Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 115

Hunting a behemoth isn’t simply a matter of who is stronger.

Since they can distort reality itself beyond logic and natural law, sometimes direct confrontation is impossible.

Conversely, if you know their weakness, you might be able to defeat them too easily.

The more you know about a behemoth’s characteristics, habits, weaknesses, and everything else, the better.

But who gathers this information?

Who will bell the cat?

“Wait, you…!”

Latina tried to speak but Crowty stopped her.

On the field, there should be no appearance of higher-ranked hunters showing favoritism to specific lower-ranked hunters.

“Very well. 8th-rank hunter Eugene. Take a team of 9th-rank hunters with you.”

This combination of one 8th-rank hunter as leader with six 9th-rank hunters as team members is the foundation of everything.

That’s how it was in the game, and that’s how it is in reality too.

But… I’m a bit nervous.

Though it’s always been life-risking work from the start, I’m finally leading team members as an 8th-rank hunter.

“Team 7, step forward.”

At Crowty’s order, six lower-ranked hunters who had been standing guard first stepped forward.

Among them was that young hunter who had tried to shoot at Pinocchio earlier.

“From now on, Team 7 will be under 8th-rank hunter Eugene’s command. Your mission is to gather information about that behemoth.”

“B-but…”

“Us…?”

The 9th-rank hunters were bewildered by the sudden situation.

“Didn’t you hear the commander?! We’re the vanguard!”

I turned my back to them and shouted.

The fear and tension blooming on their faces was clearly visible.

They all looked young and inexperienced.

I understand exactly how they must be feeling.

But orders are orders.

We are lower-ranked hunters, and we each have our duties.

My duty is to take them and gather information about the behemoth… probably Pinocchio.

“Follow me!”

I deliberately pushed roughly through the team members and moved forward.

I could hear them following behind me.

Rather than having found courage, they probably just gave up trying to understand the situation and resigned themselves to it since there was someone taking the lead and they had received orders.

It’s hard to find people who can bravely step forward when suddenly told to be prepared for death.

I don’t have any courage either.

Just that my duty as a hunter takes precedence over my own life.

“…”

We stood before what used to be the entrance to the Development Department.

The door was wide open.

But what lay beyond wasn’t the familiar Development Department we knew, but the inside of the behemoth’s body.

Even now, Pinocchio remained motionless up there.

No…

“…!”

For just a brief moment, I felt like our eyes met.

But I can’t be shaken.

If I show fear or confusion, the team members behind me will feel the same fear and confusion.

“We’re going in.”

“A-are we really going in?”

A frightened voice came from behind.

Though they had resigned themselves to the situation and followed, their fear hadn’t disappeared.

“Yes. I’ll take point.”

So they need someone to dispel that fear.

Someone who will voluntarily face danger first.

A few months ago, when my team was wiped out and barely saved by Sephira, the first to die at the front was the team leader, an 8th-rank hunter.

He had been a hunter longer than me and, like me, knew the old glory and honor, and the duties assigned to him.

And now it’s my turn.

Just like that team leader, and just like my seniors, I too am an 8th-rank hunter.

I have my duty.

“Let’s go.”

Without looking back, I took point and walked toward the door connected to the monster.

Hilde’s face flashed through my mind for a moment.

If I die, who will help that kid.

…No, she’ll do fine without me anyway.

The problem was that I didn’t properly die in that tutorial in the first place.

So this makes it right.

If I die, that will help Hilde in its own way.

Because protagonists awaken when their love interests die.

The moment we entered, the door slammed shut behind us with a Bang!

“Eek?!”

The team members were shaken again.

“Get it together.”

I didn’t stop walking.

“Who’s the most senior in Team 7?”

“I-I am.”

A man with a relatively calm voice despite stuttering slightly raised his hand.

“If I die or something happens to me, you need to take the others and escape in my place.”

“B-but the door just…”

“Do you have any white phosphorus rounds?”

“No, sir.”

I took out a white phosphorus round from my pocket and passed it back over my shoulder.

“Just pull the pin and throw it. The explosive power isn’t strong, but it should be enough to open the door.”

“Th-thank you.”

“I’ll say it again, if something happens to me, take the others and run immediately.”

“Wh-what about you, team leader?”

“Don’t worry about me, just think about getting yourselves back alive.”

I raised the rifle from my back and aimed ahead.

“Prepare to intercept.”

“Y-yes!”

At least they follow attack orders properly.

Soon after, the Beast I had detected emerged from around the corner.

Its form was similar to a regular Beast, but its body was made of brass-colored metal.

I felt relief for the first time.

Because something I knew had appeared.

Among all the Blue Paper Moon routes and stories I know, there was no raid or accident like this.

Of course there were routes where the Order headquarters suffered large-scale attacks or even got occupied, but those were by other witches, not Pinocchio.

Originally Pinocchio was just a bodyguard Zepetia created to protect herself when she completely fell to corruption, not a being that could swallow an entire building like this.

So even I with my past life knowledge was shocked when that bodyguard suddenly became a behemoth-class monster and appeared in the middle of the Order causing havoc.

The danger I thought of from the omen of Hera’s absence was of course that Zepetia had been acting strange lately, but I expected something like an experimental explosion accident, not this.

“Wait.”

Let’s focus on the enemy right in front of us for now.

What appeared now looked exactly like the ‘Mechanical Beast’, a mob-tier artificial Beast created by the corrupted Zepetia in Blue Paper Moon.

Having a metal body gave it considerable resistance to physical attacks, and since it appeared quite late in the game, it had decent durability and strength even as a mob.

Its weakness was electric attacks but… unfortunately I don’t have anything like that.

“Aim for its mouth.”

“What?”

At that moment the Mechanical Beast opened its mouth wide and charged at us.

The heavy footsteps from its metal body were especially loud.

The Mechanical Beast’s characteristic was charging with its mouth wide open.

In the game this biting attack had grab properties so defense was useless – you had to either dodge or kill it from range.

Especially when it opened its mouth while approaching, attacking inside its mouth would stagger it regardless of damage.

“Fire!”

At my command, six gun barrels blazed simultaneously.

I saw two of those silver bullets deflect off its body, but the other four properly entered its mouth.

“Keeeeek?!”

The Mechanical Beast stumbled and fell forward heavily while charging.

In the game it would just stop and stagger in place, but of course not everything could be exactly the same.

I took out my silver hand axe and threw it at the fallen Beast.

The axe embedded precisely in its head and the Mechanical Beast’s false life seemed to vanish as it stopped moving completely.

“Who’s the most junior?”

That young hunter raised his hand at my question.

“Take this.”

I pulled out the hand axe and cut off the Mechanical Beast’s hand, passing it to him.

“Hold onto this and show it to Sir Crowty later.”

“Y-yes.”

We pressed forward again.

The path through the Development Department remained the same but more and more Mechanical Beasts appeared.

Of course they all opened their mouths and tried to bite so we could stop them with coordinated fire, but as their numbers increased we couldn’t handle them all at once.

And while dealing with four Mechanical Beasts simultaneously, a new enemy appeared.

“…Ugh!”

I used magical power for Acceleration and shot at the steel bug-like thing crawling toward us on the floor.

It was about the size of a small cat and looked like a ladybug, but its body was also metal and most notably it had a large red orb-like thing embedded in its back.

Mixed in among the Mechanical Beasts it wasn’t very visible, but it was definitely an exploding bug.

Fortunately I dealt with the exploding bug, but perhaps because I couldn’t pay attention to the Mechanical Beasts, one charged through without getting shot.

The one directly in its path was this team’s youngest member.

Dozens of steel teeth sharper and bigger than fingers in that wide open mouth were approaching, but the youngest and all the other hunters were already reloading after firing.

“Ah…!”

The youngest dropped the silver bullet he was loading.

I quickly put down my rifle and drew my pistol from my pocket to shoot.

The Mechanical Beast collapsed but its heavy metal mass rolled toward us from the momentum of its charge.

I grabbed the frozen youngest member’s arm and pulled him away.

The Mechanical Beast’s body rolled quickly past where he had been standing.

“Ah, that…”

“Stay sharp.”

I lightly grabbed his collar and shook him.

“Y-yes. Th-thank you…”

“…And everyone, watch out for these.”

I said while tapping the exploding bug I had shot first with my gun.

“This was mixed in with the Mechanical Beasts earlier. What these do is obvious. They’ll explode if they get close.”

After pushing it to the wall with a tap, I shot it again and the exploding bug detonated with a tremendous noise.

If I hadn’t dealt with it first in that recent fight, at least two of us would have been hit.

It’s similar to the Drowned Ones controlled by the Deep Sea Folk, but much smaller and trickier.

“Um…”

The most senior team member spoke cautiously.

“Shouldn’t we head back now? We found out those strange Beasts are coming from here…”

“What about the people?”

“What?”

“Where are all the people who originally worked in the Development Department?”

“But the Beasts keep increasing…”

“Our mission is to gather information and going back like this won’t help at all. We keep going deeper.”

“Yes…”

I continued leading the 9th-rank hunters deeper into Pinocchio.

Not just the number of Mechanical Beasts, but exploding bugs kept approaching endlessly.

Fortunately the 9th-rank hunters were getting used to the repeated battles, but since all the enemies had to be dealt with at range, we were running low on silver bullets.

“We don’t have many bullets left.”

The most senior team member said.

The others looked similar.

“Tch…”

I’m not that well-stocked either.

But fighting will be difficult without silver bullets.

“Can’t be helped… We’ll return to resupply.”

The team members’ faces lit up at the word return.

“Then… ah.”

And when we looked back to return, we all froze.

A Beast of an entirely different dimension in terms of size and grotesqueness was blocking our path back.