Chapter 19

Each Day

Archers and mages are distance fighters. To build a strong character, in their normal standards, would take at least ten months before his first 2nd tier abilities can be obtained through Upgrades and Items.

Talismans are the secret to a Mage’s power and his multiple magic ability, unlike any other class. Even if it’s Tier 1 magic, multiple talismans will still put on damages, although, they are very expensive, very rare (for a drop), and actually are very hard to create.

These accessories are made up of rune stones, rare materials, magical items, and was actually made not by technology, but by enchantment. That’s why there are many kinds of shops in a city. There are the NPC shops that deals general trading and equipment customization.

Blacksmith Shops for general melee combatants.

Archery Centers for bowmen.

Enchantment Temples for Mage fanatics.

And of course there are the Guilds that offers some advanced forms of enhancement and many kinds of improvements to a player’s personal skills.

But through all these, Mages share the most difficult of stages when trying to get stronger. It’s because not only Talismans are actually hard to make, they are also very sensitive things. So mostly, instead of streamlined visible equipments, they are made in the form of tiny accessories not easily seen by the naked eyes.

And although its magic damage decreases along with the talisman’s size, for conservative players, it’s always better than being visible targets for thieves and bandits.

Talismans are a Mage’s life, it defines them.

And despite their weak defenses and physical bodies, they are the strongest damager in a group, especially when against aliens.

Then there’re the archers. These people rely on their Bows, their arrows (and its numbers), and their DEX stat that defines 80% of their accuracy. An archer is a lot strong when using skills. Skills’ damage depends on where in the target it will hit and actually also depends heavily on the type of bow and arrow used.

In a way, they are like Mages, but right in the middle of being an all rounder and a magic caster.

What they’re after are mostly strings. A bow’s body is easy to find but strings, that’s the part that easily snaps when met with a certain tension. Sometimes, a skill use might loosen a string’s tension, affecting the player’s accuracy and the damage output itself. That’s why archers are searching for that ultimate string to pair up with their ultimate bow.

These two kinds of players are what mostly makes up 97% of all the hunting users. Melee fighters are the bunch that actually only relies on 50% skills and ability, and 50% defensive and attack power enhancements.

Equipments in this class mostly deals with all these adds and plusses. Additional defenses, additional stats, additional damage, and so on…but there are two kinds of melee fighters that defines their usage and maximum contribution in a hunting party. The first are those who actually enchant their weapons with magical abilities to deal physical damage + magical attributed attack, or, exchange from using melee attacks to casting magical spells in the middle of the fight.

The second are those pure melee fighters. They are the people who concentrates more on improving their equipments and their skills and abilities mostly leans on enhanced movements or specific ability.

These are the rarest of players. In ratio, for every 300 players, there would only be one pure melee fighter.

The reason for this rarity could be blamed on the person’s actual athleticism or to how much one could actually take on painful damages from a monster. Just the thought alone makes anyone cower away on being a cool knight.

And for this, seeing someone fight off five C-ranked Herons on his own —and actually win, brutally, is a sight enough to put Siva’s spectators to shivers. And so, in the midst of their seeing of such grandeur, a Mage from their group decided to take a video.

He started on the part where he killed the first one of the five. And when they saw that he flew up and the monster below were waiting for him, they knew at that moment that he’s now a goner. Still, they couldn’t pull themselves to help him.

They just kept watching even if they knew he was going to die. And then, it was here that the one taking the video told them, “He‘s smiling.”

“Excuse me?” Asked a C-ranked Archer.

“He‘s smiling look!”

Just when he was about to be eaten, that’s where the other monster who’s been swaying its head collided on his companion’s neck. It diverted the bite and actually gave him an opening for a counter attack.

It was there that he delivered a bone shattering point blank range attack on the monster and its eyes rolled up as a sign that the attack made an effect. Then the man changed his gear and finished the monster off on his way down with a sword. The sight was a bloody hell, like watching a 3-year old wash their clothes in blood.

And until he finished the last one the same way, all the group could do was let go of their long held breath.

“Did you see that?”

“He‘s a monster.”

“I think he’s a Martial Artist in real life.”

“Can they really fight like that?”

“Of course not! Those moves aren‘t human!”

Then they heard something interesting coming from the man’s direction. He was laughing. As he pulled off his sword from the monster’s eye, his face and whole body was actually bathed in red blood. And while he was holding the sword, that white splendid looking sword, he was looking up and laughing like a maniacal psycho killer.

“Why is he laughing?”

“I don‘t know man…”

“Don‘t ask me, I was just recording it.”

“Dude look!”

From their group’s left side, four blue skinned ten meters high monsters were walking towards the man’s direction. They all looked like they were hungry since they were all drooling while looking at him.

“Shit!”

“He‘s screwed…”

“Those are the top C-rank monsters, Sigma!”

The monsters looked like large rhinos with two tusks as eyebrows and a large blue skinned body filled with sharpened crocodile scales and a tail that looked like a large hammer.

An archer tried to stand but as soon as he turned his head around, he froze and his blood drained from his face. One of the mage noticed him and he also turn his head back. And there they saw it, another bunch of C-rank monsters with a head in a hammerhead sharks’ shape. In simple description, they looked like brown scaled land based hammerhead sharks with T-Rex legs, times four, and a lizard’s tail with sharp pointy bones.

“Another competitor to the top rank.” The mage told.

The monsters were just 30 meters away from them and from their angle, they could have seen the humans, the food, but in some weird phenomenon, the monsters seem to only see the man and ignore their presences.

And as soon as they saw it, the man then turned to greet his visitors and his laugh stopped but his smile did not disappear.

“Hahahaha…more!” The man said and after that, he resumed the death defying fight using his unique style that could only be explained in one word.

Daredevil.

***

Rex was watching the TV when Elsie and the others’ faces came from the browser that popped out on a corner of the holo TV. Since he wanted to be updated on the current events, he did not turn off the holo TV and instead went outside and just closed the door.

In the bench with his borrowed staff, he opened the door and the girls entered.

“Hello! We came again!” Anna greeted him cheerily.

“Dex, is it alright to go in?” Rio peeked and asked.

Rex nodded at them. Elsie led the three inside and he immediately noticed the things they had brought with them. Anna had a lunchbox. Rio brought a tool box. Elsie with her med kit.

“We came as usual…” Elsie told him. “I hope we aren‘t intruding.”

“No,” Rex smiled and explained, “I actually am a bit useless right now so I am really grateful that you guys are here. I‘m really sorry for the trouble.”

Anna blushed when their eyes met.

“It‘s our pleasure…I mean, it‘s our…yeah…it‘s our pleasure to…um…”

Rio interrupted. “What Anna was saying is that we are glad we could help. Anyways, let me have a look at that robotic leg support.”

Rio sat down and opened her tool box. For a student to have all those modern tools, she was definitely a rich kid with a rich or middle class family.

But then, that’s not what Rex noticed most. It was her clothes. They seemed to be loose and speaking of loose clothes…

At her prompt, Elsie kneeled down to check on her wounds. She was wearing normal house clothes and her bosom seemed to become a bit bigger than normal from her tight upper shirt. Anna saw it and so she sat down on his left, showcasing her aromatic cooking when she opened the lid of the lunch box.

It was one of the all-time Filipino favorite dish, Afritada, and Anna actually presented it with her cute and adorable smile.

The three girls seem to be teasing him and it was in a way that’s slowly getting bolder and bolder day by day.

At first they had their restraints and were a little bit reserved but now that they were on their fifth day of an everyday visit, they seemed to have made a competition of some sort along with a fourth element.

“Yo!” Matt’s voice made the three jolt. “How’re you feeling Dex?”

Rex raised his head and smiled at him while actually trying to avert his eyes off of the three’s actions. And his arrival was seemingly a good fortune because if he did not, Rex would have been in bigger trouble.

Noticing the girls’ clothes and their actions, Matt shook his head and spoke up. “Tsk, tsk, tsk…you girls, why are you wearing such daring clothes?”

“Not sexy?!”

“Me? Ugly?!”

“I’m not teasing him!”

Elsie was the first to react followed by Anna and finally Rio that made the two look at her with blushing and silent expressions. And Rio with burning red face went back to what she was doing and continued on.

“Ah…I mean, I‘m just…working here.”

I never even said any of those words. “Anyways,” Matt was holding a basketball and he threw it to Anna who hurriedly caught it with one hand while the other held on to the lunchbox. “You, my little sis, could you fetch me some water?”

“Kuya!” Anna angrily shouted. “Why of all places?”

Then Matt started to act. “Oh? Kuya is a bit envious of Dex. Why do I feel that I never once tasted Afritada made by my little sister before? Oh, kuya is hurt, really hurt. And yet, me asking for just a glass of water was yelled at by my cute little sister while serving another man…how…painful…how really, really painful…”

And Matt acted to cry.

Anna pouted, seemingly affected by the words, and she went outside with heavy footsteps.

“You were family?” Rex couldn’t help but ask.

“Yeah. Mom and dad were always out for business and so I was left to look after her. And these two, well, I at least know them so I trust them with her.”

“Hey!” Rio retorted and Elsie seconded.

“That‘s rude!”

“But then again,” Rio added with a hmp. “That‘s just Matt for you. He never changes. Still ball headed.”

“Hey, what‘s that suppose to mean?” Matt crossed his brows and glared at her. Rio then stood up, being the tallest of the three girls, and since she was just a few centimeters short Matt’s height, she accepted his glare with another glare of her own.

“Exactly what I meant!”

And it was here that Elsie spoke to Rex. “Don‘t mind those two.”

“Are they always like that?”

“Always? Yeah, more like, that‘s the way they speak their love for each other.”

“I heard that!” Rio turned to face them. “Me? Him?! Not in a thousand years!”

“Heh! Look who‘s talking! Let me tell you now Dex, there was this time when we were in a forest in Terroa, I saved her and she hugged me crying.”

“That was…that was just the heat of the moment!”

“But you still hugged me.”

“That‘s because I was scared!”

Then Elsie told Rex. “See?”

But Rex, though he was laughing while watching the two, had something else that bugged his mind. It was all very clear in his memory, Matt said it, they play Terroa.

Could I ask them for help?

As this thought entered his mind, Rex automatically got his answer. No. I can’t trust them. Not yet. Maybe not while I’m still bound by the deal. As he thought of these things, Elsie noticed his silence and called, “Hey, you seem to be worrying about something.”

“Me…no, I was just thinking of what Matt said.” At this, Rex thought, at least I can use it as an alibi. Then he summoned the browser window and showed her of a list of words reaching over 300. Somehow, he got so deep into it that he just had to save it as personal file.