Chapter 9 – Thumping Gorilla
68th Winter Year 2500
Wayne woke up a bit late that day because he slept late that night due to absorbing the cultivation gems. Even if his status was at level 4, he was far from being fit to stay up all night. Only people of level 10 and above could stay overnight without feeling tired at all.
Wayne did his usual routine. Shower and breakfast. After that, he checked online on which dungeon he wanted to explore that day.
He logged on to the Hunter Association site and looked at the list of dungeons there. Due to his hunter rank at G, the lowest rank, he did not get clearance to access many dungeons.
He could enter all the dungeons but he would not be able to view the information about the dungeon from the website. That meant, he could not make proper preparation for his exploration.
Wayne was not choosy and he would only choose what he could afford at the moment. He was not greedy as to want to go to the dangerous dungeon to get precious materials and everything. All he wanted was to get stronger to meet his family.
No one could get strong overnight. It was a long process. Some geniuses could get stronger than their peers fast but they still took time to become stronger. So, Wayne's target was a dungeon of similar strength to the blue python dungeon.
"Hmm~ There are a lot of choices," said Wayne while surveying the dungeon. "I thought that there would be like 10 to 20 dungeons but there are hundreds of normal rank dungeons," Wayne nodded. His selection was massive but he decided to choose a dungeon closer to his home.
"This one sounds good," said Wayne as he clicked on the dungeon of his choice. "Thumping Gorilla dungeon," Wayne stared at the gorilla's picture and it looked similar to a normal gorilla. "Is this really a monster?" Wayne doubted the gorilla.
"Let's see here. Forest environment. The thumping gorilla excels in explosive power especially its strength. Their endurance is the second thing I need to look out for," said Wayne as he read through the information regarding the thumping gorilla.
"Specialized in physical attacks with many basic punch and palm skills. They also sometimes use chopping skills," Wayne kept reading. "Hmm… This gorilla is suitable for me… that is if I want to search for more skills but this is fine too."
"Things to note – Thumping gorilla had four powerful skills. They rarely use the skills but when they use it, they are as strong as early iron rank monsters," Wayne noted. After that, the site listed out the four powerful skills owned by the thumping gorilla.
After that, Wayne checked on the possible mutant thumping gorilla he could meet inside the dungeon. They were rare but it was possible for Wayne to meet them and thus, he took note of the mutant monsters.
Once he checked all the information regarding the thumping gorilla, Wayne checked on the missions issued by the Hunter Association for the dungeon. Wayne was not sure if he would get the mark and thus, he decided to work hard as a hunter, and the first step was doing missions to raise his hunter rank.
If he got the mark, his main battlefield would be the special dimension instead of the dungeons. Even so, he was worried that he did not get the mark. Without the mark, the dungeons were his battlefield.
For G rank hunters like Wayne, the mission would usually be gathering missions or hunting a certain number of monster missions. Wayne took note of all the missions and would do them if he encountered the materials and monsters.
"That's right! The gorilla skin and fur can be used to make gloves and clothes. I can make a lot of equipment with them. The bone is useful too!" Wayne was excited but he remembered his limited storage space.
"My dismantling skill is zero… What should I do?" If Wayne took the whole monster, it would not fit his storage. So, he would need to dismantle the monsters by himself. Be that as it may, Wayne's work was super rough. It was easy to cut the monster to pieces but dismantling it for their skins and so on was hard.
"I might not get high-quality materials if I do the dismantling by myself," Wayne sighed until he suddenly realized, "I can fix them with Precious Touch!" Wayne cheered up. Even if the quality was low, he could fix the material.
"Haha. I can make amazing equipment with perfect materials!" Wayne exclaimed. "Also, I can use Addition to increase the material size, Subtraction to remove dirt, Multiplication to create better materials and Division to remove molecular level impurity. I forgot all about this!" Wayne was excited.
That thought was thrown away due to not having enough storage space when he was inside the blue python and iron scorpion dungeon. He completely forgot about that.
"I will need good equipment before the high academy's entrance exam," said Wayne and he now had a new target he needed to get from the dungeon.
After that, he suited up and when out of his home. He took the bus and then, the train before he arrived at the dungeon. There were a lot of stalls outside the dungeon. The place was not as empty as the dungeons in the hunter exam.
"… Why so many people??" Wayne had no idea that the Hunter Association had their own reserved dungeons mainly used for the hunter exam. These dungeons were accessible only during the hunter exam.
The dungeon that Wayne currently at was a dungeon opened to all hunters. So, there would be more people there. There would be a lot of hunters needing supplies and those stalls took the opportunity for business supplying supplies such as food, equipment, and many more.
Due to the massive world inside the dungeon, a hunter would spend a long time inside the dungeon. Most would stay inside for at least 10 days but many stayed for a month. They rarely went home and the dungeon became their home.
Therefore, they would need help from the stalls to sell materials and buy supplies to last longer in the dungeon. Be that as it may, those that stayed long inside the dungeon were singles. Those that have family or loved ones would usually stay at most 20 days inside the dungeon.
Wayne planned to stay inside the thumping gorilla dungeon until a few days before the high academy entrance exam. He had less than 20 days before he needed to prepare to move to the Diam continent for the high academy.
Wayne surveyed around the stalls and it looked like they were credible. The price was within range and the items sold were of good quality too.
Most merchants there would not dare to cheat the hunters because they knew that most of the hunters had appraisal skills. If they tried to dupe them, they would get arrested or worse, if the hunter they duped were hotheaded, they might lose their life.
After Wayne was done surveying the stalls, he decided to enter the dungeon. Before that, he bought a few things from the merchants. Wayne entered the dungeon and what he met was a small town.
"… I should have expected this," Wayne's face twitched. The merchant outside was those without a license while the small town inside the dungeon was operated by hunter x merchant, a merchant with hunter license.
Though the hunters were merchants, that did not mean they were weak. Most of them were strong hunters. When they were strong, fewer people would try to mess with their business, so they were usually strong hunters.
Wayne surveyed the small town and he found out that many of the hunters stayed at the inn rather than the wild. So, even if they stayed inside the dungeon, they were sleeping comfortably. They would come out to the stall outside when there were no supplies in the small town.
The stalls outside the dungeon were second choices if they could not find what they wanted in the town.
While Wayne was surveying the small town, he found a shop selling maps for the thumping gorilla dungeon. He bought one and his conclusion when he was inside the blue python dungeon was correct.
The dungeon was indeed separated into areas based on the average level of the monsters. Areas around the gate would usually be lower level areas. So, the town was established there because the monsters around the area were weak.
With the map on his hand, Wayne got a clear picture of where he should go. Since his average level was four, the best place he could hunt was the level 4 area. If he were looking for materials, he should go there but if he were looking for cultivation gems, he should farm at the low-level areas.
The level of the monsters did not affect the cultivation gem they dropped. All the gems were the same. However, the materials they had would be affected by the monster's level. If a hunter wanted to get good materials, he should hunt for high-level monsters.
"Hmm~ Let's collect cultivation gems and expand my storage first," thought Wayne and he chose a level 2 area nearby the small town. Wayne walked out of the town towards the level 2 area. The area was to the west of the town.
As he was walking, everything around him was a dense forest. He saw a few plants, herbs that were part of the missions issued by the Hunter Association but he did not collect them because his storage space was limited.
Not only that, but Wayne also wanted to let lower level hunters collect that. They would need the points to raise their hunter rank too and if he collected everything in the low-level areas, the low-level hunters would not have their chance to complete the missions because they could not search at higher-level areas.
Resources such as plants and minerals were different from the monsters. The monsters would respawn but plants and minerals were not. Once they were harvested, they would not respawn again. Thus, most high-level hunters would not collect anything from the low-level areas.
Wayne arrived at the level 2 area. The forest was as dense as the level 1 area. He walked around to find his first prey. He spotted a target 100 meters from him. Wayne had no experience fighting the gorilla and thus, he hid behind a tree and wanted to surprise attack the gorilla.
Wayne got closer and closer behind the gorilla. When he was ten meters from the thumping gorilla, Wayne used dash plus skill and appeared behind the gorilla. The gorilla detected Wayne and it wanted to look behind.
Even so, Wayne did not give the thumping gorilla a chance and used a jab repeatedly on the thumping gorilla. One jab, two, three, four. Wayne kept punching the gorilla.
"Roar!!!" The gorilla screamed in pain. It wanted to run away but Wayne used a water flowing step to keep being behind the gorilla and kept punching the same spot over and over again. After about fifteen punches, Wayne broke the gorilla defense and punctured its back.
Blood spurting out of the gorilla and it screamed grew louder. Enraged, the gorilla tightened its legs and smashed the ground while its leg launched upwards. Like a rocket, the gorilla launched upwards shocking Wayne. The gorilla tried to escape.
"Launch jumper! One of the gorilla's powerful skills!" Wayne exclaimed but he turned serious and he did not panic. He lowered his body and jumped at the tree nearby and after that, jumped to another tree and another tree to get to the escaping gorilla.
The gorilla saw Wayne was coming and it panicked. It frantically jumped from tree to tree trying to escape. Once Wayne got to the same height as the gorilla, he used monkey jump and dash plus at the same time.
Wayne jumped and at the same time, the jump was faster than usual. He launched towards the gorilla and arrived at the back of the gorilla instantly. Pulling his arm back, he opened his palm and used a palm strike at the gorilla's head.
Wayne's palm struck the gorilla's head and the head exploded. Blood splattered all around him and the gorilla's body fell to the ground. Wayne stood at the tree branches staring at the dead gorilla. His body was covered with the gorilla's blood and his chest was moving fast.
"… My palm strike is stronger than I thought," Wayne was shocked when the gorilla's head exploded. He did not expect that. Also, he was really tired.
Although his average status was level 4, it was still demanding for Wayne to use palm strike. Not only that, but Wayne also used a lot of skills during this fight.
Wayne got off the tree and landed beside the gorilla. He picked up the cultivation gem and extracted whatever he could from the gorilla. As for the body, he decided to leave it there. Wayne looked around and climbed the tree. He wanted to use the gorilla's body to attract more gorillas.
He sat on the highest tree there and focused on his surroundings. "Their average level is 2 but that did not mean all of its statuses are level 2. The gorilla's endurance must be level 4 to 5. Dexterity might be lower. Perhaps level 1. Magic is level 1 too," Wayne analyzed the gorilla he just killed.
"Since the thumping gorilla is known to have superior strength, the strength could be level 6 to 7…" Wayne scratched his head, "They are stronger than I thought. They have one or two statuses with a high level and that will be dangerous."
Wayne took a deep breath. He looked around and there was a movement from the bushes near the dead gorilla. "A prey," Wayne was happy. He waited and another gorilla appeared. Wayne silently prepared to launch himself for another surprise attack.
The monsters were dumb and thus, it easily got lured by the smell of blood. Once the gorilla came beside the dead gorilla, Wayne departed from the tree towards the gorilla's head. He planned to kill the gorilla with one shot with a palm strike.
Wayne did not want to fight the gorilla head-on and resorted to this fighting plan. It was better to finish the gorilla fast before it could attack him. As he got on top of the gorilla's head, Wayne used a palm strike one more time, and the same as before, the gorilla's head exploded.
"Their head must be the weak point," thought Wayne. He happily collected his spoil of the battle. He left the body there and waited for more gorillas.
23:48. In seven hours, it would be midnight. Wayne was still on the same spot staring at the mountain of the gorilla's body. Wayne did not look good. He was injured. He had drunk a couple of potions and they worked wonderfully but he would need time to fully heal.
He managed to kill a lot of thumping gorilla but some of them detected his surprise attack and he got the chance of tasting the gorilla's strength. Wayne was fine if the fight was one-on-one. With his movement skills added with his offensive skills, he could easily kill the gorilla.
However, an hour ago, due to the mountain of corpses, not one but four thumping gorillas appeared at one time. He wanted to surprise attack them but he was ambushed first. He made another careless mistake.
Since the gorilla was attracted by the scent of blood, Wayne was attracting the gorillas towards himself too because he was bathed with the gorilla's blood. He should have cleaned himself but he was careless and a gorilla managed to ambush him.
Luckily, the gorillas were too dumb and fought against each other for the prey which was Wayne and the dead bodies. Wayne managed to use that chance to kill all the gorillas. He wanted to evacuate the area but he was injured and needed time before he could properly move.
"I can move now," Wayne looked at his body that was better than before and decided to get back to town. His method of attracting the gorilla was fine but his carelessness could cost him his life. He decided to not do the same thing again unless he cleaned himself every time he killed a gorilla.
As he got to the town, many hunters were looking at him. His body was covered and reek of blood. "That guy must have a hard battle," said a hunter while staring at Wayne.
"He looks young. A newcomer," said another hunter.
Wayne got a room and took a shower. Once he finished showering, he flopped on the bed and stared at the ceiling. He was extremely tired. He used too many skills that even with energy potions, could not cure his fatigue.
Wayne killed a lot of monsters that day. Almost 100 of them. Although he killed almost 100 of them, he only managed to get 60 cultivation gems. He used 40 of them to upgrade his storage to 10 meters cube and the leftover 20 cultivation gems were fused to form two iron rank cultivation gems.
He wanted to absorb the gems but he was too tired to cultivate. Wayne ended up falling asleep without having dinner.
69th Winter Year 2500
Since he slept early that night, he woke up early. 'Kuruk~ kuruk~' Wayne's stomach grumbled. "I forgot to eat last night," said Wayne while massaging his stomach. He took out the bread from his storage and ate it. He would eat the inn's restaurant later since it was still early.
After he ate the bread, Wayne decided to absorb the iron rank cultivation gem. A normal rank cultivation gem would increase the status by one grade without counting the status increase from the cultivation technique. Iron rank cultivation gem would increase the status by two grades, three grades for bronze rank, four grades for silver rank, and five grades for gold rank.
Most people would want to get the best rank cultivation gem to absorb due to this reason. Even so, they knew that to get higher-grade cultivation gems, they would need to be capable of killing one by themselves. So, they needed to start from the bottom.
Wayne's perfect body cultivation technique was SSS+ rank and it would increase his status by 10 grades per gem. Added with the gem's effect, an iron rank gem would increase his status by 12 grades. With two of them, he would have an increase of 24 grades.
Wayne absorbed the two iron rank gems and his status increased by 24 grades. All his status rose to level 5. "The level 2 gorillas will not be a problem anymore," said Wayne. After that, he got out of bed, took a shower, and went to the inn's restaurant.
He thought that he would be the earliest but it looked like the restaurant was bustling with hunters. "That's right. Hunters hunt monsters not only to protect humans but also for money. They need to work hard to afford their family," said Wayne.
He looked around the restaurant for an empty seat and saw a table with only one guy. He decided to sit there. Since he was alone, he did not want to occupy a table by himself especially during peak time. When Wayne got to the table, he finally saw the guy sitting there.
The guy was young. Maybe the same age as Wayne but he was not sure because the guy looked cool, mature, and super handsome. Many female hunters nearby were staring at the guy.
"I am sorry, is this seat empty? Can I sit here?" Wayne asked. He decided to add some explanation too as he was afraid that the guy thought that he was bothering him. "I don't want to occupy a table by myself since there are many people here," said Wayne.
The guy glanced at Wayne and smiled, "Sure. I don't mind," said the guy but his voice sounded young. Wayne confirmed that the guy was around his age.
"I am a new hunter here," said the guy while smiling.
"Oh? I am too. Are you perhaps 15 like me too?" Wayne asked.
"Oh~ Haha, we can become friends then," said the guy. He was much more approachable than Wayne thought. "I am Bendy Ducant. Nice to meet you," said Bendy but Wayne was stunned. He had heard the name before.