Jack turned but didn't manage to dodge. A shadow went past him as he felt an impact that pushed him back. He suffered 42 damage at the same time. He glanced down and saw a claw mark on his scale armor, then looked at the creature that had attacked him. It looked like a large cat with pointy ears that pointed skyward. Its fur was grey and there were two tusks protruding out from its mouth. He inspected it with his God-eye monocle.

Grey Sabrecat (Basic monster, Beast), level 13

HP: 1500

Yep, it was his target, the Grey Sabrecat, all right.

The Grey Sabrecat, seeing that its prey was still fine, dashed forward and made another lunge at Jack. Jack took out his sword and magic staff. He put his Magic Shield at the sabrecat's way, who slammed onto the shield with force. But Jack was rock steady, the cat fell to the ground with disorientation after the slam. Jack took the opportunity to send a Power Strike to the agile cat's neck. It received critical damage and suffered 275 damage.

He sent another two slashes while it was still reeling. Jack was about to slash another time but it suddenly jumped away. It then sprinted around Jack with incredible speed. Jack waited for it to make its move. When it disappeared from his sight, Jack looked at his radar, it was coming from behind. Jack immediately spun around and used Swing. The affected area of Swing was large so accuracy was not really an issue. The Swing cut through the beast's body while his claw scratched Jack's head.

They both received damage, but it's a good thing Jack had worn a helmet now, so he did not receive critical damage as he often did when receiving blows to the head.

The Sabrecat tried to put a distance again after attacking. Jack didn't give him the chance again to run around like before as he cast Energy Bolts. Five Magical bolts flew toward the sabrecat from different directions, sealing its path of escape. Jack used Charge to get close to it while it was trapped by the Energy Bolts, and then delivered a couple more slashes before the bolts exploded on its body.

The Grey Sabrecat was fast, but Jack completely outclassed it in terms of offense and defense. His speed was not too much off as well, hence he could still keep up with the sabrecat burst movements. After a couple more clashes, the cat fell to the ground and disintegrated, leaving behind some coins and a claw. It was its trophy item.

Jack stored the loots and continued through the woods while harvesting Green Leaf, but this time, he paid more attention to his radar.

He saw another red dot approaching. He didn't hear any sound at all until the dot was closed, then he heard a similar growl. He turned as another Grey Sabrecat lunged at him.

The Sabrecat's legs didn't make any sound at all. It was a silent killer type. Without the radar, he would not know of the Sabrecat's approach until it's too late. Its first strike damage was also exceptionally high, if not for his high stats and rare armor, Jack would have suffered more damage. The cat's subsequent damages were less impressive. As long as he evaded its first strike and coped with its speed, the sabrecat wasn't much of a menace.

He continued to trod through the woods while hunting the Grey Sabrecat and foraging leaves. Apart from Green Leaf, he also received Red Leaf, but the latter was much less despite both were common ingredients.

After around two hours roaming inside the woods, he had finally killed thirty Grey Sabrecats for his hunting quest.

He was lost for direction at first, he was about to use his map system to go back to where he entered the woods from before Peniel pointed to him the way to Thenias mountain. He followed her direction and came out of the woods. He could saw the mountain was already not too far away. The sun at the moment was about to set.

He picked up the pace. He still had five more hunting quests to complete. He did not think he could finish them all before they entered the dungeon tomorrow morning. He might need to continue on the hunting quests again after he was done with the dungeon.

As he got nearer to the base of the mountain, he met and confronted two teams of Lizardmen. Both teams consisted of two lizardmen. Peniel was right, they were much weaker, despite them having the same level as the Lizardman Blood Guard he fought before.

The lizardmen here wielded spear as their weapons, and their scales were green in color, different from the red color scale of the Lizardman Blood Guard. Their strength and speed were decent, and could only deal melee damage. Nothing special to take note of, Jack thought after disposing of the lizardmen.

He continued forward and saw some structures up ahead.

"What's that?" He asked Peniel.

Peniel floated higher to take a look. She soon came back down and told Jack in an urgent voice, "let's take a roundabout route."

"Why?" Jack was confused.

"That is a monster settlement," she said.

"A settlement?"

"Yes, sometimes an encampment, nest, or lair might appear when a group of monsters of the same type comes together. In this case, it was a lizardman encampment."

"Lizardman? Then why should we avoid it? I'm looking for more of them, I should go there to slay some instead."

Peniel was rolling her eyes at him. "I will forgive you as you don't know. So I will explain it to you now. When you kill a monster in the field, the nearby monsters will be oblivious unless you are within their range of perception. However, if you kill a monster inside or near a monster settlement, all the monsters in the settlement will come swarming at you. Do you think you can win fighting against one hundred Lizardmen at the same time?"

Jack went pale at the thought.

"Not to mention that there will always a boss in a settlement. So apart from dealing with a huge number of monsters, you will also be dealing with a stronger version of the monster. Unless you are attacking the settlement with a large party, you can forget about raiding it."

"Does this mean there will also be a benefit if we manage to raid a settlement?" Jack asked.

"Of course," Peniel answered. "There is always a treasure trove at the center of the encampment, so raiding an encampment is actually a favorite activity for adventurers. You just have to make sure you had enough numbers in your Party to raid said settlement. Looking at the size of this lizardman encampment, it was a small settlement. A group of thirty level 12 or 13 adventurers should be able to take it down."

Jack looked at the encampment. What a pity, if he was allowed to take out the lizardman one by one, he should be able to raid the encampment despite having to fight one hundred of them. But if he was to face all of them at the same time, he didn't have the confidence to do it.

But he was curious about the encampment, after all, this was his first time encountering it. He lowered his posture and sneaked closer.

"What are you doing? Are you crazy? Didn't I just now explain to you about the danger?" Peniel asked in a panic.

"Don't worry, I was just trying to get a better picture of the encampment. I'm not going to storm in. I'm not suicidal."

He sneaked to a row of large rocks that stood closed to the encampment. He peeked out from those rocks while staying hidden. There are several lizardmen patrolling around the structures. The encampment looked more like a couple of wooden huts built close to each other. At the center was a large hut that looked different from the rest. Jack figured that was where the Boss was, and also where the treasure of the settlement was located.