Chapter 53: An Outrageous Guy

The armored buffalo that raised its head looked like a young one, and behind it was another two sizes larger.

I brought a small “Whirlwind!”—one that had scooped up some undergrowth—right up to its nose and tickled it with a little coochie-coochie motion.

The young one, watching the grass-filled little whirlwind, had its nose tickled and started sneezing repeatedly before running away from it.

The big one behind it was now staring at the whirlwind, so the moment I dispelled the small whirlwind, I created a large “Whirlwind!” and wrapped it in a massive cloud of dust.

It seemed a bit too small, because its nose and tail were sticking out, so I switched to a chubbier whirlwind—but as expected of a heavyweight, it braced itself and endured the wind.

If it flipped over too easily, it would mess up my plan, so I cheered it on silently: Hang in there, brace yourself properly.

Dust must have gotten into the eye on the windward side; it turned its rear to the blowing wind, so I shrunk the whirlwind to cover only its head and neck.

“Hey, hey.”

“What the hell is that?”

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

“I thought he was insane when he flew through the air, but…”

“He’s gone past insane at this point.”

“He’s wrapped just the armored buffalo’s head in a whirlwind—looks like a dust-blindness tactic?”

“That buffalo must be having a horrible time.”

“If it can’t see, all that’s left is to shoot a bullet into it, huh?”

“We were told to leave the finishing blow to us, but honestly, he could solo the entire hunt.”

“If Leon ever gets serious, he’ll become one hell of an adventurer.”

Unable to see, the armored buffalo froze in place and let out a strange “Bmooooh” sound in surprise.

Before its companions gathered, I shot a bullet, and then left the finishing blow for Jaegan and the others.

I dropped a rock about the size of a human head into a vertically spinning “Ring!” and underhand-threw it!

With a heavy thud and a guh!—the sound of air being forced from its lungs—the armored buffalo collapsed.

“Just as expected.”

“Wow, he took down an armored buffalo like it was just a horned boar.”

“Makes all the trouble we’ve gone through to hunt them feel stupid.”

“And look—Leon’s casually motioning for us to come finish it off.”

The herd of armored buffalo seemed to notice something was wrong; their cries changed and they headed toward their fallen companion.

I didn’t want them coming before we finished cleaning up, so I made several dust-filled “Whirlwinds!” in succession, blocking their approach.

“Hurry up and finish it off so we can get out of here.”

“With that much dust in the air, they aren’t going to bother with us.”

“This place is full of troublesome monsters besides buffalo. If you want to live long, finish your job and leave immediately.”

* * ***********

After finishing the planned two kills, we had no further business here, so we immediately set off for home—but this place wasn’t going to make it easy.

By the time we reached the mountain, snow had begun to fall.

We had left the capital in mid-November, and more than half a month had passed. No surprise the mountains were snowing.

I had been periodically replenishing firewood for campfires, so we wouldn’t freeze to death, but marching in near-blizzard conditions was tough.

We wanted to get through the mountains before the snow piled up in earnest, but it would take a week to get to the other side.

With poor visibility, we relied on sensing presences rather than visual scouting as we advanced.

Morgan, walking in front, raised his arm to signal a stop, but it was hard to see, and the line bunched up.

I was on rearguard duty when Jaeger in front of me said something was approaching from the right.

I concentrated in that direction and indeed sensed a large creature.

Fighting in a blizzard would be bad, so everyone gathered around me, and I created a “Dome!” to check the beast approaching.

I hesitated because it felt like a black bear, but someone said, “It’s a brown bear,” and when I strained my eyes, a giant snow-covered creature appeared.

It was supposedly a brown bear, but covered in snow I couldn’t tell anything except that it was much bigger than a black bear.

The brown bear also noticed us and began approaching, but everyone trusted my dome completely and calmly observed the bear in detail.

“Leon, you can’t use dust in this snow. How are you going to take it down?”

“What? I’m the one taking it down?”

“On the way here, we avoided hunting too much so the buffalo would still show up. But on the way back, we can hunt freely and earn more.”

“Then shouldn’t we have hunted more buffalo?”

“That was a commission, idiot. If we hunted more than requested and brought them to the guild, they’d go to auction, and that’d embarrass Chairman Grandis who commissioned it. It’s rare high-grade meat—if it suddenly floods the auction, it’s bad. Anything else is fair game though, and I want our magic bags full.”

Your reasoning is impeccable, sir.

Well, what to do? I couldn’t think of a good idea, so I used “Whirlwind!” to blow off the snow and reveal its appearance.

When it was covered in snow it looked almost cute, but without it, its ferocious face glared at us—the prey inside the dome.

Despite the glare, Jaeger and the others happily examined the bear.

Since I had already brushed off the snow, I created a 5-meter-wide, 5-meter-tall ring and trapped it inside.

“Leon, what are you doing brushing off the snow?”

“It’s already trapped.”

“Trapped?”

“Hey, there’s something around the bear!”

“Yeah—look, the snow is piled straight upward.”

“So… it’s like a dome? Except the top isn’t rounded…”

“Well then, please handle the finishing blow.”

“Huh? Finish it? It’s not weakened at all!”

“How?”

“Did you forget? I trapped it in a cylindrical ring. I’ll open an attack hole—please finish it off with your proud bow.”

“I think I misjudged Leon’s personality.”

“He’s not the ‘work hard to earn money’ type. He’s the ‘push all the troublesome stuff onto others’ type.”

“And he still takes a big cut of the profit.”

Their evaluation of me seems to be plummeting, judging by the cold looks they’re giving me.

* * * * * * *

The snow stopped overnight, but it had accumulated heavily, making us hesitate to step outside.

Dennis and Morgan were arguing over who should walk in front as the scout, but with Jaeger’s single remark—“Leon, if you use a whirlwind to blow away the snow, it’ll be easier to walk”—the scouting duty was pushed onto me.

Kind, considerate Jaeger… even giving me helpful advice.

Still, walking in the untouched front seemed easier than trudging through the slushy, trampled snow behind everyone, so I complied.

I infused magic into “Whirlwind!” and had it move about 10 meters ahead in the direction of travel.

“Man, inviting Leon along was the right call.”

“His defense is flawless, and he can even clear snow for us.”

“Hey, don’t praise him too much. If people find out he can hunt armored buffalo by himself—”

“Oh—no more requests will come to us!”

“Well, if that happens, Leon can hire us. We’ll earn money as guides.”

They were laughing idiotically behind me, saying whatever they wanted.

My motto is safety and reliability—no way do I want to come this far out again.

If they keep laughing like morons, I’ll drop the snow I blew upward right onto their heads.

“Leon—wait. Hold up. That’s a premium one!”

“Premium?”

“To the right—directly beside us… That’s a silver fox, or a winter-coat grey fox.”

I focused my senses in the direction Dennis pointed. I could only barely guess where it might be. As expected, my detection ability couldn’t compare to theirs.

Morgan and Dennis whispered back and forth, then signaled the other five to draw their strong bows. They all released their arrows in sync with Dennis.

With kyun-kyun bowstrings twanging, the arrows converged on a single point.

Snow burst upward as if it had exploded, revealing the thick tail of a large dog-type beast.

It sank back into the snow, but since it didn’t run, the arrows must have hit.

Pushed by everyone, I cleared the snow as we approached. We found a winter-coat grey fox with five arrows stuck in its pure white fur, blood seeping out.

To minimize damage to the pelt, we shot a finishing arrow and stored it in the magic bag.

A winter pelt grey fox would fetch at least 1,200,000 dara—with the minor arrow wounds, likely around 1,500,000 dara. Everyone was thrilled.

Before we reached the grasslands, we secured a decent amount of prey:

• Winter-coat Grey Fox: 1
• Brown Bear: 1
• Red Bear: 2
• Big Elk: 4
• Big Horned Boar: 3
• High Orc: 3
• Orc: 10
• Black Goat: 4

With this haul, each person would earn at least 120 gold coins (12,000,000 dara).
The armored buffalo would certainly be auctioned, but since they were requested items, past auction prices applied—about 450 gold coins per head.

With two hunted, that was 900 gold coins. One-eighth share meant 112 gold and 5 silver for me.

Including the commission fee and other prey, we each stood to earn around 230 gold coins.
For nearly a month of work, that was about twice the income of hunting birds, but still somewhat low considering the trouble.

I’m interested in golden goats, black goats, and sham goats, but aside from those, I don’t see any reason to return to that area.

I’ll leave armored buffalo hunting to Fang and stick to making money with birds.
More importantly, I got ideas from practicing strong winds and launching balloons—things I want to test once we return to the capital.

* * * * * * *

When we got back to the capital, we headed straight to the Adventurer’s Guild and submitted everything except the armored buffalo and the winter-coat grey fox for appraisal.

As the carcasses were lined up in the dismantling area, I heard dismantlers and waiting adventurers muttering things like:

“Four black goats?”
“Where the hell did they even hunt these?”

The appraisal officer, delighted with the high-quality, lightly-damaged, winter-coat, well-fattened meat, gave us a generous valuation and handed over the form.

Jaeger received the appraisal sheet, grinning ear to ear, and said, “It’s been a while—let’s go have a drink!”
No one objected, and we all hurried toward the guild cafeteria.