Chapter 10: Catching a Demon Beast

Translator: Lei

Proofreader: Masadeer (Japtem) & Lei

“Stop right there, boar!”

Squeaal! Squeaaaal! Thu-thu-thump! Thu-thu-thu-thu-thump!

So this is what it felt like to become a master. On Earth, I suffered for half a day on top of a boulder, but now I was chasing a huge boar instead. Although I hadn’t even cast Haste magic, when I gathered mana in my feet, my body flew like an arrow.

Then came the great chase. I went into the mountains about 2 km behind the village and struggled for a good 30 minutes. After finding a massive boar rooting things out of the ground while sunbathing, I quickly gave chase.

‘Why am I suffering like this just so I can test Aura Blade?!’

It had already been over a month since I began living in Luna Village. In that month, I thought long and hard about how to survive in this world like a tenacious rubber band and return to Earth. From what I gathered from the villagers, I was able to determine that power and force were favored over the law due to the political gangsters called nobles.

Thanks to my master flinging me to another world without warning, I was left with only my skill in magic. I knew I could only return to Earth and pursue my dream of paradise if I got stronger, so I immediately grasped the need to develop my skills.

I dove into learning 4th Circle magic like a madman, charging my mana and practicing the sword like my life depended on it, all while sporting a full-on nosebleed. For the first time in my life, I clenched my teeth and worked on my magic and sword skills with blood pouring from my nose. With dedicated mana breathing, I filled the 4th Circle with so much mana that it undulated, and I gained the ability to double cast 4th Circle magic.

I put special focus on training my sword skills, the Swift Sword Style I had trained in for a whole 8 years since elementary school. Although I invested considerable time and effort over a long period of time, I was only able to reach the 3rd dan. But on the day I left the dojo while at the 3rd dan, the top grandmaster of the Swift Sword came out wearing his formal garb and patted my head, saying that a genius had been born into the field of kumdo. In his opinion, I had that much talent in the sword.

‘Aura Blade, so that was Aura Blade, you say! Kukuku.’

The name alone made it seem like it was something elegant. It took considerable effort at first. The knowledge I had gained from Master only covered magic, so learning the sword was a real headache. I was told I could make an Aura Blade using the new mana breathing technique Master created, but figuring out the method proved dicey. One misstep, and my mana could flood or collapse, so I had to be extremely careful.

But not too long ago, while I was standing on the edge of a cliff during a lightning storm, I had a realization. Streaks of blue lightning rammed incessantly into the sea, like they were coiling around something, and the sight awakened an enlightenment in me.

‘Aura Blade…. huhuhu.’

Even now, just thinking about it made me tingle with excitement. When I circulated the mana in my circle and slowly injected the mana into my sword, it was like connecting the sword to a power outlet. The blade began to emit blue energy. It was like sword ki—that’s what it was called in martial arts—was rippling from my hand to the world, and I imagined the sensation was similar to what my father must have felt when he took me into his arms at the maternity ward, his face runny with tears and snot.

‘Ahh! Even now, I’m touched.’

When I gathered all the mana of the 4th Circle, energy wrapped the blade, glowing like a living creature and making my hand vibrate every time I injected mana. My baby, Aura Blade, came into the world with the radiance of a lighthouse in the dark night. Incredible exhilaration swept through me, and I did a sword dance like a creature possessed as the cliff winds buffeted me.

‘Aura Blade is the best way to attack in close quarters. Huhu.’

It wasn’t sharp enough to cut through rocks as if they were tofu like in martial arts novels, but an Aura Blade could cut a big gouge in a sturdy boulder.

‘What I need is an actual battle! Boar! I’m sorry, but you’ll have to die for my sake.’

Due to my previous bad experience with boars, the sight of the rapidly fleeing boar laying waste to the forest as it fled with its plump buttocks quivering cheekily behind it gave rise to a surge of fierce desire. I hadn’t gotten proper nutrition for a month because of my intense training, so the boar was bound to meet an untimely end. I absolutely couldn’t lose it.

‘Che, magic is pretty useless for hunting things that move.’

I suddenly thought of those gamer kids who gathered in the classroom every morning talking about how mages struggled in the beginning and got stronger. I had become a 4th Circle mage, but hiding quietly and casting magic like a cowardly assassin didn’t suit my tastes. I wanted to experience that electrifying rush you get when you charge with hilt in hand, going head to head with your adversary. Since I was trying to cook up the boar with a sword instead of magic, the huge boar must have sensed something when I appeared and was now desperately running away.

‘This pork!’

I was forced to cast the magic that I had saved in preparation for some unknown danger. If I kept chasing it like this, I could end up losing this level 100 boar that seemed to have unlimited stamina. The 4th Circle magic I memorized came to mind.

‘The most practical magic I could use in the forest is the strongest of the 4th Circle wind spells, Wind Cutter!’

I was about 10 meters away from the fleeing boar. Wind Cutter was worth a try even if it was 20 meters away.

‘Pork! I’ll eat you for suurree!’ I stopped running, spread out my hands, and cast my memorized magic. “Wind Cutter!”

Zing! For a moment, my will and mana resonated with the mana of the earth. Magic flashing with blue mana manifested in the time it took to blink.

Woooooooooooooshh!

Suddenly, a roar ripped through the forest like a motorbike gangster passing by on his chopper.

“Holy shit!”

Several blue arcs of light were somehow already shooting off like an explosion. The wind blades flew forth like arrows, shredding big, dense trees and scrub that had stubbornly blocked my way just moments ago into hundreds of pieces, blowing them away.

“Im-Impressive!”

I had practiced magic at my place on the cliff, but it was my first time using a memorized spell with such force. I had been careful to control my mana to avoid shocking the villagers, who were skittish and weak of heart. That said, the view I saw after resolving myself and casting that 4th Circle magic was really something else. Everything over the 20 meter expanse ahead of me had been razed to the ground.

“S-So this is why mages get special treatment.” It was difficult to manifest magic, but its strength was in its flashiness and sheer destructive power. I was suddenly super proud of myself.

“Geh! W-What about the boar?”

I was nodding to myself at the satisfying spectacle I had created and contemplating my genius when I suddenly remembered the goal of my life and death struggle, Mr. Boar.

It was gone.

There was no big lump of boar to be found anywhere in the forest, which had been razed as clean as an asphalt road.

I quickly ran in the direction the boar had fled.

“Th-This is… Damn it.”

As expected, the boar had run about 20 meters away. Like slabs of meat cut up nicely at the butcher, the ten or so parts of the boar were lying nicely amongst the fallen trees.

* * *

“I can’t see a single monster, much less a demon beast.”

Perhaps due to their horrifying past, the villagers had refused to leave the village for the past month after the rising of Luena’s Moon. I wanted to check out some of the demon beasts they had mentioned, but only this pitiful boar was caught and sent to the other world.

“Huhu, Cecile will probably be happy, yeah?”

I took a few pieces of rib and leg meat from the divided boar, tied them with the tough branches of a thick tree, and headed towards the village. The villagers who ate potatoes and barley bread every day pricked my conscience.

“Eh? There are mushrooms here?” With a happy heart, I noticed mushrooms as soon as I passed by the spot where I had first found the boar. Several brown mushrooms had been uncovered by the boar as it rooted through the ground. “Haah, they were covered by the leaves. They smell great!”

The strong smell of the forest had overtaken my senses as soon as I stepped foot into it, so I hadn’t detected the fragrance of the mushrooms. After pushing aside the leaves, the brown, patterned, fist-sized mushrooms gave off a sweet smell.

“Grilled pork and mushrooms, perfect!” I would have liked a basket, but I only had the two small pockets in my clothes. I picked a few of the most tasty-looking specimens and stowed them in my pockets. “2 Nights & 3 Days, a wilderness variety show! It’d be perfect if I just invite Mr. Ho-dong.”

[TN: Referring to Kang Ho-dong, who was in the popular Korean variety show, 1 Night & 2 Days.]

If I were still in Korea, I would still be watching 2 Nights & 3 Days every weekend. I wanted to give the idols in it a taste of the brutal reality that I was suffering right now.

‘But what is this feeling?’ As I was walking towards the village with the considerably heavy meat, a chill ran down my spine, making me stop for a moment. I felt eyes on my back, like someone was watching me. ‘Am I just imagining it?’

After my senses were refined with mana, I became capable of feeling all sorts of energies around me.

‘Weird…’

Tilting my head in puzzlement, I quickened my pace. My hair was standing on end, as if I were hearing ghost stories from my childhood. It wasn’t a good feeling.

* * *

“Wh-What is this?”

“Can’t you tell just from looking at it? It’s called meat, it has various nutrients, including protein and lipids, and it is an absolutely necessary food for survival.”

“Pr-Protein? Lipids? Nutrients?” Hans blinked slowly like a cow at my Earth terminology.

“Bro, bro, how did you know? Last night I dreamed about eating meat! Yippee! You’re my Kyre bro, the person I admire second-most, after all!”

‘Rascal, you finally recognize your big bro’s merit.’ I patted Deron’s head. His eyes had gone round at the sight of the meat.

“You, you went into the forest? It’s dangerous…”

As soon as I took the meat and entered the house, I saw Hans, who was carving wood into various goods, and Cecile. Deron ran in upon hearing the rumor that I had come into the village with meat, and now they were all staring round-eyed at the fresh boar.

“You, who are you really? Last month you caught a madir, and now you’ve single handedly hunted a boar from the dangerous forest… were you a mercenary in the past?”

Unable to even consider that I might be a mage, Hans suspected that I was a mere mercenary.

“I may look like this, but at one point I was pretty amazing. Cecile, I look forward to dinner today as well.”

“Yes…”

I lightly sidestepped Hans’ question. ‘Ain’t she a cute thing when she’s acting shy!’ I looked affectionately at Cecile, whose face had gone red.

“Hans, this mushroom, does it happen to be edible?” I pulled out the mushrooms I picked from the forest.

“Geh! Th-That is!”

“Sha-Sharif mushroom!”

‘What? Is it poisonous?’

Hans and Cecile were shocked by the mushroom. “You, where did you find that?”

“I found it in the forest, of course. The boar was eating it, so I thought they were edible and picked some, but are they poisonous?” At Hans’ shocked words, I started feeling like I had wasted my time.

“Let’s go. Let’s hurry to the Chief!” His pupils fixed on the mushrooms, Hans dragged me excitedly along.

‘What, why’s he so excited over a few mushrooms. I’m hella hungry.’ Thoughts of roasted pork were dancing in my head. Just thinking about the taste of meat roasted on a hot pan with onions and mushrooms made me drool.

“Ohhh! Dear God! Thank you!” As he went outside, Hans drew a cross and thanked God.

I followed behind him, still holding the handful of mushrooms. ‘Do I have to give the chief’s house some meat?’

I was, in my own way, entertaining some kind thoughts.

* * *

“Aren’t, aren’t these sharif?”

“Yes, Chief. They are definitely sharif mushrooms.”

Upon seeing the mushrooms, Chief Aves was just as excited. “My word! A sharif mushroom this big will sell for a few Gold in an instant!”

“We couldn’t find anything this size in the forest even 10 years ago… I didn’t think I would see a sharif mushroom again in this lifetime!”

‘Geh! A few Gold?' After hearing that the mushrooms the boar had been idly eating as a snack could sell for several Gold, gold coins sprang naturally to my mind. The village was so poor that I hadn’t been able to see a single gold coin, so the word “Gold” was not without weight.

“How much Gold did you say this will sell for?” I asked.

“You, where did you find these?”

“In the forest, of course. It wasn’t just one or two, but easily several hundred…”

“Several hundred?!”

A rough glance had told me as much.

‘Wow! What the hell is this place?’ There were the fish, which netted a few gold each, and even the mushrooms. My mind worked quickly. ‘I can’t go out into the world empty handed, can I? I’ll need magic crystal dust to practice magic circles, and I don’t have a staff… I’ll also need to buy a sturdy sword.’ There were more than a few uses for money.

‘Huhu, I’ll catch some tuna and pick some mushrooms and I’ll be set.’ The villagers were scared so they couldn’t go in, but I wasn’t afraid of the forest at all.

“Besides these mushrooms, are there perhaps other things that sell well?” Information was money.

“Since long ago, our village was famous for sharif mushrooms. Even the soldiers weren’t able to go deep into the forest because of the demon beasts, so we were only able to eke a living off so-so sharif mushrooms and the madir we occasionally caught. Besides the sharif mushroom, there’s also the rudi mushroom, which survives on tree sap. As well as puiden, which mages use in their research, and various herbs, like casol—there are quite a few valuable goods to be found in the forest.”

‘I won’t have to be greedy. They said the madir wouldn’t leave the waters by the village for another two months, and I only need a basket for the mushrooms. Kuku.’ I could catch a pheasant, get its eggs, use its feathers for quills, and sweep the floor for money. That was exactly how I felt right now.

“D-Do you think that the villagers could go with you tomorrow?” asked the Chief carefully.

For nearly a month, the Chief had been sighing while looking at the harvested grains. With less farmable land, it seemed that the harvest was insufficient for paying the taxes and buying potions afterwards.

“But Chief, won’t it be too dangerous? Young Kyre was able to return safely from the forest thanks to the Goddess of Fortune, but something bad will happen if he takes the villagers, too,” said Hans, putting the brakes on the chief’s words.

“Sigh, I know. But what else can we do? I have to go to the castle in a few days to pay the taxes, but all we have are potatoes and barley… If we can’t pay our taxes and buy at least ten potions this time, all our villagers will have to become serfs next year.”

Apparently, eking out a living was a pain in the ass whether you were here or in the 21st century. Those who had the means could spend and spend, but the commoners at the bottom had to break their backs every day to live.

‘Whatever, it’s not gonna cost me, so I might as well help them.’

In any case, I wanted to go out into the world before winter came. I needed to see the wide world in order to earn the enlightenment that hadn’t come after the 4th Circle.

“It could be dangerous if the villagers come with me, so I’ll go alone.”

“Alone? No. I know there’s something about you that’s quite reliable, but the month of Luena’s rising moon is dangerous,” said Chief Aves, talking me out of it while shaking his hand.

“Going alone is more comfortable for me. And you need to go quite a ways to find the sharif mushrooms. The villagers will get hurt for no reason if we run into a monster or something.”

“Even so…” The Chief weighed the taxes with my safety.

“Chief, it’s said that those who believe shall be rewarded,” I said, filling my eyes with unwavering conviction. I was uneasy because if I went with the villagers, the skills that I didn’t yet want known would come to light.

“Will you be alright?” Making an apologetic face, he reaffirmed whether or not I would be okay, looking as if he would follow me if he were only ten years younger.

“Haha! Just believe in me. Tomorrow, I’ll pick more than enough sharif mushrooms to have money left over even after paying the taxes.”

I puffed out my chest and laughed heartily.

“The pretty Cecile sure is kind~ lala~ lalala~”

Praise about Cecile was bursting out of me all on its own. The moment we returned from the Chief’s house, I found out that the kind chef Cecile had prepared easy-to-eat meat stew and grilled pork. On top of that, she put aside the meat we would be eating and shared a hunk of meat with the villagers who were hovering around.

Then, morning came around. I walked into the forest with a huge basket half my size strapped to my back.

‘Huhu, who would’ve thought sharif mushrooms would taste like that!’ The sharif mushrooms had the fragrance and chewiness of the Gangwondo matsutake mushrooms I’d eaten at some point. At my vehement question of how much Gold a single one would sell for, I was able to eat a sharif mushroom, a delicacy eaten by nobles, grilled with the pork. ‘Kyaa, that would’ve been heaven with a glass of alcohol.’

Even now, I found that moment regrettable. Perhaps because the village was so devastatingly poor, they didn’t have the barley or wheat to make beer. They probably couldn’t waste what little they had on drinks when it was difficult enough to get by.

‘I’d better buy some alcohol when I go to the castle.’

I might be a minor in Korea, but here, I was treated like a capable adult. How could I forget the taste of the liquor I had occasionally stolen sips of from my father? Various pleasurable thoughts went through my head as I strolled into the forest.

Zing.

‘Huh?’

Suddenly, I felt a subtle sharpness. I kept my guard up while on the move. After getting stabbed by the Triad gangster, I had taken up a creed of constant vigilance, so I heightened my senses and prepared for a monster or a demon beast.

‘Something’s there.’ I wasn’t sure yesterday, but today, I was certain that something was watching me from somewhere. ‘Is it a monster? Or a demon beast….?’

Even knights wielding Aura Blade had a hard time facing demon beasts. I had long since wanted to meet one to check my skills, so although I was on edge, I didn’t feel a hint of fear.

‘It’s clever.’ Once I tensed up, the creature hid its presence, as if it were suggesting that we play hide and seek. ‘I’ll wait. There’s no hurry.’

I had as much time as I wanted, after all. With an easy-going attitude, I slowly moved to the sharif mushrooms’ location. In my hand was a sword and in my head were thoughts of the spells I had prepared for combat…

* * *

“Arrow!”

Wham!

“Huhu, magic sure is convenient.” Hit by my Arrow magic, a mushroom the size of a watermelon fell cleanly to the ground. Even without using Fly or Levitation, I could pick the rudi mushrooms at least 10 meters above the ground. “Don’t sanghwang mushrooms look like this?”

[TN: Sanghwang mushrooms, or Phellinus linteus, are medicinal fungi used in Asian countries.]

Without looking carefully, the rudi mushrooms couldn’t be distinguished from the tree. They looked like the sanghwang mushrooms that my father had back at home in jars of alcohol.

“They’re 100% natural and they’ve even grown up sucking the life force from these trees, so they’d probably be pretty good medicine, eh?”

In Seoul, there was no chance for me to consume tonics. My parents, on the other hand, used their age as an excuse to regularly eat red ginseng and natural Korean honey. But to me, they said ridiculous things like how at my age, one could eat through steel (was I some sort of a circusman?) and gave me normal food.

‘I’ve struck the jackpot today.’

I picked the leftover sharif mushrooms the boar had been eating. They took up a considerable amount of space. I also packed up the other mushrooms that looked valuable, including the rudi mushrooms.

“Eh? There’s a path here?” After struggling on the mountain for some time and filling up my basket, I discovered a small path. “Geh! Th-This is?”

In the brief moment while I was staring at the path and thinking, a metallic reek hit me. “The smell of blood!”

The unforgettable smell you could experience during a full-on nosebleed, the smell of blood, washed over me.

I quickly roused myself. An ominous thought came to my mind. ‘With this level of smell, it’s gotta be…’ A lot of blood had to be spilled for the smell to cut through the forest’s odors.

Activating my mana, I quickly moved along the path. Then, I was forced to stop at the sight that soon appeared before me.

“…..”

The enormous forest opened up to a clearing atop a rather large ridge. Wooden houses and fences were clustered together.

“O-Orcs!” I was meeting the race of monsters for the first time, but I had seen them so often in fantasy novels and movies that I could recognize them at first sight. They were all lying down. The corpses of a hundred or so orcs were scattered around the huts and fences.

‘They died without being able to put up a fight!’

The orcs were clearly short, but looked sturdy. Despite having spears, swords, and even shields like humans did, the orcs had all perished, spilling their blue blood. And each orc had one wound each, as if they had been killed one at a time.

Swoooooosh.

It was then that I felt a single breeze. All the hairs on my body bristled up. Even without turning around to look, I felt an unfamiliar fear.

‘Demon beast!’

It was the creature.

Thump, thump.

My heart raced. Behind me was an aura so sharp it couldn’t be compared to when I met the Triad gangsters.

I slowly turned.

“… Ah!”

A low groan escaped me. Exactly 15 meters away from me was a panther-like animal with golden stripes. But unlike a panther, the protruding fangs looked sharp enough to send most things to the netherworld with a single strike.

* * *

GROOOWL!

‘This guy killed them.’

This was the culprit that had torn a hundred orcs to shreds. I didn’t know what it was called, but its body, which was well over 3 meters long, was smeared all over with blue orc blood.

“Hi! We’re meeting for the first time, aren’t we, friend? Hahaha!”

There was no better cure for fear than laughter. I put the basket on the ground since it would get in the way of battle and grasped my sword with both hands.

‘Its hide is tough enough to block Aura Blade and most magic, huh?’

According to the chief, who had hunted a demon beast with knights when he was young, the hide of a beast was tough and sturdy enough to simply deflect low circle magic and weak Aura Blades.

Shiiing.

‘Those claws are no joke.’ It was clearly also entering battle mode, because long black claws extended like retractable cat claws. ‘Most people’s hearts would freeze just seeing that.’

Now I could understand why the villagers were so afraid of demon beasts.

‘Its savageness is no joke.’ It seemed like wild creatures actually did get stronger during Luena’s Moon, the nasty season of the black moon that agitated the blood of demon beasts and monsters.

Grooowl! The beast's eyes glowed bright red.

Bam! Suddenly, it disappeared from my view.

“Ah! Air Shield!”

CRASH!

I cast the fast-activating shield magic the same time it disappeared, and the beast's claws plunged into the Air Shield just as it began to form.

‘I-It’s fast!’

It had incredible mobility unbefitting its size, like a Porsche engine on a Tico.

[TN: A Tico is a Korean car manufactured by Daewoo. It’s a pretty bulky car.]

Cruunch! Crack! Crack!

‘Geh, why you—!!' The beast was tearing the almost complete Air Shield with its sharp claws, bringing the shield to near breaking point.

“Take this!”

I would be a bonehead to just sit there and watch the shield shatter. I drew mana into the sword as I forcefully thrust towards the beast’s stomach.

CLANG!

‘HOSHIT! W-What the hell!’

I knew it was monstrous, but I didn’t know it would be THIS strong. The beast blocked the Aura Blade with all my strength behind it, using its claws. But the problem wasn’t that it successfully blocked my attack, but that the demon beast's claws were like steel, and that I only had one sword while the creature had four claws to a paw.

CRACK!

The shield shattered, and with a shiing, the beast's black, steely claws came flying towards me the next moment.

“Hya!” Drawing back my sword, I ducked and made a horizontal cut towards the beast’s belly.

Leap! But the golden panther, showing great jumping ability, leapt backwards, withdrawing like a phantom with an afterimage.

‘Hng, won’t this be a bitch with the 4th Circle?’

Unlike the confidence I’d had when entering the forest, I was now struck with a sense of crisis.

GROOWWWL!

As if unhappy with what I had caused it to suffer just moments before, the beast growled as it licked its paw. This wouldn’t end easily.

‘It’s already almost evening. If the moon rises… it’ll be dangerous.’

Luena’s Moon had become visible a month ago. The black-colored moon loomed next to a silver moon that hung in the sky like a silver platter. Its moonlight gave off such an eerie feeling that simply looking at it made you tremble. That was the moon would soon rise. I had gone quite deep into the forest while gathering mushrooms and hadn’t noticed the time.

Shiiiiiing!

The beast didn’t even need the moon to rise. The impatient beast flung out its four paws and once again drew close.

“Hold!” I cast the 3rd Circle Hold magic I had memorized.

As was appropriate for a Hold cast by a 4th Circle mage, it quickly took effect. The demon beast's body flinched for a moment.

‘A chance!’

It was a clever bastard, but it was clueless about me. The moment its body was frozen in midair by an invisible spell, I drew mana and strength into my sword and thrust with all my might towards its stomach.

With a squelching sound, I felt the sword sinking in deeply. The sensation in my hand was so forceful that I got goosebumps.

GRAAAAWR!

SHIING.

‘Gah!’

But the bastard didn’t die from something trivial like getting stabbed in the stomach. A huge roar burst from its maw and a claw swung towards my head.

“Haa!” I shouted loudly while flailing like a windmill to dodge backwards.

‘That was close!’ It was great that the Aura Bladed sword had embedded itself deeply in the beast’s stomach, but it seemed like the bastard’s vitality was greater than that of a troll, something I’d only heard of.

ROOAAAR! Frustrated that its attack hadn’t gone as planned, the beast roared into the sky.

‘I see, that’s it!’

I had lost my sword, but opportunity came hand in hand with crisis. A spell flashed into my head.

Zooom! Beside itself with frustration, the beast flung itself forward despite having been stabbed in the belly.

“LIGHTNING!” A magic incantation resounded in the air.

The beast's hide was resistant to magic, but its insides probably weren’t.

ZZZZZZZZZZZTTT!

Lightning magic arced towards the beast's stomach as it flew in mid air towards me.

Yelp! Yelp yelp yelp yelp!

‘Eh? Why does it sound like a dog?’

No matter how much pain it was in, a panther shouldn’t make sounds like a dog. Having been hit in the stomach with lightning, the demon beast fell to the ground and cried without any dignity like a plaintive mutt.

Flail! Flaaaail!

But even that was short lived. After frothing at the mouth and seizing violently, the golden panther that was called a demon beast lost its will to live and the light went out of its eyes.

I tried poking it with my foot, but it was just a big, motionless lump of flesh.

“UHAHAHAHAHA! I’m a magic genius after all!”

Having confirmed that the demon beast had completely crossed the river Styx, a cheer burst out of me. No matter how you thought of it, this was a perfect magic combo. Who in the world could rise to the 4th Circle after less than one year of learning magic? Even Master wouldn’t have been able to do it if he had come here wearing just his panties.

“Lala~ I’ve made money~ I made money~”

It was said that a demon beast couldn’t be skinned with a regular knife—it could only be done safely with Aura Blade.

“Shall I try making some money now?” I licked my lips as I approached the body of the beast whose soul was probably already sobbing at the gates of hell. “I guess people leave insurance money when they die and demon beasts leave behind lotteries when they die!”

Delight filled my heart. Confirming once again that the heavens rewarded those who worked hard, I busied my hands. I wanted to quickly share this happy news with Cecile, Hans, and the Chief who were probably all waiting anxiously for me back at the village.