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Add’s eyes were glued to the scope of the AX338 to see any movements in the area. The die had been cast, and now all he could do was sit and wait. The blazing sun heated the entire area and the corpses of the boars began giving of the dense smell of blood which the gentle river breeze carried into the forest. Hours passed, but aside from a few carrion birds and some small scavengers,  no one else disturbed the bait. He patiently waited, snipers sometimes spent dozens of hours lying in wait for their target without moving, and although he was no sniper he could wait a few hours. But as time passed by and the sun was beginning to go down, the chances of the bear approaching seemed to get lower and lower. He had been at the same spot since midday and was thinking if his trap had failed to attract the attention of the bear.

“I will wait till evening, if it still does not show up, I will have to think of something else.”

But then, after a few minutes, he noticed from the corner of his vision that some short trees and bushes began to move and along with a low growl,  a large figure slowly bulldozed its way through the forest and onto the river bank. Add’s eyes narrowed as a smile appeared on his lips. His prey had finally arrived. He watched in silence as the Iron Clawed bear came closer and closer to the bait. It was all going according to what he had planned. Now that the bear was in full view, through the magnification of the scope, he could see its every detail. The bear looked more like a oversized grizzly with much more muscle expect the fact that its fur was dull red in colour and the claws on its paws were really sharp and long. If not for having full confidence in this soviet designed weapon, Add would have not dared no mess with such a creature.

“Old But Reliable” the RPG – 7V2 was a weapon one could always count on when wanting to destroy light armoured vehicles and less armoured tanks and today Add was going to test it against a monster, something no one had done before. He put aside his sniper rifle and picked up the RPG. A HEAT warhead was already placed on the launcher. Add had chosen the HEAT round since he theorized that to a living creature, an external explosion would not be as devastating as an internal was. The metal stream that came out of a HEAT round should be able to cause tremendous damage to the insides of the bear, at least in theory.

A high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead is a type of shaped charge explosive that uses the “Munroe effect” to penetrate thick tank armour. The warhead functions as follows. Inside the warhead, there is a thin sheet of metal (often moulded in the shape of a cone) before the actual explosive  On hitting the target, the explosive charge inside the warhead explodes and turns the sheet of metal  to melt due to the heat and pressure generated by the detonation and turns the metal into a liquid like state with a very high velocity. This form is called a “superplastic jet” and  is capable of penetrating armour steel to a depth of seven or more times the diameter of the charge (which is in the warhead). The stream material is formed by a cone of metal foil lining, usually copper, though ductile iron and tin foil are also often used as a slightly less effective, but cheaper alternative.

The HEAT warhead for the RPG – 7V2  weighed at 2.6 kilograms with a diameter of 93 mm. With favourable conditions, a good aim and a bit of luck, at its best it could penetrate around 500 millimetres of Rolled Homogeneous Armour (RHA).  Add was betting that the skin, fur and fat of the Iron Clawed bear would not be stronger than that. As he watched patiently, waiting for the bear to come within striking range, it suddenly stopped just after stepping on the river bank. Having lived and survived in the wild for so many years, the bear had some amount of appreciable intelligence.

The Iron Clawed bear was quite cautious. It seemed to know that there was never any free lunch in this world. It stayed near the tree line and sniffed the air and looked around, its eyes moving from one corner to the other, trying to sense any danger or strange occurrence. After a few minutes of hesitation however, the primal urge to feed won over its caution and it slowly made its way towards the dead boars. Dressed in the soldier uniform with standard forest camouflage, Add blended in very well with the lush bushes of the cliff. He gave a sigh of relief, as he was starting to get worried that the bear might not fall for the bait. But finally it did. The giant weighing over an estimate of 2 tons arrived before the boars and after looking around for one last time, it began munching down on the dead boars. Its huge teeth tore flesh and crushed bones with ease.

“Steady....... Steady.....”

Add mumbled in his mind as he now held the RPG-7V2 in his arms. He was kneeling on one knee while the other leg remained in a squatting position. This provided a still base to launch the RPG while also leaving room for mobility should the need arise. The iron sights of the launcher were aligned onto the bear eating meat, that was completely oblivious to what was going to befall it. It was greedily devouring the meat tearing apart the boars with is teeth and powerful claws. Add patiently waited. The bear was originally facing Add’s direction but after sometime it turned a little to eat better, exposing its side to him.

Now the RPG not a very accurate weapon from mid to long ranges. Its hit rate on a stationary target was 100% up till 50 metres.  As for the bear which was some 180 metres away, the hit rate would be around 60%, provided that there was no crosswind.  As such having the bead expose its side which was well over 5 metres in length and over 3 metres in height, was a very favourable situation for Add. Also there was little crosswind at the moment. He took one final confirmation of the target and pressed the trigger.

*Whoooosssssshhhhh*

The warhead immediately left the launcher at a speed of 115 metres per second, creating a cloud of light grey-blue smoke. The rocket motor would ignites after 10 metres and boost the speed to around 295 metres per second. The grenade was stabilized by two sets of fins that deployed in-flight: one large set on the stabilizer pipe to maintain direction and a smaller front set to induce rotation. The bear had good hearing and was immediately alerted by the sound of the weapon being fired, but its reaction was a bit slower than the speed of the RPG which arrived at it within 2 seconds. Looking at the strange object coming towards it, the bear immediately tried to run, but it was too late. The grenade hit it right after the ribs and exploded. The HEAT warhead exploded sending a piercing shot of semisolid metal into the body of the bear which perforated its thick fur, skin and layers of fat like a hot knife melts through butter.

*Roooooaaaaaarrrrrr!!!!!!!!*

The bear gave a very angry roar, filled with pain. Its skin and fur may be very sturdy but its insides were still soft and delicate. Having a stream of hot metal jutted into its body, caused massive injuries to its organs causing tremendous pain. However, for the bear this was not the end. Add immediately reloaded another warhead onto the launcher and fired, this time the bear that was shocked by the pain couldn’t even dodge and was hit again. The RPG hit it just below the large hump of forearm muscles. Again, the stream of metal penetrated its skin with ease, drilling through its ribs and reaching its lungs. The heart was missed however, but the damage was already devastating. The shockwaves of the explosions had stunned it, and it couldn’t move.

The first shot had heavily damaged its intestines and some other organs causing massive internal bleeding while the second shot had practically crippled one of its lungs. However it was still standing, unwilling to fall. Add fired another two shots, one of which missed exploding on the ground near it while the other hit it the pelvis. The bear trembled and its large body, finally slumped onto the ground with a dull thud. It was not dead yet though, its eyes red from pain and rage as it continuously roared in hatred. Its roars however, were getting softer very fast. It tried to get up, but kept tumbling down again and again. There was only pain in its body, and it could not muster any of its rock shattering strength. Its eyes looked hatefully in the direction where the attacks had come from. There, it saw Add who was also gazing at it with a cold face.

He went down from the cliff, carrying the launcher and another warhead in his hand. He however didn’t go near it and stopped around 50 metres away from it. The bear maybe in a sorry state now, but one swipe from its paws, even in its weakened state, was enough to rip him apart if it landed. He never took needless risks. After thinking for a while, he readied the warhead and aimed at the bear’s large head. It was time to put this guy out of its misery. The poor bear was a sitting duck as it watched in unwillingness, and the third shot hit its neck missing its head by inches. The neck vertebra was penetrated and the spinal column damaged, finally killing it.

“Well it was tougher than expected.....”

Add was really a hit surprised at the toughness of this bear. It took three hits from a 93mm HEAT RPG and still didn’t die. Only after the fourth round severed its spinal cord, did it finally die. This once again made him realise just how strong these monsters of Iseria were. It was not difficult to imagine what would have happened if he had to fight it directly without using the bait to lure it out and making it let down its guard and if he did not hand modern weapons at his disposal. It would be extremely dangerous and perhaps impossible for him to kill the iron clawed bear then. He could only imagine how strong the Magical Beasts would be.

[Ding! You have killed Iron Clawed Bear x 1!]

[Ding! You have received 50,000 CP]

He had got a sizeable amount of CP from killing the bear, five times that of the Goblin King. According to the system, the bear was a B ranked monster and a very strong one, so the reward for killing it was also high. Even within the same rank, there could be large disparities between the strength of the monsters since ranks were something which humans had arbitrarily decided on. Then again, a monster’s rank also depended upon its threat level. For example the Goblin king was not as strong as the Iron Clawed bear, however it could command hordes of goblins to fight for it which made it equally dangerous if not more, when compared to the bear. Still the bear was a hulking beast of a tank by its own right.

What Add did not know however, was that much of the information of the actual strength of Iron clawed bears was unknown as even rank 4 warriors tend to bypass this monster if possible. The reason being its extremely violent nature, and unreasonably high strength. This bear didn’t fear death. It would take its attacker down, even at the cost of its life which made it a very bad prey to hunt. No one wanted to mess with a large monster which could crush stones to bits was reasonably fast and above all had no care for its life.

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Fortunately for Add he had the support of modern weaponry, which allowed him to attack the bear from a distance otherwise considered too far, and deal mortal damage. Having modern weapons was a huge advantage and he knew it. In this world where guns and firearms did not exist and only cold weapons like swords, arrows, spears etc. were available, close quarter combat was the normally the only way of battle, unless one was a skilled archer or a mage that could use long range spells. There were however, some archers who had enough strength to pierce the bear’s hide with arrows, they were warriors with great strength, but they were few and far in between.

Now that the bear was dead, he thought if he should store its corpse inside his inventory. The meat of the bear, like most carnivores it was not worth eating unless one was starving. Its skin however could be used to make armour and its bones could probably be sold. But thinking about it, he decided against it. It would be troublesome to explain how he had killed the bear and how he had carried its body back to Rigel, as he did not want to reveal his secrets to anyone yet. Also the skin was badly damaged after the hits from the RPGs so it was not worth it to take that as well. He gave up on the bear and moved on.

Once again using the drone he began looking for monsters to kill. The drone soon located a large swarm of monsters along the river banks. From the sky, they looked just like a group of crocodiles, some basking in the sunlight on the river banks, and some swimming in the water. He quickly turned to the encyclopaedia for reference and after searching for a while, found that these monsters were called [Armoured Suriles]. Being C ranked monsters, these creatures were a type of lizards that usually dwelled in the river waters, living and hunting therein. They were greenish and brownish in colour and had elongated bodies, with short but wide heads, with powerful jaws containing long conical teeth. Their legs were quite short but were straight under their bodies unlike crocodiles, but similar to what dinosaurs had.

There was also the tail which was long and covered in spikes with a par of longer sharper spines, at the tip serving as a deadly weapon. However, their defining feature was the thick armour of bony plates and half a foot long spikes which jutted out from their backs and sides, protecting them like a suit of armour. Their small eyes and belly were their only weaknesses, but since they crawled with their bellies almost sticking to the ground, it was hard to hurt them easily. These creatures grew over 5 metres in length and lived in groups. They resembled crocodiles in many ways, but unlike crocodiles who were slow on land, these creatures were equally fierce and nimble on land, always acting in swarms and tearing apart anything which they can get their jaws on.

These large lizards were quite intimidating to look at and a closely pack group of them looked like a clump of moving spines. Thanks to this spiky armour and dangerous jaws, there were few creatures in this area that would dare mess with a swarm of Suriles. They were not the largest or the meanest of monsters, but they had their numbers to rely on. Even an Iron clawed bear would be sent running when facing a wall of spikes and pike like teeth. Also, these creatures like water, and they liked it a lot. According to the encyclopaedia, they spent most of their lives in water and only came to land to bathe in sunlight and lay eggs. And when in water, they became many times more deadly than on land. When he reached near the area where the drone had found the Suriles, he climbed on a tree a little distance away from the river bank and began observing the monsters.

From here he could quietly observe the creatures, and was quite impressed looking at them. The drone did give a very clear and detailed view but, its battery life was not suited for prolonged observation. The Suriles looked really menacing with all those spines and the wide jaws filled with teeth. Up close, these creatures looked like a hybrid of a crocodile and iguana with spines added on top. Some of them were on the river bank, soaking sunlight, while most of them were swimming in the water, beyond sight. Now he just had to figure out, how to deal with a large swarm of creatures that were as ferocious as a crocodile, and armoured with spikes and plates,  while at the same time, worked in groups like wolves and were fast and agile. One thing he understood though, that this was going to be much trickier than hunting the Iron Clawed Bear, and that was for sure. After considering all the factors and risks, Add was in bit of a trouble on how to deal with these monsters. They stayed on land for a very little time, and would flee into water, as soon as a threat appeared. And he was not going to get inside the water to deal with them, not while he was still sane. So after thinking for a while, he decided on a simple approach. The system shop opened its doors again.

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Item : SC-214 Water Bomb

Description :  A bomb which was accidentally invented while making a hydrogen fuel cell. It uses a mixture of highly compressed hydrogen and oxygen as explosive to produce a sonic wave. The bomb has a destructive ability of 1 ton of TNT (Tri-Nitro-Glycerine) equivalent. The lethal range of the explosion is around 150 metres in all directions.

Price : 5,000 CP

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The SC-214 Water Bomb was a classic example of success in failure. In the early years of world war three, a group of French scientists had been trying to invent an improved hydrogen fuel cell, which could power military vehicles, and eliminate dependency on fossil fuels. In this quest they invented a prototype fuel cell which when tested, went rouge and blew up the entire test facility. The project was shut down but the Swedish army noted the capability of the fuel cell as a weapon, and ordered it to be mass produced as a bomb, and not as a fuel cell. Over the years, many stronger variations of the SC-214 were designed, and while it was very destructive, it was a more eco friendly than any other bomb ever made since it only gave off water vapour as a by product of the explosion, and hence it was called a water bomb.

The way it worked was fairly simple. The bomb’s body was a cylindrical canister made of ultra-tensile steel alloy. It was a type of delayed fuse bomb, meaning that after being detonated it exploded after a delay of a few seconds. It worked mostly like a grenade, with a small button on top instead of a pin. After the button was pushed, a 20 second gap followed, during which the bomb could be thrown. After those 20 seconds,  a tiny electric spark inside the bomb ignites the compressed mixture which burns and rapidly expands in volume, but due to the steel canister containing it, the pressure reaches extremely high and ultimately causes the canister to explode, sending a strong shockwave and shrapnel in all directions.

Add chose this bomb since it was very powerful and produced a very strong shockwave, which was especially effective when dealing with living things as it literally churned their insides into mush. After taking 3 of these bombs just to be safe, he once again began looking for some bait. Suriles were hunter which hunted in swarms, and they hunted mostly in water rarely venturing to hunt on land. Add’s plan was simple, throw a bait in the river, wait for the swarm to gather around and then explode the bomb right in the middle of them. He immediately thought of using the corpse of the Iron clawed bear he had killed earlier as bait, but it was a few kilometres away and he did not feel like going back again. Noting the area where the Suriles were in his mind, he began his search for some other bait. The Maned Boars would have been fine, but he didn’t see any of them around. However, after some time, he did come across another group of monsters grazing in the shrubs.

These were strange looking beasts, with long stretched heads, with large eyes and long drooping ears. The head also sported two curved antlers, which pointed to the front and were very sharp and pointed. The neck was short and thick, with a body that was disproportionately large with respect to their heads. They appeared to have no tails, and The hind legs were thick and sturdy while the front limbs were were  thin and long ending in  four fingers with sharp caws. Covered in a thick yellowish rope like fur, from a distance these looked more like a stack of hay, than a living thing. They appeared to be herbivorous as they were feeding on leaves, standing on their hind legs and tearing leaves and branches using the forelimbs. The overall length of their bodies was around three metres but they were fat and bulky. Add opened the encyclopaedia and began looking for a match.

Although there were hundreds of thousands of creatures in there, they were divided into many parts, based on their habitat, their food etc. after a lot of searching he finally found a match. These creatures were apparently called Miroos. D ranked monsters, which usually lived in groups of 10 – 20 individuals. They were devoted herbivores and lived a slow life, moving around in the forest, eating leaves and shrubs. However, if threatened, they would become very aggressive using their sharp claws and antlers to attack their enemies. Unlike many creatures which usually run away, they choose to fight instead. The thick fur was in fact very slippery and made it difficult for predators to grab onto them. But for Add, they were the perfect bait. As usual, he chose a tree some distance away from the group that was still eating, blissfully unaware of a human who had already decided their fate. He prepared the AX338 and began shooting.

*BANG* *BANG*

Without warning, the Miroos began collapsing one by one. Their thick fur which protected them from the bites and claws of the predators did not cover their heads, and the skull could not do much to top the powerful .338 bullets. Add did aimed at their heads to kill them in one shot, their thick fur and skin could probably prevent any serious injuries. He made a mental note to buy a stronger sniper rifle afterwards. Unable to see the attacker and unwilling to escape, their fate was sealed. In less than a minute 8 of the 11 Miroos were dead while only the 3 others had been smart and had run away. Add was not going to chase them, he had all the bait that he needed and there was no need to waste time on the runaways.

[Ding! You have killed Miroo x 8]

[Ding! Received 24,000 CP]

The exp per Miroo was 3000, which was greater than the goblin champions that had D rank as well. After securing his bait, he stored the carcasses inside his storage and surveyed the river for a proper spot to commence his plan. Some distance away from the place where the drone had initially found the Suriles, there was a small sand island in the river, at a curve where the water flowed slowly. There were dozens of the Suriles basking in sunlight there. The small island was separated from the river bank by over 200 metres of water, so it had become sort of a no risk spot for them.

There were some Suriles swimming in the channel between the river bank and the small island, Add quietly snuck by to the river bank and dropped the Miroo carcases into the river. Once he had thrown in the last Miroo, he quickly retreated behind the tree line and began observing. Before long the Suriles sensed the presence of the corpses in the river, and started to slowly approach the bodies. But they did not begun to swarm around the bodies immediately. Even they knew that there was no free lunch in this world, and were very cautious.

But as the blood from the corpses seeped into the water, the smell attracted the Suriles, and soon, their primal instincts of wanting to feed, overpowered their caution. At first one Surile went to test the waters, it slowly approached a corpse and took a bite, then another came and then another… within a few minutes, all the Suriles in the surrounding area, and those basking on the island had gathered and were twisting and tearing the Miroo carcasses, feeding with frenzy. Add watched in silence and waited till he was sure that almost all the Suriles had gathered. Then he pressed the detonation buttons on the 3 Water Bombs and with all of his strength, threw them in succession, right in the middle of the feasting Critters.

*PLOP* *PLOP* *PLOP*

The Suriles, too busy in their feeding didn’t even realise that a few small cylinders had fallen beside them and kept eating and fighting for meat. After throwing them, Add ran in the opposite direction as fast as his legs could carry him, lest he be blasted with the shock waves, and then, after 20 seconds…

*BOOOOMMMM* *BOOOOMMMM* *BOOOOMMMM*

Three subsequent and deafening explosions shook the area and a huge cloud of water jumped tens of metres into the air. The majority of the Suriles who were caught in the middle of these explosions, never knew what happened and were instantly blown to bits, while a few who were a bit farther away, were sent flying tens of metres across.  Add who well over 200 metres was by now could still feel the shockwave pass over him.

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A/N :

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION :

1. WARHEAD : A warhead is the explosive or toxic material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, or torpedo. It is a type of bomb

2. Thermo baric weapon : A thermo baric weapon is a type of explosive that uses oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion, and in practice the blast wave typically produced by such a weapon is of a significantly longer duration than that produced by a conventional condensed explosive.

3. The key to the effectiveness of a HEAT round is the diameter of the warhead. As the penetration continues through the armour, the width of the hole decreases leading to a characteristic fist to finger penetration, where the size of the eventual finger is based on the size of the original fist. In general, very early HEAT rounds could expect to penetrate armour of 150% to 250% of their diameters, and these numbers were typical of early weapons used during World War II. Since then, the penetration of HEAT rounds relative to projectile diameters has steadily increased as a result of improved liner material and metal jet performance. HEAT rounds of RPGs used in the third world war could claim numbers as high as 500%.

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