"SKREE"
A loud noise woke Drake up. All three of them looked up. They saw a huge figure vaguely visible under the cover of the fog flying above their heads. It looked like a huge bird.
They quickly got out of the jeep. They were correct in their decision as they saw feathers being shot from the sky. They ducked to the side of the jeep for cover. Everywhere the feathers fell they pierced that surface with ease like a hot knife on butter.
Yumi drew her bow and shot arrows towards the figure in the sky. Ayame couldn't do anything so she stayed near Drake to protect him from anything unexpected.
None of Yumi's arrows hit the target.
Drake checked what they were fighting against.
Name: Gale Vulture
Level 0
Yumi didn't stop but increased the frequency further.
"SCREEE"
They heard a painful scream. One arrow had hit the target.
It directly swooped down to deal with the little flies it decided to attack on a whim. But those flies dared attack it back. The arrow could be seen stuck near its bottom side.
It again shot its feathers from its wings. They had already jumped to the other side of the jeep when they saw it coming towards their side. The feathers covered the jeep from the other side too.
Yumi was waiting for that moment. Previously because of the fog's cover, most of her attacks missed but with the bird in plain view, she shot again.
The monster covered itself with its feathers. The arrows struck the feathers and fell.
It circled again and shot more feathers by flapping it. That time they were late in dodging. Yumi quickly shot the feathers aimed at her. Ayame quickly parried the feathers aimed at her and Drake with her daggers.
Yumi took this opportunity when the bird took its wings back after flapping it and shot its body multiple times. She wanted to directly attack the skull but its huge break covered most of its head from her angle.
It was struck with arrows and fell crying in pain.
When Yumi was about to fire the last arrow to finish it, Drake stopped her, "Wait, let me do it".
She understood Drake's reason for asking that. That monster would be a good addition to the training room.
Drake moved towards the monster. The twins covered him for any possible attack. They would not let the previous mistake happen again.
He reached the bird. It was barely moving. He impaled its head with his sword and it lost its life.
Two fog coins appeared near it. Nothing else dropped. Ayame picked them up.
They came back to their ride. Ayame checked it. It was covered with feathers but by chance, the engine was spared and it started.
They decided to go back as keep might stop in the middle. And traveling by foot was very dangerous.
Drake thought that even if they were going back the day was very productive. He unlocked Sword Mastery, got a Sequence 9 treasure, recorded a new monster for the training room, and got a few fog coins. And he finally earned some points to use in the shop.
They also packed the Gale Vulture as it was also a delicacy like Iron Tusk Boar. He wanted to taste it to but couldn't.
The monsters in Fog World were corrupted by the fog. They couldn't be directly eaten and the meat needed to be purified before consumption.
The method of purification was tightly held in the hands of a few powerful families. All big restaurants were their property so they could purchase the monster meat from outside the territory.
Small restaurants and food vendors had no access to it so they could only buy monster meat from inside the territory as they did not need purification.
Monsters inside the territory also came from the outside but their next generations were free from the fog's corruption and hence could be used freely for consumption.
Only weak monsters were allowed inside the territory to reproduce, strong monsters were killed on sight as they could potentially cause great harm to the territory.
They started their journey back. When they came they traveled straight but took many turns when traveling back.
After traveling for some time, they reached a village. They got down to check it out.
Drake was amazed that this village hadn't appeared before but during their return journey.
The village appeared to be in ruins. The village should be transferred to the fog world but its inhabitants were not able to acquire a Fog Foundation Stone so they couldn't create a territory for their village.
The territory protected everything inside from fog corruption without it everything would be corrupted by it.
The fog acted like a slow-acting poison. It will have no effect in days or even a few months, but a few years of constantly being exposed to it, was enough to corrupt level 0 creatures. The higher the level the slower the corruption.
The village had been exposed to the fog for many years hence its appearance like ruins.
They checked a few houses. There was nothing of value inside them. Many houses had skeletons inside them.
After coming out of the last house, they heard running sounds.
They say a few humanoid figures running towards them. Their clothes, though rotten, had the same style as the clothes of the zombie before. The zombie should be an inhabitant of the village.
He didn't stop the twins from taking again that time. The twins killed them with no effort.
After killing them as if a dam broke, they heard the sound of too many footsteps running towards them.
Drake honestly backed into the house.
In the fog, they saw they were surrounded from all sides. There were hundreds of zombies.
The girls were full of confidence. After killing hundreds of Iron Tusk Boars, killing hundreds of zombies was like child's play to them.
Ayame disappeared from her position and started decapitating the zombies. One strike and one head downed.
Yumi directly headshot the zombies with her arrows. All her arrows hit directly in the middle of their skills, piercing them and killing them.
Both sisters were like death reapers. Reaping lives continuously with no effort.
After the fight, Ayame collected the Fog coins and returned them to Drake.
A few zombies dropped rotten flesh but he discarded them without hesitation.
Hundreds of zombies dropped only 135 coins.
In a big house, they found a suicide letter. It was rotten but a few parts were still readable. The letter served as evidence of what plight the villagers were in.
"... so hungry."
"The is ..thing to eat … village."
"Are Gods punishing us for …"
"The fog is doing … to us."
"Everyone is getting irritated day by …"
"The occasional food we get is when someone brings…"
"Or when those dangerous beasts come to… Sometimes they become our food, most of the times…"
"I am the strongest in the village, but even I couldn't fight most of those abominations outside."
"Some couldn't take it anymore, they eat their fellow dead brethren. Initially they were repri… but later…"
"I know many weak ones were killed for …"
"This is because of the fog. It is responsible. It … IT IS RESPONSIBLE"
"I have tried to keep my sanity in for so long. My years of sword training helped me. But now I can feel…"
"Now whenever I look at my fellow villagers, I have a strong urge to…"
"I don't want to drop to such a low level."
"So the only alternative is I die, then I will no longer …"
"I don't want to die."
"I don't want to die."
"I DON'T WANT TO DIE."
After checking a few more houses, mainly the bigger ones, they decided to leave as they didn't think they would find anything valuable.
The profit of fog coins and points was enough.
When they were leaving the village, they noticed faint black miasma surrounding the village.
They found the miasma concentration was increasing to the east of the village so they went there.
There a huge skeleton was standing. The miasma was concentrated around it.
Name: Despair Skeleton
Level 0
Introduction: Sometimes the bones of those who died in despair in the Fog World corrupt to create an abomination that feeds on despair. This despair skeleton is collecting all the despair in the village, once done, it will become a sequence 9, rank 1 monster.
Drake observed the skeleton. He felt it had a great chance of dropping something good. And it would only be harder to fight it as time progressed.
"Kill it"
He ordered the twins and backed off to a safe spot to watch the fight from a distance.
Yumi fired an arrow at its skull. It bounced off the skull. Only a small depression was visible on the skull.
The skull moved as if it came to life. It was more than 2 meters tall, its bones were greyish-white with grey flames burning in its eyes. It had a more than a metre-long bone sword.
It came running towards them. It was easy to judge, that even though it was fast, its speed was no match for either of the sisters.
It struck the sword down with full force. Ayame dodged easily but a pit was formed on the place it struck.
When it lost in speed, it more than made up in terms of strength. Even a single attack was enough to cause fatal injuries to the twins.
The twins looked at each other and nodded as if they had come up with a plan.
Yumi changed her target and shot its right kneecap. It deflected most of the arrows with its sword but a few still hit the target, but with no effect.
Ayame also came in close distance of it. All her slashes were also deflected by it.
It was clear its Sword Mastery was much higher than their Dagger or Archery Mastery.
But Ayame had no interest in hitting it, all she wanted was to distract it so that Yumi's arrows could hit their target.
After tens of arrows, Ayame heard a cracking sound from the skeleton's knee.
Drake who was watching the fight from the distance was full of praises for the twins, 'Awesome tactics. I should use it next time.'
Ayame and Yumi intensified their attacks. Ayame also occasionally hit the knee if she got the chance.
After a few more arrows, the kneecap broke. It lost its balance and fell to its knees.
Yumi again changed the target to its skull. Ayame slashed the back of its skull many times with little effect.
It got up again but its speed was reduced drastically. Only one knee was not enough to bear the weight of its huge body.
The target was changed again. The left kneecap became the target of the next barrage of attacks.
After being hit with tens of arrows it followed the fate of its brother.
The skeleton monster fell again. It was no longer capable of getting up again. It could only crawl on the ground.
The remaining battle was a battle of attrition.
Its skull was much harder. Ayame continuously slashed it from behind and Yumi after using up all her arrows collected the nearby arrows and used them till they broke.
After taking continuous attacks for 30 minutes from both it shattered.
When it died, all the bones dropped down separating from the joints as if whatever energy that was binding them was no longer available.
The miasma that was surrounding it also dispersed slowly.
The three came near it. There were five fog coins near it.
Drake checked to see if something else dropped, otherwise, it was a loss to spare so many efforts to defeat it.
Luckily, Drake found a bone that still had faint miasma on it, he picked it up.
Name: Bone Filled with Despair
Sequence 9, Early-Stage
It was another sequence 9 material. Only after getting it that Drake think that the fight was worth so much effort.
After checking a few more times that there were not any more drops they left.
"Young Master, please wait"
Yumi hurriedly stopped them, as she saw a slight edge of a parchment-like thing peeking out from under the bones.
She carefully removed the bones and presented that parchment to Drake.
Potion Formula
Path: Death
Sequence: 9, Necromancer
Rank: 1
Drake was pleasantly surprised that it was a potion formula. He checked it with the shop and the formula and complete and correct.
He recorded in the Library. It was another ability given by the system that allowed him to record knowledge and could be used later by him or his followers.
Ayame and Yumi who also had access to it, found that the desolate library finally had some knowledge in it.
He handed both monster drops to Yumi and then left. Their unexpected adventure brought them many good things.
Fortunately, the rest of the return journey was uneventful, the few small monsters were ignored by then.
Just when they entered the territory, Drake heard.
[World Announcement]
[The number of Extraordinary players has reached 10,000. Starting the official rankings.]