[You killed lvl.12 Scarlet Ape!]
[You killed lvl.14 Scarlet Ape!]
[You killed lvl.13 Scarlet Ape!]
[You killed lvl.11 Scarlet Ape!]
[You killed lvl.14 Scarlet Ape!]
“Phew…” breathing a sigh of relief, I displayed my task list, reminding myself of the time I had left before the attack on the gate begins.
[Task #1 : Find the 4 keys to open the gate leading to the exit, located in the safe zone (0/4). 84 days left.]
[Task #2 : Defend that gate. The wolf mother is planning to destroy the gate. A wave of enemies will strike the gate in 4 days. Defend the gate, or risk losing your only way out of here.]
The past 2 days flew by as I slaughtered as many of those apes that I could find during the night. It was a grueling and anxiety-inducing process as any mistake that I made could start the tide of angry, explosive apes chasing me down, but I got by Scot-free.
It turned out that their night vision was even worse than I assumed. The closest encounter I had was the one right before now, where, all of a sudden, one of those apes was watching the floor from a tree right above where I stood.
My body froze when I noticed its presence as panic flooded my system, yet the ape just… turned away. Needless to say, that was the biggest mistake that ape has made since it started breathing. Its eyes popped outside as my spear skewered its brains outwards.
The cloak also helped; the light haze of darkness masked my body as I moved from my location to the next. Most of the monkeys now die in one accurate strike through their skull, instead of two before I gained a class level.
2 days’ worth of progress netted me 2 more class levels and 1 player level. I hand-counted the kills I tallied, which now hovered above 15. The system never rewarded easy kills that much, so sooner or later, I would have to face the Prime if I wanted to make significant progress.
Also, my spear mastery has increased by 2 ranks, and The Dark arsenal skill increased by 1. I couldn’t tell if there were any changes with my skills with the spear, but every thrust and swipe I made felt just that tiny bit cleaner and sharper.
With the number of apes dwindling down, I had to inch deeper into their nest to find more of them, which meant that the risk was exponentially higher. The apes also appeared to be more alert as their numbers had diminished.
The day was spent with me exploring the surrounding area, but I couldn’t find anything of interest other than the location of their nest.
“Alright… Let’s get more of them.”, I got up from my seat, facing towards the depths of the forest. I’ve found the spot of 2 more sleeping apes before, so I headed to the closest one from my spot.
Climbing the tree where a snoring ape lay, I noticed that there was something different about this one when I was about to end its life. My eyebrows perked up when I realized what was so different about this ape.
This one’s a female. There was a set of obvious milk glands that was exposed from its belly. This simple fact never occurred to me until now, but the knowledge of me never seeing a female member of their species until I got deep into their nest meant the male apes slept further to protect their female members.
[You killed lvl.12 Scarlet Ape!]
The ape died instantly from my spear without letting out a single whimper. Continuing my hunt, I killed all the apes I could find within this distance from the crater, reducing the ape population even further.
I wouldn’t try and imagine how furious the alpha would be once it realized that all of its brethren had died.
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The culling of the apes took me 2 more days to complete before I couldn’t spot any of them during the day. I didn’t gain any player and class levels since then, although I managed to increase my dark arsenal skill and spear mastery 1 level further. The mana cost of the Dark arsenal grew, which I wasn’t a fan of, costing 12 mana instead of 10 per cast.
“Alright… Tonight’s the time to strike.”, I’ve grown accustomed to the movements of the apes, so much so that taking them on during the day poses close to no risk at this point. That, combined with the upgrades to my physical stats and primarily dexterity, allowed me to outmaneuver them with ease.
From my past observations, The Alpha never left that cliff it sat on. I thought it’d be more upset by now, but the indifference towards its dying comrades was strange, and honestly, kinda annoyed me.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Of course, it’d be fantastic if I could end it in one strike before it even sensed me. Call it a hunch, but something told me that wouldn’t be possible. That thing was an elite for a reason.
I planned to deliver a strike to its head and see if that worked. If it failed, I’d aim both its fists immediately after with a conjured spear, then hopefully - injure its tail. I tested the effect of injuring the glowing parts of the apes once, and I found that their impact was either nullified completely or reduced significantly, depending on how much damage they took.
Reopening my stat page, I glanced at the improvements I’ve made since 4 days ago, wondering if I’ve grown as much as I needed to.
Player : Zane Black
Race : [G - HUMAN]
Level : 11
Health : 300/300
Stamina : 254/300
Mana : 110/110
———————————————————————————————————————————————————
ATTRIBUTES
Physical [15] :
[Strength] - 30 [base : 15] [sub + achv : 9] [equipment :5] [bonus 1% : 1]
[Dexterity] - 43 [base : 15] [sub + achv :22] [equipment : 2] [bonus 6% : 3]
[Constitution] - 25 [base : 15] [sub + achv : 9] [equipment :0] [bonus 1% : 1]
Mind [0] :
[Intelligence] - 7 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 6] [equipment :0] [bonus 1% : 1]
[Willpower] - 4 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 3] [equipment :0] [bonus 1% : 1]
[Capacity] - 7 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 6] [equipment :0] [bonus 1% : 1]
[Free Main Attribute points : 0 ]
[Free Sub Attribute points : 0 ]
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
Classes :
[The coveted Shadow - epic (4)]
Skills :
[Daggers mastery - novice(1)] [Spear mastery - novice(4)] [Sword mastery - Novice(1)] [Dark arsenal - novice (3)] [Shadow step - epic]
Achievements :
[Death’s door(2)] [Big game hunter] [The first of many] [the trial seeker]
Affinities :
[]
Talents :
[Innate sensory]
There were only 2 more days before the wave begins. That meant that tonight would be the last shot I have to kill this thing.
Preparing my potions on my backpack, I headed closer to the crater and waited for the embrace of the night to begin this fight.
The Alpha was still hanging around the crater, somewhat confused about the loss of its brethren. I watched its expression as it shrugged and went back to sleep.
So much for pissing him off.
There was a nagging feeling that all the creatures I’ve met were just artificial creations of the system. At times, I could feel the personality of each creature type, and they appeared to have genuine feelings, but there were also times when I felt that they were all programmed to do specific things, which gave them an artificial quality to their mannerisms.
In that sense, there was a possibility that the other people I’d met were also simple creations of the system. But that was a reach, considering how much more alive they acted compared to those I’ve killed.
Anyway, the ape’s ‘aliveness’ didn’t matter now, does it?
At the end of the day, it was just another creature that I must kill.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————
“Higher!” Reghan’s shout penetrated the crowd’s hollering as he directed the builders on their progress to build a wall of fence around the encampment. Stuck with primitive equipment and technology, everything has to be built the old-school way, starting from chopping down the trees to refining them into usable planks and sticks.
Julie and her group members spared no time in helping their efforts to build a defensive wall, choosing to level up and gain strength instead. He sorely wished that he was the one with that kind of luxury, but gritted his teeth as the survival of the gate was a higher priority in his mind.
Besides, I bet there’s a reward based on your contribution to this. He thought to himself.
The trees that once surrounded this encampment were now a collection of stumps on the ground, increasing the width of the clearing as each day passed. There were multiple wooden structures posing as temporary storage and bed surrounding the gate, which were given to those who Reghan deemed as the more ‘useful’ member of his so-called army.
That ‘army’ itself has grown to quite a sizable force. Since the system alerted everyone about this coming wave, those who were skeptical about joining them quickly changed their mind.
Everyone had their respective roles for each time slot of the day, one that patrols the outskirts of his encampment and another that was given the time to pursue more levels deeper in the forest, there was another subset of the population that didn’t want to risk their lives fighting, so he relegated those to build and reinforce the base.
So far, everything works.
He was happy to say that there were almost no casualties that occurred from his leadership so far. Food and drink, thankfully, weren’t an issue, since the system made those needs obsolete.
Although, there were a few intriguing discoveries that were reported by his scouting party. The existence of obelisks and trials, the elite monsters, reported by Julie’s group, and the dungeon that was found far to the east, near where the scorpions were. The tomb of Tzatch. He suspected that the key to the gate was in one of those dungeons.
But that is a matter for later, he sighed. Right now…
He just wanted to survive this god-damned wave.