When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a vast and empty grass field. This time, there was a bright sun in the sky. It was evident from the sun that I was still on Vaikun.
'Either I have been teleported in another area where the sun was currently present or this is all just an illusion.' I thought to myself.
Grr!
I heard a sound of an animal from my back. As I slowly turned to look at the source of the sound, what I saw surprised me.
There was a small grey wolf. It had deep black eyes and ferocious teeth and claws. From how it was posed to attack at me, it did not look friendly.
There was nothing around me, just pure grass and a sunny weather. At my feet, there was the diary and the black dagger.
While facing towards the monster, I bent down slightly and placed both of them in my inventory. Then, standing erect, I brought forth both of my daggers and placed one in each hand. As I dual wielded the daggers, I took on a fighting stance.
As I looked at the monster, I lip-synced, "Facts!"
Click!
[Name: Lupus (plural: Lupii)
Rank: E
Type: Monster
Likes: Oryctola
Dislikes: Mokaka
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Details:
These are dangerous monsters that are carnivores and eat other beasts and monsters. They also hunt, kill and eat humans. These monsters mostly move in groups. They are territorial monsters that kill those who enter their territory and don't belong to their group.
Their claws contain paralyzing venom. Due to their high rank, it is advised to escape on sight instead of involving in a battle. Their size increases with age.]
'F*ck!'
As I cursed inwardly after reading the facts about the monster, the display disappeared.
Howl!
Just as I took a step back to run away from the Lupus, the young guy howled and jumped on me.
Suddenly, I felt a small jolt of electricity in my head and a memory of Carlo got refreshed. He had hunted these creatures multiple times.
Although most of the times he had done it with the Baruga, he also was a dual wielder of daggers, thus helping me out.
As the Lupus was in the air, I quickly bent down and raised my right hand as I thrusted the black dagger in its stomach. Meanwhile, I moved in the opposite direction to avoid any contact with the monster.
Pooch!
Howl!
The monster howled in pain as the dagger tore away its belly and its innards started to leak. Dark red blood started to seep from its body onto my dagger and then towards my right arm.
As its momentum took the Lupus forward, my dagger divided its belly into two parts.
Thud!
Nuu! Nuu!
Huff! Huff!
I was breathing heavily in excitement while the monster was whimpering with pain on the ground. While it was getting cut, I felt like my grip on the dagger would be lost, still I held on.
From Carlo's memories I learned that the weakness for these monsters was their bellies and their neck. They would always jump to attack so this tactic was best to deal with them with a dagger.
However, while using a ranged weapon, a headshot was the way to go. They were fast so one must kill them from a distance as much as they could and then engage in a close combat.
But, there was a problem, eventhough Carlo had hunted a lot of those monsters, he was always in a group. Although he would be the major contributor, he never hunted alone. The problem being that they too were always in a group.
'But that isn't a problem with me as this guy is alone and a young one at that. Now that the work is done, I should look for the exit.' I thought as I noticed that the monster had stopped breathing.
Just as I was about to relax and look around, the Lupus disintegrated into multiple shiny particles. I stood rooted in my position watching the spectacle, too surprised to move.
'Wait what? Wasn't only the wound supposed to form the particles and coalesce to form the FP? What is happening? I don't have a good feeling about this!'
As my thoughts ended, I noticed that the particles slowly started to move apart. Then they started to glow brighter and a new Lupus started to appear.
It looked similar to the previous one but looked bigger and more ferocious. I couldn't stop as I said, "What the fu-"
Howl!
I wasn't even able to finish my sentence when it howled and jumped on to me.
Using the same technique I used on the last wolf, I also cut opened this one's guts. The difference was that, this time I used both of my hands.
Pooch!
Howl!
Thud!
Deep red blood was dripping from both of my arms as I watched the Lupus whimper and die. With heavy breaths, I noticed the Lupus disintegrate into particles again!
My eyes widened. With painful footsteps, I ran towards the group of the particles and sliced at them.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Nothing happened. The particles then took the shape of another bigger and more ferocious, gray Lupus!
Howl!
Huff! Huff!
With another howl, the monster then jumped over me again. I placed my daggers again in a position to cut it but all it did was to only leave a scratch.
Thump!
We then exchanged positions as I had moved from under the monster. I noticed its long and ferocious nails and its sharp and vicious teeth. Both of them were dripping with some kind of fluid. The teeth were dripping with translucent saliva while the nails were dripping with thick black poison.
Howl!
Gulp!
I gulped down as the monster howled and pounced on me again.
As the adrenaline rushed and I suppressed the pain in my foot, with quick steps I did the same trick again and cut down its belly. This time, I put a lot more strength in my attack and it succeeded.
Pooch! Pooch!
Nuu!
As the monster started to whimper, without looking back, I started to run. With the amount of dark red blood seeping down my arms, I was pretty sure that it won't survive.
Thud!
Huff! Huff!
As I was running away with my back faced towards the Lupus, I switched my daggers for the Baruga.
'Let the stronger monster come, I'm ready!'
Ding!
A notification sound resounded in my ears as I was loading my Baruga with a dart. There was no concoction on this dart.
A message was displayed at the corner of my eyes but I was too focused on looking at the shiny particles. They were now dividing like cells!
I was now around 5 meters away from the particles. The notification panel had already disappeared as my loaded Baruga was pointing at the particles.
This time, the particles were forming two small Lupii. As soon as they were formed, a headshot killed one of them while the other rapidly moved and jumped in my direction.
Fwoosh!
Thump! Thump!
The Baruga was dropped and two daggers appeared in both of my hands. While bending and making a cross cut, its belly opened and its blood poured all over my hair.
Ugh!
Thud!
My right foot was now killing me with pain. It was getting difficult to even put load on it! As this monster fell and the other was disintegrated into particles, I quickly placed the daggers on my belt and picked up the Baruga. I ran towards the direction away from both of them.
As I was running away, I flushed out a red spherical pill from the inventory and quickly put it in my mouth. The taste was very bitter but I still swallowed it somehow.
'Well my internal organs be damned! If I could not survive this f*cked up situation, they would be eaten anyways!'
As I lampooned over my situation, I placed another dart in the Baruga. As I turned, I noticed that one of the medium sized Lupus on my right was already going to jump over me while the Lupus that I had slashed and was on my left had only just turned into particles.
Thump!
Fwoosh!
As soon as the Lupus on my right made a jump, a dart landed instantly in the center of its eyebrows and it died in the air. Meanwhile, another medium sized Lupus was formed in my left.
I noticed that the pain in my leg was now gone. With a smile, I started to run towards the Lupus on the left and whispered into the air, "Agility!"
Thud! Thud! Thud!
As soon as I said those words, there was an instant boost in my speed, not much, but enough. With the momentum I had gained, the black dagger easily cut through the monster's neck and it was beheaded.
'It always feels amazing to use active skills!'
Huff! Huff!
Although I wasn't feeling any pain, I was still getting tired. The skill was also rapidly draining my stamina. I looked at the particles as they were now multiplying again to form more Lupus.
'I need to find a way out of this! If this continues, I would actually die!'
As my head ran in overdrive, I looked at my surroundings while I started to run away from the Lupii. I was also simultaneously putting another dart in the Baruga.
As far as my eyes reached, there was only a field filled with grasses and lightened by a dim sunlight. There were no trees, no water, nothing; it was only an empty grassland.
Just as I was running with my increased speed, I heard three howls from my back. I noticed that there were now three Lupii positioning themselves to attack.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
I quickly stopped and shot three simultaneous darts, one after another. Two of them landed a headshot, killing the two Lupii, while the third one barely missed as its target had jumped as soon as I shot.
Pooch!
Switching the Baruga with my daggers, I gutted the Lupus which was in the air. Before it even fell, I ran in the opposite direction. As I ran, I switched back into my Baruga and started loading it. Soon, another notification sound ringed in my ears.
Ding!
This time I actually looked at the yellow notification panel and what I saw made me open my eyes wider with shock!