Chapter 10 - Hunting, but something interesting is coming over the hill

On the same day.

At 15.45 pm.

....

Soil Hound dens are usually located in the southwest of the Welsin Plain and are characterized by high mounds of earth with large holes. Team Seven had been searching for the Soil Hound's nest; they sometimes used binoculars to see from a distance. Along the way, Team Seven did not encounter the Soil Hounds but instead encountered other monsters. Therefore, instead of wasting time looking for the group of Soil Hounds that kept moving from one point to another, Nero decided to look for the nest, which was unlikely to move.

Soil Hounds are dog-shaped monsters that have hard soil all over their backs, these monsters also have dark brown fur, and their eyes are bright yellow. Adult Soil Hounds reach heights of 150cm to 3 meters, depending on gender and type. Usually, male Soil Hounds that are over 200cm tall are the leaders of the pack. However, if there is a Soil Hound that is 3 meters tall, then the Soil Hound is a Mini Boss type monster, and it is quite dangerous for beginner adventurers.

Regarding Mini Boss-type monsters, any type of weak monster whose size and strength exceed the normal limits of its species will be labeled as a Mini Boss. Mini Boss-type monsters themselves are not much of a threat to professional adventurers, but a frightening specter for novice adventurers.

Besides the Mini-Boss, there are other types of monsters:

1. Raid-type monsters, or Raid Monsters: This one is the most dangerous and deadly type of monster; its power is beyond human understanding. When raid monsters appear, not only do adventurers intervene, but the military also helps. It usually takes 1,000 soldiers and 500 five- or six-star adventurers to eliminate a Raid Monster. However, the existence of Raid Monsters is very rare; they rarely appear due to their small population and difficulty breeding. In historical records, a Raid Monster once destroyed the Kingdom of Jericho and killed some of its people.

2. Dungeon Boss-type monsters:

Every dungeon has a Dungeon Boss, or what can be called a dungeon guardian. This type of monster is quite unique because they will come back to life over a long period of time, even if they are killed many times. This is because the Dungeon Boss is reborn by the dungeon itself, and the only way to prevent the Dungeon Boss from coming back to life is to destroy the dungeon core. Depending on the danger level, sometimes adventurers deliberately do not destroy the dungeon core so that they can harvest quality materials from the Dungeon Boss continuously. If the Dungeon Boss is too strong or dangerous, then adventurers will destroy the dungeon core so as not to cause casualties.

3. Colossal-type monsters:

This type of monster has a very large size, its height or length can reach 700 meters to more than 8,000 meters. Usually, Colossal-type monsters whose size is more than 800 meters are in the deep sea. Not all Colossal-type monsters are dangerous, some are tame, and can even coexist with humans.

4. Area Boss-type monsters:

Every hunting area has a ruler, and this ruler is called an Area Boss. Just like the Dungeon Boss, the Area Boss can live many times over a long period of time so that its materials can be continuously harvested. However, the Area Boss cannot be destroyed forever because the birth of the Area Boss is a request from ordinary monsters who want to ask for protection from the hunting of adventurers; in other words, the Area Boss is reborn from the prayers of monsters that are answered by God. If the adventurers want to destroy Area Boss forever, then they must either annihilate all the monsters in the world or defeat the God who granted the monsters' wishes.

5. Normal Monsters type: There's nothing special about this type of monster. Just ordinary monsters like Trenths, Slimes, Soil Hounds, Goblins, Kobolts, Wyverns, and others.

....

After a long search, Team Seven finally managed to find the Soil Hound's den near the foothills. The one who found it was Luna; she accidentally saw it from a distance in a high place using binoculars. The distance was quite far from where Team Seven was, so all of them did not prepare themselves and chose to reduce their distance to the Soil Hound's nest that had just been found.

Once ready to hunt, each member of Team Seven moved to their respective positions according to the formation, then Nero gave the signal with his left hand for the raid, and the hunt began.

First, Lefina came forward as the opening attack, she used her [Provocation] ability to attract all the attention of the Soil Hounds outside and inside the den.

"Hey, dumb dogs! Attack me if you can, I'll break all your weak attacks!" Lefina exclaimed, with a fierce face.

As planned, almost all of the Soil Hounds came charging at Lefina who was standing alone at the forefront, the rest using earth magic attacks from a distance. Lefina set up her best stance and covered herself with a shield, she was well prepared to receive any number of attacks from the Soil Hound group.

"Luna, protect Lefina with the magic barrier right now!" Nero gave the order firmly.

"Okay!" Luna spun her rod, focused her mind, and mentioned a command to activate magic, [Grape Barrier]

After the command was mentioned, a bright purple transparent barrier instantly appeared covering Lefina's entire body. And thanks to Luna's barrier magic, the soil magic attacks launched by several Soil Hounds became meaningless, the Soil Hounds' magic unable to penetrate Luna's thick barrier. Lefina was greatly helped by the barrier provided by Luna, she could focus on withstanding the attacks of the Soil Hounds who were charging at her in droves.

As the ten Soil Hounds tried to destroy Lefina's defenses, the dog monsters clawed and nibbled ferociously at Lefina's shield. Sometimes Lefina swung her sword to her left and right to cut down the Soil Hounds that were trying to attack the gaps in her defense.

"Time to crush them all, Lefina!" Nero gave the order.

"Don't just give me orders!" Lefina exclaimed, she looked annoyed when given orders by Nero.

Nero who heard Lefina's exclamation could only smile wryly.

[Shield Bash] Lefina focused her Zeno energy on her shield, then released the energy forward forcefully, causing the Soil Hounds that were trying to destroy her defenses to be blown forward. However, the Soil Hounds that were knocked down were still able to stand tall, they only received minor injuries from the zeno sting.

"William, it's your turn! Attack those Soil Hounds that were blown forward!" Nero tapped William on the shoulder as he gave him the order.

"Understood!" William put on a smile filled with confidence.

William went on the offensive, he ran and jumped forward, utilizing Lefina's shoulder as a stepping stone, so that he could jump high.

"Damn you, William! I'm not a stepping stone, you know! I'll pay you back!" Lefina was furious at William who was high above her, as she raised her right fist upwards.

"Hehe. Sorry-sorry." William blinked his eyes and clicked his tongue at Lefina who was below him.

While in the air, William accumulated Zeno energy in his right fist until a bright yellow light was created, after which he said, [Buster Punch] and swung his fist down, then released all the Zeno energy that had been accumulated to the ground with all his might. The impact of the Buster Punch skill was quite severe, with the shockwave destroying the bodies of the surrounding Soil Hounds and the ground cracking into a rather large hole.

Lefina, who was standing near William when he launched the attack, was affected by the shockwave and Zeno energy shock, but not too badly, her skin was slightly burned.

"You bastard, William! After making me a stepping stone, now you're stinging my skin with your Zeno energy!" Lefina was annoyed, she frowned and gave William a sharp look.

"It's your own fault for not being able to protect yourself, hahaha." William laughed after replying.

"I will definitely repay you for this annoying behavior next time!"

Nero and Luna could only stare at the two of them who were starting to show familiarity.

The total number of Soil Hounds eliminated was 15, in other words, the task of hunting down the big dogs had been successfully completed quickly without having to proceed to another stage of the attack; even Luna had not activated the magic that slowed down the enemy's movement. Nero was amazed at how strong Team Seven's members were; he felt that the discussions about the strategy and stages of the attack were a waste of time.

However, there were still Soil Hounds in the nest, so Nero ordered Lefina and William to guard the entrance to the nest, in case any Soil Hounds wanted to get out then they could kill them quickly. Meanwhile, Nero and Luna took the body parts of the dead Soil Hounds as evidence of the hunt. Mogi just sat back in the tree, eating his rations and enjoying the view.

"Again, they completed the hunting task very quickly. Not only is the leader strong, but it turns out that the other members are just as strong, especially that blond guy; his Buster Punch is very impressive. Geez, the rookie adventurers in this era... are they all as strong as Team Seven?" The Overseer of Team Seven was talking to herself.

....

Suddenly, there was a loud roar and stomping of feet from the top of the hill, startling all the Team Seven members and their Overseer. The birds on the hill flew erratically because the roar was so loud.

"Oi, what's going on!?" Asked William, panicking.

"There's something on top of that hill!" Lefina exclaimed, as she looked up the hill.

"The hill is covered by trees, I can't see clearly what's going on up there." Luna looked up as well.

Meanwhile, the Team Seven Overseer smiled slyly, she already knew what was going on because she recognized the roar. "Well, in a shocking situation like this, what are you going to do, Team Seven leader?"

Nero stared up the hill with a sharp gaze, his eyes flashed red, he sensed something dangerous up there.

"William, Lefina, Luna. Prepare for battle, form a defensive formation now. We have uninvited guests," Nero said, with a serious look on his face.

The three comrades initially half-gawked at Nero's shocking statement, but in the end they obeyed Nero's orders and formed a defensive formation. Lefina was at the front, Nero and William were in the middle position, while Luna was at the back. Then, Nero gave a code in the form of hand gestures to Mogi who was still up in the tree, he ordered Mogi to help them from a distance. Mogi gave a thumbs up and nodded his head in response.

"I wonder what's going on, but it looks like something exciting is about to happen," William said, smiling tensely, his face covered in sweat.

"Yeah, I was hoping we'd have a guest who could entertain me, I'm tired of weak monsters who aren't fun at all," Lefina retorted, smiling smugly as she stood by with her shield.

Not long after, five unknown people suspected to be trainees appeared from the top of the hill, all of them running—rushing down the hill with frightened looks on their faces, to the point that one of them was rolling on the ground.

"Eh? Who are they?" Asked William, confused.

"I don't know, but they look like they're being chased by something," replied Nero.

"Oi, oi, oi. Seriously? What have they done?" William looked at the five people with a tense gaze.

Once again a loud roar sounded, along with this roar, the Soil Hounds that were in the nest suddenly came out in droves, the dog monsters looked angry, their eyes flashed brightly.

"It seems like the roar triggered the Soil Hounds' anger," Luna said.

"You're right, Luna. Whatever creature is coming here, it should be very interesting," Lefina said with a tense face.

From behind the trees at the top of the hill, an enormous Soil Hound appeared, the creature's body was covered in spiky hard soil, in addition to the soil floating around the huge monster. The uninvited creature was a Mini-Boss type monster, the Great Soil Hound. In addition, behind the Great Soil Hound was an army of Soil Hounds that numbered around 250.

"This is impossible, how can we fight that big monster and defeat 250 Soil Hounds? It's like a suicide mission. Then, where's the Overseer who was guarding the five people? He should be able to stop the five of them from doing anything dangerous." William began to be consumed by fear.

"Be strong, William. I know it's too dangerous to take out all the monsters, it's like a suicide mission. However, this is a good experience for all of you! When else can you be surrounded by a crowd of monsters! Don't worry and don't be afraid, I'll protect you all, because I'm a Guardian who will conquer the Grimfield continent!" Nero encouraged his comrades, he grinned widely with great enthusiasm.

Hearing those words come out of Nero's mouth made William feel rivaled; he also had the same dream as Nero, but he was even swallowed by fear by a crowd of monsters that were much weaker than the three monsters guarding the Grimfield continent. William felt ashamed of himself; therefore, he didn't want to lose to Nero. He clenched both his fists and shouted with fighting spirit.

"Good shout, buddy!"

To be continued....