"WHAAAT?!" A burly man slammed his fists onto his table as he heard the report. The mahogany vibrated for a good ten seconds, an astounding feat to do to a rectangular four-legged table. "You must be kidding me. An Epic monster? Those thing are rarer than a Flitterer's scales!"
"Yep." said a red haired woman. "And they found it in the Beginner's Forest. Someone filed a report on it. Here's the Scan Stone." Said the woman, reaching into one of the pockets in her vermilion dress. The man wrinkled his eyebrows at the sight of the stone. Such a low quality stone! It was the type that was sold in bulk at dirt cheap prices, only able to scan minimal information out of the monster. You might be wondering why he would be so disdainful of such a stone. Wouldn't such stones be submitted to him as proof often given his job? The thing was that this was the first time they had received a stone a lousy as this one.
The logic was actually quite simple. High tier monsters would normally be only found in high levelled places, and only the best of adventurers would actually dare to linger around such areas; it would be suicide for anyone else. These dare devils were the type that would be decked in powerful gear. It was the first time they heard of an Epic monster being found in an area below Lv70.
"Think it's a trap, Grimmer?" The woman took her treasured staff out of her inventory and started to polish it. It was a strange habit, but it helped to soothe her and get her thoughts flowing.
"It must be a trap; the Monster Community must be up to one of their shenanigans again!" Grimmer concluded as he viewed the information from the Scan Stone.
Entry 25: Unknown monster
Average Level: ?
Species: Elemental++? Golem
Element: ?
Ability Talents: ?
Skills: ?
Rarity: At least Epic, possibly a Legendary or Unique monster.
"Bloody Elemental golems! And this one's got two pluses!" Grimmer shouted, flinging the stone to the ground. The stone shattered, dissipating into fine dust and cracking the marble floor. (Charles would be heartbroken) Elemental golems were the biggest pains in the ass. They have ridiculous amounts of health, defence, strength and are very proficient in magic. "There's no bloody way it's not a Legend rank! And because this stupid piece of garbage stone, we don't even know what skills or element it has!"
"You know..." Sighed the woman. "The low tier stones have a good chance to be wrong about the species when it comes to rarer monsters. It could really just an Epic monster that was identified wrongly. You know how prideful those Legend monsters are. There's no way they would be willing to step down and act as bait."
The man froze.
"Oh." He said blankly. Grimmer felt really dumb for not thinking of that.
"As usual, you aren't thinking things through, are you?" The woman crossed her arms, smirking at him. "You should be glad you have the great Reyna as an adviser here! Hmph, I should really be the leader here! Aren't the brains the leader rather than the brawn?" Reyna teased, intensifying her smirk.
"SHUT UP!" Grimmer punched towards her, but she already teleported outside the room and ran away. Ah yes, that was also another reason why she liked to polish her staff. It makes it convenient to cast spells at any given moment. Outside, Skalda sighed at the antics of the Sorceress Of Mischief (who was running away on foot to conserve mana). And Grimmer too, won't he ever learn to control his temper?
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Skalda headed off as the angry man charged out of the room. It wasn't because he was afraid of getting caught in 'friendly fire'. Okay, he was somewhat afraid of getting caught in the fight. But the main reason was to do his usual task of searching for more people to join the hunt in exchange for benefits.
He sighed. It was truly a bothersome task he was given. Anyone capable would obviously ask for overly pricey incentives but if he paid them too much, Reyna and Grim would scold him. It was the same when he invited people they deemed as 'cannon fodder' as well. Always being treated as the third wheel or scolded. He wondered if he should search for a new party. Surely there would be plenty who would treat a Legend like him with the respect he deserves, right?
~~~~~
Due to the antics of Reyna, the start of the hunt was greatly delayed. To begin with, it was already quite unlikely for an Epic monster to linger for long in such a low levelled area. This fact made most of the higher levelled people unwilling to participate in fear that the trip would only waste their time. Not to mention that the team had to be more cautious that usual since they had next to no information about the target which made the task somewhat risky. As such, the trio was only able to find an Epic ranked earth mage named Balda despite their rank as Legends. Currently, the group was waiting anxiously as Reyna sent out four magical puppets to scout the area since the strength of the foe was unknown. Each of the members of the hunt group held on to a tiny tablet that projected what the one of the puppets saw.
"Ahh... This is so boring!" Bemoaned Reyna as she yawned. "Can't the monster just show up already!"
"Shut up Reyna!" Grimmer yelled at her without staring away from the tablet assigned to him. "Did you forgot how many times to you endangered our hunts by raising flags?"
"Eh. I'll rather get it over with." Reyna shrugged. "It's all the same! It's not like an Epic monster would even pose a threat to us. Heck, I can take one of those suckers down alone!"
"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT THE HELL UP AND STOP RAISING THE DAMNED FLAGS!" Grimmer yelled, scaring away all the birds in a twenty metre radius. "Don't tell me you forgot about that Regeneration Demon? IT WAS ONLY AN EPIC YET IT WIPED OUT A GROUP OF TEN LEGENDS!"
"Bleh." Reyna stuck her tongue at the barbarian who couldn't even take a joke. For some reason, Grimmer believed in 'flags'. It was the trickery of Reyna that led him to believe that what she says ruins operations when it was just in fact her own manipulation most of the time.
"I found the monster!" Balda shouted, breaking up the tension about to erupt. Just a few more seconds and the two would be at it again. But hearing the earthen mage, the group quickly gathered around him, shoving each other for a better view of the tiny screen. Except Reyna. She teleported beside Balda in a spilt second.
What they saw shocked them. Covered in grey fur and with glowing read eyes, it was the Bat King! The monster was staring ferociously at the cute little kitten that mewed before him for mercy with pitiful eyes, ready to stuff the feline into the his inventory for a snack later.
"Oh no! A cat!" Shouted the third wheel of the team Skalda. Somehow, even the mischievous sorceress put on a serious expression. After all, who could resist the plead of help from such a cute little kitten?
~~~~~
Poopy who was lying down, bored shot up with a jolt. Yowi was in danger! The golem wasn't sure how it knew, but that was what its instincts screamed at it. Poopy ran straight toward one of the walls of the cage and punched with all its might.
You have taken have taken damage from the rebound of the cage's hardness. -10 HP.
It was true that Poopy was now somewhat strong, but its squishy body didn't have enough durability to give a proper punch. The fist literally split in half and went through the gap in the cage.
Poopy: ....
It had forgotten that it could have just shape-shifted through the gaps in the cage! Truly befitting of how dim it is.