Chapter 53: Lizard Hunting

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「 Skip the Bicorn and go straight to Tri-horn, huh.
」
Dean grumbled with disgust.

「 Tri-Horn Monitor Lizards have great vitality.
You need to lop its head off or crush its heart in order to defeat it.
It would still move even after doing this, so don’t go near it until Dean or Chris gave us the go signal, alright.
」
Retze explained, and he warned us.

Yeah, even if this lizard could no longer move, it would if you poked it.
The body would writhe with large movements, especially that tail, and that’s dangerous.

This lizard is considered huge, even among the Tri-Horns.
Mature males have swollen cheeks.
They turn an ashen color after they die, but the one before us was green with tawny speckles.

「 Before that, the hide at its back is really durable, and it’s harder than bone, so it’d be difficult to attack it from above and at its flank.
」
Chris silently drew his sword.

「 If it looks up and exposes that throat, then that’s our chance, huh.
」
Dean shifted his grip on his sword.

Hmm.
I had been slashing it with『Zanzenken』without caring if it’s from above or from the side so I had no idea how to deal with it with a normal sword.
It looked like the sword would break once it hit the hide.
I should’ve thought about it more during our fight.

So, show me what you’ve got now.

The two separated, and Dean went towards the tail of the monitor lizard.
He didn’t go right behind it, just a little to the right.
Chris faced it, and he was positioned a little to the left.
Both of them noted the wind’s direction, and they took care to hide their presence.

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They nodded to each other once they reached their positions.

Dean slashed its tail — no, he just struck it.
The shocked lizard twisted its body in an attempt to snap at Dean, and Chris thrusted his sword at its arched neck.

He immediately rushed beside it before the lizard could struggle.

The lizard had stretched its body and raised its head, bending its neck greatly so it could look at the enemy that attacked from its rear.
Chris attacked, aiming at the thin stretched skin under its throat, which was softer than the hide on its back, and pierced it.
He should pull the sword that had cut the bone immediately.
The muscles would contract and he might not be able to pull it out or else the sword would break.

Chris was incredible, doing all of that in just a split second.
They were perfectly in sync even though they didn’t practice beforehand.
They even divided the role according to their swords, and they moved in harmony.

「 Splendid.
」
「 Indeed, it was magnificent.
」
Ash and Butler were both in awe.

「 Sigh, my heart was pounding crazily even though I knew it’d be alright.
I’m timid, after all.
」
Retze released the breath that he had been holding.

「 Amazing.
」
It’s awesome, but this method is impossible unless two people do it, and I don’t want that.
I can’t use this as a guide!

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The lizard’s movements were weakening, and it eventually stopped.

「Alright, please, do help us with the disassembly.
」
Chris turned to us and said.

Yes, yes.
I’m great at disassembling.
I used 「 Zanzenken 」 when I did this before, too, but I also used a knife so that I’d know the hide’s characteristics when I made the coats.

And so, a knife is much more efficient for this than the ordinary sword that I normally bring with me for show.

Dean and the rest started to argue about getting the horn and pulling the nails, but I ignored them.
I started to remove the bump that was on the way.

There were stone-hard, wart-looking bumps on its head to its neck, and there were also some on the inner side of its hind legs.
They contained stinky pus inside, so they’re not really scales.

After that, I inserted the knife inside the anus that was under its belly, in between the hindlegs, then cut through the hide and opened it up.
A sharper knife would have been better, huh.

「 No, wait a sec.
Aren’t you used to this? 」
「 Isn’t it the same with lizards? 」
Dean pointed me out! So disassembling monitor lizards isn’t common, huh.
But, how about monitor lizards that aren’t monsterfied?

Then, from the holes that were left after removing the bumps, parallel to the scent glands —

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「 Indeed, he’s used to it.
」
Butler declared.

「 This hide seems like… 」
Retze commented with uncertainty.

「 You’re imagining things.
」
I cut him off.

「 ….
」
「 ….
」
「 ….
Let’s go hunt some lizards for a bit.
」
「 The ones with one horn, huh? 」
「 Can you please tell us how many we need to hunt for all of us? 」

!?

They found out!? Ah, but it’s not a single horned, but a Bicorn.
I never saw a single horned monitor lizard before.

「 Jean, have you tried tagging along with Gold ranks into the forest before? 」
「 Secret.
」

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「Yeah, I thought so.
If people found out that you got something to do with Gold guys, even if you’re just acquaintances, they’re going to pester you to get some materials, or else hound you to introduce them.
It’s gonna be troublesome.
You should keep mum about it.」

I don’t know a single Gold-ranked person, though.
I could probably tell the truth in that setting.

Retze and I did the disassembling beside the river, and also prepared our meal.
The other four went off to hunt lizards.
Single horned ones frequently appeared around here, so Ash and Butler would hunt those.
Dean and Chris would be the ones to hunt if they saw bicorns and tri-horns, it seems.

Ash and Butler could probably tackle the bicorns and tri-horns on their own, though.
They could use Dean and Chris’s method, too, weapon-wise.

「 Ah, there are bumps inside the hindlegs, too.
」
「 Here, too, huh.
」
I was showing Retze how to disassemble it.
It’s just my self-taught method, though.

We were in the breeding grounds of the monitor lizards, apparently, so there were many normal ones, and there were also a lot of monster lizards in proportion to that.
The strong ones would move towards the depths of the forest, scattering around.

There were tri-horns here, so we couldn’t relax our guard, but since there were plenty of monitor lizards here, other monsters and animals were few, so this place was well suited for hunting lizards.

Many inky black spirits who looked like they would dissolve also came here.
A lot of them were smaller than the ones I see in my training area, but there were also huge ones.
We can’t relax our guard since the animals would monsterfy once these spirits possessed them.
Will the number of horns increase if huge ones possess them? There’s a lot of mysteries, too.

「 Anyway, Retze, how much lard do we have? 」

Monitor lizards taste like chicken, apparently, so I’m thinking of deep-frying it.