Splitting Up

At that moment, overwhelming terror spread through her entire body.

It's over. It's all over!

Crack! Crack!

The monster outside was frantically tearing away the boards, as though it could hardly wait to come down and feast.

The little girl was petrified too, remaining motionless as her mother held her tightly in her arms.

Clearly, she now understood that the voice above had not belonged to her father at all. It had been a monster pretending to be him!

Crash!

With barely any effort, the boards covering the cellar entrance were ripped away, and the wooden brace beneath them fell uselessly aside.

Then a green, toad-like monster jumped down, surveying the mother and daughter with undisguised greed.

"It's me, Runichi! I suffered so much! It's your fault the monster killed me!"

Suddenly, that familiar voice rang out again.

Looking closer, they saw that it was the severed head in the toad monster's hand, its mouth opening and closing as it spoke.

Already in despair, the woman broke down completely at the sudden sight of her husband's severed head. She clamped her free hand over her mouth as tears streamed down her face.

"It's all because you wouldn't let me in! You killed me!"

"Enough! You disgusting monster!"

After breaking down, the woman seemed to throw caution to the wind. She no longer feared angering it, since there was only one possible outcome anyway.

The toad monster was not angry at her reaction. On the contrary, it grew even more delighted.

As a newly promoted [Grade 2 Cursed Spirit], its ability was not combat-oriented, but it was rather interesting.

It could reactivate some of the organs in a dead human's head, allowing a severed head to speak just as it had done earlier.

This ability made hunting effortless. There was no telling how many humans it had lured straight into its trap.

And now, it would soon have two more exquisite additions to its collection.

Before eating them, though, it needed to savor the intense negative emotions radiating from this woman's body!

Powerful negative human emotions, such as fear and hatred, were what cursed spirits loved to consume most. They were also the nourishment that made them stronger.

That was why it usually chose to torment its prey first, then slowly devour them starting from their feet.

The despair and anguish of being forced to watch a monster eat them bit by bit often provoked the most intense emotional reactions.

Absolutely delicious...

"Come on. Let's stay together as a family forever!"

The toad monster continued tormenting them with the voice of the woman's husband.

"Now... let's start with this little one." Grinning viciously, the toad monster reached for the little girl.

The girl stood motionless, as though she had fallen into a stupor.

The woman crouched and pulled her daughter into her arms, turning her back to the monster and squeezing her eyes shut.

But what she expected never happened. Instead, strange tearing and thudding sounds came from behind her.

"Mommy, the Hero came to save us."

With her back to the monster, the woman had seen nothing, but her daughter had witnessed everything.

A man with short brown hair, unusually pale skin, and a black robe had suddenly dropped from above, wielding an absurdly oversized sword.

There had been a single flash of silver, and the disgusting toad monster had been split in two from head to toe!

Hearing her daughter's words, the woman hurriedly turned around, but she saw no one, only the slain monster's corpse.

"Where is the Hero?" she asked urgently.

She did not doubt her daughter's words. The monster lay dead before her, and that could not be faked.

Someone must have stepped in and killed the monster,

saving them. Now that her husband had died so horribly, finding someone that powerful to rely on was the only way they could keep surviving.

Perhaps such a thought was shameful, but as a mother, there was little else she could do.

Her daughter's next answer, however, left her disappointed.

"The Hero vanished with a whoosh."

He had saved them and left without a word. Clearly, he wanted nothing more to do with them.

The woman gave a bitter smile and said nothing more, but her gaze grew increasingly resolute.

"Let's go. It isn't safe here anymore."

"Are we going to find the Hero?" her daughter asked, looking up at her expectantly.

With a bitter smile, the woman stroked her daughter's hair. "The Hero still has to defeat the monsters, so we mustn't get in his way, right?"

Her daughter nodded emphatically. "Yes! So the Hero will definitely win, won't he?"

"Yes, the Hero will definitely win! He'll definitely... win."

[Exorcised a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit. Gained 300 cursed soul points.]

After killing the toad monster, Shinji immediately headed toward another place where screams were ringing out.

Exorcising a Grade 3 Cursed Spirit yielded 200 cursed soul points.

Exorcising a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit yielded 300 cursed soul points.

Isn't that way too little?

But when he thought about how weak the Grade 2 and Grade 3 Cursed Spirits had been, he accepted it.

They all died in a single slash anyway. Two hundred or three hundred hardly made a difference.

More importantly, there were plenty of these small-fry cursed spirits, and new ones formed quickly.

Looking at it that way, as long as he worked harder and improved his efficiency, he could earn quite a lot!

That was why Shinji had no time to chat with the people he saved.

He might as well spend that time killing a couple more monsters.

Another point worth mentioning was that his bond points with Hidan had surpassed five hundred, reaching the second stage. As a result, while they were in the default party state, he received half the cursed soul points for any cursed spirit Hidan killed on his own.

If he participated, however, he could receive the full amount of cursed soul points for any cursed spirit they killed together.

After discovering this, Shinji decisively chose to split up with Hidan.

After all, all kinds of monsters were emerging to feed. Continuing to move together would have been far too inefficient.

Hidan certainly had no objections. He had been itching to slaughter to his heart's content!

And so, in a rare moment of perfect agreement, the two began killing monsters separately.

As Shinji crossed a street, foul-smelling slime suddenly descended over his head.

Not far away, two cursed spirits with enormous heads and extremely scrawny bodies had their mouths wide open.

They had spat out the slime attack.

"Disgusting!"

The attack, which resembled thick phlegm, thoroughly revolted Shinji.

Without another moment's hesitation, he activated the Kubikiribōchō's [Cloak-Breaking Strike] and instantly vanished from where he stood.

Beheading. Execution!

Squelch!

One Big-Headed Monster Infant's head rolled straight to the ground.

Ignoring the system notification, Shinji raised his sword without hesitation and slashed at the other Big-Headed Monster Infant.