Only I Am A Reader

Post-battle management was just as important as the battle itself!

"Well, sure… I really can't get used to the way you deal with the remains."

Normally, monster hunters would harvest the parts they could sell or use and put the leftovers in one large pile before leaving. If it was in a populated area, a resident might be kind enough to transport it to the garbage dump, but people hardly went as far as to bury their prey.

Even if they were enemies, other Martial Artists would usually be buried to honor their death. However, monsters were no more than pests that didn't deserve honor or respect.

"It's not always necessary, but at the pace that we are moving out, we don't want to end up causing a foreign disease to spread throughout the Murim."

On Earth, death in mass usually didn't come with any health hazards, but that was only thanks to the advancement of medicine. The several vaccines and eradication of infectious diseases made things safer.

On the other hand, Murim was quite backward in a lot of things aside from the pursuit of Martial Arts. A massacre could develop something disastrous if not for the miraculous immunity of Martial Artists. In this case, however, things were even worse!

Disregarding their long stay in Murim, these monsters were undoubtedly foreign organisms! Their immunity was undeniably strong to have resisted any foreign disease in Murim's air without the need to adapt, but that only meant the diseases that they were likely to carry were equally atrocious.

Leo didn't know if it was Geochin's lucky aura, or if the monsters didn't carry anything over, but it was already great that an epidemic hadn't already broken out with how careless people dealt with the monster corpses. The omission of this factor was likely thanks to novel logic, but Leo didn't want to be the sinner who plunged the world into darkness. After all, he had been working so hard just to make their image just a little bit better…

"I can't really understand, but this must be necessary, right?"

As someone who spent half of his life on the street and the other half learning about nothing but Martial Arts and combat, Jang-Do couldn't understand much from Leo's few words. However, he was capable enough to tell that Leo was trying to move the public's heart and change the people's perception by publicizing their deeds, so he assumed this was another detail related to that.

"Yeah."

"Ho!"

"Baekho orabeoni, we also dealt with the ones on our end. Though Yong took quite a bit of damage."

Leo had barely started cleaning the battlefield when Yeon and the other two cheerfully returned. Unlike the werewolf army battle that most required brute force, the Burrowing Hedgehogs were unpredictable adversaries, so a more dispersive tactic was required.

In order to deal with surprise factors, Leo stayed behind on the main battlefield, while the other three chased off large escaping groups. The message had reassured him that the battle had already ended, but Leo was only reassured when he saw their faces.

"I said I'm fine."

Unfortunately, Cheon Yong's arm was full of holes that went deep into his bones. While Yeon had her endless blades, and Sohee had their windy counterpart, the range of Yong's swordsmanship and his fist arts wasn't that high without the support of Sohee's wind. So it wasn't too surprising that he got stung.

"It looks bad, but it should recover quickly. The Fist Lord's teachings weren't for nothing, you learned well."

Red Dragon Energy wasn't purely offensive like Black Dragon Energy. To allow the body to become a true weapon, it enveloped the body with enough to defend against the same level of force that it could produce! Although the Burrowing Hedgehog ignored physical defense completely, energy defense could weaken the attack to a certain degree.

In the end, all four might have different fields that they excel in, but none of them lost to the other in value!

"Leave the rest to us though."

"Whatever."

Unlike his young self, Yong wasn't very talkative, especially after battles. However, he still took Leo's advice to rest as he trusted him deep inside. He wasn't a severe case, but he could be said to be a tsundere of some sort.

Any sort of labor including digging down was practically nothing for Martial Artists on their level. Other than Sohee who tried to tend to Yong's wounds, Yeon and the other members who didn't spend much effort assisted in post-battle management.

"Will we be returning this time as well?"

"... No. We will camp here until the reporter comes back. I got a few more tips on monsters in the vicinity."

'Time is growing tight.'

Looking at the scarlet gleam that no longer disappeared from Yeon's eyes, Leo confirmed that time was running out. It was precisely the time for one last outstanding spurt!

Fighting the Burrowing Hedgehogs required more technicality than stamina, but that wasn't just a coincidence. When making the action map, Leo kept the swiftest tasks to the end after ordering things according to location…

Since the more heavy raids had already been dealt with at the start, Leo felt that they could afford to go for a few consecutive hits. This might have been hard when the other members weren't used to him like now, but a proper chain of command had already been created within the little army. Even if they didn't interact directly with him, respect and trust towards Leo had already been piling in their hearts!

With their large number, tools used for camping would have posed some level of inconvenience, but the same quantity problem made it easier for them to pass around the role of a porter. As long as a battle wasn't ongoing, two or three were enough to carry around everything.

In the beginning, everyone would set up their own stuff, but the growing bond turned that into another duty that was passed around. In no time, the responsible ones set up everything a few minutes after everything was settled…

Night watch, packing, waking people up, all of these duties were already distributed among the group. By the time everyone had awakened, those confident in cooking had roasted some hedgehog meat to make life more tasteful than grain balls!

'It's a little fishy…'

The heat and condiments made it okay to eat, but the strange monster's meat retained a hint of fishiness. At first, Leo joined in the rotation of duties, having already cooked for everyone once, but the other members took him as well as the other three off duty soon enough.

"Well then, let us head out once more."

One more step had been taken in Leo's desired direction, but this was just the start of a glorious speedrun!