Bear School Astartes

The gloomy and heavy sky.

This was Lann’s first impression as he squeezed out of the carriage.

Yan’an is a city built in the mountains, and the weather in the mountains is unpredictable; it might be completely different weather just over a hill, which is quite normal.

However, although the sky over Yan’an is somewhat murky and the colors are dark, it only affects one’s mood.

But this little fishing village...

The Demon Hunter looked up, sniffing the air as he took a breath.

It was damp and overcast.

The dampness was such that it felt as if every breath filled the lungs with moisture, and even his hair seemed to be getting damp, sticking to his skin.

It was so overcast that no sunlight could be seen.

According to the time, the sunset should still be visible, but the clouds in the sky were thick and stagnant, as if night had already fallen.

And it was the kind of night that was oppressively low, making it hard to breathe.

The two horses pulling the carriage neither neighed nor fidgeted but simply stood still after stopping, occasionally breathing.

A thin layer of cold mist lay over the ground.

At the parking spot, several other carriages were scattered about.

It seemed that this was the place where the Hunters all got off.

"You’re late, Maria." A Hunter wearing a cowboy hat spoke without emotion from the driver’s seat on the roof of a four-wheeled carriage. "A whole half day late."

Following Lann out of the carriage, the Female Hunter glanced up.

"Were you left behind to watch the car?" Maria casually asked, seemingly familiar with the Hunter, and continued, "I found a strong Hunter at the last minute, which delayed me."

"Just as well, I have someone in my carriage; can you help take care of them?"

The Hunter sitting on the roof said nothing, only rubbed his weapon with gloved hands, creating a ’rustling’ sound of leather against steel.

Due to the angle, Lann couldn’t see what the weapon looked like.

Maria lifted her coat and pulled a blood vial from an inner pocket, tossing it up to the Hunter.

Once the Hunter caught it, an expression finally appeared on his face... one of obsession, desire, and impatience.

"I will, Maria."

With the blood vial in hand, the Hunter finally responded.

"I’m so unlucky... so unlucky... why am I the one who has to stay behind? I can’t smell the blood nor tear open the prey’s flesh with my own hands to let the blood splash on me... I’m so unlucky, Maria."

He muttered in a low voice, like speaking in a dream.

But Maria had already started walking away.

For a Hunter from Yan’an, such mutterings, completely abnormal to outsiders, were actually quite normal.

So neither Lann nor Maria gave it much thought.

"I’ll be back soon," Maria called, a note of reassurance in her voice, "and I’ll bring another bottle for you then."

"Yes, yes." The Hunter on the roof pressed his cowboy hat down further, speaking heavily, "You’d better hurry... hurry."

The two continued walking in.

They quickly understood why the Hunters’ carriages stopped so far away.

Because as they continued toward the small fishing village, the ground was no longer suitable for vehicles.

The ’splashing’ sound as their soles hit the water and the ’rushing’ sound as their footsteps disturbed the flow of water repeatedly echoed.

The ground here was completely submerged underwater, practically a swamp.

Lann had lived in a fishing village for a while, in Velen’s Auridon.

But even in a fishing village, humans should strive for dryness amidst the humidity; otherwise, who could stand it?

And the environment of this little fishing village—just the outskirts—already seemed uninhabitable.

It was hard to imagine how much more humid it would get further in.

Soon, Lann slightly raised his head, his nostrils flaring.

He smelled a scent carried from afar.

Burnt wood, mixed with the fishy stench of marine life, the stink of beasts...

The sky was a murky dusk, the waters of the marsh beneath blackened, making it nearly impossible to distinguish the boundary between heaven and earth when looking into the distance.

Everything seemed to plunge into a chaotic haze.

Then, on their path forward, Lann and Maria stumbled upon a corpse.

It was a body slumped in the muddy water, roughly humanoid but not resembling a human.

Its skin was a grayish-blue, exuding a slimy, marine creature-like texture, with webbed fingers and toes, and even fins on its joints.

However, it still bore a human face.

"These marks are..." Lann crouched down, observing the gruesome gash on the body’s stomach, musing aloud.

"It’s a Vital Organ Strike," Maria noted with a sigh of relief. "As expected, this place is full of mutated, insane monsters!"

The wounds created by forcefully thrusting fingers into the body and then tearing them open are highly distinctive.

Lann was deep in thought not because he couldn’t understand the wounds caused by a Vital Organ Strike, but...

The ’thing’ that was killed had indeed lost all semblance of human form.

But, was it truly a ’mindless’ monster?

The tactile sensation on the glove-clad fingers was slimy as Lann gently lifted the head that was slumped in the muddy water.

And on that still human-like face was a strong expression of emotion.

The tiny muscles beneath the skin formed slight expressions in the moment before they stiffened.

Rage, agony, disbelief...

Lann’s ability to interpret emotions and Mentos’s analytical prowess accurately received these emotions.

The creatures capable of making such expressions were conceptually different from the ’beastified patients’ that the Yan Nan people had grown accustomed to.

But the Demon Hunter looked over at Maria from his half-squatting position.

"Let’s go quickly," Lann said, standing up as he spoke.

While it wasn’t raining, the air was so saturated with moisture that it condensed into small droplets on the waterproof layer of his cloak, even on his eyebrows.

"The sooner, the better!"

Because Lann realized that the hopeful Female Hunter was no longer calm enough to observe the ’monster’s’ expression before death.

And now, they were so close to the ocean, yet Lann hadn’t heard or felt any sea breeze or crashing waves.

There should naturally be wind by the seaside, and with wind, there should be waves.

But the silence in the environment was so eerie, it was almost...

Almost as if the ocean was ’dead’!

This unusual quietness made Lann uneasy.

The nightmare that had taken Simon, an Old Hunter, countless times was the deepest, most dangerous secret hidden in Yan’an; was it really so easy to find?

And now, while Lann had found the key point where the clues converge, even if he had found it, would the secret be so easily resolved?

The Demon Hunter didn’t know.

But in Yan’an, the development of events wouldn’t stop just because you said ’I don’t know’.

How could the dreams of the Ancient Gods ever consider mere mortals?

The closer they got to the small fishing village, the deeper the water covering the ground became, now even submerging their feet.

And Lann and Maria, in essence, had entered the small fishing village.

This little fishing village was bizarre and dark.

Most of its structures were made of wood and brick, but how could wood be used for such long durations in such a humid environment?

Many of the timbers were already moldy and decayed, yet numerous barnacles that usually lived on ocean reefs and marine life were densely attached to these houses.

It’s as if the barnacles, which should be eroding and clinging inward, were instead supporting the house structures.

The openings of these barnacles resembled a cluster of densely packed eyeballs.

Seaweed-like things hung from them.

Makes one wonder whether these houses were built underwater or on land.

At the location of the small fishing village, one could see the sun through the heavy clouds. But that sun...

Its light lacked warmth and couldn’t dispel unease.

The clouds surrounding the sun assumed strange shapes, like fungi encroaching, spreading, and eroding towards the center of the sun.

The glowing disk was mottled and covered.

"What is that exactly...?"

Maria looked at the sun in shock, clearly, even the native Yan Nan people hadn’t seen such a scene.

Lann thought it was just his own ignorance.

They continued to walk inward, and amid the pitch-black water beneath their feet, gray-white traces began to mix in.

That was a large amount, a large amount of gray blood!

The smell of charred wood and the stench of marine life suddenly intensified, and the fiery glow of red light emanated from the decayed, bizarre houses.

The houses cracked and collapsed under the flames.

Amidst this, there was also the sound of blades tearing flesh, along with human laughter.

A group of Hunters was hunting in front of the burning houses.

They were besieging a giant fishman, standing at least five or six meters tall, wielding a bizarre weapon the size of a person!

With each swing of its weapon, the massive weight and momentum could directly tear apart a house!

But amid the onslaught of three Hunters, it was as if it was being sliced open, bled dry like a tuna.

It was strong, yet in the face of those precise and sharp knives, mere strength was useless.

The Hunters did not seem to be in a hurry to kill; instead, they seemed intent on bleeding this gigantic creature dry during the hunt.