Screeeeech! The lead owl bear charged forward, letting out a more frenzied roar. As the distance between Ghislain and the owl bear narrowed, Ghislain suddenly came to a halt. Thud, thud, thud! With the momentum behind him, his feet skidded along the ground, leaving a long mark as he slid closer to the owl bear. Screeeeech! The owl bear raised its claws high, aiming to slam down on Ghislain. “Hup!” But Ghislain was faster. Before his body even clashed with the owl bear’s, his greatsword traced a wide arc. Slash! The owl bear’s head shot into the air, severed cleanly. Its headless body staggered for a moment before collapsing to the ground. Thud! As the owl bear fell, Ghislain turned around with a bright smile. “See? If you take the head off, they’re dead. And you get a clean hide as a bonus. Most monsters die if they lose their head. The numbers are roughly even, so take one each.” “......” The knights were left speechless. Humans die without a head too, as do most creatures. If that counts as a ‘weakness,’ then it’s like saying a dragon has its own obvious weakness. They wanted to argue, but they didn’t have time to. More owl bears were charging in. Ghislain quickly stepped back and called out. “All right, everyone, attack! Aim for the weak points!” “Tch! Let’s go! I can handle that much!” Kaor yelled bravely, rushing forward. When it came to fighting, he didn’t want to lose to anyone. The knights followed Kaor, gripping their greatswords as they charged. They had trained under Ghislain’s instructions in various combat techniques. Though their main weapons were spears and swords, they had trained with greatswords as well, so fighting these monsters wasn’t an issue. Kaor swung his mana-infused greatsword at a charging owl bear. Slash! Though a bit rough, he managed to decapitate it in a single stroke. For a low-ranking knight to sever the thick, sturdy neck of an owl bear in one strike was quite impressive. “Oooh!” “He’s pretty strong too, huh?” “They might actually pull this off!” The porters, who had been preparing to flee, stopped in their tracks, watching the scene unfold. Two men had already sliced off owl bear heads in a single swing, so they began to expect the same from the other fifty knights. “Argh!” But the knight who aimed for an owl bear’s neck couldn’t slice through completely and got hit, flying backward. The same happened to other knights. Some only managed to cut halfway, while others barely made a scratch. “It’s not cutting!” “Wait, hold on!” “These monsters are too tough!” If they were just attacking, that would be one thing, but as low-ranking knights, it was hard for them to decapitate a large, moving monster in one blow. Screeeeech! With their attacks barely making a dent, the enraged owl bears struck back, sending the knights sprawling and rolling on the ground. “Let’s get out of here! We were wrong!” “Hurry, get on the carts! Those guys are doomed!” The former hunter-turned-driver stirred up the panic again, and the group scrambled back onto the carts. At that moment, Ghislain jumped back into the fray, swiftly decapitating owl bears left and right. “Clicking my tongue, I expected this. That’s why you need to train like hell! Get up quickly, before we start special training on the way back.” His low voice made the knights scramble to their feet in a panic. Their armor and the inner layers made from Blood Python skins protected them, so they weren’t seriously injured. Though a bit bruised, they could still move. “Haaaah!” “Please, just cut through!” “Die! Die!” The thought of Ghislain’s special training scared them more than the monsters. Drawing on all their strength, the knights desperately attacked the owl bears. These knights were the ones who’d lagged behind and grown complacent. Until recently, they hadn’t even been able to handle mana. Despite unleashing bursts of mana, their strikes still missed the mark, leaving the owl bears’ necks slashed and mangled. Screeeeech! The owl bears let out cries of pain. With their necks under constant assault from sloppy attacks, they were wounded but not dead, only left in agony. The chaos was so maddening that Ghislain and Kaor had to keep intervening. Of course, the knights weren’t holding back. A direct hit from an owl bear could inflict serious wounds or even kill. Ghislain continued to assist the knights in danger, shouting commands. “Keep your stance steady! Hold your sword right!” “You’re losing strength in your legs! How many times do I have to show you?” “Hey! What have you been training for until now?” While Ghislain had been busy lately, as a former mercenary, he knew how to push people to their limits when necessary. He decapitated owl bears while simultaneously reprimanding the knights. “Gah! My lord! We’re in the middle of a battle... Ugh!” “Can’t you wait to hit us until afterward?!” “Why are you hitting us first?! Argh!” Despite the knights’ protests, Ghislain didn’t stop. “I brought you along because you don’t respond to words. Combat is training.” The knights ended up getting hit by Ghislain more than by the owl bears in the name of training. Watching this, Kaor breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Phew, good thing I can kill these on my own.’ Getting beaten in front of everyone like that would be embarrassing. He had to maintain his cool image. Thud! Thud! Thud! Thanks to Ghislain’s relentless intervention, the owl bears were all defeated. And the knights, beaten up by Ghislain, had also collapsed. “Ugh...” “I feel like I’m going to die from this training...” “I must be crazy... I should’ve run away ages ago.” The knights were exhausted, utterly defeated. Their current suffering was only the beginning. Judging by Ghislain’s attitude, they’d really need to kill a hundred thousand monsters before they could go home. Meanwhile, the porters, who had witnessed everything, wore expressions of disbelief. “Who is that guy? He’s insanely strong.” “He took down dozens of monsters and knights by himself...” “He might be the strongest hunter I’ve ever seen.” As everyone watched in awe, Ghislain gazed gleefully at the owl bear corpses. “Wow, this is a great start. I’ve gathered so many owl bear hides already.” An owl bear’s body resembled a bear’s, so he essentially had a stack of bear hides now. The problem was that they were too bulky to carry up the mountain, making it inefficient. But since they hadn’t entered the mountains yet, this issue was easily solved. Ghislain called over the drivers. “Hey, we’ll roughly dismantle these, so take them back to the fortress and hold onto them. I’ll pay extra.” “Leave it to us! We’re well-versed in basic dismantling!” The drivers happily accepted. They’d be fools to pass up easy money. With over a hundred porters and drivers working together, the dismantling was done quickly. Though detailed work would be completed at the fortress, this was enough to load everything onto the carts. “All right, we’ll head back now!” The drivers returned with their carts full of owl bear parts. Ghislain led the remaining porters and knights further into the mountains. “Now, let’s start the hunt and training again.” And so, an intense round of monster hunting began. Screeeeech! Screeeech! Roar! True to its reputation as a monster paradise, various creatures emerged from the mountains. Goblins, gnolls with hyena-like heads, and bugbears with hulking bodies and hideous faces appeared one after another. But the outcome was the same. No monster could avoid Ghislain’s calculated blows aimed solely at their weak points. While hunting, Ghislain continued instructing the knights. “What are you doing? Aim for the weak points! The weak points!” “Where is the head on this thing?” An unidentified, round monster with legs everywhere had appeared. It was impossible to tell where its weak points were. Crack! Ghislain simply split it in two and said. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎 “That’s a scutch. There’s nothing to gain from killing it. If you don’t know where the head is, just slice it in half.” “......” Easier said than done; not just anyone could do that. And so, the knights had no choice but to endure Ghislain’s strikes while fighting the monsters. ‘I just want to go home...’ ‘I should’ve trained harder...’ ‘I’m going to get beaten to death by the lord before the monsters kill me...’ Their nerves were on edge, and their focus sharpened to the limit. Getting hit by Ghislain hurt more than being hit by the monsters. Crack! Crack! Boom! The knights’ swordsmanship grew sharper with each clash. Though it was hard, none of them dared to slack off. The porters who followed them were left speechless by the sight. The Shadow Mountains were considered a disaster zone by the Turian Kingdom, yet it seemed more like the monsters were experiencing their own nightmare. “Good, you’re doing great! Move faster!” “Oh, for the love of—slow down! Ugh!” Once Ghisl ain started something, he didn’t stop. The knight who grumbled was promptly hit and dragged back into the fray. Even with a hundred porters, Ghislain’s hunting pace was so relentless that the dismantling work fell behind. Eventually, the knights had to join in, crouching down to help dismantle the monsters. “Um... There’s just too much. We can’t carry any more.” Even the porters had to admit defeat. The hunting pace was overwhelming. Ghislain clicked his tongue and plopped down. “Tsk, you’re too slow. Fine, let’s rest for today. Break them down as much as possible so we can carry more.” The porters worked tirelessly, dismantling the monster corpses. There were so many that they couldn’t finish before sunset. Howl! “Ah, they’re here again!” Even at night, the knights didn’t get a break. After fending off a pack of dire wolves, they finally managed to rest. “There’s no way we can carry it all back.” Even with a hundred porters and the knights loaded up with monster parts, plenty was left behind. “Guess we’ll have to come back.” Ghislain looked slightly disappointed, but the porters and knights were visibly relieved. It had only been a day, but it felt like they’d been hunting for a month. The carts were gone, so they had to carry the heavy loads themselves, but just heading back was a relief. When Ghislain and his team returned to the fortress, the onlookers’ eyes widened. “Holy... Did they hunt all that in a single day?” Workers and knights entered with piles of cargo strapped to their backs. It looked like a massive caravan had entered the fortress. No group in the fortress’s history had ever hunted this much in just one day, even with larger numbers. Everyone could only stare in stunned silence at the line of people. One curious hunter who had been counting as they came in murmured in disbelief. “Not a single one... not a single one died?” People had already seen the drivers return with cartloads of owl bear hides. And yet, in just one day, it seemed they had slain hundreds more. To hunt that many without losing a single person was almost impossible. To gather so many kills, they would have had to fight non-stop. People normally die if they fight without rest. “There are just as many as when they left... How is that possible?” “They’re all bruised and beaten, but... why does it look like they were hit by a person?” “Were there human-shaped monsters?” Hearing the crowd’s murmurs, the knights swallowed their tears. They weren’t beaten by human-shaped monsters—they were beaten by a monster in human form. Seeing Ghislain’s accomplishments, people still couldn’t believe it. But then something else unbelievable happened. The next day, Ghislain once again set off with a large group of porters. And by the time he returned, he had a similar haul of loot. “How is this possible? No matter how strong they are, if they don’t know the terrain and monster patterns, it should be difficult.” “I knew they were tough, but aren’t they new to hunting? They’re going way too fast.” “It’s like they’re veteran hunters.” No seasoned hunter would be this reckless. In fact, skilled hunters usually know when to stop to survive. That’s the key to a long life. But these newcomers didn’t seem to care, relentlessly scouring the area and laying waste to the monsters. Now even the porters who returned with them wore proud expressions. They felt like they’d played their part in a major achievement. As this repeated several times, the hunters grew envious. “They’ve hunted a fortune’s worth of monsters. Isn’t there a way we can take it?” “Not by force. Maybe if Doncard stepped in. They’re using the workshops, aren’t they?” “It’d be stupid to mess with that.” Hunters fought hard, but killing monsters without profiting from it was a waste. Naturally, they’d squeeze every bit of value out of it. That’s why the workshops here were highly developed. They handled everything from butchering and tanning to storing parts. Hunters rarely targeted these workshops. Not only were they well-guarded, but attacking one would make them unwelcome at others. Ghislain, seeing the stockpile of hides and bones in the workshop’s storage, couldn’t help but smile. “Nothing beats this for easy money while staying in shape.” Every time he looked at the neatly stacked hides, bones, and even organs—some valuable for medicine or food—he felt a rush of satisfaction. Though exhausted from daily battles, the knights stared at the storage with wide eyes. “Wow, all of that is money?” “Our lord always manages to find what he needs, somehow.” “But now we have to kill a hundred thousand of these and send them off...” At that, the knights’ faces fell. They remembered why they were here. They’d been put through hell for days now. Honestly, dying seemed preferable. Getting hit by monsters was bad enough, but getting hit by their own lord? They’d lost all faith in humanity. ‘But... we’re getting faster.’ ‘Is this really working?’ ‘Thanks to the lord, we’re a lot quicker... but how would we manage this pace alone?’ Ghislain’s speed in hunting monsters was unreal. No monster could guard against its own ‘weak point.’ The knights had barely been keeping up with him, yet somehow, they found themselves getting faster. But they weren’t happy about it. ‘We’re getting stronger, but why do I feel like crying?’ To reach the hundred-thousand target, they’d have to risk their lives in battle every day. This was the harshest training imaginable. As Ghislain’s hunting continued, murmurs of discontent started spreading among the hunters. “That guy’s clearing out all the hunting grounds. He started at a distance, but now he’s hunting where we go.” “Shouldn’t we put him in his place? Maybe take him out.” “And who’s going to do that?” It was like trying to bell a cat. Based on Ghislain’s displayed strength and record, no one was eager to challenge him. Eventually, the hunters’ only hope was ‘Doncard, the King of Ironcliff,’ the strongest faction leader in the fortress. “It has to be Doncard, right?” “Right. No one else could manage it. He has the numbers to pull it off.” “But why is Doncard letting this go? That guy hasn’t even paid any dues.” “He took out Arnold’s crew at the inn, and word about his skills has spread. Even for Doncard, he’d have to think twice.” “Still, he’ll have to make a move eventually.” “Yeah, they say he even messed with Doncard’s hunting grounds yesterday. It’s bound to come to a head soon.” Dark rumors spread throughout the fortress. The general mood was that Doncard, who led the strongest faction, would not let this slide. And so, things moved in that direction. Doncard couldn’t just ignore those who encroached on his hunting grounds. “It’s Doncard! Doncard’s here!” At someone’s shout, a large group of men arrived at the inn.