The Return of the Iron-blood Sword Hound

In the Baskerville, practical tests are frequent, several times a day.

Most of the brothers fight each other to determine superiority.

Ding-

The young hounds of the Baskerville, who were nervous in the unfamiliar environment, immediately came to their senses at the sound of a familiar bell.

And as it has been learned in the meantime, it reveals speculation like instinct.

A young Baskerville from the nine-year-old class quickly ran across the wasteland.

He was the guy who benefited quite a bit last year by occupying the advantageous terrain first.

But he was intelligent enough to remember last year’s points, but he’s not intelligent enough to keep his eyes open.

The quick-witted 8-year-olds chased after him.

Bikir didn’t know what it is, but he had a planed to get what he came here for.

Clever guys pretended they knoe something, to attract competitors.

And lure them into dangerous pits or swamps and get rid of annoying flying flies all at once.

The triplets, Hivero, Mivero, and Lovero, were such cunning guys.

“Occupy from there.”

“Don’t give orders.”

“Because you’re doing well on your own, you guys do well.”

9-year-olds who are already showing their prominence.

They used the same method last year when they were 8-year-olds to eliminate a lot of upperclassmen.

Within hours of the bell ringing, dropouts began to appear one after another.

From shock and fainting, from rolling down a steep slope, or from falling into a swamp, from being stabbed or cut.

The reasons were varied, but the root cause was one.

It was at the hands of other brothers.

… kang!

You can also hear the sound of metal pieces colliding with each other throughout the forest.

As soon as the competition began, the children of the Baskerville were fighting each other.

A dull sword whose blade is not sharpened so that it cannot kill.

Killing opponents is not encouraged in this tournament.

It is not prohibited, but it stops at a level that is not recommended.

If you kill the other person, points are deducted… … This score range was quite large, so the children did their best not to kill the other person ‘by hand’ if possible.

Of course, it doesn’t matter if your skills are good enough to take a deduction and you have enough points accumulated, or if you can kill your opponent secretly enough to be unnoticed by the leader dogs.

Well, even though the guardian knights who act as guide dogs keep their eyes open 24 hours a day, mysterious deaths and accidental deaths occur frequently during the practical evaluation, so this opportunity may be used to eliminate a rival or a nusance.

… … but.

Bikir wasn’t in this fierce competition.

He acted like he had no interest in scoring from the start.

All he did was, as soon as the bell struck, to move swiftly out of the reservation and settle down in the wasteland outside the boundary bordering the Unsea Zone.

‘… … Was it like this?’

Bikir was reminiscing about his days as a student before returning and his days as an instructor.

If you go straight this way, there is a wasteland that is narrowly inside the border area.

There, an old dead tree stands tall, but the roots that extend deep into the ground are soft and rotten, so the whole ground is soft.

Before long, Bikir found the land he was aiming for.

Unlike other places, the soil there is exceptionally reddish.

Bikir broke a branch and began digging and poking the ground.

While the other brothers fought in the distance, winning and losing points, Bikir silently dug the ground.

The guide dog guardians kept observing Bikir while hiding in a secret place.

However, even after several days, Bikir continued to be seen digging a pit.

‘Looks like he’s just hiding there to kill time.’

‘It’s a little disappointing?’

‘There’s no need to keep watching.’

Since he was a Bikir who had been prominent since his childhood, the Guardian Knights had high hopes for him, but this was quite disappointing.

Digging and hiding in pits was typical behavior of cowards, low-ranking and insignificant children.

In the end, the Guardian Knights who couldn’t keep an eye on him began to take their eyes off Bikir one by one.

And began to pay attention to the fights between the children.

* * *

“This place is still like a cradle.”

Bikir.

He was sitting at the bottom of the pit and having a good time.

Le Rogue Mountain, which I came back to again, were such a comfortable and cozy place.

Outside, the Guardian Knights stand guard instead, and competitors do not come to these outskirts.

If you are thirsty, you can collect dew that has formed overnight on a large leaf hung on the wall of the pit, and if you are hungry, you can catch a passing snake or mole and roast it.

Rather, it was much more delicious than haggis or preserved food that was provided.

Even the bed that he made for himself was more cozy.

The beds for traniees were made of monster skins or thorns, so they are very hard and rough.

But here in the pit, well-dried straw, sawdust, and burnt ashes are softly laid out, so it’s very warm and comfortable.

Bikir closed his eyes for a moment while roasting a rat he had caught the night before.

<The rat ‘Norvegicus’>

Hazard Class: F

Size: 50cm

Found in: all continents

– A mouse that has been stricken with demonic energy and has turned ugly.

A grown-up adult has the intelligence and size of a small dog, so it is an object of disgust for women and girls.

After removing the intestines, it is surprisingly edible if you bake it well over a fire or boil it well in water.

When it comes to information about monsters, no matter how low they are, Bikir had clearly memorized them all.

It was thanks to the monster encyclopedia that Bikir had memorized before returning.

Of course, Bikir wasn’t the only one who memorized all the monster books in the world before returning.

In the Age of Destruction, everyone was a hunter.

‘… … But now I’m the only one right now.’

Maybe it is closer to a hounds than hunter.

But that could make the hunter even more miserable.

“What could be more ironic than a hunter who died from being bitten on the neck by his dog?”

Suddenly, I recall the conversation I had with Hugo before returning.

This happened shortly before being executed.

‘When you train a dog, you have to risk dying. Usually two out of three die. Do you think it’s heartless?’

‘no.’

‘Of course not. Because the owner also trains with the preparedness to die from being bitten by a dog. Owners should always be prepared. You never know when you’ll die from being bitten by hidden teeth.’

It was a fact that Hugo himself was aware of.

Maybe that’s why Hugo didn’t trust anyone in this world. Even himself.

“… … .”

Bikir shook his head to clear his thoughts.

Then he took one of his beans from a sack hanging from his waist.

Blood Bean. Dark red soybean with a huge cocoa concentration.

Bikir tossed a pea into the fire.

The stinky and other odors are removed from the plump fat rat meat, and the faint scent of cacao permeates.

‘Cacao beans, especially thick blood beans, are the best for removing meat odor!’

It was a recipe learned from a late sergeant in the same platoon when he was drafted into the war against the demons.

“… … Camping makes me think a lot about the past.”

Bikir looked around him.

All the eyes that had been watching were now gone.

Perhaps the guide dogs, who found their behavior uninteresting, moved elsewhere.

… … If so, now is the time.

Bikir reached out to the pile of firewood.

Then he took out a dagger from his waistband and started cutting down trees.

wooden spear.

Bikir began planting these pointed wooden spears upside down all over the pit floor.

The tips soared high as if to pierce the sky.

Dozens or hundreds of them are embedded in the bottom of the pit.

Like the lower jaw of a beast with fangs.

Even Bikir himself hadn’t thought about what these teeth would bite into.

Outside the boundary between the Le Rogue, in the Forbidden Zone, there are monsters that are so big and powerful that people in this world can’t even imagine.

… … Well, most of them were familiar to Bikir who had passed through the age of destruction.

“The tree has fallen.”

Bikir discovered that all the trees he had cut were exhausted.

It was not enough to sharpen a wooden spear or toss it into a bonfire.

Bikir moved his body out of the pit to fetch the wood.

The gaze of the Guardian Knights has also disappeared, so now you can cross over to the forbidden land and cut down trees.

Before long, Bikir crossed the border with a stealthy spirit and entered the forbidden zone.

* * *

The sea of red and black trees is incredibly dense.

The stems and roots that grow horizontally and vertically made the entire forest into a huge labyrinth, a jungle-gym.

If you look at the dark caves poking through the roots of trees that have been burned by the forest fire, you might doubt that they are passages leading to hell.

Any normal young hound of the Baskervilles would avoid this gloomy and foreboding place without saying anything, but Bikir rather walked straigh in.

‘Let’s see. I guess this was the right habitat?’

Bikir wandered through the sea for a long time.

When he was an instructor or skirmisher, he roamed around this place as if he were eating, so his eyes were clear as if he was going in and out of his house.

yet.

Bikir found something.

Sizzle sizzle… …

It’s the sound of a ember burning in the ashes.

After following the smell of something burning, I finally found what I was looking for.

It was a pile of shit.

A fire that has not yet been extinguished burns in the blackened pile of dung.

As far as Bikir knows, there is only one monster that matched.

He lifted his head and moved a little further through the the trees, and before long he saw the owner of the dung.

A large body, sharp teeth and claws, and two eyes that glow like phosphorus.

<Hell Hound>

Grade: B+

Size: 3m

Discovery Location: Le Rogue Mountains Ridge

-Aka ‘the dog from hell’.

It is a being that unconditionally brings a terrible disaster to those it encounters, and if they are ever bitten they can never survive.

The bright fire spewing out from the eyes and mouth comes from the embers of the depths of hell, and does not go out until the life force is used as firewood and is completely burned away.

Even in the encyclopedia, there was not much information about this dangerous monster.

However, Bikir has faced quite a few monsters of this type through the age of destruction.

“Finally found you.”

The reason he had come to Le Rogue Mountain is to meet these fuckers.

Bikir turned quickly.

As soon as the Hellhound saw Bikir, and attacked.

kong! kong! kong!

The roar of a hound pursuing closely behind.

As soon as he got out of the way, he threw himself into a burrow on the side.

Chow ah-

Hellhound took several vain steps, unable to stop.

“As expected, you’re an idiot who only knows how to go straight.”

Most beings who have climbed up from hell can do nothing but go straight.

Even elite monsters like Hellhound show weakness in such a sudden change of directions.

Grrrrr… …

The hellhound turned around and started pursuing.

Bikir prepared the following pattern.

Chow ah-

Drinking water made by collecting two days of dew was sprayed and drew a long line on the floor.

… flinch!

Hellhound came to a sudden stop with the same momentum as it was running.

This hellhounds do not usually, cross water spots.

No matter how thin and shallow the water is, that is the case.

Since it is a monster that is not good at anything other than running in a straight line, it had to stop water spots scattered on the ground and go around.

It is a fact known to all hunters who have passed through the era of extinction, but it is a habit that is not well known in this world due to lack of research.

‘Well, it will inevitably come to light later when the Pandemonium Gate opened and Hellhounds swarmed all over the continent.’

Bikir faced the hellhound.

Although the speed of the Hellhound running back from the water station has decreased, it is still terrifying.

The hellhound is a monster that even knights of expert level or higher have a hard time fighting it.

Even before returning it was also a monster so powerful that he was able to catch it alone only when he was 18 years old.

But.

Bikir did not come all this way without taking any measures.

“Canine monsters always open their mouths when running.”

Like any seasoned hunter who had lived through the era of destruction, he brought out a secret weapon prepared for this situation.

The most effective weapon for catching canine monsters.

… har!

The sound of beans hitting each other in my hands.

Blood Bean Cocoa Beans.

It was chocolate.