Chapter 30: Stampede

After we finished our lunch and stuffed our stomachs, me and my sister went to the forest together for our trice a week monster hunting. We've been changing our schedules for hunting over the past few years.

Four years ago, me and my sister got impatient with our monthly monster hunting and asked our parents to make it more frequent. They decided to make our hunting weekly, which made us siblings more excited but reminded us not to neglect our students and training.

Just four months ago, after my sister's birthday, she ordered me to level up faster for Mary to live eternally. We appealed to our parents again to make our hunting at least twice a week, but they made it three times a week.

We train our bodies on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The afternoons of Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are our monster hunting days, and we take Sundays off.

"There are still more approaching, Sis! But this time, a pack of ten Orthrus around Level 200 to 250 was led by a Level 360 Cerberus. Estimate Time of Arrival, three minutes."

Using my Omnidirectional Perception, I informed my sister about the incoming pack of demonic dogs as I was cleaving an ogre from head to crouch.

"Copy that! Circular Swipe!"

She responded, then rotated her body to revolve her katana and annihilate three Ogres who had just entered her attack range. Leaving them vertically sliced into two.

A much larger and obviously stronger superior kind of Ogre, around ten feet in height, is approaching us with the intention to kill after seeing his kinsmen getting killed by us. I gestured my right hand into a gun and pointed it at the rushing, club-wielding Ogre.

"Air Sniper."

A foot-diameter green magic circle appeared in front of my fingertip. A fast and sharp sound passed our eyes. Then it was followed by a splatting sound as the head of the ogre burst like a pomegranate. The headless humanoid monster staggered for a while before it collapsed on the ground.

"Headshot," I said while blowing the non-existent smoke that is released from my finger pistol.

The magic spell that I just cast was a Level 6 Wind Magic spell called Air Sniper. Just as the name implies, it's a spell that shoots a fast bullet of wind. From what I observed, it was measured at one-fifty caliber and had a speed several times faster than sonic speed.

Shooting a bullet of this caliber and speed is a sure kill. You have to practice your marksmanship and steel your stance first before casting this spell due to its slow reload rate and high recoil.

Ogres are humanoid carnivorous monsters that are eight feet tall on average. Ogres had skin colors ranging from dark brown to maroon and a dull horn at their foreheads. Ogre General, meanwhile, was taller and had two sharp horns.

(They looked like Japanese Oni, though.)

Using Inventory more frequently made me better at mastering it. I can now open several Inventory at once and successfully collect all eight Ogres, including the Ogre General. Ogres have tough hides that would make good leather.

"The dogs will be here any minute." I warned.

"I know. I can detect them now."

Even if you said that, the monsters are still two kilometers from our position. Sister's Detection coverage can cover an area up to a four-kilometer radius. and that was not normal and way beyond what a veteran scout could reach.

As for me, I have my Unique Skill Omnidirectional Perception. With my current mana reserve, I can cover a whopping ten-kilometer radius and beyond. If I had to say it to myself, it's also not normal by any means.

After we waited for a minute, the noise of the rumbling earth could be heard behind the woods hundreds of meters away. I readied my newly forged crimson-bladed katana as the demon dogs got closer.

I've been killing monsters for years. Too many that it reached five digits in total. Slaying monsters means having their corpses. And most of the corpse had blood sputtering from it.

Since there were some inedible monsters in my Inventory, mountain of it was wasted. Then an idea came to me of how to make use of them.

One day, when I was surfing on a social media site, I happened to stumble upon an interesting meme. The meme claimed that you can make an iron sword out of the blood of thousands of people. And I took that personally.

Instead of human blood, I used the blood from the unused corpse in my storage. Using Alchemy, I extracted the iron content from the monster's blood, which was still in my Inventory.

The monsters had mana in their bodies. That body includes the blood flowing in their veins. Being drenched in mana for years also affects the quality of the blood. Some blood had a different taste, viscosity, molecular content, and color.

After I extracted all of the iron from thousands of monster corpses, I used Alchemy again to give it the form of an ingot. What unfolded in my eyes was not an ingot of typical iron steel, but the personification of crimson-red blood in the form of an ingot.

When I used Analysis on the blood-red ingot, it was called Blood Steel. It said that it was as durable and as conductive as an adamantite. Which means it had the same quality as the most durable metal known to mankind.

I used the ingot and made myself a katana, just like my sister. It is almost identical to my sister's except for the metal used, the blade length, and the tsuba design. I made a katana myself because I want to become the storm that is approaching.

"Are you ready, Sis?"

"I am always ready, Raphael."

Then the alpha of the pack came out from behind the shadows of the trees. It stopped its feet from running and stared at us menacingly.

"Grrrrrrr…"

The quadrupedal monster had pitch-black fur, bloodshot eyes, a drooling mount with sharp fangs and teeth, and stood at seven feet. The most distinct trait of it was that it had three heads, which was the unique classification of a Cerberus.

"Grrrr…" the Cerberus growled as its five foot-tall, two-headed Orthrus cronies one by one came out of the woods.

"Would you like to take the Cerberus, Sis?"

"Of course I like to."

"Then, I'll be taking six Orthrus." then we charge to the dogs after splitting and choosing our targets.

"Woof!"

The pack also lunged at us after we showed our hostility. The Orthruses charged at us first, while the Cerberus stayed behind.

Every time an Orthrus reached our attack range, we instantly slashed our swords, killing a hound in the process.

(One.)

I swung my sword horizontally and amputated the heads of the first Orthrus.

(Two.)

Swiped the sword diagonally and cleanly cleaved the second Orthrus.

(Three. Four)

I thrust my sword into the third dog's heart and impaled it. I pulled my sword immediately, rotated my body clockwise, swung my sword gracefully, and double beheaded the fourth Orthrus.

(Five.)

I stopped my feet and opened my palm. I silently cast Level 5 Water Magic: Icicle Spear and impaled the heart of the fifth dog.

As for my last kill, I held the handle of my katana with both hands and raised it overhead. Upon reaching my range, I swung my blade downward and activated a Level 2 Sword Art technique.

"Vertical Slash!"

I slash my sword at the jumping Orthrus. The deep red hue of my blade passed through the jet-black fur of the hound and hit the skin. My blade penetrated the flesh between the heads of the orthrus and continued until it hit its heart, then the magic crystal. Slice the innards all the way to the rear.

My overwhelming STR stats swung my blade at such incredible speed that it released a shockwave that sliced the earth. If I used Sword Wave, it would cause greater damage to the surroundings and could result in collateral damage.

"And six."

The black body of the orthrus was cleanly sliced into two and dropped off to the earth. I don't need to swing my sword to get rid of the blood like I usually do. The sword itself will absorb the blood due to its Blood Life effects.

<Experience fulfilled. You leveled up by 1.>

I looked at the path made by my sister to see four Orthrus cleaved in half like what I did to my last kill. She is currently facing a D-ranked monster named Hellhound and an Orthrus; the Cerberus is not to be seen. But it was actually the Cerberus from before. It's just using its Racial Skill called Split Body.

The Cerberus launched itself at my sister just to lose one of its heads. The head slowly grew in size and formed limbs, and a hellhound was born.

The severed head of a Cerberus will take form and spawn a Hellhound, up to three spawns, including the main body. Each Hellhound spawn will take 25% of the main body's Level, giving the main body a 50% stat as a Hellhound.

The main body can absorb the spawns again and regain its true strength. If all heads are beheaded at once, four new individual Hellhounds will be born with a 25% stat each, losing their main body.

The two spawn Hellhounds charged at my standing sister. Both of them lose their heads in unison from a single slash of my sister's sword. She then dashed towards the dumbfounded former Cerberus, and its head is now flying in the air.

I remotely collect all of the dogs' corpses inside my Inventory. Even though its meat tasted so bad and could cause curses and diseases due to its cursed body, its jet-black fur was a fine material for fashion and could fetch a good price.

"Isn't it strange to encounter these monsters in these area?" I pondered as I collected my sister's kill while approaching her.

"Yeah, it's strange. It seems like they were desperately trying to run from something…"

"It seems. A new wave of monsters is coming from the depths. Estimate around a hundred individuals, ranging from Level 200 to 400."

"Now it turns into a monster stampede. Let's take the strong ones and leave the rest to the adventurers nearby."

"Affirmative, Sis. Let's find the source of this stampede."

We are currently in an area where mostly monsters of D-rank roam. Encountering a group of C-ranked Ogres with a B-ranked Ogre General in this area is surely strange. But a pack of C-ranked Orthrus led by a B-ranked Cerberus is making it stranger.

We march deeper into the forest and kill strong monsters in the process. From the behavior of the monsters, they look like they are evacuating to a safer place away from the source of this stampede.

If there are A-ranked monsters included in the stampede, the cause of this stampede must be something that is more than these monsters.