Reedling Village is a village surrounded by a rock wall from all sides except for two entrances. One entrance is nearer to the dungeon's side and the other is on the side facing towards the nearest village.
The time is currently 9 o'clock at night and you could still see many people gathering around the entrance at the dungeon's side. Most of them are adults who are planning to go for a night hunt into the dungeon. In the dungeon, there was no difference in lighting whether you went during night time or daytime. All those planning to go for a hunt in the dungeon also require a legal pass from the military guard stationed here.
Each party member must have to be approved as a person with sufficient strength to attack the dungeon. Only a person having Cosmic Grade 5 or above is legally allowed to attack the dungeon. Otherwise they cannot enter the village with the loot, which most probably will be confiscated. This is done to prevent unnecessary deaths from people who are too stupid to understand the value of life.
Some youngsters can also be found hanging around the gate. Their objective, however is to go hunting in the Black Forest. Even though both dungeons and forests have their own version of inhabitants, there is a difference between the two.
The dungeon houses monsters while the forest provides a home for beasts. Beasts are majorly animals which have mutated under the effects of change that has passed throughout the continent. They possess a sort of sentience similar to humans, thus allowing them to understand human emotions and would not bother the humans unless agitated or gets hungry.
Monsters, however are mindless killing machines which are programmed to attack whoever or whatever enters the dungeon. Even though they may look similar to beasts, they are different at its core. There are only two things that go around a monster's head. One is killing and the other is evolving.
However, apart from those people, you could also observe 5 kids loitering around the inside side of the entrance. If you observe them closely, you could see 3 familiar boys and 2 unknown girls among them. Those three are Sunny, Wayne and Paul from Primary class C section of the Reedling Basic Academy.
The other two girls were Mini and Merin who are around their same age as well. Mini looks a bit fair and Merin, a bit dark with both of them having a slim build. They both possess a beauty of their own style with Mini having a cute outlook and Merin possessing a pretty face.
"Are you sure he will come? Why would you even call a guy from the Inner section?" Wayne asks Paul who was seemingly rubbing his hands together to create heat.
All five of them were the residents in the Outer section of the village. The poor who couldn't afford a plot of land are the most of the residents in the Outer section. Rich who resides in the Centre most section of the village considers the people living in the Outer region as insignificant and were prejudiced towards them. Thus, Outer residents had a collective sense of disgust towards Inner residents.
"Don't worry. If he said he would come, he would come."
Paul assures even though he was not sure himself.
"Why would you even call him in the first place? Is he that strong of a guy?"
Mini asks being curious to which Merin nods indicating she also wants to know.
Even though 5 of them were just kids, it wasn't the first time they had gone for a hunt in the forest outskirts. They started to go hunting for small beasts when they were 5 years old. It had started as a game by them to hunt small level beasts such as frogs and mice. Whenever they were able to catch it, they would change their target and aim for a new one. Most of the time, the evolved beasts would make a fool out of them. But they were able to hunt many small beasts along the way during this 1 year period. But all this time, they weren't able to earn any money for even buying sweets.
This time they decided to step up their game hoping to earn some money by hunting a Horned Moon Rabbit. Horned Moon Rabbit's parts can be sold earning a figure which is not bad for some kids but small for an adult to even bother. However calling in a new member would cause their cut to decrease again. But they knew Paul isn't someone who wouldn't make some decision without seeing something.
"I can assure you that he is stronger than all of us here. I had thought that he would be some sort of loser since he is repeating the Primary classes. But what I didn't expect was the sheer physical prowess the guy possesses. During the Battle class challenge, that guy just came in like a tornado and landed a square hit on my face.
Even though I haven't seen him use an inbuilt skill, his fist sure does pack a powerful punch. Moreover, he didn't care whether I was an Inner resident or Outer resident."
Paul says rubbing his nose feeling an itchy sensation there mentioning his experience. Since having Cosmic Grade of 1 didn't provide much combat abilities, having physical prowess is a plus point in a fight at this level. Thus Zeno was a perfect choice for an additional member according to him
That was when Merin noticed some gray haired guy wearing bandages around his hands coming towards them. He was wearing a white sleeveless shirt and a black pair of pants with an insane amount of bandages wrapped around both of his hands.
"Guys, look. Isn't that weirdo coming straight towards us?" Merin asks the group attracting their attention.
Everyone who was attending there were wearing fully covered clothes because of the cold. So it wasn't wrong to call a guy weirdo, if he was wearing a sleeveless shirt in such a cold climate.
"That's the guy we were talking about." Paul answers to which both Merin and Mini looks at him questioningly.
"Am I late? Did you guys wait for long?"
Upon arriving Zeno asks Paul, who seemed to have taken upon the role as a team leader.
"No we just arrived now. Big bro Zeno, these all are my friends. You must know Sunny and Wayne, they are from our class. This is Mini and Merin, from the Primary B section class. Everyone, this is Big bro Zeno."
Paul introduces them to Zeno and vice versa.
"So what are we waiting for? Let's go."
Zeno suggests to which everyone agrees and departs for the forest outskirts. Paul had already obtained a pass from the guards to hunt in the forest outskirts before itself. All of them had brought some sort of supplies for the hunt except for Zeno, because of which he felt stupid. But it all vanished when he was able to view The Black Forest from near.
The Black Forest is a cold forest which has huge trees which serves as home for many insects, birds and animals. These trees are so huge that they block the sun and even snow thus making the Forest too dark to travel into. Moreover the trees are mostly evolved species of dark pine trees that gives it a black colour thus earning its name- The Black Forest.
Wherever Zeno looked, he could see beasts that he could relate to the animals he had seen from Modern Earth. Everywhere he looked, there were evolved species of Squirrels, foxes, birds and rabbits etc..
Today, their target is a Horned Moon Rabbit. The only knowledge Zeno knows about it is that it is an evolved species of rabbit that appears at night and has a horn on its head.
They soon reach a clearance in the forest outskirts where they see a lone white rabbit with a horn bathing itself in the moonlight. Everybody stops a distance away from it, not wanting to scare it away. It seems the rabbit hasn't noticed them till now. They all try to observe the beast to find a way to attack it.
Pink eyes coupled with resilient fur, the colour of white mercury. A crystal horn glowing under the light acting as a crown on its head. This variant species of rabbit could be considered one of the most beautiful species of its brother species.
'View'
[Species: Horned Moon Rabbit
Level: 1
Description: Appearing at night time, this evolved species of rabbit possess high speed for its level. Legend states that the ancestor of this species were blessed by the touch of Moon Goddess of that era, thus earning a crystal horn and mercury like fur for itself.
Skills: Quick Rush, Moon Charm, Horn Deflect
Weakness:
1. Pointed Attacks
2. Underbelly weak to physical attacks
....
]
Zeno had tried his skill hoping to find some way to defeat it, but he hadn't expected he could now find weakness of a beast just by looking at it. No matter what angle he looks at it, this skill in itself could be called an OP skill.
"So, what's the plan?" Zeno asks whispering to Paul. Even though he knows its weakness, he understood it wasn't that easy to catch it.
"Nothing special, we surround it and attack from all sides. We just have to make sure, it doesn't jump over us.
We will split into 3 teams, each team attacking it at an angle of 120 degrees from each other thus covering it from all sides.
Merin and Wayne, you guys are one team and should attack the rabbit from its left front side. Sunny and Mini, you will be forming another team and should attack from the front right side. I alone will be the third team while big bro Zeno will be watching from the sidelines in case it escapes. Does everyone agree?"
Paul conveys his idea to which everyone nods. Zeno was also a bit glad to be left out since he would be able to see a fight between a beast and humans up close uninterrupted. All the teams positions themselves and starts to aim their weapons.
The rabbit as if possessing a keen sense starts to look around trying to smell where the trouble is coming from.
"Now!!"
Paul shouts aiming his attack. Two boomerangs having found an opportunity appears from the rabbit's both sides targeting it accompanied by a green marble targeting its back.
But contrary to expectation, the rabbit jumps upwards so high that it dodges all three attacks. It looks warily at its attackers even while being airborne.
The boomerangs returns to its owners having not hit its target and the marble bounces off from the ground. It seems the beast's perception was so keen that it was able to sense even the attack from its blind spot.
"Damn it! This thing must have eyes on the back of its head."
Paul comments while aiming for another attack.
Those two boomerangs were the manifestation of Merin's and Mini's Soul Gifts and they both are very proficient with it. But even they didn't expect their well timed attacks to miss as well.
Sunny throws his coin targeting the airborne rabbit wishing to hit it. But what he didn't expect was that the airborne rabbit deflecting the attack with its crystal horn towards Wayne at much higher velocity. Unfortunately Wayne wasn't ready for a friendly fire aimed at his forehead, which ends up hitting him knocking him out.
Just 5 seconds have passed and one guy is already down. Things are not looking good for the team and Zeno was getting worried that maybe things were getting a little out of hand.
The others don't stop and continue their barrage of attacks which is avoided by the rabbit continuously. Even though some of the attacks connect, its resilient fur helps it disperse the force throughout.
After 5 minutes of playing tag, the rabbit beast decides to use one of its signature moves- Moon charm.
Everyone who was fighting it till now were struck by a wave of emotions for the bunny that they stopped in their tracks. Their minds' especially the ladies' were attracted by the charm released by the beast that they couldn't bring themselves to harm it. Since Zeno was in the sidelines unknown to the beast, he wasn't affected.
Taking this opportunity, the rabbit beast tries to escape through the gap formed and sprints into the jungle using another one of its signature moves- Quick Rush.
The horn on its head glows white for a moment which then spreads to its limbs increasing the beast's speed by 20%. However in its escape, it doesn't notice a white shadow pursuing it from behind closely
Just when it thought it had escaped, a stone could be seen zooming towards it targeting its head. Even though the rabbit had wasted most of its energy, it was still able to dodge that attack by jumping up once more.
But what it hadn't expected was that, this was exactly what the shadow approaching it was aiming for. The moment it was staying airborne, a bandaged fist tears through the air and manages to land a hit at its soft belly underside pummeling it towards a tree trunk.
"Squeak, squeak!!"
Having lost all its energy and being hit on its weak spot, the beast could do nothing but cry out aloud and lie there unmoving.
'Good thing, my skill was able to find its weak point. Otherwise, I would have had to go home empty handed.'
Zeno lets out a sigh of relief having been able to accomplish today's hunt.
Paul and others after coming out of their trance decides to join Zeno who had left in pursuit. It seems they would have to give up today's hunt if Zeno was unable to catch it, Paul thought to himself.
On arriving there, Paul sees Zeno taking deep breaths while the rabbit could be seen knocked out on the side. Good thing, their efforts weren't wasted. It seems the speed of the rabbit was a bit too high even for big bro Zeno too, Paul thinks to himself.
"Are you alright?"
Paul asks out of manners.
"Better than him."
Zeno replies pointing towards the location of the rabbit which seems to have vanished from there within a moment's notice.
"Where did it go? It was there, just now."
Paul and others freaked out looking at the surroundings and finding out their hunt had just gone missing. Zeno was also equally surprised that the rabbit was able to make a fool of them. All of them searches for it until Zeno manages to notice a trail of burnt grass nearby. He follows the trail to see a glowing red fox escaping with their hunt held between its teeth. It was running so stealthily with the tail hanging behind its legs.
'View'
[Species: Scorching Red Fox
Level: 1
Description: Having a slight affinity with the fire element, the fur on its body leaves a scroching mark wherever it passes through. An evolved variant of fox possessing a bloodline of a divine beast.
Skills: Scorching Bite, Flaming Stamp
Weakness:
1. Water elemental attacks
2. Eating or inhaling an ounce of Strichnos Coffee Bean can lead to unconsciousness.
...
]