Instinctively their whole Party backed away, but they all relaxed after they realized Odelia had complete control over the restrained Blood Stalkers—having even muzzled them with mana to prevent them from biting. Sighing in relief, their Party Leader Jane said, “I don’t know who you two are, but thank you for saving us. We really don’t know what we would’ve done if you didn’t show up.”

“Yeah, no problem.” I replied, “It was all her anyway.” gesturing to Odelia.

“Don’t count yourself out, stranger. The potion you gave us looks like it really helped Dig out.” Jane pointed out how the armoured man’s wound was practically healed.

“Oh, shit! Nice!” Dig just noticed it himself, “Thanks, man!”

“So, what do we call you two?” Jane asked, resting her hammer and shield down.

Odelia gestured for me to answer, and I thought “They shouldn’t know I’m a Player, so why don’t I keep it that way. But I shouldn’t mention Odelia’s name either; they could look for her in the city, and that could lead them to the House.” Trying to think of some aliases to use, I said the first names I thought of, “Jude...and this is my friend...Rosalie.” Odelia smiled and nodded as she went along with it.

“Jude and Rosalie, huh? Well the name’s Jane, and these are my Party members: Curly, Dig, and Hive.” Introducing each of them to us, “And now that we’ve all met, I hope we can be very good friends in the future. We’d love to repay you back for saving our lives—the both of you.” she made sure Odelia knew that, “You just name it, and we’ll do whatever you need done.” and their Party all nodded in agreement.

“I can’t believe these guys are trying to get a Quest out of us in the state they're in, they must be Top Players for sure.” I figured, “But I guess I wouldn’t be any different.” understanding them exactly. Then playing along, I acted if I was thinking of something I needed them to do, and said “I’ll tell you what, we don’t need anything from you right now, but when we do, I’ll contact you later, alright?”

“That’s better than nothing, but how are you gonna know where to contact us?” Jane questioned, “Because we’ll probably be leaving the city of Ven’Thyl in a week, and we’re not even sure where we’ll be heading next.”

“Don’t worry, I have my ways.” I assured her, “Just promise me you’ll do whatever favour I ask you guys when the time comes, alright?”

“You can count on it.” Jane took me by the hand and shook it in agreement.

“I’ll have to take a mental note of their names so I can message them if I ever need a favour done.” Generally remembering their simple names.

“Pssst, Curly.” Dig whispered, not wanting to interrupt, “Now that you're done with Hive’s leg, can you finish healing my back? I don’t want it to scar.”

"Sorry, Dig, but I ran out of mana. You'll have to wait a bit for me to regen." Cure replied quietly.

“Oh, if you guys still need healing, I can help with that.” I then spent the next 3 minutes using First Aid on each of them until they were no longer injured.

First Aid increased by 1 Level.

After that, we protected them while they buried what remained of their friend’s body, and personally escorted them out of the Dungeon in case they ran into other monsters; but luckily we didn’t come across any. We said our goodbyes and they all left for the direction of the city.

Once they were out of sight, I asked Odelia “How wrong would it be if I desecrated their friend’s grave?”

“Uhhh, what? Why would you do that?” Odelia was puzzled by such an unexpected question.

“Well, I was carefully watching them while they buried their friend, but I’m pretty sure none of them bothered to search the guy’s body.”

“What exactly would they search, my Lord? The man only had his torso left?”

“I’m not really hearing you say no to the idea.” Starting to make my way back to the grave and the Blood Stalkers we left tied to a tree with mana.

“That is because they did not even properly bury him and pray to the Goddesses.” Odelia reasoned, “I mean how could they leave the body of their ‘friend’ in a Dungeon where it is more likely to be resurrected into undead?”

“They probably didn’t know.” Begin to dig up the shallow grave.

“How could they not know, everyone knows?” Odelia stated, helping me dig.

“Maybe they’re not everyone?” Then as I saw a little bit of the man’s chest, I reached down and caused his Inventory to pop up. “Aww, besides the good amount of money, he doesn’t have anything but arrows in here. I guess not being able to stack items really fucks a Ranger’s Inventory.” I took all of his arrows and stored them in Infinity; and with the 10% bonus I get from the 1% Title, I added a total of 319 Gold, 73 Silver, and 66 Copper into my Inventory. Though since they buried his Lv.30 bow with him, I also took that too.

“You are shameless, my Lord.” Odelia judged, helping me bury the grave again.

“What? Why would I let a perfectly good bow rot in a grave?” Feeling no shame in taking his stuff as we finished refilling his grave. And getting back to business, I checked the Time Limit again.

Time Limit: 4 Hours, 42 Minutes, 11 Seconds

“Damn, maybe I should’ve just made Odelia carry me here. We would’ve saved so much time.” Slightly regretting my choice not to; then notifying her “Okay, Odelia, I think I’m ready to start the Combat Test now.”

“Alright, but remember that you can only use the Close-Combat Style during the test, or you will have to try again with another Blood Stalker.” Odelia reminded me, while she separated the Lv.50 Blood Stalker from the others tied to the tree. “If I see you use a hint of another Style other than Combat, you will not pass even if you kill the Blood Stalker using the Combat Style, and will have to try again with another one if you wish to pass my test.” She reiterated again, dragging the Lv.50 to the center of the clearing.

“Yes, yes, I understand the rules. You don’t have to repeat it a third time.” I replied, following her to the center, “But one thing.”

“Yes?”

“Do I have to kill it?”

“Of course. Why would you not?”

“Because this one doesn’t seem that bad to me.” Pointing out how this Blood Stalker wasn’t struggling to get free, and that wasn’t angrily growling at us like the rest of them.

“It likely tired itself out from struggling earlier, or it is waiting for its chance to strike.” Odelia reasoned, unsure why I was being so reluctant.

Though deciding to kneel down, I stared directly into the Blood Stalker’s eyes, and saw they had a strange calm and accepting feel to them. Then as it suddenly broke our eye contact and closed its eyes, it exposed its neck to us and looked to have almost accepted its imminent death. “Interesting, it’s smart enough to understand the situation it’s in.” Smiling, I said “Release all your bindings, Odelia. I want to talk to him/her without any restraint.”

“Talk to it? I do not know if you know this, Lord Eyes, but Blood Stalkers are unintelligible monsters—meaning they only communicate through growls and roars, and solely live only on their instincts and hungering thirst for blood.” Warning me “It will surely attack you once I release it.”

“Maybe you can’t understand them, but I’ve understood these guys the whole entire time.” Directing my attention to the Blood Stalkers by the tree.

Still muzzled by mana, with drying blood on its skinless bone face, the Lv.55 growled “Elf blood good taste, more want!” Slobbering excessively as it stared at us from a distance.

The Lv.54 on the other hand struggled the hardest to break free of the bindings, angrily growling “Break! Breaaak! Breaaaaak!” and looked to be the physically largest and strongest of the six Blood Stalkers. The other three Blood Stalkers also growled about breaking free, killing us, and eating our blood; all in their different simple words of choosing.

“If you were not you, I would not humour such an outlandish claim, but this is not the first time you would surprise me.” Odelia said, backing away to the other Blood Stalkers. “Now if you are truly ready to start the Combat Test, where is the new armour and sword you bought yesterday?” She pointed out.

“Oh, right! I almost forgot to equip them.” Opening up my Inventory, I equipped an almost full set of elven plate armour—except for the helmet that I didn’t buy because I knew the crown prevented me from equipping anything else.

Elven Plate Pauldrons Elven Plate Chestplate Elven Plate Gauntlets

Uncommon

+4% Physical Damage Reduction

+10 Strength

Requirements: Lv.24, Str 100

Uncommon

+10% Physical Damage Reduction

+10 Vitality

Requirements: Lv.24, Str 100

Uncommon

+3% Physical Damage Reduction

+10 Strength

Requirements: Lv.24, Str 100

Elven Plate Chausses Elven Plate Greaves

Uncommon

+5% Physical Damage Reduction

+10 Vitality

Requirements: Lv.24, Str 100

Uncommon

+3% Physical Damage Reduction

+10 Strength

Requirements: Lv.24, Str 100

After being armourless for weeks now, I noticeably felt the heavy weight of the armour weigh on my body. Though compared to the heavier bulky looking armour Jane and Dig wore, this armour overall had a much lighter and slim look to it, but it did have large gauntlets and greave boots. The armour was also better designed, naturally having a layer of chainmail and dark underclothes underneath the plate, making the darkish green border outlines of the armour pieces really stand out well.

Then not wanting to get any of my cloaks ruined in what will surely be a tough battle, I decided to go cloakless today and put away the Cloak Of Colour in my Inventory, exposing the crown on my head. However, I still wore the cloth I had wrapped around my lower face to minimize the stench of blood.

“I know elven plate is lighter than regular plate armour, but are you sure you want to fight in that, Lord Eyes?” Odelia questioned in concern, “It is unusual to see an archer wear such heavy and restrictive armour, unless they are the city guards or it is wartime.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. I just have to get used to moving in it is all.” Rotating my arms and shoulders, and lifting up my knees and legs. Then after briefly getting used to the movement, I lastly took out the sword I bought.

Silverthorn II

Uncommon

Attack: 222

Effect: Deal an additional 22% more damage against Monsters weak to Silver.

Requirement: Lv.22, Str 100, Agi 78

Strapping it to the right side of my waist, I drew the sword from its black leather sheath and held it blade side down along my forearm. I took a second to admire its straight and thin double-edged silver blade, its guardless and finely wrapped black leather hilt, and the long silver spike pommel at the top.

Looking back to Odelia, I asked “You said this sword works on monsters in this Dungeon, right?”

“That is what I said.” Odelia confirmed, “Though only about half the monsters in here have a weakness to Silver, and lucky for you, the Blood Stalkers are one of them.”

“Good to know.” Drawing my bow from my back, I said “Okay, now I’m ready. Release your bindings.” I held my bow in my left hand and my sword in the other—standing 5ft away from the Blood Stalker.

“Alright, here you go. But do try to be careful, Lord Eyes.” With a snap of her fingers, Odelia released all the mana-bindings around the Blood Stalker, but it didn't react at all and just laid there.

A moment passed, but it continued to lay still with its eyes closed, so I said to it “Hey, Blood Stalker. You can understand me, right?” Hearing me speak to it caused the Blood Stalker's body to twitch for a moment, but it went back to its stillness a moment later. “Why are you just laying there and playing dead? Are you waiting to surprise attack me or something?” There was no response this time, “I can tell you’re at least a little bit smarter than your friends over there, so why don’t you wake up and talk to me, and maybe I’ll let you go?”

As I took a single step closer, the Blood Stalker instantly opened its eyes, quickly got up, and pounced towards me with its large open boney maw attempting to bite me. Though having already prepared myself for the surprise attack, I performed back handspring right before it reached me, and landed a clean kick right under its jaw. I subsequently landed poorly from the handspring as I wasn’t used to acrobatic movement with the extra weight of the armour yet.

Shaking its head from the daze of my attack and being completely undamaged by it, the Blood Stalker growled “Me miss...” It then started pacing back and forth in front of me, waiting for another chance to attack.

“And it speaks.” Picking myself up from my poor landing. “So, what do you say? Wanna talk?” Putting both my weapons up in the air to show I meant no harm.

“Me talk, free me go?” The Blood Stalker growled, slowing its pacing back and forth.

“Yeah, I promise.” Sheathing my weapons to prove it. “Now can you tell me about the Bosses in this Dungeon and what’s hidden inside? My friend over there won’t tell me anything because she thinks I'll want to clear it if I know.” Secretly pointing to Odelia who looked shocked to see me actually communicating to the Blood Stalker.

“Many Bosses here, all danger. But never meet Big Boss, too scary danger.” The Blood Stalker answered, stopping its pacing and sitting itself down.

“Big Boss? Is that the Dungeon Boss?” I inquired curiously, “Do you know where Big Boss is?”

It excessively shook its head no, “No! All know run from lake, too scary danger. Big Boss and Blood Water too strong!”

“Big Boss? Blood Water? What kind of monsters are they?” I wondered to myself, then asking the Blood Stalker “Do you happen to know where this lake is?”

“Far here.” Turning and pointing its bone nose in the direction Odelia guarded, “But elf go, elf die. Like all.”

I chuckled, “Thanks for the warning, and the info.” telling the Blood Stalker, “You’re free to go now.”

The Blood Stalker tilted its head at me, “Free go?” it wagged its long thick leathery tail for a moment.

“Yeah, you can go, I promised. And you don’t seem as dangerous as the others.” Allowing it go freely.

“No, me danger! They no danger!” The Blood Stalker growled aggressively, trying to puff its body bigger than the others.

“Okay, okay, you danger, they not danger.” It gave me a toothy grin, and slowly and carefully walked in the opposite direction of Odelia, all while keeping an eye on me for a surprise attack. I waved it goodbye, but it stopped only just outside of the clearing and began digging a hole with its claws.

Once it finished digging, it laid itself inside and made the hole look completely filled in, with the red hair on its back and its crimson hide blending perfectly into the ground—only having its bone face on the surface creepily staring at me. “Must be how they hide themselves and wait for prey.” I figured, walking back over to Odelia. “I want...this one next.” Picking out the Lv.51.

“Lord Eyes, those growls were surely unintelligible, so where did you learn to communicate with Blood Stalkers?" Odelia questioned, separating the Lv.51 from the others, "I mean after all, Blood Stalkers are only native to this Blood Forest, and you told me you have never been to the Kingdom before, right?”

“Uhhh...I guess you could say I learnt it from Oros—he taught me how to speak to other monsters.” Helping Odelia drag the angry Lv51 to the center of the clearing while it continued to growl about killing and eating us.

“That does not make sense, my Lord. Cyclops’ only speak Giant or Common, Dwarvish too in Oros’ case, so how could he teach you to speak to other monsters?” Odelia tried to understand the possibility.

“I guess that’s just another one of my secrets.” Giving her a wink and leaving her clueless. "Now release it." Readying my weapons again.

The instant Odelia released her mana-bindings, this Blood Stalker without hesitation pounced towards me with its sharp claws first. And barely stepping out of the way in time, I countered with a horizontal slash to its body with my sword as it passed by; but the blade didn’t cut as deep as I thought it would, and only left a small graze on the Blood Stalker’s leathery hide. “Did I not use enough force, or is their skin just that hard?”

Even though it was a small cut, the Blood Stalker roared in anger, “Elf dead!” charging towards me at incredible speeds.

Using Rapid Shot, I pulled 4 arrows from my quiver and rapidly fired them all consecutively—aiming for its eyes. Though reacting to the incoming arrows, the Blood Stalker turned its body to an immediate stop, whipping its long tail towards me, and causing the arrows to shallowly pierce its side. The tail whipped with such surprising speed that I couldn’t react to it in time, landing a direct hit into my armoured stomach and knocking me backwards about 10ft.

Grasping my stomach from the pain, I felt a huge dent in the armour made by the powerful tail attack, but quickly stood myself up as the Blood Stalker began charging again. When it threw a downward claw strike towards me, I first dodged to the side, and then using as much strength as I could, I stabbed my sword straight into Blood Stalker’s open side. But even after using all my strength, only half the blade went through before I couldn’t push the sword any deeper, however the blade did cause a strange searing sound to be heard inside the Blood Stalker's body.

The Blood Stalker roared even louder than before, “ELF!” and knowing I needed to get away, I tried to quickly pull out the sword, though it just wouldn’t budge from its body. Immediately deciding to let it go, I was about to use Archer’s Dash to make some distance, but two claws quickly pierced into each side of my pauldrons, reaching down into my flesh, and bringing me down to my knees with the heavy weight of the Blood Stalker weighing over my shoulders and body.

“Aaahhhh!” I screamed out in excruciating pain, and using as much strength as I could, I barely held up the Blood Stalker from pinning me down onto the ground.

The Blood Stalker’s bone face widely grinned, staring at me like I was delicious food, growling “Blood good smell, want taste!” It opened its large boney maw and sunk all of its jagged teeth deep into my collarbone, shoulder, and a part of my neck.

Hearing the armour being crushed in its maw, feeling the warm blood gushing out of my body, and seeing its hungering eyes made it feel like all the pain was being tripled—screaming out even louder than before. “AAAAAHHHHHHHH!”