I arrive at the hunter camp at the edge of the swamp the morning of the first day of the culling. No time to rest. I report in with the person in charge with organizing the culling. Looks like a guild official. Since this mission is sponsored by the kingdom, I would have expected them to send some noble to help oversee the action. I guess the efficiency and standing of the Guild is such that it is fully trusted with tasks as big as this one without oversight.

I am a bit surprised that the Guild official is a man. Most Guild workers are women, as men tend to chase dreams, hunting beasts and such, while the women try to get more stable and safer work. I guess there are always exceptions. Nadi comes to mind. She does not fit any mould. Wonder where she is now. She did not think wyvern hunting would suit her.

I notice that most of the hunters around me seem to specialize in archery and spearmanship. I guess the range helps in this kind of fight. Makes a lot of sense that I got recommended to go to this hunt. Our main target are baby wyverns. I get the logic behind this culling. Since the wyverns main enemy in the sky are dragons, the wyverns can grow a bit too plentiful this far south unless they are dealt with regularly.

Grown wyverns are a pain to deal with. I am regularly told I got lucky with my first one. Baby wyvern on the other hand are much easier to kill. They easily die to an arrow, they are slow and fly low to the ground. Their main protection is the swamp itself.

The guild official is giving the briefing explaining how to deal with the wyverns. The spear hunters will stay on guard against grown wyverns, while the archers will sweep through the swamp taking down as many baby wyverns as they can. They guild has employed a large number of local boys to help collect the corpses of the baby wyverns. Each hunter will have arrows marked so the guild can identify who killed what wyvern.

The local boys also acts as guides through the swamp. With their local knowledge they make sure to pick the best possible routes to the main hatching areas. I was initially a bit worried about the safety of the young boys, but they seem to know their way around the swamp better than the local wildlife. At the edge of the swamp I see some medium sized beasts that look like crocodiles. Probably not friendly, but they seem to keep their distance.

In the central area of the swamp all other beast disappear, it is clear that this area is dominated by the wyverns. Dirty pools of water is everywhere. These pools are the main hatching areas of the wyverns. They lay the eggs in the dirty pools and scare off the larger wildlife. As I plod along the muddy path mapped out by the guide, I notice egg shells in some of the pools. Looks like a lot of wyverns have hatched.

The archers fan out, each with a guide to look for wyvern. Sure enough, there are plenty of flapping creatures around. Most seem to be medium sized lizards about the size of the forest rats, just skinnier and with hairless and featherless wings several times their own size. It is like a mini version of the large wyvern I killed up north.

It goes down fast with my marked arrow. As my guide runs to collect the body from the mud, I take aim at another. After a few minutes I need to help the boy collect all my prey, as he has fallen behind my shooting. I am rewarded by plumping waist deep into a deeper part of the swamp. My guide suppresses a grin and helps me out. The day continues with plodding through mud and shooting wyverns.

Unlike their fully grown counterparts, even a medium draw weight bow could take them down at up to a 100 paces. I have always preferred a draw weight that I can easily speed shoot with for a prolonged period of time, while at the same time do enough damage. My old self would not have been able to draw my current bow at all. The abnormal strength I have developed since coming to this world is key to my deadly archery.

Before the sun sets we head north to the edge of the swamp where the hunter camp has been moved to. It seems like we are working our way from the east of the swamp going westward, clearing it as thoroughly as possible of any wyverns. As I dump my catch from my soul storage with the guild dismantling tent I get an odd look. While I get a grilling about the number of wyvern I caught, which seems to be abnormal for most hunters, my young guide is bragging about the number of wyverns I killed.

It seems being too successful will draw suspicion. After a bit of verification and enduring the strange stare of some guy while another interrogates me, I am set free after a brief exchange between the two men. Later that evening I get a visit from a female guild staff apologizing for the treatment and explaining what took place.

Looks like I was suspected of stealing others catch. The two guys seem to have skills relating to finding out the truth, and were employed by the guild to do just that. I have heard about this. The warning about not telling lies to the guild does seem like something worthwhile taking notice of. Anyway, I was cleared of all suspicion, and further clarification from my home guild branch confirmed that I was just a very talented hunter.

I head to the mess tent for a meal and a drink, and find myself collared by the same big guys who previously interrogated me wanting to buy me a drink. "No hard feelings? We were just doing our job." Can't say it was a pleasant experience, but I do appreciate the work they do keeping hunters honest. Instead of accepting their offer, I offer them a drink instead. When I point to my successful hunt, they relent and let my buy them a drink.

I do try to find out more about the work they do for the guild, but it seems they are not allowed to talk too freely about it. I guess it makes sense. If you know how the lie detector works, you might find a way to beat it.

The next day my guide turns up with three other lads. It seems the guild signed off on assigning me more helpers to fetch my kills. Because of their help the second day of hunting goes a lot better, and is pretty uneventful until we reach an island near the centre of the swamp. The uneven surface of the swamp might be good for baby wyverns, but grown wyvern need more solid ground to land.

It doesn't take long for the grown wyverns to show up. The hunters armed with spears rush to the front to support the archers. Their main job is to fend off or kill the grownups. As I am keeping an eye out for my boys, I hear a scream north of me. Rushing on the hard surface to the location I find wyverns attacking a couple of the hunters while their guides take cover in the swamp.

One of the hunters have been mauled into a bloody pulp. The second is pinned to the ground by the massive claws of its legs. Charging at the beast at full speed I am rewarded by an aggressive screech from the beast. With wings raised and tooth riddled mouth expectantly open, it is clearly trying to scare me off so it can finish its meal.

Instead of halting I launch forward summoning my battle axe and bury it in its skull. The body crumble to the ground from instant death. Like the old elf said, not so tough on the ground. As if hearing my thoughts, two more grown wyvern appear. They circle high above me not showing any signs of descending just yet.

I rush over to the injured hunter, and pull him free from the dead wyvern on top of him. As I try to stem his bleeding I try to use what little I know of healing magic to save him, but the injuries are too severe. He slips away while I try to stabilize him. Other hunters join me and spearmen take up guard around the dead bodies.

One female hunter looks at my blood covered hands than senses my attempt at saving him with magic. "You did your best. Only a very skilled healer can save someone this injured." I know she means well, but I still feel like what I did was inadequate. I turn away and try to apply my better skills, hunting the last two wyverns.

Despite my best efforts I can't get a critical hit with my arrows on the flying wyverns. My first wyvern kill really was lucky. I realize I have been separated from the other hunters while shooting arrows at the two wyverns. Not good. The flying beasts seem to have noticed as well. As I take aim at one wyvern my alert skill tells me that the other is taking a dive at me. Using my menu map I monitor its decent. Just as my alert skill seems to be at maximum I turn around and summon a steel tipped spear.

It is too late for the wyvern to slow down, and a further jump from me sends the tip of my spear deep into the centre of the chest of the beast. Too late I realize that the beast will crash into me. The weight of the beast knocks me back towards the ground. I feel the impact of the ground worse than the previous impact of the wyvern. The wyvern trashes about. The wound is clearly lethal, but being under a death panicked beast trashing about is not a comfortable spot.

Summoning a sharp dagger, I ferociously stab at the beast hastening its death. It eventually settles down. The massive wings of the beast blocks out all light, and leaves me fumbling as I drag myself out from under the beast and into sunlight. Just as I get on my feet, my alert skill yet again saves my life, as I dive for cover. The last wyvern had been watching my struggle from under its dying brethren, and timed its attack with my appearance.

As I dive away I hear clack of its claws missing my body. As I roll onto my feet I see the back of the wyvern as it tries to regain its height advantage. Summoning a spear I throw it with all my might at the ascending wyvern and catch its lower back. The injury throws it off balance and it stops ascending while trashing about in the air. I summon another spear and throw it, and another. Eventually, with three spears sticking out of various non-lethal injuries the wyvern crashes to the ground.

A chop from my battle axe finishes it off. Some of the other hunters have finally caught up with me. "You killed two more after the first one." I don't recognize the guy speaking to me, but by the spear he is carrying and his above average lifeforce level he seems to be one of the hunters assigned to hunting the grown wyverns. "Yeah, I kind of did." Not sure if I was looking for an answer, but he seems amazed that I took down three on my own in such a short space of time.

"You should come with me, there are a few more adult ones to the south. I am sure the southern hunters will appreciate the help." I see no reason not to go along. I have already leveled up twice. These grown up ones are dangerous enough to merit growth for a C rank hunter. I stuff the two dead wyverns in my soul storage. "Where did the bodies go?" I guess the sight of two fully grown wyvern suddenly disappearing is so unusual that it would make most hunters forget that not everyone has the same sized soul storage. "I will tell you as we head south."

By evening I have helped bring down three more wyverns and leveled up one more time. Seems I get a lot more lifeforce if I do the killing on my own. With the island purged of dangerous wyverns, the culling is expected to continue without issue on the third day.