Hunting Cards! Star Dragon

September is forging swords again.

Even though he was already in such a tight financial situation, Jiuyue never stopped forging swords for even a single day.

Even if you can't sell it at all, you have to persevere.

In September's words, hunting is just work, and sword forging is life.

"You're back, Xingjian."

September still has one bare arm and half exposed chest, holding a new knife. It is not difficult to see from her expression that she is very satisfied with this work.

"Look at this sword! I finally succeeded. I integrated the material of the Fire Blade Dragon into the katana!"

Maybe it was because last time, Liuli said that he could use the materials of the Blade Dragon to make an armed card with the skill [Tachi Mastery], which aroused Jiu Yue's desire to win.

Jiuyue also began to study how to put monster materials into sword forging to improve the quality of the sword.

The one in my hand now is the finished product at this stage.

The crimson mark on the hilt extends through the hilt and onto the lines on the blade.

The whole sword seemed to be burning.

"Add to that the scabbard made from the dragon's crown, perfect!"

"Do I need to waste materials to make a scabbard?"

In Xingjian's view, the scabbard is just a container for the sword. What material it is made of and what shape it has are not important at all and will not affect the combat.

"So, Xingjian, you still have a long way to go in your katana journey."

Jiu Yue gracefully returned the blade to its sheath. The crisp sound of a top-grade katana being sheathed was particularly pleasant to the ear.

"There's a technique in katana swordsmanship that uses the arc of the scabbard to launch a slash. I'll teach you tomorrow when I'm free."

"tomorrow……"

Thinking of Instructor Gaode, Xingjian told Jiuyue about his plan to go to the snow mountain tomorrow.

"Two weeks has been too long." Jiuyue also agreed with Xingjian's opinion.

"Although I think a muscle idiot like the instructor would be able to escape even if he encountered a silver dragon. Maybe he just got lost. But, we can go check it out tomorrow."

"Well, I hope so."

Besides, there are no silver dragons in the snow mountains.

Probably, it should be fine.

I hope I'm just overthinking it.

A dragon's five senses far surpass those of humans, and even its sixth sense, intuition, is extremely accurate most of the time.

Xingjian suddenly remembered the lines of Instructor Gaode who looked cool with a big sword on his back before parting.

("Someone has to carry the burden for everyone and keep the darkness out. We can't leave dangerous tasks to a bunch of inexperienced young people like you.")

As night fell, September was about to turn off the lights when there was a sudden, hurried knock on the door.

"September! See you Xing! Are you home?"

"Who is this voice?"

When the workshop door was opened, standing outside was the guild's image board girl Rina, who had run all the way in anxiously, breathing rapidly, with tears in the corners of her eyes.

"Instructor Gaode, he... he, he was killed!"

Chapter 23: This is not an easy world

Yunxue Village Hunter Guild——

For the first time, Xingjian felt an unprecedented heavy atmosphere lingering within the guild.

Card maker Liuli, the shrine maiden of Tsukiyo Shrine, the uncle from the butcher shop, Gin from the store... all the familiar and unfamiliar faces in the village have gathered in the Hunter's Guild.

And the center where everyone gathered...

"No way! You must be kidding!"

Jiu Yue's pupils suddenly contracted. The unacceptable fact was displayed before her eyes, and she didn't know how to react for a moment.

The body of Instructor Gao De.

After receiving Rina's notification, the two rushed to the guild immediately, while Rina continued to notify other villagers.

Along the way, no one explained the specific situation to Jiuyue and Xingjian, except for Rina's words "Instructor Gaode was killed."

What does it mean to be killed?

Jiu Yue could only try to think positively. Being attacked by monsters, injured, unconscious, even if he lost limbs, it was better than...

dead.

There was a big hole in Instructor Gaode's abdomen.

When a passing hunter found it in the snowy mountains, it was already dead.

Due to the extremely low temperature in the snowy mountains, the body was intact.

Apart from the hole in his abdomen, it even seemed like Instructor Gaode was just sleeping.

If I were really just sleeping, that would be fine.

Xingjian said nothing.

He and Instructor Gao De only met once.

Although I have a good impression of the instructor, my mood at the moment must be different from that of the villagers around me who live with Instructor Gao De day and night.

Rather than feeling sad, Xingjian wanted to know why Instructor Gaode was killed in the snowy mountains.

After all, the instructor went to the snowy mountains because of himself.

"Not good, it's the Shadow Claw Dark Dragon."

The chief priest of Tsukiyo Shrine gave his conclusion after carefully studying Instructor Gaode's wounds.

Upon hearing the monster's name, the expressions of everyone present changed noticeably, and a feeling of unease began to spread.

"Why would the Shadow Claw Dark Dragon appear in the snowy mountains?" one of the villagers questioned.

The chief priest said, "This can only be attributed to the abnormal migration of monsters in recent years."

Hunting level LV50, Shadow Claw Dark Dragon, brutal and bloodthirsty by nature, his hobby is to hunt other creatures even if he doesn't need to eat.

The Shadow Claw Dark Dragon is a monster that lives in volcanic areas and near underground mineral veins all year round. It can be said that it has nothing to do with the snowy mountain area.

The cross-region appearance can only be due to the abnormal migration of monsters.

I remember that on the day of the hunter test, Instructor Gaode warned Jiuyue and Xingjian.

With the frequent invasion of other species into the area, the death rate of hunters is now five times higher than it was three years ago.

In order to prevent new hunters from losing their lives, the difficulty of the test was specially increased.

That is not a lie, but an ironclad fact earned by the blood of countless hunters.

"If the Shadow Claw Dark Dragon appears near the snowy mountains, wouldn't the situation be extremely dangerous?"

There have been several recorded cases where the Shadow Claw Dark Dragon appeared near a small village, causing the entire village to be almost destroyed.

"Village chief, what should we do?"

The panicked villagers all looked at the old man in the crowd.

The old man, who is over sixty years old, still has an upright posture, and his strong muscles are faintly visible through his shirt.

This doesn't seem like the physique that an elderly person can have.

Faced with the villagers' questions, the old village chief frowned, and his gray eyebrows looked almost connected together.

The Shadow Claw Dark Dragon is an extremely dangerous monster.

The bloodthirsty and violent dark dragon will come down the mountain sooner or later because there are few species on the snowy mountain and its desire for killing cannot be satisfied.

What will be threatened at that time is the lives of many villagers.

This is also the reason why everyone panics.

"Let me think about it."

However, even Instructor Gaode, the strongest man in the Yunxue Village Hunter Guild, was defeated.

The village chief had no idea how to deal with the threat of the Shadow Claw Dark Dragon.

At this moment, the voice that Xingjian was most "afraid" of hearing came from behind him.

"father!"

It was Xiaoting's voice.

I don’t know what kind of mood Rina was in when she gave the notice, but in the end, she brought Xiaoting and her daughter.

"husband!"

Xiaoting's mother, the wife of Instructor Gao De, was born into an ordinary family of fishermen. She lived a life of honesty, doing neither much good nor evil.

In the end, the cruel fate of the world still did not let this ordinary family go.

"Ahhhhh, oo ...

Xiao Ting, who was chatting cheerfully with Xingjian during the day, was now lying on the body of Instructor Gaode, crying heart-wrenchingly.

What does this feel like?

Although not as strong as when Erica died, Xingjian still felt the unknown pain in his heart.

Is this what Erica was talking about, sadness?

No one tried to pull up Xiaoting and her daughter. Everyone knew that what they needed more than comfort was a good cry.

It's always a good thing to have a way to release your emotions.

Jiuyue always talks about the "current state of the world".

Two weeks of relaxed living and the optimism and friendliness among the villagers made Xingjian wonder: Is the world today, the human world, really as bad as Jiuyue said?

It was not until now that Xingjian truly understood what Jiuyue said.

This is not a world where every day is easy and happy as it appears on the surface.

In today's world, cruel things happen all the time. It's just that it hasn't happened to the people around you yet, including yourself.

In fact, human beings have always been moving forward in struggle.

While Xiaoting and her daughter were crying, the shrine priest moved closer to Xingjian and Jiuyue.

"You two, the village chief wants to see you. Let's go to the village chief's house now."

Only then did Xingjian realize that the village chief had quietly left the crowd at some point.

The village chief's house was not far from the guild. When Xingjian entered the house, he saw that on the wall of the living room facing the gate, there was a decoration that looked like a cannon, but only half of it.

In the reception room, besides the village chief and the invited guests Jiuyue and Xingjian, there were also the chief steward and the guild's image-maker Rina.

"Jiuyue, Xingjian, I'm not calling you here for anything else."

"Boss, I roughly know what you are going to say." Jiu Yue had already guessed the answer.

Jiuyue made an unintentional joke before Instructor Gaode left.

("If you die, I will be the strongest hunter in the guild.")

It was just an unintentional joke by Jiu Yue at that time, but the current situation has made it a reality.

September's mood was extremely complicated.

"I'm going to entrust you two with the task of defeating the Shadow Claw Dark Dragon."

The village chief had heard from Rina that Jiuyue and Xingjian had successfully teamed up to defeat the Fire Blade Dragon, whose hunting level was approaching level 30.

Although compared to the Fire Blade Dragon, the Shadow Claw Dark Dragon with a hunting level of 50 is several times more dangerous.

But today's Yunxue Village can no longer produce any more combat power.