Ch.20Thump-Thump☆ Minotaur’s Crisis! (2)

With a flash of light, the world brightened. The illumination, so intense it created the illusion of daylight, vanished instantly as night returned.

“Rusim is dead.”

Those simple words hit the Cowboy like a shock. The recent monster parade and the Sand Worm’s appearance—none of it had been easy.

The combination of Ogres, Basilisks, and Vipers would have destroyed an ordinary Minotaur without resistance, and the Sand Worm was an officially registered S-rank monster.

After defeating all those creatures, even Rusim who was riding a Griffin?

“I knew he wasn’t ordinary… but at this level, even we would struggle to win. Do we have any chance?”

Robe shook his head at those words. Right now, he couldn’t see any way to defeat that creature. It had the skill to defeat even a Sand Worm, matching durability, and strong resistance to poison.

On top of that, as a variant, it seemed stronger than ordinary Minotaurs and possessed human intelligence.

While pondering how to defeat such a creature, he noticed it conversing with something. Curious about what it might be, he used his skill to zoom in further.

“Eagle Eye, magnify!”

The view suddenly enlarged, allowing him to clearly see the creature talking to something. However, whatever it was speaking to was hidden by the Minotaur’s hand.

“Whew!”

Though his eyes felt extremely dry from using Eagle Eye for so long with magnification, he seemed to have discovered useful information.

“It was talking with someone.”

“Someone, huh? Do you think that could be a weakness?”

He shook his head at the question. He had merely seen it talking to someone, but without knowing their appearance, who could say if that was a weakness?

“I don’t know what they look like, so I can’t be certain yet. But… if it was reborn as a monster like us rather than transferred, wouldn’t it be starved for affection? It’s unlikely to have formed bonds with monsters.”

Finding merit in those words, Cowboy stroked his chin. Feeling the ticklish sensation of his stubble against his hand while deep in thought, he spoke as if struck by a good idea.

“With Adamantium’s death, the riffraff won’t take this request anyway. Let’s write down all the information we’ve gathered and submit a new request. At a price that would interest Adamantium classes from other kingdoms.”

“Are you sure? Not just the money, but if we spread this information, other participants will get access to what we’ve discovered…”

“Mediocre participants will die anyway. My guess is that creature is… based on this battle alone, a top-tier participant. If average participants challenge it, they’ll just get eaten. We’ll just swoop in and steal the final blow. What do you think? Sounds good, right?”

“Seems fine to me. The participants are all either missing a few screws or love flashy techniques, so they’ll be easy to spot.”

With those final words, they began moving to the next city. The Minotaur’s trial seemed far from over.

* * * * *

“I was really shocked, you know. When that Sand Worm that you normally only see in deserts suddenly appeared and swallowed you, I truly thought you had died.”

Mary kept talking to me as I washed myself, feeling grimy again after rolling around in the ground and being covered in worm fluids last night.

I suppose it makes sense she’d keep talking about it—seeing a giant worm suddenly swallow your friend would be quite shocking. While I was thinking this, she leaned in close and pressed me.

“Hey, are you listening? Next time there’s a dangerous situation, let’s avoid it, okay?”

I couldn’t refuse Mary’s words full of concern for me, so I nodded, which seemed to satisfy her.

After thanking Mary for her concern, I finished bathing and we set off again.

* * * * *

“Minotaur subjugation?”

A woman was startled by the request posted at the top of the guild bulletin board.

The top section of the guild board was reserved for extremely dangerous S-rank or higher monsters, or creatures that needed urgent handling—requests specifically for Adamantium adventurers.

Why would a Minotaur, which could be easily neutralized with poison, be posted there instead of Drake or Wyvern hordes? Perhaps they wanted it captured without being poisoned?

Requests to capture these brutes—whose strength rivaled that of Drakes, dragon subspecies—without poison did exist occasionally, though rarely.

But capturing one without poison was so dangerous that even Titanium class adventurers refused such requests. That’s why these requests sometimes went to Adamantium adventurers, and she wondered if this was such a case as she examined the request.

What she read shocked her. The Golden Dawn party, who were preparing for their Adamantium promotion test, had been annihilated. Several Titanium class adventurers had been killed by the creature, and finally, even Rusim, an Adamantium class adventurer with the title of Beast Master, had died.

“Huh, that old man died? He was good at escaping thanks to all his poison monsters and his Griffin… Is this creature a Disaster monster?”

Disaster monster. This descriptor, following the progression of Variant, Disaster, and Catastrophe, indicated a monster’s threat level.

An ordinary monster that suddenly gained abilities and became stronger than its species was called a Variant. Most of these could be handled by sending adventurers one rank higher.

The next level, Disaster, referred to variants that survived and grew even stronger, ultimately surpassing their species.

These were so powerful that even a goblin reaching Disaster rank could lead its kind to devastate an entire city, typically requiring Adamantium class adventurers or royal knights to handle.

And finally, Catastrophe.

These were beings capable of destroying entire kingdoms, like creatures from mythology. Some possessed overwhelming charisma to lead armies, but the most problematic were those that invaded kingdoms alone.

Among these three levels, Shakil, the Adamantium class woman holding the request, already considered this Minotaur not a Variant but a Disaster.

Its abilities included poison resistance, strength exceeding normal Minotaurs, and control over lightning. With poison ineffective and lightning at its command, no wonder old Rusim couldn’t escape and died.

While she was contemplating, someone spoke to her.

“Shakil, give up on that one. It says even old Rusim was defeated, and it’s a bad match for you.”

Turning toward the voice, she saw the Guild Master. Retired after taking an arrow to the knee, he approached her leaning on his cane.

“This creature, though not written here, also has magic resistance. Unless it’s a very strong penetrating spell, you can’t even damage it. As a fire specialist mage, you’re completely mismatched.”

Indeed. Fire magic excels at overwhelming enemies with powerful explosions and causing secondary burn damage. However, it lacks penetration power, making it less effective against thick-skinned opponents.

“Shouldn’t this creature be classified as a Disaster rather than a Variant? It says even Rusim was defeated—”

“Hmm—. We’ve already discussed this with guild masters from each branch and even the royal court. As you said, we’ve decided to classify it as a Disaster, and we’re sending the royal knights along with Kale, the Adamantium class adventurer famous for his sniping skills.”

Indeed. Kale was someone who could penetrate even a Drake’s scales. He would easily tear through a Disaster-level Minotaur’s skin. But… she felt an inexplicable unease.

A feeling that the mission would fail. She considered mentioning it but ultimately kept silent, knowing that voicing ill omens about such a large operation would do her no good.

* * * * *

“I posted the request at the gate where Adamantium adventurers can see it. I’ve sent it to other branches too, so we should get some bites.”

Two weeks had passed since Cowboy submitted the request and had it transmitted to each branch.

During that time, the Minotaur never once changed direction, just moving straight ahead. It entered villages and cities without concern, simply continuing forward.

After observing it for two weeks as it entered settlements without causing havoc, just moving straight ahead as if following someone’s orders, Robe began to wonder.

“Is this creature not a player but actually a tamed monster? Was it talking to its tamer that time? Was its enhancement due to the tamer’s abilities? Hmm… I don’t know.”

Hearing his muttering, Cowboy slapped him on the back.

“Hahaha! If there’s a tamer, we’ll be done once we catch the Minotaur, and if there isn’t, we’re just catching a monster that needs to be caught anyway. Don’t worry about it so much.”

Indeed. What they needed to capture was the Minotaur, not some unknown entity they couldn’t yet identify.

And… after another two weeks passed, opponents worthy of properly gauging the creature’s abilities finally appeared.