'Ughh…why the hell would creatures even choose to make such an unpleasant area their habitat?' Hal complained inwardly as he struggled to put one foot in front of the other, his legs half-submerged in muddy water.
The creeping feeling that something would suddenly grab and drag him only grew stronger as he went deeper.
Luckily, Hal didn't have to venture too deep, as he suddenly heard chilling gargling calls some distance away.
The sounds were rather nightmarish.
But to Hal, it sounded like Chaos Points, academy credits, monetary rewards, and academy contribution points.
'Garbirds!'
He quickly followed the calls, determined to leave the darned biome as early as possible.
After a few minutes of carefully advancing toward his targets, Hal finally saw the Garbirds—perched atop the highest branches, seemingly observing the unclear waters with unmatched focus.
One was clearly larger, around a meter tall with camouflage feathers and a huge, protruding red feather on its forehead, extending to the back.
Its disproportionately massive beak as sharp as Damascus and as tough as iron darted unpredictably and menacingly as the creature tilted its head from time to time.
The female, smaller Garbird, on the other hand, merely had a stealth-inefficient, pink-feathered head and brown feathers on its smaller body, though its beak was a dreamy scarlet—far more gorgeous than the male's lethal gray.
'A pair!' Hal inwardly celebrated.
It wasn't too uncommon for the species to hunt in pairs, as per the amazing Manatech Computers, but he was still happy to find one, as it was also just as common if not slightly more, to find lone, mateless Garbirds.
After all, he needed both the female's scarlet beak and the male's prime feather to complete both the system's quest and his selected mission.
Finding pairs greatly reduced the effort spent searching.
Hiding at the massive roots of a Whispering Mangrove, Hal observed both Garbirds up close, strategizing how to take them down.
He was sure that the other would most likely flee after he killed one.
There was the option of dual casting, but Hal wasn't too confident in aiming with his left hand.
'Hmm…what to do…'
He then recalled that among the two, the male was a fair bit stronger and more aggressive.
'If I targeted the female first…Yeah, it should work…'
Trusting his intuition, Hal raised his arms and palmed at the air—the female Garbird right in the middle of the silvery-blue magic circle.
The temperature fell the next moment as a modest yet lethal glacial shard tore through the air, cleanly decapitating the F-ranked arcane beast.
Its body and head fell a few meters apart with a thud.
The next moment, a hair-raising gargling screech erupted from atop another Whispering Mangrove, followed by the furious descent of the male Garbird.
'I knew it!' Hal inwardly celebrated, pleased that his intuition was on point.
He then used a charge of [Wind Cutter], cleanly cutting the other avian diagonally in half, despite it being his first time using the spell.
The [Glacial Shard] spell card was still on cooldown so he had little choice.
Somewhat disturbingly, the pair landed close to each other, their beaks reaching for the other as though they desperately fought to not be separated by death.
Hal found himself haunted by the strangely harrowing sight, and his breathing grew heavier, and heavier still…
He couldn't ever stop hunting arcane monsters or beasts for the sake of his and his mother's future.
But at the very least, he could spare loving pairs or mothers, even if only to avoid a guilty conscience.
Of course, it was an entirely different matter if they tried to take his life first.
Hal forced himself to harvest the prime feather and the scarlet beak, quickly leaving the area with a heavy heart.
Only after a few deep breaths did he manage to temporarily forget the earlier scene.
He was in no position for too much self-reflection, as his safety wasn't guaranteed inside such a dangerous zone, and he might very well end up reaching his hands out in the air as if reaching for his mother whom he would never see again.
He had to focus and quickly get the job done, especially since he decided to make things a bit difficult for himself by refraining from hunting pairs.
Fortunately, although slightly uncommon compared to Blue-hide Boars, locating Garbirds wasn't too difficult.
Hal managed to kill three more after two hours—two male and one female.
He had fulfilled his quest requirements, but unfortunately, he still needed three more scarlet beaks from female Garbirds.
To his displeasure, all he found in the next few hours were either pairs or lone males.
It was extremely difficult to locate a sole, hunting female.
Noon came.
Hal's stomach began protesting, and so, he decided to rest for a while, thinking he was quite lucky to have not encountered any other creature except for Garbirds and the mundane toads they were feeding on.
He didn't know where to rest in such an unpleasant place, though, ultimately deciding to take the time to retreat to the small, desolate land outside the Ulwick Swamp.
It took him an hour to reach his target resting area, and another half hour of eating his travel rations before he was able to resume hunting female Garbirds.
The smooth start turned out to be a nightmare.
Hal only managed to harvest one scarlet beak in the next two hours.
Frustratingly, he found a decent number of females.
But they were either in a pair or in a nest atop a Whispering Mangrove, caring for their nestlings.
Hal naively couldn't bring himself to kill them.
And so, he pressed on and continued searching, though he instinctively noted their locations just in case.
Time inevitably continued marching forth, and the sun began its slow yet majestic retreat, leaving a black-haired young man frustrated in the depths of an eerie swamp.
Due to his desperation, Hal grew more careless and encountered a few F-ranked toads and leeches and was almost caught by a carnivorous plant's trap, if not for him noticing the vines' snare-like formation at the last second.
He luckily didn't encounter anything he couldn't handle.
However, with nightfall fast approaching, his situation could drastically change.
'Damn it, why can't I find the last one?!' Hal raged inwardly.
He somehow found another one an hour and a half prior, bringing his total to four scarlet beaks.
The frustrated young man needed only one more to complete his mission, but the darned female Garbirds were just too elusive, leaving him torn about a decision that could decide if he would live to see another day.
Hal wanted to finish the mission before dark.
'Tch…should I retreat first?' he pondered with a heavy heart.
It would take one whole hour of slowly and carefully navigating his way out and another to return to this specific spot.
Hal was extremely unwilling to return here for a single scarlet beak.
'F*ck it…I still have time, anyway…'
The sun, although on the retreat, was still up.
Perhaps he could find a lone female Garbird by then.
It would be worth it even if he had to navigate through the dark should he manage to finish everything today, though of course, if it seemed impossible, then he would unhesitatingly retreat.
Or he could just kill the nesting females…
Hal snapped himself out of his thoughts and got back to work.
Unfortunately, he still couldn't find a lone female before the exhausted sun completely vanished.
'Sigh…fine then, I guess I'll just have to return tomorrow…What's a little delay?'
Hal began to navigate his way back with a frustrated heart, lamenting his inefficiency.
He couldn't help but think back to all those times he encountered females or defenseless mothers.
He could've killed them and harvested the final beak he needed…
'Aihh…focus!' Hal reprimanded himself.
But it was too late.
His mind wandered too much, resulting in moments of carelessness that allowed a dangerous creature to detect him and tail him from behind.
Just when darkness shrouded the world, frantic splashing sounded behind him—one that resembled the pace of a human's footsteps.
Hal promptly turned with a racing heart, and his eyes widened.
Charging him was a humanoid creature.
A two-meter-tall lizard that stood on two hind legs, had brownish-green scales, ragged, makeshift leather armor, and a crude spear made of sticks, stones, and vines.