CHUNK!
AGHHHHH!
The shrill sound of a pig crying out in pain rang through the morning sky.
The grasslands swayed with the wind and the light from above beamed beautifully down onto the land.
Crow was currently finishing another boar he stumbled across.
Blood leaked from one of its eyes as it stumbled, trying to maintain its footing.
'Up till now I still don't feel a difference in my strength. Was yesterday all just a dream?'
Thoughts circulated in his head as he finally rushed the piggy, dodging to its side and jumping onto its back before rapidly stabbing its other eye out.
As it breathed its last, Crow sighed to himself as he watched the black boxes eat away at the piggy's existence.
This was already the 3rd one of today, and he hadn't even gotten the chance to eat.
He could only pout at the body of the disappearing piggy, 'Greedy boxes...'
Yet, he then saw something that made him freeze.
[Crow]
[Race: ❏❐▊❑]
[Occupation/ Class: ◤⫸△▆ ]
[Realm: 0]
[Stage: 2]
[Source: ◤⫸△▆ ]
'My stage went up...' he quickly looked over at where the boar's body just was.
'How is that possible?'
The game's leveling system was different than others.
Though Players were 'Blessed' and could level up from killing enemies and completing quests, the same couldn't be said for NPC's.
So now that Crow saw his stage bump up after defeating a pig, he was skeptical.
This was unheard of and he was perplexed yet, slowly a smile spread across his face.
'Only 1 way to know for sure.'
That day a whole swarm of piggy's were slaughtered.
Though minimal Crow felt an increase in his strength, speed, accuracy, perception, and everything overall was just better and so dispatching the little pork pudges was a bit less of a hassle.
Finally at around the afternoon time, the boy had just defeated his 8th piggy of the day and opened up his panel to inspect his stats.
[Crow]
[Race: ❏❐▊❑]
[Occupation/ Class: ◤⫸△▆ ]
[Realm: 0]
[Stage: 3]
[Source: ◤⫸△▆ ]
"Heh," a smile rose on his lips as he observed his rapid progress in only 1 day.
Though some may observe and view gaining 2 stages as low, the fact of the matter is that in the week and 3 days that he had been in this world, the highest level he had heard of players obtaining so far was [Stage 8].
For Crow progress to be so rapid, truly sparked an ambitious fire in his heart.
Yet, the sound of footsteps awoke him from his dreams of grandeur.
He quickly ducked down into the tall grass, turning his head to see the cause of the noise.
"I told you, it's just a stupid NPC!"
An elf player with leather gauntlets blabbered about as he sauntered through the fields.
With him were 2 girls, 1 beastkin cat with a robe and staff, and the other a human with a robe and book.
In front of them was an armored dwarf male with a 2 handed hammer hammer.
Crow took note of this, '1 ranger, 1 mage, 1 healer, 1 warrior. A complete party.'
The boy peeled his eyes, though he had yet to go too far into the grasslands in fear of running into too difficult of an enemy he was still relatively deep, deep enough where seeing players here was suspicious.
He focused his gaze on the stat panel of the blabbering elf.
[Player 1]
[Race: Elf]
[Occupation/ Class: Martial Artists]
[Realm: 1]
[Stage: 2]
[Source: None]
Upon taking a look at the entire party, they were all the same Realm and Stage.
This eased Crow's heart a bit, he still had the stage advantage.
The night he defeated Magnus's party wasn't a fluke, he had clearly seen the party was inexperienced and targeted their lack of coordination, but if he were to try something like that with a more experienced team that night...
Cold sweat ran down his back.
Shaking those thoughts out of his mind, he continued to watch as he eavesdropped.
"Bro, where is this stupid NPC?"
The rest of the party cast an annoyed side-eye at the elf before the dwarf finally had enough.
"I told ye, the quest said that the criminal who killed a Novice Knight is somewhere in the grasslands."
This answer didn't satisfy the elf and he continued to complain, "But what if that criminal's already dead?"
The dwarf's face turned red with annoyance, "Shut up! You've been complaining the whole time! Like I said before, even if he's dead, if we find proof of his death we'll be rewarded an entire [Stage]."
This caused Crow's eyebrows to rise.
A [Stage] was equivalent to more than a day's worth of pure grinding that's without accounting for how later levels will most likely take longer, truly such a reward would entice any player.
Especially since it was a whole stage, there'd be no harm in bringing more players as each would get their [Stage] while only increasing their chance of success.
'Shoot, I wish I could take quests myself, then again...' Crow pondered for a bit.
'If I can level up, maybe I can take quests.' he put that thought in the back of his mind and observed the group for a bit.
His eyes trained on them and prepared for any moment of weakness.
The dwarf and elf continued to argue as they walked, causing the girls to lag behind in the back a bit, a trace of disappointment on both their faces.
Crow smiled in heart at this, 'Another inexperienced team, another free meal.'
He considered killing the healer 1st but upon seeing how disorganized and lax the team was in these wilds, he decided to kill 2 birds with one stone.
Crow had circled around and towards the front of the team so once the 2 boys who were too busy bickering walked right past, the 2 most vulnerable members of the team were left wide open.
SWOOOOOSH!!
The boy zoomed from his hiding spot and right towards his 2 targets!
The girl's eyes widened as Crow rushed towards them, the boy ruthlessly slashed the healer's throat before turning and stabbing the mage right up through her chin before pulling it right out.
Quickly, he caught both bodies before they could drop, their corpses already being consumed by the black boxes.
Cautiously, he turned to see the 2 boys still arguing, 'They still didn't notice me? Must be more of a dick-measuring contest than an actual argument then.'
Oz knew if he rushed the 2 they would hear him, so taking advantage of the element of surprise he quickly sprinted forward and threw the dagger at the back of the dwarf's head.
"I told you, dumbass, we're almost th-UGHHH!"
CHUNKKK!
The dwarf's eyes widened as he froze, the elf seeing his party member freeze suddenly turned back to see a blur speeding right towards him, "Agh-"
Yet, before he could even speak he was met with a knee to the face sending him flying.
Crow didn't talk, he dislodged the knife from the back of the dwarf's head and slit his throat before running forward and stabbing the elf in the heart, pulling it out and then slitting his throat.
The elf gargled on his own blood as the light from his eyes faded, he could only gaze up at the mud-skinned boy above him who beamed down with a malicious grin, "Congrats, you found me."
Then everything went dark.
The black boxes consumed everything, not even a trace of blood was left.
Crow then took a look at his stats.
[Crow]
[Race: ❏❐▊❑]
[Occupation/ Class: ◤⫸△▆ ]
[Realm: 0]
[Stage: 7]
[Source: ◤⫸△▆ ]
The boy's eyes widened with shock, 'Seriously, players gave out this much experience?'
That was equivalent to a stage gained for each player killed.
He looked around the field once more, 'Since the black boxes don't even leave a drop of blood, I suppose if I were to go and farm players it wouldn't even leave a trace.'
A smile formed upon his lips, 'Off I go then.'
.
.
.
[Hours Later Somewhere in the Grasslands...]
In the grasslands, a whole swarm of teams had spread out in search of this Novice Killer NPC.
Though players were arrogant in the beginning they quickly fell in line once they realized the profound strength of some NPC's and they all knew never to harm an NPC in broad daylight, especially not a Novice Knight.
They could only shake their head in pity, this NPC was doomed, unknowing that this "doomed NPC" had already swapped from being the hunted to the hunter.
A variety of teams had swarmed the lush grassland fields since the early morning, yet only now did the player teams who were higher level and confident in their strength finally begin to reach the middle area in search of their quest target.
Yet, unbeknownst to any of these teams, their target was not in the middle area of the grasslands anymore.
[In the Grasslands near the Town's Entrance...]
A group of rookie players were bumbling around, trying to fight off a "Fanged Rabbit" a foe many players would have to overcome before receiving their 1st [Level Up].
They had considered going after the bounty, yet the fact that they still struggled against a simple trash mob like the "Fanged Rabbit" made them reconsider.
Unbeknownst to them; however, that bounty target was already nearby with his eyes locked on them.
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