Chapter 79: Chapter 68- A Hunter Hunted

[Luna POV]

We spent a few more days stopping at and going around the fifth floor so I could make sure I was better.  In those days I gained a new title and a new disdain for dismantling traps.  The title was Trap Master: Dismantling and it made dismantling traps as simple as snapping my fingers.

 

I also learned in a weird dream that the reason that there were so many traps on the fifth floor was because Grey moved most of them up from lower floors.  I considered going over and scolding him for a bit, but when I got that title, I decided that it did more good than harm.  Today we decided that we were going to hunt the hunter on floors 10-15.

 

The three of us metaphorically blasted through every floor until the tenth.

 

“I have to say Luna, that new title made getting here feel too easy.” (Velvet)

 

“Well, it was always going to be easy getting here.  Nothing on the floors we’ve been to so far is remotely dangerous for any of us to go against.  Especially since most of the traps were moved onto the fifth floor.  If anything, I’m a bit disappointed, how am I supposed to increase my level if everything we kill gives me pretty much no experience?” (Luna)

 

“Like I said when we got here, we won’t have much trouble until floor 30.  After that, we’ll face big things like basilisks and such.” (Nia)

 

“Another thing I’ll be able to take out easily then.” (Luna)

 

“Oh right, petrification won’t work on you, will it.” (Nia)

 

“I have a question Luna.” (Velvet)

 

“What’s up?” (Luna)

 

“Have you ever tried poison before?  Like drinking some just to taste it?” (Velvet)

 

“No.  Why would I do that?” (Luna)

 

“It just seems like something you would do.” (Velvet)

 

“I hate how I can’t actually deny that.” (Luna)

 

“This is fun.  It’s been a while since I’ve had a break from the knights like this.” (Nia)

 

“I don’t think I ever asked, but what’s it like leading a company of knights, Nia?” (Luna)

 

“I’d assume you would know since your father does the same.” (Nia)

 

“The only thing I’ve ever really seen him do is train with them.  If he ever had any other work to do with that, he probably pushed it off onto someone else.” (Luna)

 

“I see.  I would love to just train with the knights, that sounds a lot better than doing paperwork and going over requests to handle small things that can be left to other people without our intervention.” (Nia)

 

“Do you ever get in contact with this country’s vampire clan?” (Velvet)

 

“That’s more in Drome’s dealings than mine.  I have worked with them before, but not much.” (Nia)

 

“What is the name of this clan, Velvet?” (Luna)

 

“It’s Báthory, and they are currently being led by a vampire by the name of Elizabeth.” (Velvet)

 

“I hope she isn’t like the one I’ve read about in my past life.” (Luna)

 

“Do I even want to know?” (Velvet)

 

“You want folklore or more realistic?” (Luna)

 

“Both?” (Velvet)

 

“Realistic: A noblewoman who enjoyed torturing women.  Folklore: A noblewoman who bathed in the blood of virgins in order to maintain her youth.” (Luna)

 

“First: that’s horrible.  Second: the one I know is nothing like that, she like singing and performing for others.” (Velvet)

 

“I’ve heard that before.  The queen really enjoys her performances.” (Nia)

 

“Guess I should try and see one of these performances one day.” (Luna)

 

We finally finished walking down the stairs of the tenth floor and found more cave.  I did what I have been on every floor and used space magic to map it.

 

“Oh.  I didn’t expect this floor to be a labyrinth, not that we’ll have trouble navigating it.” (Luna)

 

“Just remember that we need to go a bit slower since we’re hunting for someone this time.” (Nia)

 

“What are we going to do to catch them?” (Velvet)

 

“I want to try and trap them in an illusion and then slap the manacles on them.” (Luna)

 

“What are you going to show them?” (Nia)

 

“Not sure yet.  I’ll figure it out when we find them.” (Luna)

 

We started making our way through the labyrinth while searching for our target.  We ran into a few monsters here and there, but they were dealt with by my ice magic, Velvet’s dark magic, or Nia’s water magic.  The most exciting thing we found was a treasure chest that had some potions in it.

 

“Seems like they’re not on this floor then.” (Nia)

 

“This labyrinth was kind of boring.  We didn’t even run into a minotaur.” (Luna)

 

“Why would we, minotaurs are peaceful people that are mostly lumberjacks and enjoy woodworking.” (Nia)

 

“It’s probably another thing from her previous life.” (Velvet)

 

“Got it in one, Velvet.  I won’t bore you with the details though.” (Luna)

 

Since we didn’t find anything suspicious on the tenth floor, we decided to move onto the next one.

 

{How’s it going, Luna?}

 

‘Good.  Where have you been?’

 

{Just a meeting with the God of Creation.  He treats me like a granddaughter and finally found time to come and see me.  He also told me that he’s looking forward to meeting you on the night of the new year.}

 

‘Come to think of it, I’ve never met my grandparents in this life.’

 

{Unfortunately, they aren’t around anymore.}

 

‘I guessed as much, though I wish that mom and dad would tell me about them a bit.’

 

{Why don’t you ask them in your next letter?}

 

‘I think I will.  By the way, do you know if dad went home yet?’

 

{I don’t. Why?}

 

‘Well, last I saw him, he seemed a bit nervous about something, but I didn’t get the chance to ask him about it.’

 

{Oh.  I don’t think it’s anything for you to worry about.}

 

‘If you say so.’

 

As I was having this conversation with Tamamo, we made it onto floor 11.  When we stepped off the stairs, we ran into another party.  They seemed a bit distressed, so Nia went over to talk to them.

 

“Hey, are you guys ok?”

 

“Not really, no.  We just got away from this random guy that attacked us out of nowhere.  He got one of my friends pretty good and we don’t have enough potions to help him.”

 

“We just found some if you want them, we don’t have any need for them.”

 

“Really!?  Thank you!”

 

“Hey Luna.  Hand those potions we just found to these people; they are in dire need of them.”

 

I took out the potions from my inventory through a bag on my waist and handed them over.  The person who was talking with Nia took them and ran back over to his comrades and handed them to the person who was injured.  While watching this, I noticed that something was off.

 

I walked closer to them and inspected the wound on the injured person.  It was a long cut that went down his back that looked like it was made by a sword.  It wasn’t bleeding anymore, but the edges of the wound were a worrying black color.

 

“Can all of you move over a bit, I think your friend was cut with a cursed sword.”

 

“What do you mean?” The leader asked, worry crossing over his face again.

 

“The edges of his wound show signs of a curse.  If you want it to be taken care of, move.”

 

The injured man’s party moved out of my way, and I used healing magic to get rid of the curse.  When I did that, a shadowy thing came out of the wound and attacked me.  I conjured a purification fox fire and burned the thing.  I looked back at the injured man’s wound and the curse was gone.

 

“It’s fine now, but you should give him the potions as fast as possible.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

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“Don’t mention it.” I said as I walked back to Nia and Velvet.

 

“Why not just heal him with your magic?” (Velvet)

 

“Because they were suspicious.  I think one of them is the person we’re looking for.” (Luna)

 

“So, you felt something else off as well?” (Nia)

 

“Yeah.  The two worrying about the injured guy were genuine, but the other one less so.” (Luna)

 

“How do you want to handle this then?” (Velvet)

 

“We act like we’re exploring this floor for a bit, then start heading back.  If he is the one we’re looking for, he’ll probably attack after we ‘tire’ ourselves out on this floor.” (Luna)

 

“He might use those two with the injured guy to distract us then try and attack us when our guard is down.” (Nia)

 

We spent three hours mindlessly roaming around floor 11 killing trash monsters and looking for loot, of which we found none.  We started to head back to the stairs when one of the people we ran into before blocked our path.  He was a scrawny guy that had a normal sword in his hands.  He was pointing it our way trying to be threatening and failing to be since he was shaking and there were tears running down his face.

 

“P-ppp-pppplease stop and drop all of yyyyyy-yyyour weapons.  I don’t want to hurt any of you, bbbbb-bbbbbbbut he’ll kill my sister and our teacher if I don’t do this.”

 

I glanced over to Nia and she nodded her head.  She made full use of her stats and ran straight towards the scrawny guy and punching him in the stomach, knocking him out.

 

“Velvet, you and Nia take that guy and look for the other two.  I’ll handle the guy currently trying to sneak up on me.”

 

“Got it.”

 

Velvet went over to Nia, and they moved away with the other guy.  I turned around and the hunter walked out of the shadow of the corridor.

 

“Guess I really misread the three of you.  You’re not as naïve as I thought.”

 

I didn’t even grace the mongrel with a response and casted my illusion magic.

 

[Hunter’s POV]

Just before I jumped to attack the cute little kitsune in front of me, her eyes shone for a second and my vision went black.  When my sight returned, I found myself in an endless plane.  The sky above my head was dark and filled with things that looked like gems, it was honestly one of the most beautiful sights I’ve seen.

 

“I don’t know what the hell is going on, but this is a nice view.”

 

I heard something moving around behind me and saw a little thing running towards me.  It was small and looked extremely fluffy.  When it got close, it jumped into the air and slammed into my chest.  When it did that, I fell onto my back and couldn’t move anymore.

 

“Get off of me!”

 

Instead of doing what I said, it just sat on my chest.  I heard more things running around and eventually saw more of the fluffy things coming towards me.  They started to sit or lay down on me.  I would be more scared if they weren’t so damn soft.  After a while of getting used to the heavenly softness, I could feel something off.

 

It was getting harder for me to breathe, and I felt like the things sitting on me were getting heavier.  More and more of the things started to pile onto me until the weight was becoming unbearable. I tried to move, but I couldn’t.  I started to panic as the fluffiness started to get oppressive and the weight increased.  All I could do was lay there and stair up at the sky while I was crushed.

 

After a while I couldn’t tell if the feeling in my body was gone or if the fuzziness was of the things crushing me.  I started to hear my bones creak and groan under the weight when I heard a rumbling noise.  As it got closer, I could tell it was the sound of thousands of feet running in my direction.

 

I moved my eyes to try and see what was coming and saw what I could only call a wave of the same creatures that were currently crushing me to death.  The wave started to crest, and I could only hope that when it crashed into me, it would put me out of my misery.  When it finally hit me, my vision went dark again.

 

I regained consciousness again laying on a couch.  I still couldn’t move my body, but I realized that I was unhurt.

 

“Hey, you, you’re finally awake.  You were trying to hunt adventurers in a dungeon, right?  Walked right into that kitsune’s illusion.”

 

“Where am I?  Am I still alive?  Who the hell are you?”

 

“Before I answer, take a look at this.”

 

I saw whoever was talking to me toss something in my direction.  At first I didn’t know what it was, but when it landed on my chest and I got a good look at it, I started to scream.

 

“NO!  NOT AGAIN, GET IT AWAY FROM ME!”

 

“Luna really did a number on you didn’t she?  What did she show you?”

 

“Thousands of these fluffy things that stopped my movements then slowly crushed me by increasing their weight.  Were you the one who saved me from that?”

 

“Saved you? Ha! What have you done that makes you think you deserve being saved?  I’ll have you know that I don’t take kindly to people that hunt my adventurers.”

 

I could feel an intimidating aura spreading across the room that completely overtook the fear I felt earlier.

 

“It’s time for you to receive your punishment for hunting, injuring, and killing adventurers.  I, the grand master of the adventurer’s guild, shall mete out your punishment personally.  If you have any last words, keep them to yourself.”

 

After those words were spoken, the unnamed hunter lost consciousness for the final time.

 

[Luna POV]

After trapping the hunter in a gen- I mean illusion, I slapped the manacles onto his wrists, and he was instantly transported away. I turned around and walked in the direction that Velvet and Nia went.  It didn’t take long for me to catch up since it only took me a minute or two to take care of the hunter.

 

“Already done, Luna?” (Velvet)

 

“Yeah.  I’m not going to waste my time with a small fry like that.” (Luna)

 

“Think you can wake this guy up so he can lead us to his friends?” (Nia)

 

I pulled something out of my inventory and waved it under his nose.  His face scrunched up in disgust and he woke up.

 

“Gah!  What is that!?”

 

“Goblin clothes.” (Luna)

 

“Why would you carry something like that, Luna?  You’re the one always complaining about how horrible goblins smell.” (Velvet)

 

“Because you never know when you need something like this.  What I just did is a perfect example.” (Luna)

 

“““…”””

 

{Luna, that sounds just like Grey’s favorite saying.}

 

‘Well, it’s true.’

 

“Anyway, tell us where that guy was keeping your party and we’ll help you get out of here.” (Nia)

 

“They’re just up ahead.  When the three of you left earlier, he immediately cut my teacher again to keep him down.”

 

“Then we need to hurry and treat that guy.  Was he cut with the same weapon as the first time?” (Luna)

 

“Yes.”

 

“Then get us there now if you want him to survive.” (Luna)

 

Scrawny guy didn’t reply and started to run.  We followed behind him and after a few minutes of running we found the people we were looking for.  The girl was sobbing and hugging the big guy who had another cut in his back.

 

“Brother!”

 

I walked over to them and asked the girl to move away so I could get to work.  The wound this time was way worse than last time.  I immediately got rid of the curse and purified the thing that popped out.  Then I casted a medium heal on him, and the wound was gone.  His previous heavy breathing calmed down and his face relaxed.

 

“He’s fine now. Just needs a good rest.  Nia, Velvet, do you mind shouldering him for a while?” (Luna)

 

“Hand him over.  You two, after a few floors, it’ll be your turn to carry him.” (Nia)

 

“Thank you for helping us.” Said the girl, tears still flowing down her face.

 

“”What about the guy that did this?  What happened to him?” Scrawny said with anger.

 

“He’s been taken care of.” (Luna)

 

“Ok.”

 

We all started to make our way back to the surface.  It was a slow journey, but we eventually made it back.  Once we were out, night had already fallen, and the moon greeted us.

 

‘As lovely as always.’

 

{Why thank you.}

 

We brought the three people that were with us to their inn, then went to report to the guild branch about taking care of the hunter.  Once that was done we headed to our inn and went to bed.

 

Author's Note:
Atmos: How ruthless you are, Luna.

Luna: Anyone like that deserves nothing less.

I agree, the only good bandit or bandit-like person is a dead one.

Luna: Exactly, the only exception to that is if they are someone like Robin Hood.

Atmos: I think that is called a chivalrous thief, not a bandit.

Atmos is correct.

Luna: Then no mercy to bandits.

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