The Chaser of the Wild #3

 

A group of adventurers trudged through the wilderness.

Everyone had salty sweat on their foreheads and their faces were lifeless.

“That fucking thing⋯.”

An adventurer stopped in his tracks, clutching his knees and panting.

My tongue was so dry that I couldn’t even speak properly.

“Fuck, this is impossible. We’re all going to die like this.”

“It didn’t make sense from the start. Just chasing them blindly doesn’t mean you’ll be faster than those little punks.”

It’s been a week since the Adventurer’s Test began.

Many adventurers were losing their motivation.

Those who were quick-witted had already given up on the test and returned to Garden.

They wandered through the wilderness, feeling sorry for the time they had wasted, but there was no hope for them.

“It’s not too late. Let’s go back.”

It’s easier if you give up.

While the adventurers were wavering before that sweet temptation.

“uh?”

A whitish shape appeared through the sandy dust.

It was a pure white outfit that did not match the brown land of the wilderness.

The adventurers narrowed their eyes as they watched the figure approaching closer and closer.

“It’s the priesthood… right?”

An adventurer muttered.

The priest Eden walked in front of them without breaking a sweat even under the scorching sun.

“May Justia’s blessings be with you.”

Eden drew the sign of the cross. The adventurers followed her lead without thinking.

“Excuse me, could I ask for directions? If I continue down this road, will it lead me to Garden?”

“Oh, yes.”

“thank you.”

Eden smiled and lowered her head, then disappeared into the cloud of dust again.

The adventurers gazed blankly at Eden’s back as she headed towards Garden.

“Wait a minute, isn’t that guy Eden of the Sun Blue?”

An adventurer belatedly opened his mouth.

“Eden?”

“Don’t you know? He’s not Michael’s colleague. But why did that guy come all the way here?”

The adventurers tilted their heads, but none of them could give an answer.

Justia’s faithful servant, the priest Eden.

He was also known by another nickname.

The ‘merciless’ Inquisitor.

The adventurers felt a strange sense of foreboding.

***

It wasn’t just the sloppy adventurers who struggled with the exam.

Mitchell was keenly aware of his own shortcomings.

“Oh, sir.”

Half of the scheduled exam period has already passed.

I have been tracking Nitrobird steadily without being lazy, but there has been no result.

I just had a bunch of bruises on my legs from running around so much.

“It’s not easy.”

Mitchell was proud of his legs.

No one had ever been faster than her. Whether human or elf, Mitchell could outrun anyone she set her mind to.

However, Mitchell’s running was exceptional among humans.

Mitchell’s boasts of how fast he was meant nothing in the face of the non-standard creature called Nitrobird.

“Keeping, sniffle.”

Mitchell sniffled. The daily temperature fluctuations in the wilderness were truly brutal.

During the day, the whole land would burn like a sea of fire, but at night, the temperature would drop in an instant, making me shiver to the bone.

Mitchell rolled the blanket over himself like a pupa.

My body was already cold, but swallowing the hard biscuits that were like ice cubes made me even colder.

“I miss you, little one⋯.”

Mitchell shrugged his shoulders, missing Estelle.

I missed Estelle’s warm and delicious cooking.

I missed Estelle’s skill in setting up a comfortable camp in no time.

‘Come to think of it, he’s been doing all the troublesome work up until now.’

I didn’t know until then.

I took it for granted. Mitchell was able to focus on hunting solely thanks to Estelle’s support.

“I’ll treat you better when we meet again after the exams.”

Mitchell made a vow to himself.

It wasn’t just Estelle that I missed.

The faces of my colleagues lingered in my mind. Even Wagner.

“What? I wasn’t like this before.”

Mitchell was surprised at his own weakened mind.

Before I met my party mates, I was always used to being alone.

All day long, without saying a word to anyone, hunting alone, bandaging my wounds alone.

They monopolize all the profits as if it were natural, and when they have money, they waste it all on gambling.

That life began to change little by little.

It felt awkward to see myself starting to rely on my colleagues.

But it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

We share hardships and joys together.

Mitchell now realized that it would be difficult to return to his old life.

‘I miss you all.’

A cold wind blew. Mitchell buried himself in his blankets, his teeth chattering against each other.

“Tomorrow, let’s go find our kids. Just for one day. Who knows? We might run into each other somewhere by chance.”

***

The day has dawned.

It’s time to start attacking the Giant Worm.

I climbed up the hill and looked around.

The skeletal monsters, lined up in an orderly manner, wait for my instructions without moving a muscle.

‘This isn’t bad.’

My necromancy skills aren’t that great yet, so the quality of each monster isn’t that great.

The skeleton monster’s strength is only about 30% of what it was when it was alive.

Still, since I have so many pieces collected, I plan to use them to make up for my lack of necromancy skills.

The number of skeleton monsters raised through hunting for over a week is approximately one thousand.

“That’s amazing, Estelle—I had no idea that psychokinesis was such a powerful magic.”

Flora, who knew nothing, looked around at the monsters calmly and admired them.

By now, you might have noticed something a little strange, but Flora didn’t seem to think much of it.

“Senior, just do as I said before. Don’t step forward at first, and save your strength for later.”

“yes!”

“Then, let’s go.”

When I winked, Dog No. 1 ran with a flag in his mouth.

Thump, thump.

The skeletal monsters began to move all at once.

It is no easy task to supervise this level of sleep on a daily basis.

The dog-like monsters that had been driving away the monsters for so long were now given the role of conveying my instructions and diligently ran among the troops.

“You are a minister.”

There are only a thousand skeletal monsters.

Yet, its majesty was quite impressive.

I climbed onto the skeletal mammoth with Flora.

‘If I further hone my necromancy, I’ll be able to command a far more formidable army than I have now.’

I could already see the near future in my eyes.

I have gathered the relics of El, the goddess of death, and regained the power of the lich that makes the continent tremble.

We already know who has the relic of El.

One originally belonged to me, Estelle, but now it belongs to the warrior Michael.

Scythe ‘Master of Death’.

And the other one, the ‘Star of Rest’, is probably held by the vampire queen Camula.

‘It’s not in my hands right now, but I’ll get it all back soon.’

When I first fell into this world, I felt lost, but now I see the way.

Just wait a moment.

“Estelle, they’re all here.”

Flora’s words brought me to my senses.

Next to the river flowing next to the rocky plateau.

The monsters blocking the waterway are waiting, waiting only for my command.

“Shall we begin?”

The dog skeletons changed the flag in their mouths from white to red.

Ding— ding—

To that sign, a wild ogre skeleton rhythmically beat a large drum.

The skeletal monsters joined forces to destroy the structure blocking the river.

Kwaaaa—

The blocked waterway suddenly poured in.

A torrent of water rushed forward, sweeping everything away, and some of it flowed into a side road that had been built in advance.

Kurur.

The river water was sucked into the giant worm’s burrow without stopping.

—Keeeek!

The baby giant worms and parasitic monsters that had been living inside the cave floated on the water and flowed out.

It would be quite a feat to gather the bodies of those drowned men and make a mess of them, but now is not the time to turn your attention to side branches.

“Coming soon.”

I looked at the entrance to the giant worm’s burrow.

thud-

thud-

The ground shook. As if an earthquake had struck, something deep within the earth was writhing.

A sign of a field boss that will appear soon.

“Miss Estelle!”

“Senior, hide behind me.”

The skeletal monsters overlapped their bodies in several layers to form a shield wall.

Flora and I hid inside and braced ourselves for the impact.

The next moment.

Kwakwakwang—!

The surrounding land was completely destroyed along with the rock cave.

A huge sinkhole opens in the ground, and the ground and river water from all directions mix and pour into it.

And then, in the center, a giant monster appeared.

—Koooo!

Giant worm.

As the name suggests, the guy is classified as a bug.

However, when I actually saw it, I couldn’t help but say it was just a bug.

A shape resembling a wingless dragon, writhing as if it were going to break the ground and soar into the sky.

—Koo!

As the giant worm roared, the air in the wilderness trembled.

As soon as the guy broke through the hole, a shower of stone fragments rained down from the sky.

“Warning! Field Boss. The King of the Wilderness, Giant Worm, has appeared.”

Just by twisting its body, the giant worm sent dozens of skeletal monsters surrounding it flying away.

“What are you just standing there blankly watching? Attack!”

The battle began with my shout.

The skeletal monsters rushed towards the giant worm like a swarm of ants.

“Hey, can you catch this?”

Flora’s voice trembled.

I didn’t really understand it when I just heard about it, but when I actually saw it in person, I finally got a sense of the scale of the giant worm.

“Yeah. According to my calculations.”

I didn’t just do construction for a week for fun.

Giant worms are creatures that live in dry and arid environments.

The large amount of river water poured on him is as toxic as poison.

The rushing water pulled the giant worm out of its burrow, while simultaneously wiping out nearly half of its health.

‘This is how you get the fun out of hunting.’

Poisonous thorns poured out from the giant worm’s shell.

The skeletal monsters that had been charging at the forefront fell like soldiers hit by bullets, and the monsters in the back row stepped on the debris and advanced again.

This place now resembled a battlefield.