Curse Return: Swordsmith Start

Chapter 146 Exposure, Threat

'

...Phew...really...woo...I'm saved...You guys are...very strong...

""

Kurt was out of breath, but his eyes held obvious admiration.

"If you have this awareness, be more careful in the future. Not everyone will be there to save your life in a critical moment."

"Understood 3."

"6

"So, are you planning to come with us or go back to town?"

The three exchanged a glance and quickly waved their hands.

"Of course we're planning to go back. This mission isn't suitable for us. Thanks again for your help! Keep up the good work!"

The three little ones were truly terrified. This experience will likely change their lives forever, but in any case, they survived safely.

In the end, Kurt and his team left with grateful smiles.

Rudius and his companions continued their exploration and soon discovered another anomaly.

"There is fighting."

"Was that... Blaze and his group from earlier?"

"right.

"6

As they ventured deeper into the forest, they seemed to encounter Blaze's group.

Should we go help them?

This time, Rudy learned his lesson and decided to listen to the advice of Rachel Rudd, a veteran soldier.

"no need."

So that's how it is. No wonder it's a B-rank team; that pig-man's team seems capable of making Rijrud consider them warriors.

However, as he continued forward with the others, he discovered a large, coiled snake in the forest.

Then... there were four corpses lying around.

...wait, they're already dead...

'

So that's what "unnecessary" means.

At the same time, screams rang out. Everyone turned to look and saw the pig-man roaring, his lower body inside the snake's mouth, emitting heart-wrenching screams.

And that monster was the "Red-Eating Serpent".

The red snake's body was enormous; the width of its head alone was four or five meters, and its length was about ten meters. Its neck was also spread outwards, as if it intended to intimidate.

"I never expected there to be such a huge red-eating snake in this forest."

"Does this generally not happen?"

"Yes, but there's still a low chance it will happen."

According to guild information, the Red-Eating Serpent is a higher-level species of the White Fang Serpent. It not only has a larger body than the White-Eating Serpent, but also has a significantly greater agility.

Its entire body is covered with hard scales that are resistant to fire, and its sharp teeth are highly venomous. Even though it is impossible to determine what the White Fang Serpent ingested to mutate into the Red-Eating Serpent, there is a very small chance that it will appear in the place where the White Fang Serpent lives.

White Fang Orochi is a B-rank, but Red Eater Orochi is a formidable enemy equivalent to an A-rank. It's not surprising that a B-rank team could be wiped out in an instant.

At that moment, the pig-man that had been swallowed whole also noticed this side.

"Should we fight?"

Rijrud asked Rudius for his opinion, after all, he was the captain.

Rudius glanced at the confident Rijerud, then thought of the Yue people behind him who exuded a sense of security.

"Then let's get started."

Rudius used magic to launch long-range attacks, while the two fought at close range.

This cooperative mode was the same as usual, so Rudius used the rock cannonball as usual.

This time, the opponent is an A-rank monster, so he decided to slightly increase its power, making it wedge-shaped and containing fire magic inside, so that the rock cannonball can explode and launch itself after hitting the monster.

The plan was to send the shell flying at supersonic speed straight toward the Red Serpent, causing a massive explosion.

"What?!"

The giant red-eating serpent twisted its body to avoid the rock projectile.

This evasion was not accidental. It is clear that the Red-Eating Serpent saw the rock projectile flying towards it first, and then made the evasive maneuver. The rock projectile flew into the distance and then exploded.

"How is that possible..."

'

Although the initial attack failed, our special forces will not give up. Led by Rijkaard, Alice follows diagonally behind him. This formation is different from usual; normally, Alice is in front.

"Huh!"

59

.snort!"

Rajirud attacked the head of the Red-Eating Serpent, using his pistol to thrust as usual.

The giant red serpent dodged the attack by leaning back, then bounced back to try and bite Rijrud. Facing the sharp teeth that would leave a gaping hole if bitten, Rijrud easily swung his gun to deflect the attack.

At the same time, Alice, who had already circled behind the Red Devouring Serpent, swung her sword at its tail.

The slash failed to sever the tail, perhaps because the red snake's flesh or scales were very hard, or perhaps both were simply very hard.

"Ugh! Ugh!"

The moment the Red-Eating Serpent turned its attention to Alice, the two of them immediately retreated.

"The Great Serpent"

Just as the Red Stone Serpent was about to launch its attack, a white serpent even larger than the Red Stone Serpent suddenly sprang from the ground from the black shadows and bit its vital spot.

The intense pain caused the Red Stone Serpent to begin biting back, but this "other serpent" that had appeared out of nowhere seemed to have no weaknesses like its own and remained unmoved, instead wrapping its body around the serpent even more tightly.

"Now!"

Surprised that the Yue people could summon such a giant serpent, Rudeus seized the moment and flew towards the Red Devouring Serpent.

The rock cannonball finally caught its body, causing further damage.

The giant serpent, now powerless to resist, was nothing more than a lamb to the slaughter. In the end, Alice beheaded it with a single strike from the sky. An A-rank monster, easily defeated.

"Yue people, what is that? It's amazing!"

Alice exclaimed as she pointed at the disappearing "giant snake," her eyes filled with curiosity about the new thing.

"Didn't I show you before? It's a type of shadow summon."

"? But isn't it a toad?"

"Who says you can only summon one type?"

"How many kinds can you summon?"

Ten kinds.

"That's amazing!"

"I'm so envious..."

""

So that's ten different shikigami companions with different effects? That's so convenient...

Rudius suddenly had an idea: he would go back and ask Yue Ren if he could teach him this special ability.

By the time they had dealt with the Red-Eating Serpent, the sun had already set.

That day's dinner consisted of its meat, and the taste was acceptable after adding some of the few seasonings available from town.

In the subsequent material acquisition phase, thanks to their understanding of the situation over time, the Yue people, under their command, dismantled the parts that could be sold, removed the teeth, extracted the gallbladders, and peeled off the snake skin...

They also discovered that it was the egg Kurt and his group were looking for, but because it was too big to carry back, they decided to break it after much consideration.

After all, the act of increasing the number of monsters seems to be strictly prohibited.

As for the bodies of Blaze and his men, they first looted everything that could be sold, then burned them before burying them.

This commission also became the last task they undertook in the town of Licaris.

After taking care of everything, they planned to leave for the next area to go back and clean up the mess.

With this in mind, the group returned to the guild.

As usual, I first met with Jalil outside the Adventurers' Guild and exchanged completion cards.

Then hand over the red snake's teeth, gallbladder, and skin to him, and agree on the same story.

Because there were so many people this time, everyone, including Weskel, entered the Adventurers' Guild together.

"Oh my, you've hunted something quite interesting! These are scales of the Red-Eating Serpent, aren't they?"

Nokbara, the captain of another C-rank team, always says sarcastic things in front of them. It's worth noting that this guy is a horse-headed demon, and his appearance is rather creepy.

This guy, could he have discovered something?

Rudius winked at Jalil, signaling him to deliver the pre-arranged statement.

"Ah... well, we were lucky to find the Red-Eating Serpent when it was about to die."

"Oh, just the two of you?"

Nokbara had a sly grin on his face, as if something amusing had happened, and he also showed disdain for Jalil.

Rudius looked at the guy's expression with some confusion. What was wrong? He seemed different from usual.

"We found the corpses of those 'SuperBlaze' guys halfway there. They must have severely injured the Red-Eating Serpent first."

"What? Blaze... he's dead?"

"Um."

"Never mind, after all, we've run into the Red Serpent..."

Nokbara sighed with a bored expression.

"However, even if you're already severely injured, the two of you alone are no match for the Red Serpent..."

"Rather than saying he was seriously injured, it would be more accurate to say he was on the verge of death. No, actually saying he was already dead wouldn't be an exaggeration. The correct situation is that although he wasn't dead yet, he was practically as good as dead."

After quickly finishing his statement, Jaliel hurried away from the scene, while Nocbara, with an unconvinced expression, turned his attention to Rudyus.

"Are you also going to see your pet today?"

"Yes, Master Jalil's pet-finding skills are very advanced, so we made some money today as well."

"Oh~"

Rudius also wanted to get away as soon as possible, as he had a bad feeling about it.

However, Nokbara didn't give him that chance, unceremoniously putting his hand on his shoulder and lowering his voice to say, "So, how do you find pets outside of town?"

Upon hearing this, Yue Ren sighed slightly. Sure enough, he had been discovered.

Rudius instinctively stopped moving, but he managed to maintain a poker face.

"It's just because this pet happened to wander outside of town."

"Oh~ what about this side?"

I tried to hide it, but Nokbar grabbed Jalil's shoulder tightly.

"Is the Red-Eating Serpent also located in the town?"

Rudius was taken aback. So that's how it is. He had also seen Jalil and the others in town. In other words, they had been caught.

"Wow, such an unbelievable thing!"

"Hey, stop pretending now."

"Don't pretend, have we done anything?"

"What?"

"We asked 'P-Hunter' to help us with the requests and also assisted 'P-Hunter' in completing the tasks. That's all."

""

Rudy tried to argue, but Nokbara clearly wasn't going to give him the chance.

"What nonsense are you spouting? What if some idiot imitates your behavior?"

"What? What should we do?"

"If commissions become something that can be bought with money, then the Adventurers' Guild will lose its purpose!"

Rudy suddenly realized, "Oh, really? So it's classified as a buy-sell order? I see. This guy's pretty smart. Indeed, if this kind of practice becomes popular, there might be people buying and selling orders with money."

For example, accepting all D-rank commissions and then selling them to other D-rank adventurers.

The person who sells the commission can not only get money, but also be promoted, even though they haven't done anything.

However, if the goods don't sell, this approach will only lead to the failure of the commission.

"Why does Mr. Nokbara care about such things? We haven't bothered you, have we?"

"Is it really okay to adopt this attitude? You only have two paths left to take... Jalil, you listen to me carefully."

"Hehehe"

Because it was a horse, Rudeus couldn't tell what the horse-faced man's expression meant, but he could tell that he had a vulgar and tasteless smile on his face.

"If you want to keep your adventurer status, send me two iron coins every month."

I see, is that so? That's really efficient and decisive.

Since coming to this world, it seems that this is the first time he has encountered this kind of person. It is actually very easy to deal with guys who only show their evil side, because there is no need to worry about them.

That said, no wonder Nocbara always stays in the guild.

He stays here to monitor guys who might do something illegal, and then, as soon as he finds one, he threatens him like this.

What an easy deal! If we reported him, this guy would be finished... No, that would expose the whistleblower's own illegal activities as well.

This is an otherworldly version of double-crossing; I've learned something new.

"It looks like you guys made quite a bit of money, hehe, two iron coins are nothing, right?"

So, what should we do now?

Kill him? Or perhaps...

As Rudius pondered his next move, someone stepped past him from behind. He instinctively turned around and saw it was Brother Yue.

For no apparent reason, a sense of peace rose within me.

Ah, if only Brother Yue Ren were to step in...

He even began to feel some sympathy for the centaur demons before him.

"W-what? Don't get any ideas about killing people."

Upon seeing the Yue people, Nokbala stammered instinctively.

Although he had never witnessed the true strength of this young guy, the move he showed at the guild last time still made him somewhat wary.

So he quickly continued speaking.

"As soon as I die, my accomplices will report to the guild. And unlike you so-called C-ranks, I am a C-rank who can be promoted to B-rank."

Yue ignored his words and, just as he had done to Rudius, put his hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, just like you said, killing you would only make things worse. We've worked so hard to get to where we are today, and we don't want this kind of life to end like this."

"Hehehe, that's it."

""

"But I'm sorry, I don't intend to be held hostage like this, so I'm going to use the methods I'm good at to resolve this."

i」

"6

Nokbara was startled and wanted to say something, but for some reason, he suddenly felt unable to speak. "To silence someone forever, you don't necessarily need to kill them, do you?"