Chapter 15: Chapter 15: "Mr. Ivan’s Daily Acts of Kindness"
"Huff… huff…"
A middle-aged man clad in a hunter's attire—fur hat, down jacket, and leather boots—was desperately sprinting through a snow-covered forest, bow in hand. Behind him was a pack of snow wolves with glowing green eyes.
His name was Linton, a hunter from the Village of the Sword. Recently, more and more magic beasts had been gathering around the Schwer Mountain. To address the issue, the village had organized a hunting sweep.
Linton's assignment was to clean up any stragglers escaping the main group. With ten enchanted arrows allocated to him, the task should have been more than manageable.
But something must have gone wrong with the main force. More than twenty snow wolves had fled into his sector!
Firing as he ran, Linton had quickly exhausted his enchanted arrows. Yet over ten snow wolves still remained. Ordinary arrows couldn't pierce the defenses of these wolves, which could use low-level magic. Tossing his bow aside to lighten his load and conserve his dwindling stamina, Linton continued running deeper into the forest.
He believed his life was forfeit, but if he could at least lure the wolves into the pre-dug traps before dying, he might take a few down with him!
"Sorry, Martina... I won't be able to live long enough to see you get married. And about always criticizing your cooking, I truly apologize. Even if it was terrible, as a father, I should've encouraged you instead..."
Linton's legs felt like jelly, his breathing was so labored it felt like his windpipe was bleeding, and his heart pounded at an extreme pace. He could even smell the foul stench of the snow wolves closing in behind him.
He was going to die. No question about it.
But at least he'd made it this far. The trap he'd dug here should take out at least half of the wolf pack—wait, where the hell is my massive trap?!
Looking ahead, he saw a young stranger who had already dismantled most of the trap. Linton's blood pressure skyrocketed.
The young man, noticing Linton's arrival, flashed an innocent smile and greeted him.
"Good morning, mister! Don't come closer—there's a dangerous trap here. Can you believe some careless hunter set it up without marking it properly? What if an innocent passerby got hurt? Luckily, I spotted it and decided to do a good deed for the day by disarming it."
Linton: "..."
Good deed, my ass! Snow wolves are cunning magic beasts! A trap with obvious markings wouldn't work on them! And the village already designated this area and posted maps at the entrance—unless someone flies in, they wouldn't accidentally stumble on it!
His brain churned out curses faster than he could think, but in the end, Linton refrained from berating the young man. Instead, he shouted,
"Run! There's a whole pack of snow wolves right behind me!"
Then he drew a short blade from his waist, prepared to make a final stand to buy time for this clueless, overly helpful young man to escape.
But to Linton's shock, the stranger didn't run. Instead, he stepped up to stand beside him.
"The first song of humanity is a song of courage," the young man said with a grin. "I, Ivan, acknowledge your bravery. How about joining me and sticking together from now on?"
"I... What the hell... Forget it. It's too late to run now anyway."
Linton strapped another short blade from his thigh and handed it to Ivan, muttering,
"Kill as many as you can. Damn it, running into someone like you... I must be cursed."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the snow wolves leaped from the bushes, surrounding them. But strangely, they didn't immediately attack. Instead, they snarled and bared their fangs, as if hesitating.
Hmm?
Unless I'm some once-in-a-lifetime chosen hero with a goddess's blessing, it's definitely because of him, Linton thought, glancing at Ivan.
"Smart beasts, aren't they?" Ivan said, smiling.
Unlike his companion, he wasn't suppressing his mana. Since concealing it required talent and practice, Ivan figured it would only make him look like a flickering karaoke light—better to just let it be.
Raising his hand to cast a spell, he barely began when the wolves pounced, knowing full well that spellcasters were most vulnerable mid-cast.
Unfortunately for them, Ivan had inherited centuries of mastery over necromancy from Seria. His spellcasting speed was near-instantaneous.
"Soul Shock."
An invisible wave rippled outward, carefully avoiding Linton while hitting every wolf dead-on. The pack collapsed in unison, lifeless.
Since it was a soul-based attack, the wolves' intact bodies remained, which Ivan stored into his newly crafted spatial ring—a handy upgrade from scrolls, with better storage and portability.
"My apologies. I misjudged you. I didn't realize you were such a powerful mage," Linton said, collapsing onto the ground, his composure utterly gone. "Thank you, Sir Ivan, for saving my life. My name is Linton. Once this hunt is over, please visit Village of the Sword—I must repay you for this."
"It was nothing. Humans helping humans is only natural," Ivan replied, before asking,
"Linton, about this hunt—what exactly is going on? Can you explain it to me?"
"You didn't see the notices? There were announcements at the entrance, even maps marking trap locations."
"Ah... I didn't notice those."
Ivan, who had flown in and completely bypassed the entrance, suddenly realized that dismantling the trap might've been a huge mistake. He felt a little awkward at the thought.
Linton didn't delve further into the matter. After all, he owed his life to Ivan, and the snow wolf pack had been wiped out. Compared to that, the loss of a trap he had painstakingly built over several days was trivial.
He briefly explained the plan to hunt magic beasts and emphasized the abnormalities he had encountered.
"Based on our prior scouting and arrangements, there's no way a group of over twenty snow wolves could have escaped in this direction. Something must have gone wrong with the main team..."