Oryan had first scouted the area with his boss, Gafney, a few weeks ago.

Gafney and Oryan led a party with five other Marsian Mecenery Group members, all late foundation stage practitioners, into the Arango Forest.

Most of the members were familiar with hunting terrors in Torken Forest, located in the lower valley area of Grisham Mountain Range. Hunting terrors required at least two weeks of preparation. The Marsian Mercenary Group was one of the few capable of leading a party to hunt terrors.

Hunting party hunted during the day when most terrors were asleep. Terrors slept together in packs, but once in awhile a rare stray would roam around alone. Those were the most prized terror a hunter group could encounter during the day. Unfortunately, even a single manabeast terror could give a party of late foundation staged practitioners trouble.

Scouting and researching the manabeast terrors weaknesses were the first step any good hunters should take if they valued their lives. Information on manabeast terrors were expensive, and Gafney team specialized in both hunting and gathering information.

Although they don't normally scout the Arango Forest, they were interested in the lone terror. Gafney was one of the first to hear the rumors and immediately investigated with his party.

The party worked together to locate the crevice leading to the rumored manabeast terror.

One member stayed above while the six members hoisted themselves down the cavern. The odor drifted up from below.

Oryan surveyed the cavern entrance. Leftover bones and chewed up flesh scattered throughout the rocky ground.

Oryan looked wearily at Gafney.

Gafney nodded, there was a manabeast terror up ahead. A manabeast that liked to hide underground indicated that it was either an insect type or a rodent type manabeast. Rodent they could deal with, but insects were tricky. What was even more concerning was the traces of poisonous acid on the wall.

Oryan held the hanging oil lamp, took the lead and continued further inside. The magician also cast a dim light spell from behind.

Oryan didn't like to carry the oil lamp, but it was the only way to navigate through the cave.

The party carefully moved through the stalagmites.

Oof!

One member almost slipped on fell.

Something rushed toward their way.

"S***!" Oryan sprang backward and ran off. Their movement alerted the beasts sleeping inside.

"Karkardo up ahead! Flee now!" Cried Oryan.

Oryan took out the talisman and shot one toward the charging Karkardo.

Everyone in the party quickly took out their talismans and ran off toward the exit.

The Karkardo shot an acid ball toward the party. Gafney quickly pulled out his saber, dodged the acid ball, and jumped toward the Karkardo. He charged directly into its head.

Clank!

Gafney jumped back away, then twisted and spun his body, slashing the saber toward the antenna.

Clunk!

"Hit the antenna!" Gafney commanded.

Reese, the magician of the party, pointed his wand toward the creature. A purple fireball flew directly toward the Karkardo. The Kardardo dodged.

"It has good reflexes," commented Oryan.

The party used the hit and run tactics as they fled the cave.

Mid-way to the exit, Gafney attacked the antenna again. He was sure two of the Karkardo's force barriers were broken. After striking the antenna a couple more times, Gafney slashed one of the antennas the third time. The antenna broke apart and the Karkardo squirmed violently.

Bam! The tail whipped Gafney, knocking him into the cavern wall.

Gafney felt two of his force barriers dispersing, and quickly jumped back up and followed the rest of his party. If a gathering stage practitioners were hit like that, they would immediately die from the heavy blunt force trauma.

He quickly grabbed onto a robe and kicked himself up the cavern in one leap. He was the last to leave.

Once above ground, everyone remained on alert.

"Boss, what should we do?" asked Oryan.

They were not familiar with hunting Karkardo.

"We won't be able to handle that thing for now," said Gafney. "Reese, did you gather the poison?"

Reese, the magician of the party, nodded. "I'll contact the Alchemy Guild to see if they can analyze the poison."

The Karkardo's tail strike and whiplash were powerful and deadly. It could shoot out powerful acid that could easily erode a person's armor and force barrier.

Gafney and his party were selective. They only deal with terrors they knew they could handle. The Karkardo was not something they could handle. They needed to gather more information. Unfortunately, the information on the Karkardo was closely guarded by everyone, including the Alchemy Guild. No one were unwilling to share the information. Gafney kept the location to himself, but he was sure other hunters will find the location and the rumors will spread about the manabeast terror.

Gafney instructed Oryan to lead different parties to the manabeast terror. Not only could they watch other parties strategy and gather information about its weaknesses, Gafney could earn a good amount of money from leading the way to the secret cavern. The parties that hired them were even less willing to share the location, so Gafney wasn't too concerned about revealing the location. However, nothing could remain a secret forever.

Gafney wasn't too interested in competing over a single manabeast terror. There were other terrors he could hunt with his party. He found more amusement watching other hunters clamor over it.

****

Oryan watched as Prince Keras and his party continued on. Oryan had already provided the Prince and his party with information and the antidote, with a fee 15% more than what Merci had charged them. It was the end of their deal.

Oryan continued to watch over Prince Keras and his party. They were close to the Karkardo's sensing range.

Prince Keras and his party alerted the Karkardo, which immediately charged at the intruder. The lady magician in Prince Keras party signaled everyone to remain still and silent.

The Karkardo rushed in, but suddenly slowed down. It lurked around near Prince Keras's party.

Karkardos were blind creatures, and could only sense movement.

It weaved around the cavern, trying to find the prey.

Did the humans leave? It wondered.

The Karkardo closed in on Obi. Obi slowly held up the oil lamp, lighting up the Kardardo's antennas. The antennas were both recently destroyed.

Prince Keras and the magician named Ilona surveyed the Karkardo. Ilona was a well-known beastologist and recognized that the beast as a Geophil Karkardo. She signaled Prince Keras and the team to leave. They needed to make more preparation. She also had a feeling that striking first would reveal some information to the Marsien Mercenary Group.

Prince Keras nodded and the party slowly exited the cavern.

"So this is the famous Ilona of the Evangild Clan," Oryan thought. He had heard of the name and her reputation, but to see her make the decision for the Prince's party was interesting.

Oryan followed them out.

As they reached the top, they were surprised to see a masked figure waiting on top of a nearby tree, alone. No one traveled into a manabeast's infested forest alone, unless they were a lord stage practitioner, or suicidal.

The masked man, with his face completely covered from the front to back, stepped down from the branch and landed next to the tree.

An assassin? Sir Valgan and the knights prepared their swords.

Oryan and Prince Keras' party surveyed the masked man. His clothing was dark and tight fitted hunter clothes, and wasn't entirely black like most assassinations.

He didn't operate like an assassin. Instead of coming toward them, the masked man unloaded his leather bag and prepared his own equipment to travel down the cavern. It looked like he was also hunting the Karkardo.

The knights loosened their guards.

The general policy for hunting, if you don't mind me, I won't mind you. If there was an issue, a fight would quickly alert the surrounding manabeasts.

"Your highness, don't you think the man is a bit unusual?" Obi asked, as the man lowered himself down the crevice.

Prince Keras wasn't sure, and looked to Lady Ilona and Sir Valgan for advice.

"I can only sense gathering stage energy coming from him," Sir Valgan rubbed together his little chin stubble in thought. "However, to come this far into the forest alone, it is almost impossible."

"I agree, his eyes are too calm for a gathering stage practitioner," Lady Ilona nodded. She watched the mystery man disappeared below the crevice. "It's not his first time heading below."

"How many lord stage practitioner hunt alone?" asked Prince Keras.

While the percentage was astronomically low, in terms of numbers, there were a lot of lord stage practitioners in the Kelseran Empire, but most were well known. Also, most lord stage practitioners were above 50 years of age.

"His physique seems very young," said Lady Ilona. "But if he really is an expert above the knight stage, it will be difficult to tell his real age."

Although they wanted to tail the masked stranger, they also didn't want to piss off a powerful figure. They returned to the city.

In the meanwhile, Nico reached the cavern's floor.

His boots, recently made by a shoemaker, gave him an additional 8cm of height.

His new hunting suit was very common hunting clothes and had no distinct features. The mask, which he had made himself, was modeled after a ski mask with black silk lining covering the eyes. The mask also had patting on top to add 3cm to his height.

He didn't like to wear the mask, but there were too many things he didn't understand about this world.

Nico cast the light spell and charged in. He was confident he could handle the Karkardo.

The Karkardo sensed the intruder and prepared itself.

This intruder was the worst type of intruder. It was the type to hit and run. The Karkardo had lost so many antennas the last two weeks fighting with this human pest. It had decided to kill this intruder once and for all.

Charging toward the intruder, the Karkardo launched its pincer attack.

Nico braced himself to jump and leapt over the Karkardo's head. However, the Karkardo faked its pincer attack and turned its tail to fight instead.

Nico jumped to evade, but the tail whipped from the right side toward him. Nico aimed the green whirlwind sword at a 45 degree angle out toward the Karkardo's tail, stunning the monster and propelling him up toward a hanging stalactite.

Nico hung on for a moment and then shot out three Talismans toward the Karkardo's already shortened antenna. One antenna burned into ashes. The Karkardo screamed and whipped around chaotically.

Right before it settled down, Nico free-fell from the top and directly aimed himself toward the Karkardo's jagged and toothy mouth.

Glush!

The bluish blood from its tongue and mouth spattered into the air. Nico backed away right before the Karkardo slammed its pincers together.

Nico jumped forward and slashed using galeforce, cutting between the Karkardo segmented parts and repelled himself back to avoid another violent aftershock from the long swinging body and thorny legs.

Nico unleashed two more talismans toward the Karkardo.

Rawr!!!!!!!

The Karkardo wailed violently, swinging its body into the cavern wall.

Nico jumped from side and side to avoid the falling stalactites.

Boom!

The Karkardo body collapsed, but its legs continued to move mechanically as though it was still alive.

The running legs stopped and silence returned.

Nico approached the Karkardo's head, cut open the mouth until he could locate the manacore.

The manacore was the size of a pea, but it felt heavier than the manacores he had seen from a regular manabeast.

Nico stored the manacore away and checked his mission status.

The task box for the manabeast terror had increased by one.

Nico surveyed the area again, there were three corpses around the Karkardo's cave. The corpses were barely recognizable. Their heads were chewed and corroded, with deep maroon and dried blood covering their once cream complexion.

Nico looked through their belongings and took out a couple of bank notes and talismans, heavily stained in blood. The loosely shredded clothing easily fell apart, revealing the leftover organs the Karkardo disliked and left behind. There was nothing else valuable except for their swords.

Nico burned the corpses and gathered them into an empty jar. He created a little stone marker for them and proceeded deeply inside.

If Nico senses were correct, the Karkardo was guarding its nest.

Nico moved his light next to a giant webbed ball as big as a room in the farthest corner of the cave. Nico surveyed the twenty-five large eggs bundled together.

Nico destroyed one egg.

The task for the manabeast terror tallied up by one.

"These eggs are really considered manabeast terror?" Nico thought. He wanted to know how strong they were when they hatched.

Nico destroyed three more eggs to complete the task.

Congratulation, Kill 5 Manabeasts Terrors Task, Complete.

Receive Roulette Coupon.

Tasks:

Plant and Harvest 1 Manafruit. 0/1. Reward: System Reward.

Create 5 Alchemy Pills. 0/5. Reward: Roulette Coupon.

*New* Kill 200 Manabeast Terrors. 0/200. Reward: Roulette Coupon.

*New* Create 5 Inscriptions. 0/5. Reward: Roulette Coupon.

Nico looked at the remaining 20 eggs.

Nico contemplated on what to do with the eggs.

Should he destroy half the eggs for the task and keep the other half? He wanted to examine the eggs in detail, but he couldn't carry all ten out. The eggs were around 50cm diameter and were heavy like a car.

He could carry five back to the dorm, but there wasn't any place to keep them.

Nico thought about his old room at the Killo Restaurant Inn. It was big enough, but what would happen if the eggs hatched? He wondered if the Darbi Blessing was enough to protect the inn.

Maybe he could leave three eggs to hatch here, take one back to the inn, and keep two in the dorm.

Nico proceeded with the plan. Nico destroyed fourteen eggs and buried three around the cave. Luck will decide whether the eggs would survive or would be taken by the other hunters.

Nico clicked on the roulette coupon and waited for the system to select his reward.

Receive Cure-All Spell.