Chapter 65: Helping Out, Just a Little

The three-eyed eagles kept diving in, pulling up, circling, and then charging at the young adventurers again and again.

“Are they being attacked by three-eyed eagles?”

Ren grabbed his bow. As he tried to nock an arrow, his fingers twitched.

He stopped drawing the string.

There weren’t just monsters ahead—there were people too.

(What if… what if I miss and hit one of them…)

He had gotten used to hunting with a bow, but this was his first time doing so with people nearby. The thought of accidentally injuring someone made him hesitate.

(It’s too dangerous from here. I need to get closer…!)

Still holding his bow, Ren ran forward. Pushing through the bushes, he suddenly spotted red—

Blood.

Startled, he looked closer and saw a horned rabbit lying on a cloth spread on the ground, bleeding.

(They were butchering it…!)

Ren remembered seeing them researching how to butcher prey in the guild’s archive room. They must have tried to process the horned rabbit they had hunted, and the blood had attracted the three-eyed eagles.

“It’s the blood! Three-eyed eagles are drawn to the smell of horned rabbit blood!”

Ren shouted as he ran toward them. A brown-haired boy—Victor—turned toward him.

“So that’s it!”

“Huh!? Wait—Victor!?”

Victor grabbed the horned rabbit from the cloth and hurled it away with all his strength. A green-haired girl—Colette—cried out in surprise.

The four three-eyed eagles immediately chased after the thrown rabbit, moving away from the group.

“Now’s our chance! Run!”

Victor rolled up the cloth, told his companions to retreat, then turned back toward Ren.

“Thanks! You be careful too!”

With that, Victor dashed toward the village gate. His companions followed in a scramble, a bit confused. Along the way, Colette paused briefly, looking regretfully at where the eagles had gathered.

“Ahh, come on! We worked so hard to hunt that!”

“Colette! Move! They’ll peck you to death!”

“Alright, alright!”

Called by Victor, Colette ran again.

After watching their figures grow smaller in the distance, Ren aimed and released an arrow at one of the three-eyed eagles gathered around the rabbit.

“Gyeh!”

The arrow struck near the base of its wing, and the eagle dropped into the grass.

Another eagle shot upward, circling warily.

Ren fired again—but the second eagle twisted midair, and the arrow only grazed its wingtip.

Flap flap

A third eagle burst out of the grass, clutching what remained of the horned rabbit in its talons. The second eagle followed after it.

Ren ran toward where the fallen eagle had dropped.

The injured bird twitched with the arrow still lodged in its wing. Ren placed it into a small box and quickly finished it off with a knife.

As he drained the blood, he glanced around—and spotted something glinting faintly in the grass.

It seemed to be where the eagles had been pecking at the rabbit. Among the blood-stained grass, there was a small lump—something that shimmered slightly.

From its shape, it looked like a magic stone.

After rinsing it with a splash of water magic, Ren carefully picked it up between his fingers.

By the time he returned to the mansion and delivered the meat of the nut squirrel to the kitchen, the sun was already setting.

At the Adventurers’ Guild, he asked them to prioritize processing the nut squirrel. As for the herbs and horned ferret he had brought, he arranged to receive payment later—and they agreed.

(If I hadn’t gotten lost… Tomorrow for sure, I’ll make the quill pen and carbonized cloth! I’ve got plenty of feathers now!)

Encountering the great boar in the forest had delayed him far more than expected.

But he chose to think positively—he had managed to collect plenty of materials, including feathers from swift birds, ashveil birds, and even the three-eyed eagle.

As he passed through the backyard from the kitchen entrance, heading back to his room—

he noticed a figure standing there.