Chapter 99: Hunt Festival [1]

"Fuu... that's one." Mr. Roan said, and sheathed slowly his sword while overlooking the area.

There were a number of monsters corpses littered all around us, in the enclosed environment of a cave. Standing a few feets behind, I did the same and lowered my blade, observing our morbid surrounding and reflecting upon the last events.

After the briefing with the guards from the village, we were quickly split into three groups of five for members and departed.

The guards ran an annual event where all monsters between ten and twelve kilometers around the village were exterminated, but they've further taken it up on themselves to make a game festival out of this.

The guards participating were split into three group, each with a full member of five. The group with the most amount of kills, receive the privilege to ask for any one thing from the local head.

It was already incredible that they had managed to get the feudal lord to participate on this silly game they created to make their jobs more fun, and each of the participants seemed extra rilled up over this seemingly massive event.

At first, I wasn't sure what to make out of hearing about our village's only defense turning their duties to play...but in the end, the were ultimately fulfilling what they had to, and with even more vigour over the winning price.

"Reo, are you good?"

As for what all of that had to do with me, Don, Leon and Kyle...this was simply another step up in our training.

It's already been five years since Mr. Ridge began teaching us, but all of it would be for naught if we fail to have tangible real life field experience.

In the first place we began learning the sword in order to protect what we deemed, and the village guards were doing just that.

It was already something I had been contemplating over for a long time actually, but as soon as Mr. Ridge judged us to be ready, I had already began to plan to apply for a guard's position. But even for this world's standards, I was still a bit too young, I would first of all have to be at least fourteen to be fully considered as a local guard.

But regardless of that, under the pretense as an extension to our training, Mr. Ridge has us working under the guards to gain some field experience.

At a first glance, this seemed highly irresponsible, but it was only due to the progress we've displayed in only five years, and that we had already established a deeper bond with the village guards on personal levels, that we were allowed to do this.

We weren't part of the local guards, on paper, and more like interns actually.

I responded to Mr. Roan's concern with a small nod, and the young man turned around and said to one of our group members.

"Skylar, you go ahead and make sure there aren't anymore strays. The rest of us will dress down the corpses. Take what we need, we won't be returning to the village in a while, so we can't carry too much on us." With his orders, we got to work.

Skylar was the youngest of the guards...at least before Don, Leon, Kyle and I came in. He was a blonde young man, seemingly in his early to mid twenties, and had a fond habit of tying what resembled a bandana over his head.

"Aye, aye, boss." Saying so, the young youth ran deeper into the cave to perform his task.

At the moment, we had just recently exterminated an entire Monster den that was too close to the village outer walls. The small-medium sized den was the home to a pack of hyena type monsters called Scavengers.

These creatures were known to move in packs and inhabit tight enclosed spaces. They were viscous and bloodthirsty and also known for their infamous habits of attacking neighboring civilization, and as such, their prescence this close to the village was too close for comfort.

There were other monster dens like this one, around the village so the village guards brought forward their annual subjugation of the forest, and decided to kill two birds with one stone.

In a sense, the main event would come after this, once each group has successfully eliminated and dissolved each targeted dens.

Coincidentally, I ended up in Mr. Roan's group, and away from Don and the boys. The members were decided at random by pulling straws, and we were labeled as Group 3 for convenience purposes.

Kyle and Leon had ended up in Group 2, and Don in Group 1. Each of the groups split up in assigned directions to first of all exterminate the dens. Amongst other members of my group, outside of Mr. Roan an Skylar, were actually two new recruits who have only recently been assigned to our village guards.

The two of them were middle-aged men with gruff and hardened expression.

The two never resembled new recruits at all. They were almost cold and aloof, but from the way they carried themselves, it was particularly clear that these two were hardened veterans.

Compared to the rest of the guards with seemingly carefree and relaxed attitudes, the two closely resembled actual guards who were out in charge of protecting a village in the mountains.

'Er...what were their names again...? ' I hadn't met the new guys in the past years, meaning they had only very recently arrived. I could even already judge this from the way the interacted with the other guards. There was an obvious distance between them and their seniors, but they seemed to be adapting.

It wasn't weird for the village guards to have members shuffled in and out periodically. In the end, these guys were basically civil workers.

As such, I've seen some guards I had grown close to leave the village, and new recruits come in, like these two.

In a matter of minutes, Skylar returned back after clearing the radius, and at the first order of Mr. Roan, we were off.

***

"Look alive!" Roan's bastard sword flashed, reaping sharply the life of a Silverfanged Wolf .

Few hours into the extermination.

Circumstance: currently under ambush by a migrating pack of Monster specie.

Type: Wild Beast Type; Silverfanged Wolves. They poses the overall appearance of almost three meter tall wolves, and steel like silver fur, with sharp protruding tusk like fangs. The specie excelled in speed and coordinated attacks with the rest of the packs.

Status: no injured or dead, our party was slowly exterminating the ambush despite being surrounded.

Results: uncertain, but it was clear we had the upper hand.

Me? I was at the rear line, observing the ongoing battle between Roan and the monsters. I had no real reason to directly interfere needlessly.

In a matter of seconds, it was over.

"Hahaha! This is great, at this rate we'll rack up enough points and take first place." Skylar boldly declared, basking in the euphoria of it all.

Hearing him say such, I had mixed feelings considering wether we should be hoping to come across more monsters or less instead.

We had traveled over four kilometers from the point of the village so far in a few hours. Along the way, we've eliminated every single monster that has crossed our path, leaving not a single one alive.

The point system assigned to this event is based on the amount of Monster fragments or Beast cores each group manage to retrieve back at the end of the whole thing. The group with the most amount of Fragments or Cores will be deemed the winner.

Thinking so, I began excavating the Monster fragments from the corpses. After watching Mr. Roan and the others do this a number of time already today, I was confident I could find the core without much problems.

Plus, this was perhaps the only way I could help.

Throughout the last fights, I had relatively remained at the rear, observing each battles. A few times there would be a few strays that would escape the defenses of the guards and come at me, but none of it were nothing I couldn't handle.

So far, this was good because Mr. Roan was also against putting me directly in harms way. This was supposed to be a way for me to gain experience, but he wouldn't let a direct confrontation between me and the Monsters, and hence why i ended up spectating for the most part.

"Tsk. Who's idea was it to bring the brat again?" All of a sudden, an unrestrained sneer resounded from one of the new recruits, displeasure evident in his tone as he spoke.

The one who said so was called Borris. He was one of the recruits who used a broadsword as a weapon. Short trimmed hair and hazy brown eyes with a face adorning a full stubble.

Borris, displayed his discontent with a glare.

Mr. Roan sheathed his sword and smoothly turned around.

"Eh, but we've been over this already, Mr. Borris. For the rest of this subjugation, we will be taking care of Reo, and while he will provide assistance to us. This is a big step for him, you see, this young man right here aspires to join our ranks in the not so distant future." Roan, explain calmly, disregarding the blatant displeasure and glare, Borris.

Initially, Borris and a few other of the recruits were against the idea of bringing kids along on such a dangerous mission like this. In hindsight, they're reasons appeared valid, it was simply too irresponsible to carry on a group of kids in a monster quest.

But the other guards were already aware of our presence and had even agreed to it as a whole. This was a major learning experience, for when we will be joining them later, after all. And with the majority of the numbers against opposition, Borris and the others displeased with the idea, had no other choice but to keep to themselves. At the same time, too, in a way, this could also appear as a learning exercise for the new recruits as well.

Perhaps that's why they felt irked by the presence of kids.

'What luck...of course I'd end up with one of these guys as a group member, ' in hindsight, there was nothing i could do about it despite my thoughts. The members and groups were split entirely by luck after all.

At Mr. Roan's words, Borris snorted.

"What assistance? This brat has just been in the rear. He's an unnecessary liability—" before he could finish, his companion sharply cut him off.

"Borris. That's enough. Do not question the vice-captains orders any more, " Bowen was his name, and from their prior interactions, it was clear the two were already quite acquainted with each other.

After that, Borris, clicked his tongue and kept to himself. He turned his back and began walking away.

"Hey, rookie, where do you think you're going?" Skylar who had been watching the whole interaction quietly, called out to the retreating back of Borris.

"I'm going to scout the area," Borris response was curt without turning back.

And like that, he left.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Two chapters today, cuz I'm in a good mood. Second one incoming.