Chapter 54: The Hunting Grounds

In their world, the land is split into different Settlements belonging to different races. And in between those Settlements were lands claimed by powerful, savage monsters which broke out from the Magical Dungeons which weren’t cleared out in time.

Those places were called in many different ways.

Some called them the Bad Lands, or the Monster Lands. For they were truly infested with all sorts of monsters and creatures, ranging from the ugliest goblin, to the mightiest of dragons, and everything in between.

Some called them the Borderlands, for they acted as Borders between Settlements. And what better way to abuse those monster infested lands than to use them as ‘natural’ borders between Settlements? People in power really had a strange, twisted way to look at things...

And others yet... called them the Hunting Grounds.

Tobias himself belonged to the group of people who called it the Bad Lands. Because really; he knew that he wasn’t quite strong enough to call the place a mere leisure hunting ground.

He idly wondered how he never knew the state of the world until a few months ago, back when he was being trained by Magnus. Was it because he simply didn’t pay attention and didn’t care about it until now?

... The more likely case was because he simply forgot about it, actually.

But...! The good side was that if he actually knew about it, then that only meant he was finally paying attention to things which concerned the world outside of his own sphere of influence, right?

Right.

Because if he really reflected to himself and thought about it, he would know that he didn’t really give too much thought to anything beyond his immediate surroundings and the people who were involved with him.

That being said...

It was around five days since they had left their party. They had arrived in a town named Spearwall just a day before, and now, they were out of the town to go and hunt down Monsters.

And the air was decently cold; Autumn was beginning. While the trees’ leaves weren’t quite orange and ready to fall off just yet, the sun was less oppressive than usual and was temperate instead.

He didn’t really mind summer too much nowadays, but he was concerned about a girl who tended to overheat at times – with her incredible flushing and blushing features whenever she did something strange, or got exposed to too much heat.

So the colder, more temperate season should be much kinder to her, right?

He idly turned around, and as usual, Clara was there following him with a bored expression. She carried her night-colored bow with both of her hands as opposed to the usual way she did – which was to sling it across her shoulder.

But the reason why she did so was because she already had a backpack filled with her belongings. While he saw her pack her own clothing there, if he listened just carefully enough... He could hear the soft tapping of earthen jars, clinking against each other in a muffled manner.

And somehow, he knew that it was just very Clara of her to bring a lot of preserved food and snacks.

“You doing alright?” He asked.

“Mhm.” She nodded.

And just like that, there was silence again, as they only kept walking forwards. But despite their brief conversations every now and then, mostly to ask if the other one was doing alright if they were tired, the air between them wasn’t tense.

It was actually... comfortable. Comfortable enough for him to lapse into his thoughts, at least. And as long as they were still in the human grounds (according to the map they had, at least), then he would keep thinking about what he wanted to think.

Because he knew that when they finally arrived to their destination, the only things he would be able to think about is how to survive, and how to fight.

That being said, they were only headed to the very edge of the Bad Lands. They weren’t exactly going to delve too deeply, and they would only enter the shallowest forests of such monster infested lands.

It should also be noted that at some point, they slept next to each other. And because his Abyss worked in the weird, mysterious ways, that brought them back to his Abyss, where he knew he needed to strengthen himself with all of the Experience he had accumulated recently.

... Numbers were irrelevant. (Another way to admit that he didn’t remember numbers that well).

All that he really understood was that he had become faster, stronger, and tougher than before. Maybe a little bit smarter and wiser as well – but then again, Intelligence and Wisdom worked in mysterious ways, and didn’t exactly work like how he had phrased it.

... No matter.

It took another hour of walking before Tobias had finally felt the air turn wrong. His body tensed, and both of his sheathes let out a faint, leathery rasps as he drew both longsword and dagger – his lifelines – with each hand.

He glanced behind him, and found that Clara was also on guard – her hands swiftly, but silently nocked an arrow into place, and carefully observed her surroundings with her sharpened senses.

This tense air which made his hair stand up on edge, and made him break into cold sweat... He understood that the danger of this place was very, very real.

Now, he understood why Adventurers would rather complete Magical Dungeons for a surplus of rewards and a chance for an Artifact, instead of the dangerous Extermination quests, in which the pay was much more meager in comparison.

Magical Dungeons were nothing compared to the savage wilderness that these monster-claimed lands resided in.

“Be careful, Tobias.” Clara warned, and he almost flinched from the suddenness of her voice.

But he took her words to heart even if he already knew that, and while he didn’t reply, he only nodded at her.

And it was then, that their comfortable hiking pace was halted to an incredibly meticulous and careful trudge, as he painfully, slowly kept his eyes peeled for anything.

The slightest shadows cast by the trees were almost too ominous, and he thought that he needed to learn a quicker way to differentiate those shadows born out of his instinctual fear, and those shadows which really contained a monster.

But before anything else, he first needed to know if it was even possible to survive the Bad Lands to begin with. And what better way to do that than to engage in combat against a monster?

Tobias kept his senses sharp as they slowly walked forwards.

... And of course. His luck when it came to finding things he wanted to find was decent, as always. In front of them was a monster – and the best part was, it wasn’t armored in any way, shape, or form. His dagger and longsword twitched; they were eager to cut through flesh for once, especially after they were constantly forced through bones.

The monster in front of them resembled a boar the size of a wagon; with wicked metallic, sharp tusks which seemed to glimmer underneath the autumn sun that day, and its red-glowing eyes looked at them with such hostility which was typical of any dungeon-born monster.

But none of that mattered.

All Tobias understood was that conditions for victory were simple; he would kill his opponent, and he would keep himself safe.

... Correction. Keep himself and Clara safe. If anything happened to her under his watch, he would never forgive himself.

That was the only plan he needed.

So he rushed forwards, and raised both bladed weapons with an intent to pierce, stab, and slash.

***

The boar charged forwards – those metallic tusks grazing against the ground promising certain death if he ever got hit by those directly.

He bent his knees for a few moments as his leg muscles tensed with power, and he leapt in the air. While his leap wasn’t anything ground breaking, barely clearing a meter and a half of vertical height, it was more than enough for him to dodge the ground-razing tusks which were going to gore him.

And more importantly, it allowed him access to something critical. Namely, the Boar’s eyes.

Steel plunged into red glowing eyes with a matching spurt of blood. Longsword met its mark first, and dagger followed shortly after.

The Boar shrieked loudly, before flicking its head to one direction with as much strength as it could gather. But Tobias had already sunk the longsword’s guard inside of its eye sockets, and in combination with his feet firmly planted on top of its oversized metallic tusks, had used both of those methods to keep himself attached even against the terrible shaking.

He twisted the dagger his left hand was holding, which earned him a semi-satisfying squelch as he dug out even more blood and eyeball matter, while trying to dig deep enough to stab into its brain.

But of course, this only caused the Boar to shake its head even harder – with much more desperation. And at some point, it had stopped shaking.

Was it dead, then?

Tobias was about to pull out the longsword, before he heard the sounds of hooves thudding against the ground. And then, the still air around him quickly formed into a breeze, before he saw his surroundings quickly blur –

“Gah...!”

His vision blacked out for a second, before returning back to normal. His spine felt like it snapped. His hands which held both weapons were violently thrown backwards, and the weapons nowhere to be found.

This boar... had charged into a tree with him on its face...!

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And then the boar began to rear backwards, and Tobias knew that he had to move. But his body was too slow – too heavy and in pain to listen properly to him.

“Ghrk!”

But his mouth only coughed and spat out drops of blood violently and painfully, as he was charged back into the tree with the force that only a boar could generate.

An angry, wagon-sized boar who wanted him dead.

His spine had definitely fractured at this point – it wasn’t snapped yet if he was still capable of thinking and feeling the pain like this.

His ribs were probably next – and that was if they weren’t broken with the first charge to begin with.

And right when the Boar reared backwards again, from the corner of his blurred, darkened vision, he could see an arrow sail through the air in a graceful arc, before landing on the Boar’s head with a satisfying chunk. It was buried half way – with only its feathered shaft sticking out of the head.

But this Boar... even without any functioning eyes remaining, it turned around to face the person who had fired the arrow. It was none other than Clara, whose expression he couldn’t see from his vision wavering and flickering.

The Boar quickly charged towards her, and its tusks were primed and ready.

And then – Tobias’ eyes burned away the darkness, and just like that, the pain had quickly dulled away... No.

The pain was still there. It was simply in the way, so he shoved it aside.

His left hand reached out to grab the Boar’s fur to keep himself balanced.

And as for his right arm – he slipped it into his pocket, and drew forth a weapon that he knew was far too ineffective for war and combat – especially not against monsters of this caliber.

But right now, it was the only weapon he had.

It was the steel-forged knuckles.

And with that, he drew his right fist back as much as he could, and sent the wildest punch – a crude, desperate mixture between a straight punch and a haymaker – towards the Boar’s eye.

The eye exploded into a fountain of blood and blown up eye bits, and Tobias didn’t stop there.

He quickly sent his right hand into the bloodied and torn apart eye socket, and his fingers quickly, desperately searched around for its brain.

And when he would find it...

His fist would grind it.

A monster might be a monster... But not even monsters could survive the force of an angry person directly punching their brains through their exploded, gored eye with desperate punches, and steel-covered knuckles.

“Die...!”

He didn’t know how long it took and how many punches he directly sent in its brain but finally, the Monster had collapsed and stopped its charge. It skidded into the ground, leaving behind a trail of bloodied fur, and two deep trails caused by its tusks.

The only reason why Tobias wasn’t painfully smeared into the ground as it skidded was because he had jumped away from the corpse at some point... or weakly rolled away, really.

If he didn’t – then he would probably die from friction-based injuries, and that wasn’t counting the fact that he could be crushed by its corpse and gored by its tusks as well.

...

Did he really have time to think about that scenario?

His ears were ringing, his eyesight was swimming, and his ribs and spine were fucked to say the least. His arms and legs were fine, so that was good at least.

And if his former stomach wound proved something... then it was the fact that the System really did heal him from near-death to combat-ready state in about twenty hours or so, even if it didn’t take care of the scars.

... That was alright. As long as scars didn’t hinder his combat prowess or cause any needless pain for him, then it’s fine for them to form. They might serve as his own personal badges and reminders, if nothing else...

“...by!” A terribly muddled voice came out from somewhere.

Yeah. His ears really were ringing and it felt like he was submerged underwater. But he only had one companion right now, so it was safe to assume that Clara was calling out his name.

“I’ll live.” He coughed out, although this time, there was no blood which accompanied it. Thankfully. His opened his eyes, and kneeling by his side while looking at him was the girl he had sworn to protect.

Her face was morphed into one of bitter regret and overflowing concern for him.

“This is a terrible idea, after all.” She said, her voice croaking from the inevitable tears that would probably come out. “We should go back...”

Tobias let out a single chuckle that was far too wet to ever sound normal. And he stared at her in the eyes – even though his vision was beginning to darken.

“As long as... I’m not dead... I can keep going on...” He grunted, and tried to push himself upwards. “I just need rest...”

“Do you really need to keep going?”

By now, his eyes had closed, and he couldn’t open them anymore. But he was still awake, and he could still feel his body aching at various places.

“Yeah...” He sighed, and winced when the action only made his ribs ache. “I need to. Even if you’ll leave me... nothing changes...”

“I see...” She said, her voice far too regretful even if his ears were ringing. “Then that... just means... you should... side... right?”

And by now, her voice was becoming more and more distant, more and more faded, as he felt himself getting dragged into his unconsciousness.

But he was still awake.

“Yeah... Wake me up... when something happens...”

But after he whispered those words, he wasn’t awake anymore.

***

When Tobias woke up, the first thing he saw was... darkness. And shortly after, he felt his sore body lying on a surface that was far too soft to be the ground. A quick glance to the side told him that he was currently lying on a white mattress, and the only reason why it was visible was because of his close proximity to it.

Was everything just a dream that he came up with...?

He tried to sit up normally, but his efforts were met by his entire torso aching with sharp pain when he did. So he rolled to the edge of the bed, and positioned himself so that he would be able to push himself up to sit down using his legs as counterweight, and his arms to push himself up.

He blinked a few times, and after a minute of staring into darkness, his eyes finally adjusted to the low light level. The room was familiar on surface level – with its vaguely wooden walls and wooden ceiling. But that was where its familiarity ended, because there were only two beds instead of the four that he remembered...

Ah, right. What happened recently wasn’t a dream, then.

He really did go and leave his Party, with Clara tagging along and following him as he did. A quick glance to the other bed revealed that such was the case.

And now that he looked at her as she slept peacefully in place, he noted that she looked incredibly tired. But when he tried to stand up to walk to her, a sharp, burning sensation coursed through his torso.

The pain reminded him that he was just slammed into a literal tree by a gigantic boar just... a couple hours ago? His natural regeneration meant that if he was unconscious and resting for more than a day, then his body wouldn’t be this sore.

And because he was literally unconscious for the past who knew how long hours, that only meant that Clara dragged (or probably even carried) his body off to this new place... in a room she probably rented from Spearwall Town.

And as far as he remembered, the distance was pretty significant. So it probably wasn’t very easy for her, and looking at the room and the fact that belt, sword and dagger was hung on the wall meant that she carried everything.

He glanced towards her sleeping face, and he gave an appreciative, thankful bow to her. It must’ve been hard on her, really. But she still did so for his sake.

If she wasn’t around, then he would have been probably dead. Or if he was lucky enough, then he would have been either found by people, or woke up without being discovered by any monsters. And those scenarios were not guaranteed.

So... Tobias was thankful that Clara was around. Because really, she was great at guiding him, and who knew what sort of path he would take without her to guide him. He would probably be lost in some forest somewhere.

And besides, that was just touching the surface.

Because, well, he had to admit... But it seemed like he had grown to appreciate Clara in a more romantic light, to be completely honest with himself. It was incredibly difficult not to, when she was clever, and honest with him.

And, well, she was adorable. And cute. And anyone who didn’t have his standards would say that she was pretty. And this girl had admitted to liking him, so really, it was only natural for him to like her back in that way.

Only an idiot wouldn’t. And Tobias wasn’t an idiot (or so he thinks to himself).

He sighed, before he carefully let himself lie down on the mattress. While he wanted to keep watching her sleep, he knew that he had to rest if he wanted to be in proper condition to fight the next day. So he closed his eyes, and his thoughts only continued in his mind.

Yeah, he should probably be more careful next time, and not let himself be disabled to the point of unconsciousness. He wouldn’t want to subject Clara to another time of dragging/carrying him over large amounts of distances, really. Or better yet, he needed to find a way to get Clara less involved with his hunts, really.

It was also complicated. He wanted her to stay around, but at the same time, he understood that it was terribly dangerous. Hah... Maybe he should let her stay for a while, and when the right opportunity comes, he might be able to send her to a safer place someday...

And at those thoughts, his consciousness finally retreated into the abysses of his mind.

***

Tobias stabbed at the dire wolf’s throat with his dagger, as he withdrew the weapon with a vicious spurt of blood.

There was a dire wolf charging to him – its gaping maw revealing the countless razor-sharp fangs which would tear apart his leg.

He raised his longsword. For the shortest while, his muscles had tensed – ready to slash and swing the weapon with as much force as he could.

But he only remembered that it would be impossible for him to swing his sword without hitting a tree. So he only opted for a much more precise, quicker thrust instead.

Sharpened steel pierced through fur, bone, and brain matter with minor resistance.

That was decisively lethal. He didn’t need to check. He only needed to move on.

There. Another dire wolf’s claws had scraped against the ground, and he already knew what attack it was going for.

His dagger had no chance of parrying away a full-body leap from a dire wolf – especially with how large those things were compared to normal wolves. And his longsword was still stuck in the dire wolf’s head...

So he dodged by lowering his stance and crouching, barely dodging the leap attack as the wolf sailed above him. He thrust his dagger into the space where its throat should be. His dagger carved a large line of blood and guts, as it slid from throat, and exited as soon as there was no more wolf to be carved.

That was decisively lethal, and he didn’t even need to confirm it. The fact that it only skidded against the ground, not even using its legs to land only confirmed it for him.

He stared at the longsword, and the wolf corpse currently stuck in it. So he moved his longsword to the ground, before he stomped on the dire wolf’s body. Then he tugged his blade upwards, with blood and brain matter rushing upwards like some macabre, vicious fountain.

When he stared at the dire wolf he had killed most recently, he wondered about the fact that Magical Dungeon derived-monsters would actually attain a physical body at some point.

It was something he had observed in the past week or so. Even if they’re from the same group or family or whatever monsters called their gathered flocks, some monsters – usually the older ones, just faded into motes of light whenever he killed them.

And as for the younger-looking ones... they left corpses. Corpses which normally decomposed, and as for edible monsters (like oversized boars, and deer which had similarly metallic horns which resembled trees), it was possible to cook and eat them for sustenance.

Did that only mean that Magical Dungeon monsters giving birth in this world would cause their offspring to inherit physical bodies, then?

...

He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

That didn’t matter right now.

He looked around the narrow gaps in between the trees where he fought the dire wolves. If he was any less experienced, then the narrow space, in combination with their aggressive swarming tactics would have killed him long ago.

But right now, he was the only victor. When it came to slaying anything that vaguely resembled a wolf, whether if it was something their size, something which took their tendencies to form packs, or even their mannerisms... It was something he wanted to slay with ruthless efficiency. And seeing that he did so almost perfectly...

It was something he took pride on, really.

So he looked around himself, and saw some of the wolves lying on the ground. Blood pooled beneath them as they cried and whimpered in pain. He didn’t have enough time earlier to finish them off, as he was busy trying to fend off the pack of wolves which tried to hunt him down.

But now, he had time. Both of his bladed weapons shimmered crimson in response to his thoughts.

...

When he plunged his longsword into the last of the dire wolves, he looked around himself. None of the wolves had any arrows sticking out of them, which only meant that he handled the situation as perfectly as could be, and that Clara deemed it fit that her assistance was unnecessary.

That only meant he was getting better at hunting ‘independently’, then.

Aside from their bigger size and superior strength, the most important difference between normal wolves and dire wolves was their intelligence. Normal wolves could form joint and pack attacks of course, but dire wolves had much more sophisticated plans and attacks which left little-to-no openings for him to exploit.

But they weren’t perfect. So it was only natural for him to take advantage of those little openings to wound, cripple, and bleed them out.

And it was little damage like this which eventually built up, resulting in them going for much more ferocious, desperate attacks without caring for their plans anymore.

... But that was where he thrived.

Now that he thought about it, the first time he got teleported into that Tier 2 Magical Dungeon and stepped on a trap before being swarmed by various monsters, Dire wolves proved most problematic. Followed by goblins and their poisoned weapons, of course. Both of them were agile, and small targets. Not a very good combination to fight against.

But that was fine. Precision and reaction time were things he needed to work on, anyways. Those were probably his biggest flaws at this point.

“Tobias!” Clara called out, and he turned around to face her after wiping away the blood from his blades. “How are you? No scratches or anything?”

Ever since the incident with the giant boar happened, she was much more worried about him like this.

“I’m alright.” He replied. His longsword let out a faint hiss when he slid the blade in its sheath, and his dagger was much more silent in comparison. “How about you?”

“Well... You already know.” She admitted, with a bitter smile. “Can’t really get hurt when I’m just there to watch and support you occasionally...”

“That’s alright. I’m thankful of you taking care of yourself.” He said, then added. “And for me as well.”

“That’s the least I could do for you.”

Now that he thought about it, the sight of forests was beginning to grate on him... And for once, he was really starting to miss sleeping on an actual bed, instead of sleeping on some tent.

And looking back towards Clara, he could see that her state wasn’t the same as she was a week ago. Her hair was haphazardly combed by her fingers, and they seemed to lose the faint luster they had. Her eyes bore dark bags underneath them, and she was a bit paler than usual.

... Yeah. She probably wasn’t used to these conditions as much as he was. While she was fine with short camping trips, she didn’t seem like the kind of person to get any quality sleep outdoors.

Maybe that was because of her sharp senses always placing her on edge, really.

“Say, Clara.” He began, and she let out a small hum to indicate that she was listening. “Wanna go back for a while?”

“What made you ask that?” She hesitantly inquired, and for the shortest while, he wondered why she was hesitant instead of excitedly jumping at the thought like he expected.

And then he remembered that it was mostly because of him and his stubbornness when it came to the decision of staying near these dangerous lands. Especially since there’s a town a few hours away... The experience had definitely made her much more tense and silent than usual...

“I think we need to.” He replied. “I don’t really think staying out here for too long is a good idea for the both of us.”

“... I’m more surprised you managed to reach that conclusion.” She muttered, before she shook her head and gave him a nod. “But thank you. I’d really appreciate that.”

“Let’s go, then?” He asked, and she nodded.

And with that, she was only contented to follow him as always, as they traveled through the dense, dangerous forests once more.

And at the end of the forest road, Tobias and Clara would encounter a white haired, black-eyed girl.