nro_8

  “So, the hydra is something we have to deal with. Luckily it is only a twin-headed hydra, so we deal with it.” Paulina decred, looking over the monsters we had found on our scouting flights.

  A hydra, in this world, is not a dragon. It is a monster, just like any other.

  Nons are not monsters, they are dragons. Different categories. Dragons don’t have a monster core, so they aren’t monsters.

  Then there are the two categories of monsters. Well, kind of.

  Beasts are … well, probably what you would imagihey are retively ‘normal’ looking animals, except that they have a monster core. Sometimes they might not even have o all es down to ohing, miasma. Laura told me that miasma is a corrupt form of mana. And it seeks out anything living, often turning them into more blood thirty beings. And it also makes them stronger. When miasma gathers in your body, well in the body of a beast, it solidates into a monster core. So monster cores are basically solidated miasma.

  Anyway, baonster categories. The other main category is the not so well named monsters. Yeah. Monsters have a sub category called monsters. 5/5 naming right there. Monsters, the sub monsters, are the mohat aren’t beasts. Goblins, kobolds, orcs, imps, hydras … all of the little things that you don’t really have an equivalent oh.

  The reason they are separated is actually because of the system. Well, more accurately, the Language prehension. With Language prehensio), one ua css monsters. And with Language prehension (Monster), you uand the monster category monsters. So yeah. That is the differenbsp;

  Now, as to why humans, and dragons, don’t get monster cores. Well, dragons don’t because they are dragons. Don’t bme me for that. That is the reasoning Laura gave me. Dragons just don’t. The system either doesn’t know why, or the information is something Laura doesn't have access to. They just somehow resist the miasma, so it ’t form a monster core ihem.

  As to why humans, and other humanoid beings, don’t, well that is because of the system. It exists for a reason. And that reason is that any holder of the system is protected against miasma. Highly trated miasma affect a person with the system, but you would be talking about super high trations. To the point where the miasma itself would be able to just spawn monsters, with no host creature or dungeon necessary.

  If I were to pare miasma to radiation, it would be basically like opening an active nuclear reactor and going in there, just because you are immuo higher than average background radiation. Actually more like you are immuo an intermediate amount of active radiation, but still. The point stands. Don’t walk into a nuclear reactor. Or a pce with super trated miasma. You will die. et mutated into a monster. But death is more likely. Both oh and here.

  “Okay. So the hydra is on our list.” I firmed, getting ba topic after that sidetrack of a miasma expnation. “Anything else? The goblins? And what about the forest lynxes?”

  Forest lynxes are, as you might have guessed, D-rank cat monsters. It seems that most D-rank monsters in this area are named ‘forest’ and thehing that it is. Forest lynx, forest boar, forest deer, etc. All D-ra monsters.

  “The goblins are not a problem and we should leave them for lower ranking adventurers. I’m sure the guild will put up aerminatio for them as soon as they get the report. But the lynxes… Let’s let them stay. It’s just a pack of three, so it won’t cause a problem.”

  “Works for me. Ria, Alice, you two will take down the hydra. Are you fih that?”

  “What? Us? Are you sure? A twin-headed hydra is still B-rank.” Alice asked.

  “If you wao.” Ria oher hand agreed.

  “You use your summons.” I added.

  “Oh. Well then we .” Alistantly ged her tune.

  “And I’m sure Mana will be happy to get to fight a bit.” I added.

  [Alice POV]

  “... it’s rge.” I said as we got on the ground. It was just Ria and I, Brian and big sis Paulina staying on the big ship. Big Core, Brian calls it.

  Brian said that he couldn’t fight today, because of some skill evolution and Paulina was watg the perimeter, so it was just us. Well, we did have two others ing.

  “Dark Magi Girl.” I called out Mana.

  “Element Valkyrie.” Meanwhile, Ria called out one of the monsters Brian had given her.

  Spoiler[colpse]As I stated earlier, the twin-headed hydra was quite rge. It’s nowhere near as rge as Brian’s dragons, but it is still rger than my Pitch-Dark Dragon. Luckily it hadn’t yet spotted us so we could e up with a pn.

  I’ve read up on hydras. They are dangerous monsters with multiple heads. The twin-headed variant we found is not the most on, but it is the weakest of them, as the power of hydra’s goes up as they grow more heads. The most legendary of all hydras is Lerna, the hydra servant of the Demon Lord. A monster with almost no equal. The legends say that for each head that you cut off, two more would instantly grow in its pce. And the only way to kill that beast was to make it grow so many heads that its main body could no longer support them.1Me casually mixing real world legends and modifying them into something even more dangerous. I wonder if Brian could fight something like that? He , right? There is no way his summons couldn’t take down something like that, I think.

  But luckily for us, we were just fag a normal twin-headed hydra. And now with our monsters, we had fainst one. Or maybe fainst two heads.

  “Oh? A hydra. That will be fun to py with.” Mana said, seemingly excited to get a ce to fight.

  “We should still be careful. A hydra is not an easy target.” The Valkyrie summoned by Ria added.

  “We ma. Will you and Miss Ria take the frontlines? We shall ic support.” Mana said.

  “Yes. We shall. But depending on the elemental breaths of that hydra, we might have to fall back.”

  “Elemental breaths?” Ria seemed fused by that. Doesn’t she know how hydra’s work?

  “Each head of a hydra uses a. And they will let out a breath attack of that element. They be the same as other heads, or different. Sometimes you tell what element they are based on the color, but this one is just bck, so it is difficult. It might just have two darkness heads, but it might also have something else.” I told her.

  “Then we will just have to force it to use the breath to find out.” Ria said.

  “Or just kill it before it even has a ce.” Mana offered.

  “Don’t uimate our oppo.” The Valkyrie added. “We ’t just go in with reckless abandon, hoping our first attacks take it down. We have to be prepared to take a few hits as well.”

  We spent a bit more time making a battle pn, got into positions and were ready to attack. I know Brian would have dealt with this hydra a lot faster, so I feel like I’ve wasted a lot of his time already, but he did leave it to us. And he is the one who always says to be careful, so I will be.

  “Dark Burning!” Mana started the fight with her stro spell.

  It ell I had been trying to learn ever since she became my teacher and showed it to me, but I still couldn’t do it. It was the spell I was really aiming for. Mana said that once I learn it, she would reend that Brian would give me a sed attribute, so I could grow further as a magi.

  The spell hit the hydra’s main body, causing its two heads to let out a roar. It took a k out of the body as well, but the hydra’s natural regeion was already w on healing it.

  “Let’s go!” I heard the valkyrie say to Ria. One end of her staff had been lit on fire by Ria’s fire magic.

  The two of them rushed in while the hydra was rec and attacked the two heads. Ria pung with her gaus and Element Valkyrie with the burning end of its staff.2I think Element Valkyrie’s on might be a Maki but I’m not sure

  After another roar, the hydra was on the ter attack. Its heads kept their eyes owo girls that just pu, and both let out a breath attack. One spewed out fmes and the other caused an airstream to rush out. So it is a wind and fire twin hydra.

  Wind and fire is actually a dangerous bination, especially in a forest like we are. The fire breath will set all the trees on fire and the wind will fan the fmes, so they will burn hotter. That is why a wind-fire hydra is sidered one of the more dangerous twin hydras. But still, we prepared to face the most dangerous ohe light and dark hydra, so we mahis. I hope.

  “Dark, gather into spears and pierce my enemy, Dark Spear Barrage!” I ted my spell.

  It was the advanced version of the Dark Spear spell, shooting out any number of Dark Spears with one t. When Mana showed it to me, she could shoot 20 spears at the same time, but I could only manage four at this time. But sidering that when I first casted this spell I could only do two, four is double that. So I think I’ll be able to fire 10 in no time at all.

  The spears hit the main body of the hydra, but they didn’t do that much damage. Without using Magi’s Power, my spells really ’t hurt a B-rank monster. I know I should have casted a few Dark Bullets first, but Mana said I shouldn’t, so the hydra wouldn’t attack me.

  “Dark Wave!” Mana casted her spell.

  Dark Wave is a spell I also use, but hers is more powerful. Dark Wave is an attack that fuses the enemy, and attacks that fuse them are sidered very effective, as the heads might attack each other.

  But we weren’t that lucky. Instead of attag each other, or the main body, both of the heads just let out another breath attack, with net. The fire started by the first fme breath got worse. We have to end this quickly and put out the fire.

  … actually, how will we do that? None of us use water magid I don’t think Ria is skilled enough with fire magic that she extinguish a forest fire. Hopefully Paulina put the fire out. Or maybe Brian will help us with that.

  “Alice, attack again. We o stun it so the others attack. Use the big one.” Mana called out to me. She then casted a spell. “Dark Press!” Her spell caused the hydra to get heavier, making its movements slower. That makes it an easy target for my spell.

  “Yes!” I responded and began my t. I didn’t really want to use it, but we have to end this fight now. “Dark, fsh away the light and strike my enemy, Dark Bster!”

  This was the stro single spell I could cast at this moment. A beam of darkness flew from me towards the hydra, hitting its main body and causing massive damage. But I never really used it, as this spell had a big fw.

  Thump.

  With a soft thump, I fell onto my back.

  I woke up a few seds ter. That spell ed a ton of mana when I casted it, so I passed out for a sed after I used it, as I pletely ran out. Even if I was full on mana, that spell would take most of it. Just a single cast would take at minimum 1000 of my 1480 mana, but depending on how much power I put into it, I easily burn my entire mana pool, like I just did. Practig this spell was actually a reason I asked for the Pitch-Bck Power Stone from Brian. With it, I could refill my mana after casting this spell, without having to wait.

  I took said card out of my pocket, and said its o activate it. The card ged color from the usual purple color of the card faded, ging to gray. But iurn, a small bck stone appeared in my hand. I let my mana, or what of it I had recovered, flow into the stone, causing the rush of mana from the stoo flow into me. When I got this card from Brian, it was enough to fully fill my mana, but now, it wasn’t quite enough. But it was still useful.

  With my mana levels up, I got up from the ground, but my body was quite sore, because of the backsh from my Dark Bster. That spell really is too mue.

  I looked at the hydra. The others had fi off. Its heads were … well they no longer looked like heads. Ria and the valkyrie must have puhem hard. And the main body had a hole where my dark bster had hit and a k missing, probably where another Dark Burning spell from Mana had nded. Let’s at least hope that we didn’t destroy every monster core of the hydra.

  Hydra’s have multiple monster cores. One in the main body and one for each head. The cores for the heads aren’t always in their heads, but be anywhere in their body.

  Well, all we do is hope we find the cores wheake this monster apart.

  nro_8