Danma: Danganronpa, but Monster Hunter!

“Perfect, very perfect. To be honest, there is no more suitable opponent than the Minotaur.”

With the Bull Killer skill active, when facing the Minotaur, it's practically like activating its special attack and special defense abilities directly.

With these conditions, why bother looking for anything else?

Is there any monster in the dungeon more suitable as his opponent at this stage than the Minotaur?

No.

"So, don't worry."

The flames comforted the ashen-faced Loki.

"I'm not... Never mind, let's leave it at that. I'm tired. Let's go, hurry up, let me have some peace and quiet."

Loki opened his mouth, then dejectedly lowered his head and waved his hand weakly.

Flame walked out the door with a smile, and just as he was about to close it, Loki seemed to remember something, turned around sharply to look at him, and said very seriously:

"Flame, if anyone asks you, just say it's your idea, and be sure not to mention my name."

The smile on Lieyan's face grew even brighter.

"Do you think I can lie to Finn?"

"...??? You know?"

"Of course I know."

"I rely on!"

Loki lunged at him, while Flame, using the same trick as before, slammed the door shut.

thump—

A solid impact sound.

The god, whose actions had been completely foreseen, lay on the ground with tears in his eyes, rolling around in agony.

This is the second time, this is the second time!

Oh my god!!!

Just then, the wooden door opened again, and Flame poked his head out, giving instructions:

"Oh, and remember to keep the room tidy. If it's a mess when I update the attributes next time, I'll do the same thing as this time and have you clean it with me."

"Where did you come from, you housekeeper?!"

Goodnight.

With a chuckle, Lieyan closed the door, ignoring the ongoing rolling sounds inside. He stretched his body and slowly descended the spiral staircase, arriving at the corridor bridge where the towers converged at the top.

Meanwhile, in the eastern sky, a ray of sunlight pierced the night, and the heavenly light fell, illuminating Orario.

In the still dimly lit corridor, Lieyan squinted as he looked toward the light.

To the right, the chalk tower stood silently between heaven and earth. At its foot, adventurers moved in and out like ants.

Humans and demi-humans, who had been drinking all night, walked out of the tavern arm in arm, then helped each other vomit, drawing angry stares from passing elven adventurers. A passing dwarf pointed at the elf and loudly mocked his fastidiousness.

A female orc supporter carrying a huge bundle passed by without turning her head. Beside her, a middle-aged man who seemed to be her employer stroked his chin, his eyes darting around, seemingly lost in thought.

Further away, a white-haired rookie adventurer ran energetically forward, disappearing without a trace like a rabbit in the blink of an eye.

The flames took a slow, deep breath.

Good morning, world.

……

Wait, it's dawn now, so saying goodnight just now seems like a mistake...

Or, why don't you knock on Loki's door again and say good morning to her?

Chapter 45: Five Days

"Mission complete. Now all we have to do is wait for the guild members to come and collect the loot, and then we can go home."

The water submerged the forest, and as the flames watched the signal flare rise into the sky, they let out a long sigh of relief.

Beside him, a massive dragon corpse, covered in mud and resembling a giant loach with four legs, and measuring over fifteen meters in length, lay not peacefully in the murky mud. Its wet skin, covered in clay, was covered with all sorts of wounds.

Urgent Mission: The Dangerous Shadow in the Swamp is complete. Target: Mudfish Dragon. Successfully defeated.

Mudfish Dragon, simply put, is a type of ichthyosaur monster that inhabits muddy wetlands and uses highly sticky mud to catch its prey.

Due to their habits, they are adept at hiding themselves in the mud, only exposing a small part of their bodies, making them very difficult to deal with for ordinary hunters. Moreover, it seems that no lower-level Mudfish Dragon individuals have been found in the area around Flamefire Village.

Guild rating: Top tier, five-star monster.

"Blazing Flame, the materials have all been extracted, meow. When will the guild members come to collect the prey, meow? I can't wait to go back and take a good shower, meow. The smell of all this mud is awful, meow."

At this moment, a cat-like creature that walks upright like a human leaped out from the body of the Mudfish Dragon. This cat-like creature was equipped with a full set of blue armor like a ninja, and carried a wooden baton on its back [Sleepdog Dragon S Cat Baton].

Between its two front paws, it held a piece of monster material that was even larger than its body.

[Superior Scales of the Mudfish Dragon], [Superior Fins of the Mudfish Dragon], [Large Water Bag].

"The guild members should be here soon, since they're currently searching for the missing guild investigator in the Waterless Forest area. Oh, they've sent out a signal; they're not far from here."

A second signal flare rose into the sky, and upon seeing this, Flame immediately responded to its Palico.

"That's good, meow!"

Ailu responded happily, then found the backpack that Lieyan had left aside, carefully cleaned the materials in her hand, and put them into the backpack.

"Wang!"

"Onion wants to take a bath too, right? No problem, I'll give you one when we get back."

"Wang Wang!"

Covered in mud, Flame stretched and then rubbed Onion Dog's head, which was also covered in mud, as it walked up to him.

To be honest, the hunting environment in the Waterless Forest is really terrible, especially the external environment, which is even worse than the lava cave.

Flowing water is alright, but if you encounter muddy puddles, stagnant pools, or swamps while hunting, you're in for a real ordeal.

These places were not only incredibly muddy, but also smelled awful.

For hunters, the smell was alright; although it was foul, it was still within tolerable limits. However, for Palicoes and Fang Hounds, whose sense of smell was extremely sensitive, the smell was nothing short of a disaster.

Flame didn't want to hunt in this kind of place at all, but he had no choice. The urgent mission had been assigned to him, so he had to make the trip.

And most importantly...

"With the points from this emergency mission, my hunter star rating should be able to be raised to five stars, right, Elu?"

"Slaying the Kamaitachi Dragon King, slaying the Umbrella Bird, slaying the Kappa Frog, slaying the Strange Dragon—these count as four official missions. Adding this emergency mission with doubled points, it's definitely enough to upgrade to five stars, meow."

"I didn't expect the conditions to be met so quickly."

Reflecting on his experiences over the past few days, Lieyan was quite emotional.

Five days had passed since he went to find Loki at night to update his power levels. During these five days, he had been in a state of constant battle, much like a certain new generation Ultraman.

The first task is to quell the ecological changes following the Hundred Dragons Night Parade—by defeating the Kamaitachi Dragon King and the Kasakatsu Bird, which appeared near the abandoned shrine and were affecting the lives of the residents.

Then comes the task of defeating the kappa frogs and strange dragons that appeared in the Frozen Islands.

Including this Mudfish Dragon, Blazing Flame has now achieved the feat of killing one dragon per day on average.

Although this feat was accomplished due to a variety of factors, the speed at which Blaze hunts is still beyond the reach of ordinary hunters.

Because of this, the name of Blazing Flame has even spread beyond Flame Village...

World reputation +1.jpg

These continuous battles successfully reconnected the flames' will with the enhanced body.

With his enhanced abilities, Blaze became increasingly adept at combat.

His agile growth allowed him to anticipate enemy movements more quickly, and his reaction speed nearly doubled.

His increased dexterity allowed him to wield the complex Charge Blade with greater finesse, making him more adept at fine-tuning his movements in combat. Even the speed at which he could build up Charge Blade energy had increased, as if he were wearing equipment with a focus effect.

While the remaining attributes—durability and strength—are not yet noticeably improved due to the small increase in durability and the already massive base strength of the Flame, respectively, magic power growth is essentially nonexistent and unremarkable.

But to be honest, the effects of just the increased agility and dexterity were already enough to surprise Blaze.

Just like this time when we were hunting the Mudfish Dragon.

He would never have imagined successfully defeating someone on their very first meeting.

the reason is simple.

It's quite common for monsters to randomly change areas during a hunt.

Generally speaking, at least one-third of the time hunters spend hunting monsters is spent tracking them after they move to a different area. In the past, there have even been instances where monsters have moved to the farthest part of the entire region, and after hunters have gone through great lengths to get there, they find that the monsters have already healed their wounds...

of course,

Hunters are now trying various methods to reduce this time.

For example, the hunters of the New World use homing bugs and wyverns for movement, and Blaze himself uses the Owl for homing monsters and the Fanged Hound for movement.

However, no matter how many methods there are, it is still difficult to prevent monsters from changing areas. In fact, the ability to prevent monsters from changing areas has become a benchmark for judging whether a hunter is experienced.

But things are different now. With the enhanced Flame, its observation skills are enough to detect the monster's intention to change areas, allowing it to use Flash Bombs and traps in advance to stop the monster's actions, thus achieving the effect of eliminating the monster in one go without changing areas.

This boost is far beyond imagination.

Chapter 46: The Mission to Jieyun Village!

"Oh~ Blaze, you really succeeded in completing the mission! Wow, you're quite skilled!"

I acknowledge your achievements and agree to upgrade you to Hunter Level 5. In other words, you can now accept five-star level quests from Shuiyun.

Go forth, strive for excellence! The future of Flamefire Village rests on your shoulders! Hahahaha!

"Welcome back. As expected of Blaze, you've gotten this far with such ease. I need to learn from you and strive to finish my work more quickly."

In the meeting place, Lieyan, who had come to report, received a warm welcome. Both Lord Suifengren and Shuiyun congratulated Lieyan on successfully breaking through to the fourth-level rank in just five days.