I Set Off to Complete the Request

「I knew you’d say that. For the『Any Monster Kill Quest』, the guild will pick the request with the highest reward for you. So rest assured.」

「Thanks.」

This『Any Monster Kill Quest』is most likely possible thanks to the guild staff’s efforts in doing tons of paperwork.

「We should be the one thanking you! We were having trouble since the monsters won’t decrease in number.」

「…I can see that.」I muttered, eyeing the countless requests.

「All right. I’m off to go hunting.」

「Okay! Good luck and don’t die!」

And so I left the guild. Aight, time for the hunt. We got plenty of requests available. My target, of course, is the Hungry Ogre.

◇

「…There’s not a lot of monsters around.」

I was on my way to the Great Forest of Elias. I tried checking for monsters with my Magic Search, but it didn’t feel like their number increased.

They saw the monsters appearing near the town as a problem, but in reality, there was not a lot of them. The problem is they had no means to distinguish between monsters that wandered near town and those that did not. So they can’t feel safe unless they hunt every monster in the neighborhood. They could just take shelter until the outbreak is over, but perhaps they have a reason why they can’t do that.

I headed over to where my spell detected something and spotted a lone Hungry Ogre right away.

「Oh. Huge as ever I see.」

I could see the monster clearly even from a distance. Hungry Ogres are around three meters tall, after all. It wouldn’t be strange for monsters to flee after seeing these giants all over the place.

It was then that our eyes met.

「Uh, oh. He spotted me.」

Even after spotting me, the Hungry Ogre didn’t do anything conspicuous. Instead it hunched its body and moved slowly towards me.

Hungry Ogres are monsters with high intelligence. It knows that if it raises its voice to intimidate, smaller and weaker creatures like humans will run away. Which is why it’s moving closer slowly.

Not like I plan on running anyway.

「Gugaaaaahhhh!」

At just the right distance, the Hungry Ogre suddenly rose and screamed. Shocked, I froze in place – or I pretended to be shocked and used my spell.

「Flame Pillar.」

As I chanted the spell, a pillar of flames rose in front of me. The Hungry Ogre, who thought it found an opening after the act of intimidation, tried to lunge at me, but instead dove straight into the blazing flames.

「Gaaaaahhhhh!」

It wailed in astonishment and pain, stepping back, trying to escape. If the odds are against you, retreat. A wise decision for a monster.

「Sticky Bomb.」

When fighting against monsters with high intelligence like Goblins and Ogres, failing to kill them will come back to bite you. If they escaped, they’ll call their allies and you’ll end up being surrounded.

So I fired a Sticky Bomb at the foot of the Hungry Ogre trying to escape. Unable to negate the momentum from trying to scamper away at full force, it tripped over and became fuel for the flames.

「Sorry, but I can’t let you go.」

If it were a monster with no Boss, I would let it escape and welcome its friends as well. But it would be difficult to fight against numerous Hungry Ogres and the King Ogre. So I have to reduce their number first. If the Boss is gone, the Hungry Ogres will escape too and that would be a waste of exp.

As I watched the Hungry Ogre burn, it gradually lost its strength. But it still wouldn’t die. Soon enough the Flame Pillar died out.

「…I must’ve miscalculated.」

I thought this was enough to kill a monster like the Hungry Ogre. At least, in BBO. I guess I needed more power.

「Flame.」

Without panicking, I fired the weakest fire-type spell there is at the Hungry Ogre’s head. With that, the monster that was already weak, finally drew its last breath.

「That’s one down.」

Since I don’t have Mylia with me today, I’ll end up using mana for every monster I kill. I should fight more efficiently and lessen my mana consumption as much as possible. I won’t use overpowered spells. I might cause a forest fire too after all.

As I was coming up with a strategy inside my head, I looked for my next target.

「Magic Search.」

First I have to use a detection spell to survey my surroundings. When monsters are behaving erratically, situations change in a short amount of time.

It’s not uncommon to suddenly be surrounded before you know it. It’s necessary to frequently check the current situation.