Chereads / Alone: Tale of a monster hunter / Chapter 38 - A Familiar Place (1)

Chapter 38 - A Familiar Place (1)

[Total damage dealt: 1234]

[Hunter Ghoul HP: 0/200]

[Hunter Ghoul killed! Exp +50]

[You've levelled up! Current level: 13]

[HP has increased by 100 points. Current HP: 2550]

[Your HP has been fully restored. Your wounds have been healed.]

[Total Exp: 510/1400]

[52/500 souls have been collected and stored with the Bloodlust Dagger.]

"Not bad... not bad at all," Zaen mumbled, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

The area around him was littered with gore, destruction and dead ghouls. The chaotic battlefield laid quiet, for it was now a graveyard of the undead. Several corpses laid below Zaen's feet, waiting for him to salvage whatever he could before disintegrating to become one with the dusty ground. Beneath them, a pool formed filled with their rotting black blood.

They came as a horde and died as one. If something like this had happened the first time he was teleported there, Zaen was sure he wouldn't have made it through. Even this time he only managed to take care of these unruly monsters because of the bloodlust dagger. Also, he didn't even need to used bandages as the dagger's ability kept healing him. But thanks to the surprise attack, he got to learn quite a few things as well as level up once.

'For some reason, killing the hunter ghouls gave me 2 souls rather than 1...' Zaen thought to himself, 'Hm... only one thing comes to my mind. Each ghoul must have a different number of souls which the dagger absorbs as I kill them. I wonder how many souls a boss level monster would give to me?"

While Zaen's mind focused on such things, his body had already started gathering the resources the undead had to provide. While going through the corpses, he came across a weird thing. A rusty key.

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Item: Building key

Type: consumable

Rarity: Uncommon item

Effect(s):

• A random item that can be found on the dead ghouls. Can be used to open and enter a building.

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Zaen didn't know much about it but if the key could open up a building, then he would love to use it. The last time he had been there, he had noticed he couldn't enter any building to take cover, even though there were no visible locks on the doors. He would try opening the doors and the windows, but nothing budged. He thought maybe the buildings were out-of-bounds, like a few areas within a game.

He looked at the key once again. Even though the key belonged to a building, it wasn't mentioned which building did the key belong to.

"Could it be that these keys can be used to open any of the buildings?"

It was a possibility. But if that was the case, then he'll have to carefully choose the building he wanted to use the key on. However, even then he would have to use it carefully. No one knows that kind of horror would the waiting for him behind the locked doors. He could either get his hands on a rare item or he could walk into the lair of some monster...

"Thinking about it now won't do me any good." Zaen shook his head to regain his lost focus, "First I have to look for 'that' item."

On the day he killed the Tainted ghoul, Zaen was randomly playing with his artifact after returning home, when he came across the Crafting section. He soon found that there were a few new craftable items available in there. Since he had nothing else to do he went ahead to check the new items and one item, in particular, caught his eyes.

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Item: Bone Chainmail

Type: Armour

Armour: +90

Rarity: Uncommon armour

Provides additional two slots to equip consumables/healing items/accessories.

Durability: 450

Effect(s):

• Grants the user a passive skill .

Impenetrable: Reduces deadly damage once by 20%. Has a cooldown period of 4 days.

Crafting requirements:

5 ghoul nails (5/5 available in inventory)

2 Black bone (0/2 available in inventory)

Hunter's claws (5/10 available in inventory)

Craft this item?

Yes or No.

(Insufficient items!!! Please make sure to gather necessary items before trying to craft this item.)

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Ever since he read the description of the armour, he knew he had to craft it. The Hooligan's Hoodie had helped him a lot, but it had its drawbacks. One of which was its low durability. The armour kept breaking in the middle of the fights which wasn't a fun thing to go through. Especially when a boss level ghoul had a thing for his a*s.

Secondly, the hoodie provided him less armour even though the chainmail and the hoodie were classified to be in the same uncommon class. And thirdly, was the bone chainmail's exclusive passive skill .

Zaen vividly remembered the feeling of Frenzied Ghoul's severed tail ripping his chest apart. He couldn't help but feel... weak whenever that thought came into his mind. If he had the chainmail on him back then, he knew that the ability would've protected him.

Due to these reasons, Zaen wanted to craft the chainmail before diving into completing the task. He just wanted a mental assurance that even if his skills of perception failed to notice a deadly strike, the armour would protect him. However, he needed to find the raw materials to craft the armour first.

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Item: Black Bone

Type: Crafting Material

Rarity: Uncommon Material

Description: Sturdy bone of a fallen ghoul. Mostly dropped by the Tagger Ghouls and Elite ghouls/monsters. Can be used to craft a variety of low tier pieces of equipment.

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This was the most troublesome material to obtain in Zaen's opinion, as he wasn't aware of what the Tagger ghouls looked like, nor did he have any idea where to look for them either. Well, he saw the horde of ghouls he was ecstatic since he thought he'd find at least one Tagger ghoul within the group. Sadly, the group only consisted of Runner and Hunter ghouls.

"At least I got the nails and a few claws from them." Zaen sighed before throwing the key into the inventory, "I should keep-"

Ting!

A notification popped up and a map of the area opened in front of him. On the map, three locations were marked with green dots. The map was also accompanied by a text: "These locations mark the return portals that can be used to return to the realm of the living. However, while the ghouls cannot pass through the portal, the energy dissipating from these portals tend to attract the ghouls towards them. It is advised to be vigilant before planning a trip back home."