Chapter 43

< Extermination Plan (Part 2) >
Zin took out the materials from the bag tied to the cow first. The cat seemed to have died a long time ago, and the body was decaying. It might have been a cat that was buried not too long ago.
Everyone somewhat knew that Zin was engaging in a type of sorcery. Sorcery was freaky, and people were scared of watching an act of sorcery being performed. Leona was not scared, but she had more pity for the cow. Zin dismembered the body of the cat, and yanked out a piece of rib. He sharpened the bone on the whetstone in a brief moment, and made a needle out it.
A needle made out of cat’s bone. 

Zin also pulled out the sick chicken that had lost most of its feathers from the bag.
Zin twisted and pulled out the neck of the chicken.
—Flutter!—

The headless sick chicken fluttered and trembled, and Zin took the bundle of thread near the spurting blood from the chicken.
—Flutter! Flutt!—


Ugh…

Everyone turned their heads away, disgusted. Zin continued to smear blood on the bundle of thread.
Thread smeared with blood from a live chicken’s neck.

After drenching the bundle of thread with blood, Zin tossed the chicken to the side. The headless chicken jumped around all over the place.

Ugh, crap! What the heck!
Leona was astonished at the grotesque scene, but Zin didn’t care at all.
He threaded the needle and tied a knot. Zin was following the steps of a ceremony, and he was solely focused on it.
The sick cow seemed to be blind, and it didn’t move a bit even though the hunter was performing a crazy ceremony in front of it.
Mooooo! 
The cow was lowing deep and low. 

Zin pulled out Phantomvein and a white charm from the void storage. It was called a ‘spellstone’ and it was a magical charm that was made by grinding the witch’s bone into a round shape, creating a hole in the middle, and tying the witch’s twisted hair into it. The charm was engraved with characters that contained the power of sorcery.
The charm was a perfect item that contained the power of sorcery.
I will use Phantomvein to proceed with the sacrifice. 

He chose a couple of characters to perform the sorcery using the spellstone. Zin was able to perform a million types of sorcery based on the combination of the characters.
He frequently utilized the character combinations that were effective. The spellstone was a great item that was superior to any other spell book. However, Zin was not a professional sorcerer or a witch, and he was not able to active a sorcery using Phantomvein alone. Zin held Phatomvein backwards, and raised it up with his hand. Then aiming from the back of the cow, he struck down with the sword.
—Vwooook!—


Aaaagh!

Moooooooooo!

Phantomvein pierced through the cow and stuck deep inside the ground. Zin placed the spellstone on the handle of the embedded sword.
Mooooo!!

Like a steel bar, the Phantomvein was fixed to the ground without any motion. The cow was moving and struggling in pain, but the sword did not move an inch, firmly embedded in the ground.
Zin pushed the struggling cow and starting stitching the back of the cow with the bone needle.
The party was astonished and completely turned their faces away from the scene. Only Leona was looking at the scene in disgust.
Zin was sewing up the back of the live cow. He was sewing with great speed, and while his sword was in the center, he stitched a shape on the back of the cow.
And slowly, there was a visible dark energy flowing out of the spellstone. The struggling cow started to weaken, and Zin walked away from the cow as he finished his work.
And Zin held the last material needed for the ceremony.
A handful of plant seeds. 

He had seeds of barley in his palm, and he started murmuring while looking at the spell book. The cow was barely alive.

I will use the Insect, Plant, Infiltration, and Spell characters to summon the power of the extermination sorcery.

—Vwwoooom!—

Out of the many characters engraved in the white charm, the four characters mentioned were activated by the dark energy.
—Whoosh!—

Zin threw the seeds onto the cow, and like living things, the seeds started to infiltrate the skin of the cow.
Kwiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

In agonizing pain, the cow screamed and trembled as the handful of seeds burrowed inside it. The cow was bleeding profusely as hundreds of seeds entered its body. At that moment, even Leona had to turn her face away from the gruesome sight.
The cow died in seconds, and as the dark energy flowed into the body of the cow through the hundreds of holes, the ceremony was completed.
The sorcery was completed as the ceremony was performed with the correct sacrifice. More sacrifices were needed for sorceries that required more spell characters, but Zin had activated the sorcery efficiently with the right amount of sacrifice.
Sorcery would not be activated if the requirements were not met. And performing the ceremony required a lot of experience and know-how.
I’ve used four spell characters, so this should be effective.

—Shlunk!—

Zin pulled out Phantomvein from the corpse of the cow, blood starting to drip out of the wound. It didn’t look a sorcery was performed, but it a scene where a cow was killed in a gruesome way.
Nobody looked towards the dead cow, and Zin walked towards the spectators as he put his charms away inside the void storage.

I am done with my work.


Is that so…


The blood seeping in the ground will attract the cave ants, and when the cave ants take the cow away, time will take care of them.

The lord was extremely nervous and was not able to look at the dead cow.

Well, well… I can see that you are not a con artist, for sure.

The lord was certain that Zin could not be lying after she witnessed the horrible scene. And after witnessing how Zin performed the sorcery without any hesitation, she thought that it would be okay to be duped by the hunter even if he was indeed a con artist.

I am going to observe the dead cow from a distance until the cave ants take it away. Would you like to join me?


Ugh. No thanks. I am going to head back to the castle. It’s been a while, but I think I’ll have to throw up.

The lord started heading back to the castle with the guards. Everyone was feeling nauseated after witnessing the traumatic screaming and sorcery.
And on the way back, one of the guards started to puke after looking back at the dead cow. Bwerrrghhhhhhh!

Leona clicked her tongue as she watched the guard puking on the ground.

I understand. It happens. I also feel sick.

Leona did not head back to the castle, remaining standing next to Zin. She had seen many dead human bodies, but the ceremony that she was witnessed was gruesome beyond anything she had witnessed before. Zin and Leona moved far away from the cow, and waited for the cave ants to appear.
Leona turned her back, and asked Zin,
I thought sorcerers threw rice grains around, but is an actual sorcery this horrible? I think I’ll remember this day forever.


Hmm… well.
Zin was very calm for a person who had just performed sorcery, and Leona was scared about that fact. But Zin gave a strange answer.

Real sorceries require these types of ceremonies, but you will not remember these forever.


Why is that?


It’s because the outcome of the sorcery is far more horrible than the ceremony itself. The outcome is something that people will remember for a long time.

The outcome of the sorcery was far nastier than the ceremonial act. Through the ceremony that Zin performed, thousands of cave ants would be killed. Leona nodded as she thought about the fate of the cave ants.
The death of a single cow and a chicken didn’t seem much compared to the death of a whole cave ant colony. Leona looked at Zin, and shook her head.

Well, thanks for letting me forget a horrible memory using another horrible one,
Leona complained, but Zin smiled at her.
—
—Plop!—

Shortly after, the cave ants that were attracted by the smell of the blood dragged the dead cow into the ground.
A huge pit and blood stain were left at the location where the dead cow had been. Leona looked in that direction and sighed.
The seed of the epidemic was spread to the cave ants.

They can’t expect to remain safe after stealing my red bear.

Zin had an evil smile on his face as he was certain that his revenge would be completed. Looking at Zin, Leona laughed out loud.

Mister, I don’t know if I should say that you are a narrow-minded person or a meticulous person…


In this case, you should say that I’m a wise one.

It would have been tough for Zin to fetch all the required materials – chicken, cat, thread, cow – for the sorcery by himself. However, Zin was able to get them with the help of others. And top of that, he was getting paid with chips! While accomplishing his revenge, Zin profited with chips and saved time as well. As Zin was able to pull this all off, Leona thought about how crafty Zin was.

But, do you think that large piece of dead meat will accomplish what you were planning?


I will have to believe in it.


… umm… your answer isn’t that reassuring.


Sorcery is like that.
Zin started to speak about the problem of sorcery as if it was not a big deal.
Even sorcerers do not know what will happen next.


You crazy? What are you going to do?

Leona started berating Zin, who seemed to be irresponsible. There was a reason why sorcery was referred as sorcery. Even though a sorcerer was able to activate sorcery, the results varied. Even after performing the same sorcery with the same sacrifices, some sorceries had catastrophic consequences, while others had no effect at all.
And therefore people trusted sorcerers without any doubt, or did not trust them at all.

I’m different than other fake sorcerers, so don’t worry about it too much.


How are you different?


I am not the world’s best sorcerer.

Fake sorcerers activated epidemics by mistake while trying to draw the rain. And some experienced sorcerers activated sorceries that were truly catastrophic. Zin was not able to activate sorceries on that level, and he did not want to do so, anyways.
However, Zin possessed a unique charm called a spellstone. Zin started speaking again.

But I am a pretty accurate sorcerer.
He was able to activate the correct sorcery when we wanted to.
Leona was not sure if he was humble or too confident.

Mister, I think you are becoming less like a hunter?
As Leona spoke, Zin laughed.

There are different methods of hunting, and that’s how I picked up sorcery.

Zin learned sorcery as another method of hunting.
Regular hunters would not need to learn sorcery, but Zin was a devil hunter. As a devil hunter, he needed to be familiar with sorcery in order to utilize sorcery when it was needed.
It was natural that he became accustomed to performing sorcery.
And of course, Zin did not tell Leona about this.
The effect of the curse would appear over time, and Zin only needed to get the reward from the lord and leave the castle of Jule.
Zin did not have to worry much about not getting paid, as the lord did not suspect Zin any more after witnessing the frightfulness of sorcery.
While the lord was preparing the chips, Zin and Leona spent their time at the castle after packing up their belongings.
Then, an incident happened that evening.

— A cow is a precious resource! It is not right to waste such resources even if the lord has asked to do so!

— It was necessary to protect the castle!

— Can you prove that it was necessary? Aren’t you simply giving up the chips and cattle to the wander?

— Give up? Watch your language!

— I am sure that he is a con artist! Do you know what kind of people I came across before I came to the castle? Once-

— Stop! I have heard the stories many times!


Mister. I think we are screwed?

Zin and Leona were able to listen to the conversation as the lord and the man were raising their voices.