Monster Hunter, Human Hunting Demon

A condensed beam of Holy Light shot from the head of the hammer.

It precisely enveloped Vivian’s entire body.

The light flowed like a tangible substance over her skin, seeping in, searching for any trace of darkness, blasphemy, or evil.

And the result, naturally, was no reaction whatsoever.

This was to be expected.

According to the game’s design, the priest’s level was simply too low compared to Vivian’s.

In the game, the Demon Lord of Evernight, Vivian, was set at level one hundred, while the clergyman before her was probably not even level thirty.

How could he possibly “see through” Vivian’s 【Disguise】?

Of course, this wasn’t to say that a level thirty person was trash.

At the very beginning of this game world’s timeline, level thirty was actually considered a very powerful level of ability.

Moreover, this was the real world; there was no data panel popping up to tell you this person’s level or that monster’s level.

A failed detection check would naturally not trigger a system prompt.

Of course, if someone had actually managed to see through her disguise despite the level difference, or even if their expression looked amiss, Vivian would have struck them down without a moment’s hesitation.

Because they would, in all likelihood, be another “player,” perhaps even one with a system.

However, the reason Vivian went through all this trouble instead of directly using her innate passive ability, 【Charm】, was naturally because of the priest’s presence.

The firmer a clergyman’s faith, the lower the probability of charm taking effect.

Moreover, a charmed person’s mental state would be somewhat strange, and over time, it would easily be discovered by others.

So, an ability like charm was best used for extracting information from a single person.

With more people, it was easy to expose the flaw, not to mention Vivian wasn’t a succubus who specialized in charm.

“…Everything is normal. My apologies for the intrusion, Miss Nanali.”

After a moment, the priest nodded, confirming that Vivian had no “abnormalities.”

“It’s no problem at all. This is all standard procedure.”

Vivian responded with a smile, adapting perfectly to her new identity—Miss Nanali.

“We truly apologize for the imposition, Miss Nanali.”

After confirming everything was “normal,” the warrior captain leading the group also showed a fawning and friendly smile to Vivian, his tone becoming much gentler.

“This blasted place is too close to the front lines, and the demon scouts are as elusive as ghosts. We have to be careful… It’s dangerous for you to be alone in this fog.

As it happens, we’re about to change shifts. Would you like to come back with us to the forward outpost?”

“Of course, thank you for your trouble.”

Vivian nodded, replying cheerfully.

This was just what she wanted.

“My name is Talan. We’re a Gold-rank adventurer team registered with the Adventurer’s Guild, you know.

Miss Nanali, if you can’t find your own team for the time being, would you consider temporarily joining us?”

“Tsk.”

“Tsk.”

The shield-bearing warrior captain then enthusiastically extended an olive branch to Vivian, which was followed by two unhappy sounds from within the party.

They came from the party’s mage and archer, who were also women.

Their looks and appearance were not top-tier, but they could at least score a seven or eight out of ten, considered quite attractive.

Clearly, both of them were somewhat displeased that their captain had invited Vivian so directly, but Vivian took note of all these reactions.

However, it didn’t matter to her.

She had no interest in getting involved in someone else’s love triangle.

“About that… let’s talk about it if I really can’t find my original team.”

Vivian replied with a light laugh, which was a veiled refusal of his offer.

“Oh… alright then.”

Faced with Vivian’s indirect refusal, Talan was not overly dejected.

He exchanged a few words with his companions, and together they relaxed their fighting stances and walked into the mountain pass.

The moment she entered the pass, Vivian couldn’t help but frown slightly.

The reason was simple: a thick, nauseatingly mixed stench assaulted her.

Inside were piles of monster corpses that had already been flayed and butchered.

Clearly, this was not the work of just this one small team.

…This place was more like an open-air slaughterhouse, a cold and cruel repository of corpses exclusively for demons.

Monster carcasses of various shapes and sizes, like discarded trash, were piled together haphazardly, forming several small mountains that exuded a thick stench of death.

For a normal human, there was nothing to be afraid of; at most, they would feel disgusted by the corpses.

But Vivian was different.

She was a demon, a Demon Lord.

Skinned and flayed, gutted and dismembered, harvested for materials, stripped of their magic cores…

Gazing at those dissected demon corpses, from which every usable material had been stripped, in her eyes, it was the same as how humans would view a pile of corpses accumulated from their own kind.

Disgust, as well as revulsion, abhorrence, and hatred.

These were the emotions of this body’s original owner.

And in fact, the equipment worn by this small party was also mostly made from monster materials.

The sturdy shields of Talan and the other warrior were likely made from the metallic shells or bone plates of a Stoneplate Tortoise, while the oak staff and bow used by the mage and archer were probably sourced from wood-elemental monsters.

After all, mining and harvesting natural resources was hardly as convenient as stripping them from enemy creatures, was it?

Although making a bow only required wood that was eight to ten years old, it still needed complex enchanting processes.

More powerful archers required even stronger wood, which was far less convenient than directly taking the spine from a 【Wind-Whisper Vine Fiend】, which could even be integrated with the drive for combat skills and magic.

This was true for weapons, and even more so for armor.

The flexible leather armors were mostly made from monster materials.

In other words, this adventurer party, which looked perfectly normal to any human, was, in the eyes of monsters and demons, no different from terrifying upright apes draped from head to toe in the corpses of their own kin.

No wonder Luna had reacted so strongly when she saw the other adventurer parties.

The scene before her, if the roles were reversed, would be no different from humans being skinned, having their limbs chopped off, and their hearts dug out!

But this was the fundamental tone of this game world.

Monster Hunter, Human Hunting Demon.

“Miss Nanali? Are you alright?”

“…I’m fine, thank you for your concern.”

After seeing the piles of monster corpses, Vivian’s expression had turned slightly ugly, which prompted Talan to show some concern.

In response, she just shook her head, continuing to maintain her smile on the surface.

“I’m just a little tired, that’s all. After all, I’ve been through a few battles, and the smell here is indeed a bit awful… Let’s leave this place quickly.”