Chapter 35

“You seem pleased.”

“Ah, huh? Yeah, I guess.”

Caught in thought by Vice-Captain Barger’s voice, Roselin nodded. She touched her wrist, where the young man had grabbed her, smiling to herself.

“He’s no ordinary guy. That snake woman really has an eye for talent, doesn’t she? Wonder where she dug him up from…”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Roselin mulled over the recent encounter.

He must be quite exceptional.

Approaching the young man with a light-hearted attitude, Roselin had to quickly revise her assessment. Despite the pressure that made even the Green-rank adventurers bow their heads, the young man kept his head high.

‘And he didn’t stop there…’

Despite her deliberate pressure.

The young man not only resisted but also boldly caught her wrist. This meant he had shattered the aura of a Sword Seeker head-on.

“I have no idea how he did it.”

Roselin touched her chin, intrigued.

The amount of mana stored in the young man’s body was small. Not even close to a Sword Expert, barely having begun mana cultivation. And yet, with such a meager amount of mana, he had shaken off her pressure.

He shouldn’t have been able to, but Roselin saw it.

At that moment, when the young man shook off her pressure, she saw her mana being sucked into his body. The aura he displayed in that fleeting moment was no less intense than her own.

A mana cultivation technique she had never seen before.

In her encounters with numerous strong individuals, Roselin had never seen anyone manipulate mana in such a way.

“Is he some discarded child of a noble family? Never seen such a cultivation technique. What do you think, Barger?”

“I wouldn’t know. He does seem to have guts.”

“Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I like him.”

Roselin licked her lips.

Watching her, Barger sighed. Like the snake that never regurgitates the gold it swallows, once their leader set her sights on something, she’d get it by any means necessary.

The snake that swallows gold, Dieta Arbenia.

And now, the Red Eye, Roselin Ascalo, setting her sights on an adventurer marked by Dieta.

‘This is going to be troublesome.’

Barger figured they might not be able to avoid conflict with Dieta’s faction.

“Hey, you.”

Just as Najin was about to step into the forest.

Someone called him from behind. Najin turned to see who it was. A woman with a Green-rank badge approached him.

“Yeah, you. Black-rank.”

She gestured towards Najin.

The other adventurers’ attention returned to Najin. They whispered among themselves.

“What does Marsen want?”

“She must be annoyed.”

“Normally, Marsen should be the center of attention in this operation…”

Green-rank adventurer Marsen.

A veteran of ten years in Cambria, with the most achievements among those participating in the Dochzenberg Forest operation.

Marsen was expected to rank first.

Among the adventurers, it was said that it wasn’t the Black-rank young man but Marsen who should be in the limelight.

“Is this a joke to you?”

Marsen had been accumulating achievements for years, aiming to join the Red Eye Mercenary Band. To her, Najin was nothing more than an irritant.

“You, acting so rudely to a White rank adventurer, to Lady Roselin…”

“Enough with the talk.”

“…What?”

Najin scowled.

Impatiently, he brushed off Marsen’s accusing finger.

“Is that all you have to say? I’d like to get going.”

“What did you say?”

“Why are you wasting my time? You should be hunting more monsters. Aren’t you interested in the rankings?”

To Najin, it was a casual remark.

He wasn’t aware of the adventurer’s name or her status as a top contender. To him, pursuing first place, this was just a pointless conversation.

However, to Marsen.

It was a clear provocation. Her expression twisted.

“Huh, what an absurd kid.”

Marsen scoffed.

She pointed at Najin.

“Remember this. We’ll talk after this is over. If you rank lower than me, you better be ready.”

Najin indifferently brushed off her words and proceeded towards the forest. The other adventurers just murmured among themselves.

Marsen listened to the whispers, but Najin wasn’t interested in their voices.

What captured Najin’s interest was one thing: the scoreboard monitored by a member of the mercenary band on the stage. Every time he brought in a monster, the score would be updated in real-time.

“I’ll top that board.”

Mulling over his goal, Najin walked towards the forest.

Najin had almost no experience hunting monsters.

He had undertaken simple monster extermination quests for the guild, but never tracked a monster’s trail.

His experience was limited to hunting monsters in fixed locations, like goblin encampments or caves.

‘So, this is a first.’

Hunting by tracking a monster’s trail was new to him. But it didn’t seem too problematic. Najin steadied his breathing and narrowed his eyes.

After all, tracking a monster is not much different from pursuing a person.

He hadn’t tracked monsters, but he had plenty of experience tracking people. As Ivan’s hound and during his escapes from the Order’s shadows, he’d honed these skills.

Rustle.

Najin fiddled with a hidden weapon tied to his wrist.

-You like that tool, huh? Using it quite a bit.

‘It’s quite handy.’

A throwing technique he stole from the Order’s shadows.

Holding a weapon, Najin followed the tracks on the ground. His heightened senses didn’t miss even the smallest noises.

Rustle.

The moment he heard it, Najin turned and threw the weapon.

Simultaneously, a goblin’s cry erupted. Approaching the goblin, Najin swiftly cut its throat and stored it in a bag, then moved on.

But then he paused.

Najin stopped for a moment.

-What’s up, why stop?

‘Just thinking.’

Najin looked up at the towering trees, murmuring to himself.

‘Do I really need to stick to the ground?’

-You mean moving through the trees? Isn’t that something elves do? Ordinary balance won’t cut it for that…

Suddenly, Najin climbed up a tree.

After tapping a few branches with his toes, he took a deep breath and leaped.

His jump was precise, and his landing was smooth.

For Najin, who had navigated the narrow ledges of alleyway walls, tree branches were spacious and well-balanced footholds.

-Well…

Speechless, Merlin watched as Najin swiftly moved through the trees. His movements were quick, but his eyes were quicker.

‘Found one.’

Though it seemed he was running aimlessly, Najin’s eyes accurately spotted monsters. Leaping down from the tree, he decapitated a monster in a single strike.

He stuffed the severed head in his bag and moved on.

With each repetition, Najin’s movements became more fluid and concise. Merlin watched him swoop down from the trees to snatch monsters, resembling a predatory bird hunting.

Some time after the Dochzenberg Forest cleansing operation began, adventurers gathered at the forest’s entrance as evening approached.

The deadline was nearing.

Adventurers carrying bags of monster heads arrived one by one. They handed their bags to the Red Eye Mercenary Band’s supervisor at the stage to tally their scores. When most adventurers had arrived, they looked at the scoreboard.

As expected, Marsen was in first place. Having just arrived, Marsen secured the top spot with 31 points, a five-point lead over the second place.

“Of course, Marsen is first.”

“Yeah, but 31 points? That’s no joke. Just finding them is tough…”

Everyone expected her to win, so the surprise was more about the number of monsters she hunted than her top ranking.

“Hey, but that Black-rank guy is pretty impressive too. Look at the ranking. He’s 12th.”

“Black-rank at 12th? Wow…”

What surprised them more was the Black-rank adventurer, Ivan’s ranking.

12th. Ivan (14 points).

14 points was a significant achievement, even for Green-rank adventurers. Successfully locating and hunting monsters in this forest required various skills. At this point, they acknowledged his remarkable abilities.

“Wait, that’s strange?”

One adventurer spoke up.

He had just returned from the forest. Pointing at Ivan’s name in the ranking, he said,

“I saw him hunting hop goblins. Aren’t they three points each? I saw him take down more than four, and that was over an hour ago.”

“Maybe you saw it wrong?”

“No, I’m sure. I was preparing to hunt a group of them when he suddenly dropped from a tree and snatched them.”

He had swiftly hunted four and disappeared.

Hearing this, the adventurers began to buzz with speculation.

“Now that I think about it…”

“He hasn’t come back yet?”

It was almost the deadline, but the Black-rank young man was nowhere among the adventurers gathered at the entrance. Could he have turned in one bag and then gone back into the forest?

As they wondered, a sound of dragging came from the forest. Emerging from the dusky woods was a blood-soaked young man. The blood on his body and hair wasn’t his own.

The dark blue blood of monsters.

Najin’s ominous appearance made the adventurers step back. He walked past them and handed his bag to the supervisor on the stage.

A rustle.

The supervisor emptied the bag, and seven hop goblin heads tumbled out. The adventurers’ eyes widened. He had hunted only the highest-scoring monsters in the forest.

They turned their attention to the scoreboard.

Originally, Najin had 14 points. But with the addition of 21 points from seven hop goblins…

“35 points…”

Someone muttered as Marsen’s name was erased from the first place. Replacing it was Ivan’s name.

1st. Ivan (35 points).

2nd. Marsen (31 points).

All eyes turned to Marsen.

Her eyes wide, she stared at the scoreboard and then at Najin standing beside it. Against all expectations, the Black-rank adventurer had taken first place.

As Marsen hastily grabbed her bag to re-enter the forest, the supervisor rang a bell.

The deadline had ended. Marsen glared at Najin, but Najin, seemingly uninterested in her, simply walked down from the stage, indifferent to her existence.

Marsen clenched her teeth and approached Najin. But as she did, Najin’s head turned sharply. From deep within the forest, hurried footsteps approached.

“Huff!”

Adventurers burst out of the bushes, gasping for air and collapsing at the forest’s entrance. Their faces were pale with terror.

“There’s something in the forest!”

Before their warning could sink in,

Thud, Thud!

Heavy footsteps resonated. The sound came closer to the forest entrance. Suddenly, a tree, uprooted from its base, flew towards the gathered adventurers.

Screams and frantic retreats filled the air.

A monster emerged from the dimly lit forest.