11 - Merloc Hunt ｢1｣
"Hadlakat-Esh!"
Flames combusted in the air as they swirled around his right hand.
Johan let out a deep exhale as the fire flew down towards the wood, scorching them lit in the process.
Above the blazing pyre was a skinned wild boar ready to be roasted.
A long wooden stake was stabbed through its bum and it reached out all the way to its open mouth.
In other words, it was dinner.
Johan sat down onto the dirt as he leaned back against the slightly moist trunk of a tree, his hand reaching for something inside his suit.
He glanced around, making sure no one was watching as he retrieved a cigarette from his pouch.
It wasn't an ordinary cigarette, but a magical one made from specific materials that actually made your body healthier.
A few days have already passed since the search for Noah.
The brothers had agreed to acquire all of the Potion Ingredients first before actually starting to make any of the Potions.
Since there were five Potions, the two of them decided to split the work. Two Potions for each sibling, and the ingredients for the last Potion would be gathered by the one who lost.
Lose in what exactly? Well, it was a game rock-papers-scissors, and unfortunately for Johan, he was the one who lost.
So not only did he have to find the ingredients for the Sailor and Reader Potions, but also the ingredients for the Spectator Potion!
Although Johan had originally anticipated the Sailor Potion to have been the easiest to acquire, irony came in the way.
The Reader Potion's Main Ingredients was the Tail Feather of a Librarian Owl, as well as 20 mililiters of its Fermented Urine.
And for the Main Ingredients of the Spectator Potion, it was a Matured Manhal Fish's Eyeball and 35 milliliters of Goat-Horned Blackfish Blood.
These materials were not exactly common, but very much accessible if you had some connections in the Department of Zoology and had the money.
As for the Sailor Potion...
Apparently, the bladder of a Murloc was an extremely volatile organ that, up until now, didn't really have many uses except as genuine hazards.
For this reason, Zoology didn't sell these parts.
Therefore, he must resort to this—becoming an illegal poacher.
Unfortunately, even after days of searching in the swamps of Wales, he had yet to stumble upon even one living specimen!
"Wait..." Johan muttered to himself in consideration as he lit the cigarette and placed it between his lips. "I should have just gone to the black market..."
In hindsight, that would have been the smarter and easier choice, but simply put, he just hadn't thought of it back then.
"Heh... maybe, I'll get smarter after drinking the Reader Potion." Johan mused half-jokingly.
Smoke was puffed out from his mouth as Johan glanced up at the night sky, he adjusted his seating position to be more comfortable as he did so.
It was beautiful, the stars, they were so beautiful.
They were like diamonds that littered the night sky, each grouping together to form constellations that roamed about harmoniously.
Ursa Major playing with her husband Ursa Minor, Aries and Taurus grazing on the fields of light, and Scorpius being the bastard that he was...
Johan often wondered what secrets the Cosmos held.
Back when he was a child, he'd sometimes reach out and imagine himself crushing the very stars within his fingers.
"...Ah." Johan widened his eyes as he found himself doing the exact same thing once again. "This feels nice."
It brought him back a bit...
Of course, unlike in his childhood imaginations, nothing happened to the stars this time.
"Maybe if it wasn't for this ring, I would have joined the Department of Astromancy..." Johan mused to himself with a chuckle, his eyes gazing over the golden surface of the Gobbler Ring.
Well, since I already have it now, I guess there's actually nothing stopping me... Johan realized before he shook his head.
"I'll save this thought for future Joe." Johan said lazily as he leaned back and tilted his hat down to cover his face.
A short nap would be nice.
Of course, he took the cigarette first and set up a Timer Spell for when the pork gets ready.
...And a small Bounded Field to alert him if any living thing larger than a dog gets close.
It's never a bad idea to be cautious.
With that, the Magus sighed and tried his best to get some rest.
After some minutes of dozing off, Johan's eyes fluttered open, mentally alerted by something entering his vicinity. "Hm...?"
He let out a tired yawn before adjusting his tophat back in place, with blurry vision, he gazed at the flaming pyre.
"...Eh?" Johan couldn't help but exclaim as confusion flooded his eyes. "Where did..."
The wild boat that was supposed to have been his dinner was now nowhere to be seen.
Yet it didn't dissappear without a trace, glancing to the side, there was a visible trail on the dirt.
"Something dragged it off...?" Johan realized, but then something clicked in his mind.
Whatever it was that did this hadn't alerted his Bounded Field when it entered, it was the boar being dragged out of the domain that actually alerted him.
This...
To be able to carry a boar so quickly and be undetectable to his Bounded Field, it must have been a special kind of Magical Beast.
Best case scenario, its something that went underground and emerged inside of the Bounded Field without directly entering through barrier... maybe, it was even a mutated type of Murloc, but Johan knew he wasn't that lucky.
Worst case scenario, its something that can nullify Bounded Fields.
Either case, it stole his dinner, and he wasn't going to let anyone else other than Noah do such a thing.
Johan quickly reached into his suit and pulled out a small revolver.
It wasn't just an ordinary revolver, but a Mystic Code that can fire silent, invisible bullets.
After all, he was out here to looking to hunt, and guns are a great weapon to bring in such hunts...
Warily, he began to follow the dirt trail, keeping the revolver close to his body as he Reinforced his calves, readying them for combat.
Oh, here are the tracks... wait, aren't these pawprints? Johan thought to himself as he carefully observed the footprints.
Indeed, they were very close in appearance to pawprints, but Johan couldn't deduce whether it was feline or canine in nature.
Perhaps, a skunk of some kind? Well, it had to be a very large skunk for it to have dragged the boar so effortlessly... maybe a giant racoon.
Suddenly, the Magus stopped his movements as the lower jawbone of the wild boar was tossed out from nearby.
It was all red and messy, with barely any meat still attached to the bone.
The sound of loud cracking could be heard, trampling his spine with a chilling sense of fear.
And then he saw it, the Beast that rested inside of the boar's shattered ribcage, a piece of cooked flesh still in its mouth.
"Ah..." Johan widened his eyes when he saw the perpetrator. "The fuck?"
It wasn't what he expected.
Instead of it having a special method to counteract the Bounded Field, it was more accurate to say that the Beast was just too small for it to have been detected.
Johan had set his Bounded Field to alert him if anything larger than a medium-sized dog entered through.
What had dragged his dinner away was nothing more than some kind of squirrel-like rabbit, smaller than a dog.
It noticed him.
"...Fou?" The little creature produced an unusual sound.
Right, it didn't seem to be hostile, probably because it just ate, but Johan decided not to be so reckless.
After all, it had the strength to drag away an entire wild boar, it was definitely stronger than it looked.
"Hey," He said, pointing his revolver away so it wouldn't be intimidated, yet still not putting it away just in case. "You stole my food."
"Kyu." The little creature howled back as it tossed another piece of pork into its mouth.
The meat was larger than its skull, but it somehow managed to devour the entire thing in just a few seconds. It felt quite disturbing to watch...
"Ah... okay." Johan nodded respectfully. "I guess you can have it, I'll just shoot a bird or something."
"Fou... kyu." The little Beast muttered something as it chewed on the bones, its eyes gazing in Johan's direction.
"What are you anyway? I don't think there are any native carnivorous rabbits here." Johan noted as he took the chance to approach, his pace carefully slow as to not provoke the animal.
It stopped eating as its nose twitched towards the Magus... slowly, it lifted its right paw.
"Ugh, what?" Johan asked in confusion. "Are you trying to tell me something?"
It wasn't uncommon for Magical Beasts to develop higher intelligence, some even learned sign language to better communicate.
...But it was the first time that Johan had encountered such a rare creature.
It did a weird motion with its right paw, waving it around and even tapping it with the other paw.
Reluctantly, Johan mimicked the Beast, raising his own right hand, which was covered in a glove.
Due to the Gobbler Ring's compulsion effect, he started wearing black gloves now.
The creature reacted immediately as it leapt with incredible speed, faster than Johan could even properly see as afterimages followed the little Beast.
With sharp fangs, it tore his right hand and ripped it open as blood quickly gushed out.