—–

The days went by peacefully as we did our daily routines. Without realizing it, a week had gone by, and it was the day that father went with the rest of the Hunters in the group to go hunt Larger and stronger beasts.

This hunt didn’t occur just from them wanting to collect meat, if that were the case, we would just hunt some meat from elsewhere.

The problem was that the second and third layers of the Dark Forest surrounding this entire area harbored strong monsters, and from time to time, they would go out of their original layers and might even begin to attack the village.

Due to that, this extermination quest was given by the Duke himself, who also wanted Boar Meat from the Wild Boars that could be hunted from the second layer onwards. Gigantic monsters that had utterly tasteful meat, which was highly desired by nobles. In here, normal pigs as I knew them back in my previous life did not exist, even the cattle were simply modified monsters, and I suppose they never could make Boars into cattle due to how savage and strong they are.

Although there are “chickens” with snake tails that are not venomous, which seem to be cockatrices, and we got “cows” that are three meters tall and covered in horns, we don’t have pigs.

And well, due to the variety of cattle animal spirits, things such as milk, wool, and fat can be acquired from them, although not meat.

As an item that cannot be produced through spirits, delicious meat will always be in high demand, and killing these damn boars also helped in keeping the village safe, as they had the tendency to attack it.

Seeing my father off with a large group of around fifteen more hunters, I wished him good luck. He had done this plenty of times, and this was why he was also high level, by killing these humongous beasts.

The day went by normally, I spent it mostly with Erika and Eleanora, we were practicing martial arts.

Erika was learning them even without having Qi, as it could be replaced with Mana in high quantities, but Qi would always be better.

But because Erika has no Qi, she had to use her large pool of Mana instead, which also served as the lifeblood of her doll-like body.

Although she had a whole army of dolls to fight for her, she also wanted to learn how to fight by herself, so she asked me to teach her some days ago.

“Gather your Mana in your legs, and then kick me with all the strength you got.” I ordered.

“R-Really? You’re not going to get hurt?” she asked.

“No, don’t worry, come at me.” I encouraged.

“B-But…” she said.

“Oh? Are you scared? I wouldn’t blame you…” I said, acting cocky always triggered her.

“I-I am not scared!” she roared, as she raised her leg and suddenly kicked me with all the strength she had.

CLAASH!

Her doll body was made of no mere wood, it was made of a special material reinforced through alchemy made by her father. It was wood, yes, but it was modified and recreated using several other materials, to the point it was more resilient than metal.

Getting kicked by her was like getting kicked by a giant bar of metal. This is why Erika had such great potential as a physical fighter, if she could learn these techniques and use them, she could really beat a lot of cocky people that would believe she’s weak due to her looks.

However, I was able to easily stop her kick as I smiled back at her.

“Good! Now continue kicking, or was that all?” I asked.

“I-I got more!” she said timidly yet filled with courage, as she continued to kick me, dancing around while doing so.

She had learned some technique by herself, fusing her dancing technique she had learned from her father long ago, and merging it with the finesse of her Princess Talent. What emerged was something majestic. It was as if she was a ballerina, dancing around while raising her legs, but each time she did, an incredibly powerful kick fell over me, almost making my entire body sink to the ground.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

I simply defended myself for the moment, but then I decided to go into the offensive to see how she could defend herself.

I moved towards her and packed my fists with Qi, punching her consecutively without any real technique put into it, mere fists, which could be called Qi Fist, if you want to give a name to everything.

“Uwawaawahh! Y-You’re going too fast…!”

Erika lost balance while trying to evade and defend, and fell off to the ground.

“Ouch…” she sighed.

I extended my hand towards her as she smiled back and took it, standing back up again.

“Sorry, was I too much of a brute?” I asked.

“No… It’s fine! I like it when you’re rough… It makes me feel like you’re finally taking me seriously…” she said.

“I see… Well, want to practice some more?” I asked.

“S-Sure!” she said.

Eleanora was looking back with a mildly jealous look in her eyes.

“A-All that speech about wanting to grow closer but what about this girl? Geez…” she sighed, murmuring to herself, although I could clearly hear her.

Suddenly, in the middle of our training, I heard my mother’s cry.

“JOAAAAN!”

I quickly looked back as I felt a dreadful feeling.

I rushed towards my mother while leaving everything behind, as I saw her crying desperately.

The group of Hunters were carrying around six people, they were all severely wounded…

My father was one of them, he was pale, his vitality was very low, and he had a tremendous wound on the left side of his torso, which was patched up roughly by the other hunters.

“Joan! No, Joan! Please, don’t die on me!” my mother cried.

“What happened here?!” I roared.

“T-There was something else that showed up, a bigger and stronger monster… it was completely red-skinned, and the size of a giant!”

“It had two giant black horns… and it was carrying a massive club…”

“It attacked us and stole the whole boar… we couldn’t do anything…”

“A red-skinned giant with horns?!” I repeated in disbelief.

That’s a demon!

—–