In the distance, students try various techniques. A group of five students gathers and encircles the Chat'paud. While one member dodges its tongue, the other four jump on it. It seems more feasible than the other technique where the girl runs straight towards the creature, dodges, and then hits it on the head to knock it out. Honestly, I don't think I'm fast enough to do that.
"Pepper, do you want to try that?" I ask her, pointing to the group of five. "I could distract the Chat'paud, and you could jump on it and hit it on the head. What do you think?"
"Yes, let's try it!"
I look around and finally spot one of the creatures a little further away. I signal Pepper to sneak around it subtly. About ten meters from the Chat'paud, it starts to stare at me and hiss deeply. Not letting it affect me, I continue to approach it calmly, always on the lookout, since at any moment, I will have to jump to dodge.
The monster, seeing me approaching it, gets angry and attacks me. Its tongue stretches towards my chest, and I jump as planned, and it misses me!
Meanwhile, Pepper has sneaked behind the Chat'paud, but when she gets two meters from it, it turns around, hisses, and runs away by leaping.
Feeling a bit dejected, I ask Pepper if she wants to join the group of five. Being just as demoralized as me, she agrees with my idea, and we go ask them if we can join them. The group agrees and informs us that they are capturing the Chat'pauds one by one to reach the quota demanded by the teacher.
After about an hour, everyone caught their monster. So we go back to the professor and he congratulates us on our great teamwork. He informs us that we can chat while everyone finishes. I take this opportunity to ask Pepper about her profession, curious to learn more. She smiles and gives me a summary of her status window:
Name: Pepper Lyptus
Level: 01
Profession: Alchemist (common)
Talent: Measurements
STATS: ● Strength: 7
● Agility: 8
● Intelligence: 13
● Mana: 7
● Dexterity: 13
● Luck: 9
● Constitution: 7
STATS TO DISTRIBUTE: 0
Skills:
● Manipulation (passive) ●
● Herbology (passive) ●
Measurements:
Allows for easier discovery of ratio, or ideal measurement during alchemy.
Manipulation:
Allows for more precise manipulation of resources.
Herbology:
Allows for easier retention and discovery of information regarding flora.
"You have everything you need to succeed in potion-making, I see," I say to her as I listen to her list her skills, surprised by their great synergy.
"Yeah, now all I have to do is practice," she replies with a smile.
Shortly after, the exercise ends and the professor asks us to regroup around him!
"Congratulations to those who have succeeded in the exercise. As you can see, today's task was to practice discretion and teamwork. Perhaps some of you discovered it, but the Chat'paud is very sensitive to surprise. I'm going to show you what happens when you surprise this creature." He turns and heads towards one of them. Gracefully, he moves while staying in its blind spot. Once he reaches its back, he touches it and the Chat'paud jumps in place before falling to the side, frozen like a statue.
Ruphius explains to us that the Chat'paud's greatest weakness is to jump and freeze when surprised. While he speaks, the creature remains there, still lying on the ground, inert.
After seeing him do it, I realize that it would be important to have a good knowledge base of monsters, as it will make my future missions much easier, in case I become a mercenary...
"As you can see," the professor continues, "it's always easier to face a monster when you know its strengths and weaknesses. However, in the future, you won't always have such information when you're fighting, so it's crucial to always use your head and try to find them out…
He continues to provide information about the monster and the class quickly comes to an end.
Later, I decide to head to the main building as I want to go to the library. I'd like to try and find information about my profession because I know what a Merchant is, but not a Void Merchant. Hopefully, I'll find some information."