Ch.35Red-Eyed Mercenaries (3)

“Seems like you enjoyed that.”

“Ah, yes? That’s right.”

Roseline, who had been lost in thought, nodded at Vice Captain Barger’s voice. She smiled while caressing her wrist that had been grabbed by the young man earlier.

“He’s no ordinary guy. That snake woman really does have a good eye. Where did she find someone like him…”

Roseline reflected on what had just happened.

How special could he be?

With such a casual attitude, Roseline had approached the young man, but she immediately had to revise her assessment. Even under the pressure that made even green-ranked adventurers bow their heads, the young man had kept his head up.

‘And not only that…’

Despite her deliberate attempt to push him down.

Far from lowering his head, the young man had glared at her and snatched her wrist. This meant he had directly broken through the aura emitted by a Sword Seeker.

“I don’t know how he did it.”

Roseline thoughtfully stroked her chin.

The amount of mana accumulated in the young man’s body was clearly small. He wasn’t even close to being a Sword Expert, just barely initiated into mana. And with such a tiny amount of mana, he shouldn’t have been able to shake off her pressure.

He shouldn’t have, but Roseline had seen it.

The moment the young man shook off the pressure, the mana she had scattered was sucked into his body. The aura he showed in that fleeting moment was not at all inferior to her own.

A mana cultivation method she had never seen before.

Roseline had met countless strong individuals, but not a single one who handled mana in that way.

“Could he be an abandoned child from some noble family? I’ve never seen such a cultivation method before. What do you think, Barger?”

“How would I know? He seemed to have guts, though.”

“That’s true. Hmm, the more I think about it, the more I like him.”

Roseline licked her lips.

Watching her, Barger sighed. Just as the Snake that Swallows the Gold Coins never spits out what it has swallowed, his captain would do whatever it took to obtain what she had set her eyes on.

The Snake that Swallows the Gold Coins, Dieta Albania.

And Red-Eyes Roseline Askarlo, who was licking her lips at the adventurer she had marked.

‘This is going to be troublesome.’

Barger thought that conflict with Dieta’s merchant group seemed unavoidable.

2.

“You there.”

Just as Najin was about to head into the forest.

Someone called out to him from behind. Najin turned his head and glanced at the person who had called him. She wore a badge dyed green.

“Yes, you. Blackie.”

She gestured to Najin.

The eyes of the adventurers who were still preparing to leave turned back to Najin. They whispered, pointing at the adventurer confronting Najin.

“What’s Marsen up to?”

“Probably doesn’t like him.”

“Well, Marsen is supposed to be the center of attention here…”

Green-ranked adventurer Marsen.

A veteran among veterans who had spent 10 years in Cambria, and the adventurer with the most achievements among those participating in this Dotzenberg Forest sweep.

Marsen will take first place in this sweep.

Such rumors circulated among adventurers, meaning that originally, the one who should have received attention in this sweep was Marsen, not that black-ranked young man.

“Are you taking this field as a joke?”

For Marsen, who had been steadily building up achievements for years to enter the Red-Eyes mercenary group, Najin was nothing more than a thorn in her side.

“Showing such disrespect to a white-ranked adventurer, and to Lady Roseline at that…”

“You talk too much.”

“…What?”

Najin frowned deeply.

With an annoyed expression, he pushed away Marsen’s pointing finger with the back of his hand.

“Is that all you have to say? If you’re done, I’d like to go.”

“What did you just say?”

“Why are you holding back someone who’s busy? Instead of wasting time, you could be catching one more monster. Aren’t you interested in the rankings?”

Najin had said this without much thought.

He didn’t know the adventurer’s name, nor that she was a strong candidate for first place. From Najin’s perspective, who was aiming for first place himself, being held up in this nutritionally worthless conversation was just annoying.

But, that was…

From Marsen’s perspective, as the leading candidate for first place, it was a clear provocation. Marsen’s expression crumpled.

“Huh, what an unbelievable bastard.”

Marsen let out a hollow laugh.

She pointed her finger at Najin.

“Just you wait. We’ll see after this is over. If your rank is lower than mine, you’d better be prepared for what’s coming.”

Najin listlessly let Marsen’s words go in one ear and out the other. Thinking the conversation was finally over, Najin headed toward the forest. The adventurers watching Najin and Marsen just whispered among themselves.

Marsen paid attention to those whispers.

But Najin had no interest in their voices.

The only thing that caught Najin’s attention was the scoreboard guarded by a mercenary group member standing on the platform. He had heard that scores would be recorded there in real-time whenever someone brought in a monster’s head.

To put his name at the very top of that board.

With this goal in mind, Najin headed toward the forest.

* * *

Najin had almost no experience hunting monsters.

He had completed a few simple subjugation requests from the guild, but he had no experience tracking monster traces. His only experience was hunting monsters in fixed locations like goblin villages or caves.

‘So, this is my first time.’

This was his first time tracking and hunting monsters by following their traces. But it didn’t seem like it would be much of a problem. Najin took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes.

After all, tracking monster traces… isn’t that much different from tracking humans.

Though he had never tracked monsters before, he had more than enough experience following traces left by people. He had done it countless times while working as Ivan’s hunting dog and when chasing or being chased by the Order’s secret agents.

Clank.

Najin fingered the throwing weapon tied to his wrist.

-You seem to like that. You use it quite often.

‘It’s actually quite convenient.’

The throwing technique he had stolen from the secret agents.

Najin held one throwing weapon in his hand as he followed the traces left on the ground. His heightened senses didn’t miss even the slightest movement.

The moment he heard a rustling sound.

Najin turned his head quickly and threw the weapon.

At the same time, he heard a goblin’s cry: “Gorruk!” Najin approached the goblin, cut off its head, and put it in a sack before immediately moving on.

Then he paused.

Najin stopped for a moment.

-What? Why did you stop?

‘I just thought…’

Najin looked up. Looking at the tall trees, Najin muttered to himself.

‘There’s no need to stick to the path, right?’

-Are you going to travel through the trees? That’s something elves do. Normal balance sense wouldn’t be enough to…’

Suddenly, Najin climbed up a tree.

After tapping the branches a few times with his toes, Najin exhaled deeply. Then, with a tap, he jumped off the branch.

His jumping distance was precise and his landing was smooth.

Najin was used to moving using narrow gaps in alley walls as footholds. For him, tree branches were sufficiently wide and balanced platforms.

-Wow…

Leaving Merlin speechless, Najin moved quickly through the trees. As Najin moved at high speed, his eyeballs moved even faster.

‘Found it.’

At a glance, it might seem like he was just running aimlessly, but Najin’s eyes had precisely located a monster. Jumping down from the tree, Najin split the monster’s head with a single strike.

He put the split head in his sack and moved on.

The more he repeated this process, the more nimble and concise Najin’s movements became. Watching him leap from trees and snatch monster heads in one go, Merlin thought it was like watching a bird of prey hunt.

3.

How much time had passed since the Dotzenberg sweep was announced? As dusk approached, adventurers gathered again at the forest entrance.

The deadline was approaching.

Those who had collected monster heads in their sacks arrived one by one. They handed their sacks to the Red-Eyes mercenary group supervisor waiting on the platform and received their scores. By the time most adventurers had arrived.

They looked at the scoreboard on the platform.

First place was Marsen, as everyone had expected. Marsen, who had arrived just before, held first place with 31 points, five points ahead of second place.

“As expected, Marsen is first.”

“I thought so, but 31 points? That’s no joke. Just finding them is hard work…”

Since everyone had expected her to take first place, they were more focused on the number of monsters she had hunted rather than being surprised by her first-place position.

“Hey, but that black guy is no joke either? Look at the rankings. He’s 12th.”

“A black-ranked in 12th place? Wow…”

What actually surprised them was the rank of the black-ranked adventurer, Ivan.

12th place. Ivan (14 points).

14 points. This was not an easy score even for green-ranked adventurers. Finding and hunting monsters hidden in this forest required various senses. Just as they were thinking he definitely had skills worth noticing.

“Huh? But something’s strange.”

An adventurer spoke up.

He had just returned from the forest. While calculating his score, he pointed at Ivan’s name on the ranking board.

“I saw that guy cutting hop goblin throats. Hop goblins are worth 3 points each. I saw him take down more than four of them. And that was over an hour ago.”

“Maybe you saw wrong?”

“No way. I was preparing to hunt a group of hop goblins when suddenly he dropped from a tree and took their heads.”

He hunted four of them in an instant and disappeared.

Hearing this story, the adventurers began to stir.

“Come to think of it…”

“He hasn’t come back yet?”

Even though the deadline was approaching, the black-ranked young man wasn’t among the adventurers gathered at the entrance. Could it be that he submitted one sack midway and went back into the forest?

As they were waiting.

Just as the deadline was about to expire, a sound of something dragging on the ground came from the forest. Emerging from the dusk-lit forest was a young man covered in blood. The blood covering the young man’s body and hair was not his own.

The dark blue blood of monsters.

The adventurers stepped back at the eerie atmosphere emanating from Najin. Passing through them, Najin climbed onto the platform and handed his sack to the supervisor.

Rustle.

As the supervisor emptied the sack, seven hop goblin heads poured out. The watching adventurers’ eyes widened. He had hunted only the highest-scoring monsters in the forest.

Their eyes turned to the scoreboard.

Najin’s original score was 14 points. But if 21 points from seven hop goblins were added…

“35 points…”

With someone’s murmur, Marsen’s name was erased from first place. Replacing it was the name Ivan.

1st place. Ivan (35 points).

2nd place. Marsen (31 points).

Everyone’s eyes turned to Marsen.

Marsen was staring wide-eyed at the scoreboard and at Najin standing beside it. Defying everyone’s expectations, the black-ranked adventurer had taken first place.

Just as Marsen hurriedly grabbed her sack and tried to enter the forest, the supervisor rang the bell.

It meant the deadline had passed. Marsen gritted her teeth and glared at Najin, but Najin didn’t even look at her as he came down from the platform. As if he had never been interested in her in the first place.

Grind.

Just as Marsen, grinding her teeth, was about to approach Najin. Najin’s head turned sharply. In the direction Najin turned, from deep within the forest, urgent footsteps could be heard.

“Huff!”

There were adventurers bursting through the undergrowth. They tumbled to the forest entrance, gasping for breath. Their complexions were pale, and they were trembling as if terrified.

“Inside, in the forest!”

Before their cries.

Thud, thoom.

Heavy footsteps echoed. The echoing footsteps were getting closer to the forest entrance. Then, with a crack, a tree uprooted whole flew toward where the adventurers were gathered.

The screams of adventurers.

The sound of retreating footsteps in panic.

The friction of weapons being drawn while sweating coldly.

Amidst such noises, a monster revealed itself from the dusk-lit forest.