Chapter 1-7 : Hunter (part 2)
I followed Rick into his house and sat in a wooden chair facing him in the living room.
「So, you want to know why the corpses of the prey I hunt don’t disappear, right?」(Rick)
「Yes. In this gameー I mean, in this world, monsters will normally disappear into thin air as soon as they die with only leaving some materials behind.」(Alice)
「Normally, yes, as you said. However, I have a unique skill called【Hunter】.」(Rick)
「【Hunter】…?」(Alice)
Seeing me tilting my head, Rick began explaining about the【Hunter】skill.
When you acquire this skill, the monsters you hunt won’t disappear. Their corpses will remain in place.
This skill doesn’t have levels, meaning that level one is the max level since it only has one function which is stopping monster corpses from disappearing.
The fact that the corpses remain means that the items you can get depend on how you kill your prey.
If you kill them with fire or lightning magic, their corpses will be damaged, and you can only get poor-quality items from them.
Luckily, I’m using a wakizashi, so I won’t get poor-quality skins or meat from monsters I hunt. If I had this skill, of course…
「Rick-san, can I learn this skill?」(Alice)
「Yeah, of course, you can. If you want to learn it, meet me at the north gate at nine o’clock tomorrow morning.」(Rick)
「Really!? Alright, I’ll meet you there!」(Alice)
I need to meet him at 9 AM IGT, that means I still have time until 7 PM in the real world. I think I will log out for now and return after dinner.
「Thank you, Rick-san. Once again, I’m sorry if I’m bothering you.」(Alice)
「Not at all. See you tomorrow then.」(Rick)
「Un!」(Alice)
He looks kinda intimidating, but he’s more friendly than I thought.
I bowed to him, left his house, and logged out.
ーーーーー
After eating dinner, I returned to my room and logged into the game.
I went to the north gate of the town as soon as I spawned. After waiting for a moment, I finally saw Rick coming toward me.
「Yo. You’re early.」(Rick)
「Hehe, I’m kinda excited to learn the skill.」(Alice)
「I see. Well, let’s get started then. Follow me.」(Rick)
「Aye sir!」(Alice)
I followed Rick out of the town through the north gate to the vast grassland on the north side of the Town of Erst.
「This way.」(Rick)
It hadn’t been long since we left the town, and suddenly, Rick left the main road and headed west. I didn’t know where we were heading but I silently kept following him.
After walking for a while, we saw two large rabbits in the distance. They seemed to be monsters.
As soon as he noticed the rabbits, Rick drew his bow and aimed at one of them.
The rabbit collapsed to the ground as its HP gauge depleted to zero when the arrow Rick shot hit its ear. It’s weird but it seems that their weak spot is their ears.
As expected, the rabbit was dead but its corpse remained there.
「Whoaa!」(Alice)
「The other one is coming this way. It’s your turn. Kill it!」(Rick)
「Eh? A, Alright!」(Alice)
As he said, the other rabbit was charging toward us. Its red eyes were glaring at me.
I drew my wakizashi and took a fighting stance, preparing myself to face the approaching monster.
Although it was a monster, this rabbit seemed to be much weaker than the wolf-type monster I encountered in the forest.
When it got closer to me, the rabbit jumped, trying to do a jumping attack, but since it was slower than the wolf, I was able to dodge it without a problem. As a result, the rabbit dived to the ground.
I took this chance to stab the rabbit’s back with my wakizashi. This monster was bigger than normal rabbits, but it was smaller than me, so I was able to hold it down on the ground by pressing the handle of my wakizashi down with both hands.
The rabbit monster who couldn’t escape kept losing blood. It eventually died and disappeared into thin air when it ran out of HP.
Unfortunately, it didn’t drop anything. No rabbit skin, no rabbit meat. However, I’m glad I was able to defeat it quite easily.
I turned to Rick as I wiped the blood off my face with the back of my hand.
「Good job. Now you should be able to learn the【Hunter】skill.」(Rick)
「Eh? That’s it?」(Alice)
Right after he said that, a notification board popped out.
〈Congratulations! You can learn【Hunter】without needing to spend any Skill Points. This is a unique skill that will be equipped in a separate slot from other skills and cannot be removed once learned.〉
Whoaa! I see. I think this is also a reward from a hidden quest just like when I learned【Compounding】for free after helping Nansa obaa-san.
It says it can’t be removed once learned, but I don’t think I want to remove it. I can get as much meat as I want from hunting monsters after all.
「By the way, there is a slaughterhouse near the farm in the town that can dismantle your prey for you.」(Rick)
「I see. Does it cost money?」(Alice)
「If you ask the butchers there to do it for you, yes, but it will cost less if you just rent the place and tools and do it yourself.」(Rick)
「Alright, got it. Thank you, Rick-san!」(Alice)
I smiled and bowed to Rick.
「If you want to express your gratitude, you can treat me to a meal when you catch a big prey.」(Rick)
「Okay!」(Alice)
「Ah, that’s right. You know my name, but I don’t know yours.」(Rick)
「Aa! I’m sorry! I haven’t introduced myself! I’m Alice.」(Alice)
「Alice… I’ll remember you. I’m looking forward to eating delicious game meat with you in the future.」(Rick)
「Me too!」(Alice)
After parting with Rick, I wandered around the grassland to hunt rabbit monsters for a while.
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