Chapter 178- Bear Hunting

[Luna POV]

After some time, everyone was awake and taking care of undoing our camp.  Once that was done, we were on our way again.  We walked for a while before changing direction and heading west.  While we were walking, I looked up to the sky.  The clouds were grey.

“Rain or snow?” (Luna)

“The place we are now, it could be either.” (Skadi)

“Then let’s hope for snow, I don’t really want to fight in the rain.” (Luna)

“Wouldn’t that be just as bad?” (Velvet)

“Depends on how bad it is.  We’ll just get less wet with one.” (Luna)

“Ugh nya.” (Mio)

“Do you hate getting wet, Mio?” (Soleil)

“Not really nya.  But I do hate working in the rain nya.” (Mio)

“That’s fair.” (Soleil)

“Oh yeah, Skadi, does your water related divine skill work on all water, or does it have to be sea water?” (Luna)

“It has to be sea water.  My mother is a goddess of the sea, not water in general.” (Skadi)

“I see.  There goes that plan then.” (Luna)

“Heh.  Don’t worry, I’ll show off what I can do when we go after the pirates.” (Skadi)

“I’m looking forward to seeing that.” (Ophidia)

“What plan were you talking about, Luna?” (Velvet)

“Well, if Skadi’s divine skill worked on all water, then we could probably somehow use it to find the bear if it started raining.” (Luna)

“Luna, even I don’t know how I would do that, even if the skill worked.” (Skadi)

“Well, I never said it was a good plan.  I literally thought it up the second I noticed the weather.” (Luna)

We continued on until we started seeing a somewhat rocky area in the distance.

“That’s the place.” (Skadi)

“Finally.  Shall I fold space so we get there faster?” (Luna)

“Master, will you let me try that?  I think I can do that now.” (Ophidia)

“If you think you can, then go for it.  I’ll watch and make sure nothing happens.” (Luna)

Ophidia stared off into the distance then started attempting to fold the space in front of her.  It was like the scenery was warping and distorted.  She then took a step.

“Ophidia, wai-and she’s gone.  *Sigh*  Grab on, everyone.” (Luna)

Everyone did as I said and grabbed onto my arms.  I then did the same thing Ophidia did and folded space in front of me.  When we took a step, we appeared next to Ophidia who was laying on the ground breathing heavily.

“Ophidia, you messed up at the end there.” (Soleil)

“What…did I…do wrong?” (Ophidia)

“You ended up blinking all the way here.  You have to maintain the spatial distortion in front of you the whole way.  If you don’t, you end up teleporting instead and it’ll take a lot of your mana away.  But good effort though.” (Luna)

I held my hand out to her and she grabbed it.  I pulled her up while also giving her some of my mana.

“Better?” (Luna)

“Much.” (Ophidia)

“Luna, let me give her some of my mana next time.” (Skadi)

“Alright.” (Luna)

We started looking around the area.  It was a lot more rocky than I expected it to be.

‘It’s like someone decided to blow up a mountain.’

{Not quite.  Remember that person that slew a dragon?}

‘The one who died after eating it?’

{Yep.  This is the area where that battle took place.  That particular dragon was very proficient in earth magic.  Over time, everything has worn down.}

‘Interesting.  I wonder if we’ll find anything interesting here then.’

{I highly doubt it.  That happened so long ago that people have picked the area clean.}

“Oh.  What a shame.” (Luna)

“What is nya?” (Mio)

“Apparently this is the place where someone fought and killed a dragon.  It’s a shame since Tamamo said that we won’t find anything interesting left.” (Luna)

“Eh?  That’s this area?” (Skadi)

{You didn’t realize that, Skadi?}

“I didn’t.  It’s been so long that the place has completely changed.  I’m actually surprised you noticed it.” (Skadi)

“Anyway, let’s find this bear already.” (Luna)

We started to look around the area for any place the bear could be at.  Not to long after we arrived, Soleil and Velvet found what looked like a cave.  When we got closer to it, I started to smell the smell of a beast and blood.  All around the entrance were bones of animals and monsters.  Some looked fresher than others and still had meat and blood clinging to them.

“This is definitely the place.” (Luna)

“Can you tell if it’s in there?” (Velvet)

“It’s not.  It smells like it is, but I can’t hear any kind of movement in there.  It’s probably gone out to hunt for more food.” (Luna)

“Then shall we continue talking normally?” (Soleil)

“No, but we will wait for it to come back.  I’ll even set up a trap and everything.” (Luna)

“Won’t it notice we’re here due to the smell?” (Ophidia)

“I have that covered.” (Luna)

I pulled out a small vial from my inventory and spread its contents around.

“Smart nya.  Though I heard that stuff is really expensive nya.” (Mio)

“It’s not like I spend that much money anyway.” (Luna)

“What was that stuff.” (Skadi)

“Something that recently started to be circulated in alchemy shops.  Its creator is our resident otherworlder alchemist.  It completely erases the smell of people in a way that it won’t alert monsters.” (Luna)

“Interesting.  You’ll have to show me the place you got that from later.” (Skadi)

“I can just give you some.  I bought a ridiculous amount of the stuff.  But not right now.” (Luna)

I moved over to the mouth of the cave and started using ice magic to create traps for the bear.  I then hid them with illusion magic.

“That’s done, now we move somewhere else and wait.” (Luna)

We all moved to good hiding places above the cave and waited.

‘Now that I think about it, why is there even a cave here?’

{Like I said earlier, that dragon was masterful with earth magic.  That cave is probably from one of its attack that changed the landscape.}

‘I see.’

We waited for several hours for the bear to arrive.  During that time, it started to lightly snow.  After a while, the snow started falling more heavily and the wind started to pick up.

‘Perfect time for a snowstorm.’

{Your words are practically dripping with enthusiasm Luna.}

I was just about to respond when I started to hear the sound of something coming in this direction.  I looked up from my spot to see a massive black shape lumbering toward the cave.

‘I though we were looking for a bear, not a behemoth.’

{Luna, behemoths look different than that.}

As the bear approached, I could start to see it more clearly.  It was dragging something in one of its mouths.  What it was dragging was anyone’s guess since it was so mangled that it was unrecognizable.  It stopped right in front of the cave and its second head started sniffing around.  It then stepped into the cave and triggered one of the traps.  A ice in the shape of a guillotine blade fell onto the necks of the bear and broke in two.  It managed to make it halfway through one of the necks and was still sticking in the other.  The bear let out a pained roar and started to move frantically.  In doing so, it triggered another trap which caused two spiked panels of ice to crash into the bear’s sides turning it into a sandwich.

“Lunya, you are a scary person nya.” (Mio)

“It’s not over yet.  That thing is still alive.” (Luna)

“How resilient.” (Skadi)

The bear, while weakened, managed to smash one of the panels and started to unsteadily move away from the cave.  It then triggered the last trap I set.  Several thick ice needles shot into the bear and injected the venom from the snake dungeon boss that Ophidia defeated some time ago.  Shortly after that, the bear fell to the ground dead.

“That was kind of a messy kill.” (Velvet)

“Yeah, that’s on me.  I didn’t take into account how resilient it would be.” (Luna)

“Then why did you place so many traps?” (Soleil)

“I didn’t know which one it would step on.  I didn’t think it would step on all of them.” (Luna)

“Let’s just go and pick up the body and get moving.  This storm is going to pick up soon.” (Skadi)

We moved down to the bear corpse.  I placed my hand on it and put it into my inventory.

“Gah!  I can’t take it anymore!” (Ophidia)

“Huh?” (Skadi)

I turned around as fast as I could when I heard Ophidia shout.  What I saw was baffling.  Ophidia had turned into her serpent form and shrunk to a small size.  She then slithered over to Skadi and started climbing up her leg.  When she made it to Skadi’s neck, she went into her shirt.  Skadi, for her part, was shocked and I could see her face turning red.

“O-Ophidia, what are you doing?” (Skadi)

“It got too cold.” (Ophidia)

“…” (Luna)

{Luna?}

‘What a lie.  She said that the cold doesn’t affect her when we first met.’

{Then what’s her motive for doing this right now?}

I pondered for a moment.

‘She was probably debating on whether she would do this or not for a while and just now made up her mind.  I mean, it’s not like I don’t get her.  I’ve been debating whether or not to set up a domain and get you to come here so I can lay in your tails.’

{…}

‘Don’t act like you wouldn’t.’

{Ufufu.}

The snowstorm started to get worse, so we all grouped together and I teleported us to Onigashima.

Chaos Realm:

Tamamo: I'm surprised Payto isn't back yet.

Atmos: Indeed.  He would have loved to see what just went down.

Order: Oh, he would, would he?

Atmos: I meant with the bear.

Order: I knew that, what did you think I meant?

Atmos: Oh, I thought you thought I meant what went down just now with Skadi and Ophidia.

Order: Sure, he probably would have laughed at that, but only that.

Tamamo: Atmos, why are you trying to start something?

Atmos: No reason.

Tamamo: I don't believe that.

Atmos: ...

*Starts trying to run away*

Tamamo: Nope.

*grabs Atmos by the ear*

Atmos: Gah!