Light Novel – Zectas – Volume 01 – Chapter 05

River Monsters

In the vast world of Zectas, there were two famous people who were always talked about. As their videos have grabbed everyone’s attention.

One was the gallant and charismatic Paladin Lord Tristan. He became famous after he released his B level quests online.

The most famous one, was where he and his personal army of three-hundred NPCs took on a chain quest, that led him to one of the twelve legendary dragons, the Flame Ruby Dragon Valdurath.

He had mages, high wizards, snipers, hunters, rangers, assassins, clerics, high priests, and paladins. He had cornered Valdurath into a colossal cavern. There he personally led his army from the front lines and played the role of the main tank.

He donned an open face helmet, and wore a golden mithril armor and a white majestic cape. He was armed with a golden tower shield and a holy dragonslayer sword. He took on all the damage that Valdurath dished out. As attack spells and healing spells continued to fly around them.

If you saw this legendary fight you would have thought that it looked like he was soloing a gigantic dragon. This epic battle lasted 15 hours straight. Of course in the end, it was Tristan who gave the killing blow.

After that heroic deed he returned to the Kingdom of Thayotl (Eastern Kingdom). There he was rewarded with a title and a city. He became Baron Tristan, owner of Tonaci City. He was the first and only player throughout ZECTAS to have owned a city.

Tristan’s original party, from when he was still in the Kingdom of Chayotl (Western Kingdom) had broken apart. All that remained were Aurora the Arch Bishop and Bones the Shadow Phantom.

With his newly awarded title and city, Tristan decided to create a guild. The guild of DracoRicco, loosely translated it means ‘rich dragon’.

DracoRicco is headed by the three remaining members. Aurora is in charge of the recruitment, the finances, and the promotions of the guild. Where as Bones is in charge of the intelligence division. While Tristan is in charge of Aurora and Bones.

Their guild quickly became famous. Everyone wanted to join in. But they had such strict requirements and such an expensive admission fee of 10,000 zecs.

DracoRicco is considered to be the richest and most powerful guild. As such everyone talked about DracoRicco and of course its leader Tristan.

The second player who had caught everyone’s attention and was opposing Tristan’s popularity was none other than the mysterious super novice. Although he is called ‘the mysterious super novice’ because he wears the novice attire, everyone has assumed that he has a unique hidden job.

At first, he lured everyone’s attention by being a clown, everybody found his videos to be hilarious. He offered something fresh in the world of ZECTAS.

However, lately he started uploading some informative videos that were not found in any of the forums. His fifth video of using poison arrows and catching a whole army of lizard people with a fire trap gained a lot of popularity.

But it was his fourth video, that was most controversial. It had broken the record for the highest number of views.

It was about ‘how to gain poison resistance’. Before the only jobs that had access to poison resistance were enchantress and assassins. But his latest video proved that poison resistance can be gained outside of those two jobs.

That particular video also had the highest number of comments. Most of the comments from the video was about their failed attempts of gaining the much coveted poison resistance.

Nash loved his new life. He loved the attention that he got from the users. Especially when they tried to replicate his videos.

Nash’s character is a total enigma to them. He would read their failed attempts and their lamentations as they try to imitate what he did.

If Nash would have given them the exact location of Mandragora Forest then they could have easily followed his procedure. Fortunately for him, in the entire known parts of ZECTAS there was no known location of the fabled poison slime.

Knowledge is power and he had every intention of exhausting this advantage to its last worth. Gaining views was his only way of earning money at the moment.

Nash found it relaxing to read the comments section of his fourth video.

ZeusXMachina: I’m sure that it’s been stated that his videos are authentic and all but still can anyone confirm if they’ve gained the same poison resistance? ErcleX: How many hours do you think you have to be in a poisoned state in order to gain the resistance? I’m sure that he didn’t post the whole length of the video. He was sneaky enough to just show his status window and then the next scene showed that he had gained the poison resistance. SupahNovice-Disciple#12312312: Master please. Tell us the location of this forest… I’ve tried receiving the poison attack from an assassin and an enchantress but their poison damage is too high. It would surely kill me if I don’t use detox. Please please please tell me where the poison slimes are?! DetectiveRonan: To my knowledge most poisonous monsters are located in the northern Kingdom of Mictaztl. The forest there is also similar to the western kingdom. I remember that someone pointed out that the ‘super novice’ was located in the western kingdom so this could be a clue. FastInFastOut: I tried getting poisoned from the trap salamander, since their poison is lesser than from the assassins but in order to counter the poison damage I had to hire 4 priests. They were charging me 1,000 zecs per hour. I spent a total of 250,000 zecs but even after all that I didn’t gain the poison resistance stat. I mean Who has that kind of money? PentaKillar: Well who needs poison resistance anyway? I mean we’ve managed just fine when we use the detox ability from the priests and the detox pills. So why all the fuss for the poison resistance? AssInUrDead: Well I wouldn’t recommend gaining the poison resistance attribute. I’ll miss the fun times when I see a person not carrying detox. Let’s all drop this stupid attempt and go back to regular gaming. Hunt4RedOctober: As an assassin I bet you wouldn’t let other players gain the poison resistance attribute. That’s like losing all the hard work you gave into leveling up your poison strike. Dark_AvEngER: Still at least he showed us that you could get the poison resistance. If I were in his shoes I’d do the same. I would hog all that knowledge for myself. Well maybe I could share to some of my close friends and other guild members. PurrFex: Meow! TriTank: I know of a guild who has gained the poison resistance. Of course I would expect nothing less from such an amazing guild.

Nash knew that once he gave out his secrets, the users would drop him like yesterday’s news. He needs to keep them guessing. That was the allure of his videos and he has no intention of losing that.

It’s been three weeks since he broke the highest number of views and his manager still hasn’t called him. He felt that it would be too forward to call him. After all their scheduled meeting wasn’t for another 2 days.

He finally got the text telling him to go to the office for his check. He took a cab instead of a bus. He felt that with his new income he should indulge himself a little.

When he got to the game center he walked out calmly of the cab. He was trying to be cool, as to not reveal his anticipation in finding out his bonus. He knocked on the manager’s door.

“Nash come in, come in. Please have a seat. I’ve given up on telling you to come to just enter immediately.”

“Thank you sir. It’s just a force of habit I guess.”

“Well no matter anyway. How are things? How are Seth, Donny and your grandma Daphne?”

“They’re great sir. Mima Daphne is regaining some of her strength back and my two brothers are both doing well in school.”

“Good to hear that. So I bet you want to get down to business right? First let me tell you that I couldn’t be prouder. I knew that you’d do great in ZECTAS. Are you thoroughly enjoying the game? Silly me, what am I saying? Of course you are.”

“Yes sir! I haven’t been this happy in such a long time. When my parents died and then mima got sick, I was afraid that I couldn’t provide for my brothers. But now, I think that I can afford to send my brothers to any college that they want.”

“Nash you truly deserve this. Just remember to keep your head on the ground and keep on doing the great things that you are doing.”

“Of course sir. I plan to do just that.”

The manager of the game center smiled and gladly gave him a check for $50,000.00. Nash was overwhelmed, that was more than double the amount that he got on his first video.

“Wow! This is so much. Thank you sir. Just thank you so much!”

On his way home. His head was filled with thoughts of paying all their loans, buying a car, buying a house. That check could serve as a down payment to a cozy house. They would no longer be cramped inside their one bedroom apartment.

Nash was currently living in a one bedroom apartment. He just converted it himself, into a three bedroom apartment. He only used some leftover materials from the construction site.

Seth and Donny would get their own room. Maybe they could even go on a vacation. Now that his mima was feeling better. On the way home Nash was smiling the whole time, he felt like he was walking on clouds.

Before going home, Nash took a detour to the supermarket. He had planned on making a luxurious dinner. He was in the seafood section picking out crabs when he saw a smiling face. It was the cook at the diner that he used to work in.

“Hey Nash. How are you? My uncle told me that you’re so busy, you don’t even come by the diner anymore. Well I guess since you’re some kind of celebrity now, with all those views from ZECTAS. That you no longer want to mingle with us commoners.”

“Hey, I’m really sorry that I haven’t visited you there lately. It’s just that I’ve been absorbed with playing ZECTAS. Don’t worry I’ll make sure to visit you there within this week.”

“Nah. Don’t bother. I also stopped working there myself. I told my uncle that I wanted to try something new.”

“Oh really? When did you stop working there and what are you up to now then?”

“Ahhh well, just about a week after you left. It kind of got boring with just my uncle and myself there. He also hired a proper cook this time. So maybe he will get some increased customers with the new flavor.”

“But your cooking is really delicious. I think he just might lose some customers now. So really what are you doing now, that you’ve left the diner?”

“Just hanging around the house most of the time. Tell me, you’re still in Chayotl Kingdom now right?”

“Yeah I’m somewhere in that Kingdom. Why do you ask?”

“Just curious, that’s all. Well I gotta run. See you around Nash.”

“Right. You take care then.”

Nash wasn’t sure of their conversation just now but decide to forget about it. He was still ‘high’ with his recent influx of cash.

Smoke opened his eyes to the entrance of Mandragora Forest. He loaned the Heart of ReenTe to Adder and told him to hunt for poison slimes. Adder’s passive ability self heal plus the regen from the Heart of ReenTe compensated the poison damage from the poison slimes.

Smoke and Adder left Condortl Village, after they helped rebuild it from its ruins. On the way back they took a detour to Mandragora Forest. Everyone was trying to look for this place, Smoke enjoyed knowing that he was the only player that knew of its exact location.

He was also running out of poison pellets, so having Adder gain poison resistance and gather poison pellets was perfect. He estimated that Adder should gain the poison resistance within the next few minutes.

Adder is a very diligent NPC. He barely got any experience from the poison slimes but continued on his given mission. He had gathered 7,214 poison pellets and had gained the poison resistance attribute.

Once their self given side quest in Mandragora Forest was over. They headed immediately towards Nanahuatl Village.

The familiar borders of Nanahuatl came into view. As it so happened, Darius was near the village entrance and greeted them.

“Darius I’m back, and I’d like you to meet Adder. He is a noble warrior from Condortl.”

“It is an honor to meet you Master Darius. The legendary tales of Master Darius ‘Master of the Water Dragon’ has been spoken in Condortl Village very often.”

“Ohh Hoooo. I didn’t expect you to know my old nickname. I haven’t been called that in ages.”

“What was that? ‘Master of the Water Dragon’? Are you some kind of beastmaster or something?”

“Of course not. It’s just a name given to me, due to one of my abilities. Well to be honest that is my strongest ability so I guess that’s why I got that name.”

“Good. I was afraid you would’ve answered yes. I think that being a beastmaster wouldn’t fit me. So what kind of ability is this Water Dragon?”

“It’s a very useful ability. It can attack your enemies and heal your allies at the same time. It does consume an insane amount of mana but its after effects are more than worth it.”

“Can you show it to me?”

“Hahaha, nice try. You just want me to show you the ability so you’d get some kind of clue on what kind of job I have. Patience Smoke, once you’ve completed the quest I’ll show you that ability.”

“Well I do only have to get one more family token, after I get the family tokens from James and Howard.”

“Right so you better head on there.”

Smoke and Adder headed towards the house with the door embedded with a needle and a string. Almost all the members of the clans, Jackal and Hide were gathered inside the house. Once they heard that news that Smoke had returned, they had been waiting for them.

“Howard, James, this is Abaven Adder he is like you two. He is a warrior from Condortl.”

James and Howard had teary eyes. Seeing Adder confirmed their hopes to be true. Smoke has freed their village. It took more than 50 years but finally their people was free.

“Hello Adder, my name is James Jackal. I’m glad to see you here. How is everyone back in Condortl?”

“Everyone is doing great. With Smoke’s help we’ve rebuilt the village. Also I have this is from the current village chief Eldmar. Please take this as a symbol of our gratitude for devising a thorough plan and sending Smoke to free us.”

Adder gave James and Howard two leather armbands embroidered with a golden griffon. This was the symbol of a  griffon commander in the Condortl army.

James and Howard clasped the leather armbands. Each of them couldn’t believe what they were holding. When they were still children they had aspired to be Griffon Commanders of Condortl.

“Thank you Adder. This is amazing, we didn’t expect any sort of reward. We just wanted our people to be free.”

Smoke and Adder clapped their hands loudly, in recognition to the great contributions that the two gave in freeing Condortl Village. In all this time they never gave up. It was because of their persistence that Condortl Village is now free.

“Well now that we’ve had our rewards. It is time that we gave Smoke his.”

+ Completed Quest: Liberate Condortl Village  You have freed the village of Condortl and have informed James Jackal and Howard Hide of their freedom. James and Howard can now have some peace of mind, knowing that their people are free.  Rewards:  * Hide Family Token  * Jackal Family Token  * 100,000 exp

Howard took out a small wooden figurine of a pile of hides, one on top of another. It looked like a small tower of hides. While James took out a small wooden figurine of a needle and thread. Both of them handed it to Smoke.

Both Howard and James spoke at the same time saying.

“With this, we officially recognize Smoke as the new clan head of our families.”

Except for Adder, everyone in the room bowed down before Smoke as a symbol of their allegiance.

+ Received Hide’s family token
+ Received Jackals’ family token

+ Family Tokens of the Jackals and Hides You have completed the long time quest of the previous clan heads James Jackal & Howard Hide. As the everyone in the clan new of their story, they understand the heroic deed that you have accomplished. Family Tokens Count: (4/5)

+ Intimacy with the Jackals & the Hides has risen to ‘Blood Brothers’       For your heroic actions in freeing the village of Condortl,       the home village of their previous clan head.       The Jackals & Hides will now follow your will as their new Clan Head.

“Thank you everyone. I swear to be an honorable and just clan head to all.”

Finally just one more family token and the long coveted ‘Hidden Basic Job of Nanahuatl Village’ will be his. Smoke couldn’t wait. He took Adder with him immediately to Peitro Fischer’s house.

Peitro welcomed him with open arms. Smoke was glad that he didn’t act like James when he was asking for their family tokens before. Peitro was friendly as always.

“Welcome Smoke, welcome, I’m so happy to hear that you’ve freed the village of Condortl. I was still a child when they were gathering for a party to free that village. I would have loved to help. But seeing as my fighting ability is lacking I don’t think I could have done much.”

“Hi Peitro how are you?, by the way this is Adder. He is a former resident of Condortl and now he has joined me to be a part of my private army. I say army but Adder is the only one at the moment.”

“You have a private army now? That’s amazing! Well then Adder you have to be pretty reliable if you are to be an army of one. Hahahaha. Anyway let’s get right to it. You guys are here for my family token right?”

“Yes we are Peitro, I humbly ask for your family token and once I have it, I swear to be fair and just as your new clan head.”

“Well you’re pretty sure of yourself that you will become our clan head already huh? I like that! Hahahaha. Normally I would’ve given you the family token. After all you have already saved this village. If only those pesky river monsters weren’t in the way towards the open sea.”

“River monsters? Just what kind of monsters are we talking about?”

“I should have said Sea Monsters to be precise, but those pesky murlocks have made a settlement near the mouth of the river. They attack any kind of vessel that passes their way. Because of them my family and I can’t fish in the sea. The fish that we’ve caught in the fishing weirs are plenty. But we are a clan of fishermen, being out in the open sea is our way of life.”

“I see. No wonder you find these murlocks to be such pests. Just what do this murlocks look like? Do you also happen to know their abilities?”

“They are scaly humanoid looking people. They have gills in their heads and fins on top. They also have webbed hands and feet. They mostly come in the shade of blue or green. Depending on the color of the water that they’re staying in.”

“When you said murlocks I instantly thought that they would look like slime humanoids.”

“No, I don’t think they are related to slimes. However the females of the murlocks have gained the siren’s song ability, that ability makes you think that they are beautiful. Too beautiful that you will be put in a daze. In this stunned state, their men kill you and then they eat you.”

Smoke grimaced as he pictured out such a horrific scene.

“That sounds terrible. So do you have any advice on how to deal with those monsters?”

“I’m not absolutely sure but perhaps plugging your ears will help deal with the siren’s song. Aside from that I guess you could fight them in shallow waters, so that they can’t try to drown you.”

“Yeah, that’s some pretty sound advice.”

“So will you do it? Will kill those river monsters for me?”

+ Quest: Wipe out the River Monsters     Monster Hunting Quest     Level: D     Clear the river ways towards the open sea by killing of all the murlocks attacking everyone in the river.     Accept the Quest? [YES/NO]

“Yes. I’ll make sure that you and your clan can get back into the waters of the open sea once more.”

“Hahahaha! Thank you so much Smoke. I knew I could count on you. Here let me point it out in your map.”

After receiving the quest from Peitro, Smoke and Adder headed towards Darius’ house to prepare for their trip. Once inside they were greeted by a gathering of hunters.

Four hunters to be exact. Darius was talking to them when Smoke and Adder came in. Immediately the four hunters stood up and bowed down before Smoke.

Smoke recognized them as Sharanga, Ichaival, Vijaya, and Thyrsus. The former jobless youths of Nanahuatl Village. They were sent to Coatl City to become archers. However they’ve returned not as archers but as Hunters.

He was happy for them, yet somehow he also felt a bit jealous. True, it did take him a while to liberate Condortl Village. But still in that time span these youths have managed to turn into Archers and then leveled up into Hunters.

“Wow! I’m impressed. I knew that you’d turn into Archers easily but I didn’t think that when I get back here you will greet me as Hunters.”

Thyrsus a young blond man that appeared to be in his early 20’s, spoke in behalf of his other fellow Hunters.

“Thank you for your kind words Master Smoke. It was your heroic deed that served as our guiding light. The four us wanted to return to you as soon as possible, so we chose the known path of a Hunter.”

“Return to me? I didn’t know that we had made some kind of promise?”

This time it was Vijaya, the young wood elf girl who spoke out.

“No Master Smoke, we didn’t have have any kind of promise. But the eight of us who were trained by Master Darius, have planned from the start to join your private army as soon as we took the advance job from being an Archer.”

“Yes Smoke. It was their sincerity of serving under you that moved my heart to train them. I originally wanted to join your private army as well. But there are some circumstances that forbid me from leaving the vicinity of Nanahuatl Village. Using one of the slots of your private army on someone who can’t join you in your quests would be such a waste.”

“Ahh I see. That’s really disappointing to hear. I was really looking forward to have you join us, to have Darius in our army would have been amazing. I just recently learned about ‘private armies’ during my quest in Condortl. That reminds me. Sharanga, Ichaival, Vijaya, and Thyrsus I would like you to meet Adder. He is a warrior from Condortl and the first member of our private army.”

Adder stood at attention and bowed down before the gathering of Hunters.

“It is an honor to meet you all. The students of Master Darius are guaranteed to be exemplary individuals.”

“It is an honor to meet you as well sir Adder. Let me introduce myself first. I’m Vijaya Sundara elder sister of Sharanga.”

“I’m Sharanga Sundara. Although Vijaya likes to refer to her self as my older sister, the reality is we are actually fraternal twins. It is still in dispute as to who really is older.”

“I am Ichaival Jackal. I am the son of James Jackal the village tailor. In that aspect we are somewhat related sir Adder.”

“And I am called Thyrsus Fischer. As you may have guessed Peitro is my father.”

Darius then clapped his hand loudly to gain everyone’s attention.

“Good. Now that everyone has been introduced, let us commence to the reason why you four have become Hunters. Smoke as the first teacher of these dedicated individuals. I would like to recommend them, to be a part of your private army.”

“It is my honor and privilege to accept all of you into ‘our’ private army. I may still be lacking in leadership but together we will grow through experiences and steadily turn into this world’s most powerful army.”

+ Sharanga Sundara has joined your Personal Army  Sharanga Sundara is one of Darius’ students. She is one of the eight teens who stepped forward as they were moved by the heroic actions of Smoke.  Level: 58  Job: Hunter  Loyalty: 100  Favorite Weapon: Hunter’s Bow  Equipped Weapon: Hunter’s Bow  Abilities:  Cooking Ability: Ability to cook simple meals.  Animal Trap: Able to set simple animal traps  Disable Trap: Able to remove and disable traps  Falcon Mastery: Able to control pet falcon  Scourge of the Beast: 15% Increased damage against monsters of the beast type. ———————————————————————————— + Vijaya Sundara has joined your Personal Army  Vijaya Sundara is one of Darius’ students. She is one of the eight teens who stepped forward as they were moved by the heroic actions of Smoke.  Level: 58  Job: Hunter  Loyalty: 100  Favorite Weapon: Hunter’s Bow  Equipped Weapon: Hunter’s Bow  Abilities:  Cooking Ability: Ability to cook simple meals.  Falcon Mastery: Able to control pet falcon  Steel Falcon: Able to transform pet falcon into steel causing more damage.  Scourge of the Beast: 15% Increased damage against monsters of the beast type. ———————————————————————————— + Ichaival Jackal has joined your Personal Army  Ichaival Jackal is one of Darius’ students. He is one of the eight teens who stepped forward as they were moved by the heroic actions of Smoke.  Level: 59  Job: Hunter  Loyalty: 100  Favorite Weapon: Hunter’s Bow  Equipped Weapon: Hunter’s Bow  Abilities:  Cooking Ability: Ability to cook simple meals.  Phantom Arrows: Able to magically increase released arrows by 3  Falcon Mastery: Able to control pet falcon  Scourge of the Beast: 15% Increased damage against monsters of the beast type. ———————————————————————————— + Thyrsus Fischer has joined your Personal Army  Thyrsus Fischer is one of Darius’ students. He is one of the eight teens who stepped forward as they were moved by the heroic actions of Smoke.  Level: 59  Job: Hunter  Loyalty: 100  Favorite Weapon: Hunter’s Bow  Equipped Weapon: Hunter’s Bow  Abilities:  Cooking Ability: Ability to cook simple meals.  Falcon Mastery: Able to control pet falcon  Falcon Vision: Able to share the vision of the pet falcon.  Scourge of the Beast: 15% Increased damage against monsters of the beast type.

Smoke had no time to read all of the system notifications as they started to flood his view. He just assumed that it contained information similar to when Adder joined his private army.

Everyone cheered. All of them have been accepted into their hero’s army. Although they were a bit taken aback when they heard that their small private army would become the world’s strongest. In the back of the young Hunters’ minds was doubt but since Smoke is their leader there maybe some chance of that happening.

Smoke now has a private army of 5. However the first thing that Smoke orders his Hunters to do, was to go to Mandragora Forest in order to learn the poison resistance ability.

He went outside to the archery grounds and showed them the reason why he is sending them there. He took out a poison pellet and swallowed it. He showed them that he was now immune to that level of poison, but he didn’t stop there.

He took another poison pellet and squashed it and then threw it into his quiver of arrows. The arrow that Smoke had taken out from the quiver has turned into a poison arrow.

After seeing such a feat. The four Hunter’s admiration for Smoke grew even more. They now considered him almost like a god. They would surely follow his commands no matter what they were.

Next Smoke asked them if they knew how to cook. All of them said yes. Since Darius already taught them before in order to help feed the sick and the hungry.

Smoke was pleased to hear that they already had the cooking ability. He was about to show them another recipe, the ‘medical deer stew+’. When suddenly a rain of rabbit meat fell on them from the sky.

“What is this? What’s going on here? Why are there so many falling rabbit meat?”

Five falcons were flying up above and each one carrying dozens of horned rabbit meat. Thyrsus quickly apologized and commanded his falcon to perch onto his shoulders. The rest of the Hunters immediately followed his lead.

“I’m sorry Master Smoke. We forgot to tell our falcons to drop them properly into the container bin.”

“Falcons? You guys have pets falcons? And I told you to drop that Master bit.”

“Yes Master Smoke. ahh I mean Smoke. It is one of the prerequisites in becoming a Hunter. You must form a bond with an almost grown up falcon. Imprinting from when they hatch is the conventional method of gaining a pet but for us Hunters we take on a different route.”

“Thank you for that explanation Vijaya. So how long did it take you guys to form the special bond with the falcons?”

“Well they would put you inside this huge cage with many young falcons hiding inside their nests. If one of the falcons decide to go near you. Then you will be officially recognized as a Hunter. Thyrsus took the longest time to get a falcon go near him.”

“The only reason why the rest of you got shorter times was because you followed what I did. Who would have known that your suppose to call out your falcon’s name even before you met them.”

Smoke was amazed to hear the process of becoming a Hunter. He was intensely listening and understood how difficult it must have been to think of the falcon’s name.

“Yeah, that sounds really hard. So how did you know your falcon’s name. Or rather what did you name your falcon?”

“Naturally I gave my falcon a name that means gallant, brave, heroic and handsome. I called my falcon Thyr!”

“What?! Don’t tell me the rest of you named your falcons after your own names?”

“Well after we called out our respective names the falcons immediately went down to perch on our shoulders.”

“Anyway I’m impressed that your falcons can manage to hunt horned rabbits on their own.”

“Of course! Our falcons are all above level 40 and most of us are almost level 60 as well.”

Smoke couldn’t believe his ears. He has a lower level compared to everyone in his private army. Well in a way that’s still a good thing. It just means that he has gathered some dependable members.

“Good. That’s good to hear. So let me go back to my demonstration before I was covered in rabbit meat.”

He proceeded to show them how to make the ‘medicinal deer stew+’. Since they needed this in order to overcome the poison damage from the poison slimes. He told them the number of hours they needed to stay in the poison state in order to gain the poison resistance attribute.

“Darius already taught you how to make fire arrows right? Then all you’re lacking is the ember stone. Well then I’m gonna loan it to you guys. During your time in Mandragora Forest I want you to collect as much poison pellets as you can as well as the front legs from the orchid mantis.”

The four left for Mandragora Forest in high spirits. Excited to gain the poison resistance attribute as well as the ability to use the poison arrows.

After they were done with their own required preparations. Smoke and Adder headed for the mouth of ‘Murray River’. In order to clear the waterways into the open seas.

The Murray River is a very wide and very deep river. On an average it is around 3 kilometers wide but the widest part is at 8 kilometers. The fishing weir that Darius and Smoke constructed was on one of the wider parts of the river. Although there are some parts of the river that are shallow.

James Jackal have given them ‘specialized earmuffs’. These specially made earmuffs offered no defense whatsoever. However it did drown out all external sounds. Smoke had planned to use this against the murlocks stolen ability ‘song of the siren’.

Once they tried out the earmuffs, they found themselves in total silence. Smoke immediately recognized the great disadvantage of losing the ability to communicate.

He knew that he should train with Adder in using hand signals. He thought about imitating the military special forces in the real world.

Traveling along the trees in the riverbanks, they encountered some gigantic powersaw crickets. These powersaw crickets were about 3 feet tall and 5 feet in length. Smoke had felt their presence with his ability ‘Cunning of the Dire Fox’. He thought that this would be a great opportunity to try their practiced hand signals.

Smoke formed a fist calling for Adder to stop, next he used two fingers to point out the directions of the powersaw crickets. Lastly he motioned for Adder to head towards the enemy on right, indicating that they take out that enemy first.

Adder promptly complied. Leaping with his mantis blade he struck the powersaw cricket from above. After the first hit they immediately felt strong vibrations all over their body. The rest of the power saw crickets must have been alerted.

The struck powersaw cricket indicated a life bar of (9,112/12,000). It was desperately rubbing both of its hind legs together. This must have been the signal that alerted the rest of the powersaw crickets. Since they were using the earmuffs they couldn’t hear a thing.

Smoke went to the side of the powersaw cricket and began hitting it with his poison arrows. Adder’s damage was around 2,500 and Smoke’s damage was around 1800. It only took them a couple of seconds to deal with their first powersaw cricket.

+ Your party has dealt a fatal blow to the powersaw cricket.
+ Your party has killed the powersaw cricket.
+ Your party has gained 5,000 exp.

While gathering the loot. Smoke was back attacked for a damage of 200pts. The powersaw crickets had thorns on their hind legs and they would use this as their projectile weapon.

The ‘Cunning of the Dire Fox’ didn’t detect the projectile attacks of his enemies. Smoke didn’t know about this handicap. When he was fighting with the Tree Ent ‘ReenTe’ he was able to feel the presence of its whips. Although whips have a long range they are still considered as a melee weapon.

This was a great disadvantage of ‘Cunning of the Dire Fox’. He signaled for Adder to retreat from the powersaw crickets. They kept on getting hit since their backs were exposed as they ran.

They finally reached the plains and still had more than 40% of their total HP. Smoke and Adder removed their earmuffs so they could discuss what had happened. As they removed their earmuffs they immediately heard the loud sounds coming from the powersaw crickets.

“Are those sounds coming from the powersaw crickets?”

“Aye, I think they are. No wonder we felt our skins vibrating.”

“Yup. If we didn’t have our earmuffs on. We would be deaf by now. So I just discovered that my detection ability ‘Cunning of the Dire Fox’ cannot sense projectile attacks. With that said, we should make sure that all our enemies are in the front. This way we can at least see the projectile attacks and somehow dodge them.”

“Smoke, you want us to go back and hunt the powersaw crickets?”

“I think they’ll make some pretty good practice for our silent attack pattern.”

“I see, since they also have some form of sound attack. They will serve as a dummy murlock.”

After regaining their health and eating some medicinal deer stew, the two of them headed back into the territory of the powersaw crickets.

This time Smoke made sure that they wouldn’t be surrounded. They efficiently took down and looted each powersaw cricket.

Their target powersaw cricket would make a sound indicating their location and after a few seconds rain of thorns would come their way.

Smoke and Adder had learned the powersaw cricket’s attack pattern. They would immediately hide behind some trees or some rocks.

The duo moved slowly and carefully until they had killed the powersaw crickets in the vicinity.

Sensing that there were no more powersaw crickets. Smoke signaled Adder to remove his ear muffs. They were to make camp and rest for a while before proceeding.

With their health fully recovered. They proceeded once more towards the mouth of Murray River. They were about 40 kilometers away from their destination when Smoke sensed an army of powersaw crickets heading their way.

He immediately signaled Adder to stop and locate an advantageous position. In the event where their enemy would rush them from the front. Adder was to play the role of tank, while Smoke sniped the enemies from the back.

They waited for the army of powersaw crickets to come but Smoke sensed that they were slowly declining in number. He then felt another presence of some unknown monster mixed into the army of powersaw crickets.

They slowly moved towards the direction of the unknown monster. It was a thorny devil lizard. It’s about 5 feet tall and at least had a length of 8 feet. The thorny devil lizard was covered in hard thorny armor.

The thorny devil lizard were devouring the powersaw crickets. The powersaw crickets would try to use their thorn attacks but it looks like the armor of the thorny devil lizard withstood the thorn’s damage.

There were about 60 thorny devil lizards. Smoke targeted the one furthest away from its pack. Using the same attack pattern. Adder leapt and managed to do a critical strike and a back attack on the thorny devil lizard.

The thorny devil lizard’s life bar indicated to be (21,512/24,000). It quickly tried to take a snap at Adder but somehow he managed to position himself safely behind the thorny devil lizard’s back.

Smoke took notice that the armor did not cover the lizards neck. He proficiently launched his volley of arrows as the lizard continued to snap at Adder.

The thorny devil lizard was confused with the two pronged attack. The duo managed to kill the monster in under 3 minutes.

+ Your party has dealt a fatal blow to the thorny devil lizard.
+ Your party has killed the thorny devil lizard.
+ Your party has gained 10,000 exp.

Smoke and Adder could stand their ground against one of these monsters. But not against a pack, Smoke understood this and decided to take a detour away from the pack of thorny devil lizards.

They continued on towards the mouth of Murray River without much incident. They journeyed slowly, relying on Smoke’s ‘Cunning of the Dire Fox’ to detect any monsters.

After traveling for about 4 hours, Smoke felt the presence of a lone thorny devil lizard. Thinking that this was free experience, they silently stalked it.

The thorny devil lizard went near the edge of the river to drink some water. Adder was about to leap behind it. When Smoke grabbed him and and just barely managed to stop him from jumping. Just a split second before Adder would have jumped, a gigantic black alligator snapping turtle came out and ate the thorny devil lizard.

Smoke didn’t feel the presence of the giant snapping turtle, until the last moment when it emerged out of the water. It had completely blended into the river leaving no signs of any killing intent. After swallowing the thorny devil lizard whole, it submerged into the river without a trace.

The two stood their ground in disbelief. There was another undetectable monster in the Murray River. From a safe distance, Smoke took the time to study the part of the river where the gigantic alligator snapping turtle came out from.

He noticed that the part of the river was really dark. He concluded that gigantic alligator snapping turtle had dug a hole and was only waiting for prey that would come near its hole.

Feeling confident with his theory. Smoke presumed that if they would just notice those holes then they would be safe from the gigantic alligator snapping turtle.

They continued on with caution, careful to take notice of all their surroundings. After a total of 40 days, they finally reached their destination.

An army of around 500 murlocks were out in the open. With great fortune the army was in shallow waters. Equipped with the earmuffs and the enemies in shallow waters, it was the perfect scenario to wipe out the murlocks.

Smoke signaled for Adder to proceed, while he starts shooting from behind and slowly move forward. The murlocks were shocked at the rain of arrows that arrived out of nowhere.

In the direction of the volley of arrows, ran a lone warrior who was charging at them. They quickly regrouped. The females of the murlocks immediately activated their ability ‘song of the siren’ and the males headed towards the warrior.

The murlocks expected the warrior to stop running. However the warrior only continued on and started slashing the murlocks that came his way. The murlocks did not notice that they have been poisoned. The murlocks that were nearing the warrior were also especially targeted with arrows.

The murlocks were confused. Normally their enemies wouldn’t stand a chance. The murlocks had experienced a range attack before but once their females sang, it was suppose to mean an assured victory for the murlocks.

Smoke had this all planned out. On his first attack he would spread out his arrow attacks inflicting poison damage on all of the enemies. After that he would target the enemy nearest to Adder, leaving only enough HP to last one more hit from Adder’s mantis blade.

Surprisingly the murlocks only had a little more life than the powersaw crickets. Once Smoke did a focus attack on an incoming murlock, its life bar would only indicate (2,131/14,000). Just enough for Adder’s 2,200 damage.

Everything was going according to Smoke’s calculation. The murlocks in the back realized that they were gonna die if they continued on fighting. Desperately they tried to escape to the deep waters but their path to escape was blocked by Smoke and Adder.

All the murlocks could do was run. After running for about 3km they saw a waterfall, the murlocks ran into the waterfall. Smoke saw that the murlocks were retreating into it.

There were only about 200 murlocks left, as the escaping murlocks were all shot down by Smoke’s poison arrows. Smoke could already feel the last family token in his hands.

Adder stopped before the entrance of the cave hidden behind the waterfall. He waited for Smoke’s instructions. Smoke signaled him to proceed carefully and to stick close to him. Smoke’s ‘Cunning of the Dire Fox’ has a range of 220 meters.

The pathway from the entrance of the cave was long and narrow. It took about 10 minutes until they reached a cavernous space. The underground cavity looked like a huge spherical chamber of about 3 Kilometers in diameter. There were some small cracks from the ground above that allowed some sunlight to illuminate the cavern.

The two of them were at the upper part of the cavern. At the bottom there was a lake with a dangerous looking whirlpool. Smoke couldn’t sense any enemies nearby but he saw some of murlocks besides the lake.

They saw some sort of path leading downwards. Adder took the lead while Smoke readied his bow. They covertly reached the bottom of the chamber.

The murlocks showed no signs that they sensed Smoke and Adder’s presence. They were huddled near the front of the lake.

Smoke immediately did the same attack pattern. He targeted all of them with his poison arrows. Seeing the arrows fly, Adder dashed forward to slaughter the murlocks.

They were down to their last twenty murlocks when a series of water balls and a glacial spike attacked them from behind. Smoke and Adder reflexively turned their heads towards the direction of the attacks.

Behind them was a conclave of murlocks and water lamias. The monsters had been hiding from the hundreds of hidden chambers within the enormous cavern. The water ball attacks came from the water lamias and the glacial spike came from the water lamia boss. A dark blue water lamia that was about two meters tall.

Their numbers could easily reach a thousand. Smoke was stunned, he realized that they had been lured into a trap. He tried to rack his brain to come up with a way to come out of this alive.

Smoke’s brain was trying its best to think of a solution, when his ability ‘Cunning of the Dire Fox’ indicated that a group of murlocks were rushing towards Adder. He drew his bow and targeted all of them with the intention to kill each one of them.
With Smoke’s back against the conclave of water lamias and murlocks. The monsters launched their magical water attacks against Smoke.

Adder tried to signal Smoke that he was being targeted but without the ability to communicate he only managed to serve as a shield for Smoke and took on the onslaught of water balls.

Smoke knew that if he died he would only lose a level. Then after twenty-four hours, he would respawn again in Nanahuatl Village. However he didn’t know what would happen to Adder in the event of his death. Scared of the unknown, Smoke tried his best to protect Adder’s life.

Adder being a loyal warrior to Smoke, defended him without the fear of death. The water lamias were holding their ground. Relying on their ranged magical attacks. Since he was without a shield, Adder desperately tried to slash all of the incoming water balls.

Smoke finally managed to defeat all of the murlocks near the lake. As he turned to face Adder’s side, he saw an incoming glacial spike towards him. It was clearly aimed for a fatal strike.

In the next split second he saw Adder’s left arm try to block the glacial spike, hoping that it would somehow change its trajectory. The glacial spike cleanly severed Adder’s left arm. Adder fell down backwards, and tumbled towards Smoke.

Smoke felt his adrenaline rush. He saw that Adder’s life bar was only (20,974/79,504 HP).  As he was out of ideas on what to do next. He instinctively picked up Adder and carried him on his back. He ran towards the whirlpool in lake.

He ran with all his might. Never looking back at the incoming magical attacks. Smoke with Adder on his back, gambled on the deadly looking whirlpool and dove into it.

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