Chapter 53 Ignis Fatuus Fog Cave (2)
Chapter 53 Ignis Fatuus Fog Cave (2)
"Sumi Aethereal."
Rain felt that the name was quite familiar, but he couldn't pinpoint where he heard it before.
In contrast, Lance immediately guessed the identity of the black-haired beauty with ethereal green eyes in front of them.
"Sumi Aethereal,"
Lance repeated, rubbing his chin in contemplation. He looked at Sumi and sized her up with interest.
"I've heard of you before… Sumi Aethereal, the heiress of the top-ranking guild, Aether."
"It is said that when she was eight years old, she already comprehended her father's greatest archery art."
"When she was ten, she became an E Ranker, and started to join dungeon expeditions and began to fight monsters and demons."
"When she was twelve, she became a D Ranker, the most promising talent in the guild of Aether. Upon reaching sixteen, she was already halfway through C Rank."
Hearing his words, Sumi narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything. She pursed her lips and approached the dream wyvern instead.
Lance's gaze remained on her.
However, Rain began to look at Lance strangely, he was seeing Lance in a new light… one that was more humane, to say the least.
Seeing that Lance was done talking, he coughed in embarrassment before nudging his elbow slightly to Lance.
"...I'm sorry, Lance, but how do you know so much about her?"
"That's just basic information. A little investigation would give you that background of her,"
Lance responded plainly, shaking his head.
"Why investigate her in the first place? Do you like her or something?"
Instead, Rain muttered under his breath. Lance seemed to have heard that and narrowed his eyes, not bothering to respond.
looked at the black-haired beauty before turning his gaze back to Lance with a difficult expression.
"I don't think you should've described her entire life out loud like that. She probably—no, definitely felt uncomfortable that you just described her entire life in front of her."
While saying that, Rain suddenly thought of something and blurted his thoughts out loud.
"Is that your way of talking to people? No wonder you complain too much about conversations… you're socially inept!"
Rain nodded with a sigh. He stopped talking and patted Lance's shoulder with a soft pitying smile.
Lance felt irked for some reason. But he didn't bother to entertain Rain with a response, that would only extend the pointless conversation.
Ignoring him, Lance approached Sumi instead.
"Sumi Aethereal. Were you the one that angered this dream wyvern, if I had a guess… Did you steal its eggs?"
"Yes."
Sumi nodded while taking out a sharp dagger. She inserted mana and the dagger turned translucent and bright.
With one swift motion, she stabbed the neck of the dream wyvern—effectively killing it completely in one strike.
Under her cold gaze, the dream wyvern could only let out a cry of pain and couldn't even put up a struggle.
Whii…
'A beast emperor died just like that…'
Rain looked at the dream wyvern with conflicted emotions. He had no doubt he could kill the wyvern, but he couldn't do so with such efficiency.
Sumi's simple and effortless way of killing the dream wyvern reminded him of a certain timeless quote in the Ranker community.
'Hunters do not fight, they kill.'
The fighting style of a Hunter—in comparison to other professions, the Hunter profession was the weakest in firepower but had the most killing potential.
That was not something said without reason.
Even with the change of time, mankind's fear of death has never faltered, only risen more strongly before.
Hunters were feared because of their intricate preparations, extensive knowledge of their enemies' weaknesses, and the ability to control a battle's tempo.
With those three aspects combined, a Hunter could kill anything in this world with ease. That's why they were not to be underestimated.
A normal Hunter was common.
A decent Hunter was someone to remember.
While a great Hunter was someone to be feared.
Let's take this dream wyvern for example, to any other, this beast emperor would be a troublesome foe with its ability to fly and manipulate the wind.
However, Sumi killed it easily like it was nothing.
Through her words, Rain made a guess in his mind about how the battle must've gone.
Sumi first discovered the dream wyvern's den and waited for the beast emperor to go away to take the eggs from the nest.
By stealing the eggs of the dream wyvern and making it angry, she made the beast emperor go berserk.
With its mind filled with fury, it couldn't properly assess its own situation. The dream wyvern could only scream in fury.
However, at that moment, the beast signed its death warrant. Sumi took the timely opportunity where the dream wyvern discovered Rain and Lance and got distracted.
Sumi shot out a special arrow, hitting the dream wyvern in one strike to kill it. But she, unfortunately, missed her mark and didn't kill it in one arrow.
As the dream wyvern fell with a pained expression, she activated a magical spell and manipulated the ground to transform into spikes, impaling the beast emperor before killing it.
By managing to influence the environment with her magic spell with such ease, it could be said that Sumi was quite talented at magic also.
However, there was still something Rain didn't understand.
'With this extremely dense and harsh fog, how could she accurately hit the dream wyvern without missing…?'
Rain was curious, but he didn't bother to ask. He already had a faint guess about the answer from hearing Lance's words earlier about Sumi.
Obviously, it was her transcendental archery talent.
While he was in deep thought, Sumi Aethereal had finished taking something out of the dream wyvern's body.
Afterward, she stood up and took a light glance at Rain and Lance. It was unknown what she was thinking.
Under their gaze, she let out a sigh before walking away silently.
Thinking of something, Lance observed her actions for a moment before following her from behind when she was in the distance.
Rain chased after him and let out a low chuckle.
"How the tables turned, huh?"
"What are you talking about?"
Lance was confused. But Rain's smile became wider, as though thoroughly entertained by something.
Before Lance could get impatient for an answer, Rain shook his head and gave out a wistful sigh—one that irked Lance.
Rain slowly spoke with a smile.
"Who's the clueless idiot stalking other people now huh?"
Lance suddenly stopped. He forcibly buried his voice in his throat and took a deep breath. He massaged his forehead, processing the words he had just heard.
"What did you…"
However, before he could finish, Rain was already running away while laughing madly. Lance felt his pupils constrict in anger.
***
Night has arrived.
The starlit crescent moon illuminated the dark forest with moonlight.
Somewhere on the vast unmarked island, the birds suddenly flew away whilst the forest trees were startled.
Elias stopped his actions, while near him, Celestia also opened her eyes. Both of them were wearing startled expressions for different reasons.
"I sense it. An existence of sin itself… an archdemon!"
Celestia whispered, her calm smile vanishing into a frosty expression. She looked in the direction where she felt it.
But her expression immediately changed thereafter. She lost her connection of the demon.
Celestia widened her eyes and was perplexed.
"Huh? no... am I imagining things? Did it just disappear?"
However, Elias was looking at the air vacantly with a distant expression. His eyes expressed a rare emotion of surprise.
[Subquest: No. 3]
[Demon Extermination]
[Kill the demon "Baron of Pride"]
[Rewards: ???]