Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Izela, the only daughter of the Rug family head, grumbled incredulously, “Father is really something, to think he’d even recruit a guest for monster hunting. Were we that unreliable?”
Wearing a tunic and pants suitable for activity instead of an elaborate dress, she turned to Turan and said, “Ah, I’m not criticizing our guest. Just saying father is being too fussy.”
“How can you call the family head fussy? That’s too much, sister.”
“Mind your own business.”
Another noble standing beside her, Rug’s nephew, spoke in a low voice.
As their gazes met and sparks seemed to fly, the nephew turned to greet Turan.
“This is our first time meeting properly? I’m Marvin Baltas. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“Likewise.”
After greeting Marvin, Turan looked at the twelve knights standing behind the two nobles.
Unlike their masters who seemed to be out for a stroll, they all showed clear signs of tension.
It was natural, given they were hunting an unknown enemy that had already devoured four knights without leaving survivors.
Soon after, the army consisting of three nobles and twelve knights marched proudly toward the north gate.
All passing residents knelt and bowed deeply at the sight of them.
The only ones who merely bowed their heads while standing were those wearing armor and carrying swords, whom Turan now knew were called police.
Commoners given weapons to maintain order within the city…
Naturally, they could never be used as troops in monster hunting or wars between houses.
Even a novice noble like Turan could probably kill thousands of such armed civilians.
As they left the city walls heading north, they were greeted by a brick road built during the old empire era.
There were no passersby, as monsters had been attacking people for ten days.
“I want to finish this quickly and go back to rest.”
Izela grumbled while kicking stones along the road.
Walking slightly behind while staring at her back, Marvin quietly approached and asked in a low voice.
“Turan, are you perhaps interested in my sister?”
“No.”
Turan immediately shook his head in denial.
Over the past few days, after their shocking first meeting, Izela had consistently flirted with him.
Though not seriously, more in a light, joking manner.
But Turan wasn’t particularly attracted to her.
Her frivolous, almost flippant demeanor was far from his ideal type, and above all, marrying someone of different lineage would mean becoming a son-in-law adopted into her family.
Though the library here was impressive, he didn’t want to be bound here for life because of it.
“That’s a relief.”
Marvin’s face brightened at the answer.
Though unsure of the intent behind the question, Turan’s response seemed to satisfy the young noble.
* * *
After about an hour of chatting while heading north…
The subjugation party discovered a broken cart and several bloody, torn pieces of clothing in the middle of the main road.
Signs of someone being attacked.
“Is it that creature?”
“Probably. Since we’ve banned northward travel on our side, they must have been attacked while coming down from the north…”
While they conversed, Turan examined the debris to deduce the monster’s identity.
The blood smell wasn’t too pungent, suggesting it happened hours ago. The torn clothing indicated penetration by something sharp. The abnormally large handprint on one side of the cart had five fingers like a human’s…
The final clue confirmed the creature’s identity.
“It’s a monkey.”
“A monkey?”
“Look at this hand shape.”
“Ah.”
In fact, Turan had never seen a monkey in person either.
He only mentioned it because it perfectly matched the example illustrated in the monster guide.
Had he not seen the book, he would have just assumed it was some unknown monster.
“It seems to have attacked the merchants and returned to the forest. We should be able to track it by following the traces.”
“Tracking… I’m not very good at that kind of magic. Marvin?”
“Me neither. Perhaps among the knights-”
“I’ll try looking.”
When Turan volunteered, Izela brightened and asked.
“Oh, is that your bloodline ability?”
“I’m just familiar with it from frequent use.”
After calmly lying, Turan immediately activated his tracking magic.
The condition was the bloodstains on the torn clothes.
With the spell, his senses expanded and the blood smell intensified, revealing a trail leading to the left of the road.
More precisely, all other smells were blocked out allowing him to identify this unknown victim’s blood trail.
“This way.”
Following Turan’s guidance, the subjugation party immediately left the road and entered the forest.
The lack of proper paths didn’t matter much.
Not only the three nobles but even the knights could easily leap four or five meters from where they stood.
After following the bloodstains for thirty minutes, they arrived at a stream.
Several deer drinking water fled in surprise at their arrival.
“The trail ends here. Seems it washed itself.”
“You’re saying a mere beast did such a thing to avoid being tracked?”
“It probably just wanted to clean itself.”
The guide had mentioned that monkeys were among the animals with bathing customs.
Turan deactivated the blood-tracking magic to try a different search method.
At that moment, a strong scent hit his restored sense of smell.
As he quickly turned around, he saw large golden eyes staring at them.
“Behind!”
Along with his shout came a shrieking cry.
A giant monkey about two meters tall.
The animal, similar yet strangely different from humans, burst through the undergrowth and threw handfuls of gravel.
Due to its hands being disproportionately large even considering its huge body, dozens of stones rained down on the subjugation party.
Moreover, they were imbued with strong magic, making them much faster and stronger than stones thrown by normal people.
“Aagh!”
“Dodge!”
While several were knocked down by the stones, Turan fortunately managed to leap aside immediately after shouting and avoid the barrage.
Looking back, surprisingly, Izela and Marvin had each used a knight as a shield to block the attack.
“Ugh, are you al-”
“Attack!”
Izela threw aside the knight who had taken the hit for her and shouted in a sharp voice.
The eight uninjured knights immediately drew their swords and spears and charged, but the monkey let out one “Wukeek!” scream before leaping into the bushes and jumping from tree to tree to escape.
Despite its huge body, its speed was like the wind, far too fast for the knights to chase on foot.
While everyone stood dumbfounded, a single stone pursued the fleeing monkey.
Stone throwing enhanced with Turan’s most familiar three spells: strengthening, acceleration, and pursuit.
The stone curved around several trees before striking the monkey’s waist, causing it to scream and tumble down.
It seemed unable to get up, only writhing as if its waist was broken.
“Die!”
Izela stretched her hand toward the writhing monkey with a shout.
Flames bloomed before her fingers, taking the form of a snake with a trunk-like body, biting into the monkey and burning several dozen meters of surrounding forest.
Both its speed and range were on a completely different level from what Turan could create.
This was the power of the Baltas family’s pyromaniac bloodline.
‘So this is…’
While any magician could create fire, even instinctively, it was nothing compared to those with bloodline magic specialized in it.
When Marvin followed up by creating and throwing down dozens of flame spears, the monkey monster was completely reduced to ashes.
Seeing this, everyone in the subjugation party breathed a sigh of relief.
“Wow, I got chills for a moment when those stones were flying.”
“Were you scared, sister?”
“Shut up. You’re the one who screamed like a girl…”
“I did not!”
While the two nobles bickered, Turan checked on the knights who had fallen from the stone barrage.
“Ugh, I think my arm’s broken…”
“This one’s head is still bleeding, what should we do?”
“Apply this medicine first.”
Fortunately, none of the knights seemed to have lost their lives.
Those who had been used as shields by the two nobles were the most severely injured, but even they just had concussions from stones to the head or a broken bone or two.
Turan clicked his tongue remembering what Izela and Marvin had done.
Considering that physical abilities increase with magical power, their bodies should be at least several times tougher than ordinary knights.
Yet they used much weaker individuals as shields out of fear for their own safety?
He keenly felt the truth of what his mother had said – that to nobles, knights were just dogs to be sacrificed at any time.
Noticing Turan’s gaze, Marvin asked curiously.
“Hmm? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
Though he brushed it off, Turan’s eyes held subtle contempt for the two cousins.
Just then, Izela waved and called to Turan.
“By the way, guest, come quickly! Let’s absorb the magic!”
“Yes.”
The three nobles stood side by side next to the half-incinerated monkey.
As they reached out and absorbed the magic, the now-familiar pale green light flowed out and seeped into their bodies.
While shivering at the pleasure rushing through him, Turan checked how much his magic had strengthened.
The growth gained from absorbing the monkey’s power was stronger than the leopard but weaker than the rabbit.
Considering the monkey’s strength wasn’t particularly exceptional, it was an unbelievable amount for three people absorbing together.
‘Indeed… as I heard, the enhancement doesn’t seem to decrease when absorbed by multiple people.’
When absorbing magic from killed monsters, up to four people could absorb together and each receive the full amount of magic.
Though unclear why specifically four people rather than three or five, this was why noble houses with many members formed hunting groups of four.
Their sense of superiority could be seen in how they wouldn’t include knights even with one spot remaining.
“Ah, I can’t absorb any more.”
“Me neither.”
Izela and Marvin said this while releasing some of the pale green light that had been absorbed into their bodies back into the air.
This was the process of ‘dispersing’ magic.
When reaching their innate limit for magic growth, they would absorb only a tiny portion of the magic and release the rest back out like this.
Turan could feel their envious gazes directed at him for absorbing all the magic.
* * *
On the return journey to Orem City, Izela and Marvin kept recounting their battle with the monkey, going on about how heroically they had fought.
Though amusing considering how they had used knights as shields, Turan played along appropriately.
“Come to think of it, we definitely couldn’t have caught it without Turan. From the tracking ability to striking it down, it was all thanks to Turan’s attack.”
“It wasn’t that much.”
Though he showed modesty, he privately agreed.
Without him, the subjugation party would have taken a hit without even being aware and suffered greater losses, and they wouldn’t have been able to chase down and kill the fleeing monkey.
What could they have done if they kept getting hit-and-run attacks without tracking ability?
Izela and Marvin might have survived by just running like mad back to Orem City, but the knights would have all died from the stone barrage without being able to resist.
Even those two might not have survived if they’d been hit by large rocks instead of small stones.
Though they caught it easily due to favorable circumstances, it was definitely a monster capable of killing four knights without resistance.
“If anything, I regret noticing too late and giving it the first strike. I didn’t expect it would have tracking abilities too.”
“Tracking abilities?”
“Yes.”
Turan recalled the appearance of the monkey they had just encountered.
The huge body and superior physical abilities were typical characteristics of almost all monsters.
What particularly stood out were its abnormally large hands and eyes.
The shadow leopard they met before had developed the ability to hide itself, able to move like a shadow, and the front-toothed rabbit had developed its grinding ability to cut through anything in its path.
He guessed the monkey’s large hands had developed into the ability to throw things strongly, and its large eyes into the ability to see farther or through forests.
When he shared this, everyone in the subjugation party exclaimed in amazement.
“Wow…”
“To notice all that in such a short time!”
Everyone looked at him like some unparalleled sage – it seemed none of them had read the monster guide in the library.
When he carefully inquired about this, Izela tilted her head and said:
“The library? That stuffy place… no one goes there.”
According to her, the Sky Library served only as a famous cultural heritage site, with few people interested in the books inside.
Access required the family head’s permission, making it difficult, and there were far more things to do and could be done than reading books.
At most, people like Turan would come for tours once every few years or to look up materials for special occasions.
Come to think of it, there hadn’t been any other users in the past few days.
“I went in once out of curiosity long ago, but there were only difficult books so I left before finishing even half of one.”
From this, Turan learned another new fact.
Not everyone finds joy in gaining new knowledge.
“Next time you have the chance, try asking the librarian if there are any easier books.”
Since he too might have quickly lost interest in reading if he’d started with difficult books right away, Turan offered casual advice.
But an unexpected response came back.
“Librarian?”
“Yes. The person who manages the library.”
“Was there such a person in the library?”