035 Man of Mystery

The masked man, with his face completely covered from the front to back, stepped down from the branch and landed next to the tree.

An assassin? Sir Valgan and the knights prepared their swords.

Oryan and Prince Keras' party surveyed the masked man. His clothing was dark and tight fitted hunter clothes, and wasn't entirely black like most assassinations.

He didn't operate like an assassin. Instead of coming toward them, the masked man unloaded his leather bag and prepared his own equipment to travel down the cavern. It looked like he was also hunting the Karkardo.

The knights loosened their guards.

The general policy for hunting, if you don't mind me, I won't mind you. If there was an issue, a fight would quickly alert the surrounding manabeasts.

"Your highness, don't you think the man is a bit unusual?" Obi asked, as the man lowered himself down the crevice.

Prince Keras wasn't sure, and looked to Lady Ilona and Sir Valgan for advice.

"I can only sense gathering stage energy coming from him," Sir Valgan rubbed together his little chin stubble in thought. "However, to come this far into the forest alone, it is almost impossible."

"I agree, his eyes are too calm for a gathering stage practitioner," Lady Ilona nodded. She watched the mystery man disappeared below the crevice. "It's not his first time heading below."

"How many lord stage practitioner hunt alone?" asked Prince Keras.

While the percentage was astronomically low, in terms of numbers, there were a lot of lord stage practitioners in the Kelseran Empire, but most were well known. Also, most lord stage practitioners were above 50 years of age.

"His physique seems very young," said Lady Ilona. "But if he really is an expert above the knight stage, it will be difficult to tell his real age."

Although they wanted to tail the masked stranger, they also didn't want to piss off a powerful figure. They returned to the city.

In the meanwhile, Nico reached the cavern's floor.

His boots, recently made by a shoemaker, gave him an additional 8cm of height.

His new hunting suit was very common hunting clothes and had no distinct features. The mask, which he had made himself, was modeled after a ski mask with black silk lining covering the eyes. The mask also had patting on top to add 3cm to his height.

He didn't like to wear the mask, but there were too many things he didn't understand about this world.

Nico cast the light spell and charged in. He was confident he could handle the Karkardo.

The Karkardo sensed the intruder and prepared itself.

This intruder was the worst type of intruder. It was the type to hit and run. The Karkardo had lost so many antennas the last two weeks fighting with this human pest. It had decided to kill this intruder once and for all.

Charging toward the intruder, the Karkardo launched its pincer attack.

Nico braced himself to jump and leapt over the Karkardo's head. However, the Karkardo faked its pincer attack and turned its tail to fight instead.

Nico jumped to evade, but the tail whipped from the right side toward him. Nico aimed the green whirlwind sword at a 45 degree angle out toward the Karkardo's tail, stunning the monster and propelling him up toward a hanging stalactite.

Nico hung on for a moment and then shot out three Talismans toward the Karkardo's already shortened antenna. One antenna burned into ashes. The Karkardo screamed and whipped around chaotically.

Right before it settled down, Nico free-fell from the top and directly aimed himself toward the Karkardo's jagged and toothy mouth.

Glush!

The bluish blood from its tongue and mouth spattered into the air. Nico backed away right before the Karkardo slammed its pincers together.

Nico jumped forward and slashed using galeforce, cutting between the Karkardo segmented parts and repelled himself back to avoid another violent aftershock from the long swinging body and thorny legs.

Nico unleashed two more talismans toward the Karkardo.

Rawr!!!!!!!

The Karkardo wailed violently, swinging its body into the cavern wall.

Nico jumped from side and side to avoid the falling stalactites.

Boom!

The Karkardo body collapsed, but its legs continued to move mechanically as though it was still alive.

The running legs stopped and silence returned.

Nico approached the Karkardo's head, cut open the mouth until he could locate the manacore.

The manacore was the size of a pea, but it felt heavier than the manacores he had seen from a regular manabeast.

Nico stored the manacore away and checked his mission status.

The task box for the manabeast terror had increased by one.

Nico surveyed the area again, there were three corpses around the Karkardo's cave. The corpses were barely recognizable. Their heads were chewed and corroded, with deep maroon and dried blood covering their once cream complexion.

Nico looked through their belongings and took out a couple of bank notes and talismans, heavily stained in blood. The loosely shredded clothing easily fell apart, revealing the leftover organs the Karkardo disliked and left behind. There was nothing else valuable except for their swords.

Nico burned the corpses and gathered them into an empty jar. He created a little stone marker for them and proceeded deeply inside.

If Nico senses were correct, the Karkardo was guarding its nest.

Nico moved his light next to a giant webbed ball as big as a room in the farthest corner of the cave. Nico surveyed the twenty-five large eggs bundled together.

Nico destroyed one egg.

The task for the manabeast terror tallied up by one.

"These eggs are really considered manabeast terror?" Nico thought. He wanted to know how strong they were when they hatched.

Nico destroyed three more eggs to complete the task.

Congratulation, Kill 5 Manabeasts Terrors Task, Complete.

Receive Roulette Coupon.

Tasks:

Plant and Harvest 1 Manafruit. 0/1. Reward: System Reward.

Create 5 Alchemy Pills. 0/5. Reward: Roulette Coupon.

*New* Kill 200 Manabeast Terrors. 0/200. Reward: Roulette Coupon.

*New* Create 5 Inscriptions. 0/5. Reward: Roulette Coupon.

Nico looked at the remaining 20 eggs.

Nico contemplated on what to do with the eggs.

Should he destroy half the eggs for the task and keep the other half? He wanted to examine the eggs in detail, but he couldn't carry all ten out. The eggs were around 50cm diameter and were heavy like a car.

He could carry five back to the dorm, but there wasn't any place to keep them.

Nico thought about his old room at the Killo Restaurant Inn. It was big enough, but what would happen if the eggs hatched? He wondered if the Darbi Blessing was enough to protect the inn.

Maybe he could leave three eggs to hatch here, take one back to the inn, and keep two in the dorm.

Nico proceeded with the plan. Nico destroyed fourteen eggs and buried three around the cave. Luck will decide whether the eggs would survive or would be taken by the other hunters.

Nico clicked on the roulette coupon and waited for the system to select his reward.

Receive Cure-All Spell.