooke Empire, monsters were a common thing. They had many shapes and forms and were all classed from F to S based on their danger levels, with the rarer types being SS or SSS. The monsters typically lived near dungeons or roamed on their own and it was up to the adventurers to contain them and harvest their materials to make new things and sell and trade. These jobs were handled by an adventurer’s guild that were normally located in each region of a nation to ensure that the entire organization had everything covered. To add to this, the adventurer’s guild was a separate entity from any government but worked closely with them in a marriage of business, for as long as the guild was paid in the end, they would keep the areas deemed unimportant for a military fort, safe from monsters.
It was also in these deep forests that adventurers trained themselves to be better and sharpen their skills. And today was the day a pair of adventurers ventured into the northern mountains of the empire. One was an SS-Rank and the other was a B-Rank, both of them had bags slung over their shoulders as they trekked through the foliage going up into the mountain range and soon reached a clear plateau.
“Ok let’s stop here for now” Amelia said as she dropped her bag, making a loud ‘thud’ as it hit the ground.
“Haa…haa, did we really have to come up this far?” Sharon asked as she collapsed onto the ground,
“Yes. yes we had to” Amelia replied as she stretched her limbs
“But in full armor?” Sharon asked as she looked up at Amelia, her breathing still trying to catch up.
“Well, you wanted to be trained right? Consider that part of it” Amelia answered as she walked towards Sharon and stretched out her arm
“Now c’mon, get up”
“Fine, fine…just give me a moment” Sharon answered as she grabbed Amelia’s outstretched hand, pulling herself up and dusting off her peach-colored plate armor.
Amelia smiled as she conjured up a red glowing orb in her hand, looking at Sharon who finished dusting herself and began stretching.
“I detected some monsters nearby. I want you to fight them to train yourself. This orb here will help guide you to their locations. All the while I stay here” she said with a smile, that was met with the shocked expression of Sharon
“Wait what?!” Sharon shouted
“You want me to go alone?!”
“Yeah”
“But what if they are of a higher level than me?”
“Then that’s your problem unless it is an SS-Rank and above I’ll come and help. If not, you're on your own” Amelia said as she crossed her arms with a serious expression
“Look Sharon, adventurers are expected to have a good wit when they encounter enemies stronger than them, this test will let me see if you have that wit to survive and overcome stronger opponents or at least know when it’s not the time to fight” she added as she patted her friend on the pauldron of her armor.
“If the monster is too tough for you, you run and think of a strategy to deal with it. If it’s not that strong, you kill it. Simple really”
“For you maybe! I‘m still a B-Rank!” Sharon replied as she stared into Amelia’s serious eyes.
“Hey, this is just the easy part of our training. Trust me when I say you will be wishing that your just hunting monster after this” Amelia’s eyes shining with a glint and a smirk plastered on her face
“Wait what do you mean by thaaa-” but before Sharon could ask further, Amelia placed the orb in her hand and using wind magic, chucked Sharon into the forest, waving as she did.
“Goodluck! Don’t worry! I’ll be there if you are in any real danger!’
“AAAAAAAAAAAAA-”
………………………………………………………………………………………………
‘Bam’
“Gah! mother fu-” Sharon exclaimed as she hit a tree trunk.
‘Thud’
Before falling to the ground.
“Dammit Amelia” she grumbled as she stood back up and began dusting herself off again.
She looked around and saw that she was definitely deep in the forest now, she picked up the red orb resting on the ground nearby, it gave off a slow blinking glow as she did.
“Now how do I use this thing?” Sharon said out loud
She shook it around in her hand, but the orb still gave that slow blinking glow. She sighed as she tried to hold the orb up in different directions, but to her annoyance, the orb still failed to do anything. Sharon’s eye began twitching as she stared at the still unresponsive orb in her hand. Taking a deep breath as she winded up her arm to throw it in a random direction, her mind filled with annoyance. But as she was about to throw, the orb began blinking rapidly.
“Mother fu-?!” Sharon cursed as she suddenly stopped mid-throw, allowing the orb to drag her a few steps forward, hitting a low-hanging branch in the process.
She pushed the branch away as she held up the orb again, the light it gave off was blinking faster as she held it up in a specific direction,
‘If it didn’t blink that fast when there was no monster..shit’
Sharon’s brows furrowed as she placed the orb inside the pouch tied to her waist, pulling her family halberd out of her item box and going into an alert fighting stance. She scanned her surroundings with her eyes and activated her <Detection> skill which was still at level VIII, meaning she couldn’t detect high-level enemies passively. Unfortunately, the skill failed to show her where the nearby danger was and so pulled the orb back out and began slowly using it to scan for her.
Taking a few steps forward deeper into the thick foliage, the orb began blinking faster and faster as she continued forward. Eventually leading her to a clearing that had a giant tree in the center, she placed the orb back in the pouch as she knelt down next to a fallen log and began scanning the clearing and tree.
‘Come out you stupid monster’ she thought to herself as she kept a vigilant watch,
{GEGEGEGEGGE}
{!}
Suddenly, Sharon went full prone as she felt the presence of a monster from the tree. She took a small peak and sure enough, there was a monster hanging on the trunk of the tree. It was a large reptile with several large protruding spikes on its back, the head had a long elongated snout with a pair of horns aimed towards its front. The mouth of the monster opened up in a split jaw formation, forming a triangular opening, sending a shiver down Sharon’s spine.
‘Steady Sharon. let’s see what we’re up against’ she mumbled in her head as she activated her <Appraisal X> skill
She looked at the monster and a slight fear began to grow in her heart as she saw the stats.
(A/N: Switching “Rank” for “Class” when it comes to a monster. Just to let you know)
Name: Grototalsk
Power Class: S-Class Monster. [Reptilian]
STR: 2000
DEF: 9000
MP: 3000
DEX: 1000
SPD: 9000
Skills:
Harden [Hardens the body of the user for a limited time. Can only be broken by a high-power attack]
Camouflage [Able to blend into surroundings for a time]
Spike Flurry [Launches spine spikes at any target of choosing]
Tags:
‘Old Prickle Back’ [Defeating this monster will grant a bonus]
Magic:
Elemental Magic: Acid [able to fling out acid and poison at target from 30 meters]
“Son of a bitch” Sharon muttered to herself as she finished reading the stats of the monster.
She quickly backed away and activated her skill <Resilience> which could prevent any damage by acid and poison. She tried to look back toward the trunk of the giant tree in the clearing and saw that the monster was now gone. The fear in her heart slowly grew.
“Sharon you idiot, you forgot rule number one of adventuring. Don’t take eyes off your opponent!” she cursed herself as she ran out into the clearing to make sure it didn’t get behind her, placing her back on the giant tree in the center, she brought out several sharpened stakes from her item box and threw them around, striking to trees and the ground.
She took out the orb and saw that it was still pulsating rapidly, she then put it back as she took a deep breath.
‘Calm down…let’s try to sense this thing’ she thought as she slowly entered a ready stance with her halberd at the ready. Scanning the nearby foliage.
{SSSWIIIIISSHHH}
{!}
Sharon felt something dangerous coming in and instinctively took a dive down into the dirt, missing the stakes she threw down. Looking back to where she was standing, she saw a bubbling red blob that began slowly burning the grass to cinders. She then turned her gaze towards the thick foliage in front of her, trying to use her senses to detect the thing.
{!}
{SKREEEE}
BAM
Sharon's senses fired off as she rolled to her left and made adjusted to a crouching position, her halberd pointed towards where she was, a small dust cloud. A pair of blood-red eyes shone through it, and as the dust settled, she saw that the monster was on its hind legs. Instinctively, Sharon tightened her hold on the halberd as she resolved herself. An angry grin on her face.
“No more running. Bring it on you scaly bastard!”
{SKREEEE}
“RAAAAAGH!”
Sharon yelled as she stood her ground as the monster charged her.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
“Hmmm, it seems she is fighting an S-Rank monster…yeah she should be fine all things considered, probably a bit banged up though” Amelia said to herself as she sat on a rock facing the cliff edge. Looking at a red orb in her hand that projected what Sharon was going through, she let go of the orb and in the process, it dissipated into the wind.
Taking out a worn red leather book from her item box, she looked at the cover of the book. It had the drawing of a golden leviathan with all of its numerous tendrils and a giant jaw that was opened, and below that drawing was a beautifully written message in blank ink that said “For my dear Leviathan Princess. Love your Starlight”
Amelia smiled as she opened up the book and turned towards a specific page, on the page itself was a detailed drawing of a magical circle, one that could be operated with only a hint of magic if the person had little to no magic remaining, also on the page was several well written and easy to understand instructions that detailed how to make the circle and activate it without much effort.
“Always making sure everything is thorough huh Ophelia” Amelia said with a smile on her face as she read through the page and memorized it in full, she then turned to the next page that was on the topic of spells and enchantments.
“Huh. most of these are well suited for me, ‘Flash Fire’, ‘Burial’, and ‘Blaster’?” Amelia was confused at the last spell as it didn’t describe what it was other than it being an electric-based spell.
{!}
Amelia then felt a presence approaching from a distance, someone was climbing the cliff, putting the book quickly back into her item box, she turned away from the cliff face. Allowing the presence she detected to climb up and reach her. Readying herself as she kept her hands near her twin daggers.
“So what business do you have here? Imperial Knight?” she asked as she stood up and faced a figure cloaked in a dirty and damaged cloak.
The knight stood silently and showed no immediate reaction, but the sudden shift in his eyes when Amelia asked them of their presence gave off everything Amelia needed to know that the person who just arrived had no idea what they were in for. And as the knight stayed silent, Amelia activated her <Appraisal XIX> revealing mostly everything to her.
Name: Ryon Haruba
Race: Human
Power Rank: A
Status: Healthy
Age: 19
STR: 900
DEF: 500
MP: 800
DEX: 900
SPD: 1200
Skills:
Shadow Step [Able to jump shadow to shadow of either object or living thing]
Camouflage III [Able to blend into surroundings for an extended period of time]
Dual Wielding III [Proficient with using weapons with both hands]
Appraisal II [Able to appraise targets of lower power rank]
Magic:
Shadow Manipulation Magic II [Able to use up to rank 2 shadow manipulation spells]
“They really thought an apprentice knight could shadow me?” Amelia asked rhetorically, feeling insulted.
“They…They told me you were unable to sense such high-ranking power people like me” Ryon said, surprise in his voice.
“I am an SS-Rank adventurer. Of course, I would be able to sense someone like you” Amelia responded, annoyance in her voice
“What. did they tell you I WASN’T an SS-Rank?” she asked as she crossed her arms.
“Yes…his highness told me that your rank was something that he and the princes had come up with to protect you from everyone” Ryon answered with a hint of fear
Amelia’s eyes twitched as she heard his answer, she drew both of her daggers and pointed the one in her right hand towards Ryon, a bloodthirsty and angry glare in her eyes
“I am kind of angry at the moment. So I am going to take it out on you, apologies in advance” she said as she took a step and instantly closed the gap between them, allowing Amelia to see the fear and surprise in the eyes of the helpless knight.