Liam kept a calm mind, falling back. The five rabbits fletched their teeth and hopped after the intruder.

“Get ready!”

Liam warned his teammates, but it turned out to be unnecessary. The two young women were indeed martial artists in real life, not flustered by a mere five rabbits.

Silver Blade took a step forward, ready to fulfill the role of tank. Meanwhile Cyclone swung her wand. Mages had normal attacks as well, dealing magical damage.

[-62!]

A surprisingly high number rose from the head of a rabbit, caused by Cyclone’s new equipment.

The rabbit didn’t have much HP, dropping dead on the spot.

Silver Blade smiled brightly at her best friend:

“Good job Cyclone!”

The smaller girl smiled foolishly, clearly enjoying the feeling of triumph over the monsters.

At this moment Liam arrived with the other four rabbits. He stood still, swinging his sword.

[-42!]

Immediately another rabbit was down to critical health. But the fierce opponents also knew how to attack.

Sharp teeth snapped at Liam’s leg. The warrior calmly placed his sword in the way, not taking any damage.

[Stance -4!]

Silver Blade had already watched Bleary Mirage fight, easily grasping the basics. With her big shield it wasn’t difficult to defend against two rabbit attacks.

On the contrary. Wielding a shield influenced one’s stance, thus the two attacks only deducted four points for Silver Blade.

With three level 2 characters Liam and the two women obviously overpowered their opponents. The rabbits stood no chance.

Two more of them fell under Cyclone’s magic attacks, while the last one was defeated by Liam.

“Ha, so easy!”, exclaimed Cyclone happily as she went to loot the bodies.

But Liam hastily stopped her.

“Wait.”

“Why? I clearly have lucky hands! Just let me do the looting. I promise I won’t hide anything.”

Liam looked skeptically at the woman’s mischievous smile, but this wasn’t the reason why he stopped her.

“We should let Silver Blade loot them; she has her quest after all.”

“You mean it doesn’t count if I loot?”

“No, you can’t get the quest item.”

“Can’t I share the quest?”, asked Silver Blade from the side.

“No. Most common quests can’t be shared.”

“Pity. Then I will loot…”

“Ok…”

Silver Blade stepped forward but when she saw the struggle in Cyclone’s eyes, she couldn’t help but say:

“Why don’t we do it like this? You can loot every fifth rabbit, Cyclone.”

“Really?”

Cyclone looked between Silver Blade and Bleary Mirage. Noticing that they both didn’t object, she quickly went ahead as well.

Silver Blade looted quickly while Cyclone rubbed her hands together, building up her luck.

“Ewh!”

Suddenly a strange scream could be heard. Liam and Silver Blade both looked at Cyclone with shock.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“What happened?”

“It’s an eye! Wah, I looted an eye!”

Silver Blade stared for a moment before chuckling at her friend.

“That’s not funny! How can they make us loot eyes?! Here, you take it!”

With those words Cyclone threw the eye to Silver Blade who calmly caught it in the air.

Liam watched from the side, his gaze fixed on the eye, once again realizing how lucky Cyclone was. Although the eye was an alchemy ingredient of decent worth, it had another important effect which might come into play soon.

But contrary to Cyclone, Silver Blade didn’t seem quite as fortunate, not getting a single fur from the rabbit.

The group wasn’t discouraged though, and continued hunting. Liam repeated the same strategy luring another five rabbits.

After this fight went flawless as well, the group grew bolder. Silver Blade and Cyclone urged Bleary Mirage to aggro more monsters.

Liam nodded and sneaked closer toward the center. Instantly nine pairs of eyes turned towards him.

Let’s see how the girls do. So far they have shown quite the talent for someone who has never played games. Maybe martial artists really have it easier in the game.

Liam even had time for leisurely thoughts as he returned to his two companions.

But Silver Blade and Cyclone felt some pleasure. They gripped their weapons tightly, eyes focused on the rabbits.

Cyclone cleverly took a few steps forward to get more attacks in. She swung her wand, a small white sphere flying at one of the rabbits.

[-61!]

With a sad squeak the rabbit toppled over and ceased movement. His peers weren’t intimidated in the slightest though as they chased after Liam.

Suddenly a small spear of light formed in the air, shooting at another rabbit.

This was Cyclone’s skill [Holy Strike].

[Holy Strike (rank 1)

Cost: 8 Mana

Effect: Strike the target with holy magic, dealing 140% (MDMG) magical damage. Has a chance of doing an additional 10% (MDMG)holy damage.

Cooldown: 6 seconds]

[-84!]

The rabbit couldn’t be more dead as the spear hit it.

Liam showed some pleasant surprise reaching the two women. Cyclone had already returned to her position at the back, waiting for her next normal attack to be ready.

“Well played.”

“Good job.”

Receiving praise from her two friends, Cyclone smiled happily.

But seven rabbits still arrived, ready to revenge their brethren. Silver Blade immediately took a defense posture, focusing on three opponents.

Meanwhile Liam brought in a quick attack before three mouths snapped for his legs.

The veteran showed practiced movements, evading two enemies while blocking one.

[-8!]

Suddenly Liam almost froze in place, doubting himself. One rabbit actually managed to hit him.

How?!

He didn’t understand how he could miscalculate the speed of a level 1 enemy.

Liam almost felt embarrassed as the two women looked at him in surprise.

“Expert, did you just get hit?”

“Well… I was thinking about something else.”

Liam threw out a random excuse, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the rabbits.

If this was real life the rabbits might get an ominous feeling now but ingame the monsters were fearless.

As the next wave of attacks arrived, Liam concentrated. He evaded perfectly, with not one step wasted.

But his instincts still warned him that something was amiss. Those little monsters did indeed move a tiny bit faster than he was used to.

This difference was negligible. Most players wouldn’t pay it any attention. But for Liam and other pros, everything about the game had to be thoroughly analyzed to find even the smallest advantages in tough situations.

For now, Liam could only shelve his doubts as the timing for an attack opened up. Two more rabbits dropped dead.

Now only five remained, a number the team was already used to. With their fury built up it didn’t take long for the rabbits to die.

This round rewarded them with some fur and another eye, bringing them closer to the quest’s completion.

Unfortunately, with one level difference there was a heavy reduction in the EXP gained, further diminished as it was split among the party members.

Thus, Liam’s EXP bar filled at an agonizingly slow pace.

[EXP: 20/500]

Fate of Crunaboul had always been like this. The first level was more of a tutorial, easily achievable within a day for most people. But from then on you had to put in the work.

The difficulty was even bound to increase again when reaching certain thresholds.

But on the other hand, there were many possibilities of earning a large number of EXP. Rare, hidden, and unique quests, dungeon raids and field bosses, would attract the attention of players soon.

But for Liam’s party this was still a thing of the future as they continued luring in rabbits.

With renewed concentration Liam didn’t get hit again.

Meanwhile a few other players had also arrived at the scene, learning from Liam and only pulling a few rabbits over.

Doomsday had come for the poor rabbits.

Silver Blade and Cyclone even felt somewhat bad as they continued to empty the field.

Gradually new rabbits spawned and were immediately killed again.

After getting rid of another wave of monsters, Liam’s party continued looting. Silver Blade already had eight out of ten pieces of fur, close to completing the quest.

But at this moment she suddenly pulled back her hand in surprise.

“Hey! I found an eye as well!”

Liam instantly perked up, waving at his companions, already prepared for this moment.

“Quick, guys, come over here!”

“But I’m not done looting…”

Cyclone spoke with a pout, about to reach out with her hand.

“You will have enough to loot later on. Hurry up.”

The two women were confused but they had enough trust in Bleary Mirage by now.

Stopping what they were doing they jogged towards Liam, who retreated to the edge of the area.

Just as Silver Blade and Cyclone arrived, they heard a commotion behind them.

A low rumble spread. Dity scattered, falling in the gorgeous clear water.

Not far from the creek a hole suddenly appeared in the ground. Two large red eyes could be seen in the darkness, staring at Liam’s group angrily.

The eyes moved. The dirt around the hole crumbled. Slowly a fat white body was revealed. Long claws could be seen grabbing onto the grass, ripping it apart.

A few seconds later a white rabbit, the tips of its long fluffy ears at the height of Liam’s neck, reached the ground. Its pressure enshrouded the entire Rabbit Creek.