novelraw Chapter 30 : Cockatrice (5)
Chapter 30 : Cockatrice (5)
"Found it."
I drew a smile as I discovered a cave entrance well-hidden between trees beside a stream with a considerable amount of flowing water.
Focusing on my hearing, I could detect faint but definite breathing sounds.
'Sleeping peacefully, I see.'
Well, there were hardly any demonic beasts in this area that would dare to disturb it.
If there were, they would have long since become prey to humans.
'That's why it leaves traces so easily.'
It was an arrogant bird that mistook itself for a lion.
'First I need to draw it out of the cave.'
The method is very simple.
All I had to do was take out the tear gas powder that Lim Eun-seo had prepared and throw it into the cave.
Bwoong!
The precisely thrown tear gas pouch was sucked into the darkness of the cave.
Bang!
After the sound of the explosion, a brief silence followed.
"Keeeeeeeee!"
The cockatrice rushed out, screaming as if its throat would tear.
"How's that? Quite spicy, isn't it?"
I know that pain well too.
'It's not something you can endure with willpower.'
"Keeeek!"
The cockatrice that came out of the cave thrashed about wildly, turning the surroundings into chaos.
'Quite a big one. Must be old.'
The silhouette of the cockatrice wrapped in a dark-tinged armor was difficult to see as an ordinary bird.
Rather, it was as huge as large flightless birds like ostriches or emperor penguins.
A snake's face sprouted from its tail, flicking its tongue.
Its wings were large and long like those of an eagle or a stork.
"Keeeeek!"
Perhaps sensing my presence, it looked toward me, letting out a furious shriek.
"Even so, you can't see properly because it's night."
I sneered.
A forest covered with trees that had grown for decades or centuries.
In such darkness where even moonlight couldn't penetrate, its petrification ability was useless.
'In terms of danger level, a cockatrice is a C-rank demonic beast.'
Even among C-rank beasts, those with status ailments like petrification, freezing, or poisoning were much trickier and had more variables.
But in this environment, a cockatrice was, coldly speaking, barely D+ grade if at all.
'The hardness of the mud armor is remarkable, but many demonic beasts of that grade show similar durability.'
The habit of the cockatrice, which found a survival strategy by wrapping itself in mud armor during the night when it's powerless, knowing this fact well, was quite clever.
'For a demonic beast.'
It wasn't particularly strange.
After all, such demonic beasts were also creatures that maintained their own ecosystems before crossing over from the second dimension.
'The problem is the structure where only those consumed by magical energy pour through the gate.'
Sreung.
I drew a short one-handed sword from inside my coat.
It looked similar to the arming sword commonly used in Europe.
It was a failure with a damaged blade here and there and poor weight balance, originally scheduled for disposal.
'This is enough.'
The blade had been well-sharpened at least.
Crunch crunch.
I narrowed the distance by stepping forward, treading on leaves.
'To inflict damage, I'll ultimately need to target the eyes.'
The armor encasing the cockatrice would be difficult to damage with my attack power, as I couldn't yet manifest sword energy.
Not only is its strength good, but what's particularly impressive is its hardness.
A sword like this would barely leave a scratch even if I tried to slash it.
'If I really had to find a way, I could break it.'
But isn't anything more valuable when preserved in its original form as much as possible?
Therefore, the parts I could target were the tail, or the facial area where only two eyes were prominently exposed.
Kaang!
As I approached with fencing-like steps and thrust my sword, the cockatrice's wing reacted quickly.
"Saaaah!"
Of course, it wasn't stupid and seemed to know well that the eyes were the most easily targeted vital point.
'I don't intend to target it right away anyway.'
The eyes are too small and difficult to aim for.
'By the way, even though it's just mud hardened around it, it's flexible and elastic enough to follow the movements of the wings.'
No wonder it's popular as equipment material.
Bwoong!
The cockatrice charged at me and swung its wings.
Keeing!
With Eye Power activated, I quickly stepped back to avoid the wings.
Shwook!
As if it had been waiting, the tail with the snake's face targeted the nape of my neck.
'So predictable.'
In terms of patterns, the cockatrice's attacks weren't particularly difficult to avoid.
'Strike with wings, target blind spots with the tail, and occasionally peck with the beak.'
Not only were its attack methods limited, but they weren't fast either.
I stepped back diagonally to the right and struck down the snake head of the tail with my sword.
Baak!
The scales of the tail snake, not covered in mud, though hard, were no match for the armor.
'It's difficult to inflict a vital wound with a sword like this.'
That was fine.
The sword was just a decoy anyway.
Bwoong! Kwajik!
After two wing attacks only managed to shatter the innocent ground and trees, the third strike of the tail snake inevitably targeted my chest.
'Got you.'
I avoided its charge with a side step, then firmly grasped its neck with my hand.
Then I quickly put down the sword and tightly bound the tail with both arms.
"Shaaaah!"
The snake attached to the tail wailed.
Hwoong!
The cockatrice's wing tried to strike me, but.
Bakkak!
Twisting and breaking the snake's neck bones came first.
"Keeeeeeeeeek!"
The cockatrice, maddened with unbearable pain, began thrashing and striking down trees in all directions.
Kwahjik! Kwarrrrrng!
Trees too thick to be fully embraced by an adult's arms fell well.
'From here, phase 2.'
The cockatrice wasn't just doing this because of pain.
Its real purpose was to break all the trees in the area to expose the moonlight.
'This would allow it to use its petrifying magical eyes.'
If I just watched, wondering what it was doing, I would inevitably become a stone statue.
However, I deliberately didn't stop its intention, despite knowing this fact.
'Without doing this, I can't stab its eyes.'
Though it's quite cunning for a demonic beast.
It had no way of knowing that it was falling into its own trap.
'So far, according to plan.'
I stood at a distance and took out a throwing dagger I'd received from Lim Eun-seo.
It was time to finish this.
'Don't make a mistake.'
It would be a disaster to make a mistake at this point after setting up the situation so well.
'Damn. Nam Tae-hoon would be better at this than me.'
Should I have subcontracted this?
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"Keeek!"
The cockatrice, having knocked down almost all the trees in the area, smiled with satisfaction as it saw the cool moonlight pouring from the half-risen moon.
"How amusing."
Su-hyeon snickered at that naked and easily understandable hostility.
'I'll end this in one go.'
Su-hyeon, hiding his body among the trees from a distance, spun the dagger, gauging its center of gravity.
"Keeeee!"
As the cockatrice howled as if challenging him to come out, Su-hyeon grinned and stepped forward.
"Hey!"
Right after gaining its attention with his voice.
Sweeesh!
Su-hyeon, like a swift assassin, sharply threw the dagger.
"Keek?"
The cockatrice, spotting something flying toward it, reflexively activated its magical eyes.
Zheojeojeok!
The dagger, containing no magical power, instantly hardened into stone.
'Success!'
That was exactly Su-hyeon's aim.
'Just because it's petrified doesn't mean the kinetic energy disappears.'
The dagger, still not losing its trajectory and speed, flew straight into the cockatrice's right eye, embedding itself so deeply that even the handle went in.
"Keeeeeeek!"
"Clean shot."
It was a moment when the results of practicing the dagger throwing technique alone from time to time shined.
'I've heard about the techniques until my ears grew calluses.'
With Su-hyeon's innate physical abilities and balance added to this, reaching a master's level through self-study wasn't that difficult, just as with swordsmanship and martial arts.
Anyway.
"Keeeeeeeeek!"
The cockatrice, feeling tremendous shock and fear, began activating its petrification ability on everything that entered its field of vision.
Zheeeeeeng!
Zheojeojeojeojeok!
Bent and broken trees, remnants of branches and leaves, and unfortunate night birds passing by all turned to stone, transforming into something like a majestic marble sculpture.
"Magnificent."
For Su-hyeon, who had hidden again among the trees where moonlight didn't reach, all of this was just a spectacle.
The cockatrice's rampage didn't last long.
"Keuruk."
The cockatrice collapsed from exhaustion due to the shock of all its magical power being drained.
"Is it over now."
Step, step.
Su-hyeon walked straight toward the cockatrice holding the arming sword.
The cockatrice's left eye, black and red, stared at Su-hyeon.
But nothing happened to Su-hyeon's body.
"Keee......"
Su-hyeon looked down at the cockatrice, which was crying pitifully for show.
"No need to look at me with such sad eyes."
While Jeong Su-hyeon's hatred was directed solely toward Ma-in.
That didn't mean he had to have a friendly or humanitarian heart toward demonic beasts.
From the beginning, as long as the instinct driving demonic beasts was the urge to slaughter humans.
Su-hyeon didn't doubt at all that even the pitifulness of the demonic beast now seemingly begging for its life was nothing more than a ridiculous mimicry.
"Keek!"
As expected.
The cockatrice, which had been waiting for Su-hyeon to come closer, attempted a final attack to peck through Su-hyeon's head with its beak.
'Cunning bastard.'
Su-hyeon, who avoided that attack, deeply thrust the arming sword into the cockatrice's remaining eye.
Pook!
The sword that burrowed into the brain definitely ended the cockatrice's life.
Puhwaaak!
Blood poured out like a waterfall when he pulled out the sword.
"It's over."
Without touching the mud armor at all, just stabbing the head area to kill it.
A carcass by-product captured with this level of intact condition could be said to be comparable to one produced by a veteran Hunter.
'I got lucky.'
Su-hyeon turned on a flashlight, photographed the cockatrice's carcass, and sent it as a message.
-Just caught a cockatrice
-(photo)
-I'll leave the item at the agreed place.
As expected, she seemed to have been awake, as the reply came back quickly.
-?!?!?!?
-You really did it??
-You already caught it??
-Really???
-You're not lying, right?
-No, sorry, this is definitely a cockatrice, anyone can see
-Wow, really
-How on earth did you do it??
And then, as if she suddenly remembered, Lim Eun-seo asked again.
-You're not hurt anywhere, are you?
'She asks quickly.'
-I'm not hurt
-My coat is soaked in blood though
-Oh don't worry about that
-Anyway, good work and thank you
-Should I come out now then?
'She's so clumsy, what if she gets caught sneaking out.'
Su-hyeon cut her off decisively.
-Just check after roll call tomorrow
-I'll leave it in a good place
-Even delivery.......
-This is truly touching service
Su-hyeon thought that if he was going to be indebted anyway, it was better to clear as much of it as possible.
'It's not free in the first place.'
She was the type to insist on giving him market value.
Chwadeuk!
Su-hyeon took out the wrapping cloth he had brought rolled up and put the cockatrice's carcass inside.
'It's annoyingly big.'
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After entering the academy through the hole again, I sneaked into Lim Eun-seo's workshop, hid the bundle well, and sent another verification shot.
Processing the carcass and disassembling the armor would be Lim Eun-seo's job.
-Processed well
-There might be some blood smell, but I sprayed deodorizer, so please deal with it quickly in the morning
She must have been holding her phone the whole time, as a storm of replies flew in immediately.
-Thank you for your hard work! Thank you thank you
-But this is really an unbelievable skill. Even decent professional Hunters couldn't catch it so cleanly?
-The preservation state is too good.
-This will definitely make one piece of work
-Really, truly thank you. I owe you a lot thanks to you.
-I'll give you a good price for this material
-It's all thanks to you that I'll graduate
-I'll buy you a meal sometime
Out of those long messages, I only replied to the very last one.
-When I have time later.
-Okie okie just tell me anytime!
-Oh and feel free to come visit our workshop whenever you want!
'This is quite special treatment.'
Lim Eun-seo has a personality that really dislikes letting people into her workshop unless she acknowledges them.
'If I get this much treatment for catching just one demonic beast like a cockatrice, I'm greatly ahead.'
As expected, buying anything at the lowest point was the best.
-Anyway, thank you again.
-And...
-Would you take on requests like this later too?
"Heh."
I wrote the reply with a smile.
-As long as there's appropriate sincerity added, I'm willing.
[Sub-quest, Material Procurement has been cleared!]
[1 skill point has been awarded!]
[Great achievement! You hunted a cockatrice in just one night without a single injury!]
[Achievement points 250 awarded!]