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The legendary Scion Mountain. Letina was extremely ecstatic at the opportunity to venture here.

This was the place where her adored Six Heroes had shaken the world with their achievement. It would be unreasonable to tell her not to be excited.

“T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-This is where you fought with the Evil Dragon, isn’t it, Lord Maxwell!”
“Calm down, little Letina. You sound like a broken toy. And this is simply a waypoint. The Evil Dragon’s nest was much deeper near the summit.”
“Then let’s go there! Let’s go at once! Hurry, hurry!”
“Calm down I said. Your targets, the Fang Wolves, don’t live that high up.”

Normally, the higher you went up a mountain, the scarcer the living being became. Naturally, there were some animals that preferred more elevated places, but Fang Wolves were carnivores and quite strong as far as the natural world was concerned. As such, they wouldn’t go out of their way to move to the mountain summit with limited prey to hunt.

That said, they weren’t so strong to manage to live in the bottomlands where they would have to scramble for prey with other predators.

Still, their strength was considerably high, so at our level, we couldn’t lower our guards.

“Fang Wolves live around this high up. It is the place where the vegetation is considerably scarce, you could say. Higher places in mountains have fewer plants so it might make you think you have an open view, but these wolves still have the ability to hide and sneak up on the prey, so stay vigilant of your surroundings.”

Back when I came here to subjugate the Evil Dragon, I experienced fighting against Fang Wolves once. Maxwell was also experienced in that, that’s probably why he chose this hunting ground.

Their reddish-brown fur served as a natural camouflage in this barren land of the same color, making it hard for us to detect them. And they suppressed their killing intent to the limits before attacking the prey, so even with my ability, detecting them right away was quite difficult.

I slipped out from the group and talked privately with Maxwell. The person in question was dispatching a familiar to the skies to observe the situation from there.

“Hey, even if this was the God of Destruction’s request, don’t you think Fang Wolves are a little too much for us?”

Fang Wolves’ strength lies in their surprise attacks made possible through their hiding ability. Once they have shown themselves, they weren’t that scary.

But in this nature, the ability to take the first strike was too big of an advantage. Especially for the kids with immature, vulnerable bodies, those surprise attacks could prove to be fatal.

“It would have been dangerous by yourselves indeed. But they have you, Reid. Fang Wolves are not so strong in direct battles. As long as you can sense them before they attack, it should not turn into a difficult battle, right?”
“That’s how it would be if we face them head-on. But the enemy excels at hiding. There is always a chance that one could slip through my detection.”
“And that is why I am here. I am observing the situation from high up through my familiar. And… I am also using the Life Search spell.”
“Ohh, as expected of you, old man. Dependable as always.”

Life Search. As the name implied, it was a spell to detect anything that fell in the living category. It was a very useful spell, but it had its weaknesses. It could only sense living beings. That is, it could not detect the Undead. If you relied on it too much, some Undead could possibly take you out by surprise.

Then there was the narrow range. It could detect presences in at most 100 meters, give or take a few. It could only be used to defend against surprise attacks.

There was also a problem with the information content. You could only find out the size of targets through this spell. You wouldn’t be able to tell whether it was a person or a wolf.

Moreover, in populated places there would be so many presences it could instead confuse you. Same could be said for the forest.

It could only show its full power in mostly deserted places like this desolate mountain.

“…It must be hard for you to make practical use of it normally.”
“Leave me be.”

Maxwell responded with a somewhat dejected expression, but he was certainly reliable this time. In fact, he already managed to detect living beings that even I failed to detect. He spoke in a loud voice to warn everyone.

“There is a somewhat larger presence there. Maybe the size of a cat? It would be best to avoid it just in case.”
“Could it be a weasel?”
“Unfortunately, this magic does not let me find out so much. I do not know what it is.”

I separated from the group and approached the place where that animal was lurking while erasing my presence. It wasn’t just the Fang Wolves who were great at hiding. I also held the Stealth Gift, so I was good at sneaking up to my prey.

Hiding behind the rock was a lizard the size of a cat. It was a brown lizard with a reddish tinge and sharp fangs… A monster called Dusk Lizard.

It was called Dusk Lizard due to its color, but this was supposed to be a trait it developed to live hidden in mountain ranges that contained a lot of iron.

It was only as strong as a cat, so it was not a difficult foe. That said, its fangs contained poison so you had to be careful near them.

They were sharp enough to pierce through the academy boots that we were wearing, so it was better to get rid of it, just in case.

Dusk Lizard continued silently gazing at Maxwell and the rest without detecting me who had completely cut off my presence. It was probably trying to find an opportunity to bite into their feet and poison them.

I could not overlook that. I went around the dead angle of the rock and released my thread. The Mythril thread wrapped around its mouth to seal off its fangs, its strongest means of attack, and also constricted its movements.

The Dusk Lizard was shocked when it noticed the thread around its mouth and frantically tried to get it off with its forelimb.

That action looked quite charming, like that of a cat washing its face. However, it was an enemy, so I had no time to lose myself in its charm. I approached it from behind and then stabbed my katana into the borderline of its neck and body… In other words, into its medulla oblongata.

Taking a vital hit from behind made it flinch once and ended its life.

Just like this, taking the initiative, and dealing a surprise attack was tremendously advantageous.