L pulled the last arrow out of the last purple creature, a somewhat dissatisfied look weighing down on his face. A cool breeze stung his naked skin as he walked back to the Wild Cat’s carcass, and with his hunter’s knife he began to skin it. Unfortunately, hauling 150 pounds of cat for an hour’s walking distance to the village was far too much of a pain. The carcass, as lacking as it is in meat, would certainly attract hungry prey in suicidal numbers. He would have buried the thing and retrieved it later as it would have sold well for the meat, bones, and as a trophy--and quite possibly alchemical processes as well-- but with no shovel such an exercise would prove far too arduous for L’s hands. Certainly, he could heavily infused dark mana into his hands, further morphing his human hands into that of a more similar condition to a Darklings claws, but L was in no such mood to perform that taxing and time-consuming process either.

As L skinned the beast impatiently, his minds began to wander off in unpleasant directions. This remained lacking in a way, just like the past worlds. How many times had he already done this type of ambush in previous fights? How many times has he assassinated mightier monsters by careful usage of mind, tactic, and wit?

Many, many, many times. So many times that even the euphoria of leveling up and advancing towards great power had begun to lose its novelty. Such deeds no longer became achievements, but the expectation, a chore, a process.

Much like everything else I do.

L spit to the side, more out of frustration than necessity. There was no satisfaction in this type of warfare. No excitement or the tip of a blade a breath away from splitting his skin open, which L noticed that they were but one and the same. It should have made L’s heartbeat. Each one of these purple creatures had similar physical stats to L, as even he would have difficulty piercing clean through the back and front of the beast with a rusted sword.

They were also four of them, which meant that in a direct confrontation, unless there were four of him, L would have certainly died. Maybe he would be able to outwit two of them at a time with swordplay, but three was suicidal, and four was just masochistic.

But this was no direct battle. A blade to heart from the safety of darkness, an arrow to the skull, and a nearly dead beast to riddle with arrows from the comfort of the bushes was anything but direct. The rewards were certainly the same, regardless of how he would have killed them, but it certainly lacked in everything else.

“At the very least, this fight made me realize how tired I am of beating around the bush.”

L paused expectantly. He glanced around feverishly. Then, he giggled.

Ew.

“Shut up! That one was good. It came out naturally.”

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Shit comes out naturally too, but I don’t see you being proud of that.

“Well, I’m glad I don’t have to shit in this gameworld. Besides, or should I say at the very least, I hope you agree with me in saying that a naturally created shit is much less horrifying than an artificially created one.”

Null did not answer. A long silence passed as L worked on the cat.

How can a piece of shit, shit?

L’s hands froze. He closed his eyes, relaxed his body, and counted to ten.

“Null?”

Yeeesssss?

“That was...actually decent. I’m impressed.”

I am a quantum processing brain, you know! Though my shit is shit, it also concurrently exists as not shit, which-

“Ok, you can stop now.” L said.

Salvaged Unidentified Skinned fur.

L threw the fur over his shoulders. Dirty blood started dripping down his back. It certainly was discomforting and the smell was becoming increasingly obnoxious, but L had little option to do otherwise. Until he could buy an expensive spatial ring, or beg his newly acquired utterly useless master for a backpack, L would have to carry everything.

Killing monsters in the vicinity of a village or city was generally awarded by the local city or garrison, but this being Null Online, where many things were sometimes necessarily obnoxious, it came with a catch. How would they know you actually did kill the monsters? Null’s philosophy was that before this was a game, it was a world. And while the world would account for every beast you kill, the NPCs certainly would not. The AI controlling character progression was an entirely separate entity from the AI which operated the NPC’s.

Therefore, there had to be proof of your deeds. One of two options was that you would have to show evidence of the body. Of course, hauling a Troll across great distances would prove far too ridiculous and bothersome, and even Null Online, one of the illegally highest realism games, did not force the players to undergo such realism. Instead, they are given the option of swearing upon the name of their Deity to prove their deed. Lying would result in a wide variety of instant deaths, each unique to the Deity’s own field of work. This way, those who profit from the destruction of civilization won't also be able to easily reap its fruits. Implementing this system, however, put the AI in quite a difficult bind, as it could not come up with a reasonable argument that would explain why every guard did not force every player to swear upon the name of their Deity in order to weed out followers of unwanted Deity’s.

The least world breaking solution was that the AI was simply barred from requesting anyone from calling upon their Deity. It broke the immersion of an intelligent world to not capitalize on this feature, yes, but between this and granting players the powers to put entire corpses into other dimensions, Null Online evidently chose the former.

L also opted for the former, as the later was an issue for L. He could hardly call upon Kenos, The Lord Of the Void and not expect to be booted out of the village.

Creating a backpack with Dark Mana was out of the question. The required size, space, and technique to make an object that complex was far beyond L’s capabilities. Though he was able to create a small pouch to store the Elvish ears of the purple creatures. He would still need to carry one of the bodies back for identification, as L had little clue about what type of creature this was, but it was much easier than carrying all four back. This way, the ears would serve as proof of the other’s demise.

The village gates would be locked as the night held its clutches upon these lands. L would have to carry around this smelling carcass and just hope that no beast will attack him for it. This also gave L good excuse as to why he took so long to report back to the village after he had 'avenged Thrawl and his daughter, whose bodies were, unfortunately, whisked away.' L could also score some points by informing them that the wildlife is becoming increasingly scarce. That Wild Cat, as L began calling it, was starved, which was extremely odd considering how powerful it was, even when starved. It also looked like a decent hunter, even if it wasn't a decent fighter. They probably knew that considering they had a much more experienced hunter, but there is the possibility of being assigned a quest upon bringing it up with the village leader. For now, L chose to scout out the dungeon before the leader of these creatures notices that a part of his forces had gone missing. Depending on how intelligent the boss was, raised security and scouting could make L's job of murdering all of them slightly more difficult.