The Hunter of the Lower Streets (3)
Money and Corpse Retrieval.
Dalen sought out Sienna for two reasons: money and retrieving corpses.
The assignments from Sienna, the back-alley informant, mostly took place in the shadowy corners of the Bronze District or the Lower Streets. These were perfect for collecting the remains of old characters left scattered throughout the alleys and streets.
Earn money, gain experience, and seize the opportunity to collect corpses whenever possible. This was the picture Dalen had painted from the start.
There was one thing he hadn’t anticipated.
“Who would’ve thought I’d find it this quickly?”
Falcion was a sprawling metropolis with millions of inhabitants. The expanse of its slum, the Lower Streets, was beyond vast.
Formed half-submerged in the sewers, the Lower Streets were a labyrinthine maze. What were the odds of finding a corpse on the very first assignment here?
“Guess I got lucky.”
Facing a grotesque creature drooling at the sight of him, Dalen smiled with satisfaction.
“Rrrr… I’m so hungry.”
The creature’s eyes met Dalen’s, and he easily recalled who it was.
“One of the boss-level enemies of the Lower Streets. Always muttering about being hungry. Normally, it should be a monster that demolishes buildings like sandcastles.”
At the time, Dalen was developing a hunter character, specialized in night sniping with exceptional sensory stats and night vision.
Seeing a bounty placed on the creature that was massacring the residents of the Bronze District, he confidently accepted the assignment.
“And I failed spectacularly.”
The creature, grown to ogre-like proportions, charged at him unfazed, even after being hit by dozens of arrows.
His hunter character ended up as the creature’s meal that day.
“Hungry… so hungry…”
But for some reason, the creature now seemed far weaker than he remembered.
Though somewhat twisted, it still retained a vaguely human shape.
Even hunched over, it stood nearly two meters tall, with a muscular yet unevenly scrawny body, and patches of hair growing in clumps.
The creature’s appearance was unmistakably incomplete.
“Oh, there’s plenty to eat today. Small things don’t fill me up anymore.”
“It must be because the tutorial just ended. No wonder I’ve never seen it like this before.”
Before falling into this world, Dalen had stubbornly stuck to basic characters.
And at this point, basic characters were weak. They couldn’t even set foot in the deep alleys, let alone the Lower Streets.
However, Dalen’s body, enhanced with additional stats, was more than capable of operating in the Lower Streets.
As a result, he encountered the monster earlier than he would have otherwise, before it could fully develop into a proper boss monster.
“I can nip it in the bud before it becomes a real threat.”
The early snowball effect was rolling better than expected.
Dalen smiled as he naturally assumed a stance.
Left foot back, slightly turned. Right foot forward, bearing his weight. Shoulders relaxed. Arms raised to chest height.
The skill he acquired yesterday, Dehama’s Armored Combat, was already becoming second nature to him.
Despite only having one real fight last night and a brief training session this morning, his proficiency had already surpassed 10%.
His superhuman intelligence was dissecting and reassembling the skill in his mind, aiding his progress.
“Pay-to-win is definitely overpowered.”
As idle thoughts flitted through his mind, the creature charged.
“Rrrraaaah!”
Its movements were the complete opposite of its clumsy speech. In the blink of an eye, the creature closed the distance.
Using all four limbs, it moved like a beast on all fours.
Moreover, its black fur and filthy skin served as camouflage in the darkness.
The creature swung its sharp claws as it came within striking distance. It was a blow that would have decapitated even a trained soldier who failed to react.
Whoosh—
The strike sliced through empty air. Dalen had stepped back just in time.
Shifting his weight onto his left foot, Dalen reached out and grabbed the creature by the chest. He twisted his waist and hurled it away.
Crash!
The creature slammed into a wall and bounced off, rolling on the ground.
“Ugh! Ow! Owww!”
Sturdy little thing.
Even after crashing into the wall with the momentum of its charge and Dalen’s added strength, it wasn’t dead and was still thrashing about.
The wall was stained with blood, and one side of its head was half-crushed, indicating that its body wasn’t particularly tough.
It was its regenerative ability.
With the distance closed, Dalen could observe the creature more closely.
From its mangled head, a viscous fluid oozed out, covering the torn skin and muscle, rapidly forming new tissue.
In a few minutes, its half-smashed head would be fully restored. This thing was a real monster.
“It hurts! It hurts! I’m hungry! Rrrr!”
“Shut up.”
Dalen drew his sword. If it could regenerate from a beating, he’d just have to chop it to pieces.
The creature flinched at the sight of the gleaming sword, then let out a roar and charged again.
Dalen waited for the right moment, then simply swung his sword horizontally. The creature’s belly split open.
“Rrrraaaah! Aaaagh!”
Tsk. Too shallow. Dalen clicked his tongue.
He had intended to cleave it in half, but the creature had pulled back at the last moment. Its reflexes were sharper than expected.
“Ugh, aaagh!”
The creature clutched its wound, crawling on the ground. But with its belly completely split open, its innards spilled uncontrollably.
The oozing fluid couldn’t do anything about the already spilled guts.
Dalen approached the creature to finish it off. That’s when it cried out.
“It hurts! No, I’m human! I’m human!”
The beastly growl had almost vanished from its voice. It could have been mistaken for someone with a sore throat from a cold.
Dalen lowered the hand that was about to raise his sword. He spoke.
“Have you come to your senses?”
“Ugh, yes. I’m clear-headed now.”
Dalen crouched in front of the creature.
With its one good eye, it shed tears, using its long fingers to frantically gather its spilled intestines.
“I didn’t want this. Eating people… who would want that? They planted a beast inside me. When it awakens, I can’t control myself.”
“Who are ‘they’?”
“I don’t know. They wore black robes and masks. They did this to me with strange drugs and rituals!”
“What did the masks look like?”
The creature paused. Its eyes trembled, as if the mere thought was terrifying.
“A smooth surface with a huge mouth drawn on it… a golden mask.”
“Hmm.”
Dalen scratched his chin. A mask with a big mouth.
“Those guys become a real headache over time. Better to prepare for them in advance.”
Watching the creature clutch its head with trembling hands, Dalen thought.
“How… how could I? I ate people… people…”
“It’s not your fault.”
The creature froze.
As if someone had pressed pause.
“Not… my fault?”
“The ones who did this to you are to blame. I’ll take care of them.”
The creature’s eyes wavered. For the first time, a glimmer of clarity appeared in its half-dazed eyes.
”…You’re saying you’ll avenge me?”
“Yes. For what they did to you.”
Tears flowed from the creature’s eyes again. It slowly lowered its head, muttering.
“They made me eat my daughter’s flesh. Forced my mouth open, made me eat her flesh, her muscles, her organs, ugh…”
The muttering soon turned into sobbing.
Dalen stood up. He sheathed his sword and hooked his fingers into his belt.
The creature looked up at him with a tear-streaked face. And then the sobbing changed once more.
“Ugh, ugh, rrrr. Rrrr! I’m hungry!”
The creature lunged, ignoring its spilling intestines, swinging its claws covered in its own flesh and blood.
Instead of dodging, Dalen stepped forward. The hand axe he drew from his belt gleamed.
Thunk, roll.
The creature’s head fell. The headless body staggered a few times before collapsing.
“Damn it.”
Spitting on the ground, Dalen felt a bitter taste in his mouth.
Feeling filthy was one thing, but a job was a job. Dalen collected the creature’s head and stuffed it into a leather pouch.
When the creature died, a gray corpse appeared beside it. Dalen’s old hunter character. A figure melted and distorted beyond recognition.
[The Corpse of the Hunter Devoured by the Experiment]
The body belonged to a hunter skilled in night pursuits, now reduced to a meal for the experimental creatures roaming the streets by day.
“Retrieve the body.”
[You have retrieved the body of the hunter devoured by the experimental creature. Abilities inherited.]
[Inheritance Reward: Perception +2, Stamina +1, Night Vision (E)]
Dalen opened his status window.
――――――――
Name: Dalen
Level: 4
[Strength: 23] [Dexterity: 12] [Stamina: 12]
[Perception: 15] [Intelligence: 18] [Magic: 8]
Skills: Dehaman’s Armored Combat (D), Night Vision (E)
――――――――
Two skills already. And his perception had reached the brink of superhuman.
“Ah…”
Dalen exhaled deeply. His heightened senses tingled with a myriad of stimuli.
Footsteps echoing from beyond the alley. The scurrying vibrations of rats within the walls. The faint beams of light seeping through cracks in the ceiling.
The stench of sewage, blood, and a hint of narcotics permeated the damp air.
Sounds, smells, and vibrations he hadn’t noticed before now etched themselves vividly into his mind.
His high intelligence processed and filtered these stimuli, breaking them down and reassembling them into coherent information.
“Hmm.”
Dalen slowly closed his eyes. As he did, he sensed a new awareness awakening within him.
A strange, elusive sense, just beyond his grasp.
“For now, this is enough.”
Dalen opened his eyes.
The thrill of growing stronger was undeniably addictive.
But for now, he had a job to do. He could savor his enhanced abilities later.
With his sharpened senses and night vision, traces he couldn’t see before became clear. Dalen followed the trail of the creature through the darkness.
Before long, he found what could only be described as its lair.
”…Tsk.”
The creature’s lair was a small space within the cracked walls of the sewer.
In the center, there were remnants of a small fire. A nudge with his foot revealed it had long since hardened, abandoned at some point.
Perhaps as its body mutated, the need for fire had vanished.
Inside the lair, countless bones lay scattered.
Broken and crumbled fragments. At least ten, maybe as many as twenty.
Dalen bowed his head in silent tribute.
Then, a faint glimmer caught his eye. He turned his gaze.
In the farthest corner of the lair, the ground was uneven, as if something had been buried there.
He dug one up. A tarnished silver ring, a piece of cloth, and two coins emerged.
The next one revealed similar items: a bit of money, a bronze bracelet, and a tooth.
“Damn.”
This was a grave.
A grave the creature had made in a moment of lucidity, to honor the victims it had consumed.
Buried in the farthest corner to avoid disturbing them in its inevitable fits of madness.
”…”
After a moment’s hesitation, Dalen pulled out another leather pouch. He tore a small piece from his clothing, wrapped the items together, and placed them in the pouch.
Having gathered the victims’ belongings, Dalen bowed once more to the bones before leaving the lair.
Soon, rats, sensing the absence of the lair’s owner, gathered.
They feasted on the bones and the bits of flesh still clinging to them.
By the time Dalen emerged above ground, the sun was setting. Even in this world, winter days were short.
He headed straight for the Crow’s Nest.
The shop door was, once again, unlocked. But unlike the empty daytime, two people were busy preparing for business.
One was Sienna, the other a man who hadn’t been there before. Sienna’s eyes widened when she saw Dalen.
“What, didn’t you go back to the inn? Here for a drink?”
“I caught the wanted criminal.”
Thud.
Dalen placed a leather pouch on the bar table.
Sienna glanced inside, her face tightening, then sighed deeply. She spoke.
“So, the rumors about you slicing goblins in half weren’t just tall tales from Galleos.”
“Perhaps.”
“Anyway, good job. Bourbon, could you take care of this? It’s not exactly something we want on the customers’ tables.”
At her words, the burly man picked up the pouch and headed for the back door. Dalen hooked his fingers into his belt. He asked.
“The reward?”
“Here. Fifteen shillings.”
Sienna pulled a handful of silver coins from her waist pouch and placed them on the bar. Exactly fifteen.
“It might not be much for a mercenary like you, but we can’t offer more just because you finished early.”
“It’s more than enough for a stroll.”
”…If you say so.”
Sienna chuckled, a bit incredulous. Dalen handed her another pouch.
“What’s this?”
“Items the creature buried in its lair. Belongings of the victims.”
Sienna’s expression hardened for a moment.