LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 21: Suspicion
"Yay～ We can finally go home!" ［Yuna］
"Not yet, we still have another quest left, remember?" ［Grey］
"Uuu... But I'm starving already..." ［Yuna］
Her cheeks puffed cutely, Yuna pouted as she heard Grey's words. Grey on the other hand just chuckled silently as he observed his partner, patting her head as to comfort her.
Storing the monster drops in his "Inventory", Grey and Yuna started to run once again, heading towards their next quest location which was just located a couple of kilometers away.
A few days has passed since Grey had a friendly cook off with Gerd. Although Gerd and Family were shocked by Grey and Yuna's ranks, nothing much had changed from how they treated the two. They were as friendly as always.
Currently, Grey and Yuna are taking their final quest for the day. The quest was about subjugating a group of D-rank shadow bears located just in the nearby mountain range located west of Galderia.
According to the clients, the Shadow Bears have been eating the livestock of the villages nearby. While there weren't any casualties as of yet, it was best to subjugate such threats as quickly as possible.
With the rate Grey and Yuna were taking quests, it would normally take them about half a month to get another promotion, but with the rarity of the high-ranked quests, it will take them more than two months, which is still a very quick rate.
It's already been two weeks since the two arrived at Galderia. And with their routine being almost the same every single day, time seemed to pass very quickly.
"Alright, we're here...?" ［Grey］
"Is something wrong, Grey?" ［Yuna］
"Well, you see..." ［Grey］
As Grey activated his "Heaven's Eye", he scouted a large area in a single second. He had also found the targets of subjugation, but the problem was, the Shadow Bears weren't the only ones he had spotted.
The Shadow Bears the two were supposed to subjugate had already lost their lives, torn to shreds, and their carcasses being wolfed down hastily by another beast. A beast much stronger than it.
It was a gigantic wolf, its fur the color of gray, and fangs and claws sharper than any dagger. Just a single bite and it easily tore through the tough hide of the Shadow Bears. In front of its fangs, they were as thin as paper.
Grey and Yuna rushed towards the beast, arriving there in less than a minute. But the moment they arrived, the state of the Shadow Bears was worse than Grey had thought. There was barely any flesh left.
⟨⟨Appraisal⟩⟩ ［Grey］
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[Beast]
[Species] Fang Wolf
[Status] Healthy, Agitated, Starving
[Sex] Female
[Age] 28 (Adult)
[Mana Capacity] 3,208 [Mana Quality] B
[Combat Power] 1,532 [Threat Level] B
[Attribute] Wind
[Intelligence] 79
[Description]
A canine-type beast infamous for being overly violent and incredibly fast. They are endemic to the Malagura Forest, and will attack everything that enters its territory indiscriminately. When it senses danger, it will run as fast as it can and destroy anything on its path. The pelt of the Fang Wolves are known for its sturdiness and are multiple times stronger than iron.
-----------------------------------
B-rank!
It was a beast capable of completely decimating villages in a matter of minutes! Its strength was comparable, no, it was even higher than that of the Orc King that Grey and Yuna had fought about a week ago.
But what worried Grey the most was not its combat power, but the information within its status board which felt very similar. It was similar to the Magma Crawler which brought upon ruin to Yuna's home village.
It had an "Agitated" status similar to the Magma Crawler. What's more, it was also a beast whose habitat should have been located thousands of kilometers away. There was too much similarity for it to be a coincidence!
"Grey, what are you waiting for?" ［Yuna］
"Ah, sorry... What were you saying?" ［Grey］
"Grey... Are you okay...?" ［Yuna］
Her face full of worries, Yuna asked Grey a question seeing how he was spacing out. Something very uncharacteristic of him.
Meanwhile, Grey was thinking whether he should tell Yuna about his findings. But soon decided not to, fearing Yuna might become emotionally unstable once again.
He would rather confirm things first rather than prematurely give statements without any strong evidence. Grey could only imagine the consequences if he did things without much thinking.
"No, nothing. I was just thinking how we should report this to the guild." ［Grey］
"Oh, right..." ［Yuna］
Yuna fixed her eyes towards the corpse of the Shadow Bears with a troubled look. After all, all proof of its subjugation was already devoured, only bones and a little bit of flesh remained.
For now, Grey would keep his findings to himself. He would only say it to Yuna when he had confirmed things, hoping it was the right thing to do.
Deciding to leave things for later, Grey focused his attention towards the Fang Wolf. Taking caution so that it does not notice them, otherwise, it might cause further harm to the nearby villages if left alone.
Although its strength was lesser than the Orc King, its speed was another thing. It was fast enough to match the speeds of A-ranks beast. Not to mention that it had wind magic at its disposal.
"Yuna, I'll handle this." ［Grey］
"Un... sure!" ［Yuna］
Leaving Yuna to spectate, Grey went out of hiding and faced the Fang Wolf up front. His face was as calm as the sky, without a trace of worry to be seen.
Grrrrrrr Rrrrrrr
The Fang Wolf stopped devouring its meal as it saw Grey approaching it. Growling aggressively as to intimidate the human before it. It tried to establish the fact that it was the prey.
Unfortunately for it, that's where it went wrong. Rather than being the predator, the Fang Wolf was the prey instead. It was like an ignorant rabbit which didn't know it was facing a tiger.
Without making a single noise, Grey closed the distance between him and the Fang Wolf. The wolf tried to react, but before its body could keep up with its mind, Grey had already released his strike towards its open abdomen.
The moment the punch connected, a slight crack could be heard reverberating in the air as the ribs of the Fang Wolf were shattered to smithereens. The fragments of the bones, piercing its internal organs, causing internal bleeding.
Its organs crushed, the Fang Wolf was sent flying towards a large tree, yelping as its shoulder blades cracked upon impact. Still, the Fang Wolf was able to stand up even with all the damage it had received.
Eyes full of hatred, the Fang Wolf rushed towards Grey with the intention of biting Grey's head off in a single bite. It was so blinded by rage that it only took Grey a single step to evade its attack.
Not being able to stop its tracks, the Fang Wolf once again crashed towards another large tree. It tried to brake with its front limbs, but with its shoulder blades broken, it only made things worse.
The Fang Wolf stood up once again, its whole body trembling from injuries and its internal organs totally damaged. It was only then that it realized that the small creature before it was not just any simple prey.
Aaawwoooooooo
As the Fang Wolf howled, strong gusts of wind gathered from the surroundings. Rocks, twigs, and leaves being sucked as if they were dragged into a vortex. The beast was trying to unleash magic with strength comparable to a real tornado.
Grey on the other hand was as calm as before, undisturbed by the strong bursts of winds sucking everything in the surrounding. All he could think of was to compare the beast's magic to his.
'Then let's see whose magic is stronger.' ［Grey］
Competing with the Fang Wolf, Grey gathered a clump of mana of both of his palms, condensing more and more mana as time passed, gathering strong bursts of wind with it.
Suddenly, there were two vortices gathering the air in the surrounding area. Even the smaller trees were starting to be uprooted from the sheer strength of the winds which surpasses that of a storm's.
⟨⟨Piercing Gale⟩⟩ ［Grey］
Grrrrwoooooo
Giving it all in a single shot, the wolf released a large tornado towards Grey, destroying anything on its path, shredding the leaves from the trees, and uprooting the grass from the ground.
Responding to the Fang Wolf's gesture, Grey released his spell to counter the Fang Wolf's tornado. The palm-sized orb which hovered on top of Grey's palms turned into a large javelin as it pierced through the Fang Wolf's attack.
It didn't matter whether it was a tree, boulder, or even if it was a wall of iron, Grey's spell pierced through everything, blasting them into oblivion.
Of course, the Fang Wolf wasn't safe either. The moment the spell met it, it pierced through its tough skull, destroying its whole brain. A few seconds later, the Fang Wolf's body fell limply to the ground with a thud.
Grey wanted to find similarities between the Fang Wolf and the Magma Crawler by fighting, but aside from those in their status screens and their aggressive attack patterns. But that was at least another similarity.
"That was intense." ［Yuna］
"Ah, sorry. You weren't hurt anywhere, are you?" ［Grey］
"Un! I'm totally fine!" ［Yuna］
"Then that's good. Let's head back now." ［Grey］
"Yay～ Finally!" ［Yuna］
Collecting the Fang Wolf and the Shadow Bears' remains then storing them to the "Inventory", Grey and Yuna quickly headed back to the guild to report the completion of their quests,
Of course, they made sure to report everything to the guild. From their normal quest up until the one involving the Fang Wolf.
"A Fang Wolf, huh...?" ［Gastom］
"Yeah, we found it at the same location as where the Shadow Bears from the quest were located. Also, when we arrived, it was feasting on the Shadow Bear from the quest. It looked like it was starving for weeks without food." ［Grey］
At Grey's statement, Gaston fell silent for a moment as if he had some clue about the matter. His behavior was strange enough that Grey figured out he was hiding something from them.
While Grey didn't think that the Guildmaster was involved in the incident a few years ago. He was sure the Guildmaster had some knowledge about it. It was as if these incidents had happened before.
Seeing how much information the Adventurer's Guild handles, it wouldn't be strange at all if the Guildmaster knew a thing or two about similar incidents happening around the vicinity of Galderia.
"I see... I will take note of this. Is there something else you wanted to ask?" ［Gaston］
Quickly shifting the topic, the Guildmaster just nodded to Grey's observations and asked a question. Grey let him off the hook as he didn't want Yuna to hear about his findings.
"Then we have one more question. How will the Shadow Beast quest be handled? We haven't subjugated the Shadow Bears ourselves, so...?" ［Grey］
"Well, since something unprecedented has appeared, and you have eliminated it, it will be treated as a success and you will receive additional points. Just show this to a receptionist and they will know what to do. Also, it would be nice if you could sell the Fang Wolf materials you have to the guild." ［Gaston］
"Then, we'll do just that." ［Grey］
Knock Knock Knock
Just shortly after the guildmaster handed Grey and Yuna a letter , a knocking sound can be heard coming from the door.
"Guildmaster, we're back! Open up!" ［Kris］
The one knocking was none other than Kris. Of course, with Kris' personality, there was no shred of formality in his speech. Rather, it was a very casual way to converse with someone who was much older.
The Guildmaster, hearing it, just heaved a sigh of annoyance, although it looked like he was already used to it. After all, it has been 8 years since he had met Kris. He already knew the man too well to expect something formal from him.
"Haah... Come in..." ［Gaston］
With the guildmaster's consent, Kris, along with Aria, entered the room and quickly noticed there were other people inside.
"Oh, guests...? Ah! It's the rookies!" ［Kris］
"Kris, they have names. At least try to remember them." ［Aria］
"I do remember! It's... right! It's Jin and Sanya!" ［Kris］
"Haah... You're hopeless..." ［Aria］
Aria breathed out a sigh full of worry and disappointment. She has a face which looked like she was reconsidering whether she should really be married to him. Though it only lasted for a quick minute.
Just like a week ago, Aria already started rebuking Kris just a few moments after they entered the room. They had once again gone off their own worlds, not minding the people around them.
The spectacle before him made Grey wonder if the two really were engaged to each other. No matter which angle he looked at, they didn't seem like they got along with one another.
"Then, Guildmaster, we'll be taking our leave." ［Grey］
"Ah, sure..." ［Gaston］
"See you next time." ［Yuna］
Leaving the Guildmaster to take care of the bantering couple, Grey and Yuna escaped the Guildmaster's office and headed towards the reception desk where Tilda was currently working.
Although she was still smiling, the moment Tilda saw Grey and Yuna exit and head towards her, she already knew they were going to give her a troublesome task. At this point, she wouldn't even be surprised if they were to be promoted to B-rank.
Grey simply handed the letter to Tilda, and the latter received it with a professional smile. And like she expected, the contents of the letter were something along the lines of getting additional points.
After the reception desk, the two then headed towards the Cold Storage to sell the Fang Wolf corpse as promised. And along with it, Grey also brought out what remains of the Shadow Bears and also sold it.
The moment Bartolos saw the corpse of the Fang Wolf, his jaws were opened wide in agape. All that was needed was for his lower jaw to fall to the ground and his eyes popping off and it would be a comical scene.
"Lad, Lass, you never cease to amaze me... Just thinking about how you two managed to subjugate this monstrosity makes my spine shiver." ［Bartolos］
Bartolos commented along with a shivering gesture. After all, who wouldn't be shocked at the corpse of a B-rank beast.
"So, how is it?" ［Grey］
"Well, with something like this.... It would take half of the guild's manpower. It will probably take us twoー no, three days! Give us three days!" ［Bartolos］
"We're not in a rush to get the payment, so please take your time. It would be terrible if you neglect other adventurers just to finish dismantling our kill." ［Grey］
"True... Then how does next week sound?" ［Bartolos］
"Fine by me, how about you, Yuna?" ［Grey］
"Un! I'm fine with that as well," ［Yuna］
After negotiating with how to deal with the Fang Wolf's corpse, Grey and Yuna left the cold storage and dealt with the other quest items they got, such as mana crystals and monster drops,
Having dealt with their adventuring jobs for the day, Grey and Yuna left the guild and went back to the Rabbit's Den. They then ate a hearty dinner before going back to their own rooms and retired for the day.
Dongggg Donggg
The last bell had rung and the city fell into silence, but along this silent night, there was a dark figure slowly jumping from roof to roof, careful not to make any sound and wake the people up.
He jumped, he ran, he jumped again, and ran again. It was a repetitive cycle of jumping and running throughout the roofs in the city. And as the figure ran along the roof, there wasn't a single guard who had spotted him.
The figure only stopped when they arrived at the top of the Adventurer's Guild's roof. Sneaking in as silent as the wind, making sure there weren't any eyes noticing them. It was as if the figure was a ninja back on Earth's television shows.
"Haah... There's just no end to these paperworks..." ［Gaston］
Inside the guild, there was still the Guildmaster working overnight. He looked at the window to his right as he thought deeply about something.
Creaaakkkk
Suddenly, a creaking sound echoed from the hall outside of the office. It made the Guildmaster alarmed and worried at the same time. After all, aside from him, there should be no one else at the building so deep in the night.
Even when he was working, the Guildmaster did not neglect sensing the surroundings. It came as a shock to him that someone had entered his detection range even without him noticing.
"Who's there?! Identify yourself!" ［Gaston］
The moment the Guildmaster yelled those words, the door slowly opened and a dark figure went inside. With the lights from the office, the dark figure's identity was soon revealed, making the Guildmaster shocked and relieved at the same time.
"Haah... Don't scare me like that. So, what do you need, Grey." ［Gaston］
"Guildmaster, we need to talk." ［Grey］
CHAPTER 21 END