Matan’s Shooter - Chapter 42

Chapter 42

What the heck happened?

Both bears and snakes hibernated, and their food wasn’t similar, so they could coexist. Leeha hadn’t seen nor heard of them fighting like this.

Kaa! Kaaa! Sss, Sss!

Anyway, the bear cub was fighting a green snake. And Leeha could see that the bear cub was strong.

It stepped on the snake’s neck with its foot, and put its claw on the snake’s head then bit it.

The bear cub quickly overpowered the green snake.

“Ho… You’re pretty good aren’t you?”

Kyaung! Kuuuang!

Then the bear cub bit the snake’s neck. The bear cub drank the snake’s blood and chewed its head.

“Haha. Good job, kid.”

Leeha approached the bear cub and gently reached out his hand. As it just finished fighting, Leeha wondered if the bear cub would be vigilant, however, when it smelled his hand, it immediately rubbed its head on it.

Kkung, Kkung.

“Okay, okay. Did you help out because you were worried?”

Kku!

It may not have understood Leeha’s words, but Leeha felt like they were having a conversation.

“In the meantime, it seems like you have grown again…”

‘Is it just me?’

The bear cub that had just finished hunting the snake felt a little bigger than before. Was it because Leeha was looking at the bear cub from a different angle, or was it really getting bigger?

The answer was clear when night fell. The bear cub had really gotten bigger.

It only took one day.

Within a day, the bear’s size had grown close to that of a medium-sized dog. Now, it was harder to carry around.

Leeha chewed on the meat of the bear he had hunted during the day and cheered on the bear cub.

“Come on, go over! Jump over it!”

Kuong, kuo-huh.

The bear cub, now the size of a medium-sized dog, recoiled in retreat.

“You can do it! It’s not as hot as you think! You are a bear! Bear! You got bigger too!”

Kouong…

The bear moved its head from side to side as if understanding Leeha’s words.

“Your king is the Agonia Oso! You should not be afraid of fire! Does it make sense for the descendants of the Brown Bear to be afraid of fire?”

Huh- mop.

Of course, it made sense. The bear cub sat down.

“I can’t do it anymore… Is this kid more useless than I thought?”

It looked pretty good when it caught a snake, but was it impossible for it to jump over the bonfire?

‘The westerners are great. How did they get the bears to do tricks?’

It was obvious what Leeha was thinking.

He wanted to teach the bear cub tricks and show them in the capital city.

But he couldn’t get all the good things in life.

No, the bear cub was not a pushover.

“I haven’t even thought about catching green snakes before…”

Even if it got bigger, it’s still small, so he could hide it…

After catching the green snake once, Leeha experimented a few times, but the cub didn’t come out. The snake raised its head, attacked, and backed away, he eventually gave up on the experiment to save time.

He even met users that tried to attack the bear several times. He had a hard time convincing the users to turn back because it was his bear.

‘But it also had its limits… There are a lot of possibilities of getting attacked when they see you.’

The time would come when it would be hard to travel together.

There was also a reason why Leeha was trying to teach something to the bear, ‘I would have to mark it.’

If there was no perception that it is “Leeha’s pet”, the bear cub will be treated as a monster.

I can’t just put “I don’t attack people” on top of its head.

What would happen if while I was distracted for a moment, a ranged dealer or a wizard suddenly attacked? The bear cub might die.

Now that it was the size of a medium-sized dog, it had more HP, so it won’t die right away. But what would be the difference between dying in one shot and dying in two shots?

“This is so troublesome.”

Whenever Leeha thought about the capital, he had a lot of thoughts about how to handle the lunch box provided by Madame Lou, and even the bear cub.

Leeha laid down on the ground and looked up at the sky while basking in the warmth of the bonfire.

He was not going to sleep in the game anyway, he just grilled meat for a while, ate it and took a break, before starting his journey again.

Kkuung, kkung.

“Are you sleepy? Well, you are different from me. I think your tiredness has accumulated.”

Kkung-!

The bear cub fell down and laid at Leeha’s feet.

He felt the sensation of a head rubbing on his calves.

“Okay, okay. Don’t worry I won’t leave you behind.”

Two more days had passed.

Only two days were left until he arrived at the capital.

Forest hunting grounds where bears and snakes appeared would no longer be visible.

In other words, it had been the third day since he first met the bear cub. Of course, it was according to the time standard of Middle Earth.

“Uwaaak!! I-It’s a bear!”

“Aah! Don’t attack! It’s okay!”

Guoong, the bear shed thick saliva, sticking out its yellow tooth.

Each tooth was roughly as thick as a human palm. No one believed it when the person said it was okay.

“Uwaaaak!!! The user was bitten by the bear!!! Run away!!”

A warrior with a two-handed sword also ran away. If you didn’t have a proper party, it was difficult to hunt bears.

The bear cub was drooling on Leeha’s shoulder.

“No, it wasn’t a bite! Okay- Phew… They ran away again.”

Guo?

“Dude, what did you eat to grow up so quickly? This is why people misunderstand.”

Kkung! Kkuu-!

The bear cub snorted and struck Leeha’s head.

They acted like friends laughing and pranking each other.

However, whenever the bear poked him lightly, it was strong enough to make Leeha’s body stagger.

In just three days, it had grown so much that it would be embarrassing to call it “little bear”. It had become large enough to scare users.

‘In just three days…’

Among the reasons why he couldn’t see a lot of monsters, he thought that the abnormal growth rate must have played a part.

No matter how fast a bear grew, it must have taken more than 3 years to become an adult. It grew so fast.

It also resembled its mother, and it was bigger than the “four-feet” bear that Leeha shot and killed.

Five? Maybe six?

It was at least 50% larger than the bear that died in three to four shots. Among the normal bear monsters, it boasted a huge size that belonged at the top.

“It may have been a bad idea to raise you from the start. Right, kid?”

Kkuu, Kkuu.

The bear answered, as if it was saying it was sad, while biting Leeha’s arm. Of course, it was just “play” biting in the bear’s point of view.

“Oh, okay. Don’t bite. I know you’re only playing, but my HP went down quite a bit.”

It lightly groaned, but it could feel his forearms twitching. If it was a little harder, Leeha’s arm would have been broken in one go.

“Sigh… So, when will we arrive?”

Leeha had no choice but to sigh. After the cub became an adult, their pace slowed down a lot.

In fact, the travel time itself had decreased a lot. He did not need to hold the bear cub while walking as it is able to follow Leeha’s steps quickly.

‘But that’s not the problem…’

Rumors had spread that a user was dragging a bear the size of a 12 seater van. It was the reason why Leeha’s pace had slowed down.

Even now, after hearing the rumor, another team of users approached which caused Leeha to stop once again.

In addition to those who approached to confirm the rumors, people also came thinking that they are monsters… If he ignored them, they might attack the little bear, so it was a situation where he had to deal with each and everyone of them in order to clear up the misunderstanding.

“Huh, nim, t-t-t-that, are you sure it doesn’t bite?”

“I’m sure. It’s okay, it doesn’t bite.”

Five warriors hid behind their shields and raised their heads. They said that it was their first time seeing a bear up close without attacking them.

“Amazing… How? How did you tame it?”

“I do not know. Rather than tame it…”

Leeha couldn’t explain it properly. No, was it correct to say that it was already tamed in the first place? It didn’t attack people first, but that was all.

It didn’t really seem to listen to Leeha’s orders. It felt more like a companion or friend.

“Waa… That’s crazy. Are you a tamer by any chance? Well, there are no other jobs that tame monsters and beasts.”

“No.”

“Great. Will it give us experience if we catch it? It’s really big…”

“Don’t attack. If you attack, I won’t be responsible.”

The warrior’s shoulder collapsed when Leeha put his hand on top of it.

“Well, but I think that’s going to attack first.”

Kkuoong, Kkuoong.

The bear cub snorted. Of course, only Leeha was flustered.

“It won’t attack. So please just leave it alone. Can’t you see that it’s much bigger than regular bears? Its attack would probably be greater as well. If you fight for no reason, you will probably… die.”

Leeha’s words contained a nuance that users would be weaker than bears, but users took it for granted.

The bears that they normally hunted were largely different from the bear cub, it was like comparing a child to an adult.

Kuuung, Kuuung!

“Can it hunt together with you?” One user asked.

Hunting.

That’s right, even though it did not listen to Leeha’s orders, he was intent on protecting it.

“Hunt… It can help me hunt a bit.”

In the 3 days they were together, Leeha was able to verify that the bear cub could stand toe to toe with regular bears. When Leeha attacked a bear, the bear cub would attack the bear as well.

The sight of two bears fighting was bloody and brutal, but Leeha’s heart was at ease. Bears couldn’t even be bothered to look at Leeha while fighting the bear cub.

In other words, it was possible to reload without any worries.

Sometimes, when he was bored, he only shot the first shot and left it to the bear cub to kill the bear, so it would have been pretty sad if the cub understood what Leeha said that it was “a bit” helpful in hunting.

“Cool… I also wanted to be a tamer.”

“No, I’m not a tamer-”

“But, can you ride it?”

“What?”

The gathered users didn’t seem to be interested in Leeha’s words. A strange question popped up from people who were busy expressing admiration and envy.

Get on? Bear?

“I do not know. I haven’t tried it.” At that moment, he felt thankful to the users. He thought they were just annoying people, but he unexpectedly received help from them.

A forest hunting ground in the southern part of Aelstock, the capital of the Kingdom of Fibiel.

Rumors about the “shooter riding a bear” spread in an instant.

(To be continued…)