Day-15

The next morning, forgoing his daily practice of mana manipulation, Bharat went out into the wilds far better equipped than yesterday along with a clear goal in mind. Last night after he took inventory of his loot, he realized that these little loot boxes were the main source of his strength till now, which he’d been neglecting to some extent.

Sure, learning to fight using his abilities and weapons was important as well, and he couldn’t deny his progress in that area regardless of how minuscule it was.

On the other hand, every time he finds a loot box or a new ability, his combat efficiency increases by a substantial amount. The first time with his bow and [basic archery], and then next time when he got the [concentrated shot] ability.

So wouldn't it be better to acquire all the loot boxes he could at once, which will provide a large boost to his power in terms of abilities and equipment, and then continue to hunt more effectively?

With that thought in mind, he decided to head towards the location where he could get even bigger loot than the previous day with a single-minded focus on one mission

A mission he named ‘Operation Cleanup’.

On the way to his destination, he looked down at his right hand and its new addition, a silver-coloured ring engraved with small glowing blue runes. While observing the ring, he focused a bit and with a single thought, his dagger popped into the air in front of him which he deftly caught with his hand. With another thought, the dagger once again disappeared into the ring.

He couldn't help but crack a smile at his latest acquisition, one which he desperately needed.

Since he entered these woods, if there was one thing he lacked, except a shirt, of course, was a practical way by which he could carry his stuff while hunting. Granted, the first few days, he really didn't have anything that needed to be carried along with him but he could remember a few instances in which a single Health potion or even a mana or stamina potion on hand would have been very appreciated.

His fight with the first Claw-foot rabbit he encountered came to mind. If he had a Health potion on him at that time, he wouldn't have come so damn close to being dead.

‘But I guess I kind of needed that little wake-up call to get my shit together.’, Bharat thought in introspection as that little incident was what made him stop treating the whole system thing as a joke.

Regardless, this ring was truly a godsend. Although the pocket space it contained wasn't that big, barely 1 cubic meter in size, it was enough to carry a few potions and his other equipment. So the only thing he currently had on his person was his filled quiver and a dagger.

He was a little bummed about the fact that he was still level 5 despite spending a whole day in the boar territory, but what he had planned for today would surely bring even more amazing gains in his opinion.

That is if everything went according to his plan.

…

‘I just jinxed myself didn’t I?’

Reaching the outer area of rabbit-territory, he went deeper inside of it instead of heading towards the boar territory like yesterday. Ignoring all the rabbits he came across on his way, he reached the core area of rabbit-territory and paused in his steps just before he could enter the open area.

The familiar scene of countless Claw-foot rabbits inside the hole-ridden clearing greeted him and he wasn't sure, but it looked like they had grown in numbers since the last time he was here. Numerous rabbits were going about their daily activities, entering and leaving their homes, some fighting amongst each other.

A pair of them were also dragging the corpse of a Swift-foot rabbit behind them into one of the holes.

All in all, it painted quite a beautiful picture and almost looked like a small community of these small creatures if one overlooked their glowing red eyes and bloodthirsty aura they released.

One also couldn't ignore the presence of 7 stone altars inside the field either.

Honestly, he would have preferred to ignore this spot if not for the clear 'bait' it provided in terms of loot and he had no illusion that the rabbits would just let him enter and take all those training kits without a fight either. So the only option left was to kill each and every one of them.

‘I just hope this works’

Taking out both of his daggers, taking out the second one from his ring, he approached a tree at the sidelines and started climbing towards the overhead branch that was about 20 meter high, using the daggers that he stabbed into the wood to pull himself up, just like he did previously.

After climbing the required height, he hauled himself over the branch and balanced himself over it carefully. Just like the tree, its branches were also very large and more importantly sturdy that his weight didn't affect it at all. Putting his daggers back into the ring, he took out his bow, nocked an arrow from his quiver, drew the string back and aimed at the unsuspecting rabbits down below.

He hesitated at the last moment, not due to any sympathy for these little critters. God knows how many he has killed till now. No, what he was worried about was whether or not his plan would work or maybe this would be his last battle, his last act of stupidity.

His hands shook, whether from nervousness or due to keeping the string drawn for too long, he couldn’t tell but he shook his head and dispelled all doubts from his head.

And when he refocused his gaze at the scene in front of him, only steely determination could be seen as his hands became steady and his resolve strengthened.

‘Let the hunt begin.’

He let loose the arrow from his position, which flew towards a level 3 Claw-foot rabbit and easily penetrated the stomach of the poor creature. The attack did not kill the rabbit, as it was not a fatal shot, but he was not aiming to kill it in the first place.

Due to the open area and the quiet surroundings, the squeal that emerged from the injured rabbit echoed inside the whole clearing

All at once, the rabbits inside the area stopped whatever they were doing and looked at their squealing ‘brother’ that had an arrow sticking out of its stomach, pinning it to the ground. Slowly, as if the action was rehearsed countless times before, they all turned their heads and looked at Bharat’s location, from which the arrow emerged.

The sight of dozens of rabbit staring at him with their eerie red eyes and killing intent brought shivers down his back as he wondered one more time if coming here was a good idea.

For a moment, there was pin-drop silence in the clearing before on an unspoken signal, all the rabbits charged in his direction at once.

The scene of all these rabbits running in his direction snapped him out of his thoughts as he started shooting arrows at the incoming horde, not caring about accuracy for once as the large size of the horde guaranteed that the arrow would hit at least one rabbit.

For once, he was glad that he remembered to bring additional quivers with him which he filled with arrows the previous night and he was less likely to run out of arrows anytime soon.

Even if he did, he could just create more with his mana and repeat the process by using mana potions.

When the rabbits reached the tree he was standing on, they, as expected tried to climb the tree as well but to no avail. He was a bit unsure about this, fearing that their metal claws could help them climb the tree as well, but it looked like their low strength didn't let them sink their claws into the thick wood of this tree, something he was very relieved about.

In the midst of all this, Bharat suddenly got his first kill notification since the fight started and then another and another. Kill notifications started hitting him again and again, filling his status screen

*Ding*

>

*Ding*

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…

*Ding*

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After a few more minutes of them trying to climb the tree and him shooting arrows downwards at the quickly growing horde of rabbits around the trunk, he noticed that the clearing that was overcrowded with rabbits just moments before was well and truly empty. The commotion seemed to have drawn the other Claw-foot rabbits that were hiding in their holes as well as he could not locate any movements inside the open field.

The rabbits were also getting smarter, and instead of pushing ahead to climb the tree on their own, they were helping each other.

Starting the next part of his plan, he charged the next arrow he nocked on his bow with a [concentrated shot] and aimed it at the area where he could see the rabbits crowding in higher numbers. In their rush to get to his position, they had started to climb over each other and using their fellow brothers as stepping stones to reach higher.

The next instant, with the rabbit with the highest height as the target, he released his concentrated shot at its head with a minor shockwave that ruffled his air slightly. Said rabbit was about to jump upwards to gain more height when its danger instincts warned it of its imminent death.

Alas, it was already too late as the moment he looked up towards the source of this danger, an arrow moving with blitzing speed shot through its head and 6 others behind it, killing it instantly.

Several notifications sounded in its head at once. His body shook with a sudden surge of power as he realized that he just levelled up. This was the fastest level he had gotten to date and the horde still showed no signs of stopping, his previous kills hardly leaving a dent in their numbers.

*Ding*

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…

*Ding*

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>

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He barely gave the latest level up notification a passing glance before he charged up another concentrated shot and loosed it downwards once more.

And another

And another

And another.

He continuously used concentrated shots one after the other at the horde down below all the while injecting his mana into his quiver to generate more arrows as his current stock was declining at a very fast pace. He only stopped in his attacks once he ran out of stamina before he took out a stamina potion from his ring, uncorked its lid and swallowed it in one go.

As he watched his stamina points fill up, the little mental exhaustion he that he was feeling after firing so many [concentrated shots] disappeared like an afterthought, hidden effect of the stamina potion he assumed, as he started the whole process once more. This time he was mixing it up with normal arrows in order to preserve his stamina a little longer.

Although he could use another stamina potion, he had a slight suspicion that these potions had a time limit before he could consume another one because the system never made things easy for their host. Rather, it encouraged them to struggle and grow on their own instead of relying too much on items and other sources, be it using potions or using the unspent attribute points.

So until he confirmed whether it was possible to swallow these potions endlessly or not, he decided to not take any chances.

Taking a small breather in the middle of shooting arrows, he looked at his stat screen and noticed that he was only left with mere 15 points of mana. Believing that the situation was under control for the most part as the rabbits were no closer to reaching his position, he was about to sit down and meditate to recover his mana when the situation downstairs changed.

Suddenly one of the rabbits, a level 5 one starting climbing up the tree with astonishing speed. He gaped at the unusual sight and couldn't understand why didn't climb it sooner if they could do it all along but upon closer inspection of the rapidly ascending rabbit, he was further shocked.

The rabbit wasn't climbing the tree on its own. Instead in a show of brilliance, it was using the holes he himself left while climbing the tree and sinking its claws into the small spaces to climb up the tree.

‘What the hell?!’

He rubbed his eyes furiously and slapped his cheeks for good measure before glancing down once, hoping that what he saw earlier was just his imagination and he finally went crazy after two weeks of staying by himself in this forest.

Every time he believes himself to have seen all their tricks and strategies, these rabbits pull another trick out of their asses like a cheap magic show, as if determined to prove him wrong, a conclusion which was further backed up by the fact that seeing their brother having success in climbing the tree, all the other rabbits started following it and started ascending in a straight line.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he quickly started shooting his remaining arrows at the rapidly approaching group of rabbits, trying to kill them in one shot or at least interrupt them in their task, but only a few arrows remained in his quiver, the last one he brought today.

His situation was not looking good as the rabbits didn't show any signs of slowing down, instead, they were getting better at scaling the tower and if that was not enough, he only had 30 mana remaining.

Stopping his continuous barrage of arrows, he took out a mana potion from his ring, a [common] one, and swallowed its contents in one go, barely twitching as the sour taste assaulted his tongue.

Suddenly the first rabbit landed on the branch he was standing on as it took advantage of his distraction. This tiny success seemed to have started a chain effect as the next moment, more and more rabbits started landing on the branch and rushing at him.

The branch was wide enough that 3 rabbits could move side by side so he started backtracking, all the while firing arrows at the quickly approaching rabbits.

But the branch was only so long, and within no time he reached the end of it and couldn't go further. He was just glad that the additional weight wasn't enough to bend or break the sturdy branch.

Looking ahead at the horde, the sight of a dozen rabbits charging at him and the background of dozens more of them, covering about half of the distance between the branch with their bodies scared him more than he’d like to admit.

Looking down below at the height he was on, he closed his eyes and prayed.

‘I hope it doesn't hurt.’

Turning around just as the rabbits were upon him, he made a mightly leap with all his strength and jumped off the branch, falling straight 20 metres down. While in freefall, he hoped that his increased constitution meant that he would only break a few bones and not go just ‘splat’ on impact

The moment he was about to hit the ground, he closed his eyes and unaware to him, a strange 'energy' covered his body and the expected pain of breaking his bones never came.

Instead, he landed on his feet with bent knees as the ground cracked slightly from the impact, kicking up dust all around him

After regaining his balance, he glanced back at the horde that seemed to have stooped in their endeavour to climb the tree and charged in his direction at once, their higher numbers giving them confidence. The few rabbits that were on the branch also starting jumping off the tree, their fall much more graceful than his own had been.

The view was far more terrifying than when he witnessed at a higher elevation, as the feeling of danger was much more close. Looking down at the bow in his hand he shook his head and put it back, taking out the pyro staff and pointing the red gem in the direction of the horde. He needed more power for this, and the simple arrows won't make much of a difference.

‘Power…’

His eyes widened as a small idea emerged in his head. Holding the staff in both of his hand, he injected his mana inside of it, far more than what was necessary and activated the ability. The gem at the end of his staff starting glowing bright orange and releasing small amounts of heat that he could feel on his skin.

In the air in front of the gem, a small ember appeared from thin air and started growing in size and turning into a fireball the size of a football. After 3 seconds, the intensity of heat and light increased two-fold, even scorching the grass under him a little bit.

<

Type: Combat

Description: Charges fire affiliated mana for some time before gathering at a single point and creating a head-sized ball of fire that can be thrown in a single line. Chancing of afflicting Burn status on the target

Remarks: An arrow may have your name on it, but a fireball is addressed “To whom it may concern”. >>

The rabbits were only a short distance away from him now, as the strength by which he jumped earlier brought him much-needed distance between him and the tree they were on.

‘Please work…’, he thought in his head as a medium-sized fireball started forming in front of him, but just as it was about to complete charging, he opened his status page and dumped 3 points in intelligence. The next moment, the mana in his body and his mana core starting revolving faster and faster, giving out more output.

The fireball that was only supposed to be the size of his head suddenly increased in size till it reached the size of a small car, scorching the ground under it charcoal black, and burning the grass in the immediate area.

The rabbits upon witnessing this sight stopped in their charge and for the first time, their buried self-preservation instincts kicked in as they realized that their prey had just turned into a predator.

Bharat was wholly unaware of what was happening on the other side of his attack as the large fireball occupied the most part of his vision, so the moment he felt that the attack was sufficiently charged, he stopped injecting mana and released the attack right in the direction of, unknown to him, retreating horde of Claw-foot rabbits.

The sheer power of the attack and the area it covered made escaping its range a lost cause as within seconds, the only thing left of the horde were their burnt bodies, some low levelled ones even turning into ash after the fire cover them. The attack only lost some of its power after reaching a small distance into the forest and before long the only indication of its presence was the path of destruction it wreaked upon the ground and grass in a straight line emerging from Bharat’s position.

A continuous series of dings started sounding in his head as he looked at the destruction the boosted fireball had wrought upon the forest with a gaping mouth. Before he could say something though, the strength in his body left him as he collapsed on his stomach, and gritted his teeth in pain as he felt as if hot lava was running through his veins from head to toe.

A small warning text in front of him answered his question before he could open the stat screen.

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<< Status ailment [Mana poisoning] detected for the first time

Description: Due to forcefully channelling more mana through your body than it could handle, your mana pathways are fried and further attempts to use mana will deplete Health points instead. Removed after recovering three-quarters of your mana naturally.

Remark: A ‘shocking’ discovery! >>