Jin’s POV
   It has been six days since Jin has started to train Date Jr., Rei-san and Kubo. So far, things are going surprisingly well.

   Out of the three of them, Rei-san is the most promising one as she has experience in kendo. Her stances are firm, her moves are smooth, and her arms are strong enough to allow her to swing her scimitar Balaraw for hours. The only drawback is that she needs to be constantly given orders by Kubo, as she cannot move on her own free will, or make her own judgment for that matter.

   “When you have the time, give Reina as much orders as possible. What to do when the two of you are separated, what kind of enemy to engage first. That sort of thing.” Jin told Kubo.

   “Can’t you just give me a list so that it’s easier for me?”

   “No can do. I won’t be there to watch your back forever. You need to imagine what kind of scenario you might get caught up in so that you’ll always be ready.”

   “Aww…”

   Speaking of Kubo, he is surprisingly diligent for someone who was extremely reluctant to fight. He has spent the past few days memorizing the incantations of Level 1 to 3 Spells from a spell book given by Jin, and he reported that he has started to memorize the incantations of some of the Level 4 Spells.

   “There’s no real need to rush. For now, all you have to do is polishing your low level Spells.” Jin told him after hearing the report.

   “I’m doing that too. I lost some sleep over all this, but I can manage.”

   Now that he mentioned it, he does have some bags under his eyes. He must have trained for really long hours.

   “Just don’t push yourself. If you collapsed, you’ll just worry Reina.”

   “I know what I’m doing.” he assured.

   Perhaps it was to protect Rei-san, perhaps he was motivated by money. Either way, Kubo is pretty fired up.

   As for his request to work for the government, it has been approved. After getting the good news, he has already resigned from his job at the bookstore. The only problem is that he still needs to work for two more weeks before he could leave there for good.

   “What about Reina?” Jin asked.

   “She still has her own life, so I ordered her to prioritize that part. The only reason I want her to be here is so that she could protect herself.”

   Naturally, it would be a waste of time to ask her opinion. Jin doubts that she even knows what she’s doing. Or maybe she does. It’s really hard to tell since a familiar like her is the first of her kind.

   Finally, there’s Date Jr.. There’s the troublesome condition in order for her ability to activate, which means she can’t test it out properly since there aren’t any monster activity so far. For now, all she could do is polishing her stamina, skill in wielding her sledgehammer and utilizing some low level spells. Majority of the time, Jin assigned her to spar with Rei-san. The student council member has little to no lesson in using a weapon, so she’s getting thrashed by Rei-san all the time. Even so, she refuses to give up and constantly seek to improve herself.

   “Are you planning to work for the government like Maid Master and I are doing?” Jin asked her once.

   She shook her head.

   “I don’t need the money. I’ll serve the people without expecting compensation.”

   “How noble.” Jin mumbled. “Just so you know, the two of us are not going to follow your lead. Not when we have bills to pay.”

   “I understand that. I really do. I am really sorry for being so harsh on you before.” she said while lowering down her head.

   Now this surprised Jin.

   “What’s with that change of heart?”

   “It’s nothing. I, well, I’ve started to realize how arrogant I was, so I decided to look at things from the perspective from other people.”

   “...Hmm.”

   “Well, I shall continue my training.”

   “Yeah, you do just that.”

   As Jin is overseeing her self-training, he started to think that the younger Date has more hope than her elder brother.

   Jin could handle all the training well enough. What he can’t handle just as well are exams. It’s tomorrow, and he’s not making any progress in his revision. After studying maths for an hour, he decides to stop trying. He gives up. He could sit there for hours and do the same types of questions over and over again, but he’s sure that nothing will go in as long as his brain is rejecting all the pointless information.

   His stomach growls. He looks at the time. It’s almost dinnertime. Good. He was just about to rest his brain for the night, and cooking can help him relax. He got out of his room and head to the living room.

   As usual, Nyri is watching the television. The screen is showing the view of Hokkaido and its breathtaking view. Now that it’s Winter, there’s snow pretty much everywhere over there. The screen cuts to a view of the market next. The host of the show is visiting a stall that sells their famous Hairy Crabs.

   “Are those things delicious?” Nyri asks him.

   “Not really. The locals prefer to steam or grill them, which makes their taste kind of bland and plain. They have very little meat in their body too. Most of the crab lovers are only into crabs for their roe.”

   “So there’s not much point in eating them.”

   Even though she said that, Jin sees drool coming out from the corner of her mouth.

   “I could buy one for you to try one of these days.” he offers.

   Jin hears the dragon gulps audibly.

   “Well, if you’re going out of your way to buy one, I suppose it would be rude to refuse.”

   Once Jin has finished cooking their dinner, they sit down in front of the dining table and enjoy the meal. Jin was halfway through his food when his phone rings.

   He lets out a sigh. A phone call during this hour is usually a bad news. He takes the phone out of his pocket and looks at the screen to see who’s calling. It’s Sergeant Wakaba.

   “Another work for me, sergeant?” he asks once he picks up the call.

   “That’s right.”

   Yup. Called it.

   “What is it this time? A youkai? More weird-looking creatures?”

   “Actually, I think we found the creature that had been devouring other creatures left and right.”

   Jin got up from his seat before he realized it.

   “Are you sure about that?” he asks.

   “We had an eyewitness who saw a humanoid creature eating a cow. It might or might not be the same one we’re looking for, but I think it’s best if you come over right now.”

   “I’ll do just that. And whatever you do, please don’t attempt to tail the creature. It might be extremely dangerous.”

   “Understood. The location is…”

   “Out for work again?” Nyri asks after Jin keeps his phone away.

   “Yup. I think it might take a bit longer this time.”

   She shrugs. “Nothing to do with me. I’ll just be a good dragon and look over the place.”

   “Just don’t go overboard with the takeout if you ever got hungry.”

   She averts her eyes without saying anything.

   “Where’s your reply?”

   “I promise…” she grumbles.

   Satisfied, he leaves his apartment and heads outside.

   The location described by Sergeant Wakaba is a very rural part of the area. For the first time in his life, Jin managed to see a real cow outside the television. At least, he thinks a corpse counts.

   The usual gang is here: Sergeant Wakaba herself, the annoying Date, Captain Yamasaki, the forensic officer that Jin spoke to at the sewage treatment plant, and a few other officers. There’s a new member in the team this time, though: a worg.

   “A regular police dog might have some difficulty in tracking down the creature, so we enlisted his help and loaned him from a nearby police station that he was assigned to.” Sergeant Wakaba explains.

   Jin nods at the worg. “Nice working with you.”

   The worg merely grunts in response.

   “Back to what we were saying. Are you sure that the creature that ate the cow is still nearby?” Sergeant Wakaba asks the huge wolf.

   “That’s right. The vile…thing. I can still smell him.” the worg snarls.

   “Vile how?” Jin asks.

   “This one has the smell of lots of different other creatures. Its smell is even worse than a chimera, if even possible.”

   “Do you meant to say that it ate lots of other creatures and has their blood on it?”

   The worg shakes his head.

   “I know what I said.”

   Jin looks at the police officers.

   “I’ll be chasing after the creature.” he tells them.

   “Roger that. We’ll be staying here just in case it comes back.” Captain Yamasaki says.

   Jin takes a quick look at their equipment. Captain Yamasaki himself and two others are equipped with shotguns. Everyone else have a pistol or a revolver strapped to their sides. All of them are wearing bulletproof vests.

   “Your weapons might or might not work against it. Please refrain from engaging with it just to be safe.” Jin tells them.

   “Understood. We will fire at it anyway, as the sound of the gunshots will deter nearby civilians from coming near.”

   “Good luck, Silver Wolf.” Sergeant Wakaba tells Jin.

   “Good luck to you too, everyone. Now then, let’s go, um…”

   “Cinder.” the worg introduces himself.

   “Let’s go, Cinder.”

   The worg speeds off. Jin nods at the officers one more before following him.

   Cinder is pretty fast, but Jin managed to catch up with him even after a slower start. The best part is, he didn’t even cast Strengthen on his legs. If only he could run normally like this in front of everyone, he could participate in the Olympics and get a gold medal or two. Sadly, most governments already know what he really looks like, so he might be called out for “cheating”. The last thing he wants is garnering attention.

   A mere two minutes later, Cinder brings Jin to a large abandoned factory which used to manufacture beers and other alcoholic drinks. Jin remembers this place from watching the news a few years back. It was closed down since it violated several hygiene regulations.

   “The creature is inside.” Cinder confirms.

   “Thanks. I’ll take it from here. You just stay outside and wait for me until I’m done.” Jin tells him.

   “I follow you inside.”

   “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Like I told those officers back then, the creature might be dangerous.”

   “You take me for a weak mutt like those you keep? I have not hunt for so long I desire bloodshed.” the worgs growls.

   “Fine, you can join me. Just don’t complain if something happens to you.”

   The gate to the factory is locked, but it matters not to Jin. He brings out Felfarthen and slices it into half.

   Cinder narrows his eyes at the double-bladed sword.

   “That piece of weapon smells like an Elder Dragon.”

   “That’s because it is. You ever met one back at Ifezan?”

   There was a short pause.

   “Don’t feel like talking about it.”

   “Fair enough. Let’s go.”

   The entrance to the factory is locked as well. Again, Jin solved the problem by hacking the door into half.

   The interior of the factory is very dark. Jin accesses his vault to bring out a torchlight and shines the light around.

   The factory has the usual things: distillers, conveyor belts and other machines Jin can’t tell the function. The two of them enter the factory and walks around aimlessly while being alert.

   “The creature very close.” the worg reports.

   “It’s not running away?”

   “Not at the moment.”

   “How surprising. I thought it would run away after hearing the racket.”

   “You exactly like leader. He loved to hunt loud too. Always howl and scare away prey.” Cinder grumbles.

   “You mean your pack leader? Oh, right. I didn’t ask for his name when we last talked to each other.”

   “Ebony, his name. Does it matter right now?”

   “I guess not. Can you pinpoint the creature’s exact location?”

   Cinder sniffs around loudly before furrowing his eyebrows.

   “Something not right.” he grunts.

   “What is it?”

   “Now his smell everywhere.”

   Two possibilities popped up inside Jin’s head. One, the creature somehow released his smell all over the place. Two-

   “Behind you!” Cinder cautions loudly.

   Without turning around, Jin stabs the unknown object with his sword. He stabbed something soft, and in the next moment he hears a sploshing sound coming from it. He smells blood next. He turns around to see the thing he just stabbed. It’s a tail with an eyeball at the tip. His sword has penetrated the eyeball and split it onto half. Blood with a mix of some disgusting, transparent liquid are oozing out from it.

   “It has somehow detached part of its body parts and send them after us.” Jin forms a conclusion while stepping back so as not to step on the blood and the mysterious liquid.

   “That mostly it.”

   Cinder raises his right paws and crushes something underneath it. Jin didn’t bother to take a closer look. It’s probably another tail or some other gross body part.

   Jin hears some weird sounds coming from above. He steps back without looking and slashed upwards. That something got sliced into half in an instant. Only then Jin shines the light from the torchlight and takes a closer look. It’s a bony arm, complete with an eyeball located at the palm.

   More things fall from the ceiling. This time, Jin has no time to take a look. He dodges and slashes and dodges some more. The sliced body parts are starting to pile up on the floor, with more and more blood mixed in the middle. It’s getting really annoying. Jin decides to fly upwards.

   “I’m going to bright up this entire place!” he warns Cinder.

   “Do it!”

   Right after giving the warning, Jin casts Bright, a Level 1 Spell commonly used by adventurers to light up a dark area. Immediately, he’s being rewarded with a clear view of the factory, although a small part of him wish he couldn’t.

   There are body parts literally everywhere he looks. Arms. Tails. Legs. Even a few skulls. All the body parts minus the skulls are crawling like they’re some kind of nightmarish worms. As for the skulls, they’re slowly hopping towards Jin and Cinder. Now where’s the main body-

   Suddenly, the entire factory is being covered with a colorless mist. At the next moment, the whole place has gone dark again, and Jin feels the wind which allows him to fly disappears. Without the wind, Jin fells to the ground. One seconds later, he lands on a cushion of fur. The cushion then lands on the ground with a loud thud and squashing everything that was underneath it.

   “You injured?” Cinder asks.

   “Not one bit. Thanks for the save.”

   Jin gets down from the worg. While continuing to mutilate the body parts that fell from the ceiling, he makes a quick assessment of the situation.

   He remembered from one of Sergeant Wakaba’s report that a vampire was devoured. In other words, the creature obtained the ability of breathing out anti-magic gas from eating the poor undead. He has a sinking feeling that the creature obtained the ability to separate its body parts and control them remotely by devouring Split Lizard, a creature only found in Ifezan. Lastly, when he was up in the air and took a good look at the entire factory, he couldn’t find the creature at all. It’s either it’s invisible, or it has left the factory completely. He doubts it’s the latter since it can feel the creature’s killing intent, but just in case-

   “Is it still around here somewhere?” he asks Cinder.

   “Yes. However, I need more time to sniff it out.”

   “Sure, I think we can afford that.”

   Jin is not even being sarcastic. He very much doubts that the creature can afford to split himself up like this for long. For one thing, the number of body parts that a Split Lizard can detach is limited to the victim it ate. The more it eats, the more disposable body parts it get. Since this creature has the same ability as the Split Lizards, by right it shares the same drawback. Also, the creature is dead set on killing Jin and Cinder, for some reason. Sooner or later, it’ll come out and try to finish the job-

   “THERE!”

   Cinder roars and charge towards the right side of the factory. Jin follows closely from behind.

   He hears footsteps from somewhere further, but his vision is mostly blocked by the rows and rows of machines. There’s also the dark surroundings.

   Eventually, Cinder jumps over a conveyor belt and snarls loudly. For a single second, Jin sees some spaces a few steps ahead of him distorts a little. Instinctively, he raises Felfarthen and throws it like a javelin towards a spot slightly on the right.

   He hears a soft gasp of pain, and the double-bladed sword is floating mid-air. To be more precisely, the tip of the sword has found its mark. Jin gestures for the sword to return, and it did so in the blink of an eye.

   “We know you’re there. Stop it with the invisibility and show yourself.” Jin says to the unknown enemy.

   As both he and Cinder watches, a humanoid slowly appears out of thin air. No, it’s no humanoid, but rather a real human. A naked human who’s around the same height as Jin but much more thinner. And Jin recognizes this one.

   It’s the student Jin refused to save from the group of delinquents all those weeks ago.

   Cinder snarls in surprise.

   “Is that a human?”

   “Sure looks it.”

   “But, he has the smell of so so many creatures.”

   “He probably has a book full of stories to tell about how that happened. Speaking of which-”

   Jin addresses his former schoolmate.

   “Now, let’s talk for a bit shall we?”