Ch.148The River Incident

On a certain day, after several weeks of the massive wall construction project…

Since it was the day of rest, Sunday, and people couldn’t be made to work, and with the weekly service concluded and no immediate tasks at hand.

I took my goose out for a fishing trip to the riverside near the village, something I hadn’t done in a while.

“The catch is quite good today!”

“It seems so, Mr. Wolfblood.”

Yes, I was with my fishing companion, Lucius Wolfblood.

The father of the Wolfblood sisters was undergoing rehabilitation therapy under Gretel’s care. This rehabilitation, of course, didn’t simply end with healing his body.

To restore a body that had stiffened from prolonged immobility and rebuild lost muscle, wouldn’t it be ideal to combine medicinal treatment with simple activities that don’t strain the body?

And in this era, when it comes to activities that don’t strain the body, aren’t there practically no candidates besides fishing?

Moreover, perhaps Lucius had grown quite bored after enjoying only sedentary activities for a long time.

Having heard from somewhere that I occasionally went fishing by the river, he asked to accompany me, and Gretel, his attending physician, knowing how terribly bored her father was, immediately approved.

Thus, Mr. Lucius and I would often embark on fishing trips together like this.

Fishing is particularly good for satisfying the hunting instinct that Mr. Lucius and most others possess, excluding variants like Gretel.

As it happens, the fishing I enjoy involves releasing special bait into the water and then hunting aquatic carnivorous beasts—a somewhat wild form of fishing that incorporates simple combat.

Moreover, the occasional giant frogs (lower-class) or giant slugs that appear provide quite a good fight despite not being particularly difficult to hunt.

In other words, it’s not a bad hobby for a werewolf to take up and enjoy.

“…Oh, a mountain trout.”

“Would you like to have it?”

“If you’re offering, I’ll gratefully accept.”

The fish caught on the rod was a ‘Saw-tooth Meat,’ one of the mountain trout species. Unlike Earth’s piranhas, which are actually quite timid and picky eaters, these small fish truly swarm at the scent of blood and even devour each other.

—Squeak!

“Here you go.”

“Thank you, Lord Alzar.”

Of course, it’s still just a small, lower-class fish. Once out of water, it’s nothing more than an ordinary fish, so I skillfully ended the life of this creature—aggressive only in water—and handed it to Mr. Lucius.

“Mmm, mmm…”

—Chomp!

The flesh has a rich, sweet taste with a slightly spicy aftertaste, creating a unique flavor profile. It’s not particularly fishy even when eaten raw, making the uncooked version considered a delicacy.

Of course, eating raw freshwater fish is indeed prone to parasite infection, but frankly speaking, they’re just tiny worms after all, aren’t they?

They can be completely eliminated simply by circulating mana through the body. So we were happily fishing and enjoying this rare moment of tranquility when…

“…Lord Alzar?”

“I felt it too, Mr. Lucius, without you having to say anything.”

A sudden warning intuition tingled through my mind, stimulating my consciousness.

Almost simultaneously as I tried to rise from my seat after feeling that warning, Lucius also began to stand up, having sensed something with his keen sense of smell.

And then, barely five seconds later, at that very moment.

‘…Blood?’

Unlike the fishermen (so-called) who continued their fishing activities downstream, we who were enjoying fishing upstream noticed red blood and its pungent smell, making it impossible for us to remain still.

Especially when something like a sound came from upstream, along with what appeared to be human flesh and wooden fragments floating down, it became even more urgent.

In other words, it was time for me to take action directly.

“Mr. Lucius! Please evacuate and protect the fishermen!”

“Yes, leave it to me!”

Not knowing what might happen, I sent Lucius, whose rehabilitation was still far from complete, to protect and evacuate the fishermen.

Naturally, I prepared myself to investigate the source of this blood and wood.

When flesh and wooden fragments float downstream, the usual expectation is a shipwreck. One might wonder who would bring a boat to such a remote place, but with evidence presented, my job was not to deny but to analyze.

‘Is there a mid-level monster living upstream?’

Floating downstream along with severed flesh and heads were metal fragments. Perhaps the owner of this body was wearing armor that was destroyed in the process of dying for some reason.

Anyway, clearly remembering the fact that a boat had been attacked upstream, I now transformed the liquid metal armor I was wearing into its designated form.

Perhaps due to the extremely simple activation condition of ejecting mana in the opposite direction of desired propulsion, thrusters—which had been analyzed and applied to my armor as they had been to the golem armor—popped out all over my body.

Ah, of course, these are merely thrusters that eject mana in the opposite direction, so I can only reproduce them in this form. Since they simply blast mana without any conversion, their efficiency is inevitably terrible…

But at the point where I possess mana regeneration abilities that, though slow, are certainly usable in combat, I could be considered one of the few humans capable of using these thrusters.

Thus, having completed both transformation and warm-up in less than 10 seconds after discovery, I now moved to investigate the source.

—Whoosh!!

Kicking off from the ground and ejecting mana from the thrusters on my back to launch myself into the sky like a leap, I then summoned my standby “shield” to use as a foothold for repeated jumps.

Without any constraints, I rapidly headed north along the river while maximizing my sensory perception and preparing to draw my weapon.

Though I’m ready to draw Unicorn from its special scabbard if necessary, I hope such a formidable opponent doesn’t appear.

After rushing forward at high speed for quite some time, what came into my sight was…

—Crunch!

‘…Ah.’

The moment the presence registered within my senses. Before I could even deploy my shield for defense, a hideous monster with its jaws wide open devoured the upper body of an armored human in one bite.

A ‘River Troll’, and a small boat that was being attacked by this river troll.

※ ※ ※

The boat, from which what appeared to be a guard was dragged away and eaten, was roughly the size of the most common fishing vessel in K-fishing villages.

Judging by its form, its purpose was likely tourism rather than actual fishing or commerce. Perhaps it had started its journey further upstream and coincidentally drifted down here.

And the fundamental cause that led me to such reasoning was the horrific fish-like monster—or more precisely, the troll—now before my eyes.

Trolls, counted among the representative subspecies of giants alongside ogres, have intelligence below that of beasts, unlike ogres who possess at least monkey-level intelligence.

They lack object permanence or the concept of mirrors, and their ability to process and judge encounters is worse than that of a newborn child. They move solely based on pure instinct, essentially like biological machines.

Despite this maddening level of intelligence, the main reason trolls are considered dangerous mid-level creatures is their overwhelming physical abilities and regenerative power.

Even at their worst, they have strength comparable to ogres. While their skin isn’t as hard as an ogre’s, it’s at least average leather. And their most distinctive feature is their overwhelming regenerative ability.

Severed limbs reattach if held in place for about 10 seconds. Missing parts regrow within 5 minutes. Perhaps because their brain barely matters anyway, even if their head is blown off, they regenerate as long as a bit of brain remains.

Even their meat retains this mysterious regenerative property, causing some humans who ate it to have their stomachs burst, and this is also why troll blood is used as an ingredient in healing medicines.

Of course, such regeneration inevitably requires overwhelming nutritional supply, so trolls aren’t invincible monsters. But to support this energy requirement, a troll’s stomach has developed to a level considered mystical.

Thanks to their stomach that can digest and convert into energy not just organic matter but also grass, logs, soil, rocks, metals, glass… basically anything with mass, they can truly eat “anything” with few exceptions.

Well, with such a stupid head, they would need that level of digestive power to have survived until now… but that’s not what’s important to me right now.

‘Troll… regenerative power…!!!’

This situation presents an opportunity for me to obtain that incredibly powerful regenerative ability I mentioned earlier.

Deliberately turning away from thoughts about the person I couldn’t save right before my eyes in favor of this desperately desired hope, I now began to quietly ready my weapon while looking at the “enemy.”

Mourning comes later. For now, it’s time to save the other life I sense inside that boat.