Chapter 18
Chapter 18 – Hunting with Mofir
Flying is really fun .
It feels as if I’m flowing through the sky while a.s.similated with the wind, the suns.h.i.+ne is also warmer and gentler than normal… Though that’s probably just my impression .
Birds and wyverns also pa.s.s by from time to time, before they seemed like part of the scenery to me, but now I am also a part of this environment, I feel a certain affinity to them .
… I’m the only one that feels this affinity however, so they still attack me… It’s somewhat pointless though .
“I wish my flight was a bit better though…” I sighed while wiping some bird’s blood off my cheeks .
I no longer feel awkward while flying, and I think I’m pretty used to it already… But when I see Lefy’s flying figure from up close, I still feel I have a long way to go .
She’s beautiful . Her gracefulness is almost illusory, as if the whole sky around us was only a detail to make her stand out even more .
Lefy said she’d make me the ruler of the skies, but it only takes a single glance to know who this role belongs to .
I would be overwhelmed if she was in her dragon form, but with Lefy’s current humanoid looks, I might mistake her for an angel .
My gaze suddenly noticed a figure down below though, so I stopped this train of thought and started gliding down .
“Hey, up here! Heey, Fir!!” I shouted .
Over there, a wolf with beautiful silver fur noticed me and lightly bowed his head . Mofir seemed prideful, but his tail was eagerly and happily swaying .
He really was looking forward to this . Well, I love him too .
“Alright, how have you been? Were you eating properly? And, did you just grow up a bit!?”
As soon as I landed, I started caressing him and talking just like a worried mother speaks to a son that is living alone .
Fir seems to have grown because monsters within the dungeon are an excellent source of nourishment for its inhabitants, they are full of magical power .
Though one can also live by just eating wild animals if they want, which exists outside the dungeon .
However, if an inhabitant stays a certain amount of time without absorbing the dungeon’s magical power, their health starts deteriorating, so they can’t stay away for long .
Fir has basically worked within the dungeon’s territory, and since I wasn’t worried about the DP income, he could just eat the bodies of whatever monsters he killed .
Killing monsters gives more DP than absorbing their bodies, which gives more than keeping them alive within the dungeon’s territory, and all of that obviously gives more DP than the natural recovery of the dungeon . That said, one can easily live by just feeding off the dungeon’s magical power, but it’s not very fulfilling .
Comparatively speaking, the equivalent would be someone that likes curry eating only that same food for the rest of their life, sooner or later it becomes bland .
Monster meat on the other hand, is very delicious . I had a hard time cooking it because I couldn’t find any information on how to cook it, so it ended up burning a bit, but still tasted great .
Lefy said it is because they are filled with mana, so this naturally enhances their taste, it seems to be common knowledge that monsters have tastier meat than animals .
Ever since I discovered that, I started stocking monster bodies in my item box, it’s still not as much as Lefy brought in that one day, but they can make a big pile if I take them all out . And since time doesn’t fly on the item box, I don’t need to worry about the bodies rotting .
“Well Fir, we’re going . I’m not familiar with the geography over there, so could you give me a ride?”
Fir barked and shook his body in approval .
“Alright, then I’ll count on you . ”
As I sat atop of him, Fir stretched his legs and got ready to run .
“Alright, you can g-gooooooo!?”
Fir started running as soon as I gave him the green-light . The wind’s pressure was making my whole body tremble and I was about to fall off his back, so I wrapped my arms around him and held tightly .
“Ahahaha, amazing!!” Cheering him on, we moved to the forest at full speed .
* * *
Today is the day I hunt with Fir .
I haven’t hunted any monster recently because DP wasn’t lacking, but since I spent a lot on ‘Flight’, it would be a good idea to replenish my reserves . Besides, I can play with Fir while doing this anyway, so it was a good opportunity .
We headed to the East of the cave . Nature spreads to all four cardinal directions if you start from it .
Lefy’s former territory is on the North, almost no sentient beings live there because they fear her .
The South is where the weakest monsters can be found, most of my dungeon expansion was on that area, I can fight there with ease .
The East is an area in which the monsters are average on strength, it’s a good place for me to train . Sometimes a few stronger enemies appear though .
The most dangerous monsters are on the West, it only takes a single glance to know I can’t beat those, I can only enter that zone with Lefy .
This is just an oversimplification though, both eastern and western areas seem to have very strong enemies if you dive deep enough into them, Lefy advised to have caution and to not go too deep before it became too dangerous . It feels scary, but also enticing .
When I just want DP I normally go to the South, but it seems our overhunting made the monsters too scared and they started running away from the dungeon area, which made our income drop, so I’m going to expand the controlled territory to the East until the ecosystem normalizes . It’s a good opportunity since I don’t have that much mapped over there .
“Oh, a Horned Tiger”
Near Fir, I could see one of those, it’s a tiger with a unicorn horn, and it was growling at my partner .
He may look dangerous, but he is not very strong . The ‘Poison Rabbits’ are a lot more hazardous, they may be as fragile as their animal counterpart, but they are very quick and their bites can make monsters a lot bigger than them lose their color in ten seconds and die in thirty .
I suppose specialized abilities end up mattering a lot more than all round ones .
In any case, let’s just make this tiger become DP quietly .
While Fir distracted the monster, I dropped from up above and swung my sword against the tiger’s head . It scattered pieces of its body all over the place .
This is our current strategy, it’s fairly simple .
Fir pulls the attention of the enemy from below, while I fly from above, then I fall down and smash their head to pieces . In case the enemy notices me, my partner holds it in place with the ‘Everchanging Chains’, it has worked out really well so far .
I didn’t originally plan to just descend like that, my plan was to smoothly fly down and swiftly cut their heads off, but after the race car-like speed of Fir, my muscles got a bit paralyzed .
Also, my control isn’t as good as Lefy’s, so I couldn’t quite manage the deceleration properly, which lead to my first landing being quite terrible . Fir’s reaction to the sudden monster explosion was pretty funny though .
.
It also scared me however, but my body wasn’t damaged at all, it seems an Archdemon’s body can withstand this much without worries, as my HP didn’t drop one bit .
After this first experience, I completely removed the concept of ‘brake’ from my head and just dropped like a bullet . A pure muscle brain tactic, using my body’s power without holding back… Super fun!
My favorite attractions at amus.e.m.e.nt parks have always been the ones that made me scream the most, if we ever made an attraction with this kind of entertainment, we could rack quite a bit of money .
“Ah… It broke down”
I stopped dilly-dallying when I looked at the sword in my hand, I was only holding the handle . The current attack broke the blade at its root, making the sword completely useless .
This is troublesome though, I need a weapon to fight, and make this area part of the dungeon .
I do have the magic revolver, but it takes a while to recharge, it’s a nice trump card, but doesn’t serve as a main weapon .
The sword however, is useless .
It simply doesn’t suit me, I have already broken a few of them . My body’s output is too big, the swords can’t handle it and break one after the other… I need something that fits me better .
… Well, for now, why not try a bar of reinforced steel? Currently speaking, the sword was being used as a blunt weapon, so this might actually be more effective .
Taking the bar from my item box and testing some swings, it seemed like it would work well for dropping unto monsters from the sky . Fir gave me a resigned look and let me mount on him before we started looking for the next prey .