Silence filled the meeting room.
After several seconds, the younger Charge Blade user cautiously spoke up. "Wh-what's a Grimclaw? What's that?"
The moment she broke the silence, everyone in the room instinctively turned to look at her.
She could understand the veteran Hunters, whose experience dwarfed her own, but why was even that kid, who wasn't yet twenty, giving her a strange look?
Am I really the only one out of the loop?! Her embarrassment was becoming painfully obvious. She widened her eyes and asked Altaïr, "You, kid... you know about this Grimclaw thing too?"
Faced with the direct question, Altaïr found himself at a loss for where to begin.
Fortunately, Marydan spoke up and got him out of the bind. "The Grimclaw Tigrex destroyed his village when he was seven or eight, leaving him an orphan. What do you think?"
"..."
Silence descended upon the room once more.
The Charge Blade user's mouth fell open. She could already imagine waking up in the middle of the night, remembering this moment, and slapping herself.
I'm such an asshole! Exasperated by the Hunters' blunt way of communicating, Lady Aisha, the Guild Master's deputy, spoke up. "Let me introduce her first. This is Miss Dana, a 6★ Charge Blade user.
Mr. Altaïr, she simply didn't know what happened back then. She meant no harm."
"Of course."
Altaïr was not so sensitive as to feel that she had reopened an old wound or slighted him. He nodded to Dana, signaling that he was not offended.
Only then did Dana breathe a sigh of relief. She pressed both hands on the table and bowed her head deeply. "I'm sorry!"
"All right, there's no need for that. The brat isn't so fragile."
Marydan bared her sharp fangs and looked at Altaïr. "Back when you first became a 1★ Hunter, you kept pestering me with questions about that 'Grimclaw Tigrex'.
At the time, you were far too inexperienced. Telling you too much would have done more harm than good. But now that you've hunted a Tigrex alone, you can finally stand on your own two feet. I see no harm in telling you a little more."
As she spoke, Marydan glanced at the mustachioed Guild Master at the head of the table. Seeing no sign of objection, she continued. "Have you two heard of 'Deviants'?"
The "you two" naturally referred to the two younger Hunters, Altaïr and Dana.
"Ah, yeah, I know about Deviants. I've heard the legend of 'Bloodbath Diablos'." Dana crossed her arms and nodded firmly.
Altaïr, on the other hand, shook his head honestly. "I think I heard Senior Haifa mention them once, but she didn't explain them in detail."
"To put it simply, Deviants are individual Monsters that have become exceptionally powerful because of unusual circumstances."
"Like a Rare Species?" Altaïr asked tentatively.
"Something like that, but not quite." This time, Omar picked up the thread.
"To give you a simple example, if we treated humans as a kind of Monster, an ordinary human would be the base species. The Sea People, who evolved along a distinct path in a unique environment, would be a Subspecies, or perhaps even a Rare Species.
Now imagine an ordinary person who breaks an arm in his youth. Rather than giving up and resigning himself to a disability, he improves his diet, trains relentlessly, and spars with others. His arm heals stronger than before, so strong that no ordinary person can match it. Eventually, he earns a title like 'Strongarm'. That is what we'd call a 'Deviant'."
Altaïr nodded slowly. Dana slapped her palm with a fist. "I see. Legend has it that the Bloodbath Diablos once broke one of its horns, which later somehow grew back even thicker and stronger. So the Grimclaw is some Monster that became a Deviant? Did its claws break too?"
"Its claws didn't necessarily break. They may have developed abnormally, or there may be another explanation."
Marydan corrected her. "The Grimclaw Tigrex is still a Tigrex. The foreclaws have always been the Tigrex family's most powerful weapons, but this one possesses two claws far thicker, harder, and more powerful than those of an ordinary Tigrex.
Those azure wyvern claws possess tremendous power."
"Wait a minute." Dana caught the implication in Marydan's words. "Senior Marydan, you've fought that Grimclaw Tigrex before? Even a Tigrex expert like you couldn't defeat it?"
Marydan, her arms crossed over her chest, glanced at her. "If I were twenty years younger, I could face it head-on. I can't say who would win. But now... heh, I can tell you this: anyone in this room who ran into that thing alone should thank their lucky stars just to get away in one piece."
"Is it really that terrifying?"
"The Guild has kept a quest to hunt the Grimclaw Tigrex posted for over twenty years," the mustachioed Guild Master said, his tone somber. "Far more than one or two high-rank Hunters have been seriously injured or even killed trying to hunt it. That is why the Guild classified its threat level as 8★."
"Good grief." Dana clicked her tongue in amazement. "8★? As far as I know, we don't even have a single active 8★ Hunter in Loc Lac right now, do we?"
Hunters generally spoke plainly, but sometimes too much candor was unwise. The two 7★ Hunters, Adan and Omar, the former 8★ Hunter Marydan, and the mustachioed Guild Master, Loc Lac's de facto "lead Hunter," all wore rather sour expressions.
"In any case, resolving the threat of the Grimclaw Tigrex is not just a matter for the Loc Lac Guild." The Guild Master twirled the whiskers at the corners of his mouth. "That creature roams over a vast territory. I've heard reports of sightings as far away as the Great Snowy Mountains. But now that it has entered the Loc Lac region, we must confirm its whereabouts to prevent a tragedy like the one twelve years ago."
Altaïr, who had remained silent, understood the deeper meaning behind the Guild Master's words.
If the Loc Lac Guild committed everything it had, it could probably deal with the Grimclaw Tigrex on its own.
If the high-rank Hunters currently in the meeting room all fought together without retreating, they could probably bring it down, but only at the cost of several lives.
However, the Great Desert held many threats beyond a single Grimclaw Tigrex. As the Guild Master, he could not choose a course that demanded victory "at all costs."
Nor could he simply leave it alone. At the very least, they had to pin down its location and warn nearby villages and trade routes to reduce the risk of attacks as much as possible.
The Grimclaw Tigrex's location and movements also had to be reported to the Hunter's Guild headquarters in Dundorma.
Perhaps a 9★ Hunter would be free and willing to make a special trip to take care of it? The chances were slim. In this world, Monsters with high threat levels vastly outnumbered the Hunters capable of dealing with them.
Monster population booms often left Hunters overwhelmed and unable to keep up, but no one had ever heard of Monsters being hunted to extinction and Hunters being left with nothing to do.
"So, the purpose of this emergency summons is to have us track the Grimclaw Tigrex and identify its movements and hunting grounds?" Adan, the taciturn Bow user, spoke up for the first time during the meeting.
"Precisely." The mustachioed Guild Master nodded. "I want you to form two teams of two to investigate the Grimclaw Tigrex's whereabouts.
Once you spot the target, do not approach it, and absolutely do not consider engaging in a Hunt. Withdraw immediately and report the information.
If the situation deteriorates to the point where engagement is unavoidable, partners can cover each other and improve their chances of withdrawing safely."
"Two teams of two?" Dana looked around. "Senior Omar, Senior Adan, and I... the three of us are definitely participating.
Who's the fourth, then? Retired Senior Marydan? Or Altaïr here, who just reached 5★?"
Altaïr's head snapped up. He did not think the Guild Master would assign him to investigate a Monster rated at threat level 8★, but he still clung to that one-in-a-hundred chance.
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Marydan reached over with a large hand and pushed Altaïr's raised head back down as he sat beside her. "There's no chance this kid is going."
The mustachioed Guild Master nodded. "These three are currently the only high-rank Hunters in Loc Lac who are not on assignment. The target is a Grimclaw Tigrex, and sending anyone alone would be too dangerous. Marydan, I'll need you to make the trip as well."
With her arms folded across her chest, Marydan cracked her neck, producing a series of crisp pops and snaps. "I haven't stretched my limbs in a while anyway. Let's call it a long-overdue field trip!"
(Translated by yourtl.app)