Clarence went through the dagger technique once and determined that it was a fairly good one.
Techniques and skills like weapons were also ranked. Higher ranked techniques involved body movements which require a body of similar rank.
Clarence, on the other hand, was among those who relentlessly trained their bodies, and thanks to his resources and racial advantage, his body had already surpassed rank one.
The dagger technique was of level two, which Clarence could practice easily. He stayed in the cave for around two hours to practice the dagger technique.
He decided that even though he couldn't master it in those two hours, knowing how it worked was enough, and he would hone his further mastery through the battles he would be facing.
He exited the cave after moving the boulder aside and chose a random direction to walk in after stretching his body.
He wasn't running his golden blue energy anymore while searching for the beasts because he wanted a fair battle.
Discovering the beast ahead of time, making preparations and strategies, then going for a straight on attack wouldn't be too different from a sneak attack.
While walking, he was mentally going over the dagger technique and considering how he could tweak it to suit himself. However, he was having trouble breaking through because he had no prior experience fighting with this technique.
Clarence spotted a long tailed monkey ahead of him after a few more minutes of walking, the same species as the one he fought. But instead of one, there appeared to be three of them this time.
The third one had a scar across its face, and Clarence quickly realized that this was the same monkey he had fought earlier; the monkey had returned with its companions to exact revenge on him after healing a little.
Seeing that the plan had gone awry, Clarence chose to run his golden blue energy again to give himself a fighting chance.
He didn't use the guns because they gave him too much of an advantage, and he was here to train, so he needed to fight in tough battles to gain experience.
Of course, the guns are his own power, but he can't always rely on them. What if the system could be taken away? What if anyone who was behind the system was just using him as a test subject?
He drew his rank four daggers and fled while performing his leg technique; the monkeys pursued him, but they were all the same rank, which was rank two, so the monkeys couldn't close the distance no matter what they did.
Clarence increased the distance until he felt it was safe to carry out his own plans, at which point he turned around and climbed a tree.
Clarence took out his rank two dagger, clutched it in his hands, and accelerated his golden blue energy through the body as fast as he could to increase its range.
He also coated the dagger with his golden blue energy and positioned his body in such a way that it emphasized the dagger's power if thrown, all while perched on a tree branch.
Just as the monkeys entered his range, he threw the dagger. With the speed at which the monkeys were running, they soon entered the range at which they could detect Clarence.
But before they could turn their direction, the dagger had already closed down upon one of the monkeys. It was the one with scar which Clarence previously fought.
Because the monkey was unable to react in time, the dagger pierced its skull and exited from the other side. The two monkeys stared at their partner, who had brought them for battle but now had a hole in its head.
When the monkeys realized their companion was dead, their eyes turned red. They searched their surroundings for the perpetrator, but he was nowhere to be found.
The monkeys exchanged glances before splitting up to search for the murderer of their companion.
Clarence was already a distance away from the site where the monkey died from being impaled by the dagger.
When he saw the monkey die, he felt good. He didn't like it when someone was unwilling to let go of their grudges with him. As a result, he refused to let the monkey go.
He was even happier when he saw that the two monkeys had decided to go their separate ways.
"Heh, they are just rank two beasts after all, not much intelligence."
He ran towards where one of the monkeys was heading, clutching his two rank four daggers. He channeled his golden blue at a normal speed now, as opposed to before, when he was determined to kill the monkey no matter what.
He swerved, leapt from the tree he was running onto, and spun around wildly. The single monkey on the lookout for him would bear the brunt of the rank four daggers coated in golden blue energy.
The monkey quickly sensed his approach and screeched so loudly that it hurt his ears the very same way it did the first time he heard it. But, unlike before, when it was for pain, this time it appeared to be to call his companion.
Clarence's attack landed on the branch due to a last-second dodge by the monkey. Unable to change course while spinning, Clarence cut the entire branch.
Clarence continued cutting through the tree branches at a high rate, not being able to slow down in the least. He could only slow down and change course after he had already cut through numerous branches.
Looking up, you could see a row of neatly cut branches, clearly demonstrating how lethal Clarence's attack would have been if it had even partially landed.
The monkey's ability to avoid it at the last moment also demonstrated that it was far more experienced than the one who died.
Clarence felt compelled to flee his position and devise a new strategy for dealing with this unexpected obstacle. But, thanks to the golden blue energy still coursing through his body, he sensed a sneak attack coming from behind him before he could do so.
The sneak attack was carried out by the monkey with its claws spread out in a threatening manner, so he turned around and held his daggers up in a defensive position.
The claws were chipped away by a large portion when they came into contact with his daggers due to their sharpness, but the claws still managed to lock his daggers in place.
Immediately sensing something wrong, he gave up his grip on the daggers and rolled away, but he couldn't come out unscathed. His left leg suffered a hit, resulting in a deep claw mark.
It turns out the second monkey had already arrived and was just waiting for the right opportunity to strike. He didn't notice the attack because the monkey appeared to have used the same strategy as him and launched a high-speed attack from outside his detection range.
As to how it could make out his position? It was probably the sound of claws and daggers colliding.
Sensing he was in grave danger, Clarence took out his assault rifle L85A2, and shot the two monkeys down before they could carry out any more attacks.
He laid down on the ground after he was finished, still holding the gun in his hand. Clarence took a long series of quick breaths while gazing up at the sky.
For some time, the surroundings were quiet, with a young man laying on the ground with a strange metallic weapon, and two corpses of long tailed monkeys with small holes in their skulls a few meters away.
Clarence felt genuinely scared this time. Although he came out on top in the first exchange, he lost terribly in the second one. At the end of the fight, he faced a terrible injury on his leg, and was bare handed.
While on the other hand, there were two experienced monkeys which could execute a coordinated attack fully unscathed. So he had no choice but to take out his gun and shoot them.
Clarence was still taking quick breaths and was in a state of trance, as if still scared.
'Hah, hah, hah, now that I think about it, so many mistakes,hah, hah, hah, so fucking many.
Everything went wrong from the very first moment. I miscalculated a lot of things. Just two wins from a sneak attack on rank two beasts and it already got to my head.
I need some serious time to reconsider my plans. This time, I will consider every single possibility before moving out to hunt again.
Plans don't always go your way. You'll need to improvise when the time comes or you're fucked. I only now understand it. I always thought if you could plan things, why would it go out of control? But no matter what, something can always go wrong.'