A big city like Behengeru had a huge wall with a knight force with the lord and other soldiers. The people who lived outside the city had their reason why. They might have committed a serious crime, or they might just not have money to live there.
Sungmin had no idea why the people living here was here. There was no reason to know either though. Like Lude said, mercenaries were driven by money. He had a job and he was going to do the job.
“But it’s weird.”
Lude muttered. He wrinkled his forehead.
“This forest. It seems wide, but it’s too small for a ogre to live here..”
Sungmin agreed to that. Sungmin didn’t have any experience of fighting with an ogre, but he had the basic information about them.
Ogres were strong monsters. They were on top of the food chain in almost every forest they went to.
But why were they in this forest? It was big, but not that big.
“Ogres are omnivores.”
Lude walked.
“They eat everything. They eat things that don’t live. They don't’ judge. But they still have a preference. Humans are omnivorous, but they like meat. Ogres like meat as well.”
Lude muttered and stopped walking. He looked at the fallen tree. It wasn’t because of an axe.
“Ogres are big. They’re about 3 meters tall, and there are some that are even bigger. They eat a lot … but there doesn’t seem to anything that would satisfy the ogre's taste here.”
Lude muttered with a strange expression. Ogres liked meat. They eat humans or orcs. Even regular monsters. Ogres are such monsters that eat their own kind. Monsters were like that.
“The request came in yesterday?”
“Yes. And the ogre was spotted two days ago.”
Lude muttered.
“It’s strange. There isn't anything in this forest like a monster village. There’s no goblins clans, you know? Ogres are… smart. They're violent, but they don’t attack humans usually. Of course if they see a human, they won’t just let him go. Just ogres don’t attack first. They don't’ attack a village first.”
Lude was explaining his information to Sungmin. Lude viewed Sungmin to be a complete rookie at this. It wasn’t completely wrong. Sungin didn’t have much information about the higher ranked monsters. So, he listened carefully to Lude’s words.
“Do you know why? If they attack a village, that’s a huge problem. If they do, ogres know that a proper hunter would come and kill them. Even if this is a village outside Behengeru, it’s still people living inside the territory of the lord. The knights come and kill at the ogres. Monsters don’t want to die like us.”
“But we aren’t knights.”
“Yes. We’re mercenaries. Money. But the result is the same. We came to get the ogre. Even if they didn’t attack first.
“‘Strange.’ I don’t understand what’s strange.”
“It’s weird. There aren’t anything that would meet the taste of an ogre. There are animals… but it’s not a good place for an ogre to live for a long period of time. Ogre needs to live in a bigger place than this. There needs to be more food than this.
“Orcs and goblins?”
“Yes. Monsters can eat other monsters and no one would care.”
“Maybe the ogre is here for a short amount of time?”
“That’s stranger.”
Lude wrinkled his face again.
“There aren’t any close forests that are bigger than this. I thought maybe it was an old ogre that lost the fight for territory… but that’s weird too. You know? A ogre that lost the territory fight almost gave up on life. They attack villages and anything to eat. But the monster didn’t attack the village either.”
“Is there a reason?”
“I don’t know. Honestly, there’s no reason why we should care. It’s a strange reason why this ogre came out of here, but we should think of not why the ogre is here, but how to kill it.”
Sungmin nodded. He was already preparing his spear. It was the first time he was fighting with an ogre. It was a lie if he said he wasn’t nervous.
He wasn’t fear. It was more nervousness. It was the first practice after reaching the limit. The monsters that he killed on the way here was nothing compared to this.
‘3 years.’
There were many signs of Ogres. Big footsteps, broken trees. While he was walking, Sungmin felt a bit of disharmony.
“It’s weird.”
Sungmin muttered. Lude nodded his head.
“Its is.”
“This monster, does he poop?”
“He does. If he eats something.”
Lude wrinkled.
“Ogres are top of the class predators. They’re strong. They don’t try to hide that they are here. But… there’s no poop anywhere.”
There was no evidence of food as well. He found something else.
It was a dead deer. It was more accurately said to be a dismantled piece of meat. A meat that was dismantled by the strength of an ogre, They both looked at the corpse.
“He didn’t eat it.”
“Why?”
There wasn't evidence of eating. No bite marks. Just… dismantled.
There were many more bodies. Many animals killed.
“It’s weird.”
Lude muttered. He had experience of ogre conquests, but there wasn’t any ogre as strange as this one.”
“Is it even an ogre?”
That muttered.
Sungmin felt it in his skin. A feeling of something. Instead of his sense… Sungmin felt it in his skin. It was sign of warning in his gut.
Sungmin immediately pulled out his spear. Lude didn’t feel that. But he also immediately moved back and pulled out his sword.
Kung!
There was a voice that was coming from behind him. It was a sound. A strong… footstep
Creak! Kung! A tree was breaking. Where was something like that hiding.? Lude and Sungmin looked with horror at the ogre.
No, was that even an ogre?
“...what is that…?”
Lude muttered. It… looked off. It was an ogre by its size and looks.
But it was different. The lips were sewed together. It wasn’t just that. There were some evidence of other changed. Lude swallowed softly.
It was different as well. The right hand and left hand was different. The right was the hand of an ogre, but the left hand had narrow fingers with long nails. Sungmin looked at the string that was stuck in his left wrist. The muscles. The color of the skin. And the eyes. Both eyes were different color.
“...Chimera?”
Sungmin muttered. Lude shivered at that. Chimera. It was a monster that was a mixture of two monsters. Not natural.
It was the result of a magic experiment.
“Let’s run.”
Lude said. Chimera with a base of an ogre. He had never heard of something like that. If that was an ogre chimera, there was a small chance of winning. Even if Lude was a S rank, he didn’t have confidence that he could win against that.
Magic was inside a chimar. The point of the experience was to find the perfect species. There was a limit that a species could have. Therefore, the chimera experience started. To mix species together to create the best species that could even exist.
Therefore, all chimeras had other surgeries in them. It was only a ogre as a base. Its strength was different depending on what kind of surgeries it had. This monster… was something that wasn’t for S ranks.
“CCRRRRRR!!!”
Ogre screamed loudly. The scream turned into an echo. Now he knew why the ogre didn’t eat. It wasn’t that he didn’t. It was that he couldn’t. The ogre probably ripped apart the monsters because of the anger that he couldn’t eat.
Hunger made ogres mad. ogres started to run. They had to run. Like Lude said, Sungmin started to take a step back. But the ogre was faster.
Sungmin’s eyes looked at the movement of the ogre. It swung around its fist, heading towards his body. If he was hit with that, his body would be shattered and his chest would break.
He would die.
Now?
The training of the mountain passed his head. The walking everyday came into his mind. It may have been his unconscious. ‘Have to.’ he thought, and he moved.
This wasn’t the Mountain of Mush anymore.
His body wasn’t heavy.
Shadowless- first step.
Sungmin’s body disappeared. Behind him. Lude’s eyes widened.
Sungmin was heading towards the ogre.