Book 03, Mountain Range of Magical Beasts Read online

  “Nooo-!”

  Matt immediately tried to retreat at high speed, while also jerking his head away.

  “Crunch!”

  The little Shadowmouse’s speed was far faster than Matt had imagined. How could Matt dodge? The little Shadowmouse reached out with his right paw, waving his sharp, knife-like talons at Matt’s head. With but a single swipe, half of Matt’s neck was removed from his body, and blood spurted out wildly.

  “Urk… gurgle… ” Clasping a hand to what remained of his neck, Matt’s eyes were as wide as an ox. His disbelieving, terrified eyes were fixed upon the little Shadowmouse, and in his heart, he was utterly shocked. “Shadowmouse? Is this a Shadowmouse?”

  As he fell into death and as his consciousness dissipated, Matt was still filled with terror and disbelief. He had prepared so long to make this move, but he hadn’t figured the little Shadowmouse into his plans.

  A dark-colored Shadowmouse was the weakest level of Shadowmouse.

  But at the moment of his death, Matt finally realized that the adorable little Shadowmouse was actually a terrifying monster.

  “Thud!”

  Matt’s hands fell lifelessly from his throat to his sides, and then he himself collapsed as well. His fresh blood stained his clothes and stained the ground.

  *

  Book 3, Mountain Range of Magical Beasts – Chapter 17, Bebe’s Prowess (part 1)

  Standing in front of Matt’s corpse, Linley couldn’t help but heave a sigh. At the same time, he couldn’t help but rub the scar on his chest.

  The scar here was one which had almost taken his life.

  “Compared to Nina [Ni’na], you are far too inferior.” Linley shook his head and sighed. This Matt actually didn’t have much of a friendship with him, and they were nothing more than temporary travel companions who met on the road. There was no way Linley would place too much trust in him.

  What’s more…

  After having experienced Nina, how could Linley so casually present his back to others?

  “Squeak squeak!” The little Shadowmouse, Bebe, came over carrying the backpack which was on Matt’s back. He urgently said to Linley through their link, “Boss, hurry up and take a look and see how many magicite cores there are here. In this month, all of the other assassins combined didn’t have as much as many magicite cores as that first assassin.”

  Doehring Cowart appeared by Linley’s side as well.

  “Linley, it seems like this little Shadowmouse that you’ve raised really enjoys counting magicite cores.” Doehring Cowart chuckled.

  “It does seem that way, just a bit.” Linley accepted the backpack and opened it while joking with Bebe, “Bebe, this time when you killed that Matt fellow, I believe you used your claws, instead of your sharp teeth. Why didn’t you use your fierce little teeth?”

  Bebe sat up straight, let out a few arrogant squeaks, then said mentally, “Boss, I, Bebe, have incredible prowess. My sharp claws are no less fierce than my teeth. And that Matt fellow was too vile. Biting him would sully my teeth.” After saying this, Bebe intentionally put on a display of ‘spitting’ out a mouthful of saliva.

  The image of the little Shadowmouse spitting out a mouthful of saliva was simply too human-like. Upon seeing this, Linley immediately started laughing.

  “That’s enough, oi, Bebe. Look, that Matt fellow had a lot of magicite cores in his backpack. There’s around thirty. Looks like he didn’t waste much time during this month. But the best core in these thirty is just a core of the fifth rank.”

  Linley carefully began inspecting the cores.

  During these thirty days, he had killed a number of magical beasts, as well as some people who wanted to kill him. All combined, he had nearly three hundred magicite cores, with a total valuation of perhaps around forty thousand gold coins!

  “Forty thousand gold. If father knew… then… ” Fantasizing about his father’s reaction when he gave him all that gold, Linley couldn’t help but feel overjoyed.

  “It makes sense that you were able to acquire so much,” Doehring Cowart said. “Aside from those magical beasts you killed, of those three hundred magicite cores, virtually all of them came from other people’s backpacks.”

  Linley nodded in agreement.

  That very first assassin ended up donating him 15,000 gold coins worth of magicite cores. The others, all combined, had just a bit more than that first assassin.

  “The Mountain Range of Magical Beasts is extremely dangerous, so most people here have grouped up with others. But assassins rarely are willing to attack groups, because they generally specialize in killing someone instantly, which is why they prefer to fight one on one.”

  Doehring Cowart suddenly began to laugh, his white whiskers floating about. “Linley, look at yourself. Yes, you might be tall and strong, but your face is still filled with a childish air. And that fuzz above your lips? All of those prove something… “

  “You are just a kid!”

  Doehring Cowart laughed uproariously. “Linley, in this huge mountain range, when those assassins find a kid here for his first training exercise, with such a childish face, how can they possibly not make their move against you? That’s why, in a single short month, you’ve run into so many assassins.”

  “But those people travelling in groups might not encounter a single assassination attempt in a month. Of course, those five people we ran into that first day were exceptions. First of all, they were too weak. And secondly, their killer was really strong. But in the end, that assassin died by Bebe’s claws.”

  Linley laughed and nodded as well.

  He was only fifteen years old this year, after all. Although he was 1.8 meters tall, anyone with a good eye could tell that he was just a kid.

  “Most magi of the fifth and sixth rank would probably only acquire a few thousand gold coins worth of magicite cores in a month here. And all of those cores would be acquired through life-and-death struggles. After all, the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts is incredibly dangerous.” Doehring Cowart sighed emotionally.

  Linley nodded in agreement. “It is dangerous. I’ve stayed in the outer regions this entire time, and at most I have run into magical beasts of the sixth rank. But I’ve been injured several times already. If it weren’t for the Coiling Dragon ring, if it weren’t for the fact that I’m both a dual-element magus of the fifth rank and a warrior of the fourth rank, and if it weren’t for the fact that I have Bebe, I probably would’ve been done for, travelling on my own like this.”

  He turned to look at the little Shadowmouse, Bebe, who was currently playing with a magicite core.

  Calming himself, Linley collected the various cores, and then headed off once again, with Bebe in tow. He was going to continue his training in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. After all, based on his original plans, he was going to stay here for two months.

  … ..

  Each day, Linley would fight against local magical beasts, and his abilities in merging his abilities as a magus with his abilities as a warrior grew better and better. He was also growing in practical experience in using earth-style and wind-style magic in battle. Gradually, Linley began suffering fewer and fewer wounds in battle. Naturally, as Linley gradually drew closer and closer to the core regions, magical beasts of the sixth rank began growing more and more plentiful, and Linley began to be more cautious as well.

  On the 46th day of Linley’s entry into the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts.

  “Swish!”

  Ripples began to appear on the surface of the quiet little lake. A human figure suddenly emerged from within. It was Linley. Linley was using a piece of cloth to casually wash himself.

  The little Shadowmouse, Bebe, stood on the shore, watching Linley bathe with an envious look in his eyes. After squeaking a few times, he began hopping up and down before diving directly into the lake. Seeing this, Linley couldn’t help but chuckle, and then he continued to bathe himself.

  “Haha, that’s enough, Bebe, haha, that’s eno
ugh!” Linley suddenly broke out into uncontrollable laughter.

  “Oh, boss, you are afraid of being tickled?” The little Shadowmouse rose up into the surface of the water, guileless black eyes gleaming with a hint of mischief.

  Chuckling, Linley walked onto the lakeshore. Removing a clean set of clothes from his backpack, he put the new clothes on. Changing clothes after a nice bath was a very luxuriant event. And then, Linley began to wash the just-removed clothes in the lake, then hung them onto a tree branch to dry off. With a leap, Linley landed onto another branch on the tree. Lying down, he watched Bebe mess around in the lake water.

  He watched as Bebe joyfully leapt about in the water. Sometimes, Bebe would dive to the lake bottom, while at other times, Bebe would lie on his back on the lake surface.

  “Rumble” “Rumble” “Rumble” “Rumble”.

  The ground suddenly began to shake ever so slightly. Based on the rumbling rhythm, Linley surmised that it should’ve been caused by something walking. Linley couldn’t help but feel startled, and he looked directly towards the south, in the direction the rumbles were coming from. He saw a large, indistinct shadow appear from within the southern side of the lake, but after a short period of time, Linley was able to clearly see the figure.

  It was at least two stories high, and covered with large, flame-red, shield-like scales, which also extended over and covered its four limbs like scaly armor. Its long tail was roughly half as long as its entire body, as nimble and as agile as a whip. Its two sinister, ruby-like eyes, each the size of a lantern, stared at the surface of the lake. Two plumes of white smoke continuously wafted out from its nostrils.

  Linley was in total shock, and his body froze, even as his heart sped up.

  “Velocidragon. Magical beast of the seventh rank – Velocidragon!”

  *

  Book 3, Mountain Range of Magical Beasts – Chapter 18, Bebe’s Prowess (part 2)

  From his earlier years until now, the only magical beast which he was genuinely fascinated by was the Velocidragon, which he had seen that one time. That time, when the Velocidragon had demonstrated its terrifying power in the middle of Wushan township, it seemed to be an invincible force. With its terrifying power, it had wiped out one house after another…

  Linley couldn’t help but feel his heart quake.

  When he was eight years old, Linley was just a child. But now, at age fifteen, he was a dual-element magus of the fifth rank.

  “Boss! Boss! This one is mine!” The excited voice of the little Shadowmouse, Bebe, rang out in Linley’s mind.

  Linley turned to look at the surface of the lake, and saw that Bebe was so excited that all of the hairs on his body were sticking up as straight and stiff as needles. Even all of the muscles on his body were pulsing with energy. His fierce claws and head had grown in size as well. The little Shadowmouse, Bebe, was previously around 20 centimeters in size, but now he suddenly elongated to a size of half a meter. This half-meter long size was the largest that Linley had ever seen Bebe grow to.

  But despite this, the half-meter long Bebe was nothing more than a speck in comparison to the Velocidragon.

  The Velocidragon’s huge, lantern-like red gaze was fixed coldly on Bebe’s form. It let out an angry snort that reverberated within the mountains. In reply, the little Shadowmouse, Bebe, also raised his head and let out a high-pitched shriek.

  The sound of the low, growling snarl and the high-pitched shriek clashed.

  Linley, who was watching all of this atop the tree next to the lake, suddenly felt as though the Velocidragon and the little Shadowmouse were two equally matched adversaries having a staredown.

  “Raaaaaawr!” A thundering roar!

  An all-encompassing, blazing flame suddenly erupted from the Velocidragon’s maw, covering the entire area of dozens of meters ahead of it in flame. The lake began to hiss as the surface water instantly began to boil. But Bebe didn’t move at all, despite being bathed in flames; he just let the flame burn as it might.

  From within the blazing flame, one could see that Bebe was not harmed in the slightest.

  “Although Bebe is physically small, his defensive abilities are incredible. The power of this flame is approximately on par with a fire-style magus spell of the fifth rank, but it isn’t able to harm him at all.” Linley quietly watched. Despite having been in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts for so long, Bebe had yet to meet a genuinely worthy opponent to do battle with.

  Bathed in flames, Bebe was motionless. But then suddenly, he moved!

  “Shkkkkkkkkreeee!”

  With a terrifyingly high-pitched howl, Bebe transformed into a black shadow that sped towards the Velocidragon with vicious speed. The Velocidragon, which had continued to breathe out flames this entire time, suddenly widened its enormous, lantern-sized red eyes, while suddenly slapping forward with its long, whip-like draconic tail.

  The incredible speed of the tail of the Velocidragon actually approached the speed of the little Shadowmouse’s movement.

  “Whoosh!” Bebe’s movements were extremely bizarre, and he was actually able to dodge the hyper-fast attack of the Velocidragon’s tail, and immediately tried to bite at the Velocidragon’s throat. But the Velocidragon, in turn, immediately turned his head down and then tried to bite back at Bebe.

  But clearly, Bebe was still a bit faster. As he gave the Velocidragon a vicious bite on the neck, a sharp ‘crack’ sound could be heard, as one of the thick scale on the Velocidragon’s neck was actually broken, and then swallowed whole by Bebe. Bebe was a creature that was capable of even devouring stones and bones. This Velocidragon scale proved to be edible by him as well.

  But just at this time, the Velocidragon’s tail swept towards Bebe. “Thwack!” A high-pitched slapping sound could be heard, causing Linley to shiver. But Bebe had long since dodged and scurried away again.

  “This Velocidragon has such a huge, thick neck. That bite Bebe gave it was nothing more than a light wound.” Linley breathlessly watched this battle between creatures of totally different sizes. “This Velocidragon’s tail moves in such an unpredictable manner, and it’s able to twist in turn at high speeds as well.”

  The tail of a Velocidragon was not only fast, it was also agile and unpredictable.

  “Shkreee!”

  Bebe once more turned into a vicious black shadow. Erupting out from the water, Bebe once more dodged the draconic tail. But just as he dodged, the tail suddenly changed directions in a rapid, unpredictable manner. With a sudden twist, it struck Bebe a direct blow.

  The vicious black shadow was sent flying into the faraway woods.

  “Bebe!” Linley’s chest tightened.

  But the Velocidragon only stared cautiously at the forest, as though keeping an eye out for a dangerous foe. Suddenly, the little Shadowmouse, Bebe, came flying down at him from atop a particularly tall tree. The Velocidragon’s tail immediately twisted to strike at him, but this time, Bebe had learned from the previous painful lesson. With a twitch of his tail, he too suddenly changed directions in mid-air.

  The little Shadowmouse was a blur. The draconic tail was also a blur!

  The two blurred shadows chased each other about in mid-air. The little Shadowmouse would occasionally be sent flying by the Velocidragon, but every so often, he would also manage to land a vicious bite on the Velocidragon as well. They continued their fight, fighting all the way from the lakeshore to the forests. One mighty tree after another was knocked down by the Velocidragon’s tail as the Velocidragon and the Shadowmouse continued to fight without pause.

  “From what I can see, it seems as though Bebe has a slight advantage.”

  Linley nervously watched the fight. By this point in time, the huge Velocidragon had already lost seven or eight scales, and blood continuously flowed from seven or eight wounds, covering half of its body in blood. The Velocidragon’s enraged roars continued unabated.

  Its tail whipping back and forth, any tree touched by the Velocidragon’s tail was snapped
in half. One mighty tree after another toppled over, and an area with a diameter of approximately two hundred meters around the two combatants was totally cleared.

  “But can Bebe keep on being hit like that, by the Velocidragon’s tail?”

  Linley began to worry. The offensive power of the Velocidragon’s tail was very high. If it smashed into a stone, the stone would crumble; if it smashed into a tree, the tree would snap. This sort of offensive power made Linley’s heart grow cold. Linley knew that if he was struck so much as a single time by that tail, his life would be gone.

  “Whack!” Bebe was sent flying again, but in the blink of an eye, Bebe once more transformed into a furious black shadow as he charged into the fray again, screeching.

  By now, the Velocidragon was covered with blood, with many damaged scales throughout its body. It looked to be in a bad way.

  “Raaaawr!”

  With an angry roar, the Velocidragon actually turned and began to leave. At high speed, it began to run towards the core areas of the mountains. In a short period of time, the Velocidragon disappeared from Linley’s vision. Bebe actually pursued it for a while as well before turning around and coming back to Linley.

  Linley dropped down from his tree just as the little Shadowmouse, Bebe, also ran over to him, his body shrinking back to its normal size.

  “Bebe, are you okay?” Linley immediately asked him through their mental link.

  Bebe jumped onto Linley’s shoulder and stood erect on his hind legs, as he looked arrogantly at Linley with his beady little black eyes. “Boss, what sort of magical beast do you take Bebe to be? How could I be afraid of a Velocidragon?” Pride and self-delight suffused Bebe’s adorable little face.

  But suddenly, Bebe twitched his tail. Shaking himself, he said, “But that Velocidragon’s tail really is a rather nasty piece of work. My entire body hurts.”

  Seeing this, Linley couldn’t help but chuckle. The Velocidragon’s tail wasn’t just a ‘rather nasty piece of work’. It was an extremely nasty piece of work. Linley was extremely glad that Bebe was able to withstand so many blows from it without sustaining any serious injuries.