Chapter 32

The Adventurer's Guild was rather quiet.

Instead, the adjacent tavern was overflowing with players eager to form parties.

Well, it's a good thing that things are becoming more active.

I started looking for promising quests among the request boards on the wall.

At first glance, it seemed that there were more escort and material gathering requests.

I decided to skip those and narrow down my options.

There were several requests related to 'Rabbits.'

In fact, these requests were being handled by the Adventurer's Guild on behalf of the farmers.

The content was the same: to hunt rabbits.

However, the conditions were a bit worrying.

The requirement was to submit three striped rabbit horns obtained from Horn 'Do' Rabbits.

That's them.

I see, it's clearer to ask for the hunting of dozens of Horn 'Do' Rabbits.

Since they are not the kind of monsters you would specifically hunt, it's a good opportunity to hunt a large number of Horn 'Do' Rabbits as a side task.

Clever.

I don't know who came up with these conditions, but there seems to be a smart person.

Even if other players buy the striped rabbit horns from each other, they should be rare and expensive, so it's unlikely that there will be any cheating.

There were about seven request slips, so I took two and lined up at the counter.

I gave one to Irina.

"Quests, huh?"

"Yeah. Since we're going to hunt anyway, it's better to take them as quests for better rewards."

"Okay."

My turn came without much waiting.

I was a bit relieved to see the staff member I was aiming for.

It was the elderly female staff member.

I spoke casually but politely.

"Before I take the quest, I want to confirm something."

"What is it?"

"If I support a party that has already taken a quest, there won't be any reward, right?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"I want to give a quest to them. I will also take the same quest. Is there any problem with that?"

"That's fine. If you do it together, please divide the reward among the adventurers yourselves."

"Thank you."

With that confirmed, it should be fine.

I encouraged Adel and Irina to take the quests first.

Then I took them as well.

We need to hunt at least six Horn 'Do' Rabbits in total.

But having a goal is a good thing.

We continued hunting on the grassland.

As we hunted more rabbits, we would eventually encounter Horn 'Do' Rabbits.

Naturally, we would also be attacked by Steppe Hawks.

In fact, Adel and Irina also experienced this.

They probably received a warning from the hawk's Sky Eye, but it was impossible to avoid all the attacks.

Fortunately, the attacks were not a complete surprise, so the damage was not severe.

However, the damage was significant enough that one potion was not enough to fully recover.

It's good to have these experiences.

I also hunted rabbits while running across the grassland.

I tried calling monsters a few times, but it seemed that only Horn Rabbits and Wild Dogs were present.

I thought it would be fine, but I suddenly encountered a Horn 'Do' Rabbit.

It happened right after I tried calling monsters.

It wasn't there a moment ago.

The battle itself took some time, but there was no problem in defeating it.

After all, we were seven against one monster.

At first, it would have been a tough fight for just me and Voluf, but the sheer number of us made it impossible to resist.

In the end, it was Irina's arrow that pierced the body and finished it off.

"This monster is quite strong."

"Despite being so small and fluffy."

No, the fluffiness is irrelevant.

When Irina skinned it, she successfully obtained the striped rabbit horn.

I also left the striped rabbit meat, but I couldn't get the magic stone.

It seems that magic stones are not always obtainable.

We continued hunting.

We often saw parties hunting rabbits, but there were even more parties hunting wild dogs.

Sometimes we saw parties running away from rabbit attacks.

We decided to hunt those rabbits.

They bowed in gratitude, which made us feel good.

After all, we help each other when in trouble.

In the end, we couldn't hunt the second Horn 'Do' Rabbit by lunchtime.

It was a bit disappointing.

After lunch in Remt, we sold the wild rabbit meat and horns to the guild.

I gave the proceeds to Adel and Irina.

I watched them enter the inn in Remt and then continued my own hunting.

My MP bar was about 70% full, so I still had plenty of stamina.

I dismissed Remnant and Helix and summoned Voluf and Jean.

I had planned to use Jean in the forest, but it turned out to be his debut on the grassland.

Since Voluf was also there, it shouldn't be a problem.

"Alright, let's do our best."

As I said this to Jean, we headed into the dark grassland.

The night grassland is said to be dangerous.

We moved forward, relying on Voluf's danger detection ability.

During the day, rabbits normally act, but at night they rush out of their burrows and return.

I had heard this in casual conversations.

I tried using Call Monster to locate them, but it wasn't that convenient.

It was disappointing.

Given this, we had to naturally prepare for surprise attacks.

I cast Physical Enchantment Earth on everyone to strengthen our defenses.

I could have used Dark Vision, but I decided to use the light magic Flash Light to provoke attacks.

I'm not sure if it had the desired effect, but we were attacked quite a bit, so I assume it worked.

As for Jean's fighting style:

He would intercept the rabbits before they reached me and counter-attack them.

He would even fly to areas not illuminated by the Flash Light and attack.

It's clear that he specializes in night combat.

However, he couldn't defeat the rabbits without taking damage.

The damage he received was quite significant.

But against rabbits, it wasn't a major concern.

His HP bar was recovering by drinking the rabbits' blood.

It's a vampiric ability.

It's a dangerous-sounding ability.

His attack power seemed clearly low, but he could counter-attack the rabbits that ambushed him, so it wasn't a problem.

He could accurately track moving prey using echolocation.

Sometimes he detected the rabbits' ambushes even before Voluf's danger detection.

However, his echolocation didn't seem to cover all directions, so we had to be careful not to rely on it too much.

We slowly but surely moved west across the grassland.

Riding Remnant made me feel very inconvenient, but there was no choice.

We moved forward while repelling the attacking rabbits.

So far, we hadn't encountered any Horn 'Do' Rabbits.

We also encountered a pack of Wild Dogs, but most of the time, other parties were already fighting them.

It seems that parties are active even at night.

As long as our targets don't overlap, there shouldn't be any problems, but I hope parties don't fight each other.

Jean took off, and Voluf's warning growl reached my ears.

I readied my rod in a defensive stance.

I could see a rabbit on my left side charging at me, even without using [Identification].

It was a very fast charge.

I could barely deflect the attack with my rod.

This rabbit was clearly different from the others.

The rabbit that was deflected by my rod hit the ground and tried to escape.

But Voluf didn't let it.

He bit the rabbit's hind legs, lifted it, and slammed it to the ground.

It was a wolf version of a suplex.

One down!

Of course, the rabbit didn't give up.

Its horns were starting to change.

I confirmed with [Identification] that it had entered a highly agitated state.

This was the main event.

The rabbit, with its curved horns, attacked Voluf's front legs.

To avoid the attack, Voluf let go and backed away.

What about Jean?

He was attacking the rabbit from behind.

He bit the rabbit's neck, folded his wings, and stuck to it.

The rabbit rolled around wildly trying to shake him off, but he wouldn't let go.

The rabbit's HP bar was gradually but steadily decreasing.

Jean's HP bar, which had dropped significantly, was fluctuating, recovering and decreasing.

It was the effect of the vampiric ability.

Voluf bit the rabbit's hind legs again and pinned its body.

The rabbit, of course, struggled, but it couldn't move.

I also pinned it with my rod and stepped on it to completely immobilize it.

From there, the battle was decided by Jean's vampiric attacks and Voluf's biting.

Jean's HP bar, which had dropped to half, was fully recovered by the end of the battle.

Vampirism is scary.

No, it's convenient.

On the other hand, without Physical Enchantment Earth, it might have been dangerous.

Jean's fighting style in battle seems to be quite brutal, so he might be more effective in group battles.

"Chirp!"

It turned out that his cry was unexpectedly cute.

This is roughly the level of Jean's combat power.

In other words, it depends on how you use him.

How to use him in conjunction with the main forces will depend on my skills.

By the way, this is the third Horn 'Do' Rabbit.

We need three more to complete the quest.

We obtained the striped rabbit horn and skin, but the magic stone was missing again.

We might have been lucky to get the magic stone earlier.

We slowed down a bit and continued hunting.

I wanted to continue the battle while naturally regenerating MP.

I didn't let the Physical Enchantment Earth effect wear off.

Overall, my MP was gradually decreasing, so I had to rely on potions for HP recovery.

I wanted to get used to fighting with Jean.

A human soul attacked us.

From above.

It was the same one that tried to pull me away by tugging on Voluf's sleeve before.

It seemed to appear out of nowhere.

None of us, including me, Voluf, or Jean, noticed it.

The moment I thought we had encountered it, the scenery changed.

It was the usual grassland landscape.

I could see the town of Remt in the distance.

Voluf was beside me.

Jean was perched on my left shoulder.

It looked normal, but it wasn't.

It was a scene from morning or evening.

The sun was almost hidden, and a full moon was starting to appear on the opposite side of the sky.

The stars were visible overhead.

It was definitely night just a moment ago.

Clearly, something was wrong.

The human soul was still above us.

The human soul didn't move.

It didn't seem to be attacking us.

We didn't move either.

I and Voluf maintained our defensive stances.

Jean seemed to want to take off but didn't.

None of us could take the next step.

Some time seemed to pass without any movement.

'It is now the time of judgment.'

'You have the qualifications to be judged.'

'If you do not wish to be judged, leave this place.'

The message echoed in my head like a whisper function.

Is this some kind of event?

[Do you wish to be judged?]

[Yes] [No]

A virtual window appeared in front of me, prompting me to choose.

What should I do?

There's no choice but to accept.

After all, I've been going with the flow up to this point!

I chose [Yes].

At that moment, Voluf and Jean's figures faded and disappeared.

I was left alone.

What's about to happen?

'Then the time of judgment will begin.'

'All for the sake of order.'

'All because everything is chaos.'

'All for the sake of a beginning and an end.'

'All for the sake of the world's survival.'

'I will ask you.'

'Do you desire an orderly world, even with constraints?'

'Do you desire a chaotic world, even with freedom?'

'Which one will it be?'

What is this?

A choice between two options.

I thought about it while looking at the [Yes] and [No] options in front of me.

It's an extreme question.

That was my first impression.

But I have to choose one.

What should I do?

Which one should I choose?

"I can't choose."

That was my answer.

'Which one will it be?'

"I can't choose. I want an orderly world,