I Became a Veteran Who Has to Stir Up Trouble to Survive - Chapter 31

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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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[031] Night Stalker
‘Combat takes priority…!’
I countered without even having time to discern the source of my unease.
As I blocked the claws with my blade, sparks of crimson light scattered, and the sleek black jaguar’s form materialized before me.
“Ugh…!”
Knocked backward by its weight, I immediately kicked at its abdomen and regained my footing.
I swung my sword in a rapid counterattack, but the jaguar vanished, leaving only its golden eyes gleaming in the darkness.
｢[Night Stalker] has concealed itself within the shadows!｣
｢This creature can freely hide and reveal itself through the ‘Shadow Leap’ skill. Exercise caution!｣
As I pursued the monster’s presence, a low growl echoed from the far corner of the spacious tent.
“There you are!!”
I thrust my longsword forward immediately, but it toyed with me, vanishing into the darkness once more.
My blade, robbed of its target, only cleaved through an innocent candlestick.
Simultaneously, the light behind me flickered and extinguished with a soft pop.
The moment I grasped its true intention, a chill ran through my entire body.
‘It’s extinguishing the lights inside the tent…!’
This made no sense.
[Night Stalker] shouldn’t possess such intelligence.
Before I could fully process the impossible phenomenon unfolding before me and the candles snuffing out one by one, a sharp pain erupted from my left arm.
“Ugh—?!”
Gripping my blood-soaked forearm, I acted on instinct, slashing through the tent fabric with my blade and bursting outside.
‘I need to illuminate the surroundings…!’
I’d positioned lanterns with ignition stones throughout the clearing—if I activated them as planned, I could neutralize its abilities.
But the moment moonlight spilled across the grassland, I could only gasp in horror.
Every lantern lay shattered, as though struck by a typhoon.
‘Did it really comprehend and neutralize all my traps in that brief window…?!’
“Damn it—!!”
—A low, rumbling growl.
The leopard’s cruel and mesmerizing pattern gleamed softly as it reflected the moonlight, then vanished with a whisper.
I gritted my teeth against the pain and pursued my opponent into the darkness.
‘Where the hell are you….’
My heart thundered with extreme tension.
A sensation as though death itself had me in its sights.
While desperately tracking the creature’s presence, I recalled a crucial fact.
‘Felines have the instinct to target their prey’s back…!’
Then where would it appear?
“Here!!”
The moment I heard rustling, I swung my blade toward my rear.
But its strike came one step faster, searing pain erupting across my shoulder.
“Ugh…!”
What’s going wrong? Is my timing off?
I gritted my teeth, desperately suppressing the pain while sharpening my senses to their limit.
Those golden eyes—gleaming with predatory intent—circled the clearing with leisurely grace, searching for an opening with every pivot of my body.
The Night Stalker materialized from the shadows at close range, raking its claws across my limbs before vanishing once more.
Even as I staggered, I thrust my blade forward with every ounce of strength I possessed.
But the Night Stalker dissolved like a mirage, melting back into the darkness.
Before I could even catch my breath, a searing pain erupted from my left calf.
Once again, the Night Stalker retreated into the shadows with mocking ease.
‘It’s too fast…!’
Already nimble by nature, with stealth added to its arsenal, there was no way I could match its speed.
But it wasn’t merely about raw velocity.
Rustle—!
“There you are!!”
In that instant, hearing the grass being trampled, I spun and slashed my sword in that direction.
But the moment I realized what had actually made the sound, my blood ran cold.
The bundle of candles I’d left in the tent was rolling across the ground.
“Damn it!!”
The instant I recognized it as a trap, I threw my body to the side on pure instinct.
But I was a fraction too slow—claws raked cleanly through my robe and tore into my flank.
Clenching my teeth, I thrust my blade toward the direction of the attack, but the steel only cut through empty air.
—Grrr….
The Night Stalker regarded me with mockery before vanishing into the darkness once more.
“Damn….”
Its agility exceeded my own stats, and worse, it possessed cunning intelligence. This creature was formidable.
At this rate, I’d be toyed with until death claimed me—that much was certain.
I needed a stratagem to break this deadlock.
For a moment, the thought of transforming into an Undead flashed through my mind, but I bit my lip as I staunched the bleeding from my flank.
‘No… I can’t do that….’
If I transformed here, it might work in the short term, but it would create complications later.
If the battle dragged on, witnesses would inevitably appear.
And if I tried to flee, I’d have my throat torn out immediately.
‘Damn it… if I could just raise my agility stat even a little, I might have a fighting chance.’
The Night Stalker was a creature with a fragile body—if I could land even one solid blow, victory was possible.
By now, Radi should be watching intently for her chance to land a shot.
The moment that thought crystallized, my body was already moving.
I kicked the brazier I’d left at the tent’s entrance and shouted with all my might.
“Fire!!”
｢The flames from the brazier consume the tent!｣
｢The villages near Medaolinum have become extremely dry due to recent prolonged drought! Exercise caution against large-scale fires!｣
｢Should the flames grow larger, nearby merchants will come rushing to the scene.｣
‘Excellent! I’m burning well…!’
At this point, I was committed to burning it all down.
If I was worried about witnesses, why not simply expand the scale of the fire?
Before the bewildered Night Stalker, I smashed everything within reach inside the tent and shouted again.
“Fire!!”
｢The flames are burning even more fiercely!｣
｢The merchants, sensing something amiss, awaken from their slumber! With bleary eyes, they cry out at the City Guard, demanding to know what they were doing while the fire grew to such proportions!｣
｢The merchants are rushing over with water-filled baskets!｣
｢Strength and Agility each increase by 3!｣
─Grrrrr…?!
As the massive flames erupted, the Night Stalker hesitated, staring at me with bewildered eyes.
Conveniently, the tent was filled with straw bedding and wooden furniture I’d arranged to disguise it as an ordinary dwelling.
I’d have to compensate for it later, but when my life hung in the balance, what were a few silver coins?
‘With the flames obscuring my shadow, it can’t ambush me from behind anymore.’
Though not my original intention, I’d still blocked its ability—that was good enough, wasn’t it?
I didn’t stop there. I kicked burning logs in all directions, shrieking like a madman.
“Hehehehe!! Burn well, burn! Burn it all to ash!!”
The grassland was already slick with oil spilled from the shattered lanterns, so the flames spread wildly the moment the sparks touched it.
The merchants who came rushing over caught sight of me and dropped their water baskets, screaming.
“Oh no!! That mad arsonist is setting the field ablaze!! Grab him at once!”
“Wait… he’s fighting something? Could that be the rumored monster?”
“Black fur… sleek form… that’s it! That’s the monster!!”
｢The merchants gasp in horror at the sight of you setting fires everywhere!｣
｢While they rage at your incomprehensible behavior, they dare not approach you.｣
｢If you defeat that accursed monster for them, the merchants will not hold you responsible for the arson!｣
｢Strength and Agility each increase by 6!｣
Flames fed by dry timber painted the sky crimson, and scarlet blood trickling down my limbs stained the grass beneath.
Each time merchants arrived in response to the fire, gasps of alarm echoed across the field, and I felt my stats climbing.
Sensing the growing crowd gathering on the hill, the Night Stalker unleashed a ferocious assault, but I calmly parried with my sword.
With Darkness Leap sealed and my Agility stat nearly matching its own, I felt its combat power plummet dramatically.
“Haha! Suddenly sluggish, are we? Did you strain a leg or something?!”
─Grrrrr!!
I fought back fiercely, the flames at my back.
With each wild swing of my blade, the exchange grew increasingly intense.
Yet at the same time, I felt my limits approaching.
‘Damn this bleeding…!’
The accumulated damage from the previous battle was too severe.
Without proper hemostasis, I continued moving, and I could feel my wounds tearing open further.
At this rate, hemorrhagic shock would claim me soon.
‘I need one decisive blow.’
I had to flip this situation once more, no matter what.
As fortune would have it, I still had one more card left to play.
Though I’d hoped never to use this method….
“Damn it all… Hey, you thick-skulled beast bastard!!”
The moment Night Stalker turned around, I hurled my longsword directly at him.
The blade spun through the darkness, cutting through the shadows as it flew.
He leaped over it with ease to evade, regarding me with a look of contempt—but in my hand now gleamed a small silver object that hadn’t been there before.
A crude blade. A monster-dissection dagger.
I reversed my grip and seized it in an inverted hold, then—.
“…Everyone watch closely.”
With a bitter smile twisting my lips, I drove the blade down into my own abdomen.
“──────!!!!!!”
The sensation of the blade tearing through skin and flesh erupted with crystalline clarity.
Every cell in my body screamed in agony, ringing out in alarm.
But I didn’t stop at once—I brought the dagger down again and again.
Once. Twice. Three times.
Each time the blade raked through my abdomen, blood sprayed and my vision flashed crimson.
As the crude ten-centimeter blade withdrew from the wound with a wet sound, blood gushed forth in torrents with each extraction.
“Kugh—!”
「Night Stalker’s golden eyes widen in shock!」
「The merchants gasp in horror at this incomprehensible self-mutilation!」
「Radi lets out a anguished scream! The color drains from her face!」
「Strength increases by 3, Agility increases by 9!!」
「Intellect increases by 2, Agility increases by 7!!」
「Agility increases by 4, Luck increases by 3!!」
In the moment everyone froze in shock at this mad display, I was already sprinting forward.
Through the explosive stat surge, my dash sent the surrounding landscape streaming backward like a meteor’s tail.
Night Stalker realized the deception too late, reflexively twisting his body—but it was already beyond his reach.
“Surge!!”
In an instant, I closed the distance and seized his neck, driving the dagger down without hesitation.
As the blade pierced through fur and hide, blood erupted, and a nauseating stench assaulted my nostrils.
I clung to his thrashing back like a wild horse, relentlessly tearing into flesh with the fury of a madman.
Rending, piercing, twisting!
Again and again. Shallow cuts. Deeper still!
I seized his lower jaw and drove the blade into his skull!
A primal slaughter devoid of reason or mercy.
Each time the blade severed muscle and sinew like a beast’s fangs, Night Stalker shrieked in agony.
As he desperately thrashed across the ground, dirt clawed into his mouth, and blood and screams—whose, I couldn’t tell—obscured my vision.
Night Stalker suddenly dove with cunning into the flames, attempting to shake me loose—but—.
“Go to hell!!!”
Burning is something I’ve grown accustomed to.
I held my breath against the searing agony and wrenched the creature’s leg, dragging it clear of the inferno.
A swift thrust of my blade into its eye socket—the jaguar shrieked.
─Grrrrrrrrr!!!
It hurled itself back into the burning wreckage to escape, then lashed out with its claws, but I was already moving ahead of its strike.
I pushed my Agility stat to its absolute limit and charged forward, channeling rotational force through my footwork to drive deeper.
My grip tightened on the dagger as I pierced through its vital point, and bone and muscle tore apart with a sickening crunch.
I didn’t stop there—I braked my momentum and gouged my blade deep into its chest cavity.
An undeniable killing blow.
“Cough…! It’s over now.”
I spat blood and circled behind the Night Stalker, whose movements had grown noticeably sluggish.
But just as I reached for its carotid artery, the beast snapped its powerful jaws open and lunged for my throat.
Pristine fangs descended toward my neck, and I felt the warm, fetid breath of a dying predator.
A beast’s final, desperate thrashing.
‘Damn…! Was the dagger not enough after all?!’
As its jaws began to close, my vision went black.
In the moment my grip weakened, a silver flash cut through the darkness and found its mark.
｢Your ally ‘Radi’ has successfully landed a critical shot!｣
｢[Night Stalker] has breathed its last!｣
｢This triumph was made possible by your restraint of the beast!｣
A wet, violent sound—I opened my eyes to see the beast collapse, a bolt lodged in its neck, life extinguished.
It fell slowly, its gaze never wavering from mine, filled with hatred until the very end.
“Did… did we finish it…?”
I groaned and collapsed onto the grass.
But before I could fully lie down, I felt something soft cradling my head.
Looking up, I saw Radi had rushed over and was supporting my head in her hands.
“Doran!! Are you alright─?!”
“Ugh… don’t shout in my ear. I thought my eardrums would burst….”
“F-first, let me check your wounds!!”
Radi roughly pulled up my shirt.
Beneath the beast’s claw marks, unmistakable gashes were carved into my flesh.
“What in the world were you thinking….”
“It was the most reliable method.”
“…Pardon?”
“From the second strike onward, I was mostly just feinting. It’s… it’s fine. We need to collect this quickly though….”
“You’re bleeding everywhere and talking nonsense!! We need to get you to the Temple for treatment right now─!”
“No, we can go, but I need to confirm something first.”
I gathered some burning firewood and, with the girl’s support, managed to stand.
In Belheim, monsters never simply appear without reason.
The fact that one manifested here meant there was certainly a purpose behind it.
If it was driven out by territorial disputes, it could be a sign that a powerful boss has appeared in the nearby Forest.
But as I stanched the wound and cast light upon the jaguar’s corpse, I was immediately seized by a profound sense of wrongness.
“Wait… why is it covered in so many wounds?”
Upon closer inspection, the creature’s hide was riddled with scars.
Claws were missing in places, fur torn away—utterly useless for taxidermy or pelts.
As I turned over the corpse with a mixture of disappointment, Radi spoke softly.
“…Isn’t this from your wounds, Doran?”
“No, look carefully. Old scars are layered beneath fresh ones.”
The wounds weren’t only blade cuts—there were fractures, missing claws, self-inflicted damage of various kinds.
I felt certain I’d seen scars like these somewhere before….
“…Could it have escaped after being caged?”
“Caged and then escaped?”
“Yes, I once saw fighting beasts, and the condition is similar. Orbital fractures from ramming its head against iron bars, claws torn out from scratching the floor… and most tellingly, there are marks around the neck—those are chain scars, aren’t they?”
“You’re right… so it really was a monster bred for fighting?”
Entertainment being less developed here than on Earth, the Monster Fighting Arena is extremely common.
After all, didn’t I just watch the Monster Circus with Radi today?
“…But that makes it even stranger.”
“What do you mean…?”
“If someone captured this creature and treated it so brutally, they’d be wasting a rare monster worth dozens of gold coins if presented to a king or noble. Why squander such a prize like that?”
Radi drew her butchering dagger with a pale face.
“D-dozens of gold coins…? It was that rare?! W-we need to butcher it quickly right now…!”
“Forget it. The pelt’s too damaged—we won’t get anywhere near that much even if we process it now.”
“That can’t be… but now that you mention it, it really is strange. There shouldn’t be a rare monster fighting arena anywhere near here.”
“Exactly. Something doesn’t add up. It’s as if it was never bred for profit in the first place….”
…Wait.
Not bred for profit?
“There’s something I need to check.”
I pulled my robe’s hem to shield the flame.
And I witnessed it clearly.
From the Night Stalker’s body—which I’d thought dead—faint light rose like snowflakes, beginning to gather at its claws.
“Wh-what is this…?!”
“….”
I watched the phenomenon unfold before my eyes in silence.
A sight so wondrous that even seeing it with my own eyes, I could scarcely believe it.
‘…I never imagined I’d actually witness this.’
｢You have witnessed the creation of [Night Stalker’s Rune]!｣
｢This is such a rare phenomenon that it’s difficult to witness even once in a lifetime! Should you absorb this rune, you will be able to use the Night Stalker’s unique skill [Darkness Leap]!｣
The process of a rune forming from a monster’s corpse—a fragment of its soul in life taking shape within its body.
Unless a being of divine power fragments their own strength, this is the standard way runes form in ordinary monsters.
After the light faded, I picked up the claw from the corpse and opened my mouth.
“…Ever heard the theory? Runes are crystallized obsession and willpower. The more combat a creature experiences in life, the higher the probability it develops a rune.”
“That’s… wasn’t that just superstition? I thought rune generation was completely random… The odds are so abysmal that research on it has been limited.”
“Random, huh? I’m not so sure.”
Based on my experience slaying tens of millions of monsters, that’s far more than mere superstition.
In other words, someone deliberately cultivated the Night Stalker to extract a rune.
Radi’s expression shifted from alarm to sudden realization.
“W-wait, a rune from such a rare monster?! If we put this up for auction, I can’t even imagine how much it would fetch…!”
“…No, we can’t use this.”
I hated to dampen her excitement, but I spoke flatly as I secured the Night Stalker’s Rune.
‘This rune has a critical flaw.’
Regardless of its rarity, it’s what’s known as a suicide rune—one that kills its user.
Which makes this all the more strange.
The generation probability is already minuscule, and the rune is unusable. Who would squander a fortune breeding the Night Stalker for something so worthless?
No matter how I think about it, I can’t conjure a plausible answer.
…Though there is one possibility that comes to mind.
In my experience, when something this nonsensical occurs, it’s usually not human involvement…
“…Forget it. I can’t ask them directly anyway.”
“Doran?”
“I need rest now. The rest… I’m counting on you.”
I collapsed onto the grassland and closed my eyes.
I’d been holding on through sheer willpower, but I was reaching my limit.
“Doran?! W-wait…! Doran!! Stay with me! If you sleep now, you’ll die!!”
As Radi’s frantic voice calling my name faded into the background, consciousness slipped away rapidly.

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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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