Strange Grief Wants to Retire ~ The Weakest Hunter Dreams of a Hero ~

rea.
It wouldn’t take long.

Deep in the forest, the direction the slime came in could be seen.
There was enough light provided by the floating magic sources, but the quiet forest enveloped in darkness instilled indescribable fear.

It would be better if they hurried.
All of a sudden following his instincts, Sven stood up.

§

Advancing through the forest.
The pseudo-slime had the nature to indiscriminately destroy anything it touched.
The viscous body had been made from Mana Material and there was nothing like a trail of mucous left over.
But it wasn’t difficult to track by following the various trees that had split open or fallen on the ground.

Sven’s group consisted of Iron Cross, Gark carrying his halberd, the two examiners, and the brown haired hunter that had lost his arms and his party.
The other parties had spread out, checking whether there were additional slimes in the area.

The brown haired hunter steadily gazed at Sven as he moved at a quick pace.
Sven cleared away the thickets with his short sword as he spoke.

“The manifestation of 『Prism Garden』 was hell.
This wasn’t much compared to that.”

“…compared to this, huh.”

He gave a small nod without speaking.

The 『Cherry Blossom Viewing Incident』 was a topic still passed down within the clan, as it was an opportunity to rewrite the commonsense of hunters of Footprints.
While carefully following the tracks, he continued.

“The opponent this time… was a phantom, but the opponent back then, was the 『environment』.”

『Prism Garden』 (Kanji: Chalk Garden) was the name of a beautiful shrine with countless flowers blooming in profusion.
However, it’s true nature was a hell incomparable to the likes of the White Wolves Den.
Even now, Sven sometimes dreamed of it.

“It was pollen.
It had a sleeping effect.
A few seconds after the shrine appeared, half the members of Footprints fainted.”

Originally the location was a field of flowers.
Suddenly altered by Mana Material, petals and pollen soared from a sea of blooming flowers.
Like it’s name it had a chalky texture, and it held the property of inducing severe drowsiness in those that inhaled or touched it.
Powerful enough to make a hunter with a honed mind faint in seconds.

There were several shrines that were even further apart from the standard classifications.
Among them, 『Prism Garden』 had an environment that was a high hurdle for hunters on it’s own, and was categorised as an 『Environment type』 shrine.

“It seems that the changes in the Earth Veins were quite large.
The surrounding area transformed quickly.
People fainted before being able to understand what was happening.
Besides drowsiness, there was also paralysis and poison.
And of course – there were carnivorous plants and beasts adapted to the environment as phantoms.
『Prism Garden』 is like a trap where the whole shrine is lying in wait for hunters.”

’

“…You managed to survive.”

“I was lucky.”

At the time of it’s manifestation, 『Prism Garden』 only had a small amount of Mana Material accumulated, and the degree of difficulty was lower compared to now.
And yet for Sven who was mid-rank at the time, it was a hopeless opponent.

If just Sven and his party were there, they would have already been nutrients for the plants by now.
Once you entered, you could never return.
That shrine was a prison.

He would never forget the ones that broke through the situation, the members of 『Strange Grief』.
Without speaking, they moved smoothly as if they had known everything beforehand.

Not really in a state of comprehension, just as Sven was getting hazy, Liz stabbed herself in the waist with her knife.
Luke bit through his tongue, and Lucia broke her little finger.
Everything was to shake off the drowsiness with pain.

The first thing they did was to put on their symbol, the 『mask』.

Wind to blow away the pollen.
Fire to burn down the flowers.
Fragments of dazzling flames danced like petals.
Moving calmly within the burning red, the form of the 『smiling skeletons』 was still intensely seared into the minds of the hunters of Footprints.

There shouldn’t have been much time to make a decision.
Now the members of 『Strange Grief』 held second names that were well known, but at the time they weren’t much different to Sven and the others.
There was little difference in level, and their physical abilities were about the same.

At that time, Sven didn’t understand how they made the usually unthinkable decision to self harm in that abrupt abnormal situation.

Now he knew.
Their experiences were night and day to each other.
Iron Cross had spent more time as hunters, but Strange Grief had been through scenes of carnage an unusual number of times.

Among hunters, the powerful were given respect.
Ever since then, there was no one within the clan that would openly speak badly of them.

Because 『Strange Grief』 were so severe they didn’t have a good reputation, but they had a portion of wildly enthusiastic fans.

Sven also still held some fear towards those eccentric figures.
It wasn’t that their abilities were high.
They were simply superhuman.
He was thankful to have the good fortune to be in the same clan as them.

However, he wasn’t content to remain in the same position.
Sven also held pride as a hunter.
It was probably precisely because many others also thought like this, that there were still many members in Footprints.

Following the tracks, Sven and the others reached an open area.
The traces of sudden violence didn’t continue on from there.

Of the two examiners, the younger one with brown hair timidly peeked around the surroundings.

“Is this where it manifested…?”

“No, this is outside the Shrine.
It’s not likely it could appear here.”

The other examiner refuted him immediately.
Gark was checking on the broken trees.
How they were twisted and smashed resembled the tracks of the pseudo-slime.

Phantoms tended to be stronger deep within shrines where it was thick with Mana Material.
But when concerning tendencies, it was strange for such an odd phantom to appear at all.

The first thing necessary was to cast away common sense.
And then only put together what was fact.
If it really did manifest here, they had no choice but to accept it.

As Sven brooded, Gark groaned sounding half shocked and half impressed.

“…That Cry, how does he predict these things time and time again? Even though he came straight to the shrine.”

’

“Predictions, predictions, huh…”

Cry Andoric was a genius.
He wasn’t a god, but a person that made moves like a god.
This time as well, he had guided Gark here as a trump card against the pseudo-slime.
Even for Sven who had a long relationship with him, he didn’t know the truth behind Cry’s foreknowledge.

However, there should have been some meaning in the amount of people sent.
Cry hated pointless waste.
The lineup hadn’t simply been for defeating the slime.

At that moment, timid of his surroundings, Henrik called out.

“Sven-san, there’s, there’s something here.”

“Hm? What is it…?”

He handed across a large piece of metal.
It had a curved shape.
It wasn’t very old, without any rust it gave a dull shine.
It was solid enough to be used as armour, but it was destroyed as if it was twisted in half.

The other members also handed over pieces of metal newly discovered.
They seemed to be scattered across the vicinity.
Some of them were thick chains.
Looking at the collected pieces of metal, Gark’s expression became severe in the blink of an eye.

They were simple shapes.
They arranged them to match in the way they were destroyed.

“Oi oi, this is – “

“…handcuffs and… a collar?

The completed shapes were five solid rings.
Huge handcuffs, shackles, and a collar.
There were some fragments missing, but there was no doubt.

The size clearly wasn’t for restraining a human.

The expressions of the two examiners had changed.
The earlier fatigue was forgotten as they touched the different parts.
Sensing the feeling of dread, Sven held his tongue.
The two whispered as if to hide their voices.

“It can’t be… shackles and handcuffs? A phantom could be restrained with these but-“

“…This is crazy.
I thought it was an unknown phantom but -“

“It needs to be reported right?”

“Obviously.
It’s one of the ten sins!? It would be a crime to conceal it.
Damn it, Infinite Variety, such an absurd thing is-“

Grave voices.
They couldn’t stay calm concerning a crime.
The two who seemed to know something, had understood this was more of an emergency than they thought.

The ten sins were the most serious crimes under Zebrudia law.
Equal to crimes such as rebelling against the Emperor, or attempting to overthrow the country.
It wasn’t something you would hear about any other day.

In relation to Treasure Hunters the 『Sin of Liberation』 was the most famous, involving freeing transcendent beings that were sealed deep within shrines.
But that likely wasn’t the case here.
To put a transcendent existence into words, it was 『a being as close to a God as possible』.
As one would think, that didn’t apply to the pseudo-slime.
And if something was released, there would be no way Infinite Variety wouldn’t come.

Eventually the older examiner raised his head.
He didn’t give a detailed explanation, but he talked to Gark quickly.

“Branch chief, the circumstances have changed.
There is a possibility someone released that Phantom, it needs to be reported immediately.”

At that moment, the sharp sound of a whistle interrupted their words.

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