Chapter 884: The Biggest Hunt
Chapter 884: The Biggest Hunt
Mira stood and looked at her sniper rifle. “This crack is far too deep; it can’t be fixed.” She sighed, throwing it into the pile of trash. “We’ll see what we can salvage from it later.” She looked at the other students, “Back to the drawing board. We need to make sure the barrel can withstand the heat and shock of firing.”
“I’ll help you.” Merlin walked beside Mira. “Why don’t you just make it like the one you gave Aron?”
“Then it’ll be too heavy for us to use. He’s strong, but I’m not.” Mira replied, “Albeit, I know that I must make that barrel at least a bit thicker, which would make it heavier.”
“Mira!” Ramy rushed in waving her hand, “That was a loud shot! Didn’t I tell you not to fire that thing?” She looked at the rifle in the trash pile, “What if it exploded on your face.”
“It’ll be fine.” Mira replied with a smile. Even if she didn’t look like it, she was still a demi- goddess, an injury like that won’t kill her.
“It won’t be fine! I don’t want to see you firing anything unstable anymore.” Ramy growled as she waved her hand to all the students, “Make sure your weapons are safe to use. The alchemy class is making the paralyzing poison. With our guns and their poisonous concoction, we’ll be able to hunt this jungle’s wild beasts alive to harvest them.”
The lesson that Betty prepared for the students on this trip was practical, having both classes test their abilities in the joint work of hunting live monsters. The artificer class would be able to make and see their weapons being used, and the alchemy class would be able to observe how different monsters react to their poison.
This jungle was indeed far too dangerous for such a stunt, but with Arad being among the students, Betty felt it was safe to send them. He’s the biggest monster after all.
An hour later, Matilda and Selina returned only to find Arad had made a boatload of poison on his own. The amount was absolutely stunning. While all the students barely managed to fill a wine bottle; he had filled a whole barrel.
“How did you even make this?” Selina gasped, “It stinks!” Matilda closed her nose as she looked at the barrel.
Arad pointed with his thumb at a large steel pot, “I used that. It’s not that complicated.” He smiled.
“Where did you even hide that?” Matilda looked at Lucia, “Teacher, did you give him that?”
“No, he had it with him. Alongside a whole set of alchemical gadgets.” She approached them, “He came prepared.”
Arad reached into his pocket and pulled a doll, “Thanks to her. I never forget my equipment.” Those were all Aisha’s lab equipment that she had stored inside his stomach.
“It’s that doll again.” Selina reached with her hand and patted Aisha’s head.
“I always wanted to ask.” Matilda looked at him, “Why is a big guy like you playing with dolls?”
“Cause it’s fun.” Arad replied and stored Aisha as he noticed that she was getting annoyed by Selina twisting her a bit too much. “It’s time to leave, right?” He looked at Lucia, “Everything is set.” She replied with a smile, “Of course, you aren’t riding the carriages. Get before the carriages and line up, pick your guns, and keep watch. I’ll give you a list of the monsters you can shoot and those you shouldn’t.”
“I guess you’re leaving the big ones to me.” Arad pulled the punt gun and rested it on his shoulder. “I would rather fight barehanded or with a sword, but we have to test those, right?”
“Feel free to use whatever you want.” Lucia replied with a smile, “You’re a bit special. You’re far stronger than anyone else here.”
“I’ll use the punt gun.” Arad looked at it with a smile, “It reminds me of a weapon that my father uses.” He could remember the New Armstrong cannon that Alcott used. This punt gun was far smaller than that, almost ten times smaller, but it still carried a massive amount of power.
“I wonder how he could even use that thing.” Even without realizing it, Arad’s path had started to resemble a mixture of his father’s fighting style and his mother’s immense power, switching between countless weapons like Alcott, and casting devastating magic like Vasilissa.
The royal caravan approached and all the students lined up, walking beside it as they slowly made their way into the jungle guarded by the knights and Arad. The journey to the lion’s village would take three hours at this speed, exhausting, but nothing compared to what any of them would see when searching for material on their own.
While half the students grumbled at the long walk, the other half laughed, those were the ones working as adventurers in their empty time. Adventurers are used to walking hours upon hours a day, tracking wounded monsters across the dangerous forests.
The first hour passed without any major problems, the caravan moved safely as both the students and knights dispatched any monster that showed up with sheer numbers and firepower. But, the countless stops to harvest poison or skin the monster for scales and leather had halted the trip too many times, it seemed that the three-hour trip was going to turn into a five-hour trip.
After a few more minutes, the caravan stopped upon spotting a massive monster crawling in the distance, a giraffe-like beast covered in iron scales and several times as tall. A six-footed brachiosaurus that emits so much heat that it’s almost setting the jungle ablaze.
“It’s a steam stomper!” Zara who was still accompanying them growled, “We’ll need to change our direction. It’s not that aggressive, but we can’t get close due to the hot steam.”
“We planned several routes, but none of them is viable from this position. We have to wait for it to pass.” Merlin replied as she looked at the titanic beast, “That’s big, but…” She looked at Arad, he was bigger.
Arad noticed Merlin staring at him and he smiled, cracking his neck. “Zara, do you hunt that thing?”
“You can hunt it, but it’s not worth the hassle. It’s usually killed by massive pit traps and spikes. A thing that we only do right before winter if we’re short on food since we can’t preserve all that meat, and it’ll be a disaster if we let it rot.” Zara waved his arm, “Smaller games are better and tastier.”
Too big to be hunted, not worth, it for them. Arad approached Merlin, “Can you store such a large carcass? Is it worth anything?”
“A crap ton of gold. With the scales, bones, meat, organs, and the skull as a trophy, we’re talking about well over ten platinum coins. “And yes, I can store it.” Arad was the one who was going to store it in his stomach, she was just a cover-up.
Arad smiled and started walking forward, “Very well, everyone stops and stays close to the
carriage.”
“WAIT!” All the students gasped, “You aren’t going to attack that massive monster, are
you?” One cried.
“Yeah, that’s mine.” Arad rests the barrel of his punt gun on the ground, “The best hunt in my life. And I need the funds.” He smiled at them.
“Wait! You can’t attack it; you’re risking our lives alongside yours! What if it attacked us.” A
girl glared at him.
“VERY WELL!” Isdis shouted from her carriage, walking out with a large smile on her face. “ARON, do you want to hunt that thing?”
“I don’t want to hunt it. I am GOING to hunt it.” Arad nodded as started walking toward the
monster.
“If that’s the case, then wait.” She looked at her knights, “Prepare the band! We shall sing him a war song.” She was a bard and her main role in a party was buffing the other members using music. “Hunt it if you can!”
“Wait! Princess!” Zara gasped, “That monster is dangerous, one swing of its massive tail and we’re crushed like a fly on the wall.”
“You saw it, didn’t you? Aron easily killed the Death Jaw barehanded; he wasn’t his prey. This one on the other hand, it’s massive, a worthy prey.” Isdis giggled, “I too want to see how strong he really is.”
“I too want to see it.” Lucia shook her head, “Let’s give this a try. I’ll form a barrier around the carriages with Merlin to keep everyone safe.” She already knew how powerful Arad was, and was certain this fight would be easy for him.
The only one who understood why Arad really wanted to hunt this massive monster was Mira,
she stood behind him with a wry smile. The human portion of food barely fills his belly, so he usually goes hunting at night for food. But even with that, he rarely gets such a massive meal to fill him. Arad will eat the monster’s flesh, and leave the bones, scales organs to sell later.
Mira patted Arad’s back, “Go hunt it.”