I Became a Veteran Who Has to Stir Up Trouble to Survive - Chapter 22

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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[022] Lesser Green Raptor Pack
I couldn’t help but be taken aback by Radi’s warning.
I’ve thoroughly studied every monster that appears in this region.
From the perilous boss creatures to the insignificant larvae of common mobs.
There’s no way I could have overlooked a monster….
“Monsters?”
“Yes, 100 meters ahead. Multiple creatures approaching rapidly. They’ll be here in seconds, so prepare yourselves.”
How could she possibly detect monsters from such a distance….
“Radi’s instincts are remarkable. You’d do well to ready yourself as well.”
Malton grinned and gripped his mace firmly.
I drew my cutlass with lingering doubt, and as I did, the undergrowth trembled as green forms burst forth.
｢A pack of reptilian monsters [Lesser Green Raptor] has appeared!｣
｢Though small in stature, the unique joint structure grants them tremendous power, and their steel claws can tear an adventurer’s throat in an instant!｣
Lesser Green Raptor.
The most formidable monster in this region, typically prowling in packs.
One of the most agile and relentless creatures, with devastating downward strikes.
With Malton’s aid, we could likely repel them, but the monster appearances didn’t end there.
｢A larval monster, [Green Moss Caterpillar], has appeared!｣
｢The larval form of a moth monster, lacking powerful claws or fangs, but capable of expelling toxic gas.｣
“Damn it….”
I ground my teeth and retreated.
How long had we been in this dungeon before encountering such complications?
The more monster varieties we had to face, the exponentially more difficult our response became.
To dispatch the raptors, I’d need to close in, but doing so would expose me to the toxic miasma the larvae exhaled.
It seemed they’d already clashed—an unknown adventurer’s severed arm hung limply from a raptor’s jaws.
As I deliberated, Radi shouted.
“Everyone, this way!!”
She sprinted across the clearing and unfastened her pack’s lower clasp, releasing a cascade of sharp caltrops that blocked the monsters’ advance.
Confused by the spiky barrier blocking their path, the creatures hesitated.
This significantly reduced the risk of being surrounded from all sides.
But Radi didn’t merely improve the battlefield—she withdrew a sinister weapon from her pack.
[Crossbow]
｢An exceptionally powerful ranged weapon, similar to a bow but the product of advanced mechanical engineering.｣
‘…So that was her primary weapon.’
Click—!
As Radi fired the crossbow, a raptor’s forehead was pierced clean through, and it tumbled to the ground.
Enraged by their fallen comrade, the other raptors leaped over the caltrops and charged—.
“Malton!!”
“I’m on it!”
Malton and I immediately rushed forward to intercept them.
Two raptors tumbled from the air, their necks and heads crushed to pulp.
Another creature immediately leaped forward, raking its talons downward—
‘As expected, monsters have their limits in intelligence.’
An overhead strike from above could be parried with a horizontal slash.
I twisted my lips into a grin and stamped my foot down with force.
The moment I collided with the raptor, sparks erupted from the blade where its talons met the steel, and the curved edge of my sword tore through its skull.
Crimson blood sprayed from the blade’s tip, accompanied by a wretched shriek that pierced my ears.
I swiftly drove the blade deeper to sever the creature’s life force, then gestured provocatively.
｢The [Lesser Green Raptor] pack grows enraged!｣
｢Due to the [Chaos] skill, your strength increases by 1!｣
—Krrrrgh!!
One raptor charged forward, its eyes gleaming with fury.
It lashed out with nimble talons, but I had already stepped aside, recalling the days when I trained swordsmen in the past.
Pressing forward, I swung my blade, and the raptor recoiled in alarm.
As it approached again, it aligned its talons with the sword’s trajectory and pressed down with its weight, sneering—but.
“How predictable.”
—Krrk…?!
Rather than resist the force, I twisted my wrist in a circular motion, warping the blade’s path.
The curved edge’s tip tore through its undefended left eye, burrowing deeper to scrape bone.
As I withdrew the blade, a raptor that had been lurking behind seized the opening and lunged forward—
Clink! Clink! Clink!
Bolts whistled through the air with piercing force, striking the raptor’s vital points in succession and pinning it to the ground.
I marveled at the supernatural accuracy while nimbly moving my feet to escape the encirclement.
With each creature I felled, the remaining raptors shrieked and charged more ferociously.
Realizing they couldn’t succeed alone, the pack coordinated a combined assault—but I was already prepared.
“Dash forward.”
An auxiliary skill of the [Legendary Ancient Adventurer’s Greaves].
As I spoke the incantation, my body instantly propelled forward.
I twisted the angle of my feet to brake sharply while simultaneously severing the exposed necks of the defenseless raptors.
Two corpses stained the grassland crimson, and I caught my breath calmly.
All the raptors were down now—I just needed to deal with the caterpillar—
“Wait, hold on! What are you doing?!”
I turned to see Radi leaping over the caltrops, approaching the caterpillar.
｢The [Green Moss Caterpillar] releases a toxic fog!｣
“Damn it…! That fool!”
I immediately covered my nose and mouth with my robe and rushed in to rescue the boy from the poison mist—
“…Hmph!”
Radi drew his dagger with complete composure and severed the caterpillar’s life force.
｢You have successfully repelled the monster pack!｣
｢You have learned how to disguise yourself as a [Lesser Green Raptor]!｣
“My level increased….”
Several notifications flickered across my vision, but I set them aside for now and urgently grabbed Radi by the scruff of his neck, dragging him out.
If you directly inhale the poison gas from a Green Moss Caterpillar, your nerves become paralyzed and you suffer respiratory distress.
If a party member dies, the Guild imposes severe penalties, so I needed to get him back to the surface immediately—
“I’m perfectly fine, so just help me collect the iron ore.”
But he brushed my hand away as if it were a nuisance.
When I glanced back at Malton, he too was casually cutting off a raptor’s breath.
Seeing that scene, one certainty crystallized in my mind.
‘This guy… isn’t human.’
The way he sensed the monster’s approach beforehand, his immunity to poison—
I recalled that there was definitely such a race among the beastfolk.
And….
‘How on earth did he fire that crossbow in rapid succession?’
In typical games, crossbows are depicted as weapons with excellent rate of fire, but reality is the opposite.
Medieval crossbows were all slow to load and cumbersome.
Because of this, they were finicky on the user’s hands, difficult to maintain, expensive—ordinary adventurers rarely used them….
‘A lever-action crossbow… and he’s modified the front with a stirrup so it can be loaded from the hip in emergencies.’
I observed Radi’s weapon with keen eyes, comparing it against my past gaming knowledge.
A device modified using a metal auxiliary lever called a “goat’s foot” to enable rapid loading.
A method used on Earth since the 14th century, with a maximum firing rate of four to five shots per minute.
‘…Did he overcome the weapon’s limitations through innate dexterity?’
If all this were true, he’d be an impossible talent.
Variable creation through traps and exceptional monster detection instincts.
Plus ranged support capabilities—elements neither Malton nor I possessed.
He’d be useful not just in combat, but also during night watch duty.
And furthermore….
‘If he’s immune to poison… there are so many ways to use that…?’
Like throwing him into a poison-gas-filled den as we just did, or having him capture venomous monsters.
I could even have him taste suspicious food first like a royal food taster to prevent poisoning attempts.
Stories about people being invited to seemingly kind homes, eating drugged soup, and waking up on an auction block with their organs missing were a recurring topic in the Belheim Community.
With careful consideration, he might even be useful for activating my [Chaos] skill.
‘I’ll have to make good use of this guy going forward.’
As I realized why the well-connected Malton had specifically recruited him and began sketching various blueprints in my mind, my eyes met Radi’s as he extracted the poison sac from the Green Moss Caterpillar.
“…Why.”
“Well… I just thought for an F-rank adventurer, you fought pretty well. The way you accelerated at the end and took down multiple raptors simultaneously was impressive too.”
“Well, that’s….”
“Doran, did you feel any discomfort in your body? At this rate, it wouldn’t be strange if you leveled up.”
“Ah, is that so? I didn’t feel any level-up nausea at least.”
I casually checked the log messages.
Now that I thought about it, several messages seemed to have come in succession besides the monster defeats….
I rolled my eyes sideways, then froze solid as I read the notification.
“Congratulations! You have reached Level 24!”
“[NEW] Sudden Quest Triggered!”
“In your past life, you were a legendary swordsman and adventurer! As a reward for your exceptional skill in vanquishing a pack of Lesser Green Raptors, a small gift is bestowed upon you!”
“To complete this Quest, journey to the Canyon Where Stars Never Set. A hidden gem of breathtaking beauty—the perfect place to spend a night!”
“Quest Completion Reward: Luck +2.”
‘A sudden Quest? A reward? This doesn’t make sense….’
I glared at the text with suspicion.
Even if a task seemed simple on the surface, I was already wary that System Messages might not be driven purely by good intentions.
In Belheim, steeped in malice, seemingly benevolent offers were among the most dangerous things to watch for.
Yet in my memory, the Canyon Where Stars Never Set was just a place with unusual terrain—nothing particularly eventful about it.
‘Is there a roaming boss lurking there? A landslide? Or is it genuinely just a simple reward Quest?’
“Wait… could it be?”
A fragmented memory flickered through my troubled mind.
Two or three years before the game’s start point, when dungeons first opened, I’d heard there were far more diverse monsters and mechanics.
The sudden emergence of monsters had claimed many of the vanguard explorers.
And one of those incidents was….
“…Malton, what day of the week is it today?”
“You want me to tell you the date? Or….”
“No, I mean that thing. The one those old mages at the Magic Tower are always going on about.”
“Ah, the Mages’ Calendar, you mean. There’s even a saying that if something strange happens, you should check that first. Let me see….”
Malton pulled out a peculiarly crafted pocket watch from deep within his pack.
He carefully aligned the small dial with its strange engravings and the needle, then murmured softly.
“Hmm… it’s the time of the Iron Woman and the Flame Soldiers. The week of the Blue Comet will begin soon. But why are you asking about that all of a sudden?”
“The week of the Blue Comet… it’s nothing.”
I forced down a bitter laugh and waved my hand dismissively.
‘I almost got myself killed.’
They dare offer such a suicide Quest as a reward?
If some clueless newbie chased this Quest to the Canyon, they’d die right there.
Because a terrifyingly dangerous rare monster was about to spawn there.
But then again, it felt wasteful to throw away free Luck stat points as a Quest reward….
‘Luck stat, huh….’
In Belheim, the Luck attribute was uniquely peculiar.
It showed no effect when low, but once accumulated, it unleashed tremendous power.
Right now I was focusing on Strength and Agility for survival, but truthfully, Luck was the stat that suited a jester like me best.
Too precious to invest in directly, yet too wasteful to discard—a stat caught between two stools.
‘Should I just play crazy and go for it?’
Honestly, with this team, surviving and escaping didn’t seem impossible….
Besides, the reward for completing combat there transcends merely gaining 2 stat points.
The monster I’d encounter was a rare spawn that only appeared during specific cycles, and it possessed a very ‘unique characteristic.’
If I could just transform into that monster, it would become an invaluable resource for me going forward.
“…Oh, forget it.”
“Doran…? Where are you going?”
“Just follow me. Now that I think about it, I heard there was a good hunting ground somewhere around here….”
I muttered casually to myself as I turned my steps toward the Canyon Where Stars Never Set that the Quest indicated.

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