Chapter 25 : Chapter 25
Chapter 25: Subjugating Deadleaf Wolves, Returning to Town
The moment Ryan stepped into the Monster Forest, he immediately spotted three Deadleaf Wolves.
“ROOOAR—!”
The three Deadleaf Wolves opened their bloody jaws the instant they saw Ryan and charged straight at him at full speed.
It was obvious that they had taken Ryan for prey.
By the habits of these monsters, they only attacked this eagerly when they were certain their prey was weak.
Perhaps because Ryan carried only a backpack and no visible weapon, they had decided he was easy prey.
Without the slightest panic, Ryan took the P90 submachine gun out of his spatial backpack, disengaged the safety, and switched it to full-auto mode.
Then he dropped to one knee, raised the P90 submachine gun, and aimed at the three Deadleaf Wolves.
Ryan did not know whether it was only his imagination,
but he could have sworn he saw mockery in the eyes of those three wolves.
That discovery surprised him a little.
He had not expected the intelligence of this kind of monster to be so high that it could even show such human-like expressions.
But the thought made Ryan’s expression turn a little strange.
The three Deadleaf Wolves had probably mistaken him for a soft target.
When they had hunted lone travelers or low-rank adventurers in the past, those people had likely dropped to their knees and surrendered almost immediately.
Now Ryan was kneeling on his right knee, which looked very similar to the posture of someone yielding.
The three Deadleaf Wolves did not recognize the submachine gun in Ryan’s hands and charged straight at him anyway.
Ryan did not fire at once.
Once the gunshots rang out, the three Deadleaf Wolves might turn and flee.
In order to wipe them all out in one sweep, Ryan patiently waited for them to draw nearer.
Thirty meters!
Twenty meters!
Ten meters!
Five meters!
Now!
A sharp glint flashed through Ryan’s eyes.
At this distance, it was already enough for him to annihilate all three Deadleaf Wolves.
Ryan took a deep breath, then pulled the trigger.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
A burst of raging gunfire erupted.
The three Deadleaf Wolves that had been charging forward let out miserable cries.
“Awooo—!”
Then their limbs buckled, and they pitched forward headfirst into the ground.
THUD!
The tremendous momentum from their charge sent all three wolves crashing heavily onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The battle ended before it had truly begun.
The three Deadleaf Wolves never even came within one meter of Ryan.
They were wiped out while still three or four meters away from him.
“That was easy. Done.”
Ryan had already expected the power of firearms.
The fact that the fight had ended so quickly did not surprise him in the least.
A monster like the Deadleaf Wolf was much weaker than the Beastfolk.
Ryan’s P90 submachine gun had already been capable of inflicting effective damage on Beastfolk.
Against Deadleaf Wolves, its lethality was even greater.
A monster at the level of the Deadleaf Wolf was incredibly easy for Ryan to deal with.
One came, he killed one. Two came, he killed a pair.
At this moment, the weapons Ryan had exchanged from the System were finally displaying their true power.
If Ryan did not already have the profit share from selling perfume, then just by taking on monster-subjugation missions like this, he could still have earned more money than he could ever spend and achieved complete financial freedom anyway.
Ryan put away the P90 submachine gun, then took out a small knife, walked over to the Deadleaf Wolves, and began collecting proof of subjugation.
The proof of subjugation for a Deadleaf Wolf was its pair of sharp fangs.
If these fangs were given to a blacksmith, they could be made into fairly decent weapons and were considered one of the beginner materials for novice adventurers’ weapons.
After that, he took out a woven sack specifically for storing the Deadleaf Wolves’ fangs.
He had bought this kind of woven sack from the Adventurers’ Guild. It was very cheap, made of extremely durable material, and well suited for storing monster materials.
That way, sharp materials like fangs would not tear through the sack.
After cleaning up the battlefield, Ryan headed deeper into the Monster Forest.
It was still early, so before night fell, he intended to subjugate as many Deadleaf Wolves as possible.
If he could raise his adventurer rank more quickly, that would be even better.
Fortunately, as Ryan advanced deeper into the forest, he encountered quite a few more Deadleaf Wolves.
Some were alone, while others appeared in groups.
Even so, no group numbered more than ten.
The moment they spotted Ryan, they all rushed toward him.
Clearly, just like the first three he had encountered, they all treated Ryan as prey.
Faced with that situation, Ryan did not hesitate in the slightest and opened fire at once.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
Gunfire echoed throughout the Monster Forest.
Whenever the gunshots rang out, the birds in the forest were startled into flight and quickly scattered.
After walking for an unknown length of time, Ryan estimated that he had already reached the middle zone of the Monster Forest.
By then, it was about noon.
Ryan took out the supplies he had prepared in advance from his spatial backpack and sat down on the ground for a picnic.
As he felt the breath of nature around him,
his mood improved considerably.
Back on Blue Star in his previous life, he had been nothing more than a weary office drone. On holidays, all he ever wanted was to lie at home under the air conditioner and rest. He had never had the extra energy to move around.
Since coming to this world, this was his first picnic.
It gave Ryan a strange but undeniable feeling of comfort.
“This is what living is supposed to feel like.”
Ryan could not help sighing with emotion.
After a while, he finished lunch, packed everything away, and resumed his work of subjugating monsters.
Time passed quickly, and before he knew it, the entire afternoon was over.
Ryan returned to the city and headed straight for the Adventurers’ Guild.
Although he had spent the entire day subjugating Deadleaf Wolves,
his physical stamina had not been drained too badly.
What had truly worn him down in the Monster Forest was his mental focus.
After all, he was alone, so he had to remain alert to every movement around him at all times to avoid being ambushed by monsters.
Even in the outer areas, unexpected situations could still arise.
For example, powerful monsters from deep inside the Monster Forest could come running out.
That kind of thing had happened before.
There was even a record of it in the Adventurer’s Handbook.
Three years ago, a monster called the Rotwood Giant Python had come from the deepest part of the Monster Forest to the outer region.
The Rotwood Giant Python was about twenty meters long, with a trunk-like body roughly 1.5 meters in diameter. Its scales were dark brown, mixed with grayish-white blotches. It had originally inhabited the swamp region in the deepest part of the Monster Forest.
The reason it had come to the outer region that time was because volcanic activity deep within the forest had become abnormal, and hot water surging up from underground had changed the temperature of the swamp.
The Rotwood Giant Python depended on a low-temperature environment to survive, and the rising water temperature of its habitat had forced it to migrate toward the forest outskirts.
During that migration, its territorial instincts had grown extremely violent, and it attacked every living thing that entered its field of vision.
The first group to encounter it was a team of five low-rank adventurers. They were attacked by the giant python while gathering herbs, and all of them died. Their corpses were later found discarded beside an ancient tree after being constricted by the python, with their clothes and equipment strewn everywhere. Their weapons bore obvious bite marks and crushing deformation.
The second group was an eight-man intermediate adventurer party that had entered the forest to subjugate a Deadleaf Wolf pack.
They encountered the Rotwood Giant Python beside a stream. Two swordsmen in the party tried to attack the python’s head with longswords, but they were struck by its tail and killed on the spot, their bones shattered.
The remaining six fled in all directions. Three were struck by the python’s venom and suffered rotting flesh, dying while trying to escape. The other three managed to get away, though one was gravely injured and the other two lightly wounded. They brought back the news of the python’s appearance.
The third incident involved two low-rank adventurers traveling alone who vanished while on patrol. That afternoon, their corpses were discovered hanging from tree branches, with clear strangulation marks on them.
That same evening, a twelve-man intermediate party tried to surround and kill the giant python. They managed to trap its tail with a snare, but the python broke free.
In the battle, seven people died, three were gravely injured, and two suffered minor injuries. Their weapons and shields were shredded apart by the python’s scales.
Over the course of three days, a total of twenty-five adventurers died, six were gravely injured, and three suffered minor injuries.
Among the dead were twelve low-rank adventurers and thirteen intermediate adventurers.
Once the number of deaths began to rise, the Adventurers’ Guild realized something was wrong and, in order to deal with the matter, issued a mission to A-rank adventurers.
In the end, the Rotwood Giant Python was subjugated by an A-rank adventurer, and only then did the incident finally come to an end.
Ryan could not help wondering whether he ought to buy some slaves to assist him.
Speaking of slaves—
the Empire permitted the buying and selling of slaves, and there were corresponding laws governing it.
Those who became slaves were either people who could not repay their debts or those who had criminal records in the past.
Slaves could not harm their masters, nor could they betray them. Otherwise, the contract would backlash against them.
Ryan had quite a few secrets, so buying a few slaves to help him was actually very suitable.
The slaves did not need especially strong combat ability.
As long as they could help him keep watch over his surroundings while he focused on battle, that would be enough.
After all, this was the wilderness. No matter how powerful his weapons were, he still could not guarantee that he would never be ambushed.
So for Ryan, buying a slave was quite necessary.
It was already late today, so Ryan planned to visit the Slave Merchant Guild tomorrow.
While he was thinking about all this, Ryan arrived at the Adventurers’ Guild.
This was the time when all adventurers returned to the city.
After completing their missions during the day, adventurers would usually come at this hour to turn them in and collect their rewards.
As a result, the Adventurers’ Guild was extremely crowded.
The moment Ryan entered the Adventurers’ Guild, he left a whole crowd of people staring in shock.
These were the same people who had heard him accept a monster-subjugation mission during the day and had bet that he would never make it back.
“Hiss! That kid actually came back?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. How did he return safely?”
“Hey, what about that guy? Who was the one who said he’d eat a pile of crap on the spot?”
“Damn it, those two bastards ran off! Hell, they don’t have even a shred of honor. I was really looking forward to seeing how they’d do it!”
“......”
Ryan ignored the crowd’s chatter and walked straight to the counter.
The person receiving him was still the same staff member.
“Sir Adventurer, congratulations on your safe return.”
“Thank you. Please help me settle the mission reward.”
As he spoke, Ryan took out all the Deadleaf Wolf fangs he had collected in a single day.
There were 170 pairs in total!
“Hiss! That many!”
The staff member’s eyes widened the moment she saw the pile of fangs Ryan placed on the counter.
Only after a moment did she recover and hurriedly say, “Uh... Sir Adventurer, there are 170 pairs of Deadleaf Wolf fangs in total. Your reward comes to 1 Gold Coin and 70 Silver Coins!”
After accepting the reward, Ryan thanked her and left.
This time, no one mocked Ryan again.
What a joke.
Deadleaf Wolves might not have been particularly powerful monsters, but anyone who could subjugate 170 of them in a single day could not possibly be an ordinary D-rank adventurer.
Ryan had no interest in what others thought of him. Right now, all he wanted was to return to the inn and get a good rest.
After spending an entire day subjugating monsters, even a man made of iron would not have been able to endure it forever.