As expected, there hadn’t been any bandits that decided to attack me during my first day of travel. In fact, I hadn’t seen anyone at all. From the maps I had studied, I knew that it would take me at least three days to reach the Brahmin border. After that, it would be at least another full day before I arrived in the nearest city.

On the second day, I once again did not see anyone at all, causing me to begin to grow suspicious. Even if I was traveling at a decent pace, and not catching up to those ahead of me, I would expect to find a merchant or traveler heading in the opposite direction of me. It wasn’t until the third day that I had my answer, while I was in the disputed territory.

It was difficult to really say who this land belonged to, as it rested between the countries of Brahmin and Mesator. Due to this dispute, neither country patrolled the land, yet both claimed rights to it. ‘Let the enemy do your work for you’, as they say. And because of that, the monsters in these disputed zones were far more abundant.

What I found on the third day was obvious signs of a battle. Deep claw marks etched perpendicular with the road, splashes of dried blood staining the grass. Stopping my wagon, I hurriedly jumped down to investigate. If, on the off chance the Mad Monk was killed by a monster, I would be able to return with proof of the kill, and claim the reward. And given that the tracking had told me he was coming this way, odds were high that he at least took part in this battle.

Without hesitation, I pulled out a stick of incense, and stabbed it into one of the claw marks. Then, I pulled my badge out and held it high above me. “Show me the battle that happened here.” I said as I called out to the spirits of the world.

The incense lit up, smoke billowing upwards. Judging by the weather, this battle couldn’t have been more than a day old, or else the rain would have washed away the blood. And, to my relief, the smoke began to form a definite shape, starting from the claw mark where the incense was placed.

The fact that the shape was definite meant two things. First, that the scene being recorded was fairly recent. And second, that the creature in question was not wielding ki. This meant that it was likely a magic-type beast, or one with an unusually strong body.

As the rest of the creature’s image formed, I made sure to get a good look at it. From the claw marks, which were several meters long, I knew it had to be big. And what stood before me certainly didn’t disappoint. I saw scales covering a massive frame, easily a dozen meters tall, and twice as long. Spikes ran down its back and along its tail, the tip of which ended at a sharp boned spike.

Its head resembled that of a large lizard, except that it had three pairs of eyes on its skull. On faced almost directly forward, while each other pair moved slightly back, the third looking out to the sides. If this thing had wings, surely it would be a mutated dragon.

“Archive search.” I spoke quietly, mostly to myself as I activated one of my Scholar abilities. In the back of my mind, the image of the monster appeared, its description broken up and used to search through my memory. From a glance, I could not recall the exact details of the beast, but that is why every Hunter requires a certain amount of Scholar levels.

After a few moments, I recalled a page of text I had recorded when studying monsters. Though, the information contained within it was sparse, so this should be something fairly rare. Forest Tyrant, monster, danger level between 150 and 175. Does not possess proficiency in ki, yet is able to create effects similar to a ki drain with its breath. Its eyes can see through illusion. Its scales, spikes, and claws are all excellent materials to craft weapons and armor with.

As the information was brought to the surface of my mind, I nodded. “And the opponent.” I turned to the direction where the monster was facing. This time, the image was nowhere near as clear. A blurred frame of a tall, thin man. Given that the smoke was not heading towards any other directions, it seemed that these two were the only participants in the fight.

Given what I knew about the Mad Monk, it wouldn’t be hard to believe that he could defeat a forest tyrant. My only hope right now was that he suffered some kind of injury, and there was blood or flesh that could be harvested. If a name was able to improve the tracking by so much, just imagine how actually having blood would help!

Once the images of the two combatants finished forming, I saw as the vague human form slowly jumped back. The tyrant was chasing him, eyeing him hungrily as its next meal. Smoke billowed out from his mouth as it surrounded the Mad Monk’s form, before it was rapidly drawn back in. when his form was uncovered, the previously vague image had a slightly increased clarity.

Although it wasn’t much, it was at least able to let me confirm that the human in question was really Martin Hallbern. Though, in the moment after I was able to make this clarification, his smoke form seemed to simply vanish. I was just about to curse that he had used some defensive ability that blocked the world spirits, but then I saw him appear on top of the tyrant’s head.

From what I could see in his face, he appeared unusually calm, as if the previous attack had caused no effect to him. He clenched his fists, and delivered several punches to the back of the tyrant’s head before jumping off, easily avoiding the spikes on the creature’s back. A few moments later, the tyrant seemed ready to unleash another breath, when suddenly it coughed up some grey smoke, which landed neatly where the dried blood was found.

The tyrant began swaying back and forth, its eyes suddenly unfocused, before it crashed down onto its side. The Mad Monk calmly walked up to its body, and placed his hands on it. From there, the incense smoke seemed to explode outwards in all directions, obscuring the image for several long moments. When the smoke condensed again, it formed only the image of the monk, who had already begun walking away. The only difference was that he carried a small scroll in his hand now.

“Damn, so not only did he get off without so much as a scratch, but he stored the whole thing in a quest scroll?” I shook my head in disappointment as I saw that. Thanks to that, there was basically nothing for me to gain from this.

Before I left, I evened out the road once again to repair the damage their battle had caused, and then gave one last order to the world spirits. “Show me the sky during the battle.” Right now, the sun was high above me, showing it to be midday. If I see the sky when they fought, I’ll at least know how much time had passed.

Or at least, that was the plan, before the smoke that had begun to dissipate moved up in uneven streams, creating countless small dots above me. “Okay, so it happened sometime overnight… does this guy not even rest?”

As I hopped back on the wagon, I once again sent it moving forward while I organized my thoughts. The tyrant’s breath weakened him, and it didn’t seem like he gained any strength after killing it. No matter what, he would have needed to rest shortly after fighting it. Furthermore, with how easily he was able to kill it, he should be near the apex level. But that movement technique… that wasn’t a ki step, the smoke would have still been able to follow that.

I once again did an archive search, trying to find any records of how he did that move. Searching my memories like this took a toll on my mana and mental state, however, so I was not able to keep it up for long. The most that I could find was records of certain monsters who were able to move like that. But it was unknown how they did it, or at least I didn’t know. I am fairly certain I would have recorded information about that, but yet it was nowhere to be found.

Still, it could be assumed that he had figured out how to replicate that ability, which means he might have other abilities that those monsters possess. Thankfully, this didn’t require a continued archive search, as I was able to recall the abilities fairly easily. The first was one that he had displayed in the fight, a physical strike with a delayed reaction. In the southern part of the Hanbei kingdom, there was a species of monkey that was able to use that.

The problem was narrowing down and identifying abilities that he might know, but hasn’t used. After all, since we didn’t know how they were done, it was impossible to tell just which abilities the monsters possessed that were related to it. Some were able to remotely control items that they touched, others could create fireballs that had some resistance to magical shields.

On the next day of my journey, I finally saw another traveler, or to be more precise a patrol of guards. There were three of them, all dressed in leather armors. One carried a copper sword in his hand, another a wooden spear with a copper tip. The final one had a bow and a quiver of arrows at his side.

Seeing what I was riding, the sword-wielding guard stepped up. “Halt.” He called out to me, raising his hand to gesture me to stop. With a shrug, I commanded the wagon to slow to a stop in front of him. “What bring you down these roads, druid?”

To save on time, I pulled out my badge to display it to him. “I’m hunting someone. He would have passed by within the last few hours, half a day at most.”

Seeing the hunter’s badge, the guard’s face changed slightly, no longer as haughty as a guard usually was in his duty. “I see… May I ask, what crime has this man done, that would call for a hunter to chase him across a kingdom’s border?”

I narrowed my eyes at his question. “A hunter has no borders, no kingdoms. There is only me and the target. But, since you must know, he is a killer. A child killer. He takes them and tortures them, bleeding and burning, making them wish they were dead before the pain finally kills them.”

Hearing my words, the faces of the three guards began to pale slightly. No doubt at least one of them had children in the nearby town. “Now, I have evidence that he has traveled this road, and even slain a forest tyrant on his own less than a day’s travel behind me. There would have been nobody else walking this road today but him. So tell me, have you seen him or not?”

Two of the guards looked like they were considering their next words, when suddenly the archer spoke. “There was a man. Not three hours ago, we saw him up the road. He said he was coming to study in Brahmin. Asked us where which cities would be good to find a school, and how to get there.”

The other two looked accusingly at the archer, who glared back at them. It seems like he was the one with family, after all. “Where did you direct him?” I asked, interrupting their little staredown.

This time, it was the swordsman who spoke. “The only city nearby with a school is Jansen. It’s a day and a half to the southwest, but it’s easier to go by the roads. Once you get to the next city, there will be a road going directly south that takes you right there.”

I looked regretfully at the wagon. “Did he take the road, or go straight ahead?”

“Ah, he took the road.” The guard answered immediately. “We told him that the unguarded lands were dangerous, and that it was best to stick to the roads. He thanked us and was on his way.”

Okay, that surprised me. I had expected them to tell me that he had immediately gone off the road to run straight towards Jansen. One glance towards the archer was enough to let me know that the guard had told the truth. At least this way, I could keep riding peacefully. “Thanks. Hopefully, I’ll be able to catch up with him before he can do anything else.”

And thus, I left behind possibly the only people that had survived talking to the Mad Monk, without them never knowing just how lucky they were.