Cautiously Altros proceeded further and further towards the center of the city. Sometimes he had to wait for a patrol of Gnolls to pass by and the closer he got the more patrols where scouring the area.

He soon reached the place where the middle class houses meet those of the higher class. Every 2 minutes a patrol walked by and cackled madly. Even though he hadnt caught a good look at the Gnoll captain yesterday he instinctivly knew these patrols were stronger.

Not only was their body quite muscular but all of them wore either chainmail shirts , finely crafted weapons or both. But to make the situation worse they always were 4 Gnolls in 1 patrol. Sure Altros could sneak by them , but what if they caught his scent and followed him.

He was certain that he couldnt handle 2 Gnolls much less 4. At the start he had killed any single Gnoll that came in his way. Mostly because he felt immensly stronger then the day before. The blue script still confused him and the messages it displayed but he knew ever since he went from lvl 1 to lvl 2 he was stronger.

So the natural course of his actions was to increase his lvl to 3 and thus increasing his abilitys even further. But even then , the patrols stayed together and even while being significantly stronger then all 4 of them he would have to deal with the next patrol 2 minutes later.

He wasn't confident to be able to kill all the Gnolls in 2 minutes before the next would arrive and thus leading to an endless cycle. A battle of attrition was out of question. He cursed under his breath and sneaked back to where the slum huts meet with the stone structures of the middle class.

Along the way back he killed more then 10 Gnolls all around the same level as the Gnoll captain yesterday , but even then he needed 2000 of this mysterious EXP to which every Gnoll gave him between 60-70.

All in all he had killed enough goblins to earn 1250 EXP and it took him half a day. His mind tried to come up with a way to increase the rate of Gnolls he could exterminate , but once again he just drew a blank.

There was only one thing he could do. Activly hunting those vile beasts. Altros grinned a evil smile and a plan began to form in his mind.

..............

The sun still shone brightly and it would take some time before the last rays of its warm glow would fall on the earth. Altros was waging the dangers he could face with this plan , but in the end he sighed and disregarded the warning bells that sounded in his mind.

He was a good part into the middle class housing area , where the patrols were rather sparse and frequently smelled the air for the foul stench. Soon he picked it up only to be greeted with a manical cackle a few seconds later.

Altros was sick of this. The insane laughter like sounds the beasts made , the waiting he had to endure because he wanted to see the house he was born in once again but most of all the stench.

His nose had no problems with many smells , even landing face first in the sewer canal couldnt be worse then this , Altros thought from time to time. The patrol came closer as he could hear their ragged breathing.

He spied around a dark corner and saw 3 Gnolls. 2 in armor with crude wooden clubs , both had a brownish fur and the other one had a crossbow and for some reason or another had white fur.

Altros was suspicious as to why a Gnoll would have white fur with no-stains on it , compared to the rest that had either so much dirt in it you could barely discern them from sewer rats or their natural darker tones.

Not only the white fur made this Gnoll stand out but its shape as well. Smaller , lighter and at least not as ugly as the rest of them came to Altros mind as he studied the back of the now passing patrol.

They rounded a corner and disappeared from sight. Immediatly he rose from his crouched spying position and ran into a alley way. This had been planned , wait for a group of 3 then run after them from a different direction.

While he ran through the narrow corriders at his full speed he saw glimpses off torn rags and garbage that hadn't been in this city when it was still filled with people. Altros had no time to further explore the trash so he decided to do this later.

He rounded a corner and his foot caught on something immediatly pulling him to the ground as he tripped. A silent curse ran from his lips at the vaguely humanoid body that lay on the floor.

After he stood up he redoubled his effort to catch the patrol. Barely in time he rounded the last corner and saw the grp of 3 rounding another. With more curses silently swore he had missed the perfect timing but he ran after them.

He smelled the sick stench of bloodmagic as he rounded the next corner on the main path the patrol had taken and he knew this was a dangerous ordeal. Nonetheless he had to increase his combat capabilitys.

Altros was confused as he came up behind the patrol only to find readied arms waiting for him. They shouldnt have heard him , after all Elfs moved silently even when they ran.

A poorly aimed bolt flew in a wide arc besides him and immediatly a Club smashed the wall of a building where his head was seconds before. He had ducked by a narrow margin as the whistle of wind past his ears.

In a crude manner , as he wasn't used to this motion , he swung the sword diagonally up. The blade ruptured in to the gnolls body just below the ribcage with a yellow hue , he had never seen before , and exited its body above the shoulder.

Entrails , blood and chunks of flesh were splittered off the now graying Gnoll. Luckily , Altros knew , he had found another blade art that reduced the opponents armor to nothing.

The second Gnoll swung his club at Altros face , but he on the other hand seemingly shuffled his feet along the cobble stone backwards. He turned his waist and shoulders just in time to smash his sword crudly into the advancing club.

As the weapons connected with a loud bang the Gnolls weapon immediatly flew backwards with the immense pressure Altros laid behind his own swing. Its arms followed leaving him open to any retilation.

Altros grabbed the opportunity as his blade flickered red that entered through the creatures abdomen only to exit behind the beast. Gray particles momentarily blinded Altros as the wind carried it into his eyes.

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He expected to find a bolt sticking out of his flesh at this point but for some reason nothing came. As he regained sight in his now watering eyes he found the white and different Gnoll haunched on the floor clutching its chest.

With a few last gurgles it breathed its last and disappeared into gray as well. A sickening stench of damp bloodmagic coursed through the air. So penetrating was the stench that Altros immediatly left.

You have killed 2 lvl 6 Warrior- and 1 lvl 5 Slavegnoll

Acquired 230 XP

His breath was ragged as he ran taking more and more of the stench in his lunges that also left a bad taste in his mouth as he drew breath through it. As he finally came into the alley that simply smelled of garbage and waste he breathed every ounce of air he had filled his lungs with.

His eyes stopped watering as he greadily sucked in the pleasent seeming garbage smell compared to the foul smell of bloodmagic. Altros spat out on the ground as an attempt to clear his mouth of the taste.

After this he leaned against the wall and the adrenaile stopped pumping. The high endurance sprint and battle had taken a larger tool on his body then he thought. His legs cramped from strain and he almost wished they would come off so the pain would stop.

His right arm where the Gnolls and his weapon had connected felt limp , almost as if he had no control over it. Altros used his left hand to pry open his own fingers that still clutched the weapon tightly , unable to open it through will-power alone.

As his back slid down the masoned stone of the building behind him he noticed once again the rags and pills of waste at his feet that snaked to all sides where Altros looked. Not even an army of Gnolls could produce this much waste.

Minutes turned into hours before Altros was sure enough that his body would respond the way he wanted too. His curiosity picked he would keep a lookout for more of the waste all around the city as he searched for the next patrol.

..............................

2 days has it been since he killed the first patrol and Altros grew bolder while still remaining cautios. Continously he had challenged the patrols in the mid class quarters of the city and succeded.

During the nights he heard fighting all around him , his mind immediatly wandered back to the elfa with the bow. A shudder ran down his spine , but he slept soundly shortly after.

As the 4th day dawned he began to challenge the 4 Gnoll patrols in the upper class quarters of the city to find it surprisingly easier then he had thought it would be. These patrols consisted of 2 Warrior Gnolls and 2 Gnolls with white fur.

After he had taken care of the Warrior Gnolls the other ones simply died a unnatural cause that always made Altros gag. He couldnt get used to the smell of bloodmagic that followed their deaths.

Altros , as he was strong enough to exterminate the patrols , grew rapidly. Every 3-5 minutes he killed another patrol , sometimes he hid around building to get a surprise attack in. While other times he jumped from a nearby roof and immediatly decapitated his opponent.

The closer he had gone to the towns center the more intact buildings greeted him and while he rummaged through them more often then not found some bread.

He also noticed that every alley was completly littered with trash or waste , but not only this the wide streets that lead to the market plaza were also filled with the same disposable collection of rags or rotting food.

This street allowed the flow of 4 horse drawn carriages on both sides with ample space in between for a throng of people to pass. It was a mystery to him what happend here.

Altros contemplated about all this and soon heard another mad cackle indicating that the next patrol was coming. He readied his weapon and stood rigid , coiled like a spring to get the first and deceisive swing in that naturally would lead to his victory once again.

Seconds passed ... a minute passed. Even after 10 minutes nothing appeared in-front of him. Once again he heard the cackle reveberating of the stony structres that lined the alley way , but nothing came in sight.

Suddendly a realization him him. He couldn't smell the stench of the beasts. Now his mind worked overtime. He carefully looked around and soon another cackle hit him and then with an almost audiable click his mind made the link he had been missing seconds before.

Altros gaze firmly fixed in a dark hole that was only covered by a steel gate that was covered in rust.

" The sewers ... " Altros told himself.

Carefully he examined the gate that almost seemed like it could fall apart any second due to the heavy coating of rust he saw on it. But his studys with Alchemy told him something else. The 2 inch thick metal bars wouldn't buckle easily as the rust just covered the outer layer of Steel but the insides were just as hard as if it had just been crafted from a master of the trade.

There was a keyhole at the edge of the gate and hinges on the opposite side. He studied the hinges and realized it was also thick steel , with a half bolt stuck in between. Incredible noise would be heard hundreds of paces if he started stricking the metal.

But the noises above ground wouldn't be a problem , the cavernous sewers would carry the noise hundreds of paces as the noise rebounded of the walls. No , Altros knew this wasn't a good plan.

He needed to prepare , he spied deeper into the darkness through the metal gate only to catch a wiff of air he hadn't expected. A strong earthy and grassy smell entered his nostrils.

The smell he associated with Dwarfs and Elfs. Something strange was going on , but he couldnt really pin-point it , he had to get down there. He dusted of the garbage littered pants he wore and turned around.

This time he smelled the stench of bloodmagic just up ahead. He sighed , as he knew what would come next. Afterall he was an Elf , taking life was never something he would enjoy.