The Maniac of DxD (Highschool dxd insert/ semi-crack): Chapter 42

“You know, Shishou, this hunt is starting to feel like a quest from Monster Hunter.”

I hummed in agreement with my apprentice as we stalked our next target, hiding beneath various rock formations of the hills near Richtersveld, South Africa.

“It really is, isn’t it? Do you find it fun?”

The grin Issei gave me was answer enough.

“Are you kidding me? I always wanted to be a Monster Hunter like in the games, although the circumstances are quite different, and it is not just my life but my sanity at stake as well, it is still so thrilling. Especially since I will have my new weapon made by Theus with these materials.”

“That’s the spirit! Now, shush. We don’t want to give away our position.”

“You know, I never thought I would ever be bound with a partner who had such a strange master.”

I grinned at the Boosted Gear that manifested on Issei’s hand.

“Normalcy is overrated. All the fun is in being unhinged.”

“Hahaha! Can’t argue with that. Especially since the results are already showing-Ah! Here it comes. I can smell the divinity on it from all the way in here.”

Soon, our enhanced senses picked up on the subtle rumbling of the earth from within the cave system known as ‘The Wonder Hole’ by the locals.

“For a supposed colossal creature, it is surprisingly stealthy.”

I nodded at Issei’s words but stayed silent, focusing on using my Senjutsu to hide the presence of both of us from the beast.

It did not take long before the best we were hunting emerged from its hiding, lured by the solid chunk of Celestial Gold I placed near the cave as bait.

With a face similar to an Elephant and a body of a Snake, it was a divine creature said to have been created by the Gods of this land at the time of creation.

Realizing that they had made a mistake by making it too powerful, intelligent, and durable, they split the beasts into two, creating the Elephants and Serpents.

But legends say that one escaped and led to the birth of a sizable population that lives on to this day.

They call these creatures the Grootslang.

Now, why am I so interested in hunting down such an obscure but powerful creature?

For its leather and its hoard.

From what little information I managed to gather through my connections, Grootslangs were originally created with divinity within their blood and were so powerful that they posed a threat to the very gods that created them, hence their transformation into regular animals, according to stories.

What this means for my hunt is that, as divine beings, their hide will serve as the perfect catalyst and protective equipment for enhancing Issei’s combat capabilities, while its hoard, which is supposedly filled with diamonds bathed in the divinity of its kin for thousands of years, would serve as an excellent material for Issei’s weapon that Theus is in the process of making.

As the creature got closer and closer to the bait and further and further from the cave, finally revealing its colossal body that was the size of a dump truck, indicating that it was a juvenile, I gestured towards Issei to begin the plan.

With a nod, Issei activated the recent addition to his arsenal.

“Ddraig, let’s go.”

“Welsh Dragon: Balance Breaker. Partial Scale Mail.”

After rigorously training for a few months since our return from Kyoto, Issei finally managed to partially achieve Balance Breaker, giving him access to the partial Scale Mail, which took the form of a chain mail armor instead of plate armor due to its partial nature.

And I am glad to say that I played a large role in his tortu-ahem, training, by throwing him buck naked into the dens of various monsters and mythical creatures from across the world.

Of course, I did not fail to livestream said training montages for the lols and memes.

I think his video of getting ganked by a horde of Encantados who tried to turn him into one of their mates for his draconic blood that he got after being baptized by the blood of various draconic monsters is the most popular video on my channel so far and has earned me millions of dollars in revenue, which I’ve split fifty-fifty with him since he played a major role in its success.

Not like he appreciates the money earned from his mental scarring, but it is the principle that matters.

The pink dolphins that can transform into handsome men have traumatized him so much that he has sworn off seafood and getting near any large bodies of water after that.

Where was I? right, the Scale Mail.

As the name suggests, it is chain mail made from Dragon scales, which is weird to say the least since the scales have taken the form of chains that make up the chin mail and he is still missing the helm that goes with that kind of armor since it is only a partial transformation.

But for this task, it will be enough.

With his transformation done, he placed his palm on my shoulder and activated his transfer ability, boosting my abilities with five boosts, which is a 32 times multiplier on all my abilities.

With the burst of power, I let go of my concealment and quickly charged a Touki energy ball, blasting the cave entrance and making it collapse, making sure that the Grootslang would not flee like it normally does the moment it encounters a prey stronger than itself.

Issei was not idle during this time either, as he charged the beast.

“Dragon Claw!”

With his claws, he quickly tore open the throat of the beast, making it bleed heavily.

I took advantage of this weakness and smashed my Touki-charged fist into its skull, shattering it and destroying its brain, killing it instantly.

While it would have been way easier to just use my Gada, I do not want the Orochi’s poison to taint its body and render the materials useless.

Issei glared at the corpse cautiously and did not disengage his armor, keeping his guard up for a surprise attack.

Good. Looks like that sneak attack training has taught him something.

Just like it taught me that the stealth-archer build is OP even in this universe, and that there is a lot of fun to be had by sneak attacking your apprentice at unexpected times with an arrow to the butt.

“Relax, Issei. It is dead.”

“…I don’t trust you.”

I smiled amusedly at his words.

“Why?”

“Because it was way too easy. Nothing much compared to the hell you usually throw me into with nothing but the clothes on my back, sometimes even taking that away as well.”

At his words, I couldn’t help but chuckle as I got to work.

Taking out the skinning tools Theus made specifically for monsters and divine creatures, I started skinning the beast.

“The only reason you find it easy is because we prepared thoroughly for it with the admittedly limited information we had on it. I mean, the legends say that these things are at least in the Ultimate-class, but this Juvenile was clearly only a low-rank High-Class. It was a given that it would fail to even survive a minute against a peak High-Class being like you and a low-rank Ultimate-Class like me. Doubly so when we take your boosts into account.”

“True. While this creature is nothing much to write home about in terms of strength. It would always be better to be overtly prepared than underprepared for a fight. After all, I don’t want you to die like a fool, like some of my previous wielders who failed to prepare adequately for their foes, leading to their pathetic deaths.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Partner.”

Ddraig chuckled at Issei’s sarcastic words before falling silent, letting the two teenagers start processing the beast’s corpse.

Within half an hour, the beast’s corpse was neatly processed and stored within Issei’s newly developed storage space (mainly because my storage space is basically a junkyard), allowing me to turn towards the collapsed cave.

“Well, since you think it was so easy, why not take on a few more of these things, and pilfer the divine diamonds while we are at it?”

The pale face of my student made me grin.

Oh yeah! I really love messing with this kid.

“Me and my big mouth!”

At Issei’s grumbling, I could not help but laugh loudly as I charged up another ball of Touki, blasting open the cave entrance again.

This is going to be fun, I can just tell.

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The Grootslang (Image Source: Pinterest):