Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang walked behind the other three, who scouted the surroundings. The Caves had a very confusing layout, but Sarah had several sheets of paper in her hands, which acted as interconnected maps.

An accurate map was very expensive, but it gave the teams the ability to hunt in the Caves, which was worth the investment.

After some minutes of walking through some confusing tunnels, Shang noticed something. The thick Darkness Mana in the Caves avoided one spot at the ceiling of one of the tunnels, which most likely meant that a different source of Mana that Shang couldn't feel was pushing the Darkness Mana away with its own Mana.

In short, it was a beast.

Shang looked up and saw the beast.

'Crack Spider,' Shang thought when he saw it.

A Crack Spider was a big, armored spider with an Earth Affinity, and it was famous for dropping down on its prey and killing it with its weight.

However, Shang didn't say anything. Crack Spiders were mostly at the Initial General Stage, and since they were ambush predators, they weren't the strongest beasts in a head-on clash. One could say that this beast was a perfect opponent for the team of hunters.

"The Wind Mana isn't flowing as fluently as before anymore," Elver suddenly said with furrowed brows.

At the General Stage, basically every warrior could feel their surroundings as long as a certain amount of Mana of their Affinity was present.

Elver had a Wind Affinity, and a lot of the Wind Mana from the surface also entered the Caves. After all, there was no other Zone Beast present to counteract the Wind Mana with its own Mana.

"Astor," Sarah said.

Astor nodded and summoned a bucket-load of water in front of him, which wasn't very difficult considering that Astor had a Water Affinity.

After that, Astor took out a small stick and poked the water.

SSHHH!

After the stick poked the water, it turned into steam and scattered over the entire cave they were currently in.

Astor closed his eyes to focus.

"The ceiling," he said as he looked up.

Shang nodded when he saw the teamwork. 'Elver is responsible for general scouting, and Astor is responsible for specific scouting.'

"Crack Spider," Sarah said as she readied her hammer. "This shouldn't be difficult. Elver, get to it."

Elver nodded, and he took out his two rapiers.

After that, he walked forward while looking at the Crack Spider.

Shortly before he reached the spot below it, it let go of the ceiling and dropped.

Elver immediately jumped back and fled.

And a second later…

BOOOOOM!

The heavy spider landed on the ground.

"HUUUAAARGH!"

Astor shouted with all his power and slashed forward with his gigantic sword.

CRK!

His heavy sword broke through the spider's thick armor, but it got stuck halfway-buried in its abdomen.

The spider quickly turned around in panic and tried to bite Astor, but Astor had already jumped away again.

After jumping back, Astor jumped to the side, and the spider's eyes followed him. It judged Astor to be the most dangerous opponent.

An instant later, it jumped towards Astor to bite him.

Astor put his sword sideways in front of him and leaned against it.

BANG!

Astor was pushed away by the spider, but his sword protected him from the Crack Spider's deadly fangs.

BOOOOM!

Suddenly, the Crack Spider jumped to the side in pain and panic, nearly falling to the ground.

Sarah had just attacked one of its legs.

The armor of the leg had exploded off, and the leg broke.

Shang nodded. 'Blunt force is very effective against armored targets.'

Before the Crack Spider could recover, Elver appeared in front of it and tried to stab its head.

Out of reflex, the spider jumped away again, but Elver did the same.

Elver never hit the spider, but he wasn't supposed to hit it.

He was supposed to gain its attention by constantly threatening its eyes.

A beast's instinct was to protect its eyes, and since beasts weren't very good at resisting their instincts, such a barrage of attacks often resulted in them fleeing one time after the other.

CRACK!

Sarah broke another leg, and the spider quickly focused on her.

It turned to her and tried to attack her, but just an instant later, it felt a wave of pain coming from its abdomen.

Astor had hit the same spot again, and a gigantic cut had been left behind on the spider's abdomen.

The spider's organs were falling out of its abdomen, and it panicked, doing everything in its power to flee.

Shang continued watching as the three of them essentially played with the spider until it finally died.

'They're doing their jobs very well. As the Runner, Elver always tries to get the beast's attention without committing to an attack. As the Buster, Astor's responsibility is to kill the beast with his powerful attacks. As the Flex, Sarah acts as either role depending on the situation.'

'Since the Crack Spider is a slow but heavily armored beast, Sarah didn't need to act as a second Runner, allowing her to focus on crippling it.'

The Flex position was one of the hardest and most sought-after positions in any hunter team. A team didn't necessarily need a Flex position, but having a good Flex meant having two people instead of one.

The Flex position required someone to be fast enough to evade a beast's attack but also powerful enough to severely injure beasts, making it useful in every situation.

For example, if a beast focused on Astor, the Buster, Astor would basically be useless since he could, at most, block one attack. If the beast unleashed a second attack, Astor would most likely receive heavy injuries or die.

If a beast ignored Elver, Elver wouldn't be able to injure the beast due to his weak but fast weapons, making him useless.

Busters and Runners needed each other to be useful.

Without a Buster, the Runner would eventually die.

Without a Runner, the Buster wouldn't get any opportunity to damage the opponent, which would also mean that they would eventually die.

However, a Flex was always useful.

If the beast focused on a Flex, they could run away and act as a runner, giving the Buster their opportunity to damage the beast.

If the beast ignored a Flex, they could severely injure the beast like a Buster.

Sarah, as the Flex, was the very reason why this team could hunt with only three people because she was essentially worth as much as two people.

After the Crack Spider finally died, Elver investigated the corpse.

"We lost some of the organs, but most of its armor is still in one piece. I estimate that it is worth about 1,400 gold," Elver said.

Sarah nodded and put the beast into her Space Ring.

Proven members of the Hunting Guild received special Space Rings for their work. These Space Rings had more room, and they specialized in carrying corpses.

Of course, the members didn't own these Space Rings but only used them as part of their work. Every Space Ring had Magic Circles on it that allowed the Hunting Guild to track its whereabouts in case the hunter died or tried to steal it. They also had to be handed in at the end of the day.

"That's enough to pay for the talismans several times over. We already made a profit," Sarah said.

Then, she gestured to another tunnel. "The day is still young, and my Space Ring has space for four more beasts. Let's get going."