Chapter 8: Hunting Albaherons

After she confirmed that Allen was not hurt in any major way, Theresia heaved a sigh of relief. Allen gently set down the albaheron he had caught in the earthen-floored part of the house. As long as its wings were folded, the monster was only slightly larger than an average adult human. However, because of how small the house was, its feet still protruded out the front entrance.

“So, what happened, Allen?”

“It came down from the sky, so I caught it, mother.” Which technically isn’t a lie.

“Allen’s so amazing!” Krena gushed with a bright smile, showing not a hint of fear at the sight of the monster’s corpse.

In contrast, Mash burst into tears as soon as he saw the large body. “Mama, so scawieeee!” he cried as he ducked behind Theresia’s back.

Come on, Mash, don’t be such a crybaby, okay? You’ve gotta grow up into a strong man so you can help protect our family. But that aside, this bird... It’s definitely heavier than twenty kilograms, isn’t it? Which should mean it should have ten kilograms of edible meat. I’m sure the feathers can be used for something too. Plus, since it’s a monster, it should have a magic stone. Heh heh heh, I wonder how much it’d be worth if I sell it?

Allen was already contemplating how much the albaheron was worth. While it may have been a monster taller than a human adult, all he could see were materials and meat.

Rodin, who was supposed to be sleeping in his room, asked loudly, “What’s happened?!” When Theresia explained the situation to him, he exclaimed, “That can’t be!” and stuck his head out the bedroom door. Because the ground of the earthen-floored area was lower than the rest of the house, the bird was out of his line of sight. Allen lifted its head up to show him.

“Th-That really is an albaheron. Did you really capture it, Allen? With your stones and wooden sword?”

“Huh? Uh, yes, father.”

Unlike Theresia and Krena, what Rodin first noticed was the monster’s squashed right eye and the neck that was bent in multiple locations from repeated blows. He had instantaneously analyzed the wounds and figured out how Allen had done it.

Because he wanted to take a closer look, he sat up and tried to drag himself forward. Seeing this, Allen rushed to his side in a fluster. “What are you doing, father?! You have to stay in bed!”

At this time, Gerda just happened to show up. “Whoa, what’s with the commotion? What happened?”

Hold on, why is Mr. Gerda here at this time? We weren’t expecting him—which reminds me, we weren’t expecting Krena either. Wait, could it be that...

Well, I haven’t been playing with Krena ever since the day father woke up. Krena agreed to take a break—albeit reluctantly—but could it be that she couldn’t take it anymore after just these few days? Allen pondered to himself.

I can imagine how she might’ve been trying to burn off her energy by making Gerda play with her instead. But playing with Krena is even more tiring than farmwork—I know firsthand.

Allen kept staring at Gerda, but the large man seemed to be making an effort to avoid his gaze. Allen was convinced that he had guessed correctly. Ah, so Gerda must’ve purposefully let her out of the house because he was reaching the end of his rope. Gerda’s body language was all the confirmation he needed.

“Papa, look what Allen caught! He’s amazing!” Krena gushed as soon as she saw her father approach, completely oblivious to what Allen may or may not have deduced.

Gerda replied, “Seriously?” before proceeding to examine the albaheron. Then he turned toward Rodin, “Looks like this is for real. Don’t be pushing yourself like this. Hm...you mind if I take care of this?”

“That...would be a big help. Please and thank you.”

Hm? “Take care” of it? Is he going to teach me how to butcher it? I’d really appreciate it.

“All right. Let’s go then, Allen.”

“Uh...where to?”

“The village chief’s house, of course. We have to hand over this albaheron, after all.”

“Wait, hand over?” Seriously? Are all monsters considered his property?

Gerda grabbed the albaheron and the hatchet hanging on the wall. He beckoned Allen to follow him as he walked out. Making sure that the boy was watching properly, he explained, “You’re gonna need to let the blood out first, or the meat’s gonna spoil.” Then he chopped the bird’s head off and drained the blood into the ditch beside the house.

“Do all monsters belong to the village chief?”

“Technically, they belong to the feudal lord. All monsters that we serfs capture are subject to the sixty percent tax too. We only get to keep the remaining forty percent.”

Seriously? And here I’d thought the tax was only for the crops. It also applies to monsters that we randomly catch?

Gerda went on to explain that no one would care if it was just horned rabbits—after all, they were only Rank E, the lowest rank—but those were the exception. Albaherons were Rank D, and therefore required proper taxation. All of this was a shock to Allen.

“However, Deboji is partly responsible for what happened to Rodin. There’s room for negotiation. And this is your first catch ever—I’ll make sure to haggle as much as I can.” If the village chief had not insisted on the hunting party letting commoners in, then Rodin would not have been injured. Gerda’s idea was to take advantage of the guilt that he must be feeling to secure better terms on Allen’s behalf.

“If that’s the case, I have an idea,” Allen said, proceeding to share how he wanted the negotiations to go.

Gerda listened thoughtfully, then nodded to show his acknowledgment. He adjusted the weight of the albaheron on his shoulder as he led Allen and Krena toward the direction of Deboji’s house. Because his house was on the way, he was planning on dropping Krena off while passing by.

“Allen, can I come play again?!”

Krena stared at Allen intensely, hanging on his next word. Gerda also stared at Allen intensely, hanging on his next word—albeit with a slightly different feeling behind it. Allen stopped to think about his schedule. Whereas his play knight sessions with Krena used to start after three o’clock and end at four, the starting time had been creeping forward to between one to two o’clock recently. Now that he and Krena had turned six years old, they did not need to nap as much after lunch, and the time freed up by sleeping less had been going toward playing instead.

Well, I’ve already finished harvesting all our potatoes. I think I can afford to give up my afternoons. “Yep, I’m free tomorrow. Come on over.”

“YAYYYY!” Krena jumped up and down with joy. Next to her, Gerda placed a hand on his chest and sighed in relief. Raising a Sword Lord was hard work.

After dropping Krena off at home, Gerda and Allen continued making their way toward the village chief’s house. The large albaheron gathered many curious glances when they entered the residential area, but the two proceeded without paying them any mind.

“Is Mr. Deboji home?” Gerda asked, knocking on the door of the village chief’s house. Soon someone came out. Gerda explained his business, then the person admitted him together with Allen.

“What a splendid-looking albaheron! What’s the occasion?”

The monster was laid out in the room where the feast with the knights had been hosted. The village chief and another person who was likely a relative had come out to speak with Gerda.

“Mm, this kid here’s Rodin’s son. This albaheron randomly flew down, and he killed it. So, now we’ve brought it,” Gerda explained, following the story that he and Allen had worked out on the road.

“I see, I see.”

“And as you know, Rodin is currently bedridden. Can the family keep the rest of the bird if they turn in all the feathers?”

“What?!”

Bird feathers could be used to make quills and accessories. As such, they were never merely discarded. Naturally the same was true for albaherons.

“Can’t you let them have that much, at least?”

“Ah, that’s not quite sufficient...for such a large bird...”

Silence filled the room. Gerda glared at Deboji as if trying to intimidate him, but apparently turning in only the feathers was truly not enough.

Gerda sighed. “All right, all right. Then you can have the magic stone too. How’s that, then? Rodin’s family has four people, remember. Honestly, even I don’t know how else they’re going to get their meat. Thanks to someone making an unreasonable demand, he can’t join any of the other great boar hunts this year either.”

“Wha—?! It was the feudal lord who ordered me to send more meat! I already explained it to you!”

Hmm? So it was because the feudal lord asked for more meat that the village chief wanted more people in the hunting party?

“So you did. Well? Feathers and magic stone. What do you say?”

“W-Well, uh, Rodin has done a lot for the village... All right, that will do.”

Gerda shot Allen a quick look. It was actually Allen’s idea to first offer only the feathers, then add the magic stone to the offer afterward. The idea was to start the negotiations with blatantly unreasonable terms so that the other party would become more amenable to the real terms.

“Thank you very much, Mr. Deboji!” Allen said loudly with a smile.

Deboji nodded graciously. “Mm! Make sure you grow up big and strong like Rodin, all right?”

“So, if I manage to capture more albaherons, I only have to give you all the feathers and magic stones?”

“Wait, what?”

This was Allen’s true aim, as he had every intention of killing more albaherons. However, the feathers and magic stone together were still shy of the sixty percent tax that was supposed to be imposed on everything. This was why Deboji hesitated.

“Come on, why not let the kid have it? That is, if he manages to catch another one, right?” Gerda asked somewhat conspiratorially.

“Ahhh...I suppose so. Kid, if you can get more albaherons, feathers and magic stones alone are fine.”

“Yay! Thank you very much! Um, it would be very tiring to bring the whole monster this far again. May I give everything to the tax collector all at once when he comes to our house?”

While he was at it, Allen tried to settle on the method of payment too. He was trying to make the case that it would be difficult to bring the entire albaheron to the village chief’s house every single time.

“Well...that does make sense. Do that, then.”

Although he had hesitated, Deboji fully believed that this business of hunting albaherons was merely a one-off matter. He therefore accepted Allen’s terms quite readily, giving him permission to pass the feathers and magic stones from all future catches directly to the tax collector when he arrived in early December.

Afterward, Gerda and Allen hurried out, citing the need to return home before dark. Along the way, however, the large man praised the boy over and over again for his brilliance.

＊ ＊ ＊

Allen was currently pinning down an albaheron all by himself in the fallow area of his family’s fields.

“Damn, I didn’t expect two of them to come down at the same time. I seriously thought I was done for just now. But I didn’t lose a single Summon this time, so I guess I can claim this as a complete victory, right?” Allen muttered to himself.

After he visited the village chief’s house with Gerda, Allen had started hunting albaherons once every three days. He had figured out that as long as there was one flying up in the sky, he could easily taunt it down using three Hoppers. They would not come down with only one or two Hoppers, and if there were no albaherons in the sky in the first place, nothing at all would descend. It had become apparent that only monsters were susceptible to Hopper’s Ability. Allen had seen the birds that looked like Japanese cranes fly by multiple times, and not once did any of them show any sign of being Provoked.

Allen’s grimoire now contained a clear how-to guide for hunting albaherons.

Wait until an albaheron is flying overhead.

Provoke it using three Insect Gs.

Once the albaheron has descended, retrieve the three Insect Gs before they’re killed.

Have two Insect Fs use their Ability on the albaheron.

Further weaken the albaheron by throwing stones at it, then have sixteen Beast Fs surround and bring it down.

Use wooden sword to hold the albaheron’s head down and finish it off through asphyxiation.

The first battle was a struggle, but thanks to it, Allen had figured out what his Summons could do. Since then, he had managed to win every battle entirely unscathed. In other words, he had discovered the sure-win formula. That is, until today, when two albaherons had come down at the same time.

Should I increase the number of Insect Fs just in case something similar happens again?

Allen’s grimoire suddenly glowed faintly, interrupting his thoughts. Apparently the monster that he was holding down had just died. He cast his eyes over at the tome, then blurted out, “HELL YEAH!!! I LEVELED UP!!!”

<You have defeated 1 albaheron. You have earned 100 XP.>

The silver letters in the log informing him that he had just killed the albaheron were followed by gold letters.

<Your XP has reached 1,000/1,000. You have reached Lvl. 2. Your HP has increased by 25. Your MP has increased by 40. Your Attack has increased by 14. Your Endurance has increased by 14. Your Agility has increased by 26. Your Intelligence has increased by 40. Your Luck has increased by 26.>

H-Holy crap, everything’s gone up by so much! That’s having stat rankings on par with a Sword Lord for you. Hmm, the difference between the increase for S- and C-ranked skills is pretty stark. So this is what the results of the Appraisal Ceremony were referring to.

Allen took a good, long look at what his Status had now become.

---

Name: Allen
Age: 6
Class: Summoner
Level: 2
HP: 39 (65) + 80
MP: 36 (60) + 35
Attack: 14 (24) + 80
Endurance: 14 (24) + 16
Agility: 30 (51) + 26
Intelligence: 42 (70) + 10
Luck: 30 (51) + 35
Skills: Summoning {3}, Creation {3}, Synthesis {3}, Strengthening {2}, Expansion {2}, Deletion, Sword Mastery {3}, Throwing {3}
XP: 0/2,000

Skill Levels
Summoning: 3
Creation: 3
Synthesis: 3
Strengthening: 2

Skill Experience
Creation: 11,933/100,000
Synthesis: 2,610/100,000
Strengthening: 1,480/10,000

Creatable Summons
Insect: F, G, H
Beast: F, G, H
Bird: F, G
Grass: F

Holder
Insect: F x 2, G x 3
Beast: F x 16
Bird: F x 2
Grass: F x 7

---

I see, so HP and MP get topped back up when leveling up.

Allen found it a pretty refreshing sight to still have MP, as it would always be at zero whenever he leveled up a skill related to Summoning.

The numerical increases listed in the message on my grimoire were added to the figure inside the brackets, with the sum then being lowered to sixty percent, it looks like. In other words, the ratio isn’t affected by leveling up. Ugh, this stat suppression seriously hurts.

So, six years in, and I finally get my first level up! Or, as people in this world call it, I finally surpassed a Trial of the Gods. Wait, was it “surpass” or “achieve”?

Previously, Allen had asked Rodin, “How can I be as strong as you, father?” After all, it was obvious that Rodin was significantly stronger than the average villager. One clear indication was the fact that the bucket he used to bring water back from the well and refill the family jar every day was larger than what others used. Allen suspected this was because he had earned quite a few levels from defeating dozens of great boars over the past ten years. In response to his question, Rodin had answered, “The gods give people trials, and when they overcome those trials, the gods give them power.” This was how the residents of this world perceived the concept of leveling up through the perspective of their faith.

Whoops, she’s about to come over soon. I gotta hurry back.

Allen hurriedly stacked both his kills together and lugged them home. Time was running out.

“I’m back!”

Theresia started from surprise at seeing her son return with not one, but two albaherons. However, she did her best to sound calm while replying, “Welcome home.”

“You caught more?” Rodin asked from inside the house.

“Yes, father. Wait, are you all right?!”

During the past month, Rodin’s condition had greatly improved. He could now both sit and stand, though his wound would still hurt if he stood or moved around for too long. Right now, he was sitting and beating the straw from their harvested wheat with a small club. After softening them up this way, they would then be woven into straw sandals and winter shoes. Because the club was quite large, Allen was worried the exertion might cause his father’s wound to open up again.

“I’ll be fine. I can’t let you shoulder every—!” The moment Rodin saw Allen’s face, he froze as if he had noticed something.

“Is something on my face, father?”

“No, it’s nothing. I must have imagined it.”

Now that’s a line that piques my intere—

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

“AH! Oh no, I’ve got to hang these up before Krena comes!”

Allen rushed out to the narrow ditch next to the house, bringing the albaherons with him. There was now a frame here where Allen could hang his game up to let their blood out. It was a simple construct that he had made out of sticks and boards that he had found inside the house. It was positioned right above the ditch so that he could bloodlet his catches directly into it.

“Alleeeen!” Krena cried cheerfully as she ran up, her wooden sword in hand.

“Hey there, Krena. Sorry, can you give me a few more minutes? I’m almost done.”

Nowadays, Allen was back to playing with Krena on a daily basis. Normally, this happened between 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. However, he had told Krena to come at the 3 p.m. bell every third day, freeing that time for himself to hunt more albaherons and hang them up for bloodletting. Today, however, he was still in the middle of the latter task when Krena arrived.

“You caught two of them today?! You’re amazing, Allen!”

Krena watched Allen at work with dazzling eyes, showing her characteristic fearlessness toward monsters. Allen prayed that some of this bravery would rub off on his scaredy-cat little brother Mash as he quickly finished securing the birds.

The two children then began their session of playing knight in the open area of the garden not occupied by crops. Mash watched them from the window. He still was not allowed out of the house yet, not until he turned three. His birthday was in spring, however, so it was not too far off.

Today, I’ve fulfilled my quota of ten albaherons.

Each bird Allen brought down yielded ten kilograms of meat, the same amount as one round of great boar hunting. Now that he had killed ten albaherons, the family should have enough with which to barter for firewood to last them through the winter. All that was left was to preserve the meat and do the actual trading.

The albaherons are gonna stop flying next month, so I’ve gotta catch as many as I can until then. For my next level up, I’ll need...twenty of them. Ugh, I don’t think I’ll be able to reach it within the year.

“You’re wide open!”

“Ow!” Allen suffered a whack to his head for being occupied with his own thoughts during the fight.

“Gosh! That’s what you get for zoning out!”

Krena pouted at Allen’s inattention, prompting him to apologize while rubbing his fresh bruise.

＊ ＊ ＊

At 4 p.m., the play knight session came to an end. Because the sun would be setting soon, Krena quickly took off back home. Allen helped his mother—whose belly had grown quite large now—make dinner. Once he was done with the preparations, he went outside to confirm that all the blood had drained out of the albaherons, then brought them inside the house. He could not very well leave them sitting outside for the entire night, after all.

Naturally, all the neighbors already knew that Allen was catching albaherons. He had killed a total of ten of them now and had hung them up outside his house every time, so it was only a matter of time until word got around. When Allen went to draw water at the well in the morning, they would pester him about how he managed it, but he never said anything beyond, “They came down and I killed them.”

Allen hunted exclusively under the cover of the tall grass in his family’s fallow field in order to hide how his hunting actually worked. Because the grass was dry, it would rustle loudly whenever anyone tried to pass through. Allen was prepared to call off his hunt if he ever heard rustling, but to this day, no one had ever come by to peek.

“That’s the tenth albaheron you’ve caught, isn’t it?” Rodin asked as the family ate dinner around the sunken fireplace in their house.

“Yes it is, father.”

“Incredible.”

Apparently it was really bothering him. In the past month, Allen had tackled all his duties with power far greater than that of any normal person. Despite how large the potato field was, he had finished harvesting it in merely two days. He brought the water every day using the same buckets Rodin had used, and caught albaherons regularly like it was nothing. Although his parents had known he was a smart child before, all of his recent feats had blown their expectations out of the water, proving just how capable he was.

Allen looked at Theresia and noticed the concern in her face. Unlike Rodin, she was not so much bothered by how Allen did what he did as she was about the fact that he had yet to share anything about himself. Truth was, he had also been thinking that it was about time he gave his parents an explanation for why he was this much stronger than other people.

So Allen shot his little brother—who seemed to be in the middle of battling his food—a glance and asked his parents, “Once Mash is asleep, can I talk with both of you?”

“Mm,” Rodin replied with an understanding nod.

Because both Rodin and Theresia stayed home all day nowadays, Mash rarely made a fuss about how long Allen was staying outside. That night, after Allen played with him a little bit, he grew tired and fell asleep.

When Allen came back out into the main room after tucking Mash into bed, he found both his parents sitting and waiting for him. He settled into his own seat.

Before he could say anything, however, Theresia stated emphatically, “Allen, you will always be my son, and I will always love you.”

“Thank you,” Allen replied. “This might get a bit long. Is that okay?”

Rodin nodded with a brief grunt.

“The truth is, I received a message from the gods when I was one year old.”

“A message?”

“From the gods?”

“Yes. It said, ‘Allen, I will grant you wisdom and strength.’”

“Wisdom?”

“Strength?”

“Mm-hm. Basically, making me smarter and stronger than normal people. But there was a second part to the message: ‘I am also giving you Trials that even a hundred men together might not achieve. Overcome them using the wisdom and strength I grant you.’”

“A hundred?!”

“Trials of the Gods!”

Allen had purposefully used the term “Trial” in place of “level.”

“But if even a hundred men cannot achieve it...” Anguish filled Theresia’s face. “Oh, heavens, why are you gods doing this to Allen?”

In contrast, Rodin’s reaction was a lot calmer. “I see. And you overcame the first of those Trials today?”

“What?” Allen asked, caught by surprise.

Rodin touched his son’s cheek with a knowing look. “You might not have noticed it about yourself, but you used to have a scar right here. But it was gone when you came home this afternoon.”

During his first ever fight with an albaheron, the monster’s razor-sharp teeth had dug into Allen’s cheek and left him with a scar. However, just as Rodin pointed out, that scar had disappeared completely. Allen had no idea.

Wait, leveling up doesn’t just restore HP to full, but also heals old wounds? Allen thought. Now he finally understood why the rest of the hunting party had continued trying to kill the great boar on the day that Rodin had been injured. They were hoping that his wound might be healed if he managed to overcome a Trial of the Gods through the death of the boar.

“I...think I really might’ve overcome my very first Trial of the Gods,” Allen agreed. “I felt much stronger all of a sudden.”

“I see. So, did this god who gave you a message tell you their name?” Rodin asked, as this world had numerous gods and goddesses.

“Um, it was Elmea. Do you know who that is?”

“Th-That’s the God of Creation. You shouldn’t really call him by name so casually, son. Most people call him Lord Elmea.”

“Okay. I’ll add the ‘Lord’ when I’m in public, then.” Apparently Allen had not even the slightest shred of religious piety.

“Ummm...I suppose that will do. Do you know what happened with your Appraisal Ceremony, then?”

During his Appraisal Ceremony, all of Allen’s stats had shown up as “E,” and he had been declared Talentless. Rodin had always believed this reading to be strange. In light of everything he had seen his son do, he could not imagine him being Talentless, and neither did he think his son’s stats were so low.

“Oh, Elmea gave me another message two months ago explaining what happened.”

“Th-That recently?!”

“He said the stat readings were based on how fast I can overcome my Trials and grow stronger, so the readings were correct. But about my Talent, he said that it couldn’t be Appraised because it was so new. He didn’t tell me what my Talent actually is, though.”

“S-So that’s what happened...”

Allen did not intend on telling his parents that he was a Summoner. This was a Talent that involved calling forth monsters from thin air and having them do his bidding. There was plenty of room to cause misunderstandings, especially because it would be Rodin and Theresia’s first time hearing of such a class. As such, Allen planned to maintain a wait-and-see attitude for now, keeping an eye out for another opportunity to sit his parents down once again to reveal everything.

For now, the goal was to only convey the fact that the gods had assigned him Trials that could not be achieved even by a hundred people, and that they had also given him the wisdom and strength to overcome those Trials. This was enough to explain why he seemed smarter than his peers and why he could do things which many people could not.

Of course, he had also not told his parents that he had been reincarnated and maintained memories of his previous life. The moment he was born, he had made a decision to keep this to himself. If having black hair and eyes was a sign of having been reincarnated from another world, then the surprised reactions of the villagers proved that other people like him were either extremely rare or just outright did not exist. There was the possibility that the villagers were just ignorant about the world at large, as this village was quite closed off. However, the knight captain had also shot Allen very curious looks during his visit, which seemed to imply that his rarity was not limited to this frontier village alone.

Theresia gave her son a big hug as the image of him throwing stones at the tree in their garden until its bark peeled off came to mind. Now, he was regularly fighting albaherons for their family’s sake. When she thought of how he had been struggling to overcome these cruel Trials all by himself this whole time, a twinge of pain shot through her chest.

“Why didn’t you tell us earlier?” she asked.

“That’s right,” Rodin agreed. “I also wish you’d told us earlier. We’re your parents. But at least now I understand why you’re so smart.”

“Sorry, father, mother. I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you. But I am serious about overcoming these Trials.”

Unease filled Theresia’s eyes. Her beloved son was apparently resolved to walk a path that was sure to be filled with thorns, a path that not even a hundred people working together could pass.

Rodin, however, was supportive of this decision. His years of hunting great boars had left him with a greater sense of familiarity with the Trials of the Gods. “If that’s what you choose, then so be it. The gods do not give us beyond what we can handle, but if you ever want a helping hand, your mother and I will always be there for you.”

“Thank you, father.”

“Have you told anyone else about this?”

“No, sir. I haven’t even told Krena.”

“Mm, you should probably keep it that way. The God of Creation is an absolute existence. There might be people who wouldn’t believe you and accuse you of taking Lord Elmea’s name in vain.”

Makes sense. I only told them because they’re my parents. Anyone else would ask me for solid proof, and I don’t have it. Both letters disappeared right after I read them—not that anyone can see my grimoire in the first place.

“Yes, father.”

“However...”

“Hm?”

“Can I brag about this to Gerda?”

“...”

“Is that a no?”

“I mean...I don’t mind.”

“Ha ha ha! That damn Gerda, always going on and on about Krena being a Sword Lord. I’ve gotta make him understand how incredible Allen is too!”

Apparently Rodin had been at least slightly jealous of what a high achiever his best friend’s daughter was. Allen could not help but chuckle a little at this human side of his own father.