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Amanda massaged her tense shoulders as she waited for the gates to open, exhausted from the recent hunt. The level eleven wolves posed quite a bit of a challenge, with their new abilities and human-like intelligence, but their group was cohesive enough to deal with them.
With a sigh, she thought back to the times when they’d almost broken up. Julie was sick with how foolishly those two acted after that elite bear encounter, and frankly, Amanda was also a few steps away from leaving herself.
But Julie was an asset. Her skills and magic were second to none, and combined with her tenacity, made her a valuable ally in all situations.
“It’s us!”, Julie shouted. “Open the gate.”
Content with her progress, Amanda was looking forward to a bit of a rest before tomorrow came. Julie herself looked drained from all the fighting, even if she acted otherwise. Frankly, that part of her earned a lot of respect from Amanda.
The gate finally opened, and on the other side, a person who she has never seen in the camp before watched Julie and her group with an intense interest. He sported medium-ish dark hair with a set of blue eyes that felt cold when she gazed into them.
His admittedly agreeable face aside, there was a presence around him that made him bigger than he is, even if he wasn’t a giant like Richard or Reghan.
Shifting her gaze from the strange man, Amanda noticed Julie was looking at him warily too.
The sight of the curious young man piqued her interest. She used her [analyze] skill on him, which was found in an obelisk trial a few distances away from the camp, and what she saw shocked her to the deepest corners of her heart.
Player : Zane Black
Race : [G - HUMAN]
Class : ???
Level : 14
Health : 342/370
Stamina : 370/370
Mana : 130/130
Level 14? Amanda screamed to herself. The strongest person she knew was Reghan, at level 10, but this guy was four levels ahead of him. Not only that, his health pool nearly doubled Reghan’s, even after all the points he must’ve put into the constitution stat.
A thrill ran down her spine as she felt Zane’s glare in her eyes. In a moment of exhaustion and weakness, she’d let her gawking eyes wander and in that instant, she knew Zane had an inkling of her intentions. Julie noticed his change in demeanor too, glancing in her direction as she hurriedly looked away from him, praying that he’d leave her party alone.
Amanda lets out a breath of relief as Zane simply walked past them.
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I couldn’t stop thinking about the way Amanda looked before. What the hell did she see to warrant such a reaction?
The gate eventually closed, leaving me on the outside once more. I was optimistic that they’d survive at least the first wave of the attack, especially if I counted the strength of Reghan and the other players. With their experience fighting the wolves outside, there was little to no chance that the wolves would get the upper hand. At least, not in the first wave.
If they didn’t need help, then what was I supposed to do next?
The scorpions Edward mentioned sounded like an interesting direction to go to. I turned in the opposite direction that led to the apes and walked straight, ignoring the glances of the people around the outside of the walls.
Reghan’s leadership aside, I didn’t find the sentiment and attitude of most of the people there to be suitable for the type of world they were living in. I had a feeling that I’d never fit in with the society that was built there, no matter how much I tried to accommodate those people.
Amanda’s group was the exception. I respected their mettle to go far out and gain as much strength and experience as quickly as they could, even though some of her party members were a bit lacking at the start. But from the outside, they seemed to have meshed well together.
A few minutes of walking and the settlement was now far outside of my vision, fading into the dense forestry. The air was clearer on this end, and even until now, I’ve seen no group of wolves around.
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How many of these wolves have they hunted?
Continuing my trek towards where the scorpions were, I was interrupted by the sight of another group of players. A brief conversation with them revealed they were one of the many patrols organized by Reghan to hunt any wolves around the gate, resulting in the lack of wild animals.
“The scorpions.” I said, catching their attention. “Are they up ahead?”
“Well… Yes, but why are you asking about them? None of us are strong enough to fight them.” The patrolman replied, scrunching his brows since he found my line of questioning strange. “Heading there is just asking for death.”
“I’ll just look around. I know they are dangerous.”
The patrolman studied my figure, then pointed to the right. “You’ll find a river over there, cross it and you’re bound to see scorpions soon after.”
I thanked them with a smile. Following his directions, I heard a flowing river as I went further away from the gate. It wasn’t long before I saw glimpses of a body of water, reminding me of the times I fought the first set of wolves in this world.
Surveying the area, I found nothing that was worthy of my interest. The river itself was about 20 feet wide, with its floor visible even from a distance. At least it was shallow, so I could just walk past it, or…
Stepping back, I secured myself a few meters’ worth of distance before sprinting and leaped across the river with ease. In fact, I overshot the jump by quite a margin and nearly collided with a tree, but good use of shadow step allowed me to escape that embarrassment.
Once I got across, I climbed a nearby tree and began my journey deeper into the scorpion’s region.
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[Lvl. 18 Green-scaled scorpion]
Beneath a tree, a few 20-ish meters away from my current spot, a scorpion was wandering about in search of food. The levels here weren't a joke, level 18 being one level away from the elite prime ape, so I’d assume that those critters would be quite the challenge to beat.
The naming of the animal was accurate. The size of the scorpions was about the size of a full-grown bull, discounting the long tail that stood upright with a nasty stinger on the end. On its green carapace were tiny hairs that constantly vibrated.
Both of its claws were thick and sturdy, looking more like a shield than a set of limbs. From a distance, there was a sinking feeling that I wouldn’t be able to penetrate its thick shell with my spear, meaning that the only way to deliver a fatal strike was through its soft, but small mouth.
The lack of information about its skills also complicated the situation. What if it was able to use some magical beam from its tail? Surely, that menacing stinger wasn’t just there for show…
Since the scorpion was alone, now is the best time to learn what moves it had.
Summoning a pair of daggers, I threw one of them slightly away from the scorpion, piercing through the tree it was supposed to land on, and ended up upright on the ground behind it instead. The noise made was enough to snap the scorpion towards the location of the impact.
It clearly saw the hole in the trunk, but perhaps from its low intelligence, didn’t seem to be bothered by it. It was about to turn back before I shadow stepped near its head with my spear on the ready.
The scorpion flinched when it saw my figure emerge from thin air, immediately shielding its mouth with both of its giant claws. I grasped my spear with both of my arms, and with a solid footing on the ground beneath me, transferred all the momentum from my legs and propelled it right at its claws.
I never expected to pierce through its defenses right away, and boy was I right. My spear bounced off its claws with an ugly-sounding clash, but not without pushing its claws away, revealing a direct line of attack towards its mouth momentarily. The tail of the scorpion twirled, preparing itself for a direct attack.
The stab from its tail was lightning quick. The air blew past me while I ducked sideways, avoiding its stinger by a fraction of a second. Continuing its attack, it retracted its tail and extended both of its giant claws to smash me between its arms. But this attack was significantly slower than its tail and I avoided this one with ease.
Rolling backward, I gained a few extra meters of distance as it charged toward me. Well, charging wasn’t quite the right word, since its scrawny legs were not nearly strong enough to fully support its weight, so its speed was a lot slower than I thought it would be.
I watched its tail twirling as it entered a striking distance. There was a certain rhythm to its attacks, which anyone with half a brain could easily time and remember if they gained enough fighting experience with these things.
An instant right after it struck, I shadow-stepped to its side. The scorpion’s tail attack missed by quite a large margin this time, yet its glare remained solely on me as I reappeared.
Lifting its left claw in defense, I launched another full-powered stab again, opening up another line of attack as it recoiled, however it reacted fast enough with the other claw and swung at me, nearly clubbing me right as I canceled my attack, stopping just right outside of its swing radius.
A giant gust of wind pushed my hair up as the swing passed by harmlessly.
Frustrated by its missed attacks, the scorpion hissed as it pointed its tail at my figure.
Another stab is coming.
Hold on… I directed my focus on its swaying tail.
Not yet…
Now!
Internally timing the rhythm of its tail stab, I rolled right as it was about to strike, dodging the next stab.
There was a delay between the scorpion readying its tail and when it starts its attacking motion, and it almost never deviated from that timing.
Pushing both my feet against the floor, I jumped high in the air, summoning a spear on my left arm and lobbed it right at its face. The scorpion was fast enough to block the spear with its thick claws, but that was merely a distraction. The other, ‘real’ spear skewered its mouth while the conjured spear bounced off harmlessly against its shell. It never foresaw that I’d shadow step right after the dummy spear.
The spear went cleanly into its head, killing it instantly with my arms pushing it as deeply as I could. Blood and guts continually spilled out of the tiny hole in its mouth, resulting in a swathe of system messages appearing on my vision.
[You killed Lvl. 18 Green-scaled scorpion]
[Congratulations! You gained a level!]
[The Coveted Shadow class has leveled up! You gained : + 2 dexterity, +1 Capacity, +1 Intelligence, +1 Strength, +1 Constitution]