Chapter 754 - Side Story 27: Hunter (3)
Pantos opened his eyes.
The first thing he saw was a blue sky where the dark clouds had cleared.
The sky was so high and clear that its end was unknowable. In the quietness where there wasn't even a sound, Pantos realized he was floating gently on water.
Pantos recalled the scene right before he had lost consciousness. The last thing he saw was the form of the Elental Lord opening its giant mouth wide. And his mory was cut off there.
"Did I lose?"
Pantos muttered in a deflated voice. He had broken through those countless checks and reached right before the Water Elental Lord's nose. He had thrust his harpoon toward it, but ultimately failed.
Was it the recoil of his body cooling down after being pushed too hard for battle? Or was it still the price of failure for not catching his target?
His body was strangely devoid of strength. In a state of complete exhaustion, Pantos simply floated like duckweed on the quiet water.
"You awake?"
At that mont, a voice ca from beside him. He didn't even have the strength to turn his head, so rolling just his eyes, he saw Rudger floating in the air, looking this way.
"Were you watching from there the whole ti?"
"I thought it was about ti you got up. Since you were still just lying there even after regaining consciousness, I wondered if you were savoring this rare mont of leisure."
"Hmph. If you want to mock , go ahead and mock ."
Pantos had failed in his hunt. What value could there possibly be in a hunter who failed in his hunt?
"You've gotten quite sentintal since I last saw you. Why would I mock you?"
"I attacked boldly but was defeated, wasn't I?"
"If I were going to mock you, I would have mocked you from the ti you endlessly challenged an insurmountable wall."
Rudger drew an arc at the corner of his mouth.
"I'm not in a position to mock soone like that, am I? Neither you, nor I."
"......"
Pantos blankly looked up at the sky.
"Next ti I'll definitely win."
"Yeah. That's a good mindset. That friend says he's looking forward to it too."
That friend? Pantos finally felt sothing out of place.
Now that the fight was over, he was floating in the sea. This northern sea was famous for its fierce waves crashing about. It was a place where rough seas arose 365 days a year, but right now it was strangely calm.
Pantos sat up. For him, who had already reached a certain level, standing on water was nothing.
What Pantos saw was a giant whale staring intently at him. The Water Elental Lord, the pinnacle of water possessing that enormous power and body was waiting on the calm sea surface for him to wake up.
"Why are you......?"
For Elental Lords, weren't humans existences not even worth paying attention to? To Pantos who was puzzled, Rudger answered instead.
"He says his interest was piqued."
"Interest? No, wait, can you even communicate?"
"It's closer to sensing his will. You're the sa, aren't you?"
It was as Rudger said. While fighting the Water Elental Lord, Pantos could vaguely sense the Elental Lord's emotions toward him.
Interest. Admiration. Competitive spirit. It ant that he treated Pantos not as soone to be ignored, but as a proper individual personality.
It was a fact he had deliberately forgotten or turned away from due to the exhilaration of battle.
"Right. That was it."
Pantos readily accepted this situation. When one of the strongest prey had acknowledged him, how could he ignore that?
'For an Elental Lord to recognize a person as sothing equal to itself. That's quite surprising.'
The existence of Elental Lords wasn't particularly a secret. People in the world, especially scholars, knew that spirits and elentals existed in this world.
Countless scholars and researchers had strived to reveal what kind of existence the spirits that spirit mages commanded were, and where they originated from.
Though the veil of that secret hadn't been completely lifted, the knowledge humanity had gained could not be called ager.
'But even those scholars gave up on daring to research the Elental Lords.'
The pinnacle of spirits. The essence of nature. A living, moving natural disaster. That was an Elental Lord.
Just as humans cannot dare face nature. Elental Lords, who were nature itself, were a vast unknown that could not be uncovered by human knowledge.
Moreover, Elental Lords were difficult to even confirm with the naked eye. Because they all existed only in the depths of nature, even skilled explorers were famous for being unlikely to encounter one even once in their lifeti.
If there was an Elental Lord that could be seen most often, it would be the Water Elental Lord here right now.
Because it would rise above the sea to enjoy sunbathing and spray sea fog. But even that was very occasional. Only fishern who ca out to the open sea to catch fish could barely witness its form if heaven's luck followed them.
'There was no reason to encounter each other, and even if they did encounter each other, Elental Lords didn't take interest in humanity. From an Elental Lord's perspective, humans and demi-humans living on the continent were just a part of it.'
Of course, there were always exceptions. Right away, there was Rudger, in whom the Earth Elental Lord took interest. There was also a saint who made a contract with the Wind Elental Lord.
But these two cases had the commonality of being related to divine power. Who created this world, and who scattered the seeds that beca the source of the life forms born upon it.
Thinking about that, it was in a way natural for Elental Lords to take interest in those two people.
But Pantos was different. He was just a beastman. Of course, he was excessively strong for an ordinary beastman, but still.
'But no matter how much they say he's a variant or whatever, Pantos' strength was seized by his own power. It's a realm he could reach because he had talent and trained to the extre.'
Were there really no others throughout history who possessed strength equal to Pantos? Naturally, no matter how desperately Pantos attacked, there shouldn't have been any reason for an Elental Lord to take interest.
But the Water Elental Lord didn't do that.
Perhaps it was because his disposition was innately generous. Since water is also the source of life, one could see that the disposition of the Elental Lord who is water itself could be very gentle.
Or perhaps Pantos' incomprehensible emotion of obsession had so effect on the Elental Lord. An existence that received everyone's awe had encountered an unusual emotion for the first ti.
Whatever it was, the fact that the Water Elental Lord took interest in Pantos, an individual, remained unchanged.
Not as one among countless existences living on the continent. But recognizing him as a subject—a beastman hunter who didn't lose his spirit even against it.
From scholars' perspective, this would be mind-blowing.
Whether such an earth-shattering event happened or not, Pantos remained the sa.
"I need to beco stronger."
Rather than joy at being acknowledged, competitive spirit arose that he would definitely win next ti.
The Water Elental Lord departed. Its massive body subrged into the endless sea and disappeared, and the calm sea began to have massive waves crashing again.
Pantos remained until the end, watching the Water Elental Lord disappear. Perhaps in his heart, the emotion of soday surpassing it was rippling.
"Let's go now. Since a guest ca all this way, I should treat you."
Rudger followed Pantos to his dwelling.
It was a small cabin not far from the coast. The cabin built for temporary use had Pantos' touch in every detail. It was estimated that he had stayed here for quite a long ti.
He had most things needed for living. In the midst of that, as if he hadn't neglected hunting, there were also things like rabbit and deer hides hanging on the walls here and there.
'Well, more eye-catching than that would be the taxidermied predator's head.'
The taxidermied form of a giant bear's head, estimated to have ruled this forest, was quite impressive.
Pantos skillfully lit a campfire and took out salted at to prepare it.
"That's unexpected. You know how to cook?"
"Of course. I have to wander the continent hunting prey. Preparing als by myself is commonplace."
Pantos quickly grilled the prepared at and sprinkled spices on it.
"Eat."
Taking the skewered grilled deer, Rudger looked at it with an admiring gaze.
Because the at was well-grilled, juices were dripping down, and with the spices sprinkled on it, the sll was fantastic.
Even Rudger, who didn't particularly have a big appetite, found his appetite naturally stirred. Then how about the taste?
Rudger, who lightly took a bite, let out a groan. Not in a negative sense, but in a positive sense.
"It's funny to say this, but you could settle down sowhere and open a shop."
Having eaten many feasts while wandering the world, Rudger had considerable knowledge about cooking.
From als at Theon, als at the Imperial Palace, and even brief VIP treatnt in the Kingdom of Yuta. He had received generous hospitality wherever he visited, and naturally had extensive knowledge and experience about gourt food.
From Rudger's perspective, this at was really fantastically grilled at. Should it be called the extre of basics? To experience this taste from roughly grilled at without any other miscellaneous techniques.
However, even to Rudger's sincere praise, Pantos responded with a snort. Because for him, who had lived his entire life only for hunting, being good at cooking was not a complint at all.
"As a hunter, when you catch prey, you must treat its byproducts with utmost care. This is just part of that process."
Of course, even though he said that, Pantos also preferred to eat delicious things if he was going to eat anyway.
Didn't he particularly like the chocolate the children gave him when he was in Leathervelk?
"More than that......"
Pantos looked at the side of Rudger with subtle eyes. There was a small turtle basking in the warmth of the campfire. Though it was called a small turtle, it was a 1.5m land tortoise.
Of course, compared to its true form, it was so small it wouldn't even amount to a speck. Pantos knew. That this turtle was an existence equal to the Water Elental Lord he so wanted to hunt.
The problem was, he wondered why this one was here.
"Well, we sohow beca close, I suppose."
Rudger could only say that. Actually, the Earth Elental Lord unilaterally felt interest in this side and gave a lot of help.
Perhaps what worked most greatly on that impression was the effort to prevent the ley lines from bursting.
The Earth Elental Lord read that the power dwelling within Rudger was not that of an ordinary human, and had been watching his movents closely since then.
And when Rudger fully opened his celestial gate, it must have clearly felt it. Because it saw one of its kin, the Fire Elental Lord, get thoroughly beaten.
"Why? Are you interested?"
"It's interesting that it's an existence of the sa rank as the one I'm chasing, but not to that extent. My current goal is only that one."
Pantos' target was the Water Elental Lord because he himself chose to do so. He wasn't indecisive enough to suddenly change his prey just because another one appeared now.
Moreover, the Water Elental Lord had its own symbolism to Pantos. Because he was a beastman who instinctively shunned water, it was intended to overco that aspect.
'Well, considering he already runs on water and swims well, he seems to have overco it long ago.'
It was natural considering what beast's factor Pantos possessed. He was a polar bear beastman born with a mutant trait among bear beastn.
"You're unexpectedly single-minded."
"You've gained pointless jokes since I last saw you. Were you very lonely?"
"Perhaps I was."
When Rudger readily agreed, Pantos glanced at him with surprised eyes. The appearance of Rudger smiling gently while looking at the campfire was quite distant from the man he knew.
Of course, his inner self was still the sa, but the way of expression was different. Past Rudger didn't reveal his emotions outwardly well.
"You've changed. Quite a lot, too."
"Is that so? I don't really know. But I'll take it as a complint."
"I'm not sure if changing is good."
Pantos bit into the fully grilled deer at in one bite. Then he gulped down water from his canteen.
"I did anything to beco stronger because that was my goal and my life. So I thought other things were aningless."
When Arpa ca looking for Pantos. Even when he responded to Rudger's call and entered Owens afterward. Even when he worked together with companions after that.
He followed because Rudger, who was stronger than himself, said so, but Pantos always had doubts.
Is this really the path to becoming stronger? Camaraderie, friendship, the heart that wants to protect— he thought all of that was unnecessary.
That would rather soften emotions. It would rust the sharp purpose that must pursue only strength.
To not rust, one had to keep applying heat and hamring. Only then could one sharpen the blade and pierce through prey. Pantos believed this without doubt.
"Is that why you didn't co find even though you knew I returned?"
Rudger glanced sideways at the newspaper scattered around the campfire. The front page of the half-read newspaper had an article about Demon Lord Heathcliff written on it.
Pantos had known from before that Rudger had returned.
"Because it was hard to be certain. Whether that emotion was poison to or not. Whether I should boldly cut it off if it really was poison."
"So did you find out anything?"
"There's one thing for certain."
Pantos smiled rarely and grilled one more piece of at.
"Talking face to face like this is enjoyable."
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