When I activated the serpent movement technique I immediately felt my body grow astoundingly fast. It was like I had just downed a whole gallon of red bull! I now had wings, this truly was a magical world.
[Daquan. Str: .63, Agi: 1.23(.73), Vit .73, using serpent movement.]
With this newfound speed, I would surely be able to take down the Hercules Badger!
I looked at the slow-moving Hercules Badger as I went in to attack. I tried to stay at the side of the Hercules Badger to avoid its massive claws. If it managed to swipe me with those then I was a goner.
My curiosity wasn't longing to find out what a hit from something that had 1.3 strength could do to someone with my meager .73 vitality. At least not if the target was me!
My first slash with my hunting knife was a success! After I hit it, it returned my slash with a swipe of its giant claws. I saw my life flash before my eyes as I watched those humongous claws barreling towards my head. I barely pulled my head back and got out of melee range of the Hercules Badger.
'Whew, that was a close one,' I thought.
The Hercules Badger had begun bleeding a bit from the cut I placed on it's back.
[Hercules Badger: Rank 1 Magical Beast]
[Str: 1.3 Agi: .4 Vit: 1.22(1.3), suffering from a knife wound.]
[Danger Level: Low]
This thing was very strong with a great amount of vitality. For me to kill it would take me many attacks, and every time I moved in range of it I would be in danger of taking a swipe that could end my life.
After being hit by my first slash the Hercules Badger began growling and swiping it's powerful claws around itself to ward me off. It wasn't going to go down without a fight!
I circled it again to move in for another attack. As I went back in, I bobbed and weaved against the Hercules Badger's huge claws to land more slashes on its body.
The battle on the edge of life and death gave me a rush of adrenaline. I was fearless in the face of death!
After an intense melee with the Hercules Badger, I had landed many slashes on its body, while the Hercules Badger's attacks seemed to have slowed and weaken. I kitted back out of its melee range to catch a breather.
[Hercules Badger: Rank 1 Magical Beast]
[Str: .9(1.3) Agi: .3(.4) Vit: .6(1.3), bleeding from multiple knife wounds.]
[Danger Level: Very Low]
I now understood fighting in this world a bit better. When your vitality was sapped from injuries the rest of your stats would become weaker. Because of all the injuries I had weaved onto it, the Hercules Badger was now on its last legs.
I was out here like Michael Myers with the hunting knife! The Serpent movement technique gave me the speed to compete with this Rank 1 Magical Beast.
[Warning: Serpent movement ending soon.]
Since it was on its dying breath I would finish it off, before my Serpent movement technique ran out of gas. I immediately dived back into melee range!
After another round of slashing the Hercules Badger was almost dead. I stabbed it in the neck to finish it off since it had gotten too weak to move. Luckily my Serpent movement technique lasted long enough for me to finish the deed.
[Serpent movement technique fades.]
[Daquan. Str: .63, Agi: .73, Vit .73]
[Serpent movement technique is on cooldown for 23 hrs.]
I knew that ability was too good to be true!
Using it had elevated my meager .73 agility all the way to 1.23, an increase of .50 points. That made me much faster than the average man.
For it to have a cool down was very reasonable. I was surprised I didn't suffer any backlash from using it. I guess an increase of .50 agility wasn't enough to warrant a backlash.
I would have to be cautious when using the serpent movement technique from now on since I now knew it had a cool down. It was the only thing I had to guard my life.
[Killed Rank 1 Magical Beast: Hercules Badger.]
[For killing a worthy opponent you are awarded +1 Dragon Point.]
Awesome!
It seemed there were other ways to gain Dragon Points instead of just doing the daily quest. Knowing this greedy system though, Dragon Points might be worth a lot less than I imagined them to be in the Dragon Shop.
The Hercules Badger's sharp claws could sell for around 10-20 gold but didn't have the bravery to sit here and to skin them. The bloody smell from this corpse would attract other nearby Magical Beasts. I tried to put the bloody beast corpse into my storage.
[Error: Storage is currently unable to hold complete corpses.]
Looks like I would have to give up on gaining anything from this battle besides the combat experience and the Dragon Point. From fighting this Hercules Badger, I knew a Rank 2 magical beast was out of my league. If one of them came along investigating the bloody smell I might very well lose my life.
The battle may have been short, but it was very intense. I only won because I was much faster than it with the assistance of the Serpent movement technique.
A rank 2 Magical Beast was stronger than the average man, as to how much stronger I did not know. All I knew is that all their stats would be greater than 1. So they would not only be stronger and faster than me but have a great vitality.
I had to land at least 20 slashes for that Hercules Badger to fall, I couldn't imagine landing that many hits on something that was both stronger and faster than me without succumbing to my own wounds.
Many rare herbs in the forest were worth more than these Hercules Badger claws, and I wasn't ready to head back to the caravan dragging this bloody corpse with me. It simply wasn't economical to collect the Hercules Badger claws. The risk massively outweighed the reward.
I swiftly headed off through the forest, putting as much distance between me and the bloody Hercules Badger corpse as I could.
Thinking back to my battle I may have killed the Hercules Badger, but it wasn't a resounding victory. Every time I moved into melee range with it I had been risking my life. I now knew that fighting techniques played a great part in doing battle in this world.
When I headed back to the caravan I would have to spend time learning some of the Champion techniques my father had taught me. Only then would I be assured to guard my life in this magical world.
The rest of my journey was uneventful. I managed to gather around 75 gold of random herbs before it started to become too dark to see. Old Daquan's knowledge of herbs was truly profound, it allowed me to spot things I would have never guessed were valuable.
I would definitely seek revenge for him since he gifted me with such great knowledge!
Unfortunately, I didn't find anything useful for my entry-level potion making. If I successfully made a potion It could sell for double or triple the value of the raw materials. I gave up foraging and headed back to the safety of the caravan.
I didn't want to stay out under the dark of night or dive too far into the surrounding forest with my current battle prowess. When I returned I would get Miya to take the raw materials I found to the traveling merchant to sell. The best thing for me to do was continue feigning illness while I got strong enough to be able to defeat Colton Sharpe.
I still had a long way to go to meet that goal though, although I had not personally seen his stats I knew that he was a preliminary Champion. A preliminary Champion should be equivalent in stats to a Rank 2 magical beast.
Until I could fight and defeat a Rank 2 magical beast I would train in secret, counting the days until I could get sweet revenge for poor foolish old Daquan!