Ch.20Drive Hunt (1)

With Lilly’s help, I had finished crafting all the necessary potions and still had time to spare. This was the time until the church completed their investigation and issued the designated request.

Of course, I didn’t have that much time left. Probably only three or four days remained.

It was too long to simply rest, yet too short to prepare something new.

‘Taking on a simple request might work, but it would be troublesome if it dragged on and delayed things.’

The designated request wouldn’t disappear if it was delayed by a day or two. The problem was that giving the Apostles more time meant they would prepare more thoroughly, which would be troublesome.

There’s no such thing as enemies who wait in the same state, with the same strength.

While it was problematic that the Apostles weren’t fully gathered, it would be equally problematic if they gathered and prepared too thoroughly.

So the best choice was to move as soon as the designated request arrived, once they had gathered to some extent and their movements were tracked.

In this situation where everything needed to be resolved within the city, I thought of a way to gain various combat experiences without spending a single coin.

‘I don’t know if it will work out, but if it does, it would be a good method.’

***

-Thud.

With my kick, the muscular giant flew and crashed into the wall. The man’s body had several fresh wounds.

There were sword cuts, bruises from impacts, and even places where bones appeared to be broken.

Perhaps due to the accumulation of these injuries, the man who crashed into the wall could only twitch his body, unable to move properly.

I looked at him and silently counted to ten.

10

9

8

…

1

0

I watched with some hope that he might get up, but he couldn’t rise before the countdown ended.

Finally, the man was carried away on a stretcher brought by the medical staff who had been standing by.

Only then did I wipe the sweat running down my neck and shift my gaze elsewhere. In my new line of sight, various people were watching me.

People who came out of curiosity.

People betting on the results of my duels.

Merchants selling food.

People preparing to fight while waiting for their turn.

This place had become a small colosseum.

After wiping away all my sweat and catching my breath, I opened my mouth again to call the next opponent.

“Phew, next person please.”

“Finally my turn!”

At my words, an adventurer who had been waiting for his turn confidently climbed onto the arena with his sword. He looked confident, but compared to the one I had just defeated, his aura was weaker.

‘Does he think he has a chance because I’m tired?’

What a ridiculous misconception.

“Come at me with everything you’ve got.”

Still, I needed guys like him who didn’t know their limits, one or two at a time.

For four days and nights.

I had been fighting continuously except during meal and sleep times, so these easier fights gave me a chance to catch my breath.

Unaware of my thoughts, my opponent rushed at me and began swinging his sword. He put too much force into his attacks, and his movements were so exaggerated that even a goblin wouldn’t get hit by them.

I dodged the attacks with ease while recovering my stamina and began to organize my thoughts.

‘How did it end up like this?’

What I was doing now wasn’t much different from what I had originally planned. However, the scale had grown unexpectedly in terms of spectators and the venue for the duels.

‘At first, there was definitely no problem.’

What I had originally intended to do was simply hold duels.

I could secure a location from Kaiden, and for opponents, I could provoke those who were dissatisfied with my special promotion.

Initially, the dueling venue was the testing ground in the Swordsman Guild, used with Kaiden’s permission. As for opponents, when I dropped some bait, those who had complaints about me quickly showed up.

Up to that point, everything went smoothly.

But problems arose when rumors spread about what I was doing. Spectators began to gather.

At first, it was just a few people from the Swordsman Guild, but before a day had passed, most of the people drinking at the guild came to watch.

Considering that most people in the guild had aggressive personalities who enjoyed fighting, it made sense that they wouldn’t miss a chance to watch a fight.

Having spectators wasn’t a problem in itself. The issue was that the venue I had borrowed for dueling was originally designed for examinations.

In other words, it wasn’t built to accommodate many people coming to watch.

Eventually, when most of the spectators couldn’t even hear properly, let alone see the fights, some impatient individuals filed complaints.

Kaiden, not wanting to deal with these complaints one by one, simply moved the dueling venue to a larger place.

With spectators, merchants, and challengers all gathering, this small colosseum was created.

‘I don’t think I’ll understand it even if I think about it slowly.’

Since it wasn’t bad for me anyway, I decided to just go with it and ended my train of thought.

At the same time, I planted my fists into the chin and solar plexus of my opponent, who had become short of breath from continuously attacking.

“Ugh!”

“Next…”

Just as I was about to call for the next opponent, leaving behind the man who had completely passed out with no chance of getting up again, Elena approached me and handed me a request form.

“A designated request has arrived.”

“A designated request, is it? Then I’ll have to end this consecutive dueling here.”

As I received the request form and said this, various reactions erupted from behind.

Half of the reactions were disappointment, and the other half was curiosity.

Disappointment at not being able to see more of these fights, and curiosity about what kind of request I had received.

Such interests gather one by one to create rumors and build reputation.

‘I seem to have made a good start in building my reputation.’

Although it wasn’t intentional, the first form in which I was exposed to the public was related to combat. This would partially suppress any strange rumors that might arise simply because I was a succubus.

So what I needed to focus on now was not that side, but this one. I looked at Elena while reading the request form.

“Then, could I hear about the confirmed information?”

“Yes, Conan had prepared it in advance. Here it is.”

And so I was able to receive all the necessary information.

***

Having confirmed everything I needed, I was able to depart immediately.

Even though I had been dueling, I had been managing my stamina carefully, and I had already completed all the preparations needed for departure.

After passing through the city gates and going outside, I immediately sent a summoning signal to Lilly.

“Phew~ I thought mushrooms would grow on my body from waiting so long.”

Lilly immediately appeared as if she had been waiting. She seemed eager to go after the Apostles right away.

Seeing Lilly like that, I jokingly said to relieve some tension:

“Wouldn’t mushrooms grow on your body because you don’t wash properly, Lilly?”

“What did you say?!”

Of course, I was immediately punished by having my finger bitten.

After releasing my finger, Lilly asked about the plan in detail before we started moving in earnest.

“Where are we going first? The main base? Or somewhere else?”

The current situation was that there was one place that could be called the main base and three other temporary shelters. The approximate number confirmed was about 60 people in total.

It was more than I had imagined. This probably meant that all the Apostles in this area had gathered here.

And that meant if we cleaned them all up here, all the Apostles in the entire region would be gone.

“Let’s do a drive hunt. If all the other places get raided, they’ll all gather at the main base.”

The battle would become troublesome if they gathered in one place and their numbers increased, but it would be a disaster if we attacked their escape route first and they scattered.

“There won’t be many chances to find so many Apostles gathered like this. It would be a shame to let them slip away.”

As for the number issue, we just needed to crush as many as possible from the first attack.

So Lilly and I agreed to start by systematically destroying the places farthest from the main base.

‘So the first one is… Llywelyn’s Tomb, was it?’

Llywelyn’s Tomb. It wasn’t really what you’d call a hidden piece.

If I had to describe it, it was more like an initial funding source. It was a place where dimensional pouches and quite a lot of gold and treasures were buried.

‘Pouches and money are nice to have early on, but they’re too ambiguous to be called hidden pieces.’

Moreover, if you went there after starting the game, you would likely find the tomb already looted, so there was no need to check it unless you were right nearby.

I suspected that the Apostles were using the tomb itself as a kind of base rather than being interested in its contents.