A Level Zero's Struggle (part 11)
The group was in a mess now.
And the monster was currently giving them a tough time. If it was allowed, it would have trampled them the moment they had attacked it.
Its strong defense was giving it an advantage else these chasers would have hunted it until now. But their weapons were not delivering any fatal injury.
None of them had level three weapons which was a huge disadvantage for chasers.
The chaser who was walking with Qiao rushed and joined the group. He had been expecting that this group would be on winning position but the current scenario only made him pity them.
He believed with his addition he could be able to provide some help and later collect some spoils. But it was apparent that they won't be getting rid of this monster very time soon.
The chaser also thought that after he was done with this monster, he could ask for this team to help him deal with this youth. He wished to rob this ignorant guy and teach him a lesson, but he was going to be disappointed.
Qiao stood with ease at a distance from the battle. He finally had a chance to witness a proper hunt, there was no way he was missing it. He did not know these people and felt no obligation to help them. Neither did they consider a Zero could help them in anyway so it was better to stand by and witness the chaos.
His day was not going to be a waste after all.
He sat by a tree and witnessed how these chasers went around to hunt down a stronger beast.
"What is wrong with the situation here?" the chaser reached the leader of this team and asked him.
They were quite familiar with each other because they started their career the same day and they both had escaped from the groups which took them as sacrificial lambs.
"Take it as our bad luck, but when we decided to hunt this monster looked to be an easy hunt. But right after we began to attack it we understood that it is a unique monster whose defense only activated when you attack it. Its upper layer poses a strong defense which we are unable to penetrate," the chaser shook his head while explaining the situation.
"I heard you have a strong weapon. Should we give it a try by attacking together?" the group leader suggested.
The defeated leader of the previous hunt pitifully smiled, "My weapon shattered when I was hunting today earlier and I barely escaped death," he explained as he showed his present level one weapon.
The leader shook his head, he wanted to curse at him loudly and say why did he came here if he was not helpful to them.
But he kept it to himself.
At that moment a chaser helped drag the gravely injure body of another chaser.
The situation was increasingly getting tense and if this continued they would have no other way other than to retreat.
"Why don't you use the trap technique?" the chaser gave a suggestion seeing that the leader was not happy to see him here.
"I initially thought about it but the monster would be able to break it easily. And then what would happen to those surrounding it can be predicted," the leader did not appreciate this suggestion.
"I think the only option left is to retreat. I should ask them run away, while I for cover them until we leave safely," the group leader could not continue to see his team getting injured one by one. For now he thought he should retreat and return back after preparing well.
"Stop, I have someone with me who I am sure could help," the chaser right now was eager to get these spoils so he pointed toward Qiao and gestured toward the thing in his hand.
"I don't know if your mind is functioning properly or you might be a little disturbed because of your loss earlier today but can you explain how a brawler can help us?" the group leader was not just shocked, he was simply unable to express what he was feeling right now.
He thought that a bolt had finally gone loose in this guys brain after hunting for long.
"Can you see that weird looking thing in his hand, you might not believe but I am sure it is a level three weapon of rare type," the chaser explained. He thought he was finally able to trap Qiao in his scheme now.
Qiao would not give away this weapon and he wasn't confidant to defeat him swiftly without facing a loss himself. So this team would be the perfect for him to solve this problem.
This would be a perfect scenario to rob off his belongings.
Hunting this monster might not actually give him much as he would have to share it with this team, but the bag that this youth carried might be worth ten times the spoils here he thought.
And he was right about it too, the amount of crystals in the bag coupled with his savings would allow him to buy a level three weapon easily.
For spoils, even a higher-level chaser would not be ashamed to hunt level one monster. As it was one of the really difficult task to keep the balance between the level of a hunter and the level of their weapon. A perfect balance can grant good experience and better safety but it was too difficult to buy the expensive weapons after every few months.
So what delayed most of the chasers was the lack of spoils most of the time.
If they choose to be patient and hunt a bit more after gaining enough experience points then they would even be able to polish their skills while hunting enough spoils. But most were a greedy bunch of people.
So they resort to underhanded means mostly.