My Glasses

Chapter 185 – Glasses boy and the hunting festival – part seven

“Now, let the hunt… Begin!” One of the people working for Beckenberg exclaimed.

Together with his voice, the drums echoed even louder than before.

It was a pretty tasteful starting signal, and the heavy sound of the drums was a good way to push people forward.

Amidst the cheers of the drunken spectators who were watching our departure, more than 50 hunters who had gathered here set off all at once.

Those who were fast on their feet ran, while those who preferred to stick to their own pace no matter what decided to walk.

However, whether someone was panicking or calm, we were all heading towards the hunting grounds.

From now on, we’re going to be fighting Demon Beasts with our lives on the line.

As for me?

I ran, of course. First come, first served.

******

“Do you know about the Dragon Fish?” I asked Katsumi.

Old man Tatsunami was still processing the fang of the Obsidian Wolf at this time.

However, the knife’s handle was being made by his son, Katsumi.

I visited old man Tatsunami’s workshop in the craftsmen’ district, and we were deciding on the size and shape of the knife’s handle, as well as various possible patterns for it.

Oh, and since I came here in-between escorts for the brothel district, I was wearing a maid’s uniform.

And well, while old man Tatsunami figured out that I was a man right away, I wasn’t quite sure if Katsumi knew this much, so I decided to just act like a maid regardless of what he knew.

As for the knife’s patterns… They all seemed to be good choices.

It didn’t seem to matter which one I chose, because they all fit me perfectly.

This was probably because Tatsunami and Katsumi took note of my hands’ size in advance and noticed that they were a bit small when compared to the average man’s, so they made the handle while already thinking of that.

So yeah, any pattern seemed to be fine to me. If anything, I wanted one that had a bit of unevenness carved into it, so as to make it harder for the knife to slip from my fingers.

At the end of the day, I only knew about very basic designs, so everything that they were showing me looked pretty unique and cool.

“The Dragon Fish? Like, the Demon Beast?” Katsumi asked me.

I nodded to his question.

He seemed to be quite shocked at that, “Are you planning on hunting that during the festival?”

“Not necessarily, it’s just a possibility. I’m currently investigating the potential targets near Krozheit.” I replied.

“Oh, I see. That makes sense.

“But well, while I heard rumors of a Dragon Fish existing near this city, those rumors have existed since my father was young.

“I don’t know if you would be able to easily find a Demon Beast that nobody has found in decades.” Katsumi told me.

I would normally agree with his statement, but I found something that seemed to be a Dragon Fish based on the little that I knew of this Demon Beast.

My research told me that it was a dragon that had a large, white, snake-like, fish-like body. That said, it seemed to be mostly treated as a dragon.

That’s because despite the Dragon Fish having a shape that resembled a fish, it seemed to primarily have draconic characteristics, so it was classified as one.

On the other hand, its only fish-like characteristic was the fact that it was a purely aquatic Demon Beast that, at first glance, looked like a fish.

So, when people first saw it, they thought it was a dragon-like fish and named it like that.

But later research revealed that it truly was mostly a dragon.

Specifically, it seems like dragons are usually long-lived, enough to live hundreds of years; are highly territorial; are very intelligent; and spend most of their time sleeping and protecting their territory… And the Dragon Fish seems to fit all those characteristics.

Also, the most important aspect of dragons, is that they seem to be able to survive for very long while eating barely anything.

For example, let’s say that there was such a huge legendary dragon out there, that you just had to look up to see its whole body even from a distance.

If this kind of Demon Beast were to eat two to three meals a day like humans do, the world would have already been devoured.

While taking this kind of idea into account, some scholars decided to observe the behavior of dragons for many years, and found out that there were almost no traces of them eating or drinking anything.

After this was discovered, many theories were created to answer the question of, ‘How can they live without eating?’

The theory that seemed the most plausible to me was that they had a very strong Magic Core.

Magic Cores on Demon Beasts primarily improve their physical abilities, but it’s possible that dragons have such a tremendously strong Magic Core that it actually sustains them and stops their body from decaying as the years pass.

Though well, I don’t know what the actual truth is.

In any case, I ended up hearing about an old man who lived here in Krozheit and spent 20 years of his life searching for the rumored Dragon Fish.

He seemed to have retired from being a hunter already though, so he was now just an elderly man who regularly grumbled about his life.

What he told me was, “What have I even done in those twenty years?

“I was ridiculed by everyone around me, and I spent all my money in information about the Dragon Fish.

“I ignored my wife and daughter for that, and before I knew it, they had long since abandoned me.

“It was all for the Dragon Fish. All I did was for the Dragon Fish, and I thought I could get everything in my life back if I found it.

“But I couldn’t. I lost everything in those 20 years.” And he kept on saying stuff like that while crying.

It was so hard to watch that I had no choice but to increase the information fee and offer him some alcohol… I didn’t drink any of it myself though.

Still, this conversation sunk a deep truth into my heart… It made me realize how hard it truly was to live your life while chasing your dreams, hopes and ambitions.

That said, if the long red silhouette that I saw at the bottom of the lake was really a Dragon Fish, then maybe this old man who deeply regrets those 20 years of his life might be able to find some closure and get a better control of his drinking habits.

And well, while I was thinking of all that, Katsumi told me something interesting, “The Dragon Fish, huh?

“I think we still have an armor made of its scales at the store.”

I was surprised.

I didn’t have high expectations when I asked Katsumi about it, but it now seemed like it was possible for me to see a part of the Dragon Fish’s appearance?

“Dad! The Dragon Fish armor was still in the store, right!?” Katsumi asked.

It was early in the morning on the last time I came here, so the only people in the workshop were old man Tatsunami and Beckenberg.

Right now it was a more decent time though, so a number of craftsmen were working here, and thanks to the fire of their stoves, it was decently warm even if I was somewhat far from them.

As for old man Tatsunami, he was polishing the fang of the Obsidian Wolf that I had brought.

But when Katsumi called for him, he looked up towards us, “Of course it is! As if anybody could sell such a flashy and uselessly expensive thing!”

Old man Tatsunami yelled at us, but he didn’t seem to be particularly angry.

******

And like this, I was shown the Dragon Fish armor at old man Tatsunami’s store. This allowed me to see what its scales looked like firsthand.

So, if I compare its scales with the scales of the Demon Beast at the bottom of the lake, and find that they match, I’ll be able to confirm that this is truly a Dragon Fish.

And even if it’s not, there were no other rumors about an elongated aquatic Demon Beast, so this was surely a rare Demon Beast regardless.

And well, that was my goal. To hunt a rare Demon Beast by myself, while also being the first one to kill my prey in this competition.

If I can do that, then I will have a good chance of winning this, probably.

In any case, all hunters were together at the starting point, but shortly after we entered the hunting grounds, everyone scattered.

It was different for people who were hunting in a team, but a solo participant like me should have been able to quickly isolate myself from the others.

However… “For how long are you planning on following me?” I asked Zett.

“I’ll listen to you. Where should I go?” He asked in return.

I was kinda curious about how and why Zett had been following me so far, but… I did not expect him to ask me something like, ‘where should I go?’

“I guess you don’t hunt Demon Beasts often?” I asked him.

“Sometimes, but my friends are usually the ones in charge of finding them.” Zett replied.

Ah, that makes sense. He handles the fighting and they handle the tracking. It was a proper division of roles.

People often think that fighting is the most important part of a hunt, but the reality is that finding the prey, avoiding a surprise attack from the prey, and creating a situation where you can land a surprise attack on the prey are all equally important.

Moreover, obtaining information about your target and understanding how to apply said information was very important too.

In other words, being able to put yourself in an advantageous situation before the fight even begins is just as important as being a strong fighter.

But well, the flashy roles that fought enemies head-on were undoubtedly more popular.

“Over there.” I pointed towards a group of five people to the left, which had been near me until the halfway point in the west route, “Right before the hunt started, they said that they were planning on hunting a Vajra Ape.

“If you follow them, you should be able to find one, probably.”

“Oh, I see. What about you? Where are you going?” Zett asked me.

“We’re competing against each other right now, so please don’t ask me. I cannot answer.” I replied.

“Ah, got it. That makes sense.

“Then, I’m going that way.” As Zett said that, he went on the direction I pointed.

Huh…? That was… Nice. He let go of me more easily than I expected.

… He really does leave all the tracking to his friends, doesn’t he?

… It’s very easy to get lost in a forest when you’re an amateur on this kind of thing, but… Well, it’s Zett that we’re talking about, so he should be fine.

******

With all eyes near me gone, I set the Float gift, that I registered from Swallow back in the Assassins’ Village, to reduce my weight and increase my running speed.

Chace’s Fast Boots were actually a lot faster than Float, but it was a very hard to control Gift, and I had yet to get a satisfactory grasp on it.

Also, Fast Boots is primarily useful for short sprints, so it would be even harder to control it for a long-distance run.

Therefore, the stability of Float was preferred here.

Like this, I rushed into the forest and went straight to the place I had scouted in advance.

I found a few things that concerned me a bit while I was on my way there, but I decided to not worry about it and continued to run straight towards the lake.

When I arrived there, I saw that there were no people around me.

So, first things first, I looked at the calm bottom of the lake.

And, as expected, my prey was still here.

Or rather, it didn’t seem to have moved at all since I last saw it.

Alright then… Let’s get started.