*Screech—!*
*Thud—!*
"They just go down in one hit?"
It had been thirty minutes since we started clearing the rats on-site, and not a single problem had cropped up. It was almost embarrassing to call this 'cleaning.'
Leo carefully picked up a dead rat and dropped it into a sack.
The rats swarming up the legs were surprisingly easy to deal with. A single gesture from us and they'd drop. At this point, disposing of the bodies was more of a hassle.
I'd burned the rats off the barrier and let them fall to the ground. "You're just that strong."
"Maybe… You filled your sack?"
"Yeah."
"Then let's wrap up and head out."
Leo looked down at the rat carcasses littering the muddy ground. It had rained the day before, leaving the earth soft and slick. Palm-sized bodies were scattered everywhere.
He clicked his tongue. "I know we have to deal with them, but seeing this many… it's kind of pitiful. Wish we had a cure."
I nodded.
These magic beasts were originally ordinary animals. Mana seeped into them, granting them a core like a human's. They lived with a constant thirst for more.
Aside from periodically infusing them with divine power, there was no treatment. Even that wasn't a real solution.
*They are pitiful, in a way.*
But feeling sentimental while staring down a horde of rats desperate to gnaw your flesh? That was a luxury. Most people were too busy surviving to spare a thought for man-eating rodents.
Leo was like this in the novel too. I couldn't remember the exact timeline, but he eventually developed a treatment specifically for magic beasts.
I tied my full sack shut and levitated it. "We can just make a cure. You should try it later."
"Me? Come on, even the adults haven't managed that."
"What?"
An incredulous laugh escaped me. Thinking back, that part of the story was pretty far off from now.
Still, knowing what Leo would create in the future, I couldn't help but laugh.
I turned to head back, giving his shoulder a light tap. "If you won't do it, I will. Lend me your family's lab."
"Focus on surviving first."
We traded meaningless banter until we arrived back at the familiar starting point.
The manager, who happened to be outside, spotted us and greeted us. "Back already?"
"Just dropping these off before we head back in."
I set the sack down in front of the building.
The manager approached the suspiciously full bag with a curious look. "Why is it so… Huh?!"
He opened the sack and his jaw went slack.
"Where did so many… I've never seen this many plague rats in one day."
"Is it a lot?"
"Yes. At this rate, you might have wiped out the colony. Usually, even a big find is only four or five…"
"They probably sensed our mana and came out in greater numbers than usual," Leo explained. "They're fundamentally mana-starved creatures."
The manager nodded in understanding. "I see. With this many gone, we shouldn't see that type for a while. They've been sneaking into nearby homes lately, so this is a relief."
"Glad we could help."
"Ah, I'll need to weigh it to be sure, but this should be worth at least 50,000."
The manager hefted the sack as he spoke.
I nodded. Half a million won for an hour's work. You couldn't find a gig like this anywhere.
*We did wipe them out, after all…*
Leo, who grew up in a money-drenched family without a care, also seemed satisfied with the pay-to-time ratio.
Back inside the barrier, he shrugged, looking pleasantly surprised. "I can earn a month's allowance in an hour like this. This isn't bad. Thanks for the good experience."
"Right. But just so you know, don't expect to make this much from an hour's work normally."
"Obviously I know th—that."
He rolled his eyes as he answered.
He had no idea. The epitome of a rich kid. Good thing he didn't end up following the protagonist to the royal palace to handle finances later.
Leo noticed my complete lack of belief and hurriedly changed the subject. "Anyway, among the things we researched, these were decent opponents."
"Yeah."
Fast for their size, and too big for a non-mage to handle easily. But for mages like us? Just wrap a physical barrier around yourself so they can't bite, and you're done. Welcome opponents.
"50,000 for this difficulty level… If we stay all night, you could buy two of the things you want and still have money left. And with me here, we'll finish even faster."
"True. But you plan on staying too? I thought you'd suggest we call it quits after a decent haul."
"We're already here, might as do it properly. Since no one else volunteers much, it's good to do a thorough job when you do come."
"Well, if you're up for it."
Then, I stopped walking again.
Leo looked at me with foreboding in his eyes. "What, more blood?"
"Yeah."
"You really do have a dog's nose. I don't smell anything."
"This one's cleaner. Not like the pus-mixed blood from before."
"…You can tell that in detail? If others heard you, they'd really think you were from Phlegmora…"
Leo shook his head vigorously.
I brought a finger to my lips, signaling for quiet, and slowly moved forward.
With our voices gone, only the rustling of small creatures and the wind brushing through leaves remained.
*Tap tap tap—*
*Huh?*
The moment I heard that discordant sound in the quiet, an unidentifiable mass burst from the underbrush.
*Crash—!*
I frowned, dispelled my barrier, and stepped back.
"Startled me."
"What the?!"
Looking at the situation, it didn't seem to be attacking. It was just running blindly and crashed into us.
Confirming no follow-up attack was coming, I flipped over the grayish-brown lump lying on the ground.
"A rabbit. Not corrupted."
I poured some of the water I'd brought over it to wake it up. Behind me, Leo, dissatisfied with my defense, shouted.
"Hey, if you've got that much distance, you can put full power into the barrier."
"Weren't you the one who said to hold back before?"
"That was about the barrier's edges! And this isn't a sparring match now. Don't forget to ground your lower body and channel power to absorb the recoil!"
"A lesson even in this situation."
I said that, but what Leo mentioned was something I'd also felt while using magic just now.
*This is why practice outside of sparring is important.*
To balance academic magical dueling with lethal combat magic, practical experience was the most effective.
Of course, it was hard to get the full effect here, where only small fry showed up. If I really couldn't find a real fight later, I'd have to go beat up Phlegmora or something.
*But still…*
This is ambiguous.
I watched the revived rabbit scamper away and fell into thought.
Could I really say there were no dangerous creatures here?
That rabbit ran blindly without even checking what was ahead.
And I'd smelled different blood earlier.
*We should head back.*
The barrier here, which I'd checked on the way, was low-grade. Meaning no dangerous magic beasts lived here.
Even if there were corrupted animals, they'd be at the level of the rats or rabbits we'd just met.
If it wasn't a magic beast, there wasn't much to worry about. But still, no need to run into man-eating carnivores in the middle of the night.
I looked at the paw prints pressed into the muddy ground and spoke quietly.
"Leo, defensive stance. Let's back away and avoid it for now."
"…I was about to say the same. That's a wolf print, right?"
I hadn't heard any stories about wolves in this area.
But the print before us was unmistakably from an animal of that size.
Leo adjusted his grip on his wand and strengthened his physical barrier.
*Grrrrrr….*
Then, a hard-to-describe growl faintly spread through the forest.
I didn't know what animal it was, but it was clearly not an herbivore.
Too late now.
I slowly stepped backward.
In that moment, two points of red light drew a line through the darkness.
*Grooooooar!*
*Crash—!*
"Ugh!"
I lowered my stance, maintaining my center.
The impact was on a completely different level from the rabbit.
Luckily, I'd followed Leo's advice to the letter, so I wasn't thrown back by the recoil.
Instead…
*My barrier cracked.*
A normal animal couldn't possibly break my barrier. The light I saw earlier, and now this… it was likely corrupted.
I rolled my wand in my hand, transforming it into a sword.
I created a new barrier aimed at the sky and shattered it, briefly illuminating the area where we stood.
*…!*
Insane.
Not just me—Leo also couldn't hide his shock at the momentary scene revealed before the light faded.
"…This is…"
It wasn't just a wolf.
A hard horn grew from inside the wolf's ear. The nonsensical combination left me speechless.
*Madness.*
The horn probably helped it crack the barrier so easily. But that wasn't what shocked me now. That was still within the bounds of reason.
My gaze moved to the wolf's legs.
Unlike the chest area covered in long, thick gray fur, the legs were short and covered in yellow fur.
It wasn't just a different color. Anyone could see those were another animal's legs.
There was no more time to assess the situation.
The wolf, reacting to our mana, began thrashing more violently.
*Rooooaaaar—!*
*Thud—! Crash—!*
I kept firing spells to disrupt the wolf's vision.
Then, the surrounding plants thickened and stretched, wrapping around the wolf.
It was the same spell Leo had used on me before. The attempt to bind its legs failed, but it managed to grab the creature's horn.
Because its legs weren't its own—they were an herbivore's—the wolf easily lost its balance.
I seized the opening and swung my wand. The tree behind the wolf snapped in the opposite direction and fell.
*Crash—!*
The wolf's shriek was swallowed by the explosive sound.
I hadn't held back at all, and for once, Leo didn't comment.
Pale-faced, Leo wiped blood splatter from his skin and averted his eyes from the corpse. "…A chimera."
"Yeah."
Merging different animals so haphazardly and making them move as one body was generally impossible.
Only magic could make such nonsense possible. But even so, magic doesn't spontaneously occur and fuse different animals. This was clearly, undeniably, a man-made result.
"Like I felt at the barrier earlier, the data you found also said this wasn't a high-risk area. Why would something like this…"
I nodded at Leo's words.
There was no mention of this in the novel when the protagonist passed through.
I'd considered that the timing difference might mean slightly different beasts appeared, but I never expected a clearly suspicious magic beast like this.
"The barrier here was low-grade to begin with. It means creatures this dangerous aren't supposed to appear."
I confirmed the creature had stopped breathing, knelt on one knee, and examined the magic beast closely.
"Leo, come take a closer look. What do you think the host body is?"
"Sigh…"
Leo let out a deep sigh, as if he really didn't want to look, and took a position on the opposite side.
"…Wolf from the head to the chest. The horn and legs look like a mountain goat's. So the wolf part is the host."
"Right. You think so too."
"Why… who would do something like this…"
Leo's face contorted in disgust.
I shook my head and stood up. "We can think about that later. This is just the beginning."
"What?"
"Even for a chimera, its habits would follow the host's. Remember the paw print we saw earlier?"
"..."
Understanding dawned on Leo, and his face stiffened instantly.
The carnivore's paw print, slightly smaller than a human palm, flashed through my mind. But that belonged to a different individual, not the wolf we'd just killed.
Leo muttered softly. "…With mountain goat legs, there's no reason for wolf prints to be left."
"Right. Following wolf habits, they likely live in a pack."
"How many are usually in a pack?"
"Hard to say. If we're lucky, less than ten."
I readjusted my grip on my wand.
A distinctly non-human mana pulse brushed against my skin. Getting closer.
*Grrrrrl….*
It was too late to call for backup now.
If we turned and ran, they'd chase us down without a second thought. These mana-starved wolves wouldn't let mages go.
Even if we somehow shook them off, if they descended to the villages, many lives would be at risk.
*There's a barrier, maybe we could try…*
No. Won't work. Barriers are just aids, not perfect.
Just hearing that rats sometimes went down to the villages was proof enough the barrier didn't guarantee safety.
I spun my wand in my hand.
A single red-tinted spear materialized.
"We have to finish them all before dawn, right?"
—-----------
T/N:
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