"Phew..."
Two figures, a man and a woman, appeared in the mountain forest.
Katherine, tall and slender with her hair tied in a ponytail, was already panting from exhaustion. Staring at the dense woodland ahead that still seemed to stretch on without end, she complained, "Capes, how much farther is it? We've already been walking for most of the day..."
Capes fixed his deep gaze on the shadowy-looking woods ahead and said in a low voice, "We should be close. Let's keep going. Hold on a little longer."
Katherine felt rather helpless, but when she thought that the Spellcaster Organization she had dreamed of might be somewhere ahead, she could only rise to her feet and continue onward.
"Roar..."
All at once, the entire mountain forest seemed to tremble as an enormous beast's roar rang out.
Capes and Katherine immediately became alert, their eyes sweeping the surroundings.
Very soon, a striped giant tiger over three meters tall emerged from the woods. Before it, Capes and Katherine looked like "dwarves" from a fairy tale.
"It's a Striped Tiger, but how did it grow this absurdly huge?"
Katherine cried out in alarm. Striped Tigers were a very common kind of beast, and their pelts held considerable value. Ordinary Striped Tigers, however, were only about half a person's height.
Yet the Striped Tiger before them could practically be called a colossal beast. It was several times larger than ordinary Striped Tigers, its entire body radiating savage hostility, its tiger eyes locked firmly onto Capes and Katherine.
"Katherine, be careful. Strange things often happen deep within the Kurd Mountains. Some adventurers have even encountered beasts far more outrageous than this."
Capes cautiously retreated step by step. Encountering such a massive Striped Tiger meant they had likely reached the depths of the Kurd Mountains.
"Roar..."