After eating lunch, the group decided to take a rest, they all went to their own rooms, except Maron. He instead went outside, he didn’t have the chance to test his new skills earlier, so he decided to go hunting alone. Maron went outside the kingdom to find monsters that he could test his skills to.
“Now, where should I go?” Maron wondered, he was now outside the kingdom, however he didn’t know where to find monsters, so he just went deeper in to the forest, hoping to encounter some monsters, after a little while he found some blood marks on his path, the shape of the blood indicated that it was probably a small animal, the blood was also still fresh, so whoever did it must still be nearby.
Maron was on his guard right after, he surveyed the surroundings for some monsters and found a troll, the troll was eating a rabbit, the blood marks from earlier must have come from it, when suddenly the troll looked at his direction, thankfully his reflexes was fast enough, before he could be seen by it, he had already hid himself behind a tree.
Maron stood still behind the tree, his instincts moved him involuntarily, he was scared for a moment, but after pondering a little, he realized that there was no reason to hide. He was there to test his new skills, so why was he hiding, he took out his desert eagle and confidently revealed himself to the troll.
The troll’s eyes were bloodshot, its mouth was covered in blood, its teeth were sharp, it tears the rabbit skin with ease, it was huge too, about 8 feet (2.44 m) tall.
Maron now understood why he hid earlier, because it was terrifying, however he was now prepared, he suppressed his fear.
“Hi, I'm going to test my skills on you
” Maron said, explaining himself to the troll, he knew that it wouldn’t understand, but still Maron felt bad shooting someone out of the blue, afterwards he aimed his Desert Eagle, and cast exploding bullet.
The troll was hit right in the face, however the Desert Eagle’s bullet couldn’t penetrate the trolls skin, it just staggered back, the troll’s regeneration ability also helped reduce the damage from the pistol, the skill wasn’t enough to kill it, but it was alright, in fact it was better, it means Maron could test all of his skills at it. Its face now showed an enraged expression rushed to Maron, it was fast, Maron didn’t expect it to be that fast, it almost caught him, but thankfully he jumped backwards and dodged the claws of the troll.
Maron ran away from the rushing troll, casting ‘exploding bullet’ and aiming at the troll’s face, it slowed it down a bit, however that moment of delay was enough for him to widen the distance. Maron now out of range from the troll, started casting ‘Poison bullet’, the bullet didn’t penetrate the skin, but the skin that was hit by it did not show signs of healing, the troll was slowly gaining on him, so he used the same tactic as before and widen their distance once again, after the ‘Poison bullets’ Maron now tested the ‘Sleep bullets’, but with the enraged status of the troll, it was ineffective.
Maron was now satisfied with his skill testing session, he decided to finish it, he took out his M4A1, aimed it on the troll and pulled the trigger, the troll’s thick skin didn’t have a chance at the rifle, the bullets penetrated straight through its body, the troll was filled with holes in seconds, and fell down right after.
‘Ding’ Level up.
‘Ding’ Level up.
Maron was shocked at the sudden announcement in his head, he didn’t expect that he would level up by killing a troll, but he didn’t give much thought about it, afterwards he approached the body of the troll and cut its ears, hoping that he could exchange it for coins just like the goblins. Maron with the successful testing of his new skills decided to go back to the kingdom, to the Lowlaws, to be precise, he was going to check up on Dianne, since he didn’t have that much to do anyway.
Maron walked for a while and finally reached the Lowlaws, the atmosphere there changed, there seem to be more adventurers coming and going, the guild was packed, but still Maron didn’t care that much at all, instead, he walked straight to Dianne’s desk as usual.
“Hey babe” Maron greeted. “What’s happening here? There seem to be a lot of adventurers than normal.”
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“Well, ever since they found out that Sakura was Level 40, adventurers started joining the guild, not only newbies, but also those that are experienced adventurers without a guild.” Dianne said, delighted at the rise in popularity of the ‘Lowlaws’. “So, what did you came here for?” she said smiling, showing clearly that she was in a good mood.
“Uh, I came to exchange this troll ears” Maron replied as he grabbed a pouch and dropped it on Dianne’s desk.
“What!?” Dianne was shocked after inspecting the content of the pouch. “H-How did you get this?” she asked.
“By killing a troll, how else do you think you could get a troll’s ears?” Maron said a little annoyed, he was tired of her obvious question.
“Kill a troll? A troll is a Level 30 monster, adventurers would team up just to kill one, but you a level 10 could kill a troll” Dianne explained, she couldn’t believe that Maron could kill a troll alone, looking at him, there isn’t even a single bruise on him, however with his confident attitude, it didn’t seem like he was lying.
“So that’s why I leveled twice” Maron said, now realizing the reason for his level up. “I killed a troll alone, deal with it, besides I’ve leveled up you know, I'm already Level 20 when I killed it”
Dianne was shocked that he was already Level 20, the last time they met he was only Level 20, which was just days ago, she couldn’t believe how fast he was leveling.
“Okay, this troll ears are a bit too much for our guild, however this thing is requested by a lot of alchemists, so you could sell it to them.” Sakura said, the guild did have money to pay for the troll ears, but if Maron sold it to an alchemist, he would get a lot more than what Lowlaws would pay for.
“Okay, do you know any alchemist?” Maron agreed.
“Yeah, I’ll write a map for you” Sakura said as she grabbed a piece of paper and started drawing on it.
“Thank you” Maron said after receiving the paper, “I’ll see you later then” he said his goodbye, and then walked to the door, he studied the map a bit and started walking on the road right after.
A few minutes later, Maron reached an age-old house, he glanced at the map thinking that he made a wrong turn somewhere, he retraced his steps couple times, but ended up in the same house.
‘Did Dianne write wrong?’ he thought, when suddenly a man with glasses came running out of the house.
“Get down!” the man shouted, afterwards a loud ‘boom’ could be heard inside the house, and black smoke came out the doors and windows of the house.
“Whoo, that was close” said the man in glasses while wiping sweat on his forehead, as if the explosion was just a trifling matter.
Maron looked at the guy unintentionally and didn’t realize that he was already staring.
“Uhm. Can I help you?” glasses guy asked curiously.
“Yeah, do you perhaps know a place called ‘Potion Chicken’?” Maron asked, since there was no reason in declining his help.
“That’s the ‘Potion Chicken’” glasses guy replied and pointed at the old house, “and I'm the owner”