Chapter 161 - Vol. 3 - Chapter 26

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After the short scuffle with Anjo and his Ebonhand guild, Mathias continued on his journey by climbing up to reach the mountainous region of Gravelmark where he was at about 2.200 meters range.

This part of the mountain was the territory of a dangerous monsters, but once he appeared there it was as if he reached a new stage, walking down the forested area of this range, he could see the tall trees covered by snow, while one couldn't even see the path, it was rather barren around this entrance to the lake zone.

Walking on the forested path that remained the same as in the past when he journeyed from Cidarian to Titan using the "shortcut". He was taking his time on the walk, as if he was hiking in the mountains.

Then, after a while he started hearing signs of activities, and with a curious mind, he followed the signs of the strife going on inside the forest where he noticed a man.

Mathias could see a young man about the same size with himself, having tanned skin, a well built physique, and a handsome face to top it off, which didn't tell anything to him, but overall, his appearance was familiar, and while watching this group of 4 guys fighting the Giant Mountain Bear, thoughts came to his mind.

[Giant Mountain Bear - Lv. 95][35.824/62.500 HP]

'They teamwork is actually good. Each knows when to attack and they don't make risky attacks that will lead to them getting one-shotted by the high-level monster.'

Watching him fight against that mountain monster, along with the rest of guys who used conventional weapons instead of fighting with fists, he found why he found this person familiar, it was someone who he viewed highly with regard to the game path he chose.

[Cain - LV. 64]

The other 3 friends who were at level [67] fought shoulder to shoulder with their leader who dictated the phase using a high tempo of punches that he landed on the giant body of the bear, while remarking with a pleased tone.

"See you morons, I told you my class would be a hit, once I get to those big targets. How can I miss my jabs and straight hands? Especially my Ruin Fist?"

The fight between the Guild [2Stoned2Care] and the Giant Bear from Mathias's perspective was a long one, because the monster had a big level advantage compared to the players and also had the benefits of a higher attack and HP gauge which slowly turned the 4 guys to slow their tempo, beginning to conserve their resources.

Watching them from the top of a tree that garnered him the best view of the scene, it gave off the impression Mathias was some stalker, but in fact he was just curious about how these familiar people fared against the high level monsters of this zone.

"Arturo, there's some guy staring at us while his name is Red. This guy is PK-er. Should we take care of him before he does something funny?"

"Ahh, you also noticed the guy on the tree? Mhmm, he doesn't seem to attack us, so let's focus a bit more on the bear."

"Still, I worry that guy will PK us and steal the loot." called out one of the [2Stoned2Care] members, while giving Mathias a short look before returning at his fight.

Looking at how his guild members started slowing on their performance, it got Cain annoyed and while passing the tanking job to one of his friends, he looked up at Mathias and shouted at him, questioning his intentions.

"Hey, you! The one with the weird hat, are you planning something on our team?"

"Me? Not at all. I was just watching your fight against the bear so I can analyse and understand the attack patterns of the monster. So when I fight one, I can take them down easy."

"Hah? Hey guys what did this guy just said? He sounds like those nerds who do the talk-shows and podcasts. Only knowing how to talk instead of fighting."

"Tsk, Arturo, damn it! Get this bear off me, he hits like a truck! Don't bother about that guy since he seems to not want to attack us, but watch the fight." shouted the guy who was suffering against the strong attacks of the Giant Mountain Bear.

"Tsk, you guys are so stupid. Just keep the distance with the jab, some quick steps like Ali, maybe even a cheeky dance to taunt the bear." remarked Cain with some sarcasm before charging at the monster and striking with a heavy body shot which created a shockwave.

*ROARR*

"Fuck it! I hate fighting monsters with a lot of HP. There's no realism against this monster. If this was real, the bear would be fucking dead."

Mathias, who heard that, scoffed a bit, which made Cain switch his attention back at him.

"What's with this smirk? You don't believe me? Maybe I didn't kill a bear with my own hands myself, but my old man did this when he was in his prime. He blasted the brains of a bear with his hands."

"Haha, interesting story. I doubt it really happened, but sure. However, turn around, the monster is enraged at you. It got to his rage phase."

"Rage Phase? You mean it got flustered. You gamers with your gaming linguo is really confusing. Can't you just call things simpler? Besides, now that I look at your face closer, that mug is similar to a guy who gave me a weird look in the past."

"The Guild Wars Event?"

"Yeah, so that's where I found you familiar. How's life dude, it's been a while since the fun times were shut-down."

"As you can see, I watch you."

"ARTURO, FUCK YOU! Can you for once stop getting distracted so we can kill this monster?"

"... Fucker, I just reunited with an old aquintance and you make it harder on me. 200 extra Push-ups when we meet in the morning."

"What? No way."

"No way?"

"... Fine. Can we just kill this monster?"

With a semi-successful attempt of gathering his attention, the guild members managed to remind Cain to be focused on the fight which makes Cain return back fully committed to the fight.

The whole fight took about 35 minutes, but their damage was still high enough to wound the bear whose mechanics were relatively easy to remember.

This was something Mathias did from where he was, talking with Haycien inside his mind about the various attacks the bear had in store, and he concluded that he could defeat the monster by himself by using the kitting mechanics of his Spear and Bow techniques.

'Overall, the attack pattern of the monster is quite telegraphed. Once you see his muscles on his front legs tensing it will be a charged attack. While as for the back leg muscles, it means that the monster will do the Torn Bite Attack.'

'The abilities are also limited even for the Elites being only 5 main abilities, the [Torn Bite Attack], [Claws of the Beast], [Roar of the Hunger], [Stunning Blow], [Charged Anger]'

{This beasts shouldn't prove too difficult to defeat. You just need the power to wound it, and also the agility high enough to dodge its attacks, or a defense high enough to block it.}

'That's about the summary of this monster. A basic monster with a lot of health and attack power, with easy to read mechanics.'

After the Bear got killed, Mathias saw how the group leveled up once.

"Nice! One level-up. The struggle was worthed. This is a great hunting ground." commented one of the [2Stoned2Care] members after leveling to [68].

"Indeed, congrats on the fight. And good luck with the rest of the hunt. However, if I am not wrong, this area is the territory of a Perython, a monster with level of 170-200."

"I think I heard some beast cries while we got here. It came from the air." remarked Cain who walked toward the dead bear which didn't vanish yet, as if he had some quest to complete.

Arriving in front of the bear, he went straight for his chest using his hands like swords to rip the chest cage and retrieve a bloody heart that he started eating from, making some of his friends turn their heads around with expressions that gave off a sense of puking.

"What's wrong with you, dumbasses? This is for my Class Growth. The weird guy with hat, thanks for the point about the "Perython". If we encounter it, we'll do some survival tactics, and dig a trench to hide. Haha, just like in the old movies."

As the young man finished eating the heart, the bear started turning into grey light, leaving out only the group of players, with the [2Stoned2Care] guild focusing on Mathias, while the crimson-haired man was focusing on Cain, pondering on what class he might have that required him to eat the organs of the monsters.

When he asked Haycien, he received no concrete answer. {I have to ponder about this too. I am not a Sage to know everything from the top of my head.}

Meanwhile, Cain invites Mathias to his party since they were still trying to explore a bit this zone of the Gravelmark, but he gets rejected, with Mathias starting to walk in the western direction as if he had an target already in mind, which took aback the Stoned guild members, who found this place an hellish hunting ground, only doing it, because they were forced by Cain.

Not minding the rejection, Cain also took off along with his guild mates moving to search for another Giant Bear which made the guys cry in suffering, finding their gym leader an low-key sadistic fuck who enjoyed to torture them by fighting insane high leveled monsters.

At least they could see their level skyrocket from where they were seated at level 50, suffering from an inability to make fun of Cain for his low level.

Back to Mathias, he continued his journey along this region of Gravelmark that he didn't explore at all in the past, this time using some of his curious mind to check around while keeping his path toward the Western point of the Mountain, following Elder Morlk's guidances toward the cave the creatures were spotted troubling the group of players.

Exploring this part of the mountain, it didn't take long for him to be spotted by some creatures that were quite gutsy to prey on Mathias, it was a group of predatory birds about the same size as a regular hawk with a large wingspan.

The only twist about those hawks were the blood-colored feathers which gave off a metallic stench as if being colored by actual blood, and the heads of those monsters, reminded Mathias of some documentaries he watched about the worst type of animals who will never see Heaven, and this monster looked akin to a Giant Petrel, only having some features of a Hawk.

'Goddamn, can you see that monstrosity?'

{Ehhh, kill them quick. They look disgusting. Like some barbarians who never saw water in their life.}

'I'll try my best, but I have no clue what to expect from them.'

[Blood Hawk - Lv. 85][20.000/20.000 HP]

***

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