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Chapter 144: Tiger Team — Last Part
The stars in the sky were gradually being extinguished, and a giant cloud was moving to block off the moon. The night was getting darker.
Usually, players didn’t hunt monsters late at night. It was common knowledge that most monsters became stronger at night. As the reward and the experience points gained were the same, no one would want to take more risk without getting any benefits.
Anyway, there was a certain group of players waiting outside the Town of Beginnings. Although the series of events in the Town of Beginnings had come to an end, the town was still very crowded, as people still expected to stumble upon dragon cards by chance. To avoid encountering hostile groups, they chose to set up a tent in the forest far from town.
A small bush nearby shook, causing the young man who was on lookout duty to shift his gaze in that direction. Even though slimes were no longer living around there, there were wild cubs, Level 5 Squire Rank monsters, roaming around. They were somewhat aggressive, but, in front of him who was a Level 1,000 Knight Rank player, taking care of them was a piece of cake.
“Come here, little cub.” The man moved his hand to touch the sword around his belt.
Based on the game setting, if a monster’s level is much lower than a player’s, it will try to run away. That was why the man didn’t get a chance to kill monsters ever since he arrived on the Island of Beginnings. He had slowly built up frustration so he planned to kill this unlucky cub, who happened to appear before him, to relieve his boredom.
The small, wild cub emerged from the bush. Its body was shaking in fear. The system window informed the man that it was only Level 5 Squire Rank. He grinned and removed his hand from the sword. For this kind of monster, just a kick clad with qi would be enough to end its life.
The man released killing intent to pressure it, preventing it from running away. The four legs of the cub were shaking heavily as it let out a pathetic cry and looked at him to beg him for life. However, he didn’t care. The death of this cub had already been decided the moment it appeared before him.
Suddenly, when the sky was devoid of starlight, a gust of wind blew the cloud covering the moon away, revealing its blood-red colour and covering the island in red light. Once the cub was bathed under the red light, something the man never considered happened.
The cub’s body twitched twice before falling down on the ground. Both of its eyes were wide open. Seeing this, the man was surprised and stopped releasing his qi.
“Oi. What’s wrong? Don’t just suddenly die on your own. I still haven’t done anything.”
However, the body of the cub enlarged in no time. The system window also told the man something incomprehensible.
[Black Wild Cub, Level 5 Squire Rank, has evolved to Fenrir, the Black Werewolf King, Level 1 Lord Rank.]
The small body grew larger and became a five-meter tall monster. It stood with two legs, showing its white, dangerous fangs in its mouth. Qi was unleashed from its body, pressuring the man greatly. It was as if all the air had vanished; no matter how many times he breathed, he would always be lacking oxygen.
The werewolf’s red eyes glared at the man who was unable to stop shaking. His eyes were pleading for life. He wanted to beg for his life but his mouth couldn’t utter a sound.
“This... Bottomless... Power.” Words escaped from the monster’s mouth full of sharp teeth. It paid no attention to the man and howled.
“ARH-WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
At the end of its howl, the players in the tent immediately jumped out. Spotting Fenrir, everyone was startled and they came to an abrupt halt.
Soon, around a hundred black cubs ran up to them and gathered in the area. All the cubs bowed down to their pack leader, Fenrir.
The Werewolf King unleashed its power. It wasn’t qi, but a mark of territory. It was turning the area around the Town of Beginnings into its own territory.
All the wild cubs suddenly collapsed and their bodies shook. The players were relieved that the number of enemies had lessened, but the first man wasn’t. He knew what was about to come, and that caused his body to tremble even more. If the avatar in Monster Soul could urinate, his pants would already be soaked.
Every wild cub had their bodies enlarged, though they were half the size of their king. The system window continued to inform the players about the evolution of a herd of cubs. A hundred cubs had become Level 500 Marquis Rank monsters in an instant.
Fenrir’s eyes shot toward the Town of Beginnings, which incidentally was the middle of its territory.
“Kill them all!!!” roared Fenrir before letting out a long howl, which all the other werewolves returned.
“Arghhh!!!” The man screamed with fear and turned into light in the next instant under the qi-strengthened claws of Fenrir.
The fate of the other players was barely different. Being besieged by a hundred Marquis Rank qi-type monsters left them no chance to fight back. None at all.
Fenrir slammed its claws into the ground, crouching its body. Its qi was fused into its four legs, and it leaped into the Town of Beginnings. The rest of the werewolves did the same. They were barging into the Town of Beginnings, which would become their habitat in the near future.
***
The members of Tiger Team and Sila sat around a bonfire. There was no hotel in Elven Village, so they often set up a tent in the training ground.
“Okay. Let’s share our opinions. What did we learn from the mock battle with Sila?” Tiger broke the silence by asking a question.
“Qi type is superb.” Pim was the first to share, which Tiger frowned at and ignored.
“How about others?”
“I think Big Brother Sila is just too strong. We did our best,” said Aek.
Tiger shook his head. “True. Sila is strong. However, we shouldn’t have lost by that much. At the very least, we should have held him off for much longer than we did.”
It was as Tiger had analyzed; although Sila was strong, with Tiger Team’s overall ability which was quite good, they should have held Sila off for much longer. However, Tiger was unable to figure out where they went wrong.
As Sila used to be an assistant in his dojo, he offered a solution.
“Usually, people tend to overlook their own weaknesses. If you don’t mind, can you let me point out the flaws in your actions?”
Everyone was surprised to hear this. Tiger looked at his teammates and himself, all of them still unsure as to how they lost that badly, and decided. “Please do, Sila. Don’t hesitate to criticize us.”
Sila used a branch to draw a picture on the ground. It was an illustration that represented Tiger Team’s formation just a moment ago.
“The first was the formation itself. You said that it was your regular formation, but it reflects your lack of experience with fighting against human opponents. Your team placed Mister Tiger and Luna, who are the strongest members of your team, in the front row, instead of spreading them.”
Tiger seemed to get it, but Tod didn’t understand. “Isn’t it correct to place the strongest members in the front row, Big Brother?”
Sila calmly replied, “With your statement, I’m more certain that you all really lack experience fighting against highly intelligent opponents. The normal monsters might try to come at you from the front, but, for high-level monsters or skilled players, they will avoid confronting your strong points and aim at your weak link. This formation will only work if you can ensure that your opponent won’t come at you from behind. Mister Tiger and Luna are the most skilled members, so they should stay where either of them can reach to help out every other member. Moreover, both of them use mid-range weapons, so with their positions being close to each other, there will be many cases where they can’t show their true power.”
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Seeing that everyone was attentively listening to him, Sila continued.
“Mister Tiger and Luna are already quite strong so I don’t have many comments. As Luna seems to excel more at defense, you should concentrate on blocking unexpected attacks. With this, your formation will be harder to break. As for Mister Tiger, I think you excel more at offense, so you should support Aek, Tod, and Pim, who will be in the front row focusing on ending your opponent’s life.”
Aek, Tod, and Pim were quite taken aback. Normally, their role was supporting Luna and Tiger. They had never directly confronted the opponent before. “But... we aren’t that confident in taking on the role of a tanker. We don’t think we can take much damage.”
“That is why you three need to train your basics. Aek and Tod should practice a coordinated attack together. If you can, I suggest you two come up with hand signals separate from the team’s ones. This way, the team formation will be more complex, and the opponent will have a harder time reading what you will do next. Try to focus on defense rather than offense. Concentrate on throwing your opponent off balance so that Mister Tiger behind you can finish things up. Oh, another thing, you should practice wielding a spear without holding a shield as well. In an emergency, you can choose to discard your shield to focus more on attacking, and the opponent will have to readjust their strategy.”
Aek and Tod quickly wrote down Sila’s suggestions into their system window, while Tiger was listening attentively. The words from the expert were worth more than gold.
“As for Pim, I’m a qi-type player myself, so I have a lot of advice for you. Is that okay?”
“No problem. Your advice is welcomed.” Pim nodded.
“Your weapon is indeed very powerful, but your attack was too easy to read. I suggest you use it together with your hands and feet. The weapon should be your entire body, not just something you’re holding. Next is qi reinforcement, which I think you’re already doing a pretty good job. I only want to add that, you should practice using qi reinforcement in the instant your weapon makes contact with your opponent. This method will help you reduce your qi consumption. In addition, you should practice using qi to improve your movement. I’m certain that your movement can go a lot faster than you think.”
“Use qi reinforcement at the moment of contact? It’s my first time hearing it. Could you please show me how to do it?”
Sila nodded and flicked his finger at a nearby pebble. In the instant that his finger was about to hit the pebble, his fingertip emitted a red aura, and the pebble broke into tiny pieces in the blink of an eye.
Pim was blinking her eyes as everything had happened so fast.
“The trick is to activate qi at the last moment. Try to practice it. I don’t think it will be difficult for you. As for using qi to improve your movement, if I have a chance, I will transmit the Qi of Little Divine Beings to you.”
“Qi of Little Divine Beings! Do you have all four of them?! Like Mister Lone Wolf?!”
Sila nodded. “Yes. Half of mine were transmitted from Mister Lone Wolf himself. But, I don’t think I can transmit them to you in this place. I will contact you if I have a suitable place.”
Suddenly, his mansion came to mind. He wasn’t sure that his mansion possessed the same ability as the Mansion of the Seven Deadly Sins or not. However, he remembered he had heard that Sebastian had done something to the mansion, though he hadn’t been interested at that time. Well, he would just ask Sebastian or Julia the next time he saw them.
“Superb...” exclaimed Pim, while Sila turned his head to Jundtrathep and Pond who were speechless from all of Sila’s previous comments.
“Next, Jund and Pond. I’m not that good regarding magic so I don’t think I can give you much advice. However, I happen to know someone who is very skilled at using magic, so I will tell you what he told me about magic.”
The two girls looked at each other before turning their heads back to Sila and nodded. Their roles were to cast spells from a safe spot, so they were surprised that Sila still had some advice for them.
“For magic types, the key factor is timing. Use the most suitable spell at the right time and in the right place. This is the basic of the basics for every magic-type creature,” Sila paused. “This is based on my experience, but magic spells are like martial moves; don’t always think that you need to finish your opponent in one move. Sometimes, using basic attacks can lead you to a victory. Try to use low-tier spells to disturb your opponents or support your allies. Moreover, you should train to protect yourselves. When I attacked, only Jund, Pond, and Alice weren’t protecting themselves with energy reinforcement. This is a very important basic that most players on the Main Continent can do. If you don’t know what the opponent is doing, use energy reinforcement. If you are attacked, use energy reinforcement. If you don’t know which area the opponent will attack, just use energy reinforcement on your entire body. You should train to do this to the point that it’s your basic reaction.”
The three of them looked at each other. Alice had experienced cladding her arrow with psychic power, but Jundtrathep and Pond have never done so before.
“The last is Alice, you...” Sila turned his head to the girl, but she interrupted him.
“Are you good with psychic power or the bow?”
Sila shook his head. “No, I’m not. I’m still studying psychic power while the bow isn’t a weapon that I have ever used.”
Alice pulled a wry face, which Tiger couldn’t help but reprimand. “Alice, just listen. Don’t be too stubborn... Please continue, Sila.”
Sila nodded. “Firstly, Alice’s weapon of choice isn’t suitable for her personality. If you don’t train to calm your mind, I suggest you change your weapon. A bow is a weapon that specializes in precision, and allows you to attack from a distance. In our mock battle, you fired an arrow in a hurry and the advantage of the bow was lost. Please try to calm your mind if you plan on using it. I once encountered someone who was very powerful with a bow. She could fire an arrow at her opponent from over a kilometer away. Her attack was silent, powerful, and precise. Her opponent couldn’t do anything against such an attack.”
“Are you overexaggerating? Who would be able to perform such a feat, except...”
“I haven’t met her myself, but she seemed to be Nednapha, the vice-leader of the Mountain Thieves League.”
Alice shut her mouth. Everyone knew that there were only two players on Monster Soul who could shoot from that great of a distance.
“Even though I’m not good with a bow, I can still use hidden weapons. It’s true that the principles behind using a bow and a hidden weapon aren’t the same; the bow can shoot from a further distance while the hidden weapon relies more on secrecy. However, their concept should be the same; use them to kill, or to create an opportunity to kill.”
Alice started to listen more intently. The gang continued talking for a long time before they went to sleep, except for Pim who learned from Sila how to circulate qi to alleviate fatigue, causing them to spend time practicing together.
Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws was the only art that he wasn’t told to keep to himself, so Sila tried to teach Pim about its techniques. Well, he himself wasn’t an expert at this martial art so all he could do was convey what he currently understood about it.
On Pim’s side, she was trying to teach him how to use a mace, which Sila would rather call a hammer based on its appearance. Nevertheless, Pim insisted that it was a mace. Her system window even stated that it was a B-graded Non-Spiked Comet Mace.
Revealing the fact that he couldn’t use a main weapon to her, she still insisted on him trying to use it. To his surprise, Sila could wield it without any problems. He followed Pim’s instructions on how to properly use a mace and his movement wasn’t restricted in any way. This discovery caused him to wonder about the Right Arm of the Sealed One’s limitation. What would be called using the main weapon?
As he had studied more complex arts, he found that it was quite easy to use a mace. The uses of a mace were simple, yet powerful; the simplest attack could naturally exert the most powerful might. How to use it well heavily relied on how to make use of its weight.
The two of them practiced together for a long time. While Pim needed to take a break frequently, Sila didn’t need to. So, when Pim circulated her qi to regenerate her power, he would practice using Divine Raiment.
As ten hours had passed, Sila began to wonder the reason why the color of the sky didn’t change at all. It was as if morning would never come again.