Strange Grief Wants to Retire ~ The Weakest Hunter Dreams of a Hero ~

Chapter?17: White?Wolves?Den?4

Chapter 17

White Wolves Den 4

After walking for a little less than an hour. The surroundings opened up all of a sudden.

The passage widened, and the ceiling became high.

In her weariness Ruda wiped the sweat that was dripping with the back of her hand, and looked around slowly.

Even disregarding the height of the ceiling, the width would allow several Wolf Knights to line up next to each other.

Tino’s breathing was calm. Her expression since entering the Shrine had barely changed, her attire undisturbed.

“The room of the king should be just up ahead. Before it became a Shrine, this would have been the chamber of the pack’s boss.”

“The boss room, huh... can we take a rest?” Greg grimaced at Tino’s words.

『Boss Room』 was Hunter terminology. A Shrine’s innermost place – an area where an especially strong Phantom would be highly likely to appear.

Phantoms that manifested in Shrines were not random.

Basically, deepest in the Shrine was where Mana Material most easily accumulated, and therefore where a stronger Phantom would likely appear.

Especially in Shrines that reflected an areas history, the place where a powerful phantom would manifest was generally fixed.

In a castle, it would be the throne room. If it was modelled on a tower, it would be the top floor. For a ship, it would be the captains cabin.

In this case it would be the pack leaders room.

Of course it wasn’t always certain that there would be a『Boss』, but it was better to remain cautious.

From Greg’s words, Tino checked on the state of her companions. Gilbert, Ruda, and then Greg.

Ruda was at level 3, and the other two level 4. Everyone was at least a mid-level Hunter.

If they were at level 3, a hunter’s stamina would have been reinforced by Mana Material to a certain degree.

All of the battles since invading the Shrine had been dangerous.

However, although the expressions on Ruda and Gilbert’s faces showed their fatigue, it didn’t look like they had reached the point where they couldn’t move yet.

Understanding the meaning of her gaze, Gilbert clenched his fist strongly. “I can still go on.”

“Me too... Well, I think I won’t have any problems for a little more.” There were no safe places inside a Shrine.

Some safety could be guaranteed if there was a party member that could put up a barrier, but currently there was no such convenient member.

If they stayed in one place, there was a good chance that a wandering Wolf Knight would discover them.

If you took a break in such a dangerous area, you wouldn’t be able to feel rested. The decision was made in an instant.

Seek life in a fatal situation. You should rest when you need to, but the state of the party right now wasn’t that bad.

They should check out the Boss Room while they were still riding the momentum.

“Lets check the boss room out and then decide. The rescue target should be close by. We should quickly save them and leave.”

“Ok Leader. Shall we do it together then?”

Greg breathed in, and looked towards the Boss Room.

Walking carefully not to make noise, they approached the boss room by the edges of the wall.

Their visibility was poor, but perhaps placed by a previous Hunter, there were glowing stones placed meters apart to ensure a small measure of illumination.

About ten meters from the boss room, Tino came to a stop.

Closing her eyes she placed her palm against the earth of the wall. She focused her senses of hearing and smell.

Searching for any indications of a distant presence.

Cold air brushed gently against her face.

The soft breaths of her companions, the beat of their hearts. She searched like that for a time, but soon sighed deeply.

“...Somethings there.”

“Ugh. Could it be the rescue target?”

“Eight or nine out of ten it’s the boss. Or rather, on a mission from Master theres going to be something big.”

“Are you serious...”

No longer surprised, and not sure how to react to something with such low credibility, Greg was making an indescribable expression.

Phantoms occurring in the Boss Room were usually one or two ranks above the small fry outside it.

Considering the strength of the Wolf Knights along the way, it wasn’t like they definitely couldn’t win. But it would be an ill-advised opponent.

Originally there might have been a Red Moon that was strengthened from being twice as large as normal, but it probably wouldn’t come out this time.

A Shrine where powerful Phantoms appear but not Relics. It’s a place you would usually definitely not want to go to.

“Wouldn’t it better to retreat?”

Greg suggested gruffly. Tino slightly raised her elegant eyebrows.

“I’ve said that from the start.” “......”

“But, we’ve made it this far pretty much unharmed. We should be able to handle the boss.”

Greg frowned and bit his lip upon receiving a negative result. It was certainly true.

The power of the Wolf Knights were much higher than the Phantoms that appeared in the Shrines Greg would frequent.

For Hunters, safety came first. The standard was to fight with Phantoms that you could bring down with just yourself.

If he knew the White Wolves Den was in this state from the beginning, he wouldn’t have joined the party.

At any rate, the reward was likely to be insignificant, and there was little chance of finding a Relic. It was true volunteer work.

Since it was a direct request from the leader of the large clan『First Step』, he had

joined out of curiosity. But if it had not been, he would have most likely laughed them down from the start.

He brushed against the handle of his long sword. It wasn’t a top quality item, but it was a sword he cared for affectionately that had carried him through missions for several years.

“Greg, the look on your face has gotten too cautious.” “!?”

Greg was astonished by the ridiculous words. Ruda and Gilbert also looked at each other in surprise, and they watched the two attentively.

Like that Tino calmly continued.

“People don’t grow when they take on safe requests. Greg has enough skill as a hunter. It’s a good thing to be cautious, to keep living just as you are, but sometimes it’s necessary to do things recklessly.”

“No, but that’s... you see-“

Greg stumbled on the words of Tino who was younger than him. He thought that her words weren’t exactly mistaken.

The casualty rate of Treasure Hunters was considerably high, but the most amount of deaths were among rookie Hunters. The longer they lived, the lower the casualty rate.

One reason was that their skills would improve, but the biggest was that their ability to discern risk rose and they stopped attempting unreasonable things.

Stop being reckless. Don’t challenge opponents that you have little chance of winning against.

Hunters that had seen their companions die tended to become this way.

Therefore, over time there were many hunters that remained at level 3, and then there were people like Gilbert that sprinted to level 4 in a flash.

Certainly, absorbing Mana Material made Hunters tough, but it did not strengthen the spirit.

Most Hunters were level 3 or below. A certification of level needed a required amount of achievement points, and those points were difficult to accumulate without challenging a Shrine that was suitable for your level.

And for level 3 Hunters, they could live a slightly easy life simply by overcoming Shrines below their aptitude.

So the distribution of Hunters became skewed due to a bias.

Greg was level 4. Although he had passed the mid-level of 3, his own level hadn’t risen in a long time.

It would be a lie to say that fact didn’t weigh on his mind. Tino stared at Greg with piercing black eyes.

“Greg, you’ve had a long history as a hunter, yet you came to see『First Step』. I

think you should also have something you want to do.” “That’s...”

Tino’s words struck a chord. Unsure of what to say, Greg bit his lip.

The passion that had existed on first becoming a Hunter had long since subsided. How long had it been since he visited a Shrine with powerful Phantoms?

Frowning, he tried to remember when, but he couldn’t. In the silence, Tino said something incredible.

“That is surely the reason Master put you in this party.” “What?”

“This request is the best opportunity for Greg to break through his current situation.

Otherwise there would be no need to add someone you only just met as a party member. Master is trying to help everyone.

In other words, Master is God.” “T-that’s...”

Accurate.

At Tino’s words, Greg gulped down his saliva.

It was certainly strange. Why did he catch Infinite Variety’s attention? At the member recruitment, Greg and Cry only had a small exchange. It also wasn’t a very good one.

It wouldn’t be surprising for Ruda to be called on, but for him to be was clearly odd.

At the time Tino had given him an invitation he had thought it was a case of mistaken identity.

Greg was astounded.

He glanced over at the other two that had similar expressions remnant on their faces, and Tino spoke with exasperation.

“No way, you didn’t think Master had just gathered people from around the area? Master doesn’t do things like throw people together like he’s making a stew.

Everything is part of an ingenious scheme – through minute calculations. In other words, Master is God.”

Tino declared. Thinking it was unbelievable, Greg looked toward Gilbert. But, God or not, what she said was convincing.

The only issue was that the Cry Andoric that he had actually met didn’t match up

with the image Tino spoke of.

Infinite Variety. Suddenly the young man’s alias crossed his mind, and his body gave a shudder.

Ruda timidly raised her arm. “Um...... then why was I invited?”

Tino thought for a moment, and then gave Ruda an awfully unpleasant look down the length of her body.

The glance remained on the swelling chest, far and away larger than her own. Despite wearing the same type of leather jacket, their designs had become something different entirely.

At that fact, Tino made an expression much more grim than when she was dealing with Phantoms.

When Master had first introduced Ruda to Tino, he had said she was someone that wanted to go to the『White Wolves Den』, but that was clearly a bluff.

When deciding party members that would be putting their life at risk, there would be no way that kind of motive would be permitted.

If that were true, then what he later said『It should be fine if the left-overs are that

boy Gilbert and Greg-sama right?』, such an extremely irresponsible line would also become true.

Her beloved Master couldn’t do something like that. Ruda was bewildered by the grim look.

Tino remained silent for a moment, but as if unable to endure her own line of sight she muttered a few words in reply.

“ I don’t know. But I think it’s probably because you have such big breasts.

I’m going to get bigger soon too. I’ll be different from Onee-sama.” “Huh? W-Wait a second!? What did you just say?”

“Who knows. Lets stop playing around and quickly bring down the boss so we can complete the request.”

“Wait!? W-why that reason!?”

After exchanging words with the noisy Ruda, Tino took a step closer to the Boss Room.

Wolf Knights were huge.

Big, powerful, sturdy, quick unfaltering attacks. They were only largely inferior to Tino in agility.

Tino’s teacher Liz Smart was a thief the same as Tino. That’s why her training also went in that direction.

Tino, who had been thoroughly beaten down by a person that was far faster than herself, had dynamic vision that captured each and every movement of the Wolf Knights.

Those movements were much more sluggish than what she observed during training.

Even if her opponent was one or two ranks above, she could keep up with their movements.

So the question was, to what extent could they wound a body that would be covered in thick tough hair?

The thief’s role normally wasn’t to defeat Phantoms.

“I think it’ll probably be one enemy. Lets take care of it before other Phantoms come.”

At Tino’s words, they each prepared for combat. Greg took up his sword, and Gilbert readied his own Purgatory sword.

Ruda also unsheathed her dagger, and took a step back. Ruda’s role was to keep watch of their surroundings.

If there were any intruders, she had to attract their attention and keep them grounded.

When your strength was inferior to an opponents, getting caught in a pincer attack must be avoided. It was an important role.

“I don’t know what the enemy will be, but wouldn’t it be best for me to go in first?” Gilbert made a suggestion to Tino.

Tino took a deep, deep breath and gave a slight smile.

“It’s no problem. As Onee-sama always says. The first attack is glory. Whatever it is, I’ll take it.”

“No, but glory though – it’s just dangerous. There’s not really anything you can take from it.”

Tino stretched out her arms and legs, and relaxed her muscles. After checking her condition she gave a large nod.

“Because – I’m a Hunter.”

And dashed towards the boss room.

§

The boss room was a spacious room with a length and width of more than 10 meters.

In addition to the path Tino entered through, there were narrow pathways leading out the left and right.

The ceiling was also far higher than in the passageway. Unlike previously, the height was now twice as high as a Wolf Knight.

When did they get this deep underground? Such thoughts entered their minds.

However, in such a large space, standing in the middle of the room, casting a large shadow that seemed too small.

It was a wolf.

A werewolf holding a massive, deep-crimson battle-axe that was about the size of Tino’s body.

The total body size was about twice as large as the Wolf Knights they had fought until now, and the whole body excluding the head was covered in black plate armour.

The Wolf Knight’s armour was already troublesome, but the wolf in front of them had almost no gaps in their equipment. The joints were also perfectly guarded.

Not only the height, but the width was also greater than the Wolf Knights that were already robust at the best of times.

It wasn’t adequate enough to just call that appearance towering.

And above all, this wolf was different to the blood red wolves they had encountered up to now.

The colour of the moon, so beautiful it was chilling. Silver coloured fur.

The ferocious left half of the face, was covered by a human skull. The figure gave off a feeling of human resentment.

On the top of its head were two ears twitching in convulsion like quivers. Regarding the sudden intruders without hurry, the wolf reminiscent of the Silver Moon seized onto Tino with it’s eyes.

Murderous intent penetrated Tino’s whole body. The wolf howled. Roughly at the same time Tino ran up right next to it.

A wolf in whole body armour. As expected, it was the worst pattern.

Tino’s boots had metal in the soles, but her kicks weren’t strong enough to smash through metal and she would likely injure her feet in the process.

To injure her foot in this situation would mean death.

It was doubtful whether it would be possible to break it’s posture when it was so big.

Tension, and more than anything else, excitement pressured down on her heart.

The axe came flying. A battle axe inherently had a heavy center of gravity close to the tip, and therefore it was a difficult weapon to maneuverer easily.

Yet the wolf flourished it like it was a wooden stick or something.

It had a gigantic blade that looked about a meter wide.

If it hit from the front it would finish her off in pieces, so to avoid the blow coming she took a strong step backward.

Blood red eyes chased after Tino, filled with ugly hatred.

It turned it’s huge body. Just stepping to change direction shook the cave with small vibrations.

Despite the size of its large body, there were no wasted movements.

-Strong. If you wanted to escape you may be able to do it. The problem was in it’s difficulty to defeat.

It would be difficult for Gilbert to receive a blow from that battle-axe. And it would also be difficult for his Purgatory sword to cut through that armour.

While passing, using the short sword – Tino slashed towards it’s legs.

Metal clashed against metal and a high pitched noise rang out, the blow leaving a numbing impact on her palms.

A scrape like line was left on the armour, but as if rooted to the ground it’s posture was unswayed.

And above all, the wolf had intelligence.

Even though the eyes wet with resentment were caught onto Tino, it remained vigilant towards its surroundings.

It was different to the wolf knights fought against up until now.

The remaining members that entered – while rushing towards the back of the boss, it’s imposing appearance gave them pause.

If it were a Wolf Knight like from before they would attack. But Gilbert and the others also probably understood.

This wolf would be guarded against attacks from the rear.

Gilbert and Greg held their swords at ready, and quickly spread out to the left and right.

“What is this guy!?” “Shit, I’ve never seen it-!”

Gilbert’s eyes were wide open tracing back and forth as the battle-axe jolted up and down.

Greg searched for weaknesses with a grim stare.

As planned, Ruda stood a short distance apart, and while remaining on guard she observed its whole body.

The silver wolf was encircled by four opponents, however it did not lose composure.

It gave off the dignity of a king.

–The head.

Tino settled on a conclusion.

The boss was far stronger than the wolf knights seen so far, and it was unique in that it wore different armour.

The weakness was probably the same as the other Wolf Knights.

The problem was that the height of the boss was much greater than the other knights.

Without a strong kick off the ground it wouldn’t be reached, and in that time you would be defenceless.

An attack from behind like before probably wouldn’t work. You would just get mowed down.

It’s eyes watched Gilbert, Greg, Ruda, and Tino. It consistently put most of it’s attention on Tino.

“...What do we do?” “Should we retreat?”

Fortunately neither Gilbert, Greg, nor Ruda, were swallowed up in fear from facing the boss.

When they first saw it, they had felt some. But they already knew their courage before coming here.

If they had none, they would have run away long before setting foot in the Shrine.

If there was a chance to win, then take it.

This opponent would be next to impossible for Tino to defeat on her own. It was different to the Wolf Knights that she could do whatever with.

This was a trial.

Watch and understand the wolf boiling and bubbling with fighting spirit.

Cry Andoric gave prospective members trials where they had to put their life on the line.

From the words once said by a member of Strange Grief, and the nickname called as such-

-One Thousand Tribulations. They were the First Step to glory.

“Stop one strike. I’ll do something.”