177. The Menace Known as the Beast Lord.
Fran left Aurel’s manor after receiving her award. The blue catkin that’d been gathered outside earlier were already nowhere to be seen. They’d likely already given up and gone home.
『Alright, what now?』
「Will talk to Dias.」
『Good point. Let’s go ask him about the Black Catkin he knew 53 years back, and get all our questions answered right away.』
「Nn.」
And so, we went to the Adventurer’s Guild. The act of visiting it, however, in no way guaranteed our ability to actually meet with Dias. He was known for going in and out of the building, so our only choice was to just check if and hope that he was present.
But we couldn’t.
We were instead ended up immediately taking a stance the moment we tried to enter the guild. More accurately, we became unable to resist the urge to ready ourselves for combat.
『Woah!』
「Nn!」
「Growl!」
The reason for which was the sheer extent of the pressure that’d suddenly assaulted us. Said pressure didn’t contain any bloodlust or even the slightest hint of aggression, but, we felt overwhelmed and intimidated regardless. That was just how strong its source happened to be. We were the only people around, and hence, the only people on guard, but I was sure that any other adventurer would’ve reacted in the same manner.
I surveyed my surroundings, only to find what could only be described as a strange looking door. It was in the middle of the road and didn’t have anything to support it. It was just there. I immediately interpreted it as something along the lines of a Dokodemo Door. a portal that could lead basically anywhere. Though, it was a bit different from the standard variant, seeing as how its appearance was that of a pair of super fancy double doors. The pressure’s source was evidently whatever lay waiting for us on the door’s other side.
I almost seemed to have jinxed it, as the door slowly began to open the moment I had that exact thought. In said moment, I managed to catch a quick glimpse of the furniture that lay beyond.
Okay, welp. I guess that must mean it really is a Dokodemo Door, huh?
「Right this way, Lord Rig.」
「Sure.」
A figure emerged from the door’s other side. The man’s frame was so massive that it put even Erza’s to shame. He stood at almost two meters tall, and had pretty much built purely of muscle. The way his shimmering, yellow-gold hair was arranged to look like a lion’s mane really seemed to match with the way his movements almost seemed to resemble those of a felines’.
I instantly appraised the man the moment I saw him.
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General Information
Name: Rigdis Narasimha
Age: 38
Race Beastkin (Golden Flame Lionkin/Red Cat Tribe)
Job: Spearlord
Status Level: 71/99
HP: 1965
MP: 1081
STR: 1084
VIT: 840
AGI: 748
INT: 476
MGC: 587
DEX: 491
Skills
Sole Sense: Lv 8
Intimidation: MAX
Espionage: Lv 3
Super Herculean Strength: Lv 6
Flame Magic: Lv 7
Fire Magic: MAX
Mimicry: Lv 3
Confusion: Lv 8
Presence Detection: lv 8
Combat Qigong: Lv 7
Inner Qigong: Lv 8 [1]
Torture: lv 2
Herculean Strength: MAX
Claw/Fang Techniques: Lv 7
Claw/Fang Arts: Lv 7
Regeneration: Lv 8
Command: Lv 3
Raise Morale: Lv 6
Resistance to Abnormal Status Conditions: Lv 7
Limber: Lv 6
Blink: MAX
Blink Step: Lv 5
Resistance to Mental Abnormalities: Lv 5
Elemental Blade: MAX
Threaten: Lv 3
Dominating Aura: Lv 8 [2]
Roar: Lv 8
Magic Resistance: Lv 3
Magic Perception: Lv 4
Magical Barrier: Lv 8
Flame Invalidation
Vigour Mastery
Intermediate Boost to All Stats
Enhanced Spear Techniques
Enhanced Spear Arts
Enhanced Elemental Blade
Enhanced Body Hair
Hardened Body Hair
Demon Killer
Dragon Slayer
Sense of Balance
Predation
Magic Manipulation
Night Vision
Unique Skills
Spear God’s Grace
Spear Lord’s Arts [3]
Spear Lord’s Techniques [3]
Extra Skills
God of Beasts and Insects’ Grace
Innate Skills
Awakening
Golden Flame of Extinction
Spear Deification
Titles
Kingslayer
Parricidal
Usurper
Beast Lord
Loved by the God of Beasts and Insects
Spearlord
Dungeon Conqueror
Demon Killer
Dragon Slayer
Flame User
S Ranked Adventurer
Equipment
Flame Dragon Fang Greatspear
Flame Dragon Scale Armour
Magical Poison Lord Snake Garments
Gold Flame Lion’s Mantle
Sacrificial Bracelet
Ring of Reason
Proof of Beast Lordship
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Ohhhhhhhhhhh shiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeetttttt! The fuck is with his stats!? The hell!? Why does he have over 1k strength!? Holy shit, dude makes Amanda and Dias look like fucking kittens.
He also had a tonne of skills we hadn’t seen before, alongside an extra skill and several unique and innate skills.
All those, however, were basically completely overshadowed by the two titles he held: Beast Lord and S Ranked Adventurer. Wait, wait, did that mean that he was the Beast Lord? The one paying Ulmutt a courtesy visit? He isn’t just some really strong adventurer crowned the Lord of the Beasts, right? I mean, he is an S ranked adventurer, so that is at least a possibility of some sort, right…?
I wanted to examine his skills in more detail, but stopped myself as I noticed someone follow him out the door.
「What’s wrong, girl?」
We looked up to see yet another man with a massive frame. His muscles were massive; they bulged to such an extent that I almost wanted to say he’d be able to beat a stone golem in a punch out. Unlike the Beast Lord, he was a man I at least knew of, one of the Beast Lord’s two guards. I recalled him being named something along the lines of Goldalfa.
Apparently he thought Fran had seemed rather suspicious, given how she was staring at the pair in silence.
Crap. The Beast Lord’ll probably end up making note of us at this rate.
『Hey Fran, let’s get the hell out of here while we still have the chance.』
（…）
I figured that we’d best get out of here, so I tried calling out to Fran, but she didn’t respond.
『Fran? Hey Fran, you alright?』
（…）
She instead continued to just stand there with a pale look on her face.
（Too strong… Can’t win…）
Fran had always been able to keep her cool, even in front of beastkin that’d evolved, like Aurel or Rumina. Sure, she respected them, but she was capable of handling herself. But now, she was completely frozen over in fear.
Though, I guess it was kind of fair. The Beast Lord was a Golden Flame Lion, a member of the original ten tribes Aurel had just told us about. We’d imagined the tribes’ members to be strong, but never could we have even fathomed for them to be this strong. He was already intimidating enough as he usually was. I could totally seeing him instantly killing any weaker foes just by throwing his bloodlust at them.
Beastkin seemed more or less capable of intuiting how strong other beastkin were, so I didn’t really think it’d be weird for someone like Fran to get like this in front of one as strong as the Beast Lord.
「Huh? Oh, hey, you girl. Aren’t you a Black Catkin?」
Shit. The Beast Lord actually noticed us. Worse, he was looking at Fran as if he was trying to evaluate her.
「It’s pretty rare to see a Black Catkin adventurer.」
「Especially one with a decent amount of skill.」
Goldalfa added to his lord’s comment with a compliment.
「She doesn’t look skilled to me.」
「That is just because your standards are far too high, Lord Rig.」
「That so? Oh well, I can’t say I’m not curious, so I guess I’ll bite and show her a bit of affection.」
Tsk. Fran had caught his eye, and not in a good way.
The manner in which he looked at her was akin to that of a lion that’d found itself some prey; his gaze was full of fighting spirit.
Fran, on the other hand, was still completely frozen. The fact that she was in the beast lord’s presence had already caused her to completely break down.
（No… Will be killed…）
（Whimper…）
Urushi was the same, despite the fact that he was still hidden away in the shadows.
I considered teleporting us out, but realized that it was possible that running away like that would just bring us even more trouble further down the road. In other words, warping was nothing but a last resort. Neither option was really much better than the other, so I decided to just prioritize Fran’s will and go with what she wanted.
Or at least that’s what I would have done had I needed to.
「I am sorry Lord Rig, but I do not think you have the time for it.」
「Ugh, come on, Royce.」
A third person emerged from the door and called out to the Beast Lord. He too was someone I remembered, the carriage’s second guard.
The door almost seemed to melt away the moment he touched it. It was probably something he’d created with one of his abilities to begin with.
「We’re already late for the meeting we scheduled with the Guildmaster. We really need to hurry it up.」
「Mannnn, I guess it can’t be helped. Be grateful, girl. It looks like you’ll get to keep your life, for now at least.」
「Lord Rig, the line you just said made you appear like a gangster.」
Goldalfa offered Rigdis some advice on his lack of etiquette, but was immediately shot down.
「There ain’t much of a difference between a noble society and a mafia anyways.」
「I would very much beg to differ.」
Again, Goldalfa offered a correct, and again, his opinion was ignored.
「Yeah, yeah, yeah, shut up already. Let’s just hurry the hell up and get a move on.」
Whew. Thankfully, it looked like Rigids ended up losing his interest in Fran, as he ended up going further into the guild whilst speaking with his bodyguards.
Fran collapsed onto her hands and knees the moment he vanished from her line of sight.
She was gasping desperately for air with all four of her limbs on the ground and sweat profusely dripping from her body, a miserable state.
『Hey, you still doing okay?』
「Nn…」
Yeah no. There was no way she was, but she nodded in a show of assent regardless. Well, at least she’d finally regained the ability to respond to me.
『Let’s just get out of here, go back to the inn, and get ourselves rested up. We can head back into the dungeon first thing tomorrow morning and put off talking to Dias till some time later, alright?』
「Nn.」
I teleported us near the inn after helping Fran up with telekinesis. I knew it was flashy, and that people might see us, but I figured it would be best for us to have her get some rest right away, teleporting was still less conspicuous than having her walk through town in her current state.
『Can you still walk?』
「Still fine…」
She only barely managed to drag her feet along as she walked. She was clearly even more drained than she would be after a fierce battle.
『Man, the Beast Lord sure did live up to his name. Dude was a total monster. Let’s try making sure we’re C rankers by the next time we run into him.』
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[1] Seems as good a time as any for me to explain the difference between the two types of Qigong. In Japan, Qigong is described as “Hard” and “Soft,” which I translated as “Combat” and “Inner” respectively. Combat Qigong is effectively the same thing as martial arts. You use it to punch people. Inner Qigong is what relates to the healing other people with your qi (ki) stuff and whatnot. Note that these are derived from Chinese meanings, and, funnily enough differ greatly from their roots due to some sort of ancient localization error. China doesn’t actually have the “hard qigong” or “soft qigong” terms. They do have the hard/soft strength concept, but it’s applied quite differently. The hard concept is when one strengthens one’s own body. The soft concept is when one makes one’s own body more flexible. Both can be applied in a combat sense; the first is related to brute force or head on strikes, whereas the second is more closely related to receiving another individual’s blow and returning with a counter, preferably one that uses the attacker’s strength against them. Do keep in mind that Qi (Ki) is still related to the concept of healing, and good fighters are commonly also people with great control over their ki, and therefore capable of healing others. It’s quite difficult to explain this in detail without like 5k words, so I’ll just leave it at this for now.
[2] One piece reference. I was going to localize it the same way they localized it in one piece, but the I found out that the lazy fucks didn’t… which I guess makes sense because they have to worry about lip sync, but still. Gdi, I wanted to slack off and not think.
[3] This is higher tier than “Divine” because Japan says so. I was thinking of not literally translating it and instead going with “Transcendent,” but I ultimately ended up just saying fuck it. I remember someone warning me about this, but I didn’t want to think of something to replace “Divine X Arts” at the time. I still don’t. Now, if the series was finished and I already knew all the tiers, then I’d actually bother, but it’s too much of a pain when the author can still introduce higher tier shit going forward.