Jun's POV

Cutting down yet another iron puppet I was oddly satisfied but felt an impending doom.

Due to your sense of danger, you have gained the skill [Detect].

Detect: Using your senses, you can detect when a dangerous enemy appears

I just glared at the message and it disappeared.

"Boss, something isn't right, want me to scout it out?" Nidalee asked

"Alright go, but be careful, I have a bad feeling about this." Corna said and Nidalee took off into the trees.

I started to repair my gear with a quick whet stone and some hammering when a notification popped up

Your party member [Nidalee] has been slain

Everyone jumped up on alert and gathered in a circle formation

"It was almost instantaneous, she didn't even have time to send a voice message" Hug Me No More exclaimed

"Don't panic now, if we start to panic we break formation" Salt commanded and that was when the puppets showed up.

They were different from the other puppets, this variant had a thin-stick like structure with two pods on their waist, their arms were also part sword. their head was arched back.

"I want to study" Corna moaned and then asked HMNM a question.

"Can you melt their legs, I want Salt to retrieve it with her spear"

"Can be done, but they look nimble, a wrong move can end with our deaths, and the preparations for the dungeon would be for naught" HMNM said.

"I want to study them, please, please, I beg you, let me study them" Corna was becoming more and more of a fanatic and this slightly creep Jun out.

"If you insist then I will oblige, besides I hate it when you are like that" HMNM sighed and released his skill for fireball.

Sensing the danger the puppet jumped to another tree and that was when the onslaught began.

From the two pods, strings lashed out toward the group, Vik blocked it with his sword but he found the puppet using the string as a slingshot to fling itself at Vik. They both collided and fell to the floor, This happened to everyone on the outer circle.

I used my sword to smash the puppet away from me, Vik managed to impale one of the body parts but the sword-arms cut a piece of her chestplate.

"Nimble, produces string, Tactics, What else can it do" Corna muttered crazily and she took out a staff. "Information Gather" and a bright light appeared from the puppets and dashed toward her.

"Protect the leader, she is currently sorting the information" Urn Stopper yelled out and we fought harder.

I keep getting notifications and level up icons as well as status conditions but I ignored them.

After a while the puppets finally backed off, but I could hear some rumbling in the distance, as if a giant creature was hurrying over here.

Multiple Notifications

Your party member(s): [Vik] and [Hug Me No More] has been slain

You have the following status: Hungry, Exhausted, Mind Down,

Following equipment has been broken: [Puppet Bastard Sword] [Leather Shirt] [Leather Arm Guards]

Following items aquired: [String Grapple Puppet Pod x 3] [String Grapple Puppet Right Arm x 2] [String Grapple Puppet Torso] [Metal scraps x 21] [Gold: 21 pieces]

Level up: x3 [Level is now 9] Skill points to allocate [30]

I whistled at what I got, but anger surged inside me "WHY SWORD WHY" I bellowed to t he world.

Sure it was crude, and not so durable but it was a weapon better than the starter sword nonetheless.

Salt had multiple wounds and what seemed to be a broken shoulder and arm while Urn Stopper seemed barely damaged, but he was coughing up blood like crazy

Corna got up from her meditating position and she seemed way to excited despite the ordeal we had experienced. "Information Collected, Species: String Grapple Puppet, Special skill: Grappling strike. and an interesting piece of information, listen to this,"

[The String Grapple Puppet is a variant of the Iron Puppet, they were gene modded to be faster, ignoring defense and focus mainly on attacking and dodging. They ravage their foes with their blade arms. Created by the Iron Puppet Boss Zeliowrath to recon and attack the [Kingdom] Faction. ]

"Interesting am I right" Corna was jumping with joy at the information she gathered.

"I wonder how powerful this [Zeliowrath] is, I mean, he created a puppet this deadly, he must be powerful" I asked, imagining the challenge it would be to take on this boss.

"Could be a raid boss, something on the level of the beta testers right now" Salt suggested, and this slightly punctured my thought balloon.

"We should head out, that rumbling sound is getting closer by the minute" Urn Stopper exclaimed and what he said was true, now the trees were shaking with each rumble.

We tried to escape from the area we were in but we met face to face with Iron Puppet Guardians were blocking our path, I tried to berserk rush them out of the way but they became Armor Cocoons, deflecting my attack.

"These god damn annoying ass puppets, MOVE OUT OF THE WAY YOU BASTARDS" I exploaded and started to pound on the shields yet they wont let up.

"Enough Gren, they are keeping us here for a reason let us find out why" Corna ordered and with a growl I fell back into place.

The rumbling stopped and from the trees a giant puppet appeared. On his back were multiple pods that the [String Grapple Puppets] wore on their waist, his arms were long and nimble, with holes at the fingers. the legs were more hoof-like and the face was as blank as ever.

You have encountered the boss monster [Zeliowrath] He has ordered his troops to surround you so that you cannot escape, [Forced Battle Activated] A force battle is where you have no choice but to fight, if you run then penalties will be given based on the action accordingly.

The fuck game devs, were you on crack when you made this function.

I was brimming with anger by then so I recklessly charged at the boss, despite my teammates screaming no, and that was when......