Uncrowned Conqueror

The place is dark and nothing to see but a complete darkness. A long time had passed and still only dark surroundings enveloped the space.

A dot.

A light as small as a dot.

It was gradually growing.

It was growing.

It grew until the light became too blinding and domineering.

A man grasped for air too hard upon waking up. He sat down before coughing until he felt the pain all over his body.

"Oh, you're awake."

He looked at the woman standing beside the window and he noticed that the sun was already setting. As he touched his head he became aware of his surroundings.

"So, I survived..." The first thing he said upon waking up causing the woman to laugh.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He sat down beside him. "It is one of the rooms in the mercenary guild," she explained.

"How?" he wondered.

"When I tried to search for you using magic, I noticed that your mana was slowly fading so I rushed to your place, only to find your beaten body and full of wounds."

"Then, I really wasn't able to drink that potion."

"Tell me what happened," she ordered.

"Hey, just let me rest for now. You know how much beat up my body." He lay down on the bed, trying to relax.

"Do you want to stay lying down for the rest of your life?" She emitted a furious and intimidating aura, clenching her fist to strike him.

"W-Wait... wait..." He raised his hands, surrendering to her. "I give up. I give up. I will confess!"

They both calmed down. Takt fixed his self in sitting on the bed while Cornelia sat on the chair beside.

"Well, I don't know where to start..." He rubbed his hair.

"Start from the beginning."

"What's that? Then, should I start how I was born?"

"Ahhh... I think, I will start on going home. When I was walking towards the exit, some kind of huge monster approached me..."

Takt narrated everything he experienced when he encountered that monster that gave him those wounds while Cornelia just quietly listened to his narration.

"...that's how I ended up outside with a wounded body."

"Hmmm... tell me." She opened her eyes after some thinking. "Is something loose in your head?" she asked.

"Huh?! What are..."

"Why did you come up with that escape plan?" Cornelia wondered.

"Why, you say... I'm dying and I don't have the leisure to stay still and get toyed with by that monster. I just used the most efficient and less pain method. My body's already breaking apart that time so I just give it a big explosion," he explained.

"You're really something." She smirked. "But something's off about your story." She tried to think of it.

"Something off... is there is?"

"Anyway, you were the one who probably provoked that monster. Did you step on his tail by chance?"

"Huh?! What are you saying?!" Takt stood up. "To start off, it's your fault to throw me in that dangerous forest! I didn't expect that I would meet that kind of monster!"

"Oi! Hustle down." She glared at him so he immediately sat back and stayed silent. "First, it was my mistake to suddenly give you that task for you to gain experience."

"Oh, she seemed apologetic about it."

"I probably felt excited with his monstrous potential so I couldn't help but to challenge his limits."

"Anyway, that huge monster." Cornelia got serious. "Is it really a huge wolf-like with horns?"

"What's with that serious mode? Well, yes, that's the kind of monster it is."

Cornelia sighed before standing up and looking outside the window again.

"What's up with this old hag?"

"It's really fortunate that you live or should I say, you're the only one who survived its attack," she said.

"R-Really?"

"Scary. Does it mean I already almost died two times?"

"That monster lives in the deepest part of the forest and considers an S rank monster."

"S-S-S rank??? For real?! Deepest part? I just went only on the west side of the forest and it's not even deep. That monster even followed me near the exit of the forest!"

"That's why I'm trying hard to think about its reason. It never leaves its territory so what makes it do so." Cornelia got into deep thinking again.

"Ahhh!!! I see!" Takt blurted out catching Cornelia's attention.

"What?"

"I forgot to tell." He laughed it off. "That monster felt weird. It doesn't have a mana stone. I couldn't sense it so it is probably just a projection," he explained.

"Projection?" Cornelia's eyes got wider due to surprise. "Are you sure?!"

"O-Oh... yes. Why?"

"That's bad."

"Why?"

Cornelia told him that the information he just said wasn't written to the recorded data gathered from the past research on that monster. Given that it was able to cast its projection and can cause physical damage just means that its projection can be considered to be a high-level monster too.

Moreover, with its projection, it can cause danger to nearby villages near the forest so it will be bad if they won't be able to prevent their invasion in the future.

"I will inform the guild about it."

"Then, I will rest now." Takt went back to lying on the bed. "Oh, by the way, what's the name of that monster?"

"Ah. One of the Uncrowned Conqueror of Khunlun. The Horned Fenrir."

"Wait! Fenrir, even any kind of wolf, doesn't roar."

"It's not a roar, it's a scream of hostility," she made it clear.

"Scream? Oh, thinking back, it sounds like a scream... but still they don't scream too!"

"They only howl or bark!"

"Well, that monster doesn't howl all of a sudden. There's some kind of superstition or a prophecy, I think, that when that monster howls, the end of the world will follow." Cornelia went out of the door. "I will just report your information to the guild. Stay there."

"Woah. What a dangerous name and monster. Scary."

After several minutes of resting, Cornelia entered the room again to check him up as he looked at her.

"What? I'm a patient so I'm lying down."

"No. There's something I forgot to tell you."

"What?"

"About your condition."

"Condition? What? Did I just obtain critical damage? An illness? What?!"

"Calm down!"

She shut him up with a magic like tying his body on the body to prevent him from moving and putting a gag on his mouth.

"Just stay still and listen to me. When I checked your body earlier, I found out something."

"Huh? What is she talking about?"

"I tried to heal your wounds but I didn't do something grand because your own healing abilities look greater than my magic but still the internal injuries and pain don't fully healed."

"Huh? My own healing capabilities? What are you talking about?! This crazy old hag! Why can't I move?! Untie me!!!"

"Then, when I investigated it further, I found the source of it." She pointed at his lower abdomen. "Here. There's an energy present here different from mana. I didn't detect it before cause it's too small but when I concentrate on it, I can feel it. Look,"

She seemed to transfer some kind of energy to wards the place she was touching which confused Takt but after a few seconds, he suddenly felt a stinging hot feeling like some kind of hot needle is pricking that place.

"Hey! Stop that! It's painful! Old hag!!!"

"Did you feel that?" Cornelia asked when she noticed him struggling to escape that touch. "I'm really curious about you."

"Why? What is it? Tell me!"

"That energy is not mana. It's more like your life force, your innate energy." She pulled her fingers from touching his abdomen. "You're an aura user." She informed him enough to surprise him.

"Huh?!! What kind of stupidity is that?! I didn't know about it. Well, I really don't feel anything back when I was in my old world."

"Interesting."

He felt chills when he saw Cornelia looking at him like some kind of guinea pig used in experiments and lab tests.

*****