章 227: Tuition (5)
A night with a bright moon.
Vikir silently stepped out into the wilderness of the Imperial City.
Beside him, Minpin drove the carriage.
"It's me, Mr. .... What monster are you trying to catch?"
Minpin had gotten a taste of Vikir's power and temper, and was treating him with great caution.
That was why he had personally responded to Vikir's request for a guide.
He knew that if he offended the madman, he would lose a valuable member of his guild.
But Vikir didn't care much for Minpin's intentions.
"Considering that I'm a student at the academy, it's not too strange that I caught so many of them."
"Aha."
Minpin nodded at Vikir's words.
Certainly, Vikir's strength was far beyond that of a normal academy student.
'Where did this monster come from?'
Minpin let out a small sigh.
Meanwhile. Vikir was thinking about something else.
'...Minpin, this is one of the people I need to have on my side.'
He's one of the best guides, one of the heroes who contributed so much to the Allied Forces of Humanity during the Age of Destruction.
Most of the monster encyclopedias that Vikir knows of were created by him, and later, the research field called 'monster ecogeography' was also founded based on his research.
However, Minpin died early in the war against the demons because he had no background to fall back on.
A wild man who belonged nowhere. What does that mean?
'The person who picks it up first is the owner.'
In this life, Minpin's life will be much longer.
He'll have the Baskervilles behind him, who will one day be swallowed up by Vikir.
'...Although I did reveal some of my power because I was planning to reap it as a vassal.'
Vikir briefly tested Minpin, who would later rise to the ranks of heroes and soon become his confidant.
"What monsters do you know that would be suitable for a student to catch and still provide a decent income?"
"Hmm. The only monster that's not too strong and provides a decent income... is Gnoll."
Gnoll. A grotesque creature with the head of a hyena and the body of a dwarf.
They are lowly creatures that walk on two legs and are covered in filthy fur and stink.
They inhabit the high mountains outside the Capital in packs, and their burrows are so deep underground that they cause the ground to collapse.
Not only do they get in the way of civil engineering projects, but they also attack workers, making them increasingly dangerous.
Minpin was indeed very knowledgeable about monsters.
He generously shared his knowledge of gnolls with Vikir.
"Gnolls are weak in combat, so even a first-year academy student can capture many of them. Their fur is surprisingly tough and hard, and they're also good at keeping warm, so they're often used as rugs and covers. Their bones and organs can also be sold for medicinal purposes."
"But selling them isn't as good as catching one of those powerful big monsters, is it?"
"You don't understand! Gnolls are an ecosystem disrupter, as defined by the Imperial Family. There's a bounty for simply killing them."
Well, that's a different story.
Not only does killing them bring in a certain amount of bounty per animal, but if you can sell their hides, meat, and bones, you can kill two birds with one stone and make a decent income.
"So. How do you catch gnolls?"
"Hmm. Gnolls have a habit of collecting shiny objects. When encountered, it's most common to dazzle and kill them by scattering glass or something like that...."
But Vikir shook his head.
"That's only for the few gnolls you encounter."
"Yes, I suppose that's true."
"I will use another method."
"...?"
Vikir's chosen method was simple.
"Gnolls are drawn to the fresh blood of a freshly killed animal. They have a great sense of smell, and they can smell it from miles away."
"That's right, how do you know that so well, do they teach that in the academy these days?"
Minpin looked quite surprised, for what Vikir had just said was something only experienced hunters would know.
They are the first to swarm and coil around a wounded, blood-scented prey.
Like sharks in the ocean, they play a role on land.
Vikir caught a boar, cut open its throat, and dragged its carcass from place to place.
Its blood soaks into the soil, its fishy smell wafting across the forest on the night breeze.
Vikir roamed the mountains, smearing the boar's fur and blood on the ground.
Of course, Minpin, who had to follow, was horrified.
"You're provoking the gnolls! It's suicidal! They're only a C+ danger individually, but in a group, they're up to an A!"
The sight of all the gnolls within a few kilometers swarming toward this place would be a sight any hunter would hate to see.
But Vikir merely nods with a nonchalant expression.
"Don't worry. I'll just lure them in and hide."
Minpin is slightly relieved.
"Ah, hiding, that's good to hear. Certainly, they're less focused when they're eating, and if there's a competition for food among the herd, the weaker ones will surely be left behind, which will make it easier for us to pick out the easier ones to hunt. Then we can catch them one by one as they fall to the back of the pack...."
Vikir's next words, however, made Minpin flinch once more.
"No, we're chasing the lead. We will follow them wherever they lead their prey."
"What? Why is that...."
"To locate the main pack's dens."
Vikir was targeting not one or two gnolls, not a pack, but an entire colony.
Gnoll hunting at the colony level, something not even the Empire's marauding armies could do.
Minpin's mouth dropped halfway open at the ease with which Vikir brought it up.
"Why, why would you go to such lengths...?"
And then, to Minpin, Vikir said something short.
"It's good to make money."
* * *
Then a group of gnolls came and tore apart the boar's carcass.
They cut open the boar's belly and scraped out the still-hot, steaming entrails, then dragged the rest of the carcass down a low path through the underbrush.
Vikir and Minpin followed quietly behind.
Soon, they came upon a large earthen cave hidden in a low hillside.
Minpin climbed onto a high branch and looked around.
'Do you really think this will work?'
But the scene in front of them proved once again that Vikir's plan was hopeless.
Swarms of gnolls.
Minpin was horrified at the sheer number of gnolls roaming around.
"Boss. I think this is a bit much. The swarm is quite large. All of the gnolls that have been causing trouble in the Imperial Capital have gathered here. If we mess with this place, they'll flood the nearby villages."
Monster Wave.
If you make a mistake, there is a high possibility that you will end up committing the mistake of overthrowing.
But.
"We should look for other entrances to this cave."
Vikir remained nonchalant.
Within a few hours, Vikir had found several other entrances that he believed connected to the first one.
Minpin was impressed with Vikir's skillful search, but he still had no idea what to do with all these gnolls.
Then.
Vikir loaded up on mana and slammed his fist into the dirt wall.
…Boom, boom, boom!
The piles of dried earth that made up the cliff collapsed, blocking the entrance to several private burrows.
Vikir laughed bitterly, remembering popping champagne glasses at the club.
"Now move to the topmost cave."
Minpin did as he was told and drove the carriage toward the topmost entrance.
Boom!
A few of the gnolls leapt out to play, only to be decapitated by Minpin's greatsword.
"Mr. Boss. What are you going to do now... huck!?"
Minpin swallowed hard.
Vikir pulled out all the items he had loaded into the wagon.
It was oil.
With all the money he had left, Vikir had bought all the waste oil that the Academy had been hoarding to throw away when it reached its expiration date, and now he was pouring it into the very top of the gnoll's den.
Gurgling, gurgling, gurgling...
The bluish oil, squeezed from the sabik berries, thickens in the den.
Kungkung-
Grrrr...
Hmm?
From the bottom of the cave, the sounds of chattering rang out.
A few gnolls rise to the top of the cave, only to be sent back down by Minpin's greatsword.
When dozens of barrels were empty, Vikir kicked all the remaining barrels down into the den.
And then.
Grumble!
He tossed the torch he was carrying into the depths as well.
…BOOM!
A loud booming sound.
At the same time, the sabic tree oil, which is highly flammable and has a low boiling point, began to heat up with a loud noise.
Washishishishisik- jijijik-popjik!
The sound of the oil frying the gnolls that hadn't yet escaped the den.
The boiling oil continues to flow down the hole, and the gnolls below are fried alive, unable to escape.
Crackle!
Kaeng!
Chiiiing...
The gnolls in the upper tier are fried in oil, and even the gnolls in the middle tier are choking on soot and dying.
The gnolls in the lower levels scramble to escape, leaving the bodies of their comrades behind.
However, the entrances to most of the tunnels are already blocked by piles of earth, and suffocation is inevitable.
Oxygen concentration drops rapidly, and smoke and odor rise.
The air also heated up rapidly, and the survivors steamed to death at the entrances of the blocked tunnels.
"...! ...! ...! ...!"
Minpin could only agape.
He'd never seen anyone hunt colony monsters like this before.
However, Vikir remained calm under the circumstances.
"This kind of loud tactic works well to scare away monsters with low intelligence."
In fact, pouring boiling oil over the entrance of the upper level cavern was more of a performance.
In reality, it couldn't cause that much damage.
The real purpose is to frighten and confuse the prey.
…Udeug! …Ppudeudeug!
The burned gnolls are terrified and scramble to the bottom of the cave.
Younger and smaller gnolls and older and slower gnolls are trampled to death by their peers.
It's also not uncommon for mates to bite each other to death as they try to get through the narrow tunnel first.
When the pack is disrupted, only the strongest and fastest survive.
And those who survived ran towards the entrance of the cave on the lowest level.
"...Come out now."
Toward where the last hound's eyes shone.
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