It was another dawn, and a new day. Levi rose from his slumber, wiping the saliva hanging from his mouth. With ruffled hair, he stumbled over to the curtains and drew them, only to hold his nose from the stench of thick smoke wafting through the room.
Despite that, he gazed outside. The threat of the krag had vanished, and now, people were none the wiser to the dangers that had occurred last night.
Gregory had explained that a lot of civilians knew about the krag. It was widespread information. But there were also a lot of people that thought none the wiser. Maybe out of denial, an attempt to ignore the hell that plagued the krag-born each week. In their minds, it was just senseless murderers running about at night. If a body turned up torn and ripped apart on the street? It was the doing of psychopathic murderers.
Whatever their belief, one thing was always true; when night struck, stay inside.
***
It was later in the day now, and Levi was already in the forest hunting his next prey: Vilemaw. It was a hound like beast with dripping poison covering its devisting fangs. Like a raptor, it had one claw larger than the rest for piercing its prey, forcing it to stay put.
Unlike the previous hunt, this would begin a bit later in the evening. Although Levi still refused to hunt at night, he would just set up camp utilising cans with string for an alert system, along with his traps.
Talking of camp, he had already set it up. From in the morning, to gathering supplies that included anti-poison, and creating a safe camp in a good area near the hunting grounds, took him around 6 hours in total.
During the wait until late evening when the Vilemaw started its own hunt, Levi yet again practised fire augmentation with his thorned hammer. However, the more he tried, the more he just didn’t seem to get it. Like something wasn’t clicking internally. It was strange. When he had tried imbuing the kukri, it had taken him minutes, not hours like he was with the small polearm.
It wasn’t anything to do with the metal of the weapons either, as they were both the same; krag-metal.
Levi smiled. This would be where an academy tutor would really come in handy. However, if Levi had to take a guess in the dark, then he would label it as something to do with compatibility. When he felt the kukri in his hand, it felt comfortable; like an extension of his body. Was that just because it was smaller, more agile? He didn’t know.
Despite that, he still tried enhancing the throned hammer, but he had spent the time split between that, and the smaller blade. If he could refine the edge of the kukri finer, sharper, like a plasma cutter? That would be incredibly useful. Hell, it would be like a damned lightsaber.
Mind full of childish thoughts of the future, time passed in the blink of an eye. It was time to begin the hunt.
Leaving his camp with everything he needed, along with a smaller backpack just in case he did get lost, or something went wrong, he headed deeper into the forest. Last time against the Beast, he was in the south. Now, he was in the north. It was visibly darker than the previous, mountainous area, and the floor was a lot more bog-like.
He passed by a river and noticed that it was almost black, and shiny; like an oil spill. If his geography skills were up to par, then right now he was currently standing at one of the industrial plants run-off.
The entire area was polluted beyond belief. Scrap pieces of metal lay scattered around the river edge, bottles and tin cans floated down the river, along with copious amounts of various trash.
Beady eyes gazed at him from amongst the trash. And then it moved. It reminded him of a crocodile, but with smooth scales, and boils covering them. The monster rushed to a nearby floating piece of rusted metal, and bit into it, swallowing it whole.
Taking a careful step back, Levi gazed in shock at the area surrounding him. To most, it was inhospitable, containing god knows how many diseases within. But for the monsters here, it was their home. They used the metal as nourishment, however that was possible.
Levi stalked the riverside for around 20 minutes, the only light provided by the sparse sunlight hanging above the decaying trees.
It was then that he found it. A four legged hound was slowly creeping out of a black hole only 10 metres from the river’s edge. Levi got a good look at the creature. Two, large, bat-like ears, a long spiky tail, raptor-like claws, and glistening, putrid teeth. Glowing liquid dripped from the two top fangs, falling on the grey grass below. Levi could tell just from a glance at how potent that poison was. And it was a good thing Levi didn’t scrimp when it came to the anti-poison. He had bought the most potent one on the market.
As quietly as he could, Levi drank the anti-poison, which was also considered an Ingredient, just like anything else was in this world.
However, although Levi had attempted to be sneaky, the beast had heard him. Its ears twitched, head snapped in his direction. Upon seeing his white, tender flesh, the hound couldn’t help itself.
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Snarling, poison dripping, it leapt onto a large piece of rusted metal in the middle of the river, which appeared to be an old industrial fridge, then jumped to the other side.
Shit, Levi spat as he hastily placed fire traps in front of him, and to the left; where the inland was located. At the same time, he summoned Baphomet’s Spike.
The Vilemaw dashed straight at him, Levi brandished his thorned hammer. Taking his hand off of it for a second, he fired a blast of fire at the creature. Agile, and at high speed, the monster dashed to the side, dodging Levi’s spell.
It was about to dash into his traps, but at the last second, its nose twitched, and backed off.
Knowing the beast had somehow sniffed out his trap, Levi shot a lance of fire at the monster, narrowly missing its shoulder. Levi spat. He had read about how fast and agile the vilemaw was, but experiencing it in combat was an entirely different experience altogether.
But that wasn’t to say he had nothing prepared. Taking the hunt in the first place, he was more than ready. Levi, instead of aiming for accuracy, spewed out fire wildly, and in all directions. Luckily, his spell had covered the monster’s flank.
Its head swivelled, searching frantically for an escape. Seizing the opportunity, Levi fired another lance at the hound. Just as the projectile neared its target, the beast did something unexpected. Instead of continuing the fight on land, it leapt back into the river, finding precarious footholds among the debris. With cat-like grace, it sprinted over the scattered rubble, heading straight for Levi.
Heart pounding in his chest, Levi threw a blanket of fire with his spare hand all around him once more, this time covering the debris on the river in a blazing inferno.
The beast bounded for him. Levi raised his thorned hammer in preparation to defend. The hound’s entire weight smashed down onto the shaft of his weapon, sending Levi stumbling back. Flinging his body to the ground, Levi rolled over his trap. It didn’t go off. Not without his consent.
Levi immediately followed it up with a blazing lance. This time the creature was too close to dodge. The spell shot into its shoulder, flesh and fur sizzled.
Eyes blurring over in fury, Levi smelled opportunity. He used Incite, commanding the creature to step forwards. It listened, stumbling over his trap. In a fiery explosion, the creature was sent tumbling to the side, only to land on another well placed trap.
Despite the damage done to the vilemaw, it still stumbled to its paws.
Levi clicked his tongue in annoyance. His fire power wasn’t enough.
The beast, although slower now from the damage dealt to its underside, was still much quicker than Levi could hope to be. The fight resumed, with Levi bombarding it with fire spells, and desperately running behind his traps so that the monster couldn’t attack.
Minutes passed, and Levi had well and truly cornered the beast. All around, traps lay. Every now and then, Levi used Incite, making the monster stumble into the fire. Levi knew beforehand, but its highly resistant fire resistant fur was making the fight a lot more difficult than it should be.
In a last ditch attempt to consume Levi’s flesh, the vilemaw darted to the side of a trap, barely missing it, and leapt for Levi.
Levi's eyes widened as he dodged to the side, dropping his thorned hammer. In one swift motion, he drew his kukri, channelled fire through the blade, and gouged the beast's side. Levi felt the sensation of slicing through fur, and smelt the charred flesh in close proximity.
When the vilemaw landed on the other side, its entire right side was sliced open, embers stuck in its flesh. The kukri’s bladed edge, imbued with highly concentrated fire, acted like a hot knife through butter.
But Levi hadn’t escaped usnscathed either. He felt something hot across his chest. Glancing down, a large bloodied wound had sliced across his chest. Feeling the pain throb, Levi pointed his kukri at the beast, ready for another bout of attacks.
He didn’t have to worry. The beast finally collapsed to the ground, exhausted and defeated.
Levi neared the beast in caution. In a swift movement, he thrust the enhanced kukri in between the beast's rips, into its heart.
You have defeated: Vilemaw (Level 32)
| You have Levelled up: 34>35
| You have 2 unspent Stat points.
Your skill has Levelled up → Fire Control (★★★)
| You deal 30% more damage with fire Skills.
| Progress to next Level-up → 0/100,000xp
Your skill has Levelled up → Trap Making (★★★★)
| Damage with traps is increased by 40%
| Progress to next Level-up → 0/75,000xp
Levi collapsed to the muddy swamp floor, back against a cold decaying tree. His chest rose and fell violently, his body ached, especially his chest that throbbed with pain. But as he gazed at the System’s notifications, he grinned happily.
Baphomet’s spike had almost levelled up. He guessed two more strong monsters like the vilemaw, and it would reach the next stage. A whole 10% to his magic capabilities was nothing to scoff at, much like his Fire Control.
And, Baphomet’s Spike was only at the Common tier, which hopefully meant it had a lot of room to grow. If it even worked like that. He’d just need to wait and find out.
He placed both his points straight into Magic. Right now, he needed raw power in order to defeat these monsters quicker. The faster he could kill them, the more experience he would gain, and the more powerful he would become.
Resting for a few minutes, it was time to snatch up his reward. Levi focused on the corpse of the vilemaw.
Birthright Ingredient (Uncommon) — Vilemaw: the complete corpse of a vilemaw, known for its potent poison, and mana detection capabilities.
| Class: Rogue
| Path: Poison
Retrieving his hammer, hoisting the beast over his shoulder, Levi quickly returned back to camp before night out. He cleaned himself up, had something to eat, then retreated to bed after making sure all his camp’s defences were in order.
He had no intention of returning back to Ironvale in the morning. He had already notified and gotten consent from Bram to stay an extra day. So, tomorrow was going to be another full day of hunting.
It was time to master the hunt of the vilemaw.