Chapter 41: Deviant’s hunt

When a deviant awakens its magic, under the influence of the mana around, it enters a berserk state.

This truth was well-known in the Dorell Kingdom.

Humans living on this continent learned to fear these creatures. Their bloodthirsty actions incurred the dread of the entire Human race and made them chase every specimen on their land.

As soon as an animal began to show signs of awakening into a deviant, it would be mercilessly killed by the local guards.

However, the same couldn’t be done in the wilderness.

The Advanced towns and their military camps, along with the adventurers undergoing subjugation missions, weren’t enough to eradicate or control the number of deviants.

Fortunately, most of them died early in their frenzied state by natural causes.

Despite this, I was well aware that the number of deviants living in the wilderness was too important to allow me to cross it without the help of Hirillë’s ring.

The ring heats up gradually as I approach a deviant. I used it daily to avoid many deviants along the way, but it was time to do the opposite.

I left the protection of the Advanced town several hours ago hoping to find one of these deviants but I didn’t have any chance in my hunt.

I did not expect an easy work, but I was hoping that the ‘ring of calamity’ and my expanded senses when I had my eyes closed would be enough to give me quick results.

However, I couldn’t find the trace of any deviant despite searching for several hours near the town. Without any other choice, I started to walk further away from the Advanced town that I desperately tried to reach for several weeks.

I encountered numerous dangerous animals, but none of them made the ring react. When the sun started to set, I had no other choice but to stop my blind search.

If I couldn’t find them, then I had to make them come to me.

I lit up a fire in front of a seemingly large forest and left the fresh corpse of a small animal that I killed on the way, near it.

The heat and light of the fire in the darkness of the night would definitely attract many animals.

That’s what I was hoping for anyway.

If this little plan wasn’t enough to attract more than simple animals, then I would have to use more radical means.

After hiding, I waited while watching intensely at the small bonfire.

Most of the ordinary animals were scarred by the fire, but the enticement of the fresh prey was enough for the bravest to come.

After an hour, a large bear-like animal snatched the small prey and left happily. I hoped that the fire and the smell of blood remaining around it would be enough to attract a deviant.

However, none came that night.

The next day, I walked even further away from the town and tried again but the result was the same.

I couldn’t waste more time.

Therefore, the third night I chose to add something else.

I made a small cut on my hand and let my blood flow out near my new fire.

My reasoning was simple.

If the blood of an animal wasn’t enough to stir up their interest, then maybe human blood would do the trick.

If there was an area in which Humans were unmatched, I was sure it was our unpopularity in the wilderness. It was a sad truth but nobody could beat us in this field. However, I was still afraid that this small amount of blood wouldn't be enough.

Therefore, I also used wind magic to scatter the smell as far as possible before covering my small wound with a piece of cloth.

I didn’t want to use this method to attract a deviant because there was no way to control how many would come.

However, I didn’t have any time to worry about that anymore.

This was a dangerous method but the deadline for sending my letter was dangerously close.

I was hiding while anxiously waiting, but after less than an hour, my patience was finally awarded.

The ring on my thumb began to heat up.

A deviant was coming.

I wasn’t able to tell what kind of animal it originated from. It was standing on two strong furry legs with an awkward way of walking. The creature was only three feet tall, but it still had a robust appearance. Its large round head covered in long fur revealed two big green eyes shining in the darkness of the night.

Despite its sturdy appearance, the creature still gave me a harmless feeling with its lustrous fur and big round head. However, the saber like claws of its long arms still warned me about its true nature.

It was the first time I saw a deviant looking like this, but its attitude was even more surprising.

I only saw a couple of deviants before but I could still vividly remember their violence and bloodlust.

However, this one was different.

It didn’t have any frightening aura. On the contrary, it seemed highly intelligent when it looked around with its big green eyes.

Without the ring shining on my thumb, I would have doubted it was a deviant.

I didn’t know if its attitude was because it wasn’t in its frenzy state anymore or because there wasn’t any human in front of it, but I still didn’t dare to underestimate this strange opponent.

I patiently waited as the deviant approached the corpse I had left behind.

Slowly, carefully, the deviant finally walked into the large puddle I left behind. Since it was water that I had created, I was able to easily manipulate it to a certain extent if I wasn’t too far away.

As soon as I saw this, I launched my magic.

“Ice Lance”

A part of the puddle extended before turning paler and transforming into a sharp spike of ice.

The lance of ice was fast but the time it took for the water to turn into ice was longer than I expected. The deviant had enough time to react and avoid my attack.

With surprising agility, it leaped out of range but I was ready for that.

“Earth bullet.”

I launched several attacks while the creature was still in the air looking for its attacker. Not knowing where the attack came from, it didn’t have any chance. My attack struck its side, going through its body.

"Got him!"

I came closer and ended its life swiftly.

After a couple of minutes of labor, I extracted a small core from its head.

Confident after this unexpected easy success, I changed location and tried again.

That night, I killed three other deviants with the same method. For them, the ice lances were enough to deal a fatal blow. They were all from different races and some of them looked quite bloodthirsty making me slightly hesitate before striking.

However, they all had something in common.

Their defenses weren’t strong.

The surprise attack was enough to turn their agility ineffective and deal a big blow.

If I had fought against deviants with strong defenses, the situation would probably have been totally different. Because of that, I purposely avoided some hard-looking deviants and focused my hunt on nimble-looking ones.

When the first rays of the sun came into view, I had five deviant’s cores in my possession including the one Jazor gave me.

The first one I got from the smartest looking deviant was the largest and would probably earn me quite a bit of money.

I repeated the same process the following night after walking a little further away during the day.

I encountered and killed two other deviants, but contrary to my expectations, none of them had a magic core.

I finally understood why deviant’s hunt was difficult. It was risky not to know the strength of your prey, but it also wasn’t really possible to know if a deviant had a core or not.

The number of deviants killed each year by the kingdom’s guard was astronomical, but the corpses weren’t worth much because most of the time the deviant, still in a frenzied state, wasn’t totally awakened.

According to Jazor, the magic core of a deviant, showing the accumulation of mana into the deviant’s body, only took shape after the frenzied period.

This was why deviant’s cores were so precious. They had many useful uses in making artifacts and had to be extracted from a real deviant who had awakened as a true magic beast.

The first deviant I killed that night directly rushed toward my trap with an incredible bloodthirst. It wasn’t difficult to deduce that it was still in its berserk state.

Dangerous but without any magic core.

In short, all the danger without any reward.

The second wasn’t in its frenzied period and even appeared somewhat intelligent but it didn’t give me any magic core either.

After this unsuccessful night filled with false hope, I decided to go back to town to sell the magic cores I obtained the night before.

As Jazor said, I couldn’t be careless.

The last deviant I hunted had a stronger defense than I thought, leaving me with no choice but to face it directly.

After this fight, I understood that my choice to use traps was the right one but also that I needed to be in top shape for this strategy.

I was already tired and needed some treatment for minor wounds.

Therefore, I decided to go back to have some rest before trying again.

I also had some hope that the number of magic cores along with the one Jazor gifted me would be enough to earn me five golds.

I silently walked back toward the town.

The sun had not yet fully risen but its heat had already spread to the great plain on which I was walking

A small mountain was standing behind me, hiding the warm rays of the sun from my back.

As I was cold, I accelerated a little to go beyond the range of the mountain’s shadow.

However, after five minutes I was still in the cold.

I usually kept my eyes closed while walking, despite the fact that my eyes were nearly healed, but I still opened them at regular intervals to check my surroundings.

However, it was not the mountain’s shadow hiding me from the sun that I saw when I opened my eyes.

I found in its stead a slight white mist around me.

I stretched my senses but didn’t find anything unusual.

However, this mist appeared too suddenly to be natural.

I kept walking while readying myself. My pace was slow and my movements were careful as I was looking at my surroundings with a nervous gaze.

After half an hour, the mist grew denser until it was impossible to see more than a few feet ahead.

This time, I knew that something was amiss. As if to confirm my thoughts, the ‘ring of calamity’ began to burn.

The heat of the ring didn’t appear progressively but all at once. It was as if a tongue of flame was nearing my hand.

"Too hot!"

Sensing the rapid change of heat made my heart waver and made my body react almost on reflex.

I ducked to the side.

The whistle of the wind near my ear and the sharp pain on my neck made my body shiver.

The claws of a deviant were only one inch away from taking my head and my life. The sharp claws even left a long cut on the right side of my neck.

I had goosebumps when I realized that I avoided death by a hair’s breadth. I stretched my senses to locate the lifeforms around me.

However, I didn’t sense any. It was just like the time in the cave hiding the Durnïel.

My ring suddenly emitted a bright and scorching light. I just had the time to sense the heat when I noticed a furred animal attacking me at high speed.

I barely evaded but, before I could counterattack, the creature went back hiding into the dense white mist.

This time just before the deviant initiated its attack, I was barely able to sense its presence a couple of feet away.

I finally understood that this deviant wasn’t like the Durnïel whose presence couldn’t be detected no matter how much I tried. I was able to sense this deviant when it left the protection of the mist.

After adjusting my senses, I finally realized what was wrong.

The mist contained the mana of the deviant and acted like a screen hiding it from me.

It was as if the deviant was all around me.

With my current proficiency to feel mana, I wasn’t able to see beyond this screen. I had no other choice but to wait for the moment it left the protection of the mist.

There was no doubt that I would be dead before even realizing it without the ring.

However, even with the ring, I didn’t have any chance to inflict any threatening counter-attack with this kind of speed during the short amount of time it was exposed.

“Windstorm!”

I used the Scholar barrier magic of the wind element to blow up the mist around me. I didn’t use this magic until now because it was just a gust of wind without any attacking power.

It was useless against an enemy but it was exactly what I needed in this situation.

Or so I thought.

My magic blew up the mist and cleared my view but after a few seconds, the mist was back even denser than before.

*Crick*

A small crisping noise beyond the mist at my right side made me attack by reflex.

“Earth bullet”

However, my attack didn’t have any result.

*Criiiik*

The same noise repeated itself around me, but no matter how many times I attacked, I didn’t touch anything.

I couldn’t succeed like that.

The deviant was toying with me like a cat with a mouse.

The unpleasant sensation of powerlessness spread in my heart, but I wasn’t the same as before.

I faced death too many times across my journey to lose hope that easily. However, I still knew that the situation wasn’t looking good. I couldn’t blow up the mist and rush into it. That was out of the question.

After a few seconds of pondering, I finally realized that I only had one solution.

I closed my eyes and fully focused my senses within a dozen feet radius around me.

Seconds as long as minutes quietly passed.

The disturbing noises continued but I didn’t pay attention to it at all.

After several minutes, the ring began to glow and, almost at the same time, a flame like heat hit my hand.

Without any time to think, I ducked to the ground as fast as I could while stretching my hand forward. I triggered my magic as soon as I felt the fur of the animal with my hand.

The contact between us was so brief that it was almost impossible to tell just by looking.

The deviant was too fast for me to catch up. I couldn’t pursue it either as it returned under the protection of the dense mist to hide and to prepare its next assault.

I opened my eyes and looked around me frantically.

I couldn’t see anything except for the dense white mist surrounding me like a prison.

However, after a few seconds of search, I finally spotted what I wanted.

A tiny dot of light less than twenty feet away from me was floating among the mist just like a tiny firefly.

I concentrated and shot the fastest magic I could muster.

“Earth bullet”

My magic flew at high speed toward the small light that was akin to a beacon in the dark of the night.

*Criiiik*

The cries of pain of the beast told me that my magic hit its target.

I ran forward inside the mist while shooting several other earth bullets.

I couldn’t take any risk.

If my assault failed and the creature fled then it would be a huge loss.

I crossed the curtain of dense white mist separating me from my now motionless opponent.

The large grey-furred creature was now lying in a pool of blood tainting the green grass around the corpse.

“Windstorm”

I used my magic to get rid of the mist around me. It was useless before but now that the deviant was dead, it only took a couple of seconds to clear my view of my surroundings.

I looked down at the corpse near my feet.

Several bloody holes could be seen on its luxuriant grey fur, but I wasn’t looking at those wounds. After a couple of seconds of careful examination, my gaze finally rested near the front paw of the creature.

This part of the deviant was covered with a small part of the ice that I created during our previous exchange. I didn’t touch the creature long enough to hope to hurt or to trap it with my ice magic alone.

However, I didn’t need to trap it.

I just needed to know its location when it was hiding beyond the mist.

I leaned forward to extract the precious item I used to do that.

After some efforts, the ‘ring of calamity’ trapped into the chunk of ice was finally free.

A ring shinning when it was near a deviant was the only way I had to foil the trap of the creature.

I extracted the core of the deviant while trying to catch my breath. I couldn’t help but feel a lingering fear from the previous fight.

Jazor was right.

Deviants couldn't be underestimated.

Without the ‘ring of calamity’ gifted by Hirillë, I would be dead without any doubt.

However, my hunt was still a success.

It was time to go back.

I should be proud of myself and satisfied with my spoils.

However, I realized during my last fight that no matter how much I prepare, it was impossible to ensure that the one lying in a pool of blood wouldn’t be me the next time.

While I was lost in my thoughts, the ring began to shine once again.

My previous fight attracted other deviants.

I clenched the ring tighter in my hand while running at full speed toward the Advanced town.

I came looking for deviants but I end up running away from them.

This last fight reminded me of the true nature of the wilderness.

Humans weren’t the hunters on those lands but the prey.

Without the strength or the preparation to fight, I could only run away without looking back.

It’s only when I saw the strong-looking dark wall of the city that I started to relax.

I was covered in dirt and blood but I didn’t care.

I was just glad that I came back alive this time.

Because I knew that luck wouldn’t always stay on my side.