A wide swing of the club whooshed past me. I stepped aside, jabbed the hilichurl in the shin with the butt of my spear, then followed up with a finishing thrust — blade-first — straight into the back of its skull. The creature collapsed with a sickening thud.
"That should be the last of them."
I gave the area a quick sweep with my eyes, just to be sure. When nothing else stirred in the clearing, I wiped the sweat from my brow and let myself sink to the sun-warmed earth with a sigh of relief.
It's been a little over a week since I settled in Springvale, scraping together a living by clearing out monsters and other nasty things lurking around Mondstadt. Sure, the cartoonish look of the world still pressed on the back of my mind like an unresolved thought — but I'd mostly stopped noticing it. If it didn't get in the way of living, why stress about it? Especially since the visual "style" of Teyvat was nothing like the flat, two-dimensional version I remembered. This place was a painting come to life. If you looked closely, you could even see fine motes of dust dancing in the air.
And yet, that damn contrast between the world I came from and the one I was stuck in just wouldn't let go.
You'd think I'd have gotten used to it by now.
I let out another sigh.
Shielding my eyes from the harsh sunlight, I glanced around. No fresh monsters in sight — just a small cluster of slimes minding their own business in the distance. As for the hilichurls, the extermination mission was complete. All that was left was to collect proof.
Dusting myself off, I got to my feet and approached the crumpled body of the last hilichurl. I rolled it over and pinched the edge of its mask. To my surprise, it came off without much resistance — though I had half-expected the damn thing to be fused to its face or something. You never know in a place like this. But no, beneath it was just an ugly mug that vaguely — very vaguely — resembled a human face.
Yikes.
So much for the "cute and whimsical" fantasy aesthetic.
I sighed again and got back to work. The masks weren't going to collect themselves, and a guy's gotta eat — preferably more than once a day. When all was said and done, I'd gathered twelve masks. Not bad. It had been a big group, definitely dangerous enough to be a problem. But thanks to my boosted stats — and Rimuru's help — I managed to take them down without too much trouble. All limbs still attached, and even the bruise from that one club hit was already starting to fade.
Unfortunately, my day wasn't over yet.
Monster numbers were getting out of hand. According to a few conversations I'd overheard, the recent surge had something to do with the death of the dragon Ursa. The beast had apparently terrorized the local order for a while, and now they were so desperate they'd started crawling to the Adventurers' Guild for help.
And of course, nothing in life comes free.
Monster cleanup missions had been bumped to a higher priority — meaning better pay. And to lure more people in, the Guild was offering extra incentives. Naturally, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity while it lasted. Could always use the extra mora, especially with my plans to move to the capital in the near future.
My second destination was just northwest of Wolvendom, not far from the main road to Whisperwind — the one the knights said most travelers preferred. The mission itself wasn't anything special. Another standard extermination: clear out the monsters and bring back their masks as proof. Nothing complicated, especially with how much my skills had improved over the past week.
Name: Mark
Health: 297/300
Mana: 69/70
Title:
Novice Monster Hunter (+1 to all attributes)
Level: 10
Attributes:
Strength: 18 (19)
Agility: 22 (23)
Perception: 12 (13)
Endurance: 16 (17)
Mana: 6 (7)
Unspent Points: 38
Skills:
Spear Proficiency – Lv. 10 (Beginner)
Pain Tolerance – Lv. 8 (Beginner)
Field Medicine – Lv. 1 (Beginner)
Campfire Cooking – Lv. 5 (Beginner)
Beast Handling – Lv. 6 (Beginner)
Coordination – Lv. 2 (Beginner)
Compared to my first few days here, my progress had started to slow down — not that it was surprising. Weak monsters gave almost no experience, and growth in attributes and skills depended on a mix of factors. The biggest problem? Time. I wanted everything all at once, but a day only had 24 hours — and I had to spend at least a third of that sleeping. Not to mention eating and basic hygiene.
Sure, this was a fantasy world, but it still had all the charming inconveniences of a medieval setting. No five-minute showers, no scrambled eggs with toast, no tossing on fresh clothes before heading out the door. Honestly, I didn't have the energy — or motivation — to swing a spear from dawn to dusk. I'll leave that to the rest of my fellow isekai survivors.
Still, something was nagging at me: the way my skills actually functioned.
At first, it was almost impossible to notice. But with time…
Picture this: someone you completely trust stands behind you, guiding your movements. You're relaxed, letting them move your limbs, but you still have the final say — you can take control at any moment. At the beginning, everything feels clumsy and awkward. But as you keep practicing together, your rhythm improves, and the coordination becomes seamless.
Now imagine that person isn't behind you at all. They're inside you.
Creepy, right? Yeah. Very.
But as terrifying as that sounds, they're not some puppet master. More like... a helping hand. A spiritual symbiote, if you will. It can't fight for me — just nudge, guide, assist. Nothing more.
Or at least, that's what the system told me when I started asking questions. To be fair, it ignored most of them. And when it did respond, the answers were vague at best — stuff like, "You're not ready for that yet, kid."
Frustrating, sure. But it wasn't a hard "no," which meant there was still hope. Hints. Implications. As if, given enough time, all the pieces would eventually fall into place.
And honestly? I really want to believe that.
"Guuh…" Rimuru suddenly nuzzled into my neck, snapping me out of my thoughts.
I turned a questioning look toward my companion. Following the direction he was facing, I spotted a lone figure near the edge of the forest, barely visible against the trees. I squinted, trying to make out more detail — and sure enough, the silhouette had the vague shape of a person.
Judging the distance and cross-checking with the notes I'd made on my map, I frowned. About four days ago, a group of hunters and foragers had set out toward Whisperwind. They never came back. The folks in Springvale were already starting to get nervous and had even sent a request to the Adventurers' Guild in Mondstadt, but no one had responded yet.
Not that I was surprised. There's a shortage of available hands lately, and problems — well, problems tend to pile up fast when no one's around to deal with them.
Funny thing, though — the monster extermination quest for this area only popped up on the board this morning.
Yeah. Real slick.
People go missing, and there's no one available to send out a proper search party. So instead, they quietly post a bounty hoping some monster hunter like me takes the job. Kill the local wildlife and maybe stumble across some clues while you're at it. Two birds, one stone.
I let out a dry chuckle, spinning my spear once in my hand as I started moving again. Their underhanded tactics weren't my concern — but I still filed that little insight away for future reference.
The closer I got to the figure, the more this uneasy feeling started to build in my chest. Rimuru seemed to sense something too — he kept turning his head, scanning the trees more than usual.
I stopped about ten meters away.
Silence.
No monsters. No slimes. Not even a squirrel. The birds that were usually singing overhead had gone quiet, their chirping reduced to the occasional uncertain trill.
My grip on the spear tightened. I met Rimuru's eyes for a brief moment, then took a cautious step forward.
And then another.
And another.
Dead.
I confirmed the obvious, crouching carefully over the body and reaching out to touch it.
But the second I pulled my hand back from the slumped corpse, a sharp sting lit up my cheek like fire. I jerked away on instinct, spinning toward the treeline — just in time to spot familiar shapes shifting among the thick green foliage. Hilichurls.
Correction: hilichurls armed, not with their usual sticks and stones, but with actual ranged weapons. And one of those damn things had nearly put an end to me right then and there.
I didn't even have time to fully process that thought before another volley came flying straight at me.
A sudden gust of wind surged past, scattering the bolts midair and buying me precious seconds to recover and regroup. I dove behind a nearby tree, lips dry, breathing fast, mind racing. Going in headfirst with a spear — even with Rimuru backing me up — sounded like a terrible idea when the other side had crossbows. Running wasn't much better. My companion had maybe two or three more wind bursts left in him before he burned out.
Yeah… not great.
"Cover me?" I asked, finally making a call. Rimuru answered with a confident little gurgle, and that was all I needed. I charged.
Straight into the thick of it.
Where the hell did these guys even get crossbows?
Dodging between trees, ducking and weaving as bolts flew dangerously close, I pushed forward. The hilichurls had clustered together — too close for their own good. One clean takedown, and two more dropped like dominoes right after. Efficient.
Teeth gritted, I took a breath and scanned the area.
No movement. But the air still felt wrong. Like something was off. Way off.
A few tense seconds ticked by.
Then — movement. Just at the edge of my vision. A flicker of motion too fast to track.
A low chuckle followed, soft at first, barely louder than the rustle of leaves. But it grew — slowly at first, then faster, louder, until it was a dissonant wall of laughter echoing through the trees. My skin prickled.
Okay. Time to leave.
I'd just started to move when…
"Behind you."
The voice was a hoarse whisper right at my back, vibrating with an eerie tremble. I whipped around, spear at the ready — but no one was there.
This was starting to feel like a bad joke. And I wasn't laughing. No matter how hard I looked, no matter how many angles I tried, there was nothing. Just a faint, flickering shadow, always slipping out of sight. Great. And here I thought we were sticking with cozy anime fantasy. When exactly did this story decide to switch genres to one of my favorite horror flicks?