Beast Slayer Online: Initialization
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 17
Before Lannor had settled matters with his own mentor, Mentos’ primary function had been to assist its master’s growth and provide simulation support for the resistance plan.
After Bordon died by Lannor’s hand, it did not relax; instead, it immediately shifted into a new operational logic.
It began planning for Lannor’s future.
That was why it urged its master to focus, as a matter of urgency, on training to make up for his shortcomings.
What it had not expected was that Lannor would do even better than its projections.
“In the lake region around Auridon, the primary inhabitants are drowners and swamp hags. The level of danger is entirely acceptable; they are ideal material for your cultivation technique.”
“And such material requires no payment. On the contrary, the village will pay you for it. To induce a village with no prior commission to initiate a large-scale monster hunting effort, sir, your commercial acumen is, without question, pioneering within the witcher profession.”
Mentos’ praise was sincere.
So this is what it means for a first-rate merchant to create demand.
According to Bordon, and judging from the past month of travel, a witcher’s daily life was little more than gambling on fortune and scraping by on chance.
They spent their days on the road between one village and the next, hoping to stumble upon a contract.
Yet Lannor had arrived in Auridon for barely an hour, and the entire village was already rummaging through its stores, preparing to commit everything it had to this monster hunting commission.
Hard to imagine, but before the young man’s arrival, the last time Auridon had hired a witcher to deal with monsters had been two generations ago.
“And most importantly, we have secured safe and stable lodging and food.”
Mentos’ voice carried more cheer than usual.
Lannor nodded with a quiet sense of agreement.
In the eyes of both Mentos and Lannor, a large part of their current predicament stemmed from the deeply ingrained atmosphere of racial hatred.
Even if a witcher paid for a room at a tavern, staying a day or two could still be explained as work.
Stay longer, and the innkeeper would not hesitate to summon the watch, claiming a suspicious mutant had taken up residence.
Coin earned by a mutant, could it ever be clean?
Drive the mutant out, or simply kill him and keep the money. People would still raise a thumb and call it well done.
Whether the coin in one’s hand was clean or not was tied directly to one’s kind.
It made no sense, yet here it happened often enough to be commonplace.
So even if one was willing to pay, whether a safe place could be found for Lannor to steadily complete his refinement and growth remained uncertain.
But in Auridon now?
Whatever the village elder eats, the witcher eats.
You want to make things difficult for the witcher? Then you are making things difficult for all of Auridon.
Once, Lannor had followed Bordon to clear a ghoul nest in a field.
After the work was done, the employer in that village had no intention of paying the remainder, and instead brought in a band of fanatics of the Eternal Fire. They came with swords, hammers, and axes, shouting about purging mutants.
Bordon and Lannor had no choice but to turn and run.
For those days, even Bordon’s meals had dropped to the same level as his apprentice’s.
And now, Lannor had created a demand for monster hunting in this village, and bound that demand to himself.
Safe.
Far too safe.
Lannor stepped out of the elder’s house and led the two horses he had left outside the village into an abandoned wooden shed within it.
Along the way, the villagers no longer looked at him as if he were a plague. Instead, they were warm and friendly.
They even busied themselves helping him unload the bundle of School of the Bear armor he could not yet wear, carrying it into the house.
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