After eating our lunch, we go back out of the city towards the forest because I still can't find the crystal fox, and I only have 5 hours left until nightfall.

While I'm walking, I meet a group of lizards again, but it doesn't take me long to kill them, and I keep walking towards the mountain of vultures and golem. As I don't feel any hurry, I collect all the herbs I see on the way and give them to Kawaii, who happily eats them without a trace.

Once I get to the top, I take out the butcher and transform it back into my vulture version to glide through the sky towards the lake area. While I'm in the air, I start looking below me, hoping to find that elusive fox, but all I see is the acid beetle and some singing frog beads.

I guess I'll have to hunt it during the night. For now, I'll hunt the other monsters around to get more stats and improve my swordplay, not to mention that I can sell the bodies I collect.

I'm looking for a safe place to land and start the hunt. But a small problem arises: there is no place to land because every time I find an empty area, there is a monster nearby, so I have to find one that is distracted from attacking it from behind.

While looking for an empty area or with a distracting monster, I see a place where there is an acid beetle fighting against a singing frog. The beetle has the same shape and structure as the bull beetle, with the difference that it has a purple and brown colour. Its size is 1 meter. The frog has the same characteristics as any frog, with the difference that its skin is blue and its eyes have an orange colour.

The frog launches its sticky bombs, which have the characteristic of sticking to the place where it hits, causing it to increase its weight. Still, the acid beetle uses the horn of its forehead to form a ball of earth and protect itself from the sticky bombs.

When the frog's attack ends, the beetle drops the earth ball and begins to spit a corrosive poison toward the frog. The frog starts to form a layer of water to protect itself from the poison. Still, it is useless because it combines with the poison and comes into contact with the frog's skin, causing it to rust.

CROAAACKKK!!!

The frog starts croaking in pain and rolling on the ground, trying to remove the poison from its skin. However, it is useless because the frog still does not get rid of its water layer. This skill was supposed to defend it and cause its death. This clearly demonstrates that not all defensive skills work for any situation. It is necessary to know when to use a skill and when not to use it to avoid adverse situations.

Once the frog dies, the acid beetle begins to approach the corpse to take it away. At that moment, I take advantage of the moment to fall into a dive. When I am barely two meters away, I flap my wings with all my strength to slow my fall, and I stick my sword in the beetle's neck.

The acid beetle feels my sword in its neck and begins to stir, so I quickly release my ability to end its life.

Cutting wind!

A strong wind surges from my sword towards the acid beetle's neck, destroying its body into hundreds of pieces that fly out in all directions. After that, a notification appears.

[You have hunted acid beetle.]

Well, I don't need a notification to know that this beetle is more than dead, so I ignore the notification and pick up what's left of its body. As for the singing frog, I leave it where it is because it's not safe to carry it in the inventory as its body is poisoned.

So I leave it in its place and start walking around looking for other prey. At that moment, I meet another acid beetle, and this one, when it sees me, starts to throw its corrosive poison. I run to the left to prevent it from reaching me with its poison. The beetle turns and continues throwing its corrosive poison for 4 seconds until it stops.

As it has stopped, I take the opportunity to run in its direction and cut its neck. Still, the area where its head connects to the thorax is very small, so I hit its thorax.

The blow only leaves a small dent in the beetle and moves it away a few centimetres. At that moment, the beetle generates a ball of earth in its horn and throws it at me. Its speed is not so fast, so I easily dodge it, then the beetle throws its corrosive poison again, so I run to the forest to use the trees as a shield. The poison hits the tree's bark, causing a part of it to melt, but not enough to make it fall.

After it finishes throwing the acid, I approach again to attack the beetle. It sees me and uses its horn to generate a ball and try to attack me, but I won't let it.

Screech!

It releases the horrifying noise of my wings to make it stop, and I take advantage of that brief moment to wave my sword with all my might and cut its head off.

[You have hunted acid beetle.]

I pick up its body with the beetle defeated and continue my hunt.

...

It's been three hours since I started hunting the surrounding monsters. So far, the result was: Brute Bull x18, Singing Frog x62, Acid Beetle x48, getting two achievements that gave me MP+20, Stamina+10 and Dexterity+2. Of all the monsters I faced, the singing frog was easier than I thought it would be since all I did was grab the bark of a tree and use it as a shield every time it threw its sticky bombs at me, then throw it and finally use the focused slash to kill it.

The only ones that gave me real headaches were the beetles and the bulls because the first one threw acid and knew how to defend himself. However, he could still be cut if I managed to aim at his neck, while the other was a bull on steroids that was not easy to cut.

At some points, I thought about sealing a bull to use in a fight, but the thought of being transformed into a kind of "Mr Muscle" bathed in oil. I automatically got the urge to try. I have no desire to develop my muscles to that kind of level. I'm already happy with my young adult physique, thank you.

So far, the fastest way to kill a brute bull is to use a focused slash at full power on his neck. The problem is that I have to aim well. The other way is to slash his leg joints. The problem is that whenever I do that, he attacks me with his fireball ability. The other way is to use possession and activates water wave + heavy slash.

The bad thing about the latter is that the possession lasts 10 minutes, which is little time if we consider that I have to look for the brute bulls during that period. The worst of all is that there are not many of these monsters nearby. I even tried to attract other bulls, but the only thing I got was that part of the forest was burned, which forced me to spend another sponge bomb that attracted a group of beetles.

.. how do you beat a guy that's hard to cut? Ki! O=('-'Q) Huh? I can't deny that you're right about that, but if that person has a defensive cloak covering his whole body, how do you do him? KIII! つಠ益ಠ༽つ ─=≡ΣO)) Ok, first of all, I can't do that, and secondly, how do you know about the Hadouken? Ki? ¯(°_o)/¯ *sigh* this won't lead to anything. Ki! ☉ ‿ ⚆

Damn it, this conversation will come to nothing. Let's think this through carefully. No monster or person is invincible. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Let's think about the biology of the earth bull. Besides its leg joints and stomach, what other parts are vulnerable?

We have the eyes, nose and mouth, let's discard the eyes as it can rotate its horns to protect them, so only its nose and mouth remain, but there is a small problem. When the brute bull charges toward me, it ducks its head in an attempt to hit me with its horns and break the bones in my rib cage.

The only option I see possible is performing a focused diagonal slash, something similar to when I faced the two-headed snake, it's risky to do, but in retrospect, when have I ever not taken a risk?

Well, it's time to try this madness since he who doesn't risk doesn't win, so let's go find a brute bull.

I start wandering through the forest, looking for a brute bull that is also roaming around. Oddly enough, it doesn't take me long this time, as I find a brute bull grazing near a mountain which quickly notices my presence and starts scraping the ground with his hooves.

I position myself to draw with my right foot forward as I turn my waist to the left and wait for it to get close enough for my focused slash to strike with full force.

The bull runs towards me as he points his horns and lowers his head, aiming for my ribcage without slowing down. It feels like he is trying to stop a speeding car, and meanwhile, I am trying to cut him off with my sword.

The distance is closing more and more, and I start to charge my skill.

5 meters, 4 meters, 2 meters... NOW!

Focused slash!

I unleash a focused slash at full power, which cuts the brute bull's head in half, but the beam of mana and wind fails to miss the rest of its body but stops when it reaches its neck.

But that's not all because the rest of his body is still moving and is about to hit me, so I quickly place my sword vertically to minimize the impact.

BAM!

My body is pushed backwards while my shoes leave a huge straight line on the ground, but I still manage to withstand it and keep Kawaii from getting hurt.

[-370 HP]

[You hunted brute bull]

The impact of that hit takes some HP from me, but they don't hurt that much as it's now in the 600s, so I quickly pull out an HP potion and an MP potion to restore myself to full HP.

At least I know I can cut his head in half with a focused slash, but I have to keep practising to achieve that without taking damage or lessening it.

In any case, let's continue our hunt.