Charisma 100: My Academy Life As A Heartbreaking Commoner-Chapter 217: Monster Hunting 3

Aegis walked out of the building and into the night air. Inhaling slowly sent some of that fresh chill into her lungs.

[Time to get to work!]

Like she’d told Rosalie, she meant to grab the ingredients for fire resistance potions and haste potions, but additionally, she wanted to grab some stuff to lure the damn thing out to begin with.

Those ingredients would be... far less glamorous, but no less important!

Aegis rolled up her sleeves.

[Well, just because I’m a Lady now doesn’t mean I can’t engage in a bit of dirty work, right?]

"Hmph!"

She set off.

The forest at night was quieter than Aegis expected.

No singing birds, no rustling in the bushes, no sounds of small animals going about their business. Just the crunch of her boots on fallen leaves and the occasional creak of branches overhead. The wildlife had cleared out, probably. Smart of them. When a griffin moved into the neighborhood, anything with half a brain learned to stay hidden after dark.

Aegis kept her senses sharp as she walked, one hand resting on Ruby’s hilt.

[Flame Lily for fire resistance. Should be growing near water sources, red petals, glows faintly at night. Can’t really miss it.]

She found a stream about ten minutes into the forest. The Flame Lilies were right where she expected them, a cluster of red flowers along the bank. Aegis crouched down and started picking, careful to take only the blooms and leave the roots intact.

[Rosalie would probably yell at me if I damaged the root system. Something about sustainable harvesting.]

Next was Quicksilver Moss for the haste potions. That one grew on the north side of old trees, grey-green and slightly shimmery. Easy to spot if you knew what to look for. Aegis found a suitable oak, scraped off a handful of moss, and tucked it into her collection pouch.

The whole time, her eyes kept scanning the treeline.

Every shadow looked like it could be hiding something. Every distant sound made her pause and listen. She wasn’t afraid, exactly. More like... alert. Respectful of the fact that she was wandering through a predator’s hunting grounds in the middle of the night.

[If the griffin shows up now, I’m not ready for a real fight just yet. Just stay cool. Grab the ingredients. Get out.]

She moved deeper into the forest, checking off items on her mental list. Moonpetal flowers, check. Silverroot bark, check. A few Starlight Berries that she spotted growing on a bush and grabbed on impulse because they’d be useful for something eventually.

Then came the less glamorous part.

Aegis stood at the edge of a small clearing, staring down at a pile of deer droppings.

[Yep. Can’t leave this behind... unfortunately.]

She pulled out a small jar and a wooden scoop from her bag. The droppings were fresh, maybe a day old, which meant they’d still have enough scent to work as bait. Griffins were predators. They tracked prey by smell. If you wanted to lure one out, you needed something that smelled like food.

And nothing smelled more like "helpless prey animal" than a nice pile of herbivore dung.

Aegis scooped the droppings into the jar, trying not to breathe through her nose. She sealed the jar and moved on.

The mushrooms were next. Bloodcap fungi, named for their deep red color and the fact that they grew in places where animals had died. Griffins apparently loved the smell. Something about it triggered their hunting instincts.

Aegis found a patch growing at the base of a rotting log. The caps were slimy to the touch and left red stains on her fingers.

[Glamorous. So glamorous.]

She harvested what she needed, wiped her hands on a rag, and checked her surroundings one more time.

Still quiet. Still empty. No sign of the griffin.

[Good. Let’s keep it that way until I’m actually ready.]

By the time she was done, she hadn’t become a snack yet and she was just now starting to sweat a little. She was ready to head back.

Only, the forest, apparently, didn’t want to let that happen.

A growl echoed through the trees.

Aegis froze.

It wasn’t a normal growl. It started low, rumbling through the ground beneath her feet, and then it built. Louder. Deeper. Until it cracked the air like a thunderclap.

[Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.]

She turned slowly.

The creature that emerged from the treeline was massive. Eight feet tall at the shoulder, covered in dark fur that crackled with arcs of electricity. Blue-white sparks danced down its spine, jumping between the ridges of its back, illuminating the forest around it in stuttering flashes.

A thunderbear.

Aegis’s HUD flickered to life.

[Thunderbear - Level 51]

[Okay. Not a weakling, but not exactly a death sentence either.]

She’d fought plenty of these in the game. They were mid-tier monsters, dangerous if you weren’t paying attention but manageable if you knew what you were doing. The key was to not let them get a clean hit in. One good swipe from those electrified claws could fry your nervous system for a few seconds, and a few seconds was all a bear needed to turn you into paste.

Aegis set her ingredient pouch down gently, keeping her eyes on the bear.

"Alright, big guy," she murmured, drawing Ruby and Sapphire from her belt. "Let’s dance."

The bear roared again and charged.

It was fast. Way too fast for something that size. Its massive body blurred forward, closing the distance between them in the time it took Aegis to blink.

[How do you make bears more terrifying than real life? Make them way faster! Good job, devs! Really appreciate it!]

She threw herself to the side, rolling across the forest floor as the bear’s claws tore through the space where she’d been standing. Dirt and leaves exploded into the air. Aegis came up in a crouch, already moving, putting distance between herself and the beast.

The thunderbear pivoted and lunged again.

Aegis used Aether Step, blinking five meters to the left just as the bear’s jaws snapped shut on empty air. She slashed at its flank as she reappeared, Ruby biting into fur and flesh. The bear howled, more angry than hurt, and swung a paw at her head.

She ducked, felt the wind of the strike ruffle her hair, and drove Sapphire into the meat of its foreleg.

Electricity arced up the blade and into her arm. Her muscles seized for half a second, just long enough for the bear to clip her shoulder with its next swing.

Aegis went tumbling, hit a tree, and scrambled back to her feet with a curse.

[Ow. Okay. That’s gonna bruise.]

The bear was limping now, blood dripping from its wounds, but it wasn’t backing down. It lowered its head and charged again.

Aegis waited.

At the last second, she sidestepped, spun, and drove both daggers into the base of its skull.

The thunderbear’s momentum carried it forward another few feet before it collapsed, skidding to a halt in a shower of dirt and sparks. The electricity along its spine flickered once, twice, and then went dark.

Aegis stood over the body, breathing hard.

[Level 51. Not bad for an unplanned encounter.]

She wiped her daggers on the bear’s fur, sheathed them, and retrieved her ingredient pouch. Her shoulder throbbed where the bear had clipped her, and her arm still tingled from the shock, but nothing felt broken.

[Time to get back before something else decides I look tasty... and not in a good way.]

She started walking, leaving the thunderbear’s corpse for whatever scavengers wanted it.