This time, with the direction provided by the hunter, Kuguruma Natsunishi quickly found a lead.
In less than half a day, he discovered an abandoned small Buddhist hall deep in the mountains.
The air was thick with the heavy scent of blood.
Cutting through the underbrush and walking a few more steps into the forest, he found several animal carcasses that had been gnawed on, tossed aside carelessly on the ground. Due to the climate, the corpses had already begun to rot. Swarms of flies circled above, and numerous maggots squirmed within the remains.
The bite marks were shallow.
It looked as if someone had plucked a few fruits while hungry, taken a single bite, found them distasteful, and casually discarded them by the roadside. No normal wild beast or hunter would waste prey like this.
More bizarrely, no other scavengers had come to feed on these remains. They just lay there in a heap, rotting away. It was as if this area belonged to some absolute "Lord," and even ordinary scavengers dared not approach.
Kuguruma Natsunishi stepped forward, snapped off a branch, and pushed aside the remains to observe closely. Fortunately, the game had a cognitive buffering function. Although the visuals and smell were realistic enough to be nauseating, he didn't feel much discomfort. It felt just like playing an old-fashioned PC game and clicking on a corpse model that might drop loot.
"As expected, it wasn't a bear bite..." Kuguruma Natsunishi concluded.
While he had never seen a bear in reality, he was quite familiar with them in the game. After all, during his recent time at Mount Sagiri, more than one kind "Mr. Bear" had contributed a wealth of medical experience to him.
It was a demon, no doubt about it.
His spirits lifted, and he immediately began a search centered around the mountain shrine, expanding outward. This was a special personal mechanic he had discovered during gameplay. Unlike NPCs who had to follow the laws of science within the plot, no matter how much the swordsmen trained, their vision was inevitably affected in the dark of night.
While his own vision would blur due to the darkness, the game UI in his field of vision was unaffected by environmental lighting effects. No matter how dark it was, as long as he entered a certain range, a system-generated red marker and name would float above a demon's head.
This was something others could not do. It was also a massive tactical advantage he possessed when searching for demons skilled at hiding. He could even derive another ability from this system mechanic.
As long as those demons didn't have some special transformation or concealment skill, even if they retracted their fangs and hid among a crowd, he could tell at a glance which ones weren't human as long as the distance wasn't too great. This was equivalent to a short-to-medium-range "Alignment Identification" and "Enemy Search Radar."
Sure enough, in less than half an hour, Kuguruma Natsunishi found something.
As he was carefully inspecting a patch of shrubs, a faint red marker with a hint of hostility suddenly flashed through the trees not far away in the corner of his eye, right at the edge of his system panel.
The distance was about thirty meters.
The opponent maintained this approximate distance; no matter how Kuguruma Natsunishi moved, the other party neither approached nor retreated.
Are they stalking me? Or are they secretly gauging my strength?
Kuguruma Natsunishi subtly adjusted his direction. He chopped at branches and turned over soil, pretending to still be searching for clues. In reality, he was quietly closing the distance between them.
Having played so many games, he was very familiar with stealth segments. As long as one maintained a crouching posture and didn't enter the enemy's direct forward field of vision, the opponent would often act like a blind man and let one get close...
And then.
And then Kuguruma Natsunishi saw a dark shadow suddenly leap out of the bushes and flee toward the depths of the dense forest without looking back!
How did it notice me?! This is unscientific!
Thoughts aside, Kuguruma Natsunishi stopped pretending. The Breath of Wind instantly circulated through his body, and his physical functions rapidly surged. He exerted force with his feet, stomping a shallow pit into the ground, and his figure pulled into an afterimage as he gave chase.
If it really managed to get far away, the system UI would disappear.
The mountain forest terrain was rugged and complex, and the demon's flight speed and technique were astonishing. But that was only relative to ordinary people. Kuguruma Natsunishi's total attributes had reached 70, not to mention his Breathing Style and the "Running" passive that increased movement speed.
The distance of less than thirty meters was shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The demon clearly noticed this as well. As it fled desperately, it turned back and began to curse loudly.
"You Demon Slayer bastard! I've only eaten a few people! Is it really necessary to follow me this closely?!"
It actually felt aggrieved. Hadn't it hidden away in these deep mountains specifically to avoid the Demon Slayer Corps? To avoid attracting too much attention, it had even exercised restraint in its eating habits. It either looked for solitary dwellers deep in the mountains or targeted elderly people whose deaths wouldn't be noticed by many. It had even deliberately imitated the predatory behavior of bears to deceive people.
How had a swordsman found its doorstep after only a few days?
"There are so many people in these villages! What's the big deal if I eat two!"
Kuguruma Natsunishi: "???"
"Listen to yourself," he retorted with rare irony. "What's the big deal about eating two people? Well, I'm just looking to borrow the head on your shoulders. Is it really necessary to run so fast?"
The demon was choked by Kuguruma Natsunishi's words. It roared, "Is that the same thing?!"
Kuguruma Natsunishi: "How is it different?"
He was a staunch Human-Unionist; he never chose non-human races in games. His main focus was humanity! Loyalty! Forget the fact that the opponent was a red-named monster; the single setting of being a "man-eating alien" race was enough for him to chop the opponent into mincemeat.
Seeing the distance closing, the demon knew it couldn't escape. It skidded to a stop, turned around, and let out a hiss as it took an offensive stance toward Kuguruma Natsunishi.
"Bastard! Don't think I'm actually afraid of you!"
It hadn't wanted to provoke the Demon Slayer Corps. Upon discovering this swordsman wearing the corps uniform, equipped with three blades, and wearing a mask, it had suppressed its appetite, planning to observe the opponent's strength from the shadows first.
In its limited understanding, a fellow covered in bits and pieces—masks, cord knots, luggage—and carrying three swords didn't look like one of those greenhorn "Mizunoto" rank rookies.
Hei (Hinoe) or Den (Hinoto)?
But before it could figure anything out, the opponent had actually discovered it and even pretentiously leaned closer. Instinct told it this man was trouble, so it decisively chose to retreat. Who would have thought the opponent would be so relentless! Giving an inch and taking a mile, chasing him to the death?!
Do you really take me for a spent force?!
The demon's large forehead faintly glowed green under the moonlight, its hair began to move slowly in the air without any wind, and a pair of muscular, gnarled arms rapidly sprouted from its temples.
It looked very... very abstract.
[Giant Red ???] [Power Level: 39]
Kuguruma Natsunishi glanced at the information in the corner of his vision, and his lips twitched slightly. After chasing for so long, it was just a minor fry who didn't even have a Blood Demon Art? Its attributes weren't even as good as the fodder in the Final Selection.
The demon clearly captured the change in Kuguruma Natsunishi's expression. It shifted from the excitement of a hunter discovering prey to unconcealed disgust.
"Shiro," Kuguruma Natsunishi suddenly looked up and spoke to a certain point in the sky. "Next time, can you send some challenging missions?"
"Caw! Kuguruma! Distractions are forbidden during missions! Caw!"
The demon froze, then its fury exploded.
I'm being looked down upon, aren't I? I'm definitely being looked down upon!
Its eyes turned blood-red, and the nails on its four arms instantly grew long like blades as it lunged straight at Kuguruma Natsunishi.
A straight flash of silver.
The head was separated from the body.
The demon's face was still frozen in shock and fear, and its body began to turn to ash before it even hit the ground.
[Breath of Wind LV.3 (+21)]
Kuguruma Natsunishi hadn't even pushed his Breathing Style much. After all, whether it was the Breathing Style or the accompanying sword forms, they were methods and techniques used to compensate for a swordsman's physical stats being far inferior to a demon's. They were used to make up for a lack of numerical power.
If his stats were already higher than the demon's, he naturally wouldn't need those methods.
Now that Kuguruma Natsunishi's attributes were nearly double the opponent's, the decapitation wasn't quite as smooth as a hot knife through butter, but it was not far from slicing through vegetables.
[Skip Cutscene]
"I say, why don't you talk to the Boss? I won't ask for a Demon Moons, but at least arrange for a decent demon, right?"
As he watched the Kasugai Crow fly back to report, Kuguruma Natsunishi spoke to it, still somewhat unwilling to give up. What he got in return was the crow's angry cry.
"It is the Master, not Boss! Caw!"
"And Caw! Killing demons is a swordsman's duty! Every one must be treated seriously!"
Kuguruma Natsunishi said, "Of course I fight seriously when I encounter them. But the efficiency right now is too low. Just pass the message along; the Boss will understand."
He believed that with the precision of this game's setting, the Master of the Demon Slayer Corps would certainly not be a mediocre person. The logic of using good steel for the blade's edge was something the other party would surely understand.
For Kuguruma Natsunishi, the only thing he needed to worry about was the speed of discovering demons and the efficiency of the dispatch center under this game's historical background. However, as an organization that had lasted for a thousand years, it must have its own unique command system and personnel dispatch methods. It couldn't possibly rely solely on a bunch of crows shouting at the top of their lungs and flying around the world day and night, right?
"By the way, I plan to head to the next Trainer for further study."
"You definitely know the way. Just find me along the route when you get back."
The crow's feathers stood on end in anger: "Bastard! I don't know maps! I don't know them, Caw!!"
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