High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2183: Chapter 404: Winter Hunting Day

People often say, life draws strength from death.

Nature is the same way.

The overwhelming snow engulfed the entire world, and heaven and earth seemed to fall into silence. Yet within this brief stillness, under the thick snow like a plush blanket, vibrant life forces were biding their time, ready to erupt with the sound of thunder.

Zheng Qing couldn’t perceive the vitality contained within the snow.

But he could sense the oppressive quiet of the Silent Forest, behind which lurked greedy and longing gazes. He was especially sensitive to this type of gaze.

Four days passed in the blink of an eye, and in seemingly just a flash, the young cost student found himself at the Winter Hunting Ground held by the First University for the second time.

Rumors are rumors because they often hide a bit of truth within their falsehoods.

As the rumor suggested, this Winter Hunt would take place amidst a blizzard—since Monday, the snow had been falling intermittently, keeping both the inside and outside of the school wrapped in a silver dress. Momentarily, Zheng Qing almost forgot how lush and brilliant this world was during summer.

But contrary to the terrifying embellishments of the rumor, the school did not truly drive white dragons or storm giants into the young wizards’ Hunting Grounds. According to the SOP manual obtained by the Atonement Hunting Team Leader from the Hunting Committee, traditional assessment projects like snowmen, demons, fire ash snakes, houdou, gu diao, fish-headed people, star apes, and shan xiao still dominated the mainstream. The only unexpected element was some human-faced rats mutated due to the Rat Immortal’s advancement. According to the school’s description, those big mice with human faces were evil and depraved, devoid of the wisdom of ordinary magical creatures, so one should not harbor any naive hope of coexisting peacefully with them.

In the Silent Forest, Zheng Qing would not pin any hopes on luck.

Feeling the subtle and malicious gazes in the dark, the Atonement Hunting Team Leader raised his hand and pinched a hand transmission spell.

The invisible magic fluctuation spread to the eight directions following his spell, instantly relaying to every hunter in different positions, as if a frightened death vine, originally stretching out its curling green tendrils, suddenly tightened, shrinking into a bundle around that conspicuous giant red ’bud,’ and the flying cloaks flapped like thick and thirsty petals, opening and closing in unison.

These cloaks were specially purchased by Zheng Qing from Beta Town for this hunt, front-clasped and long, its hem reaching the ankles. The culm fleece lining provided excellent insulation, while the wind bird velvet outer layer could fend off most of the snow and wind. Its wide inside pockets could hold a law book, an array plate, and a talisman bag, and even could fit Blue Bird’s sable and Xiao Xiao’s hefty hardcover notebook inside.

”Roll call!”

As soon as the Atonement Hunting Team Leader’s voice exited his mouth, it was torn to pieces by the howling snow, needing magic assistance to clearly transmit to each team member’s ear: ”Monitor~... Doctor!... Fat Man!... Elder!... Swordsman!... Gentleman!”

Every time a codename was called, someone immediately responded.

Similar to the ’guiding professor’ system, there were many subtle changes in this Winter Hunt.

For instance, considering that the Winter Hunt isn’t a formal Hunting Competition, there’s no longer a strict requirement for a five-person hunting team. Neither is there a substitute, and each hunting team is allowed to freely determine the number of participants, but for the sake of fairness, each team’s hunting ground will be adjusted according to team size—the more members, the larger the hunting ground will be. Zheng Qing heard that Andrew Taylor, a werewolf of the same grade from Alpha, organized a hunting team with a scale of thirty people—this scale is already tantamount to a small hunting group—and the hunting ground allocated to them by the Hunting Committee is several times larger than others.

Moreover, for both efficiency and safety, this Winter Hunt doesn’t strictly limit what the hunters bring. In other words, if ’power’ permits, even if someone buys up all the explosion charms on the market and brings them to blow every magical creature they encounter into pieces, it’s allowed.

Of course, whether a wealthy man would actually make such a choice, Zheng Qing didn’t know. He only knew that because of these new rules, Atonement could organize a seven-person team for the Winter Hunt; Fat Man could bring his watch full of supplies, Jiang Yu could fill her handbag with amulets, and even he himself could use the two charm guns if necessary.

”It’s said that Andrew equipped each hunter of his team with a dragon skin cloak, scaring away ordinary small creatures from afar!” Xin Fat Man struggled to pull his leg from the snow nest, grumbling under his breath: ”I think we should do the same... not to mention a dragon skin cloak, it shouldn’t be hard to buy some dragon dung!”

”You should consider what would happen if you bought female dragon dung, and it happens to attract a male dragon in heat.” Xiao Xiao, following closely behind Fat Man, relying on his large body to block the snow, casually replied while spinning the crystal ball in his hand: ”Moreover, dragon dung is a controlled item. The Wandering Bar on Pedestrian Street is the only place that dares to sell real stuff, and those face-covering guys never bother to inspect the goods carefully... as long as they can sell them, they don’t mind castrating a male dragon to fake a female one.”

”Does the Wandering Bar sell live dragons?” The Fat Wizard immediately showed more interest.

”Is that the point?”

Doctor Xiao rolled his eyes, shivering as he put away the freezing crystal ball and exchanged it for a set of divination tokens: ”...I was emphasizing that you shouldn’t drag our Atonement down to Andrew’s makeshift level... at least we are a formally registered hunting team... Hunting is a very profitable business; the hunting ground here is simply cleaned by the school, relatively safe... every head we bring down in this forest is a brick and stone laid toward the Bridge to the Other Shore... there’s no reason to act like those rich kids, throwing money away to suffer here!”

The divination tokens of varying lengths crowded in the diviner’s hand, causing his brows to furrow tightly.

”Though Andrew might not necessarily suffer a loss.” The Fat Wizard’s face was frozen blue, but his thoughts were clear as he commented fairly: ”His family background isn’t strong, nor is his talent particularly outstanding. Wanting to make a name for himself at Alpha Fortress, spending money is instead the cheapest way... anyway, his family has quite a bit of money... spending a bit, organizing a small hunting group, achieving a decent result in the Winter Hunt, can earn some practice credits and make friends with other wizards in similarly dire situations... honestly, one person in a bad spot is vastly different from thirty people in the same spot...”

”Do thirty people gathering make the situation worse?” The Diviner joked icily amidst the bitter cold.

”You’re a Diviner, you should know better that the destiny gathered by thirty people is enough to support an ordinarily qualified wizard to go further on the path of magic!” Xin Fat Man spoke with a hint of envy but before it could disperse, an even stronger wave came, ”Hey... what is the Monitor doing? What are they doing, what are they doing!”