Chapter 6: Devil Beast Extermination

  Six people stood in a group talking at the city entrance. Injan and Elder Grai were among them. Injan was still handsome and refined, while Elder Grai maintained his usual stern and cold expression. Upon seeing Kiita, Elder Grai frowned slightly but showed no further reaction.

  A greeting rang out from afar as Injan's eyes met deep blue eyes.

  "Good morning, P’ Nitaan," Injan greeted with a cheerful smile.

  Injan's voice caused the others to turn and look at Nitaan and Kiita. The four were adventurers from the Adventurers' Guild, consisting of two men and two women. Nitaan recognized each of them from his years of patrolling the forest.

  "Hello," Nitaan was about to bow in greeting, but Injan stopped him.

  "Although my family belongs to the Uthumpohn noble family, I'm only 18 years old. You don't have to be that polite."

  "Got it, Nong In," Nitaan replied with a smile.

  "Now that everyone's here. Let me formally reintroduce myself to everyone," Injan turned to look at the four adventurers again.

  "I am Injan Uthumpohn, one of the potential successors to the position of Chao Phraya of the family. I was given a mission to exterminate devil beasts in this border town area using only my own power and the subordinates I have gathered myself during this mission," Injan said.

  "All of you are people I have selected after a long screening process. Of course, the compensation is as agreed upon."

  "Have you all met before?" Injan asked.

  "The four of us know each other's skills and abilities very well. We have worked together many times before," one of the men in the group replied, before looking at Nitaan and Kiita.

  "As for Nitaan and Kiita, we have heard of them before, but this is the first time we've worked together." The other three nodded in confirmation.

  "Actually, Nitaan is quite famous in this town. A genius who can single-handedly manage the patrol work equal to three sub-units," another woman said with a smile.

  "Ruff!"

  Kiita too!

  "Oh, sorry. Not by himself but also with you." The woman bent down to pet Kiita's head.

  “I also have heard of your reputations, and I’ve seen your skills in the forest once before,” Nitaan replied.

  “Emerald adventurers of the Adventurers’ Guild: Arun, Fah, Prai, and Ratri, right?” Nitaan asked.

  All four nodded with smiles.

  “It’s great that we already know each other,” Injan smiled.

  “Then I’ll assign roles. Fah and Prai, you two possess Word of Power that enhances physical strength, so both of you will be on the front line. Ratri, You are efficient with bows and arrows, so you will be forming the middle line and looking for opportunities to attack. Arun, your Word of Power is of the support type, so you’ll be in the back, supporting the other members.” Injan assigned roles efficiently.

  “Although I haven’t completed the Engraving Ceremony yet, I can faintly sense words and can enhance physical abilities to a certain extent. I’ll mainly support Fah and Prai.”

  Unless fate scripters are very close, they won't reveal their Word of Power to each other.

  Mainly to prevent enemies from gathering intelligence about them and preparing countermeasures. They would only explain their specialty superficially to divide roles.

  Except for a few who are overly confident in their own power, boastful, or reckless, who willingly reveal their Word of Power openly. These are so few since they won't be able to survive for long.

  Nitaan had also heard that there were some types of Word of Power that could sense others' Word. He himself had never encountered one before, but he had met a devil beast that could seal his Word of Power before—one of the most difficult to deal with.

  Besides physical strength, fighting humans and devil beasts has similarities. Knowing what Word of Power the opponent possesses is a significant advantage over dealing with the various tricks the opponent might use at any moment.

  “As for you, P’ Nitaan, you will be in charge of the recon, detecting devil beasts, warnings, and tracking them,” Injan said concisely.

  The five nodded slightly, acknowledging their roles.

  “As you all know, this mission does not tolerate mistakes. To be safe, before we depart, I must ask each of you to demonstrate your abilities a little bit,” Injan continued.

  Four adventurers looked at each other. Prai stepped forward first, holding a large shield in both hands. Both hands glowed before expanding. Both of his arms extended into lengths of over two meters. The massive shields in his hands were effortlessly swung around, usable for both all-around defense and attack.

  His arms moved with incredible speed, extending and retracting at will. The large, strong muscles in his arms displayed immense power. Prai swung the large shields to the ground with a loud clatter before retracting his arms to their normal size.

  'Extending’? Or maybe 'octopus’? Nitaan chuckled to himself.

  Injan nodded slightly. This time, Fah stepped forward. In Fah's hand was a large spear. Her hands glowed, a soft light slowly flowing from her hands to the spear. Fah's face was expressionless, a few beads of sweat forming on her forehead. Her body showed no signs of dramatic transformation. Nitaan stared at the spear, which was now beginning to glow, before noticing a slight tremor at its tip.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Nitaan raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

  Fah reached out, pointing the spear upwards, lightly touching a nearby tree. The trunk shook violently, cracks spreading across it. Crackling sounds echoed from all directions. The tree shattered violently at the spot where Fah's spear made contact. The trees swayed and shook as if struck by a heavy blow.

  Fah didn't stop there. She drew her spear, pointed it at the ground, and thrust it with all her might, the tip piercing the earth more than ten centimeters deep. The moment the spear touched the ground, the force radiating outwards caused cracks to spread.

  ‘Tremor’? or ‘Impact’ That's incredibly cool.

  “Formidable" Injan nodded in admiration.

  When it was Ratri's turn, she grabbed the bow from her back, preparing herself. The sturdy wooden bow, as thick as Nitaan's wrist, was made of dark wood, intricately carved with silver and gold patterns, and polished to a gleaming shine. The bowstring was a thick black cord, about the size of a little finger, tightly bound between the two ends of the bow.

  Kiita's eyes widened at the sight of Ratri's bow. His tail began to wag.

  A stick, Nitaan! A stick!

  Nitaan smiled, stroking the giant dog's head to calm it down.

  Nitaan noticed that Ratri wasn't carrying a quiver or arrows, only the short knives on each thigh and this bow.

  Ratri reached out and drew the bowstring. Her hand was empty with no sign of any arrows. The bow glowed slightly, radiating a powerful pressure. As she drew the string fully, an arrow made out of light appeared out of thin air. Ratri released the string gently, and suddenly something pierced the air, piercing the same tree that was already cracked. The tree shook violently from the impact of the air arrow. Ratri fired two more arrows rapidly before the tree could no longer withstand the force and collapsed.

  Why did everyone have to target the poor trees…

  But Ratri didn't stop there. She drew the bowstring again, the arrow glowing even brighter. This time, she aimed at Arun. Her arm bulged again before she released the bow. There was a loud whooshing sound, cutting through the air directly towards Arun. Injan's eyes widened, watching the scene unfold.

  Bang!

  A sound of a loud clash of objects in midair echoed. When the sound subsided, Arun was standing in the arrow's trajectory, smiling and unharmed.

  "Couldn't you have warned me beforehand? That's cruel." Arun shook his head and sighed.

  "You could have defended yourself anyway. You will be bald in no time if you keep nagging." Ratri laughed.

  Like an air shield? Or maybe an invisible shield. That's also cool.

  "It's our star's turn now. We've been wondering for a while how you managed to patrol equal to three sub-units all by yourself." Prai turned to look at Nitaan with a questioning expression.

  "The area you have to patrol alone is incredibly vast. Plus, you're also hunting devil beasts in your area of ??responsibility and keeping them from getting too close to the city."

  "While I'm confident I can handle a 1 or 2-word Learner devil beast in a one-on-one fight, having to scout and fight at the same time is a different story. If I'm unlucky enough to encounter those 3-word Learner or higher, I'm screwed. I'm not even sure if I could escape," Prai continued.

  Injan, hearing this, turned to look at Nitaan, his eyes showing even more admiration. Elder Grai simply snorted.

  Nitaan saw the expectant gazes on everyone and smiled slightly.

  “It’s not that impressive. If we can accurately detect tracks, we can roughly assess our surroundings and decide whether to flee or to fight.” Nitaan shook his head humbly.

  “Besides, traveling only with Kiita makes us more agile and able to cover a wider area,” Nitaan explained further.

  “And what about patrolling the area to check the devil beast population? Your operational area is very large.” Fah asked.

  “Kiita,” Nitaan glanced at his partner.

  “Woof!”

  Alright!

  Kiita looked up at Fah and the others, sniffed for a moment, then turned to look at Nitaan. Nitaan was silent for a while before speaking.

  “Prai, Fah, are you two a couple? You both came from the same house on South Road number 14.”

  “Arun, you cut your hand with a knife this morning, didn’t you? You’ve wiped all the blood away, but there's a little bit that splattered on the inside of your collar."

  "Ratri, this morning you ate toast, oatmeal, milk, and half a duck egg. Oh, and there's half a pack of snacks in your bag too. Uh, you ate quite a lot."

  All four of them widened their eyes. Prai and Fah were certain that the two of them had never told anyone they were dating except their close friends. And the house that Nitaan mentioned was the one they had recently saved up to buy together.

  Arun took off his shirt, turned it over, and checked inside of his collar. There was indeed a small drop of blood, partially obscured by his neck. He did cut himself a little when he peeled an apple this morning.

  Ratri blushed, taking out half a pack of snacks from her bag. "Sugar gives a lot of energy, and it's delicious too! I need that energy!"

  Nitaan smiled. Kiita already had an excellent sense of smell, and his instincts and eyesight were sharp. All he did was Link with Kiita to understand what Kiita already knew.

  But Nitaan had to admit he didn't know how simply smelling could allow Kiita to gather so much information. He had only taught him about communication and observation. "P’ Nitaan is even better than the rumor. With this level of detection, I'm not surprised you're able to do all the work with just you two." Injan smiled, clapping in admiration.

  "Kiita is a fairly clever dog. I've been gradually teaching him," Nitaan smiled, stroking Kiita's head.

  These were minor tricks he trained Kiita specifically for combat. He could communicate with Kiita through Link, so he created a simple code for communication and taught Kiita to focus on important things like footprints, the scent of blood, animal odors, and food smells.

  Fah and Prai had the other’s scent emanating from each other. Their footprints also indicated they were coming from the same direction, towards the south. The only residential area in that vicinity was along South Road number 14.

  Arun had a faint scent of blood and rust on his hands. Blood is something that, if not washed off with special methods, can linger for a long time, not to mention the fresh wounds from that morning.

  Ratri, on the other hand, had the smell of various foods stuck on her clothes, around her lips, and on her sleeves.

  “Hmph, just a cheap trick using a dog.” Elder Grai said, looking at Kiita with a contemptuous gaze.

  “Oh, I forgot to mention, Elder Grai, I’d like to respectfully offer a small suggestion. The lingerie you’re wearing is a little too small. It’s completely constricting your chest. If it’s too tight, it won’t be good for the white lace of the lingerie. It will wrinkle and lose its shape easily. Especially lingerie from the Roi Mala company.” Nitaan smiled, looking at Elder Grai.

  Everyone fell silent, their eyes fixed on Elder Grai. Although Fah tried to maintain her composure, her face still showed a shocked expression.

  Elder Grai’s face froze, his mouth opening and closing repeatedly, before his face turned increasingly red.

  Elder Grai was about to yell, ‘Lies!’ but the conversation was interrupted by Nitaan again.

  "Also, you rested at the Golden Table Inn last night, didn't you? The scent of Kan, the innkeeper's son, still stuck on you. Kan is a good-natured, handsome man, famous for his very 'Special’ relaxation services, including massages. I'm glad you had a comfortable and relaxing night in Silalai Town," Nitaan said suggestively with a smiling gaze.

  This time, Elder Grai was truly stunned. He turned to look at Injan, only to see him looking back at him with an expression he'd never seen before. When he turned to look at the other four adventurers, he saw them all equally stunned before quickly averting their gaze.

  "Engraver's body is really stronger than average, isn't it?" Injan murmured.

  As for Elder Grai, Nitaan cheated a little. Besides training in tracking, Kiita was sometimes asked to help track down clues using scents from things like clothes or pillowcases by the townsmen. It was true that this wasn't within his area of ??responsibility, but if Nitaan had the time, he wouldn't refuse. As for Kiita, whatever Nitaan asked him to do, Kiita would wag his tail and follow.

  Tracking someone requires sniffing their clothes and personal belongings, and lingerie from the Roi Malai Company is from one of those companies known for its unique fragrance.

  He also knows about the lace patterns since Roi Malai Company is a company specialized in women's lingerie.

  As for the scent of Kan clinging to Elder Grai, no matter how well he showered and cleaned himself, it couldn't escape Kiita's nose.

  Nitaan even used to wonder how Kiita's nose was this exceptional, far beyond that of a normal wolf. Not only was his sniffing range incredibly wide, but his ability to distinguish scents was extraordinary.

  "You!" Elder Grai roared. He wasn't upset that his taste in clothing or preferences had been revealed, but having his nighttime lifestyle discussed in public like this was a different matter entirely!

  "That's enough, Elder Grai. We're the ones who asked him to showcase his abilities," Injan intervened. Elder Grai gritted his teeth and glared at Nitaan with malice. Like he's trying to curse him.

  May you get smacked by a wild boar! I won't help you!

  Nitaan stifled a laugh, imagining Elder Grai's curses in his mind.

  Take that, you old sag!

  “You are all even more amazing than I expected. I have no doubts about your abilities for this mission. I am confident that everyone here is more than capable,” Injan said, drawing everyone’s attention.

  “This mission might take a few days, depending on how quickly we encounter the devil beast. We will be traveling for 10 kilometers from the town, so there will be no return trips at night. We will be camping in the forest.”

  Everyone nodded in agreement. It was normal for them to camp in the forest. Experienced adventurers like them were used to it.

  “I hope we will hunt at least one Learner level monster before nightfall. If everyone is prepared,” Injan swept his gaze across the group.

  “Then I shall officially begin this mission.”