After the initial talk with Quella, Shiro was told to wait for her sister’s responses after they figured out what they should do with her new found power. With so much mystery behind it, they needed to test out its capabilities before trying it against the Ancient Terror.
With Shiro needing to earn money for the weapon and armours as well, the monsters on the bounty board were perfect test subjects.
Since one divinity rank monsters were already easily killable for Shiro, their best subjects were those with two divinities. One of the ones that Quella suggested Shiro to try was the Gorgon since she had a bow and arrow.
Remembering her experience with the Gorgon back on Earth, Shiro rejected it since she didn’t want to be turned to stone.
She had thought that she could just ignore their gaze and she’ll be fine but no, they would petrify her even without making eye contact.
In the end, they decided to fight against one of the native creatures underground. Its name was Hamoena. I was a strange creature who could solidify its outer layer into a shell whenever it wanted. While in this state, the shell is like high grade armour which was highly resistant to damage.
However, the trouble comes from when it decides to go for the soft form. In this soft form, they’re able to secrete a paralysing liquid which acts quickly if one so much as touches it. One the prey is paralysed, the Hamoena would wrap its soft body around the victim before hardening its body into countless spikes and pierce the victim, killing them in a similar way to how iron maidens would.
Currently, the Hamoena is migrating towards a new valley and the villages on the way there are being ravaged hence why a bounty was set out for it. But due to the tough shell and high risk factor, many have left it be for now since it was going to stop once it reached the valley. Only someone with three divinities would be confident enough to do the task without any worry but they were too busy with bigger problems.
When Shiro registered for the bounty, the attendant at the counter looked at her with scepticism before eventually nodding her head thinking that Shiro probably didn’t know much and was only there for the reward.
After all, the gold reward was an astounding 70 gold.
“Excuse me young miss, I know you killed the Minotaur but the Hamoena is more dangerous than the Minotaur. One touch and you’ll be rendered defenceless.” The woman cautioned while handing Shiro the rest of her reward in regards to the mysterious monster that she had already completed. With 50 gold in her bag, she only needed 250 more gold.
“Yes I know. Don’t worry I’ll make the necessary preparation to fight it.” Shiro nodded her head and summoned her bow.
Plus, if they couldn’t kill it, it wasn’t like the Hamoena could spit out a stream of paralysing liquid. At most it would try its best to jump up and wrap around Shiro but if she could dodge that, she can just shoot at the monster while flying in the air.
*sigh
“I’ll give you the latest information we have on the Hamoena then.” The woman sighed before stepping away from the counter.
Coming back with a piece of parchment, she showed Shiro a map of sorts.
“The last known location of the Hamoena is in the village of Ireln which is towards the east. Taking into account it’s travelling speed, we assume that it’ll arrive at the next village within the next five days. This is its estimated travel path since we figured out that it’s main goal is probably to reach the Hellmouth Valley which is not too far from the border. Be careful though, Hellmouth Valley is home to monsters that our strongest warriors struggle with. If you really want to cut off its escape path, I suggest starting near the village of Weir. The geography around that area should help you fight the monster since there are large boulders and small hills to act as your cover if you use the bow.” The woman explained as she might as well help Shiro increase her chances of survival.
Nodding her head, Shiro memorised all of the information in her database.
However, there was one thing that concerned her ever so slightly. The fact that the Hellmouth Valley was near the border. With the next section being the Section of the Underworld, criminals could pop up at any location.
Some will definitely be as strong as Kiona that she had met the other day and as a woman of her looks, she needed to be careful since she’s not able to protect herself yet with just one divinity. Common bandits are fine, but when people get power, their ugly nature is further exposed.
Once Shiro had memorised the map, she made her way out of the Mercenary Hall.
On her way out, a golden butterfly landed next to her shoulder.
[After you kill the Hamoena, you should look around and see if you could resonate with some blessed weapons like your bow. Since you’re near the Section of the Underworld, Hade’s blessed items could be nearby.]
Hearing Quella’s voice from the butterfly, Shiro was somewhat surprised.
[Don’t be so shocked. This is essentially my familiar. It won’t be with you all the time though since it’ll run out of power but I’ll send familiars to you when I can.] Quella chucked as Shiro nodded her head.
Once she was out of the city, she immediately unfurled her wings and launched herself into the sky.
Thankfully, she was travelling inland despite heading to the east so the amount of air tunnels was increasing, giving her quick boosts of speed to catch up with the Hamoena.
A trip that should have taken a lot longer than a week was cut short thanks to this.
However, there was barely any sign of the Hamoena. Occasionally she could see destruction caused by the beast but that was it.
Trying her best to chase down the monster, she finally saw it after another 5 days. Now, they were quite close to the Village of Weir that was near the border.
As for the monster, well, it was a lot different to what she had imagined and the size did not match at all.
Previously, its body was an iridescent blue which hardened to brown whenever it switched forms. Its general form resembled that of a snail only with multiple extrusions which looked like eyes.
However, now its body was a purple tainted flesh colour that had bones bubbling in and out of its body. Instead of protrusions for eyes, it now had sunken sockets much like the ancient terror as eyeballs could be seen swimming around the surface of its body.
There was a single split in its mouth which had a black goo dripping out which was similar to the liquid from the pool of corruption that she had seen before.
[Hmm… seems like it must have come into contact with a pool of corruption much like the one you told me about. The one located near where you had found the bow.] Quella sighed.
“Do you know of someone that could be planting these pools on purpose? The seed couldn’t have just shown up out of nowhere.” Shiro frowned.
[Mn, there’s probably someone who has found some text about him. A corruption sapling is different from a dread sapling in that it needs some specific conditions to be cultivated. However, that’s a thought for later, right now we need to deal with this thing. If that thing gets into the Hellmouth Valley and spreads the pool of corruption, then stronger monsters will appear after it. Kill it here and I’ll get my sisters to clean up the aftermath.]
“I know.” Nodding her head, Shiro summoned her bow and conjured up an arrow.
Without her even controlling Error 403, Shiro felt a small sting on her right hand and red circuits corrupting the arrow.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro glared at the source which originates from her right hand and realised that the element was more… aggressive and uncontrollable in the forgotten realm.
As if the prison locks surrounding it had suddenly widened. It could now stick its hands out whenever it wanted and even attack the warden if they get close.
It was rather dangerous since Shiro had lost her control over it.
However, it also seemed a little… docile?
Narrowing her eyes, she fired the arrow.
