The Silver - Maned Demon Leopard in Ghost Mist Ridge (it's an Animal - type and a leader) was at level 13. Its attack was between 93 and 165, defense between 58 and 93, and its blood value was as high as 10,837. Water - based attacks and Shadow - based attacks would only do half damage to it.
"This is a level - thirteen leader monster," Finn whispered as he lay down behind a bunch of short trees about thirty meters away from the leopard. He stared at the info from the Auxiliary without blinking.
The Ghost Mist Ridge Demon Leopard was one of the most cruel and sneaky mutant beasts there. Usually, they were around level eight or nine. Their offense and defense weren't that great, but man, their speed was crazy fast. Normally, even if three or five adventurers teamed up, it'd be tough to catch one.
There weren't many valuable things on the Ghost Mist Ridge Demon Leopard. Its bones weren't hard enough, and its teeth didn't work like the Wind Wolf's teeth for breaking defenses. But 'cause it grew in the cold Ghost Mist Ridge for a long time, its fur was super soft and had an excellent warming effect. It used to be popular among the nobles in the Ovid Empire. But because of too much hunting, now you hardly see these magic leopards in Ghost Mist Ridge.
Finn was an outsider. Ever since he landed in this world that was a lot like a virtual game and became an adventurer, he mainly got his money from taking quests at the Adventurer's Guild and getting paid when he finished them. This time, the quest he got at the guild was to get a whole magic leopard's fur. At first, Finn wanted to pass on this quest. He didn't wanna work in the cold Ghost Mist Ridge. But when he saw there was red pine stone in the quest reward, he decided to come.
Red Pine Stone was really precious. Finn didn't get why the quest - giver wanted to trade a fist - sized piece of it for a Ghost Mist Ridge Demon Leopard's fur.
Finn felt pretty lucky 'cause he needed just such a piece of red turquoise to upgrade to level two. Judging by the auction price of red pine stone, Finn thought he'd have to wait at least a year to learn the Level 2 Body Doubling skill. Now that someone was willing to trade a big piece of red turquoise for a whole leopard's fur, Finn thought even if the task was hard, it was worth a shot.
"This is a level - thirteen alpha. Its strength should be about the same as a mutant beast general, but I'm only a level - ten ability user right now. It's pretty dangerous to face this guy!" Finn stared at the leopard not far away, thinking about whether to attack or not. If it was an ordinary Demon Leopard, Finn wouldn't have hesitated. But this one was a level - 13 leader, as strong as a Mutant Beast General, way more powerful than an ordinary one. And what scared Finn the most about a Mutant Beast General - level Demon Leopard was its speed.
Finn was a thief. Like the Ghost Mist Ridge Demon Leopard, speed was his thing. If he was up against an ordinary Demon Leopard, Finn was sure he could win in a speed race. But against the Silver Maned Demon Leopard, he knew that even with running shoes that gave him a speed bonus of over thirty, he couldn't catch up.
"Ah, I can't wait a year. I'll do this deal!" Finn hesitated for about five minutes and finally made up his mind.
What made Finn decide to take the risk was time. A week ago, Finn was all confident when he first entered Ghost Mist Ridge. But after a few days of wandering around, he was frustrated. He'd prepared for a long battle, but he'd underestimated how rare the Demon Leopards were in Ghost Mist Ridge. Finn searched for five whole days and didn't even see a single hair of the leopard. Finally, on the sixth day, he found its footprints and followed them for a whole day, only to find out it was an alpha.
Faced with a super - fast mutant beast general, Finn was really reluctant. But the mission deadline was only ten days. If he didn't take care of this guy, he might not get the red pine stone. Finn didn't want to learn the Carapace Doubling skill a year later, so he decided to take a chance.
"An adventurer's gotta have an adventurous spirit," Finn told himself as he did some warm - ups. He held a small palm - length dagger tight in his right hand and took two small bottles from his waist with his left. One bottle was gray and had Paralysis Poison (when this hit a target, there was a chance the target would be paralyzed, slowing its movement and attack speed). The other green bottle had Anti - Clotting Poison (when it hit a target, there was a chance the target's wounds would keep bleeding). Finn looked at the two bottles, hesitated, and finally put them back.
A weapon could only have one type of poison. If you mixed two poisons, it wouldn't make the poison stronger. Instead, the potions would interact and make the effect worse.
The Ghost Mist Ridge Demon Leopard was a speed - type mutant beast. So, when putting poison on a weapon, you should pick one to limit its speed. Paralyzing poison was more useful than anti - coagulant poison, but Finn didn't plan to use any poison.
True, either poison would be good for the next battle. But the thing was, the Thief's poison only worked if you cut the opponent's fur with the weapon and drew blood. The quest needed a whole Ghost Mist Ridge Demon Leopard's fur. Who knew how whole the fur had to be?
Light Body Technique!
Sneak!
Finn stuck his dagger in his waist and disappeared in the snow - covered mountains.
Sneaking was a really important skill for a Thief. It was the best way for a Thief to get the upper hand in a fight. But it was winter, and the snow in Ghost Mist Ridge was half a person deep. That meant even if a Thief sneaked, walking in the snow would leave footprints and the sound of crunching snow. Thirty meters away, with the wind, the leopard might not notice Finn. But if he got closer, the sneaking would probably be found out. So before sneaking, Finn used the Light Body Technique.
The Light Body Technique reduced the caster's weight. With Finn's current skill level, casting it only reduced the weight a bit, not made it disappear completely. But for Finn, that was enough.
Ghost Mist Ridge was always windy. The wind covered the sound of walking on snow after using the Light Body Technique, and the faint footprints would quickly vanish in the strong wind.
Finn came out of the bushes and carefully moved towards the target. The Demon Leopard was eating, half - crouched under a big tree, tearing into the half - eaten corpse of a ferret. It wasn't paying attention to Finn at all. Even so, Finn didn't dare to be careless. He slowly moved towards the leopard, one step at a time. Every step, he paused for a few seconds, waiting for the wind to blow away his footprints before taking the next step. It took five minutes for Finn to get within two meters of the leopard. But just as he was about to jump on the leopard's back, the leopard suddenly turned around. Without warning, it climbed up a dozen - meter - high tree behind it at lightning speed and then crouched on a branch, looking down.
"Discovered?" Finn froze when the leopard ran. He couldn't figure out how the leopard with its back to him had sensed an enemy. He thought he'd prepared well and shouldn't have been found. But when he saw the leopard's twitching nose on the tree, Finn realized what happened.
"Careless. I forgot about hiding my smell!" Finn groaned, realizing the leopard might not have seen him but smelled him.
The Ghost Mist Ridge Demon Leopard had a really sensitive sense of smell, and this leader's was even better than an average one. Normally, Finn thought he might have been spotted ten meters away. But because of the wind direction and the ferret's blood smell covering other smells, the leopard only noticed him within three meters. But whether it was ten meters or three meters, the result was the same. The leopard was up the tree, and Finn lost his chance.
"My red pine stone," Finn said. Seeing the leopard in the tree, he knew this attempt was a total failure. He sighed and backed off, planning to hide and wait for another chance. But just when Finn was really down, the leopard suddenly jumped down from the tree and pounced on him.
The Ghost Mist Ridge Demon Leopard was one of the top three most alert among the mutated creatures in Ghost Mist Ridge. It didn't hesitate to climb the tree when it smelled a human. But when it realized there was only one human sneaking up, this leader leopard got mad.
All mutant beasts with mutant beast general - level abilities had a strong sense of the enemy's scent. They could tell the target's strength from the scent, and the Ghost Mist Ridge Demon Leopard was especially good at this. When it realized the human under the tree who wanted to beat it up wasn't strong, the hunter - prey roles changed. The leopard decided to counterattack and teach the guy below a lesson.
The leopard was fast. By the time Finn realized it, the leopard had already jumped from the tree in front of him. A sharp leopard claw, like a knife, slashed at Finn's throat.
"Damn!" Finn cursed. He knew his sneaking was completely busted. He quickly stepped to the right as fast as he could, barely dodging the slash to his throat. But his left shoulder got hit by the leopard's claw. The buffalo - leather shoulder protector was slashed like paper, and blood came out right away.
"Damn, this guy's going all out!" Finn was in a really bad mood after getting clawed. The injury on his shoulder wasn't deadly and didn't affect his fighting ability much. But what ticked him off was that after missing, the leopard jumped back three or four meters and faced him from a distance.
Finn was angry and touched the dagger at his waist. He really wanted to hit this sneaky attacker. He only thought the leopard had attacked him sneakily, forgetting he was the one who'd tried to sneak up on the leopard first.
Finn thought about the mission requirements and sadly gave up the idea of using the dagger again. He gritted his teeth and waved at the leopard, cursing, "Come on, little beast. Now I'll show you what my fists can do!"
The Demon Leopard licked the blood on its paw. It didn't rush to fight just because of Finn's taunt. It just stared at Finn, and that calmness was scary.