Chapter 4: Hunting Monsters

Pulling out his dagger, Kaze watched as part of his hand disappeared into empty space and then reappeared a moment later. Based on what he had seen, the inventory in this game worked like a spatial ring. Basically this meant that all of his items could be stored in his personal dimension, and only he could see and retrieve them. There also didn’t seem to be an item limit, so he could assume that he had unlimited storage.

Walking out of the village, Kaze took a moment to glance at the entrance of the forest before heading inside. The last time he had come out here, his goal had been to gather herbs. This time it was to kill monsters and loot them so he could make some money. The experience was just a bonus. While he was out here, he would also keep an eye out for any plants he might see. By doing this, he would be getting two birds with one stone.

As he walked, Kaze practiced swinging and slashing with his knife. If he was being honest, he probably needed to train with it more before hunting monsters. That would take too long though, so he decided to forgo the training. He would get the training he needed while he was fighting monsters. Plus he had some potions he could use, so the upcoming fights would prove easier than most.

Kaze only managed to gather a few plants before running into another enemy.

Frogera: lvl 2

Similar to the last time he had fought an enemy, this one was only one level higher than him. Plus it was of the same species as the last one. Luckily it hadn’t seen him yet, so he would be able to get a few attacks off before he was noticed. Crouching down, Kaze began to slowly walk towards the monster. It seemed to be picking at some plants in the ground, so it shouldn’t be able to notice him until it was too late. The moment he got close enough, he lunged.

-30 HP! [Sneak Attack] -10 HP! Before the Frogera could retaliate, Kaze was able to hit him with two slashes of his dagger. He noticed that his sneak attack did three times the damage he would normally do. This was pretty good, but he would only be able to use it once per skirmish, seeing as how a monster would notice him the moment it was struck.

Although Kaze could’ve probably gotten one more attack in, he didn’t want to take the risk. He wanted to be able to kill this monster without losing a single health point. Angry that it had been taken by surprise, the Frogera charged at him with a furious croak. The moment its spear was thrusted towards him, he dodged to the side and immediately rushed towards the Frogera.

Gripping his dagger with both his hands, Kaze plunged it into the Frogera’s neck with all his might. With little resistance, the dagger sunk into the monster’s neck, all the way up to the hilt.

-28 HP! [Critical Hit]

Removing the dagger with a sickening squelch, Kaze kicked the wounded monster away from him.

Target is Bleeding!

-3 HP!

Thanks to the wound he had made in the Frogera’s neck, it was now constantly taking bleeding damage. As he waited for it to attack, he watched as the monster tried stopping it’s wound from bleeding by holding one of its hands to its neck. Sadly, that didn’t help much, and blood still continued to gush from its wounded neck. A few moments later and it was dead. Killed by the bleeding damage.

Walking over to where the monster had fallen, Kaze gave its corpse a kick to make sure it was dead. Once he was satisfied, he examined the spear that it was using. Maybe it was a better weapon than the one he had equipped.

Chipped Wooden Spear Description: A chipped wooden spear with a stone tip. Damage: 2-4 Effect: None Durability: 13/20 Requirements: None

It seemed that his guess had been correct. Although the wooden spear had a lower durability than his dagger, it did more damage and had a longer reach. The only problem with using this spear was that he would have to spend a little time getting used to it. With his dagger, he could rush in and stab his opponent once he was close. But if he used a spear, he wouldn’t be able to do that because of its length. Still, there were other strategies for him to use. He just needed to make them.

Placing his dagger into his inventory, Kaze grabbed the wooden spear that was on the ground. Once he had a good grip on it, he knelt down and looted the Frogera’s corpse. The monster disappeared into particles and in its place was a giant frog leg. Not believing his eyes, he examined it for further information.

Frogera Leg Description: A leg of a Frogera that tastes similar to chicken. Effect: Cooking Ingredient

Sure enough, the loot was exactly was he had assumed it to be. A frog leg, or in this case a Frogera leg. This Frogera leg was almost exactly the same as a frog leg except for the size. Whoever cooked up this leg and ate it, wouldn’t have to worry about being hungry for a good bit of time. As Kaze placed the leg in his inventory, he wondered how much it was worth. Even if it wasn’t worth any money, he could always cook it and keep it for himself.

Pushing himself off the ground, Kaze continued his trek through the forest. It only took him a minute of walking and picking up herbs before he found another Frogera. He was able to defeat it once again without losing any health. This battle was actually quite easier compared to the last one because all he had to do was dodge the Frogera’s attack, and then retaliate with his own. His new wooden spear made this tactic doable thanks to its length.

He also didn’t have to use any of the potions he had concocted. Although he wanted to see how exactly they worked on enemies, he didn’t want to waste them on level two monsters. The monster needed to be a way higher level, or he had to be fighting more than one at once, before he wasted his valuable potion on them. Plus, there was no point in using his potions if he could easily defeat his opponent without one. He would only use them when necessary.

The loot this monster gave him was a copper coin and the spear it was wielding. The spear was exactly the same as the one Kaze was using, so he just stuck it in his inventory. He could sell it back at the town for some more copper coins. As he placed the spear in his inventory, he wondered why he didn’t get a spear from the first Frogera. Did he just accidently leave it? If he did, he couldn’t be blamed. The wood on the spear blended in quite well with the surroundings.

It was after killing two more level two Frogeras, that something unexpected happened. While Kaze was bending down to pick up a Metriun herb, he felt a sharp pain in his back.

-30 HP! [Sneak Attack]

Recoiling in pain, Kaze turned around and swung his spear at whatever hit him. Sadly, his attack was dodged when the monster jumped back. Picking himself up, he looked at his new enemies warily.

Frogera: lvl 2 Frogera: lvl 4

In front of him were two Frogeras holding out their spears menacingly. The one on his right was actually three levels higher than him, and from the way it held its spear, Kaze could tell it knew how to use it. He could already tell that this would be a challenging battle. Not only was one of his opponents three levels higher than him, but he also had to fight two enemies at once. Luckily he had his potions, so if he used them wisely, he should be able to get out of this battle alive.

Jabbing his spear towards both the monsters, he waited for one to make a move. He would have to stay mostly on the defensive this battle and wait for his enemies to make a mistake. This was because the moment he tried to attack one of the Frogeras, the other one would attack him. He was hoping that one of the monsters would come up to attack while the other one just watched. This way he would be able to fight one on one. Sadly, that was not what happened.

The two Frogeras slowly approached him and began jabbing at him with their spears. Due to the fact that they were doing this together, Kaze was being slowly pushed back. He wouldn’t be able to throw dirt in their faces either since they were too far away. Tch, it seemed that he would have to use a potion.

Reaching into his inventory with his left hand, Kaze grabbed a paralysis potion and lobbed it towards the highest leveled Frogera. After he did this, he rushed at the level two Frogera and began attacking with a furious intensity. He needed to deal as much damage as he could to it before the paralysis wore off.

-11 HP! -10 HP! -10 HP!

-11 HP!

Although he was forced to suffer an injury, Kaze managed to do a decent amount of damage to his foe. As he backed up cautiously, he took a swig of his health potion.

+ 20 HP!

His health was going down far too quickly for his liking, and he would hate to die here. Three seconds has also gone by, so the other Frogera was joining the battle. When Kaze had hit it with his potion, the monster had immediately frozen up, giving him time to damage the other Frogera. The only thing he really had to be on the lookout for was the monster dodging his thrown vial. The Frogeras didn’t seem to be that fast, so he shouldn’t have to worry about that happening. Although if he kept throwing his potions, the monsters would soon learn to dodge them through repetition.

Reaching into his inventory, Kaze grabbed a vial of poison. With the level two Frogera watching him, he threw it directly at its chest. Although the monster was able to block the vial with its spear, the vial still exploded, splashing it with poison. As the monster croaked in pain, he lunged with his spear and began stabbing at it while it was distracted. It seemed the poison was quite painful because the Frogera didn’t stand a chance against his onslaught and quickly died. Now he only had one opponent left.

-14 HP!

But even though he managed to defeat the level two Frogera, the other enemy was able to land a blow on him. Wincing in pain, he quickly turned around to face his final opponent. The two enemies circled around each other, each looking for an opening. Taking another spear out of his inventory, Kaze threw it at the Frogera’s feet. The moment it jumped back to dodge it, he ran up with his spear and began jabbing at it.

-10 HP! -0 HP! [Attack Blocked!]

He managed to get a shallow cut in before the monster began blocking with its spear. Rather than let up, Kaze kept up his onslaught so that the Frogera wouldn’t be able to attack. Due to the way it was holding the spear, all it could do was block. Until he retreated, there was no way for it to attack.

Pulling his spear back, Kaze lunged forward with one of his legs and swiped at his opponent. Even though this maneuver was unexpected, the Frogera was able to block it just in time. With one of his legs against the Frogera’s spear, Kaze grabbed his spear with both hands and plunged it into the monster’s neck.

-33 HP! [Critical Hit!]

Since his leg was against its spear, the Frogera was unable to block his deadly attack. This maneuver was only possible thanks to the specific race he had chosen. If he had been a human, he would’ve needed to be extremely flexible in order to do this. Not only that, but his leg was bladed. No one wanted to take a sharp object to the chest, so the Frogera really didn’t have a choice but to block his attack. Ripping his spear out of the monster’s flesh, Kaze proceeded to continuously stab the monster in its neck.

Target is Bleeding! -4 HP! -11 HP!

-13 HP! -4 HP!

After two more jabs, Kaze’s leg was pushed back with a powerful shove. Thankfully, he was able to balance himself by quickly shuffling backwards with his other three legs. That was another thing nice about having four legs. More legs meant more balance. Once his balance was regained, he watched as the level four Frogera quickly bled out. The wound he had made on its neck was essentially a giant, gaping hole. There was absolutely no way it was going to survive this battle. A few seconds later and it was dead. Before he could look at the loot, a series of blue boxes appeared in front of him.

+1 Endurance Level Up!

Thanks to all of the dodging and attacking he did, Kaze had gained one point of endurance. He wasn’t aware he could gain stats this way, so this was a pleasant surprise. The reason the notification appeared so late was because he was in the middle of a battle. He might accidently die if he was surprised by a blue box randomly appearing.

Thanks to his level up, Kaze now had ten stat points that he could allocate. By placing these in a stat, he would become stronger in that specific stat. For example, if he place a point in strength, he would be able to deal more damage. And if he placed multiple points into one stat, then that stat would get considerably stronger. He took a few minutes to think of what he wanted to do before allocating his points.

Character Status Name: Kaze Gender: Male Level: 2 Race: Araneae Health: 106/120 Mana: 80/80 Stamina: 130/130 Stat Points: 0 Strength: 15 Dexterity: 15 Vitality: 12 Endurance: 13 Intelligence: 8 Willpower: 8

For every point he put into vitality, Kaze would gain ten health. This was the same with endurance for stamina, and willpower for mana. Because of this, he put one point into vitality for a little bit of extra health, and then placed his remaining points into strength and dexterity. He wanted to be a stronger, but he also wanted to be fast enough to dodge most of the attacks that came his way. Since he didn’t have any armor, he would be better off dodging attacks, rather than blocking them.

Once he was done looking at his status screen, Kaze closed it and approached the corpses of the Frogeras. Picking up both their weapons and the one he had thrown, he decided to loot the level two one first. Crouching down next to it, he watched as it dissolved into particles. In its place stood a single copper coin. Placing it into his inventory, he walked towards the remaining corpse.

Money was nice and all, but he wasn’t going to get rich quick, if all he got was one copper coin. It took one hundred of these just to make as silver coin. And if he wanted one gold coin, he would need a hundred silver coins. Just the thought of how poor he was soured his mood, so Kaze cleared his mind and focused on the remaining corpse.

Tapping the chest icon, he waited for the loot to spawn. He clutched the spear in his right hand tightly as he waited to see what he would get. The monster he killed hadn’t been a special one, even though the fight had been challenging. So he shouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t get any good loot. Still, he could hope.

Leather Gloves Description: A pair of lightweight leather gloves that provides the user with a small amount of defense and dexterity. Defense: 2 Effect: +1 Dexterity Durability: 20/20 Requirements: None

Letting out a scream of happiness, Kaze grabbed the gloves quickly and held them in his hand. Not only did it provide him defense, but it also gave him one point in dexterity. Although there was probably better equipment out there, he didn’t care. This was his first piece of armor and just by equipping it, he would already be stronger.

Sticking his hands into the gloves, Kaze moved his fingers around quickly. They were quite snug if he was being honest. He didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. Stretching his arms out in front of him, he gave them another look over before moving on. He had to double check to make sure he had them on right. It would be embarrassing if he didn’t.

Taking a seat on the ground, Kaze rested until his health was full before heading deeper into the forest. He still needed more loot if he ever wanted to buy the supplies he needed.

AN: Thanks for reading!