Translator: Pai_

"Father is truly impressive. To think he would even mobilize a guest for a magical beast hunt. Were we that unreliable?"

Izela, the only daughter of the Lug family head, grumbled with an air of disbelief.

Dressed not in an elaborate gown but in a tunic and trousers that looked more practical for activity, she turned to Turan and spoke.

"Ah, I'm not criticizing our guest. I'm just saying father is making too much of a fuss."

"Calling the head of the house fussy, don’t you think you’re going too far, noona?"

"Mind your own business."

Standing next to her, another noble, Lug's nephew, rebuked her in a low voice.

As their gazes met, sparks seemed to fly for a moment, but soon the nephew turned to greet Turan.

"This is the first time we’re meeting, isn’t it? I’m Marvin Baltas. Please take care of me."

"Likewise."

After exchanging greetings with Marvin, Turan looked at the twelve knights standing behind the two nobles.

Unlike their masters, who seemed to treat this like a leisurely outing, the knights’ nervousness was evident.

It was understandable, they were heading to hunt an unknown enemy that had already killed four knights, leaving no survivors.

A short while later, the group, consisting of three nobles and twelve knights, marched confidently toward the north gate.

All the passing residents knelt and bowed their heads deeply as they watched them.

The only ones standing with their heads merely lowered were those clad in armor and carrying swords, Turan now realized these were the people referred to as police.

Commoners armed to maintain order within the city…

Of course, they were utterly useless in hunting magical beasts or waging war between noble houses.

Even a still inexperienced noble like Turan could kill thousands of those armed commoners.

As they left the city walls and headed north, they were greeted by a brick road built during the old empire era.

With magical beasts attacking people for the past ten days, there wasn’t a soul in sight on the road.

"I just want to finish this quickly and go back to rest."

Izela muttered, kicking pebbles on the roadside as she walked.

While trailing slightly behind her, Turan stared absentmindedly at her back. At that moment, Marvin approached him and spoke in a low voice.

"Turan, do you happen to have any interest in my noona?"

"No."

Turan immediately shook his head, denying it.

Over the past few days, Izela had consistently flirted with him ever since their shocking first meeting.

It wasn’t anything serious, more like lighthearted, joking advances.

But Turan didn’t find her particularly attractive.

Her carefree, even frivolous demeanor was far from his ideal type, and above all, marrying someone from a different bloodline like hers would mean he’d become a son-in-law bound to her family.

While the library here was impressive, he had no intention of tying himself down for life just for that.

"That’s a relief."

Hearing his answer, Marvin's face brightened.

Turan didn’t understand what exactly Marvin meant by the question, but his answer seemed to satisfy the young noble.

* * *

About an hour passed as they chatted and headed north.

The hunting party discovered a broken cart and several blood-soaked, torn garments in the middle of the main road.

It was evidence of an attack.

"Was it that thing?"

"Probably. We’ve strictly forbidden anyone from heading north on our side, so it seems like they were attacked while coming down from the north…"

While they talked, Turan examined the wreckage, trying to deduce the identity of the magical beast.

Judging by the fact that the smell of blood wasn’t overwhelming, the attack had occurred only a few hours ago. The torn garments suggested something sharp had pierced through them. A grotesquely large handprint on one side of the cart showed five fingers, just like a human's…

With the final clue, he could identify the enemy.

"It’s a monkey."

"A monkey?"

"Look at the handprint here."

"Ah."

In truth, Turan himself had never seen a monkey before.

It was simply because the example in the magical beast guide perfectly matched the situation that Turan mentioned it aloud.

If he hadn’t read that book, he would have just assumed it was some unknown magical beast and left it at that.

"It seems like it attacked the merchants and returned to the forest. We can probably track it by following its traces."

"Tracking… I’m not very good with that kind of magic. Marvin, how about you?"

"Not me either. Maybe one of the knights could-"

"Let me try searching."

When Turan stepped forward, Izela brightened up and asked.

"Oh, do you have that kind of bloodline ability?"

"I’ve just used it a lot and am familiar with it."

Lying with a calm expression, Turan immediately activated Detection Magic.

The condition was the bloodstains on the torn clothes.

As his senses expanded with the spell, the smell of blood intensified, and he could feel the scent trailing along the left side of the road.

Technically, rather than detecting the victim’s blood specifically, the magic suppressed all other scents, allowing him to pinpoint the trail.

"This way."

Following Turan’s lead, the hunting party promptly left the road and entered the forest.

The lack of a proper path didn’t matter much.

After all, the three nobles were one thing, but even the knights could leap four or five meters in a single bound with ease.

After about thirty minutes of following the blood trail, they arrived at a stream.

Several deer drinking from the water were startled by their presence and fled in a panic.

"The trail ends here. It seems it washed itself."

"Are you saying a mere beast did such a thing to avoid being tracked?"

"It probably just wanted to bathe."

The guide also mentioned that monkeys were among the animals with a bathing culture.

Turan dispelled the spell for tracking the scent of blood to try another method of detection.

At that moment, a strong, distinct body odor hit his restored sense of smell.

Quickly turning around, he saw a pair of large, golden eyes glaring at him.

"Behind us!"

Along with the shout, a screeching cry rang out.

A massive monkey, about two meters tall, emerged from the bushes, its appearance both humanlike and eerily alien. It began hurling fistfuls of gravel toward them.

The sheer size of its hands, disproportionately large even for its massive body, allowed it to throw dozens of stones at once.

Each projectile was imbued with strong magical power, making them far faster and stronger than any ordinary throw.

"Aaagh!"

"Dodge!"

While a few members were struck and sent sprawling, Turan managed to leap to the side as soon as he shouted, avoiding the barrage.

When he turned back, he was shocked to see that Izela and Marvin had each used a knight as a shield to block the attack.

"U-ugh, are you alri-"

"Attack!"

Izela shouted sharply, tossing the injured knight aside.

The eight remaining unscathed knights immediately drew their swords and spears, charging at the beast.

However, the monkey let out another ear-piercing screech before darting into the bushes. It leapt from tree to tree, covering several at once with such speed that it seemed like the wind itself.

Despite its huge body, its speed was like the wind, making it impossible for the knights to chase it by running.

While everyone stood dumbfounded, a stone chased after the fleeing monkey.

It was a slingshot attack from Turan, enhanced with his three most familiar spells: strengthening, acceleration, and pursuit.

The stone grazed past several trees while curving around and struck the monkey's waist, causing it to scream and tumble down.

The monkey writhed in pain, unable to stand, as though its spine had been broken.

"Die!"

Izela shouted, extending her hand toward the writhing creature.

Flames erupted from her fingertips, coalescing into the shape of a serpent as thick as a tree trunk. The fiery serpent bit into the monkey, incinerating it while engulfing a dozen meters of the surrounding forest in flames.

The sheer speed and scale of the attack were on a level far beyond anything Turan could produce.

This was the power of House Baltas' proud Pyromaniac Bloodline.

‘So that’s what it is…’

Lighting a fire was something any wizard could do, even instinctively, but compared to those whose bloodline magic specialized in that area, it was nothing.

Following Izela’s display, Marvin conjured over a dozen flaming spears and sent them hurtling down, reducing the monkey magical beast to ashes.

Everyone in the hunting party let out a collective sigh of relief.

“Wow, I got chills when those stones came flying at us for a moment there.”

“Were you scared, noona?”

“Shut up. You’re the one who screamed like a little girl…”

"I did not!"

While the two nobles bickered back and forth, Turan went to check on the knights who had been struck down by the hail of stones.

“Ugh, I think my arm’s broken…”

"This guy's head is still bleeding, what should we do?"

“For now, apply this ointment.”

Fortunately, it seemed none of the knights had lost their lives.

The ones who had served as shields for the two nobles were the most injured, but even they had only suffered head trauma from the stones or broken a bone or two.

Turan clicked his tongue as he recalled what Izela and Marvin had done moments earlier.

Considering how magical power enhanced physical strength, their bodies had to be at least several times sturdier than those of ordinary knights.

And yet, they had used much weaker individuals as shields, fearing for their own safety?

It was a stark reminder of something his mother had once said, that to nobles, knights were nothing more than disposable dogs to be sacrificed at any time.

Noticing Turan's gaze, Marvin asked curiously.

"Hmm? What's wrong?"

“No, nothing.”

Turan brushed it off vaguely, but his eyes betrayed a subtle contempt as he looked at the two cousins.

At that moment, Izela waved her hand and called out to Turan.

“More importantly, guest, come here quickly! Time to absorb the magic power!”

“Yes.”

The three nobles stood side by side next to the half-burnt, ash-covered corpse of the monkey magical beast.

Extending their hands, they began absorbing its magic power. A now-familiar pale green glow emanated from the remains and seeped into their bodies.

Turan shivered at the rush of pleasure that came with the absorption, even as he checked how much stronger his magic power had become.

The growth he gained from absorbing the monkey’s strength was stronger than what he had gained from a leopard but weaker than what he had absorbed from a rabbit.

Given that the monkey wasn’t particularly exceptional in strength, it was astonishing how much power the three of them had gained together.

‘It seems… just as I’ve heard, the amount of enhancement doesn’t diminish even if multiple people absorb it together.’

When absorbing magic power from a magical beast, up to four people could absorb the same amount without it being divided among them.

Why the limit was specifically four and not three or five was unclear, but this was why noble houses with many members often formed hunting parties of four.

Of course, even when there was an extra spot, they wouldn’t include a knight, further illustrating their sense of superiority.

"Ah, I can't absorb anymore."

"Me neither."

As they spoke, pale green light began to leak from their bodies back into the air.

This was the process of “dispersing” magic power.

When someone reached their innate limit for magic power growth, they could only absorb a small fraction of it, with the rest being expelled back into the air.

Turan could feel the envious gazes of the two nobles on him as he absorbed all the remaining magic power into himself.

* * *

On the way back to Orem City, Izela and Marvin repeatedly recounted the battle with the monkey, bragging about how heroically they had fought.

Given that they had used knights as shields, their claims seemed laughable, but Turan humored them with polite responses.

“Come to think of it, without you, Turan, we probably wouldn’t have been able to kill it. Starting with the tracking ability and then landing the blow that brought it down, it was all thanks to you.”

“It wasn’t anything special.”

Though he was being modest, he internally agreed.

Without him, the hunting party would likely have suffered a devastating ambush without even realizing what had hit them. They wouldn’t have been able to chase down and kill the fleeing monkey either.

Without tracking magic, they would have been at the mercy of hit-and-run tactics, unable to do anything in response.

Izela and Marvin could have simply fled to Orem City by running wildly down the main road to save their own lives, but it was obvious that none of the knights would have survived. They would have all been beaten to death by the hail of stones.

Moreover, if those two had been struck not by the smaller stones but by large boulders, they wouldn’t have escaped unscathed either.

Although the situation played out favorably, allowing them to catch the magical beast relatively easily, it was clear that this beast was indeed strong enough to have overpowered and devoured four knights without them even putting up resistance.

"It's a shame I noticed it so late and gave it the advantage of attacking first. I didn’t expect it to have tracking abilities as well."

"Tracking abilities?"

"Yes."

Turan recalled the appearance of the monkey they had just encountered.

Its massive build and exceptional physical abilities were characteristic of almost all magical beasts.

What stood out the most, however, were its unusually large hands and eyes.

The shadow leopard he had previously encountered had developed its ability to hide, enabling it to move as though it were a shadow. The rabbit, on the other hand, had drastically enhanced its gnawing abilities, evolving the power to cut through anything it encountered.

Based on this pattern, Turan speculated that the monkey’s large hands might have evolved for throwing objects with great force, while its large eyes could have been adapted to see farther distances or penetrate the dense forest.

When Turan shared these thoughts, everyone in the hunting party let out a collective exclamation.

"Wow…."

"To think you noticed all of that in such a short time!"

Everyone was looking at him as though he were a sage unlike any other in the world. From their reactions, it seemed none of them had ever read the magical beast guide available in the library.

When Turan subtly asked about it, Izela tilted her head and replied.

"Library? That stuffy place... no one goes there."

According to her, the Sky Library was more of a famous cultural heritage site, and few people were actually interested in the books inside.

Access itself was difficult since one needed permission from the family head, and even if one had the time to read, there were far more pressing or enjoyable things to do.

At most, people like Turan would visit once every few years for a field trip or look up specific materials for special occasions.

Come to think of it, there hadn’t been a single other user in the library over the past few days.

"I went in once out of curiosity long ago, but there were only difficult books, so I left before reading even half a book."

From this, Turan learned another new fact.

Not everyone in the world finds joy in gaining new knowledge.

"If you get the chance next time, ask the librarian if there are any easy books to read."

Turan offered the suggestion casually, thinking that if he had started with overly difficult books himself, he might have lost interest in reading just as quickly.

However, the unexpected response he received caught him off guard.

"Librarian?"

"Yes. The person who manages the library."

“Was there such a person in the library?”