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Chapter 8
It was strange.
Genuere looked directly at the demonic beast, yet she did not seem afraid at all.
The demonic beast had the shape of a monster dripping black liquid.
Its appearance alone might seem simple, but—
‘Demonic beasts carry a pressure that throws people into extreme fear.’
A pressure that tightly squeezed your breathing, dried up your blood, and made it feel as if your heart would burst.
Even for most adults, getting used to that pressure while standing before a demonic beast was not easy.
Even Tashik had not been used to it from the beginning.
But this girl—
‘…What is she? Does she not feel the pressure at all?’
Even if the beast was below the cliff, there was no way she could not feel it.
Rather than feeling pressured, the girl carefully read the beast’s movements with her jewel-like eyes and responded accordingly.
Reading movements was something Tashik could also do to some degree after killing countless demonic beasts.
But her way felt different from his, as if it worked through a completely different principle.
Especially the way she instinctively sensed even the beast’s sudden movements.
‘Strange.’
This girl had definitely seen a demonic beast for the first time…
So how had she lived until now to act without fear like that?
‘…Without fear?’
At that moment, Tashik felt a strange sense of discomfort.
Just then—
“What are you doing?”
Genuere’s gentle voice reached Tashik’s ears.
When he turned his head, she tilted hers and pointed at the demonic beast.
“Aren’t you going to hunt that?”
The bear demonic beast struggling below the cliff was breathing like a candle about to go out.
‘Ha….’
Tashik messed up his hair and slowly let out a breath.
Then he took out his spear, aimed at the beast lying below the cliff, and threw it without hesitation.
The spear pierced straight through the bear beast’s throat.
—Kraaagh!
The dying scream of the demonic beast echoed through the snowy mountains.
Genuere watched until the beast finally stopped breathing, then lightly clapped her hands.
Clap, clap.
“So cool!”
At the sound of her applause, Tashik looked at Genuere.
Her cheeks were slightly flushed, and her eyes sparkled brightly.
Then a bright smile spread across her lips.
“You worked hard.”
But Tashik could not answer.
Because before he realized it, the entire steep canyon had frozen solid.
The cliffs spread below them were completely covered in freezing ice.
Freezing the entire canyon just because of one bear demonic beast was definitely excessive.
‘Fear. Hesitation.’
Did Genuere truly not have those things?
Just then—
Bark! Bark!
Tashik lifted his head.
It was a familiar presence.
Wolves were running over the hill in the distance.
They had gone hunting separately early in the morning and were now returning.
Tashik skillfully whistled.
Fweeeet!
Bark! Bark!
The wolves began running toward them through the falling snow.
At that moment, Genuere suddenly stiffened when she saw them.
“Ah, wait a second.”
Startled, Genuere stepped back.
Bark bark!
The six wolves rushed toward Tashik and Genuere happily.
Tashik naturally greeted the wolves running toward him.
But Genuere, who was not used to this kind of thing, froze like a stone.
When two or three wolves pushed their heads toward her and panted happily, she stiffly stretched out both arms.
“Y-yes, um… good wolf.”
Her voice sounded like someone reading directly from a textbook.
The wolves seemed to find her reaction amusing instead, because they started rolling around beside Genuere more than Tashik.
Watching her buried among the fluffy wolves, Tashik unknowingly let out an empty laugh.
“…Hah.”
She was not afraid of demonic beasts at all.
‘But she freezes up the moment she sees wolves.’
At this rate, she might never escape from all that fur.
‘I should help her quickly.’
Tashik immediately walked toward the wolves.
And the moment he reached out his hand toward Genuere—
Grab!
Genuere’s small hand grabbed his first.
At that instant, Tashik’s heart began pounding heavily.
‘What is this?’
“S-survived…”
Genuere let out a relieved sigh as she barely escaped the wolves.
But Tashik could not understand why his chest suddenly felt hot.
Then her voice spoke again.
“Let’s go down there.”
Genuere pointed below the cliff with her other hand.
Only then did Tashik remember the spear he had thrown.
“…You mean to get my spear back?”
“Ah, right. We should get that too.”
Pant, pant!
Genuere awkwardly patted the wolf jumping at her with stiff hands and continued.
“You know, there’s something I need to collect from the demonic beast.”
Buried among the fluffy wolves, her green eyes sparkled brighter than ever.
“We need to make money.”
* * *
I decided to ride down the cliff with Tashik on the wolves.
‘…I can’t believe I’m riding a wolf.’
Entrusting my body completely to a giant living fluffy creature felt extremely unfamiliar to me.
So I lowered my body tightly against the wolf’s back, grabbed its fur firmly with both hands, and squeezed my eyes shut.
Squeeze.
“…Hah!”
It sounded like Tashik, who had skillfully climbed onto a large wolf beside me, let out a dumbfounded sigh, but I ignored him and shut my eyes even tighter.
‘It’s scary.’
After keeping my eyes tightly shut for a while—
Only after several crazy moments of suddenly dropping downward did we finally arrive below the canyon cliffs.
Pant, pant!
When I opened my eyes, the wolf I had ridden lowered its body and looked back at me while panting with its tongue hanging out.
‘I think my head is spinning.’
I barely climbed off the wolf and awkwardly patted the head of the wolf that carried me.
“…Thank you.”
Pant pant!
Tashik called me.
“Over here.”
I took a deep breath and followed him toward the corpse of the bear demonic beast we had defeated earlier.
‘Ugh, the smell.’
The bear-shaped corpse covered in black tar-like liquid was already giving off a horrible rotting smell.
I organized the information I remembered from the novel.
Normally, demonic beast corpses in this world were considered mostly useless.
Because once they died, the corpses rotted extremely quickly.
As expected, this bear beast was rapidly decaying.
‘It’s only slower because this place is a cold snowy mountain.’
But even so, if left alone, it would soon completely rot away.
Its gem-like teeth and sharp claws would all corrode and disappear.
‘But if I freeze them.’
Then naturally, that problem would be solved.
With my freezing skill, I could permanently preserve the beast’s claws without damaging them.
Then I could sell the materials and ingredients from the claws to herbal medicine shops that needed rare components.
According to the original story, some ice ability users made a living that way.
I covered my nose and approached the corpse.
Even the horrible smell no longer bothered me once I thought of it as survival money.
I boldly climbed onto the corpse dripping black tar-like liquid.
“…You!”
I heard Tashik’s startled voice behind me, but my eyes were fixed on the beast’s giant hand hanging over its stomach.
Long and sharp ivory-like claws extended from it.
‘These claws are perfect for freezing.’
I crouched low so I would not fall from the corpse and stretched my right hand toward the long sharp claws.
Then I closed my eyes.
Was my desire to earn money becoming my driving force?
Vrrrr…
The crystal engine beneath my heart began vibrating with a throbbing hum.
Energy was created within the engine, flowed through my blood vessels, and gathered at my fingertips.
At the same time, I opened my eyes sharply.
White mist sparkled from my palm.
Fwoosh!
Soon the giant claws of the demonic beast rapidly began freezing.
Craaaack!
The terrifying sound of freezing mist colliding with the hard claws echoed through the air.
Then—
Thud!
The hard claws broke free from the beast’s flesh that had already begun rotting.
I quietly lowered my hand.
“Phew.”
Sweat formed on my forehead.
I had been confident, but after accidentally freezing the entire canyon earlier while making the beast slip, it seemed my stamina had dropped more than I realized.
Still, I felt proud.
‘These claws are huge, aren’t they?’
If we sell them properly, we’ll make a fortune!
I wiped the sweat from my forehead, smiled brightly, and turned around.
“Tashik! Now we need to move these claws—”
At that exact moment, my footing slipped.
(To be continued)
