After walking for several minutes, I arrived at the forest. Although I wanted to return to the site of the crazy goats to hunt them, I put that idea aside when I remembered that I did not know the area well; therefore, I decided it was better to go to a place a little more known and from which I can escape better.
Now there is a doubt, should I look for a new monster or a known one and if so, which one? I start to remember the monsters I've seen so far, and I realize that the only monsters that meet the C rank are the Elemental Brute Bull and the Wolfer. I can't go hunting since they are herded, and they only appear at night, which clashes with my plan to finish this mission before the guild closes, and there are not enough pairs of Brute Bull to cause them to evolve into the Elemental Brute Bull.
I guess I'll have to look for a new monster to hunt, so I have no choice but to go deeper into the forest to hunt.
Since I am going to an unknown area, I decide to use "illusion" to transform into my fox version and take advantage of its strong passive senses to be more attentive to my surroundings.
Possession!
I transform into my fox version and continue deeper into the forest while I try to listen for any sound, whether it is the wind rustling the branches of the trees or some monster roaring in the surroundings.
...
It's almost 10 minutes later, and I haven't seen or heard any monsters, which is very strange considering that it didn't take long to do so on the previous occasions.
And just when there were 20 seconds left of my transformation, I started to hear some noises in the distance, so I rushed towards the source of that sound to find out what it was, at the moment when I was about to arrive at my transformation is undone, so I have to change my strategy and hide in the bushes while I approach slowly.
When I get to the source of the sound, I see that it is a Monkey, but it is not an ordinary Monkey. It is a Crab Monkey, a monkey of the Plant/Water element of yellow colour. Instead of hands, it has red crab claws, if I remember well, this monster has an ability called uppercut, so I can already get an idea of what will happen to me if it uses that ability together with those claws.
The good news is that he hasn't noticed me and is still eating quietly. The bad news is that he is far away, so it will be difficult to kill him without making too much noise. This monkey is a C rank, so his strength is comparable to the Elemental Brute Bull, so I must not hold back when fighting.
I place my sword in attack position to launch a focused slash at maximum power. Still, first I must wait for the right moment because if I don't kill him with a single attack, I will have to take advantage of the Crab Monkey's moment of surprise and thrust my sword into his neck or head.
...
After 3 minutes, the Crab Monkey finishes its meal and starts walking near my position. I slowly get ready and observe the surroundings to ensure no other monkeys are nearby and wait.
3...2...1...GO!
Focused Slash!
I release my ability at full power while aiming at the Crab Monkey's head. The impact is so strong that its head splits in half and falls to the ground, only for a notification to appear and confirm its death.
[You have hunted Crab Monkey x 1].
As soon as the notification appears, I save the monster's corpse in my inventory and move a couple of meters away from the place to hide in the bushes. Three more Crab Monkeys appear a few seconds later and begin to search the place.
My attack not only killed the monster but also destroyed part of the surrounding trees, which is why I quickly moved away to hide. The crab monkeys move agilely, which makes me understand that they are good at fighting. If we take into account their ability, their claws and those agile movements, they give me a result an experienced and dangerous fighter.
A minute after their arrival, the crab monkeys disperse, so I follow the farthest one to try to learn their attack patterns.
...
It's been 5 minutes since I followed this Crab Monkey, and I've learned a thing or two:
1. To move, they swing using their pincers, holding on to the thickest branches of the trees.
2. They do not move in groups except when they become aware of loud noises.
As for his way of fighting, I have not been able to see it, so I still have to follow it.
As I continued to follow him from a distance, a very strange tree appeared, at first I thought it was a new area, but suddenly I noticed that the tree was moving?
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Thinking that my eyes were playing a joke on me, I started to look closely at that place. I noticed that this monkey stopped swinging and is now on the ground in a fighting pose very similar to that of a boxer, which gives me to understand his fighting style and that this tree is not just any tree.
Some branches full of long and leafy leaves separate the trees from their path, and their presence is shown. When I saw it, I finally knew it was a monster called Rocky Willow. It is a monster with the shape of a willow tree of Plant/Earth element of 2 meters high of rank C, its trunk has a rocky aspect, and it moves using its roots, which it also uses to attack. I know this because one of its abilities is called sharp root.
At that, the tree shakes its branches full of leaves, which suggests that it is trying to intimidate the crab monkey, but this, far from feeling intimidated, begins to run towards it, to which the rocky willow responds using its roots, which it pounces at great speed.
The crab monkey hits with his right claw directly to one of the roots, which causes it to break. As for the others, he uses his agility to dodge them; however, one of the roots hits his body and leaves a hole which begins to sprout blood.
The crab monkey counterattacks and uses its left pincer to cut the root stuck in its chest and continues running towards the rocky willow, which waves its branches to hit it in an attempt to kill it, but far from stopping, the crab monkey shows an expression of ecstasy. At the same time, its body bleeds from the continuous blows of the branches that are apparently full of thorns to jump and hit in the centre.
BANG!
A loud sound similar to a rock breaking in half is heard. The Rocky Willow stops moving and from its branches comes out the Crab Monkey, who in its claws has a sphere similar to the core of a Mud Golem to then swallow it in one bite. Seeing all this, I realize that if I want to hunt the Crab Monkeys, I have two options:
1. Kill them with a surprise attack.
2. Wait for them to come to attack me, dodge it and then cut off its head.
Seeing this, I come out of hiding and approach the crab monkey, which notices my presence and starts running in my direction.
* UH HUO! UH HUO!
This monkey starts screaming while running toward me, which tells me that besides trying to kill me, he is also calling his friends, so I have to make this quick.
The crab monkey performs the same move I used against the rocky willow, so I wait until the last moment, dodge its attack, and then use my ability.
Focused Slash!
I use a focused slash, but this time I use 80 mana. The skill hits his head, and it splits in half. After that, his body falls to the ground, and I quickly pick it up and then run and hide.
Just like last time, another group of crab monkeys appears again, they search the place, but they can't find me. After searching for about 40 seconds, the crab monkeys disperse, so I repeat the same tactic and follow one of them, but not before taking the body of the rocky willow. Who knows, maybe it's worth something.
...
After 30 minutes, I had 16 crab monkeys and 1 rocky willow. I could have hunted more of those monkeys, but every time I did, I carried another group, so it was a constant hit and run. The good thing about that is that I know how much mana I have to spend to kill a crab monkey in one hit. Plus, now I can use possession again, so I switch to illusion for the flake.
Possession!
I transformed into my scaly version and prepared for the hunt. I decided to use this form as it is the most suitable for a one-on-one hunt, the vulture form is better for ranged attacks, and my fox form is not suitable for daytime use.
All that said, I went back to looking for the crab monkeys, which didn't take long since one started running in my direction as soon as it saw me.
Water Wave!
I activate my buff in case my heavy slash skill is not strong enough to cut his head off, and I have to fight using only basic attacks.
The crab monkey runs towards me with that same smile full of ecstasy and tries to hit me with his claw, so I dodge his blow with a slight turn to the left and then attack his neck.
Heavy Slash!
To my good fortune, the attack is a resounding success, so his head is severed and falls to the ground, followed by his body falling heavily. I didn't hide this time because he didn't make any noise, so I calmly picked up the body and went to find the others.
It is much better to hunt them with the heavy slash skill than the focused slash skill, as it is less boisterous and costs me 40MP less to kill a single crab monkey.
...
After 8 minutes, I had hunted another 27 crab monkeys and another 6 more monkeys, and I got another achievement. However, I will still be missing another 100 monsters of rank C. After hunting the 50 crab monkeys, I think I should change to another target like the rocky willow because I could kill them without difficulty.
At that moment, I see another crab monkey, so I take a basic MP potion and approach this one. The monkey sees me and starts running in my direction and performs the same movement as the previous monkeys, so I quickly kill it, but this time a big change happens, because at the moment I kill it, 5 other crab monkeys fall from a nearby tree and run to attack me, so I have no choice but to save the corpse of the recently killed monkey and run away while this group of crab monkeys chase me from behind.
It's not that I can't face them in that same place. It's just that the noise of the fight could attract more crab monkeys, so the best thing to do is to move it away from there, and in case that doesn't work and, on the contrary, attracts more monkeys, I could lure them to the place where I found the rocky willow and make them face those monsters.
After running for 30 seconds and seeing no more crab monkeys approaching, I confront them face to face.
Water Wave!
I activate the buff and get ready to dodge the first crab monkey that wants to stick its claws in my face.
* HUO HUO!
The crab monkey attacked me, and I dodged his right, I wanted to cut his head with a heavy chop, but I couldn't do it because another crab monkey was attacking me, so I started to dodge his blows as best I could.
I felt like I was in a small ring facing a professional UFC fighter. Unfortunately, one of those crab monkeys stuck its claw in my left pectoral, very close to my heart.
[-300 HP]
[You are under the effect of Fatal bleeding]
[Fatal bleeding]
[You lose 10% of your HP every 10 seconds for 30 seconds].
The crab monkey that attacked me showed a face full of ecstasy with a somewhat sadistic smile as if it enjoyed tearing my flesh.
* UH HUO! UH HUO! UH HUO! UH HUO!
* ... Hey... Do you really think you won?
Heavy Slash!
Without giving the crab monkey time to react, I unleashed a heavy slash and cut off its head. If one were paying attention, one would notice that the monkey's face, which had shown an expression of ecstasy, had turned into one of terror, as if it had seen something that should not exist.
[You have hunted crab monkey x 1].
The crab monkeys turned around and attacked again, so I took the carcass of the freshly killed crab monkey and ran back to make some distance, plus I pulled out a bottle of the antiseptic alcohol to stop the bleeding.
[You have used a bottle of Antiseptic alcohol ]
[Fatal bleeding changed to Medium bleeding].
[Medium bleeding]
[You lose 5% of your HP every 10 seconds for 30 seconds].
When I saw that the antiseptic alcohol could not completely eliminate the debuff of the fatal bleeding, I took out another bottle until this debuff was eliminated.
[You have used a bottle of Antiseptic Alcohol].
[You are no longer under the effect of light bleeding].
Ultimately, I had to use 3 bottles of antiseptic alcohol to eliminate this debuff completely. Once that was done, I took out basic HP potions and drank them while running to recover.
After a minute of running, I was already 100% healed. The bad thing is that my transformation was already over, so, with no other option, I decided to use one of the adrenaline injections.
[You have used Adrenaline Injection 1/3].
[For 5 minutes, your attack speed is increased by 10%, and your stamina is restored to 100%]
Once that was done, it was time to strike back.
I started to dodge the attacks of the crab monkeys. Every time I had the opportunity, I would stick my sword in the neck of one of them and then use a focused slash with 30 MP. That way, I could kill them without attracting other monkeys. The bad thing about this method is that it takes a long time to do it since these crab monkeys move too much.
...
After 5 minutes, I finally killed the last one and saved his body in the inventory. Due to fatigue, I sit in the shade of a nearby tree and see the notification of the achievement I got.
[Congratulations, you have completed the achievement "Crab Monkey"].
[You get HP/Stamina +10 - Strength+1 - Dexterity+1 - Agility+2]