[Heat Resistance - Lv. 6] Leveled Up!
“Hmm, it finally leveled up?” Hans asked as he was just about to use the mangled corpse of an acid spitter that he found and killed as bait.
After all, you would that being in a desert where it was the heat was high that it could melt you alive, that a skill like [Heat Resistance] would level up a whole lot right? Then again…He had spent most of his time underground, where it was much cooler and away from the oppressive sun.
So, he guessed that it was understandable why it took so long to level up. Hans shrugged and dumped the corpse he was holding into a shallow hole, and dug underground, waiting patiently for prey.
Then he felt that something was wrong and not a minute later, he heard barking, a lot of barking, and panic.
His body moved on its on its own and began immediately began digging in the opposite directions from where the barking came from but then he felt the sun glaring down on him and his ears ringing as the sand above him was blown away.
Running across the desert were two jackals with silver fur, dagger-like claws, intelligence in their eyes that betrayed their appearance, and launching sonic booms whenever they opened their mouths.
They were chasing after something and that something was a rabbit that looked very similar to what a jackalope would like with its large antlers.
It dodged a sonic boom before another one send it flying and caused it to let out a loud shrill scream of pain.
As the jackalope fell onto the ground, still screaming and writhing in pain with blood dripping down from its ears. One of the jackals ends its misery with a bite to the back of the neck. Once it was dead, the jackal who killed the rabbit, picked it up and ran off with its partner.
Hans was as far away as he could from where the jackals were and his ears still ringing from the noise.
[Sneak - Lv. 1] Leveled Up!
[Danger Sense - Lv. 1] Leveled Up!
“Why the hell did they have to be there?” He grumbled. When he first encounters those mutts, they chase him across the desert, relentlessly and those same two jackals do it again when he encounters them a second time.
And they weren’t even trying to eat him! All they did do was use those sonic booms of theirs to send him flying and just fucking played with him as if he was a goddamned chew toy to them!
Hans took a deep breath to calm down and decided to focus on doing what he planned. He didn’t have bait on hand or claws so he had to do it the old-fashioned way which was annoying even in the fact that he could sense vibrations.
But then he felt a large number of vibrations heading his way. He turns and saw five jackalopes approaching him, drool dripping from their mouth and he could fang poking out of their mouth.
”How convenient, it would seem that we have several volunteers just waiting to be slaughtered,” Hans said. “But I ain’t complaining.”
One of the jackalopes lunged at him with the intent of piercing him with its antlers. Hans raised one of his claws, active [Crush], and proceeded to slam it onto the jackalope's head, snapping off parts of its antlers and crushed its skull, making it dropped dead.
[Crush - Lv. 1] Leveled Up!
Congrats, you slain [Jackalope - Lv. 7]!
You Have Leveled Up! [Venomous Desert Scorpion - Lv. 1 –> Lv. 2 —> Lv. 3]!
Hans then uses his tail to sweep up some sand, obscuring the jackalopes’ visions, and burrow underground and when the dust was cleared he was nowhere to be seen.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Jackalopes immediately became cautious and tried to sense where he was by using their ears and noses with every minute that he was underground, they were becoming more and more anxious.
A large curved blade erupts out of the ground, piercing through the skin of a jackalope and dragging it underground kicking and screaming.
A sickening snapping sound could be heard not a moment later.
Congrats, you slain [Jackalope - Lv. 4]!
This made the jackalopes afraid and more aggressive as they bare their fangs and started moving around, waiting for him to pop up.
One got too scared and decided to run away but didn’t get far before it too was dragged to its death.
Now two were left.
The jackalopes became even more afraid and they began to let out a squeak of panic and were about to run away before Hans appeared behind and slammed both of his claws at him with one having its skull crushed while the other jackalope leaped out of the way of his right claw.
His tail shot toward the jackalope, and his blade stinger became covered with venom and slashed across the jackalope’s side, leaving venom in its body.
The surviving jackalope, however, didn’t notice this with adrenaline pumping through its body and just ran. It ran and ran with step, growing weaker and weaker, it then dropped dead like a puppet with its string cut while Hans just watched.
Congrats, you slain [Jackalope - Lv. 8]!
Congrats, you slain [Jackalope - Lv. 6]!
You Have Leveled Up! [Venomous Desert Scorpion - Lv. 3 –> Lv. 4 —> Lv. 5 —> Lv. 6]]!
[Sneak - Lv. 2] Leveled Up!
[Sneak - Lv. 3] Leveled Up!
“That was quite a lot of experience,” Hans said, pleasantly surprised as he looked over the mess he made, blood stained the sands, and bits of brains scattered across the desert. “Welp, better get moving. I ain’t gonna get experience just by standing.”
So, he turned around and started moving.
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Jackalopes were once thought of as nothing more than myths before they were discovered by great explorer, William “Specter” Soren. They are agile and can change directions in less than a second and have been to group up to deter predators and to hunt. Though, they have been known to become highly aggressive in groups. They will eat any plants they find although, their diet is made up mostly of meat. At higher evolutions, they have to be so fast that they can create sandstorms when they move.
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”Hmmm…”
Hans watched as a giant camel with many eyes and a long tongue lined with spikes grabbed a lizard that was much larger than him and shoved the reptilian in its mouth, alive.
”Yeah…I’m not touching that,” Hans said, creeped out. He turned his gaze somewhere else and saw an acid spitter slithering toward a hole.
“That’ll do.”
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Hans raised both of his claws and began slamming them into a scorpion that tried to ambush him multiple times, snapping it in half.
Congrats, you slain [Common Lesser Sand Scorpion - 9]!
He then felt both vibrations heading toward him and his instinct warning him of something.
His tail moves and slashed a rat that was taking advantage of the scorpion and him fighting across its side, spilling blood and sending it tumbling to the ground. He then maneuvers his tail right at the downed rat, piercing its skull, and ending its life.
[Crush - Lv. 7] Leveled Up!
[Mole’s Senses - Lv. 2] Leveled Up!
[Danger Sense - Lv. 2] Leveled Up!
Congrats, you slain [Gluttonous Fanged Rat - Lv 8]!
You Have Leveled Up! [Venomous Desert Scorpion - Lv. 10 —> Lv. —> 11]!
“Don’t know what you were thinking of, challenging something larger than you, but I ain't complaining,” Hans said, he then look up and saw that the sun had set and now the two moons had once again taken its place.
And they were still as pretty as they were before.
Then he noticed the stars for once and saw that they looked pretty familiar.
“Oh! If I remember my astronomy correctly that’s Virgo, Aries, Cancer, and I’m that’s Scorpio,” Hans listed off the constellations that he saw and felt a sense of nostalgia doing so.
He remembers watching the stars with his parents as they listed off the different stars to him when he was a little boy and wanted to be an astronaut because of since he wanted to see the “pretty stars” up close.
Although, he gave up on that dream when he found out the requirements to become one.
He also remembers the bullshits that his parents told him. Such as how your star sign predicts what your personality is going to be and how you could use them to predict the future.
The number of things that they believed in was quite frankly, absurd.
Heh.
“I miss them,” Hans said, sighing, he looked at the stars for a minute longer before shaking his head and began heading back home.
Overall, today went pretty well, if you ignore the damn jackals.