A thief from the western city of Jefran was running for his life, gasping for breath like a madman.
Jefran was a crumbling city where the generational handover of leadership had failed spectacularly.
Food there was worth its weight in gold.
Bodies littered the streets at all times, and people gladly harmed others just to steal scraps.
Even amid that chaos, the vassals who ruled Jefran sent massive sums to the royal family.
Thanks to that, the royals turned a blind eye to Jefran's plight.
In the end, Jefran had become a living hell.
The thieves' band had fled the city.
This thief was a man who had once worked as a servant for the Jefran baron's household.
He had seized the chance when the vassals turned on each other in a frenzy and stolen their gold before bolting.
Laoren, the harsh northern city that was still livable enough.
He planned to sell the loot there and start a new life.
Of course, he couldn't help resorting to thievery along the way to make ends meet.
He had killed people and satisfied his lusts, but it was truly unavoidable!
"Damn it, damn it!"
There was only one reason he was running.
The band that had set out with seven members now consisted of just him alone.
Why had this happened?
It was all because of a barefoot man who had appeared out of nowhere.
Eyes glowing red in the darkness.
They seemed to be amber in normal light, but in the shadows, they took on an eerie crimson hue that sent chills down the spine.
Any thief who touched his hand died on the spot without so much as a twitch.
As if he were the Grim Reaper himself.
Everything he touched met instant death.
He could have accepted it if they'd been beheaded or run through the heart.
That would just mean the enemy was overwhelmingly stronger.
But the bizarre sight of people dropping dead at a mere touch instilled an indescribable terror.
In the end, the thieves scattered in all directions, fleeing for their lives.
It was a desperate struggle to save whoever they could.
The thief finally arrived at an abandoned building after running for what felt like ages.
It had once been inhabited, but rising monster outbreaks had left it deserted.
He slipped inside the rocky structure and held his breath, huddling quietly.
His heart pounded like a drum.
Hold it together. Hold it together!
He desperately tried to calm himself.
Crunch—
Then, the sound of footsteps reached his ears.
His body froze solid.
The footsteps grew steadily closer through the darkness.
The thief gripped his sword with all his might, hugging it to his chest.
If that thing appeared, he'd swing at it with everything he had.
He waited, breath held to the limit.
Suddenly, the footsteps began to recede.
A sigh of relief escaped his lips.
It's gone.
I'm alive.
He slid down against the wall and slumped to the floor.
He had no idea if the others had survived.
There hadn't been time to check.
As soon as dawn broke, he'd sneak into Laoren, sell the gold, and start fresh.
No more thieving. Ever.
That was when he made his resolution.
One of the stone bricks in the wall suddenly jutted out with a squelch.
A hand shot through the gap and clamped down on his shoulder.
Thud—
The brick hit the floor with a clear echo.
The thief's face drained of all color.
He slowly lifted his head.
Beyond the wall, the Reaper's eyes flickered red.
That was the last light he would ever see.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
After dealing with the last thief, I stepped inside.
He had slumped against the wall in death.
His face was twisted in terror.
The face of a man who dreaded the death closing in on him.
"If you feared your own death, you should have known others feared it too."
What good did it do to confess to a corpse?
In the end, I had taken his life for the same reason they were villains.
At this point, maybe I wasn't so different from them.
I gathered up the thief's body.
Then I collected the others whose lives I'd claimed earlier.
Once they were piled together, I dug a pit in the ground.
As a cleaner who handled monster corpses every day, I was an expert at this.
I dug a grave large enough for a person and laid them in one by one.
Rifling through their belongings, I found nameplates on a few.
Probably issued in Jefran.
I carved the names from the plates into a wooden board I'd spotted earlier using my dagger.
A few valuables turned up among them too.
One was a gold medallion engraved with wing motifs that looked extremely valuable.
"Stolen, huh."
Judging by their appearance, it sure wasn't theirs.
I wasn't sure if I could return it to the owner, but no reason to bury someone else's property.
I tossed it roughly into my bag.
I covered the grave and planted the named board as a marker.
It was the last courtesy I could offer those I'd killed with my own hands.
Even if it was hypocritical, that's just what I wanted to do.
I took one last look at the grave and turned away.
Grabbing my bag of hunted monsters, I leisurely headed back.
As dawn broke, the monster hunter guild came into view.
Opening the door revealed hunters passed out from late-night drinking.
Young rookies were just forming teams.
And a group that looked ready to depart somewhere.
"Whoa."
One of them spotted me and let out a short exclamation.
His name was Egoi.
The mid-size monster hunter who'd talked to me the day before.
"Looks like you weren't bluffing after all."
He commented on my disheveled state.
I was covered head to toe in dirt.
Perfectly natural after burying ten people overnight.
I brushed past him and set my bag on the counter.
Meril was off, so the freckled night-shift girl, Jinni, took it instead.
Out came proof of three mid-size monsters.
The hunters who'd been staring at me froze, eyes widening.
Even the drunks blinked awake, piecing it together.
"Reptilon, Gaora, and... Eagleips."
Jinni murmured the names of the three mid-size monsters, lips trembling.
"Y-you took them all down?"
Her voice dripped with disbelief.
The other hunters gaped like idiots.
Hunting three mid-size monsters in a single day.
All by myself.
Their reactions told me everything.
From today on, no one would call me weakling Haren.
Instead, my name would echo as a mid-size monster hunter.
"Haha."
Egoi laughed.
Our eyes met, and he waved his hand.
"We're heading to the capital today."
So it was true about the capital.
The capital had high dimensional rift rates.
More people meant more rifts.
Hence, large monsters and irregulars too big to classify by size appeared there.
Countless hunters made their names in the capital.
Mages especially.
More monsters meant more mana stones.
So tons of mages stayed there.
Making the capital the monster frontline.
And a land of opportunity for hunters.
"See you there soon."
With that, Egoi left with his crew.
Another of Laoren branch's prideful mid-size hunters gone.
Like me, he'd be much stronger next time we met.
For some reason, that stirred an odd feeling.
Being acknowledged by the strong.
I finally understood what that felt like today.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
That afternoon.
I didn't visit the guild.
One mid-size monster could be luck.
But three in a row? No such thing as coincidence.
By now, the hunters were probably gossiping about me all day.
No desire to show up and fuel the rumors.
I've basked in the smugness enough.
Today's destination was the training hall.
Absorbing three monsters had boosted my physical abilities massively.
I hadn't been pushed at all by seven thieves.
Even if they were starved, their builds were superior.
But right now, I was fighting purely on instinct.
Relying on eyesight and reflexes.
That wouldn't hold forever.
The strongest spear is useless if you can't land it.
The ultimate spear needs the ultimate warrior to wield it.
That's why I came to the training hall.
In the past, I couldn't even train properly.
The day I'd been kicked out after one session.
The instructor had warned that if I kept hunting monsters, I'd die soon.
He'd been right; any recklessness back then would've killed me.
I opened the training hall door.
Rookies were in the midst of training inside.
Monster hunting offered fame and fortune.
So plenty still aspired to it.
Even though it was basically circus acts flirting with death.
"Hey, over there."
"Isn't that the guy?"
"It's Haren. The hunter who took down a mid-size monster solo."
Some recognized me.
My name had spread that fast in just days?
Well, I'd already been infamous as the mana stone thief.
New rumors kept piling on.
No wonder it spread like wildfire.
I passed the rookies and went deeper in.
A staff member handling training hall support was there.
"I'd like to register for the training hall."
"Registration? Write your name here and show me your hunter tag."
She didn't recognize me.
Makes sense; the hall operated separately from the guild.
Staff wouldn't know unless they were hunters themselves.
I wrote my name like five years ago and handed over the tag.
She took it, then paused.
Slowly, she looked up.
"Y-your name is really Haren?"
"Yes, Haren."
"The one who hunted a mid-size monster solo?"
Ah, she knew.
My reputation was higher than I thought.
"Why would someone like you come to the training hall?"
She looked utterly baffled.
Fair enough; why train if you can solo mid-sizes?
"I want instruction."
But I needed guidance.
Not corpse-cleaning know-how from five years, but how to fight monsters.
"Ah, I see."
Her face lit up in understanding.
"You want to learn from the hall master himself!"
What?
"Dojo breaking."
"A new mid-size rookie hunter's here to dojo break."
Nearby hunters perked up, whispering excitedly.
No.
That's not it at all.
"I'll let him know right away!"
It's not!
But she beamed and dashed inside.
I could only watch in stunned dismay.
I said it's not.
I came to learn humbly.
And now I'm suddenly a dojo breaker.