Chapter 143: Chapter 97: Meeting Goes On, the Desire to Speak and Hinting Clues Part 1

「You say you want information about Night Prowler Luukan, but truth to be told, we don’t know much about it ourselves.」

「Doesn’t matter. Even the information about his attack patterns may prove to be invaluable.」

「Is that right……」

Night Prowler Luukan, the source of my trauma as well as the goal towards which I was constantly striving.

Although it sucks some major ass that it ravaged me the way it did, it was thanks to its curse marks that I was able to come this far.

At that time I wasn’t really paying that much attention to its moveset, and moreover the memory of Wezaemon was still very much vivid inside of my mind. It would not be a surprise if I wasn’t able to remember anything. But there was no way for me to actually forget carnage like that.

「First of all, his basic attacks are much faster than that of normal mobs or even bosses, and there is little to no telegraphing them. However, I could make out three distinctive patterns: straightforward, diagonal and zig-zag. There may be some delays between them, but there’s not that much safe space to talk about. He can use his claws as well as his fangs to deliver devastating bites and slashes that can also cause some additional effects, so if you get hit even once you might be as good as done for. Next, it can jump into the shadows and conceal itself within them only to deliver a devastating strike a moment later. Of course this also counts as a one hit kill since it is taking you completely by surprise, but there is one saving grace here: it will make a slight sound the moment it is about to emerge from the shadows. A slight window to avoid, but better than none. Aside from that you must guess the place from where it is going to jump you. In my case it was always jumping out on me from right under my feet, so it might be a good idea to be constantly on the move to minimize the risk. By the way, the sound it makes when emerging from the shadows is so quiet that other ambient sound can make it impossible to notice, so you need to watch out for that as well. So as long as you go in with company you should be able to make this fight just a little bit easier, but it is not anything major or crucial. Dashes, bites, slashes, surprise attacks, it’s a bit much, but as long as you run like you mean it should be entirely possible to dodge most of his attacks……」

「…… Terribly sorry, but do you think you could possibly write this down for me? This is a little bit too much info at one time to take in.」

Not good, just remembering all that was making my throat parched. I could even feel Saiga-0’s careful gaze at me all the time while I was relating everything I knew. I could also feel that the longer I was talking, the higher her eyebrows were going.

「Welp, in the end it is nothing more than an oversized wolf. At least that’s the impression that I got. But I don’t know if that’s all techniques it can use, since I fought too little with it to be sure.」

「Too little?」

I then remembered the last attack of Luukan, the one that most probably devoured me whole.

It was a bite, that’s for certain…… I know I was most probably eaten, but on what principles? Hell of I know.

「At the time I was focusing mostly on dodging and keeping my distance, so I don’t know that much about its close-ranged attacks……」

I know that Luukan did something to me. And that something basically busted my legs and sent me onto the ground. But what could that be?

「I thought it might have been an unavoidable attack with some insane tracking, but now I think that it was something different. I don’t want to call it a bug, but it pretty much looked like that to me……」

I wonder if I would be able to see it clearly now if I was to fight it again? But that kind of thinking is pretty much unrealistic at this point.

When I finish speaking, Saiga-100 looks to be deep in thoughts for a moment or two before eventually opening her mouth while standing up.

「Right, I guess it wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t give you some information in return. Let’s see…… How about we tell you how to lift the curse of Luukan from you……?」

「Eh, really?」

「The method is not that big of a secret or anything, but it’s a real pain in the ass and us Black Wolves can make it hundred times easier for you.」

Curse marks of Luukan were currently occupying my torso and legs. And while it wasn’t any major inconvenience, going around half-naked because of that was becoming increasingly more annoying with each passing day.

But hearing Saiga-100’s words, my opinion on “Black Wolves” went up a little bit. Only a little bit, but it certainly went up.

「That being said…… Really, I was surprised that you are hanging around Pencilgton, but I can only assume that you are going to continue to do so in the future as well…… Right. I’m really curious about you, so if possible I would like to play together on occasion. You formed a guild together with Pencilgton, right? How about it? Maybe our two groups could do some quests together in the future……?」

「Say, “Black Wolf”? Could you give me some private consultations sometime later?」

And there it was. A buzzkill of a voice that suddenly got in between Saiga-100 and I.

From the satisfied look on his face I could guess that Pencilgton most probably managed to sell the Book of World Truth: “Wezaemon” to the Magical Girl-wannabe. Honestly…… Is everyone in here so god damned easy?

Seeing as he had nothing to say on any of the present matters, Katsu just gave up completely and upon accepting his fate as a third wheel he just continued to order cake after cake and proceeded to drown his sorrows in sugar. Hey, are you really fine with that……? Oh, is it because there’s nothing unique about this whole meeting? Is that it? Fine, you can stay silent, but…… Just try not to throw forks at people, alright? That’s dangerous.

Saiga-0 was silent and still, so much that she looked as though she was asleep. So I guess it was something that the guild leader wanted to settle.

I know that the one who interrupted was Penciilgton, but even if I had to go with the process of elimination, it wasn’t that hard to guess at all.

「Or was there something else that you would like to know? Something that wasn’t included in the original question?」

「Muu…… Let’s see, I ‘m not so sure about that……」

For me small talk was pretty much useless, but I guess it was also a part of meetings like that. But as I was rattling my brain as to what to talk about with Saiga-100, Animalia appeared again and joined us as a conversation partner.

「Saraku-san, let me tell you this before anything else. Cutting straight to the chase, if you ever feel like joining some other guild, our “SF-Zoo” will be happy to greet you in our ranks.」

「Hee, ah, yeah, right.」