Chapter 10 – Cockatrice Hunt

Before starting the full-scale pursuit, we went into an appropriately empty building and had a meal.

While eating, we discussed and agreed on specific plans. The content didn’t matter. Just use William and Winia’s tracking technique to find the cockatrice’s nest and kill it. In the first place, the two C-class adventurers had no worries about dealing with Cockatrice.

It almost felt like going out for a walk and doing some light exercise.
It was something neither I nor Copson could have imagined.

“Come on, bastard! This me!”

Winia gave me a big backpack. A very large backpack. I knew it from the start, but Copson and I came here as half-handsmen. If you catch the cockatrice, you’ll get a lot of useful materials. It’s as if we were hired to take care of it.

“Should I take care of all the important things?
“Okay…”

I took my backpack. In general, cockatrice types drop a lot of japtem, but the feathers were used as arrow feathers, so there was nothing to throw away. Bones, beaks, and claws are used as equipment materials. Even the crest or heart is said to be used as a magical material. Of course, there was nothing to throw away meat.

My legs are already shaking at the thought of bringing all of them…
I will eat the weight of a fair amount of military gear.

Anyway, I set off with a large backpack and Copson a small backpack on his back. William, who was in the lead, followed his footsteps and advanced. After that, Copson followed her and looked at her left and right, and Winia and I moved from the back, keeping an eye on her rear.

“Bastard, water.”
“It’s right here at my waist.”
“Bastard, water.”
“…”

Without a word, I took out her canteen, opened the lid, and handed it to Winia.

This makes no fucking sense. I was already starting to worry. Worried about losing money. Of course, this quest was requested by the guild, so there was no need to worry about that, but it was clear that this bitch would fuck me up no matter what.

Winia This fucking year was a year that will remain.

The forest continued endlessly. Could it have been an hour or so? William, who moved forward without hesitation, was literally a real exhaust. I don’t know, but his tracking technique was perfect. He seemed to be getting closer and closer to the cockatrice.

“Hmm… It’s going well. It’s a typical wild monster. I don’t even think about erasing its traces. It’s stupid, so it must have lost in the battle for territory and fled to the vicinity of the village.”
“Is that so? Hey, it seems like I can learn just by following this from the side.”
“At this rate, I’ll be able to find it soon.”

Behold, just listening to the conversation between William and Copson made it clear that this quest would go smoothly. I felt sick to my stomach thinking of Copson, who was learning tracking by William’s side and over his shoulder. Opportunities like that are rare.

It is a world without internet and without TV. In order to learn a skill, you have no choice but to pay someone you know and learn it. However, there was a high-level adventurer in the same party, so it was free to see things like his know-how.

“Did you hear the bastard? I guess it’s over early.”
“Oh oh.”

Anyway, it was a very good story. I wanted to get away from this woman as soon as possible.

“You bastard got time when this is over?”
“Time? Why time?”
“It’s been a while since we met. Shouldn’t we spend some time together?”

I know there is no such law.

Was there such a provision in the Civil Code and the Criminal Code?
Or is it a UN international corporation?

International law with such a law cannot be forgiven…!

I was frightened, so I gritted my teeth and looked for an excuse. Do you spend time together? In that case, it would be about two hundred times more beneficial financially and healthily to find and enter the dungeon alone.

“That, that’s what it means. Hey. I don’t think it will work.”
“Why?”

Winia, who instantly turned into the face of a beast, grabbed my neck using the staff as a hook. Faces came closer. Rather than paying attention to the impression that it smelled of incense unique to wizards, a cough came out from choking.

“Why not?”
“Gegeg, so. I have an appointment.”
“Oh my, what bullshit is that?”

Then he said, pulling my ear as if to tear it off. There was no limit to her power. Winia was as ferocious as her breasts were large.

I desperately found an excuse. The brain spins fast. If you go on like this, you will end up with a pair. It was a nickname that made my mouth water, but I didn’t want to sacrifice an ear for that nickname. It hurts so fucking much.

I tried to roll my head. If you go in and out of the guild, you will hear some news. Among them, I picked out one that seemed useful.

“Should I call it a promise, anyway, I have to go to church.”
“Church? Got a bastard religion?”

There was something other adventurers were talking about in the guild. It must have been the Brass Castle Society. They were chatting about holding a sermon there. They held sermons so often, and I remembered that they were holding sermons again this time around 20 years old.

“That’s not the case, they said that the Brass Holy Angel Society is holding a sermon for the general public.
“Why would a bastard go for that?”

Why are you going, bitch? I’m not going to play with you! Winia asked if she still had her doubts lifted, she tugged at my ear. I wish I could understand!

Ears, ears, ears. Ears fall off!

“Are you going to do something like a paladin or a priest? In the Society of Brass Angels?”
“Of course. My dream is to become a paladin.”

My dream since childhood was to become a paladin.

Paladin was an all-around character who could do everything by himself. Of course, like an all-around hybrid character, Tank is pushed by Knight, Deal is pushed by Warrior, and Heal is pushed by Priest. But it’s important that you do it all by yourself.

It’s bullshit

I have no intention of becoming a religious person. Not to mention hard paladins who followed strict rules. The word is a paladin, but in fact it is no different from an army.

My military service was full and overflowing in two years.

“Bastard, are you going to lie to me? Or do you hate going out with me? Either way, bastard is dead to me.”
“…”

Seeing through my lies, Winia revealed her murderous intent. Embarrassed, I gesticulated and revealed the truth.

“No, just kidding. If you attend the sermon, you get a free bottle of holy water.”
“Oh, really?”
“I’m so fucking sick these days, it’s not the same as before. I need to drink holy water and recover my stamina. But they say it’s free, but don’t you have to go unconditionally? I don’t have money , so if I have something like that, I have to keep it unconditionally.”
“…Okay?”

I drank the lowest-grade holy water that was distributed once, but it didn’t work.

But the story was true. If you attend a sermon, the pastor shakes your mouth for about 5 hours, and then gives you a bottle of the lowest grade holy water at the end. It wasn’t worth standing for five hours and listening to it all.

I desperately made excuses.

“Pu-poo!”

Winia burst into laughter as she listened to my desperate excuse. She felt somehow ominous.

“Why, why are you laughing? Did you say something funny?”
“No, bastard. Then.”
“Then.”
“You can go there with me!”
“Oh my God! There was a method like that! This surprised me!”
“Right? Right?”
“Of course!”

Fuck. Then it is. Just because this bastard had a promise to me, there was no way he was considerate of me or a bastard. Fucked. Fucked a real dog. One wrong brushing of the mouth forced her to cross an irreversible river. What the fuck is this about my life?

Like this, I ended up attending a sermon at a fucking church with crazy Winia for the crime of hitting a non-fucking goo.

Where will my holiday go?

“Stop.”

William said as he was sweating profusely. All of a sudden, my thoughts went away and the muscles in my body tensed up. Enemy? I slipped off my backpack, which still had nothing in it, and put it down and pulled out my knife.

ㅡPuttsutsutsut.
—Fuchs.

It was the [Spirit] That blocked our way. From the green glow and the size of a human head, it was unmistakably a forest spirit, a moss wisp!

Two of those killer monsters appeared and circled around us, glowing green and flying like scarabs! What a fuck! Targeted! It’s dangerous!

“Is it a spirit?”
“That, a spirit! A barbarian! It’s a spirit! A spirit!”
“I saw it too, you fucking bitch!”

I stood in front of Winia like lightning and took a stance. Copson, who screamed, also jumped beside me with an ax drawn. As agreed, the front line had to be left to William to escort the wizard.

Tension reached its peak in the confrontation with the enemy suddenly encountered.

“…Why are you making such a fuss?”

Seeing us like that, Winia was heartbroken.

“William! We are ready for battle!”
“…Hmm? Oh, I see.”

Unlike Copson and I, who felt the crisis of life, the two of them were free. What? I didn’t quite understand that figure, but I didn’t know that such a spirit would be seen as funny if you were at level C. Really?

Those murderous monsters?

“Certainly, spirits must be a tough opponent for you guys.”

The moss wisp was a monster among monsters that could not be easily seen, but to low-level adventurers like us, it was a disaster.

In other words, since it was the boss monster itself, it was common sense to run in your pants without looking back when you met it.

“Wisp steals human souls! William!”
“Yes, yes!”

I don’t know, but the wisps of the forest steal the souls of foolish humans. Although they look like dog meat, they are in fact incurable pests possessing advanced killing skills.

This was the second time I actually saw it.

The first time I saw it, I barely escaped with my life. It was the F-class period. At the time, an unknown colleague had his soul stolen and died.

“What? Fu, puhahahaha! Looking back, it could be. Don’t worry, wisps don’t have that ability.”

— Squeak.

Said William, bursting with bread, simply cutting a wisp in half. The wisp disappeared and dropped something like debris. The one remaining wisp immediately flew away and fled.

“Huh…!”

I was shocked as if I had been hit in the head with a baseball bat!

Does that make sense!
Killed a wisp in one shot!

C-class adventurers are damn good!!! In fact, this was the first time I had seen the power of a C-class adventurer, so I didn’t expect it to be that strong!

“Yes? What do you mean?”

Copson, his eyes widened with shock, asked William, salivating. His eyes were already swaying from side to side like strabismus.

“All they have is basic hypnotic magic. Do you think adventurers these days know that their souls are stolen?”
“Hypnosis magic? But I’ve actually seen a colleague die.”

I said. I had seen with my own eyes the wisp killing people. Killing an adult male is not as easy as one might think. How much more so to kill them in an instant ‘like that’. This is a huge deal.

“It must have been just hypnotized and taken deep into the forest. Well, dying is the same.”

I heard William’s description of the incredible wisp.

“If you don’t have exorcism itself like you, you’re easily hypnotized.”
“So you’re saying that Wisp is a dog’s dick?”
“Even with a little exorcism. Now, look at this.”

William picked up what looked like a small fingernail-sized green stone and showed it to me. It fell when you just killed a wisp.

“It’s the core of a wisp. It’s used as a magic material. The wisp itself is rare, so it’s not common, so it’s a bit expensive.”

Stunned with me, I looked at Copson’s face. It seemed he couldn’t believe the situation either. As far as we know, wisps were demons that ate people’s souls.

“Oh, and since it says it eats souls, I thought of it. Aren’t you guys mistaking Wisp and Soul Eater? It’s a monster called Soul Eater that eats people’s souls.”
“Soul Eater?”
“Yes, that’s a tough opponent. Did you say you’ve seen a colleague die? If so, it might be a Soul Eater. It looks similar to a Wisp.”

Anyway, me and Copson learned something he never dreamed of. He gulped and put his sword back in the scabbard. When he touched his forehead, cold sweat broke out. Even my heart was beating like it would jump out.

“Whoa… Seriously, I thought you were behind.”

The boss mob, Wisp, was more terrifying than Cockatrice. Was this a misunderstanding?

“Did you think a bastard soul eater was a wisp?”
“…I guess so.”
“Cuck-cuck-cuck, bastard is fucking funny. Ah! Watching a wisp scares me and makes me serious!”

Sitpal.