I get distracted so easily…

What was I going to say?

Something about actually proofreading for once?

Whatever. Thanks for reading. Please enjoy.

Chapter 9: Hunting Tigers

Minala’s POV

Star and Nala were already becoming famous as bounty hunters and as players. The central continent was one of the harder starting places for players to raise a character and level up. The central continent had ruthless bandit NPCs and tougher monsters than the other starting places on the continent. The Southern continent was the most dangerous known area in the game, but it had no starting zones and no one had been able to enter it yet. Even the surrounding areas were full of monsters too strong for the current players to fight.

Despite the central continent’s increased level of difficulty, Star and Nala had still managed to rise to near the top of all players. In the leaderboards, they were within the top twenty players in the game. Recently, Min had finally managed to get a class after the two of them claimed a number of difficult bounties; some were for bandits while others were for monsters. She now had the Monster Hunter class, which gave her a boost to certain stats and skills that made collecting bounties easier.

The girls had heard rumors online of an extremely powerful NPC murderer in the North. They wanted to head up there and fight him as much to claim the bounty on his head as for the excitement of fighting someone strong. Nala was always searching for stronger, better opponents to fight. In the real world, she didn’t really have anyone on her level to fight with and she felt restless and lonely because of it. This game was heaven to her, being able to fight interesting people and even monsters on a daily basis. She still trained and exercised, following her daily routine before entering the game.

Star and Nala slowly inched their way to the North as they improved themselves and were able to take on stronger enemies. The further away from the starting towns players moved, the stronger the enemies were. Dungeons were the exception. They tended to be monster breeding grounds or places that strong monsters lived. Dungeons were everywhere and one could find terribly strong monsters even within a few miles of some starting towns if one knew where to look.

Nala pouted, thinking about how someone would have already killed or captured the man in the wolf mask long before they ever arrived in the North. That wasn’t the only reason they had their current course in that direction though. On the way was a large city where they could gain better equipment, higher-level quests and who knew what else. It was the biggest city for over a hundred miles and was the stronghold for the central continent. It had been nearly five weeks in the game when they reached the city named Kor’anth and found themselves in awe as they passed through the walls.

There were buildings from before the war mixed with newer buildings. Large, elaborate, and beautiful buildings of the pre-war era stood next to a myriad of buildings, from small hovels falling apart to tall, militant towers. Despite the wide range of buildings, the city had a somewhat organized feel and the strange mix of buildings almost felt natural, as though the whole thing was planned from the start. Nala thought that the city was beautiful, happily walking around and enjoying the architecture of a different world while Star visited the temple of her god to pray and receive guidance.

Star’s god was Arkiel, the god of order and justice, responsible for the laws and the balance of order in the world. It was easy for Star to get quests involving the capture or elimination of bandits, building up reputation with Arkiel’s church so that she could eventually get better missions. The church had many paladins and warriors, ready to uphold justice with force if and when necessary. The church helped to defend the city from outside threats as well as any problems that occurred within the walls.

After her stroll around the city, Nala met up with Star at the temple and the two set off to resupply. They bought better weapons and armor as well as other supplies that they might need for the journey ahead. It was only when they were ready to head out that Star revealed and shared a quest that she had been given by the church. It was by far the most dangerous quest that they had ever been given. They would have to travel far and deal with great trouble to even get to the quest locations. The rewards, however…

Quest: Demons RisingArkiel’s priests have felt the powers of demons enter this world far to the North. If these demons are allowed to gain strength, they will cause chaos and death. They must be stopped before they become stronger and upset the balance of the world.

Kill all of the demons in Fort Sunset before they can cause too much damage.

Time Limit: 35 Days

Rewards:

5,000 Experience

300 gold Dunari

Looking at a map that was marked with the location of Fort Sunset, it would take some time to get there. Accounting for the monsters and leveling they would need to do on the way, it would be a close call whether or not they could complete the quest in time. However, that was part of what made it such an exciting quest for the two of them. Racing against time, fighting their way to a fortress, which they would fight their way into, and taking out the boss in the last minute of the quest. It was the joy of a gamer to overcome difficult challenges and be rewarded. Nala smiled and looked to the North, hoping that just maybe, the masked man was still around.

Frost’s POV

Frost stared down a group of five players as he hid inside a pine tree. They didn’t see him even though they were warily looking about, afraid that the wolf mask demon of the forest would descend upon them and take their lives. He reached for his sword. This was it. He could take them out here, should take them out to complete the quest so he could go about his business and stop being afraid of them revealing his identity. He only needed four kills and there were five of them. They were even a lower level than him, so it wouldn’t be difficult to take them down and finish the quest, but something about it made him feel disappointed, bored.

He frowned and simply watched them pass by rather than fight them. It was that element of fun and excitement that he was missing. The only question was whether or not he could slow down to have fun. Could he afford to take the time and do what he wanted to do when his time was limited? On the other hand, could he afford not to take Rose’s advice? Maybe he needed to slow down like Rose had said. The past few days, he had been stressed because of the quest and it had made him lose sleep as well as become irritable.

Maybe he really couldn’t afford to keep pushing himself, staying up without sleep to prevent anything from happening while he was away. Yes, he needed to slow down and enjoy the game before he physically or mentally broke down. He needed to take the time to do things that he wanted to do, and right now, he wanted to kill Tiger. How satisfying it would be to take out someone like Tiger as the final kill of the quest, like the boss or final enemy. If he killed just anyone it would be boring, unfulfilling, and it would leave him feeling empty. Any quest rewards would make him feel bitter and cheated every time he looked at them.

There was only one way he would be happy with the way the quest ended. Claw, Tiger’s twin, Blue, the mage, Bats the cleric, Sena the rogue, and Tiger himself. He wanted to kill these five to complete the quest and nothing else would satisfy him.

Frost started his hunt, slipping quietly through the forest and trying not to alert any of the adventurers to his presence so that they didn’t form an army again. This time, he wouldn’t be so lucky if they banded together against him.

His stalking skill had greatly increased over the past two weeks since leaving the city and it was fast approaching the Trained level. Skills would level up faster if one were actually good at them and slower if one was unskilled. Improving skills to higher levels provided a bonus to stats as well as affected how the skill performed. For example, a high level sneaking skill might make a character harder to see by adding a chameleon effect or perhaps partial invisibility. Each skill added different benefits and improved different stats when leveled up.

Moving through the forest, he only bothered to kill enemies when they were grein in groups of at least four, practicing for when he met Tiger’s group. He spent hours looking, hiding, waiting. The hunting party had already given up on looking for him and the sun was starting to set. He was ready to give up, finish the quest and move on, having already wasted too much time on his Tiger hunt. He needed to leave the forest to find a better hunting ground so that he could go back to leveling up.

Frost headed deeper into the forest where there would be fewer adventurers, munching on yet another grein steak as he went, something he was quickly becoming sick of. He planned to kill the next group of adventurers he came across and finish the quest. ‘When I get back to town, I’m filling my inventory with food supplies.’ The grein meat fell out of his mouth as he noticed a group of adventurers out of the corner of his eye, turned to face them while readying himself for battle, and realized who they were after he took a closer look. ‘What the fuck is this? I can’t kill him.’

It was Dorian. He was still distant but moving in Frost’s direction so he slipped behind a tree to let Dorian pass since the man was running and looking behind him. Dorian had only three people, which didn’t seem right. ‘Weren’t there four or five people in his group last time?’ He looked around the other side of the tree he was hiding behind to see something else he hadn’t expected. The way Dorian was running, he was clearly running from something, but Frost hadn’t expected that something to be the very people he had been looking for. What were the chances that he would find Tiger’s group in such a way? Dorian had helped him once again, leading his prey right to him.

Frost slowly moved into the tree’s branches, drawing his sword and hiding himself from view thanks to the dense wall of pine needles covering him. He let Dorian and his group pass, tensing up in preparation for what he was going to do next. This time, he wouldn’t be running away, but maybe, he could strike preemptively again, the same way he had attacked them last time. A rogue that he was unfamiliar with dashed past, followed immediately by Tiger and Claw. He let them pass as well, taking a quick step into the open to intercept the ones right behind them, sword pointed forward.

The mage impaled her self on the sword then found herself on her back as Frost spun, flinging her to the ground. Frost savagely attacked the cleric with repeated, heavy attacks, knowing he had to kill the man before the others realized he was there. He swung his sword, a strike that would finish off the cleric, allowing him to focus on the others without having to worry about them being healed. His attack was stopped as he was tackled to the ground. Frost had to roll and throw off the guy on top of him, noticing that it was Claw as he did so.

The cleric, Bats, was already healing himself, Tiger standing in the way of Frost, preventing him from ending Bat’s life. This was bad. Their names were red again so they must have gone back to killing other players or NPCs. They were surrounding him, weapons drawn while the spell casters mumbled their spells. He attacked, throwing himself physically and mentally into the fight. His sword flashed, but he was quickly forced onto the defensive, desperately trying to fend off the two sword and board brothers, the rogue, and any spells from the mage. He didn’t even have time to think about where Sena, the other rogue, might be or if she was even with them anymore.

He felt himself slow down somewhat as the mage’s spell tried to freeze him, though it only affected him a small amount due to his resistances. His health decreased as he took hits, while any damage he did to them was fixed by the cleric. The mage’s spells were mostly ice based since ice spells were stronger in the frigid environment. One minutes passed, then another as they chipped away at his health. The mage began to run out of mana from constantly casting spells and the cleric was getting low as well.

“Damn, he’s tough.” Tiger growled.

“We’ll have him soon though,” Claw grimaced as the fight continued.

Frost threw his sword into the air and whipped out his staff from his extra-dimensional bag as his health reached a quarter of what his maximum was. He couldn’t afford to use his skills because his stamina was too low. He had very high stamina for someone of his level, due to all of his training, but he was beginning to run out due to the long fight where he had to move three times as much as his opponents did. If he did use his abilities, he’d end up too weak and tired to fight, which would leave him at the mercy of his enemies.

Tiger’s eyes widened. “That staff! I knew it was you.”

“That mask must hide his identity as a player,” Blue huffed.

The sword sliced Tiger’s shoulder as it fell, sticking into the ground. He was surprised and distracted enough that Frost was able to escape the encirclement and swing his staff at full strength. He struck Tiger in the head, knocking him of balance, then charged forward, towards the cleric. Bats made the mistake of trying to run, being fast enough to get some distance from the group. Frost easily chased him down, quickly striking him in vital areas to reduce his health. The cleric had only healed himself to half health, trusting his party to defend him and saving his mana so he could heal them. It left him with low enough health that Frost was able to quickly finish him off before the others could reach them.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

His situation didn’t look good though, since his health was only at twenty percent while they were sitting around eighty percent. Frost spun his staff, blocking, striking, and doing anything he could to not get hit while also trying to damage them. His strikes took off chunks of their health, but he had to defend against three of them and also took hits. With his high strength, he did a lot of damage with every solid hit, taking only scratches in return, his quick movements keeping him from taking any serious hits. It was still a game though, and a hit was a hit, meaning his health points were getting dangerously low.

He still had to kill three of them before he could end the quest, but at this rate, he was going to die before that happened. He was afraid and angry that he had been so overconfident. If he had managed to kill the cleric at the beginning of the fight, he could have easily taken them down. He should have used his skills to kill the cleric as quickly as possible but he had been a fool and made a deadly mistake. The mage began casting a spell again, having recovered enough mana to do so while the rogue circled behind him.

He was scared that he was going to die and scared of what the game would be like for him from now on. His vision narrowed and everything seemed to slow down as his body moved. His body moved, as if it was his reflexes, his body, something taking control of his movement and his mind. His mind stilled and his body moved, spinning dodging, and blocking without thought. It was that feeling again, the one he hadn’t felt since that time in school that felt like it was so long ago. He moved on instinct, faster than before, more smoothly, more efficiently. He cut down their health, the staff spinning with power and grace as he fought better than he ever had before. It wasn’t enough.

His health was too low by the time he entered that hyper focused state and he still received hits, though he was hit less often than before. His opponents had too much health and there were too many of them for him to beat at this point. It was frustrating, but after all his hard work and planning, he was going to lose. He had no tricks up his sleeve or plans to help him escape. He probably wouldn’t even be able to take one of his opponents with him when he died. He was going to lose and all because of his stupid pride, foolishly wasting time because he wanted to make the game more enjoyable. He shouldn’t have listened to that crap, though it did seem like good advice at the time. ‘Fun? What bullshit. I should be taking this game more seriously. I have to win. No more fucking around.”

Tiger raised his arm and shouted, “Deadly Strike!” He was confident enough to shout out his skill, knowing that there was nothing Frost could do. Frost didn’t know what the skill did, but with his health under ten percent, there was a good chance it would kill him. That is, if the skill had ever hit him. An arrow had suddenly appeared in Tiger’s neck, causing him to stumble and miss his attack. Suddenly, there was a third party engaged in the fighting but Frost didn’t take the time to look, instead leaping away from the fight so he could take a breather and understand the situation.

He stood off to the side, panting as he tried to catch his breath, quickly looking around the battlefield. Someone was on top of the mage stabbing her repeatedly with a dagger while another stood in the back wielding a bow and taking aim at the rogue. And there in the middle of it all was Dorian fighting toe to toe with Claw. ‘Holy shit, Dorian. You are my fucking hero. Again. What are you, my guardian angel?’ He hadn’t expected Dorian to come back and join the combat. If it were him, he’d probably be long gone, having already forgotten the situation.

Tiger was furious as he looked at what was happening. He started to turn, moving to help his brother who was in combat, but then he stopped, head turning slowly to look in frost’s direction. He looked at Frost with a look of such hatred and rage that it sent a shiver down his spine. He thought that maybe he shouldn’t take the game that seriously after all, if he was going to end up like Tiger; pissed off all the time and focusing on generally being an ass hole. Tiger ran towards him, guard up, and Frost was forced to take a defensive stance. He had barely recovered, but Tiger had to be low on stamina as well.

Frost knew that he had to make a move here or the angry man running towards him would overwhelm him. He did the only thing he could think of and went on the offensive. He took a quick step forward, feinting with his staff towards Tiger’s face before dropping low and kicking his enemy’s legs in an attempt to trip him. Tiger went down easier then expected, sliding forward on the snowy ground. The time he took to stand up allowed Frost to continue catching his breath. His stamina was dangerously low, as was his health. Any time he could get recovering both of them would help him deal with Tiger who still had forty percent of his health left.

They began to circle one another, kicking up snow as they moved. Tiger attacked first, trying to interrupt and prevent Frost’s flowing movements with continuous attacks. He had to admit that the strategy was effective and he wasn’t used to fighting against an enemy with a shield. The two tested each other, knowing that this one on one fight would be different from the other fight. It was a one on one and Frost’s health was still below ten percent, leaving him vulnerable. A critical hit or a clean strike could finish him off so he had to be careful and only strike when Tiger was too off balance to counter attack or he risked death. However, Tiger knew that Frost was the better fighter and much stronger than him. One bad move and the tables would turn, leaving Tiger the one face down in the snow.

Frost held the staff behind him with one hand, sliding his feet into a stance as he let out a deep breath, holding one hand in front of him palm facing towards his opponent. Tiger snarled with rage as ha charged forward, intending to end the fight as quickly as possible. If it came down to a hitting contest, Frost would be the one to go down first, so he was attempting to lock Frost into an extremely close quarters battle. What he got instead was a full power overhead swing crashing down on his hastily raised shield.

Just as Frost was unfamiliar with fighting against shields, Tiger was not used to the versatility and speed of a staff. The two struck at each other, trying to gauge how to go about attacking the other. Frost was at a disadvantage for another reason, that being that Tiger’s companions were a higher level than Dorian’s. He needed to finish the fight before anyone else could complicate the situation. He still had forty some stamina left, too little to use skills, but enough to take down Tiger.

There was one passive skill he could use, but Heavy Blow could leave him vulnerable to a counterattack. Using the momentum of a sideways spin, Frost brought his staff crashing down in a one-handed, overhead blow while he moved forward. As the staff bounced off of the shield, blocking Tiger’s view, he pulled out a dagger and surged forward, stabbing the blade into Tiger’s side. He left the blade there as he hopped back, readying the staff again in case Tiger tried to do something.

Tiger moved to pull out the blade because if he left it in there, it would continue to do damage. The moment he moved, Frost whipped his staff forward in a thrust, striking Tiger in the forehead.

Frost took the opportunity to land another strike, and another, landing deliberate blows to throw Tiger off balance. Frost rushed him, hitting his knees, his head, and his body, doing whatever he could to keep him off balance and finish him as quickly as possible. Tiger fell backwards but quickly rolled to his feet and even pulled out the dagger, once again ready for battle. He had less than twenty percent of his health left, but Frost was out of tricks. He would simply have to use his skills with the staff to kill Tiger before he himself was killed.

“Deadly Strike!” The attack caught Frost by surprise, but he managed to get his guard up. He tried to block with the staff but the attack pushed through his guard, cutting into his shoulder. He saw his health drop frighteningly low and pushed the sword away. Even a light hit could kill him so now he had to be even more wary. His health next to zero and his stamina running low, he decided to take a risk, betting everything on his speed and strength. ‘Furious strength!’

Frost roared a battle cry as he charged forward, swinging his staff with as much speed as he could, betting everything on this last ditch effort. He put everything he had into those strikes. He had about five or six seconds before his stamina ran out and he was too tired to move. Within one second, he had closed the distance. In the second he had begun his attack and by the third, managed to land a hit. In the fourth second, with lightning speed, he landed two more hits and could see the terror in Tiger’s eyes. He hadn’t been expecting such a furious rain of blows after having nearly killed Frost, but his own stamina was too low for him to do anything but try to defend by turtling. In the fifth second Frost swung his staff with all his strength as he slipped behind Tiger, striking him in the back as his skill ran out, taking almost all of his stamina with it.

Tiger fell to the ground, his soul escaping his body. Frost wanted to fall to the ground and lay there as well, but he still had work to do. He needed two more kills and there were two of Tiger’s group still alive. It was a shame that Tiger hadn’t been the final kill, but he was satisfied nonetheless as Claw and the rogue were still standing and trying to hold off Dorian’s party. He put his staff in his pack and picked up his dagger, walking over to recover his sword. Frost saw that he had three stamina left and it was recovering very slowly as he watched the fight continue. All of them had low health but Dorian’s team still had three people alive so they had an advantage. At this point in the game, the level difference was not that much of an advantage so Dorian and his team were slowly increasing their own advantage over their opponent.

Frost walked slowly towards the combat, completely exhausted. The rogue took an arrow to the shoulder and the other combatant took advantage of the distraction, striking him with a short sword while Frost raised his arm. The rogue’s health dropped even lower and Frost flung his dagger, striking him in the back. His soul escaped his body, leaving Frost with only one more person to kill. Claw’s health was already low and multiple arrows stuck out of his limbs and shield. Frost charged forward as fast as he could manage, sword held low and the tip facing forward. Claw turned just in time to take the sword in the gut as Frost rammed into him. They tumbled to the ground, neither of them getting up.

*Ding*

It was done. Frost heard a ding as he lay there, barely able to breathe, out of stamina and completely helpless. Dorian and his two companions stood above him, looking down on the man who had made all of Doel and those living in the area afraid of even entering the forest. Now he was here, nearly dead and completely helpless before them. Killing him would be as easy as killing a child asleep in his bed.

The archer sighed and turned away, putting his hands behind his head. “He saved our asses so I guess we can’t just kill him.”

Dorian chuckled and put away his sword, sitting on the ground and letting out his held breath. “That was tense.”

“Do you think he’s going to kill us when he recovers?” Frost realized that the dagger and short sword-wielding fighter on Dorian’s team, who had just spoken, was actually a female elf. It had been hard to tell anything detailed about them in the hectic fight and he hadn’t paid any attention to them when he had run into them before.

Dorian looked into Frost’s eyes, tilting his head thoughtfully. “Maybe, but I think not.”

The three looked at each other before moving away to have a small conference a little distance away. They came back after a few minutes of quiet arguing and discussion. The three bowed to him. “Thank you for saving our lives. We’re sorry we killed wolves and we won’t do it again.

“I thank thee…huff… for saving mine.” He took a moment to catch his breath some more so that he could get out the next few sentences without dying of a lack of oxygen. “I shall show thee mercy for now and return to my realm soon, but know that I will return in the future, even stronger, should the massacre of wolves continue. Spread this message to those who would slay my wolves.”

They smiled when he said he would show them mercy, knowing that he was still weak and close to death. His health and stamina were beginning to regenerate now that he was out of battle so he would soon be at fighting strength again. He was about to stand up but he decided to look at the message window that had dinged earlier instead.

Quest Complete!

To resolve Wolf Spirit’s Anger, wait in the forest at night, with a full view of the moon.

It didn’t take too long for him to fully recover since recovery speed was tripled outside of battle, meaning he was recovering a health point per second. He sat up and took his sword out of Claw, sheathing it at his waist. He looked around and noticed why they were still waiting as he went to retrieve his dagger. They wanted to know how they would split the drops. Whenever someone died, they would drop between ten and thirty percent of their Dunari, with a good chance of other drops as well. Anything that was equipped had only a very small chance of dropping, but it could still happen.

“Do you want the Dunari, or the drops?” Dorian asked.

Frost answered by gathering the dunari together and putting it in his pack, waving goodbye as he walked deeper into the forest. It was a total of two gold, seven silver, and three copper dunari, a hefty sum for someone of his level. Finally, the quest was over. Frost laughed to himself, the excitement of the battle still fresh in his mind. Right now, he was winning battles through a combination of skill, sparring experience, and luck. However, he planned to eliminate luck from his battles so that he was winning with skill and experience alone. He still had time to become the best, and he was going to start using every moment of that time to improve himself. From there on out, he was playing only to win.