Chapter 20
All the small monsters that had surrounded the city walls were completely dealt with.
“We got the last one!”
As soon as word spread that the final small monster had been taken down, the monster hunters all collapsed onto the ground.
“Ugh, I’m exhausted.”
“If it’s this bad out here, isn’t it going to be even worse inside? I’m already worried.”
They were right—the situation inside would be far more serious.
They had encountered the monsters right after a long march.
Even though there were no casualties, their depleted stamina was holding them back.
“We’ll camp here for a day and move again.”
Thus, their leader, Krevan, ordered a rest.
The monster hunters all agreed and began preparing to camp.
“Hey, junior, come over here.”
As I was about to rest alone, Elektra gestured to me.
At this point, having the same master had already tied me to those troublemakers whether I liked it or not.
Ignoring them now wouldn’t gain me anything.
“Haren, that guy…”
“Tsk tsk, got mixed up with those lunatics.”
Rumors had already spread around.
Well, it didn’t matter anymore.
Come to think of it, when had I ever lived worrying about what others thought?
I just needed to ignore it.
“Hey, tattooed pig, hurry up and get the camp ready!”
“Stop rushing me. With how much you nag, no wonder your boyfriend ran away.”
“Why are you bringing up my ex? Want to die?”
While Elektra and Jaina started arguing again, I quietly prepared the camp.
Even as they bickered, their hands never stopped moving.
It showed how used they were to camping.
“Junior.”
At that moment, Ban approached me.
He seemed to have been carefully watching me fight earlier.
I tensed slightly, unsure what he would say.
“You used shock force earlier. Where did you learn it?”
…What?
For a moment, I almost asked what he was talking about.
But seeing my reaction, Ban narrowed his eyes.
“Don’t tell me you’re using it without even realizing it?”
I was aware of it.
I just didn’t think it was some special technique called “shock force.”
Even Draeigan never mentioned it.
It seemed to be something only Ban knew.
“Looks like you don’t even know what it is.”
“That’s correct.”
“…A genius, perhaps.”
Unfortunately, this body had always been painfully untalented.
This was the first time in my life I’d been called a genius.
“Shock force is a secret technique passed down in my homeland.
Simply put, it’s a method of causing internal damage through external impact.
Even if someone is wearing armor, you can damage what’s inside.”
“There’s such a technique?”
“There is. And what you’re instinctively using is exactly that.”
I felt a bit sorry for Ban, but my power had nothing to do with that.
It was more like magic.
There was a reason I had called it an instant-death ability.
Still, to someone who knew shock force, it must have looked the same.
“Medium-sized monsters have thick hides and strong regeneration.
That’s why hunting them takes time and requires multiple people.
Now that I’ve seen your shock force, I understand how you’ve managed to hunt them alone.”
Somehow, he had reached his own conclusion.
Ban already looked fully convinced.
Well, it wasn’t necessary to explain my ability anyway.
It might actually be better to just go along with calling it shock force from now on.
“Senior Ban, what kind of place was your homeland?”
“It was prosperous. At least, before I became an orphan.”
“Did something happen to your parents?”
My own parents had been killed by a mage and monsters.
Wondering if it was the same for him, I asked—and Ban’s expression darkened.
“A mage destroyed the entire country.”
A mage.
At the mere mention of one, a quiet killing intent flickered in Ban’s face.
“I don’t know why. All I know is that our country never accepted help from mages.”
So that was the story.
As a child, Ban lost both his parents and his homeland.
He wandered into a foreign land and eventually met Draeigan, becoming his disciple.
That was his life.
It had not been an easy one.
“Do you want revenge on that mage?”
“I used to.”
Ban looked down at his sword and smiled bitterly.
“But after seeing mages up close while staying with Master…
I couldn’t believe my blade would ever reach any of them.”
Mages were fundamentally different beings from ordinary people.
No matter how much one trained, if fire rained down from the sky, there was no way to resist.
You’d simply be buried and die.
On top of that, mages were always surrounded by some kind of barrier.
Swinging a sword at them was like striking empty air.
“Just look at our Master. He’s already beyond human limits.
And even he said he couldn’t do anything against mages.”
“Yes… I’ve seen that myself.”
When sparring with Draeigan, I couldn’t see any way to defeat him.
He was truly on another level.
“And yet even I haven’t surpassed Master.
I’m still just a nobody.”
Whenever Draeigan thought of mages, he reacted bitterly.
Ban was the same.
“They say mages live for hundreds, even thousands of years, endlessly studying magic.”
Against such beings, a human’s few decades of effort meant nothing.
Even geniuses couldn’t bridge that gap.
Mages didn’t even die of old age—they always remained in their prime.
“In that case, thinking of revenge is arrogance. I should surpass Master first.”
Surpass Draeigan.
That alone was already an immense challenge.
And mages were an even greater one.
“That will be a long road to revenge.”
“A long road…”
Ban repeated my words, then gave a short laugh.
“I suppose you’re right.”
He was a steadfast person.
“What’s this, Ban? Talking about something boring again?”
“What would you find interesting anyway?”
Elektra came over with a chuckle, holding a large water bottle, and sat down.
He drank the entire thing in one go.
For someone his size, even his drinking capacity was impressive.
“Anyway, that’s Ban. What about you, junior? What’s your goal?”
So he had been listening the whole time.
“People grow stronger when they have a goal.”
A goal.
For me, life right now was about survival.
If I didn’t hunt monsters, I’d turn into a magic stone and die.
But if I had a goal…
“I want to live justly. A justice that never bows before evil.
And not just for myself.”
I held the Shield of Obl.
Declaring justice before evil—
I had learned how difficult that was.
“I want a world where evildoers fear me enough that they cannot harm those who stand for justice.”
My sense of justice had become more concrete.
Not just about me alone—
but about the world as a whole.
Like my father had once done before a mage.
“That’s a hard path.”
There were too many evil people in this world.
A place where lives could be taken with a flick of the hand.
The weak had to hide and stay silent.
I knew that life—and I hated it.
Elektra patted my shoulder.
“Do your best. You can’t even begin without a purpose.”
Despite his rough appearance, he was surprisingly thoughtful.
“Hey, tattooed pig, stop spouting nonsense and come help cook!”
“Oh? You’re getting bold now.”
At Jaina’s shout, Elektra stood up.
Despite their bickering, the two seemed closest.
I turned my gaze toward the city walls.
Someday, I hoped my grand words would sound true.
That was all I quietly wished for.
* * *
The next day, the monster hunters finished dismantling the camp.
The atmosphere was very different from yesterday.
They had only faced small monsters as a preview.
Inside the walls, far worse awaited.
“Listen carefully. I’ll now assign teams for dealing with medium-sized monsters.”
Krevan had already formed teams centered around experienced hunters.
Since they were grouped with familiar companions, no one objected.
“Team 8: Elektra, Jaina, Ban, Haren.”
And I was assigned to the troublemakers’ team.
Elektra grinned beside me.
It seemed he had personally insisted on adding me.
I was used to working alone—
but this time, teamwork was necessary.
Even I couldn’t handle multiple medium monsters alone.
Still, in battle, they were reliable.
“What about the large monsters?”
One hunter asked an important question.
There were three large monsters in the city.
Even one could destroy an entire city.
Handling three seemed impossible.
“The capital’s hunters will deal with them.
We’ll clear the medium and small monsters to make it easier for them.”
We were essentially a cleanup crew.
“Damn, just doing the dirty work.”
“Those capital guys sure act high and mighty.”
Still, no one objected.
Large monsters were beyond ordinary hunters.
Charging in would only lead to a massacre.
“Senior Elektra, have you ever fought a large monster?”
In Raoren, mages usually handled them.
So I asked out of curiosity.
“I have. But honestly, it’s better not to.”
“They’re too big. It’s almost impossible to deal real damage.”
Jaina agreed.
It was like digging at a mountain all day and leaving no mark.
“Then how do the capital hunters do it?”
Mages could easily kill large monsters—
but how hunters managed it was hard to imagine.
“They’re not that different from us. The difference is their weapons.”
“Weapons?”
“They use special weapons made from magic stones.
Apparently, some mage in the capital mass-produces them.”
“So in the end, it’s the tool’s power, not the hunter’s skill…”
It felt bitter.
Humans < large monsters < mages.
“That’s not entirely true.”
Ban corrected me.
“There are monsters among hunters too.
People who can cut down even large monsters.”
“Well, Master is one of them.
He’s killed more large monsters than he can count.”
Elektra chuckled.
Draeigan… truly a monster of a man.
I should treat him with even more respect.
“Hunters of the Raoren branch—move out!”
At Krevan’s command, the hunters began marching.
At last, they entered Baron Jephran’s territory.
