Chapter 82: The Deer of Green Street

Red Deer Rhos made his way north through the district without bothering with the streets.

He moved through the upper reaches of the urban forest, leaping from one thick branch to another whenever the trees grew close enough, then crossing the gaps between them using the surrounding buildings.

His boots struck the sloped roof of an abandoned home before he pushed off again, caught a hanging branch with one hand and swung himself forward.

The branch bent beneath his weight before throwing him toward the next building, where he landed against the edge of a balcony and immediately climbed higher.

Moving like this was faster than navigating the winding roads below.

The district had been evacuated before the Exterminators were sent in, leaving roads, homes, workshops and small agricultural plots completely abandoned, making the entire place effectively a ghost town.

The only humans Rhos encountered since entering the quarantine zone were himself and Arlen of the Adler family.

That made the growing number of spiritual signatures impossible to mistake for civilians. His senses stretched outward while he moved. There were dozens of them ahead, too many to separate properly at this distance.

There were more locusts. Their individual spiritual signatures overlapped into something resembling an enormous shifting mass, but their direction was obvious.

After another few hundred meters, Rhos jumped from a thick branch and landed on top of the roof of a three-story building. He allowed his momentum to carry him several steps before stopping near the edge and dropping into a crouch.

His amber eyes scanned the streets and vegetation below and that was when he saw them. The infestation was moving through the district like a living tide.

Hundreds of oversized locusts crawled, jumped and occasionally flew between the trees and buildings, transforming the road beneath them into a writhing carpet of segmented bodies.

Most of them were approximately the size of small cars, although several were noticeably larger. Their hind legs crushed fences and smaller vegetation whenever they pushed forward, while their oversized black mandibles continuously tore at anything remotely edible.

They advanced while consuming whatever could sustain them, leaving stripped vegetation and damaged infrastructure behind. This behavior was what made Wild Beasts just as dangerous as Wraths.

They bore no hatred towards humanity nor had the particular desire to destroy human property. There were other factors that made them a threat.

A swarm like this could destroy months of food production in a day, tear apart infrastructure while searching for vegetation and leave an entire district economically ruined by the time it moved elsewhere.

Of course, that didn’t mean they were completely harmless either. They were certainly a danger. If they landed their sights on a target, they would undoubtedly aim to tear it apart.

Just like at this moment. The swarm of locusts was heading his way. And since he happened to be standing between them and whatever they intended to eat next, they converged on him like another potential source of food.

Three months ago that would have been enough reason for him to turn tail and leave.

Actually, three weeks ago, Rhos probably would have found the safest possible position, allowed the swarm to pass and left it to someone better equipped to deal with it.

Some may consider it cowardly, but there was nothing cowardly about refusing to fight dozens of creatures that could overwhelm you through sheer numbers.

The prideful were often the first ones to die.

At least, that was the thought process of his past self. The current Rhos remained crouched on the rooftop, his amber eyes full of vigor and grinning like an excited child.

“Looks like another good opportunity to test it out”

He rose to his feet and took a ready stance.

It had been three weeks since Black Crow Koa somehow found him employment.

When she initially told him she got him a job, Rhos expected something ordinary like warehouse work, delivery or a waiter position in the restaurant she worked in.

He didn’t expect the job she got him to return him to government service.

Red Deer Rhos was now an Exterminator.

The job itself wasn’t terrible, it just lacked most of the prestige associated with the Ranger Corps. But it didn’t look like a good time to go through that right now.

Exterminator work could still be dangerous, sometimes extremely so, but compared with deliberately sending people beyond the World Shell to be exposed to all sorts of horrors…

….it was an improvement. Most importantly, he got paid money.

His uniform reflected the difference in his recent employment.

Rhos wore a black high visibility jacket marked by neon green sections, with a simple dark work shirt. His baggy trousers gave his legs plenty of movement while heavy boots stomped at the ground.

The number 17 was displayed prominently on the left side of his jacket and an insect emblem marked one sleeve in a white hue.

A lot had changed during those past three weeks.

Morri was probably the biggest change.

Since Koa couldn’t bring a strange looking child into the restaurant every day while she worked, Morri spent most of her time with Rhos.

Under ordinary circumstances, nobody below the age of 15 would have been allowed anywhere near an active Exterminator site, much less participate in the work.

Fortunately, she wasn’t officially considered a child. Saying she is his summon made her get accepted rather easily.

This surprised him at first, but after getting to know the kind of people who ran the branch he works in, it made sense why they weren’t really bothered.

They were just as strange.

Though Morri’s inability to speak any recognizable human language might have helped with that.

His relationship with Morri had improved.

She still had moments of regarding him with an expression that suggested she would prefer he stopped existing. Other times she seemed completely indifferent to him.

At the very least, her outright hostility toward him had faded. She followed him almost everywhere now and usually obeyed when he asked something of her.

Communication remained a difficulty.

This part, he was still working on solving it. He didn’t know how, but he had to find her a teacher. Someone who will be able to teach her the modern language.

At any rate, her increasing cooperation allowed him to experiment. Those experiments produced two important results.

The first was control over Morri’s manifestation.

Rhos could summon and dismiss her whenever he wished now. The process was difficult at first, but repetition made it more natural.

The second result was….

“Soul Bond…”