How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magic Family (11)

[Kieek―!]

Bang―!

“They just go down in one hit?”

It had been 30 minutes since we started dealing with the rats on the spot, and surprisingly, no problems had arisen at all. At this point, talking about cleaning up was almost embarrassing.

Leo carefully picked up a dead carnivorous rat and put it in the sack.

The rats that climbed up the legs like mad were easily knocked down with a single gesture, contrary to their fierce momentum.

Now cleaning up the corpses was more troublesome.

I burned the top of the barrier to drop all the rats to the ground and answered simply.

“It’s because you’re strong.”

“Is that so… Have you filled your sack too?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s clean up and go.”

Leo said, looking down at the rats caught on the tips of his boots.

On the muddy ground that was sticky from yesterday’s rain, palm-sized rat corpses were scattered everywhere.

Leo clicked his tongue as he looked at the sight.

“I know we have to deal with them, but seeing so many makes me feel a bit sorry for them. It would be nice if there was a cure.”

I nodded at those words.

These magical beasts are cases where ordinary animals have acquired magical power and gained cores like humans, so they continuously feel thirsty for magical power.

There’s no cure other than periodically infusing divine power. It would be nice if even that could completely heal them, but even that isn’t a fundamental solution.

‘It’s certainly pitiful in that regard.’

To feel such sentiment while facing a swarm of rats desperately trying to devour flesh – I was quite relaxed. Usually, you’re too busy surviving to have time to think about carnivorous rats.

Leo was this kind of person in the novel too.

I don’t remember the exact timing, but at some point he developed a cure specifically for magical beasts.

I tied up the full sack, floated it in the air, and spoke.

“You can make a cure if you want to. Why don’t you try making one later?”

“Me? Come on, even adults couldn’t do it.”

“What?”

I was so dumbfounded that I let out a hollow laugh.

Looking back, the part I had read was quite far from now.

Anyway, from the perspective of knowing what future Leo would create, I could only laugh.

I turned my steps back toward the starting point and patted Leo’s shoulder.

“If you don’t do it, I’ll make it, so lend me your family’s Research Lab.”

“First, try to survive before saying that.”

After exchanging meaningless conversation for a while, we arrived at a familiar place.

The Caretaker who happened to be outside spotted the two of us and greeted us.

“You finished quickly.”

“We’ll just leave this and go back again.”

I set down the sack containing the rats in front of the building.

The Caretaker approached with questioning eyes at the shape that seemed to be full of something.

“Why is this so… Hm?!”

The Caretaker who opened the full sack couldn’t close his mouth.

“Where did so many come from… This is the first time I’ve seen this many carnivorous rats.”

“Are there that many?”

“Yes, this amount seems like you’ve completely wiped out their lineage. Usually, even when we find many, it’s only five or six at most…”

“They probably appeared more than usual after sensing our magical power. They’re basically beasts starving for magical power.”

The Caretaker nodded at Leo’s explanation.

“I see. With this amount, that species won’t appear for a while. We were having trouble with some occasionally going to the Residential Area, so this is fortunate.”

“I’m glad we could help.”

“Ah, I’ll have to weigh it to be sure, but this should be worth at least 50,000.”

The Caretaker said after lifting and setting down the sack.

I nodded at those words. Working for one hour and getting roughly 5 million won in Korean currency value. You can’t find this kind of work anywhere else.

‘Well, we caught them to the point of extermination…’

Leo, who grew up without lacking anything in a Family overflowing with money and lacks a sense of reality, also seemed reasonably satisfied, thinking the pay wasn’t bad for the time spent.

Leo, who entered the Barrier again, shrugged his shoulders as if surprised and spoke.

“I can earn a month’s allowance in just one hour like this. This kind of work is better than I thought. Thanks to you, I had a good experience.”

“Right. But just in case, don’t think you normally earn this much working for one hour.”

“Of course I kn… know that.”

Leo answered, rolling his eyes.

He doesn’t seem to know. He’s the perfect example of a rich family’s son. Fortunately, he didn’t follow the Protagonist to the Imperial Palace later to do finance-related work.

Leo, who noticed that I didn’t believe his words at all, hurriedly changed the subject.

“Anyway, among the things we investigated, we encountered decent ones.”

“Right.”

They were fast and large for rats, which would be difficult for non-mages, but since we’re mages, they were welcome opponents – we just needed to wrap ourselves in body barriers to prevent them from tearing our flesh.

“50,000 for this difficulty level – if we stay here all dawn, we could earn enough to buy two of the items you want and still have money left over, right? With me here too, it’ll end even faster.”

“Right. But it seems you’re also planning to stay here continuously. I thought you’d suggest catching a reasonable amount and leaving?”

“Since we’re already here, we should do it properly. Since everyone doesn’t volunteer to come, I think it’s good to do it right when we come once.”

“Well, if that’s what you think.”

Then, I stopped walking again.

Leo looked at me with ominous eyes.

“What, do you smell blood again?”

“Yeah.”

“You really have a dog’s nose. I don’t smell anything.”

“This time it’s cleaner. It’s not blood mixed with pus like before.”

“…You know in such detail? If other people heard this, they’d really think you’re from Pleroma…”

Leo shook his head.

I brought my finger to my lips to signal for quiet and slowly moved my steps.

After the talking stopped, only the sounds of small creatures rustling and wind hitting leaves remained.

Tap tap―

‘Hm?’

The moment I heard something discordant in the silence, an unidentifiable lump jumped out from the bushes.

Crash―!

I frowned, removed the barrier, and stepped back.

“That was startling.”

“What is it?!”

Looking at the situation, it didn’t come to attack, but just collided while running wildly.

After confirming no other attacks were coming, I flipped over the gray-brown lump that had fallen there.

“It’s a rabbit. Not a contaminated one.”

While I poured water to wake up the rabbit, Leo shouted from behind, seemingly dissatisfied with my defense.

“Hey, if you’re going to keep that distance, you can put full power into the barrier.”

“When did you tell me to reduce the power?”

“That was about the barrier edges. And this isn’t sparring right now. Don’t forget you need to connect to the ground through your lower body for recoil!”

“Even in this situation, it’s a lesson.”

I said that, but what Leo mentioned was also something I felt while using magic just now.

‘This is why practice outside of sparring is important.’

To balance between academic magic sparring and lethal magic, having practical time was most effective.

Of course, it’s hard to see the full effect in this place where mainly small creatures appear, and if I really can’t find real combat later, I’ll have to beat up Pleroma or something.

‘But…’

It’s ambiguous.

I fell into thought while watching the rabbit that got up and ran away again.

Can we really say there are no dangerous creatures here?

That rabbit came running frantically without even checking what was ahead.

And earlier, I caught another scent of blood.

‘I should go back.’

The barrier I confirmed on the way here was a low-grade barrier. That meant no dangerous magical beasts lived here.

Even if they were contaminated animals, they’d probably just be rats or rabbits like the one I encountered earlier.

If they weren’t magical beasts, there wasn’t much to worry about, but still, there was no need to encounter man-eating carnivores on a night like this.

I looked at the footprints stamped in the dirt and quietly spoke.

“Leo, get into defensive position. Let’s turn around and avoid this for now.”

“…I was just about to say that. Those are wolf tracks, right?”

I hadn’t heard any stories about wolves living in this area.

But the footprints visible before my eyes clearly belonged to an animal of that size.

Leo readjusted his grip on his wand and strengthened his body barrier.

[Grrrrrrrr…]

Then an indescribable howling sound faintly spread throughout the entire forest.

Whatever animal it was, it was hard to say it belonged to a herbivore.

It was already too late.

I slowly moved my steps backward.

At that moment, two red lights streaked across in a line.

[Graaaaaaar!]

Crash—!

“Ugh!”

I lowered my body to maintain balance.

The intensity was completely different from the rabbit.

Fortunately, thanks to following Leo’s advice from earlier, I didn’t get knocked back by the recoil as the caster.

Instead…

‘The barrier cracked.’

There was no way an ordinary animal could break my barrier. Considering the light I saw earlier too, this was likely a contaminated creature.

I rolled the wand in my hand and transformed it into a sword.

I created a new barrier toward the sky and shattered it, briefly illuminating where we stood.

‘…!’

Was it insane?

Not just me, but Leo was also shocked by the momentary scene we glimpsed before the light went out.

“…This is…”

It wasn’t just a wolf.

Hard horns were growing inside the wolf’s ears. My mouth wouldn’t close at this incomprehensible combination.

‘This is crazy.’

The barrier probably cracked easily partly thanks to those horns. But right now, I wasn’t surprised about the crack. That much was still within the realm of common sense.

My gaze moved to the wolf’s legs.

Unlike the chest area covered in long, thick gray fur, the legs were covered in short yellow fur.

It wasn’t simply a different fur color. Anyone could see those were legs from a different animal.

There was no time to analyze the situation further.

The wolf began rampaging more violently in response to our magic power.

[Graaaaaaar—!]

Bang—! Crash—!

I continuously shot magic to obstruct the wolf’s vision.

Then the plants around us thickened and stretched long, clinging to the wolf.

It was the magic Leo had used on me before. The attempt to grab its legs failed, but we managed to catch its horns.

Because it had herbivore legs instead of its own, the wolf easily lost its balance.

Taking advantage of that gap, I swung my wand. The tree behind the wolf bent in the opposite direction and fell.

Crash—!

The wolf’s scream was drowned out by the explosive sound.

I didn’t control my strength at all, but even Leo didn’t say anything particular this time.

Leo, pale as a sheet, wiped the blood that had splattered on his skin and averted his eyes from the corpse.

“…It’s a chimera.”

“Right.”

Connecting different animals so crudely like that and making them move as one body is normally impossible.

Only magic can make such impossible things possible, but even so, magic doesn’t naturally occur to fuse different animals together. It was clearly a result created by human hands.

“I felt it from the barrier earlier too, but this area definitely wasn’t that dangerous in the materials you found. Why on earth is there such a…”

I nodded at Leo’s words.

There was no such story when the protagonist came and went in the novel either.

I had considered the possibility that the beasts appearing might be slightly different due to the time difference, but who would have thought such obviously suspicious magical beasts would appear?

“The barrier here was low-grade to begin with. It means this isn’t a place where very dangerous creatures appear.”

I confirmed the creature’s breathing had completely stopped, knelt on one knee, and examined the magical beast closely.

“Leo, come closer and take a look. What do you think this thing’s main body is?”

“Hah…”

Leo let out a deep sigh as if he absolutely didn’t want to look with both eyes open, then positioned himself on the opposite side.

“…From the head to the chest, it’s a wolf. The horns and legs seem to be from a mountain goat. So the wolf part would be the main body.”

“Right, you think so too.”

“Why, who on earth would do such a thing…”

Leo’s face contorted.

I shook my head and stood up.

“Let’s think about that later and get up. This is just the beginning.”

“What?”

“No matter how chimeric the creature is, its habits would follow those of the main body. Remember the footprints we saw earlier?”

“…”

Leo’s face hardened instantly as he understood what I meant.

Those carnivore footprints, slightly smaller than a human palm, flashed through my mind. But those weren’t from the wolf we just killed—they belonged to a different individual.

Leo muttered quietly.

“…If the legs are from a mountain goat, there’s no reason wolf footprints would be left.”

“Right, following wolf behavior, they would have been living in packs.”

“How many are usually in one pack?”

“Well, if we’re lucky, it’ll be less than ten.”

I readjusted my grip on the wand.

Magic power waves distinctly different from humans touched my skin. They were getting closer.

[Grrrrrowl…]

It was too late to call for backup now.

The moment we turned our backs, they’d chase us frantically without looking ahead or behind. These magic-starved wolves wouldn’t leave mages alone.

Even if we managed to shake them off somehow, if they went down to the residential area, many lives would be in danger.

‘Should I try relying on the barrier?’

No, that won’t work. The barrier is just an auxiliary tool, not perfect.

Just hearing stories about rats occasionally going down to residential areas made it obvious the barrier couldn’t guarantee safety.

I spun the wand in a circle in my hand.

A single reddish spear was created.

“We have to deal with all of those before dawn, don’t we?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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