Dark Fantasy’s Extra

Not long after entering the forest, various sounds began to reach our ears.

Until now, there had only been the sound of grass and leaves rustling in the wind, along with occasional insect and bird calls, but now we could clearly hear the breathing of creatures filled with hostility.

“Hilde.”

“Yes.”

“On the right.”

“What?”

At that moment, a rat the size of a wild dog burst out from the bushes on the right.

“Ah…!?”

While it wasn’t a prepared counterattack but rather a reflexive action, Hilde still swung her axe.

However, the rat hit the handle rather than the blade, so instead of killing it, she only managed to deflect it.

“Th-that is…?”

“Get ready.”

A rat as big as a wild dog.

Its eyes were an eerily bright red, its fur was patchy like it was diseased, and its front teeth were long and large enough to certainly kill if they pierced someone’s neck.

The creature charged at Hilde again.

Hilde swung her axe once more.

Though it wasn’t perfect since she was using the weapon for the first time, she definitely managed to hit the rat’s head with the axe blade, splitting its nose.

“…!?!”

It jumped up and thrashed about as if struck by lightning.

This time Hilde properly gathered her wits and took a stance to counterattack.

But when it showed signs of trying to escape, I drew the dagger from my thigh and threw it.

Though I couldn’t hit its head since it was thrashing violently, I managed to lodge it reasonably well in its body.

The rat’s movements suddenly stopped and it went limp.

“Don’t let them escape. They’ll definitely alert their companions about the situation.”

While creatures can’t speak, they have their own means of communication.

“I-I’m sorry. I…”

“You did well for your first time. You properly counterattacked.”

“…Did it really have to be this axe? From a distance with a gun…”

“We can’t use guns in this forest. They’re too loud and would make the creatures run away. Our goal is training after all.”

“Ah, so that’s why we’re here…”

“Right. Real Beasts are hard to find, and I couldn’t entrust you with those anyway. So we’re building experience by facing opponents weaker than the real thing.”

“I didn’t know places like this existed. And that…”

Hilde pointed at the dead rat.

“It’s a creature affected by the curse. Too weak to warrant hunters’ effort to exterminate, but too dangerous to leave alone – that kind of ambiguous existence.”

I went over to the rat that lay still with the dagger embedded in it.

Then I stepped on the dagger’s handle with my foot.

“…!!!”

The rat thrashed violently for a moment before going still.

“As I thought, it was playing dead. Its intelligence seems beyond that of a mere creature.”

When ordinary humans become Beasts, they generally lose intelligence, but conversely, when creatures become Beasts, they become smarter.

Of course, their ferocity and danger level also increase.

I pulled out the dagger, wiped it on some leaves, and put it back.

“Let’s go. We’ll continue training here today.”

“Yes!”

We walked deeper into the forest.

And before long, another monster appeared before us.

“Ugh…”

Hilde shuddered.

Approaching rapidly from the front was a spider larger than the previous rat, about the size of a large dog.

Judging by its glistening fangs, it clearly possessed venom.

When it came within about 3 meters, the spider leaped.

Hilde, who had been preparing to counterattack, wasn’t expecting this and her reaction was slow.

I threw my dagger again, hitting it squarely in the head.

The spider’s flight slowed ever so slightly, and in that moment, Hilde swung her axe precisely, cutting it in half.

“You need to be able to move even in unexpected situations.”

“Yes…”

Hilde shivered, apparently creeped out.

“And you need to get used to dealing with dirty or disgusting things. Animals and insects are actually better.”

While what was split in half now was a giant spider, soon she would see people end up like this too.

I retrieved my dagger again and continued walking with Hilde.

“By the way, aren’t we going to purify those with holy oil?”

The standard procedure after killing Beasts is to sprinkle them with holy oil and burn them.

This is because the curse and toxic energy emanating from the corpses can negatively affect the ground and passing creatures.

“Normally we would. But holy oil isn’t free. It would be wasteful to use it on such low-level creatures.”

We kept moving forward.

As sunlight gradually became blocked, our surroundings filled with shadows.

The disorienting sounds of grass and insects increased, and we could feel strange gazes upon us.

To Beasts, humans with magical power are like massive steaks dripping with blood.

They can smell it from far away, and it makes their mouths water.

The less intelligent ones will rush in recklessly to claim that meat, but the slightly smarter ones know that meat can sometimes kill them, so they wait for an opening or gather numbers to attack all at once.

We had killed several Beast-transformed creatures by now, including the giant rat and spider.

Hilde seemed to have gotten somewhat used to it, as her demeanor had stabilized considerably.

Then, at just the right moment, suitable opponents appeared.

“Grrrr…”

Massive wolves with foam at their mouths emerged from all directions.

By rough count there were 5-6 of them, each about the size of a tiger.

These were the ones I had seen in Blue Paper Moon.

The ‘Wolves of the Forest’ that served as a mid-boss in the juniper forest.

They surround and rush in together, so if you don’t maintain a wide field of view, you can easily get attacked from blind spots.

Of course, being early-game opponents, they weren’t particularly threatening, but for a novice hunter – no, for Hilde who hadn’t even mastered the basics of being a hunter yet – they were quite formidable.

“We-we’re surrounded!”

“I know. I’ll watch your back, you focus on what’s in front.”

I drew a hand axe and silver throwing daggers in both hands and stood back-to-back with Hilde.

Strike first to win.

Those doing the surrounding generally aren’t as tense due to their numerical advantage.

Of course, it might be different with humans, but creatures of this level probably won’t worry that much.

In Blue Paper Moon, when facing the Wolves of the Forest, it was actually safer to keep moving while fighting rather than standing still.

But right now I have to fight while protecting Hilde.

I first threw a silver dagger at one of the wolves.

The wolf didn’t dodge.

Of course, it probably had the ability to dodge, but having lived in this forest as an apex predator and never being hit by a hunter’s silver dagger before, it probably didn’t pay much attention.

While silver daggers are softer than steel, they have greater effect than ordinary iron against low-level Beasts.

“Kying…!?”

The wolf that took the dagger in its eye collapsed and convulsed.

The pack was startled by this sudden development.

I drew another dagger and threw it at one whose gaze was fixed on its fallen companion.

The silver dagger lodged precisely in its neck below its turned head, and that wolf also collapsed in place, convulsing.

Normal creatures would realize the situation had gone wrong and follow their instincts to flee, but these chose to become enraged and fight instead.

The remaining wolf on this side approached rapidly, drool dripping from its jaws.

I threw another dagger, but this time it dodged.

So it has enough intelligence to learn after all.

And I could see the first one that took a dagger to the eye following from behind, apparently not having received a fatal wound.

At the same time, I could feel wolves rushing in from behind me, where Hilde was.

For a moment I wondered if I should protect her, but she needs to be able to handle this much herself.

I had already used all three of my throwing daggers.

Now I only had the silver axe and two guns left.

Using the guns would make things simple, but that would defeat the purpose of training.

Of course, the training was for Hilde, not me, but the teacher needs to participate alongside to build trust.

That’s how it was when I learned from my seniors.

I first struck away the extended front leg of the closest one with my axe while stabbing its head with the reverse-grip dagger in my other hand.

Then without pulling out the dagger, I let go of it and struck the head of the one following with the back of the axe.

The wolf’s swinging paw scratched my glove but didn’t tear it.

And as the one I had struck in the head was still dazed, I properly swung the axe at it.

With a thud, its skull shattered and blood flowed from its eyes before it collapsed dead.

Having taken them down so quickly, I let out a brief sigh of relief.

And at exactly that moment, Hilde pushed me from behind as she fell.

I could see a wolf in front of her, its jaws clamped on the handle of her scythe, pressing her down.

I drew up magical power to accelerate and kicked its belly, sending it flying.

Perhaps because I unconsciously used too much magical power in the urgent situation, the kicked wolf flew all the way into a tree and collapsed.

I could see intestines protruding from its limp jaws.

Having suddenly used too much magical power, my head spun briefly.

Then an ear-splitting gunshot rang out and my mind cleared.

Looking toward Hilde, I saw her lying down aiming her gun, smoke rising from the barrel.

Turning around, I saw a wolf collapsed there, blood flowing from a hole in its head.

Beside it lay another one already dead with its head split open.

“Hah, hah…”

I could hear Hilde’s rough breathing, as if she had been holding her breath before releasing it.

I extended my hand to her.

Hilde grabbed my hand and struggled to her feet.

“I-I’m sorry… The gun…”

“What kind of training would it be if you got seriously injured? You handled that well just now.”

“But because I got caught…”

“You need more confidence. You have exceptional aptitude. You might have gotten caught this time, but with more training, you could kill a hundred of these even if they all rushed you at once.”

“…Could I really do that?”

“Yes. Trust me. You’ll definitely become an amazing hunter. No need to shrink back from something like this. Now that you understand, let’s clean up these corpses. These ones we can’t just leave lying around, we need to burn them.”

“Yes.”

We retrieved our weapons and gathered the wolves in one place.

When we sprinkled holy oil on them and threw a lit match, massive flames immediately erupted.

As the holy oil’s flames burned away the curse lingering in their flesh, an acrid smell assaulted our noses while black smoke rose toward the sky.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“No. I’m not injured.”

“That’s good. Still, let me check just to be sure.”

I examined Hilde’s condition.

While there were no visible external wounds, invisible injuries can happen anytime.

Perhaps because we had fought together even if it was training, I felt a bit more comfortable dealing with Hilde and experimentally poked her shoulder.

“Eek…!?”

Hilde jumped as if shocked by electricity.

“So you are hurt after all. Your muscles probably got shocked when you blocked with the scythe handle earlier.”

“M-muscles can get shocked?”

“Let’s rest a bit.”

Thanks to the burning smell, the Beast-transformed creatures in the area won’t approach.

If we want to rest, this spot is most suitable right now.

“Since this is a good opportunity, I’ll teach you about magical power too.”