A rabbitman. Contrary to its name, which gives off the image of people with rabbit ears, these are monsters which are completely unrelated to the Ulbae, the actual people with rabbit ears.

The rabbitman, is actually a monster. A monster strong enough to rule an entire den of Curas. Of course, a normal rabbitman cannot do such a feat, but the ones that have the ability to do this are the Evolved rabbitmen. Yup. Monsters evolve. Mid fight, post fight or pre fight, when some conditions are met, like mutations, monsters evolve.

And an evolved rabbitman is just a heap load of trouble. Especially when the opponent is under the rebound of using a forced modification technique to boost his abilities. Yup. You guessed right. I’m currently at the mercy of an evolved Rabbitman.

My entire body feels like lead, and I can feel something exploding in my body from time to time. Not good. My body is being racked with pain, and I can barely move. Right now, I’m in a pinch.

The white plushie like monster stares down at me with its glowing crimson eyes. In its cute rabbit hands was a long sickle, with the steel glistening from the dim light in the cave, with its sharp end pointed at me.

The rabbit ears of the rabbit plushie waved from side to side, as if it was happy. A stitched mouth, and button eyes. Really, a plushie, except with overflowing killing intent.

The athletic plushie had complete dominance over me, and I could do nothing but stare back.

This pinch, is quite disadvantageous for me. At most, with the amount of pain my body is enduring, I can swing my sword once at best. I only have 1 second left for using Monster slaying energy, since if I exceed the limit, I might lose consciousness, or worst case scenario, rampage.

My chest is throbbing, and the fresh beads of blood emerge everytime I move. It’s quite bad, a 20cm slash on my chest, under extreme rebound, and the maximum movement I can do is just one. It seems simple when I think, to just use the energy and kill the monster within one second, but the rabbitman has total advantage.

Due to the wound on my chest, even if I tried to move, it would be extremely slow, and the rabbitmen would instantly kill me.

If I charge up my energy, the rabbitman would notice and kill me.

Checkmate huh.

But, there was one lesson Master taught me in her ‘Hell’s training’

Always have a few cards up your sleeve.

I smile at the rabbitman, exuding an aura of confidence. The first trick, Bluff.

An instant effect. The rabbitman stiffens. The plushie immediately raises its sickle, bringing it down onto my throat.

The second trick, Misdirection.

I look to the entrance, and yell,” Come out, Mili!”

A perfect bluff. The rabbitman turns its head, looking to where I looked.

“Idiot. Pierce through, Earth spike~!”

The needle like earth heads towards the face of the rabbitman, but it easily cuts it apart. That was my plan from the start though. I complete the words I need to speak.

“— sword”

The rabbitman looked shocked. It gazes down at the huge greatsword that pierces through the chest of the rabbitman. A huge greatsword, its blade was black, with violet energy pulsing through it. My real trump card.

The rabbitman instantly collapses, and the sickle makes a *CLANG* sound as it falls to the ground.

My win.

I can’t even maintain consciousness anymore, and slowly, I slip off into the gentle embrace of sleep.

“Urgh…”

I groan as I open my eyes. Urgh…. The corpse of the rabbitman lies in front of me, with a huge gash through it. I smile at my ‘trump card’

“How..long?”

I struggle to get up. There’s mostly no major pain, but my body feels sluggish, and fatigue rules my body. I raise myself somehow, and stagger to the sword on the ground. I pick it up, and place it in my ring. I feel too tired, my vision is blurry. I lean on the wall, and take some deep breaths. This… this rebound was extreme..

I remember the rabbitman and shudder at my unpreparedness. I stagger to the rabbitman, and it was as its appearance suggested. A plushie. Inside, there was some kind of soft white flesh inside. I put into my ring. I sigh at the scene unfolding before me.

The huge room in the cave was littered with corpses. Some without heads, some with cuts on their body, a one sided massacre. Even platinum adventurers would be shocked if they found out that this was done by just one person.

“Mili…”

She’s still hiding. I need to quickly search this room, and return to her.

I check around the room, in order to find something. I want my treasure~!

In the end, I found a small crevice in the rock, and upon closer inspection, I found out that it was actually a huge hole high up in the wall. I use the crack from the wall to slowly climb the wall. The fatigue still holds me down, but I somehow climb on.

It was shiny.

That was my only expression. The place was filled with gold and other gems. I didn’t check since the next moment everything was gobbled up by my ring. I hope there might be some good equipment in that lot.

I fiddle with my eyepatch, bored, as I walk to the entrance. This quest was troublesome. I fought a lot of monsters, and I didn’t even complete the quest. Well great.

Once I emerge from the forest, it was early in the morning. Mili was alone all this time? I felt a bit guilty when I thought that. But I’m sure she’ll be okay, since she’s Mili after all.

“Mili? Miilliiiiii?”

I call out a few times, and then wait for some time.

After a couple minutes, I could hear some tottering footsteps, and from that direction, a haggard Mili appeared.

“Mili? What happened?”

“Yuuuyyyaaaa!!!”

She jumps into my chest. I didn’t feel happy, only worried. Yup. Definitely.

“What’s wrong Mili?”

I ask her as I pat her head. Her dark green hair was disheveled and she herself looked really tired.

“Yuuya went into the cave 3 days ago, and didn’t come back too! I was really worried! How could I go home without a meat wall! I could have died you know! I had food so I survived, but all night the monsters howled, so I couldn’t even slee—“

3 days?! I was out for 3 days?! Woah. Poor thing. She must have been scared. I stroke her head. I ignore the ‘meat wall’ part. It didn’t hurt. Nope. Definitely no—

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“Mili, you can sleep now. We’ll leave after you get enough sleep”

“Un…”

She dozed off, and I kept patting her. Sleeping Mili looks cute. I lay her down on my lap, and I take out my sleep assistor. Books. I take out the monster books this time, and read through it.

I wake up, and understand the situation when I look at the open book next to me. I place it into my storage, and gently wake Mili up.

“Mili, it’s time to wakeup you know?”

She slowly stirs awake, and lets out a cute yawn. When she sees me, she looks shocked. She looks where she’s sitting, my lap. Her face gets red at an alarming speed.

She jumps off, and hides behind a tree again.

Haha~ Too cute.

“Well then, shall we go no, Mili?”

“Un”

“Wh-wh-what is this laddie?!!”

The shopkeeper san looks shocked. Well he might, since a mountain of Curas meat just appeared from nowhere. I calmly reply to him.

“63 Curas meat. I want to sell it.”

The shopkeeper san looks at me, bewildered.

I extend my hand

“That’ll be 315 silvers old man.”

“Uh..Uhhhh… “

He needs some time to catch up with what happened it seems. Well I don’t blame him. But the money is more important.

A few minutes later, the shopkeeper san composes himself and weighs all the meat, and accurately takes the readings.

“All right kid. I’ve confirmed there’s 63 Curas worth meat, but I can’t give you 315 silvers. Since it’s a bulk purchase, the most I can pay you is 290 si—“

“Give it.”

“Eh? You’re not gonna try and bargain? Well whatever floats your boat kid.”

I keep my arm extended, impatient. The shopkeeper san understands and quickly gives me a small bag of coins.

I open it and count it meticulously. 2 rais coins, which look like emerald discs. And a whooping 90 silvers!

I feel overjoyed! Yay!

“All right. Old man, there’s something else.”

“What is it kid?”

I bring out the rabbitman’s corpse onto the counter.

“Eh?! IS that a rabbitman?!”

“That’s a gold ranked monster right?!”

“That’s evolved too! Pl-platinum ranked?!!”

The surroundings become noisy. I see. It’s famous huh. Maybe I should have shown it in private. Well too late to regret it now.

I immediately forget the unnecessary things, and extend my hand again. Shopkeeper san also looked shocked at first, but then laughed heartily and handed me a coin.

A-a-a-a- gold coiiinn?!?!?!?!

I couldn’t hold in my surprise at the unexpected amount. I’ve decided. The rabbitman is gonna become extinct.

I head off from the store, and enter the guild. It looks as rowdy as always. I head to the onee san.

“Haah.. I want to report the failure of a quest please”

“Failure? Are you sure? That’ll blackmark you though?”

Blackmarks are what they are. A blackmark is given whenever you failed a quest. The more the blackmarks, the more unreliable the adventurer.

“Yes… I couldn’t find the red springs”

“Ah. Then you could just buy a map of the area and try to track it down?”

I felt stupid. The completely obvious answer from the onee san makes me feel stupid .I dejectedly head to the inn I had booked for a week in advance.

The Roaches Hometown, with a completely unreliable name was the inn I was staying in. It was livable, and the food was terrible. Well, since I cooked myself, we had no shortage on that part, and we could sleep, so it was a win win situation.

I head to the room, tired and depressed.

When I open the door, Mili was there, sitting on other bed, reading one of the books I gave her.

I shut and lock the door. I shut the windows, and only a dim light enters the room.

Yuuya, what are you doing?”

“A check on the rewards”

I look at my ring in anticipation, to check the contents of the Curas treasure.

“Huh”

I could just stay that to the Curas treasure.

“No matter how you look at it, isn’t this just junk?

It could best be described as a junkyard.

Because it was just toys with shiny colours. All of the treasure was like that. There was a  pile of gold coins, which I put into my storage. It might be an antique, or the currency from another country.

I examine the rest. I’ve already got rid of most of the junk. Right now, I’m looking at the stuff I thought would be useful.

A pair of gloves, A bandanna, A knife, and a bracelet.

The rest was just gold ornaments, which I might just sell.

Now, these things. All of these seem like normal items, but they’re not normal. Why? Because several patterns have been drawn on them. Like one suspicious circle I know.

“Mili, do you know what these circles are?”

“Un?.... those are magic inscriptions. It’s like a program to execute its function. Basically, a magic artifact.”

Magic artifact! Bingo. But ,just because it’s a magic artifact doesn’t mean it’ s something great.

I examine the gloves. A white pair, with black flames on it. On the back of the glove was an inscription pattern. I immediately wear it, and it snugly fits in. I poured my mana into them.

The inscriptions glow, and the glove changes a bit. The threads of the gloves unravel and retie themselves, rapidly. And in less than 5 seconds, a shield was formed from the threads on one arm.

I see. Gloves with high defense, and a special function to create a shield. It’s useful.

The bandanna, I decide to check at a later date. It gives off an ominous feeling, like it’s cursed. And I’m worried off wearing it on my head.

The knife, was a normal knife with one jagged end . I poured mana into it, and the knife burst into flames!

Shocked, I dropped it. The moment it left my hands, the flames died off. I see. An incantation boost like effect eh.

Finally, I pick up the bracelet. It was made of light green gems connected end to end with each other. It was completely empty.

A useless find?

Not a chance. It might have some use.

I wear it on my left hand, so I can easily check on it.

The rewards from the subjugation weren’t disappointing. But the cash award was delightful!