The Monk was right. Mossy Hill Village was indeed quite a distance from Wingen Town. Even with a carriage, it still took over three hours to get there.
If they had walked, they might not have even made it by nightfall.
After jolting along the bumpy path for several hours, Lynn felt like his body was about to fall apart.
It was close to noon when the carriage finally came to a halt.
They had arrived at Mossy Hill Village.
Lynn directed Aguda to unload the supplies from the carriage, while the Monk had already agreed with the driver on a time to pick them up.
Dry bread, smoked bacon... tents, torches...
After checking the supplies and confirming everything was in order, the driver fed the horses two bundles of hay, cracked his whip, and the two horses joyfully trotted back.
“Esteemed adventurers! You've finally arrived!”
Welcoming them at the entrance of the village was the village chief of Mossy Hill Village.
From his haggard face, it was obvious he hadn't slept well for days because of the Giant-Winged Bats.
The village chief lamented, “That pack of Giant-Winged Bats has lived on the mountain for a long time. In the past, they only came out at night. We never encountered them when gathering herbs during the day, so we didn't think to spend money to hire adventurers to clear them out.”
“But recently, for some reason, they've been agitated. Their sleep schedule has become completely erratic, and they often come out during the day. One villager was bitten and had to have a limb amputated. Now, no one dares to go out to gather herbs. If this continues, we won't be able to fulfill our orders with Wingen Town's apothecary on time!”
If they encountered monsters like Goblins, the village chief could still organize a militia for a symbolic resistance.
But against flying monsters like Giant-Winged Bats, the villagers couldn't organize any effective countermeasure.
Even the militia valued their lives.
A single bite from a Giant-Winged Bat could be fatal if the infected wound wasn't treated properly. Naturally, the militia didn't dare risk their lives to exterminate the bats and could only wait anxiously for the adventurers from Wingen Town.
This was the helpless reality of the villagers at the bottom of society.
The village chief originally wanted to host Lynn and the others for lunch, but the Monk shook his head and declined.
It was right around noon, and everyone was full of energy—the perfect time to hunt monsters.
...
It was a classic case of the mountain looking closer than it actually was.
Even though the villagers had long mapped out the location of the Giant-Winged Bats' nest and sent a guide to lead them, it still took them two hours to climb halfway up the mountain under the local's guidance.
Fortunately, the trees on the mountain were lush and dense, so even though it was afternoon, it wasn't too hot.
“Esteemed adventurers, it's right over there!”
The guide wiped his sweat and pointed toward a hidden crevice on the mountainside.
Screech— Screech—
A sharp screech suddenly rang out overhead.
Without even looking up, the guide knew a Giant-Winged Bat was coming. Terrified, he leapt and dove into a nearby bush, curling himself up. He didn't even care when the branches scratched him.
This was the locals' default reaction to a Giant-Winged Bat.
By hiding in the bushes, they could avoid the bats, as the Giant-Winged Bats usually gave up the chase to prevent their wings from being torn by the branches.
But adventurers, of course, were different.
Watching the Giant-Winged Bat circling overhead, seemingly ready to dive-bomb them at any moment, the party's archer, Aguda, raised the longbow he had prepared.
Exerting a fraction of his strength, the hundred-and-sixty-pound longbow looked like nothing more than a giant toy in his hands. He easily drew the bowstring into a full moon, holding it tense and ready.
The Giant-Winged Bat circled more than twenty meters up in the sky, seemingly unconcerned by the hunter aiming at it from the ground.
But Aguda was not like those village militia who could only fiddle with simple hunting bows.
As Lynn expected, this Giant-Winged Bat would soon pay the price for its carelessness.
Whoosh—
Aguda released his tab. The hundred-and-twenty-gram barbed hunting arrow shot up from the ground, flying straight toward the Giant-Winged Bat at a speed too fast for it to track.
Only then did the Giant-Winged Bat realize that this archer was fundamentally different from the militia it had encountered before.
Its arrow was impossible to dodge!
Thwack—
The wing membrane, which was thicker than cowhide, failed to withstand the force of the hunting arrow. The barb pierced through, and blood instantly gushed out like a torrent.
The Giant-Winged Bat shrieked, flapping its other fleshy wing, but it couldn't maintain its balance and plunged straight down.
Lynn, however, was already waiting at its landing spot.
Before climbing the mountain, Lynn had specifically instructed Aguda not to kill any solitary Giant-Winged Bats outright if they encountered them, but to merely disable their wings.
Otherwise, with a single arrow from Aguda, this Giant-Winged Bat wouldn't have stood a chance of survival.
Aguda didn't understand why Lynn wanted him to “show mercy” to the monster, but since Lynn had asked, he did as he was told.
The Giant-Winged Bat fell to the ground, already on its last breath. Lynn raised his spear and gave it a quick death.
He opened his monster encyclopedia. Two notifications that had already existed before the kill appeared—
“In the year 442 of the New Star Calendar, Adventurer Lynn unlocked a new entry in the monster encyclopedia: Giant-Winged Bat. Current number of unlocked entries: 7.”
“13 more entries required to unlock the next Rune reward.”
And another one that had just popped up after killing the Giant-Winged Bat:
“Killed one Giant-Winged Bat. Obtained Bloodline Point (Giant-Winged Bat) * 0.5 (50% assist penalty).”
Perhaps because the Bloodline Points were less than one, the monster encyclopedia did not unlock the Giant-Winged Bat's bloodline tree.
So opportunistic kills like this came with a penalty multiplier...
Lynn couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.
It seemed his plan to form a battle group to capture monsters for him, allowing him to deliver the final blow and harvest Bloodline Points, was ruined.
Closing the monster encyclopedia, Lynn realized the Monk was looking at him with a strange expression.
The Monk was wondering to himself: Lynn seems to have some kind of obsession with delivering the killing blow to these monsters. Could he have some sort of weird fetish?
Unaware that he had been labeled as “mentally unstable” in the Monk's mind, Lynn stared at the nearby bat nest and quickly reminded his companions,
“We need to move quickly. I'm worried this bat might have called its pack for help.”
The group of four shouldered their gear and hurried toward the nearby cave entrance.
Within their capabilities, they couldn't let a single Giant-Winged Bat escape. This was a matter of an adventurer's reputation. If any Giant-Winged Bats remained to terrorize the village after they left, the villagers might complain to the Guild.
Therefore, they had to trap the Giant-Winged Bats in their nest so they could pick them off one by one.
Within a few minutes, they arrived at the entrance of the bat nest.
Lupa raised her tower shield to block the front, while the Monk and Lynn immediately began setting up a bonfire.
A bonfire as tall as a man was quickly built. They poured oil over it, and before long, it was burning fiercely, sending thick clouds of white smoke billowing into the cave.
This was the fire attack tactic they had agreed upon beforehand.
They would use thick smoke to force the bats out, while Aguda had already set up the heavy interceptor net at the cave entrance.
If they were ranked monsters, they could probably tear through the interceptor net and escape easily. But although Giant-Winged Bats were classified as monsters, in terms of raw physical strength, they probably couldn't even beat a wild wolf in a one-on-one fight.
Today, not a single Giant-Winged Bat would escape.
Soon, an endless barrage of squeaks echoed from inside the cave.
But strangely, not a single bat flew out...
Half an hour passed.
The man-tall bonfire had burned down significantly.
Even the cave entrance was filled with swirling smoke, looking like a “fairyland.”
Yet the bats in the cave seemed like heavy chain-smokers, happily puffing away inside and refusing to come out.
The Monk frowned. “This isn't right. Ordinary Giant-Winged Bats don't have much resistance to smoke. There are two possibilities: either the cave is too deep or has other smoke vents, or...”
“This pack has a leader that can force the other bats to stay inside, waiting to ambush us if we enter.”
The group looked around. There were no other caves visible in the mountain forest, making the first scenario highly unlikely.
It was highly probable that this pack of Giant-Winged Bats had a leader.
Having finished, the Monk looked at Lynn as if seeking his opinion.
Although Lynn was the least experienced in the party, his combat power was the strongest. A single hit from his Magic Missile was enough to easily kill any non-class-holder or unranked monster.
The Monk had seen with his own eyes how the Goblin Champion, which he had struggled with for so long, had been killed by a single missile.
Thus, in major decisions like this, Lynn's opinion was naturally the most important.
Even a veteran adventurer like the Monk had to defer to him.
“We can't go in,”
Lynn said, short and to the point.
Although the bats' strength would be greatly reduced in a smoke-filled environment, it would be an even greater detriment to Lynn and his companions.
At least the bats could rely on echolocation to penetrate the smoke and barely find their bearings. But in this pitch-black, blinding smoke, Lynn and the others probably wouldn't even be able to see three meters ahead.
Lynn's words aligned perfectly with the Monk's thoughts. The two immediately agreed not to risk entering the cave.
They would just play the waiting game with the Giant-Winged Bats!
After all, it wasn't Lynn and his companions who were suffocating in the smoky cave. Naturally, they had the patience to outlast them.
To force the Giant-Winged Bats out faster, Lynn came up with some dirty tricks.
He had Lupa use her keen sense of smell to find nearby damp grass, wet branches, and fresh “manure” left behind by wild beasts. He wrapped them in a cloth bag and threw them into the bonfire.
Though the flames died down a bit, the smoke instantly grew thicker, carrying a pungent, suffocating stench.
The shrieks of the bats echoing from the cave suddenly grew much more frequent.
The other three looked at Lynn with strange expressions, as if seeing him for the first time.
Lynn was unfazed. He even took out the poisonous herbs he had purchased earlier, like belladonna and oleander, and placed them over the bonfire to slow-burn.
Regardless of whether it would work, he threw in every trick he had.
These poisonous herbs were originally prepared for Goblins, but after buying them along with his gear, Lynn hadn't taken on any Goblin-slaying commissions yet.
The cave was filled with billowing, foul-smelling smoke, laced with paralyzing gases.
The Giant-Winged Bats squeaked and shrieked incessantly, as if urging something.
If some of the more extreme Druids were to see this, they might have arrested Lynn on the spot.
Another ten minutes passed, and the shrieks of the Giant-Winged Bats gradually quieted down.
However, Lynn became even more vigilant, checking the interceptor net over and over again for any issues.
Lynn knew very well that smoke of this level was not yet lethal.
The reason the Giant-Winged Bats had gone quiet was precisely because it was the calm before the storm.
As expected,
“Screech— Screech—”
A sharp screech pierced the thick smoke as a dark cloud of Giant-Winged Bats surged toward the interceptor net.
The sight of half-man-tall giant bats swarming forward en masse was incredibly oppressive.
But the adventurers, of course, had long been prepared.
With Lupa holding her tower shield at the very front, the other three raised their bows and crossbows, raining arrows down on the first wave of Giant-Winged Bats slamming into the interceptor net.
Aguda, having the best archery skills, was the first to shoot.
This time, he didn't hold back. The broadhead arrow shot from his longbow pierced precisely into the chest of a Giant-Winged Bat, its sharp blade slicing through the sternum and going straight for the heart.
Buzz— the fletching vibrated slightly. The leading Giant-Winged Bat was pinned to the stone wall without even making a sound.
Lynn and the Monk, on the other hand, didn't aim for precision, but speed.
They didn't care whether they hit, but simply repeated the mechanical process of drawing, nocking, and releasing.
Their archery was far inferior to Aguda's. Even if they tried their best, it was hard to achieve much.
So Lynn simply gave up on accuracy and focused entirely on fire rate, hoping to get lucky and score a hit.
“Killed one Giant-Winged Bat. Obtained Bloodline Point (Giant-Winged Bat) * 1”
“Killed one Giant-Winged Bat. Obtained Bloodline Point (Giant-Winged Bat) * 1”
...
Threatened by the thick smoke, the pack of Giant-Winged Bats had long lost their ability to judge calmly. They flew erratically, throwing themselves blindly at the interceptor net.
But having inhaled too much smoke mixed with paralyzing gas, their echolocation was disrupted, leaving them dizzy and unable to distinguish directions.
Unfortunate Giant-Winged Bats had their wings clipped by stray arrows. In just over ten seconds, five or six of them fell from the air.
The interceptor net was now stretched to its absolute limit, with several thin cords already snapping on the thick knots, looking as if it would break at any second.
Rate on N.U.
