Ayaan who just picked up the three hearts looked on either side.
Two Frogmen teams are coming. He can see them approaching. Just like the team that he killed just now, these two also have fifteen members each. After a quick observation on either side, he started running diagonally to the left side.
That is where he could sense the two remaining hearts are going and with every passing second the feeling is becoming less intense.
That means they are moving away from him. He cannot be held up by these monsters here and let those hearts reach their destination.
However, Ayaan is not stupid enough to let go of the Exp points that came to him by themselves.
The frogmen took giant leaps as they ran after Ayaan. The left-side group, obviously managed to close the distance first, while the group on the right is still a bit far away.
Ayaan ran as fast as he could and soon reached a ruined structure. He went into it without hesitation. Why would he meet them on the open field, where there is no element of surprise that he can take advantage of?
The frogmen stupidly followed Ayaan only to see that the three hearts were thrown over in the mud at three random directions in the room. As they scattered to gather them.
*SWOOSH* *SWOOSH* *SWOOSH*
The bullets came from a corner of the room. They are all coming upwards diagonally. Ayaan didn't even come out of the water when the three frogmen fell. The frogmen of course are not that smart, at least not without their captain to estimate the enemy's exact position with just trajectory.
They just knew his general direction.
And in that direction, there happened to be a window. They ran towards the window trying to look for the enemy.
*SWOOSH*
Ayaan shot a bullet upwards. It went into the opponent's head through its wide chin. He rolled forward, stood up, and shot two more frogmen at point blank.
The group of frogmen is once again caught by surprise.
*BANG* *BANG* *SWOOSH*
Ayaan took out the mutant sword and blocked the incoming sword swing before he shot down another frogman. He broke through the encirclement and ran towards the hearts. The captain who just entered the structure looked at its fallen subordinates and looked at Ayaan furiously.
He leaped towards him. Ayaan turned around abruptly with the sword held straight. The captain couldn't stop. He only moved to the side desperately hoping to avoid the stab.
But he couldn't.
The sword went through the captain's chest. It gritted its teeth in anger and tried to slash at Ayaan while still being like that.
*SWOOSH*
Ayaan shot its head point black with a 2 MP bullet.
Its head burst open and the captain died.
[Exp+10]
[MP+2]
Once the captain is dead, Ayaan doesn't have any difficulty. He finished the remaining frogmen and went to the rooftop of the building. He can see the other team that is coming from the left side.
It is still catching up. He then looked around trying to find another ambush point. The remaining two hearts seemed to be in the same spot. He still couldn't spot them. So, he decided to pick up the speed in that direction.
He got out of the building and started running with the three hearts on his back.
.
.
.
Fifteen minutes later, the team that was tailing Ayaan, finally came to a halt. It is another ruined building. But this one is a lot larger and the destruction is much more apparent. It only had a couple of walls left with no roof.
There are a bunch of walls and slabs strewn all over the place, almost creating a henge of sorts.
The hearts are placed in the middle of it all.
The captain took the lead to capture the hearts.
*SWOOSH*
At that moment, it heard a noise from behind. Ayaan got out of the swamp and started the killing.
.
.
.
Ten minutes later.
Ayaan sat down on a slab to calm his breath with the three hearts nearby. He checked his Exp gain.
He killed six teams. That means six captains. That is exactly 600 points. The first team has 24 frogmen other than the captain. The second one had 39, the third one had 59 frogmen. While travelling in between he killed around 40 more.
Later the frogmen team that ambushed him had 14, and the two teams that chased him also had 14.
That's 2000 Exp.
He spent a couple of hours in here and killed hundreds. He managed to raise the level up progress by 20%. Still, he felt it was very slow.
If his guess is right, if the other players didn't trigger the hidden conditions in the tutorial, they would have only been at level 1.
With level 1 strength, it is almost impossible to trigger the hidden requirement in the first quest. Ayaan even with the hidden requirement, barely managed to gain around a 1700 Exp.
If they did manage to reach level 2, then it would be good. But if they are stuck with minimum requirements, they won't get there and the progress will be even slower.
It is almost like the system is against them gaining levels.
Ayaan shook these thoughts off his head. He doesn't know how many creatures are left in this quest. But he hoped they would be enough to help him level up.
While the world is at stake, for him Maya is the priority and he has to find a way to finish this mission so that he can save her. He hung the hearts on his back and started running.
.
.
.
.
Fifteen minutes and one more frogmen team later.
In the vast marshland, at a particular spot, there is no sign of any trees or structures. It is just a large patch of green mud. In that space, a large group of frogmen almost numbering a hundred is moving. Two frogmen captains are leading them and both of them are holding a heart each.
*RIBBIT*
*RIBBIT*
They are commanding their subordinates, guiding them to find out the three other hearts.
They could feel them nearby.
They are searching in the marsh with their hands, much like farmers planting in the paddy fields.
All of a sudden one of the frogmen that was farthest away from the captains stopped moving. A sword pierced it in the heart from the bottom. A hand came out of the mud and held it to ensure it wouldn't splash.
The frogman's body is slowly lowered and it is carefully dragged into the mud, completely hiding it.
The loot disappeared before it could even manifest completely. The hand and the sword that took the frogman's life disappeared from there and in a different corner, another frogman met the same fate.
Maybe either because of their anxiety to search for the hearts or maybe because of their high number being spread out, the captains didn't notice this.
Everything happened so smoothly.
*RIBBIT?!*
Only after Ayaan dealt with ten frogmen did the captains seem to have realized. However, they couldn't comprehend what had happened. They knew the numbers were less, but they hadn't heard any attack. They didn't hear a splash of their subordinates falling down.
They didn't see any frogman dying.
All they knew was that there are ten less now.
Both captains communicated and expressed their confusion.
After a couple of minutes, they finally saw it. Far away from them, one of the frogmen slowly sunk into the marsh and disappeared.
*RIBBBIT* *RIBBIT*
They hurriedly ran in that direction. They looked in the marsh, but couldn't find anything.
At that moment, not too far from the captains, another frogman who was searching the marsh slowly went down. The captains were fast to react this time.
*RIBBIT* *RIBBIT*
The leaped forward with all their strength and covered the distance in an instant.
*SWOOSH*
As they were about to land, Ayaan's finger broke out of the surface and a water bullet shot out. The bullet almost went parallelly with the marsh surface. It hit the knee of a captain who was just about to land.
*SPLASH*
The first captain fell down while the second one landed. It stabbed its sword into the marsh, where it assumed the enemy is hiding.
Ayaan stood up from the side and shot a water bullet in its abdomen.
[████████████████░░░░░░] 80.0%
The frogmen captain however still stood there swinging its sword at Ayaan.
Ayaan took out his mutant soldier sword and blocked the incoming attack. He was about to conjure a 2 MP bullet and finish it off, but at that moment, the second captain gained some momentum.
It leaped high into the air and swung its sword down. Even with just one leg, it can still move like that.
*BAM*
Ayaan kicked the first captain and sent it flying. He then turned around blocking the sword of the second captain and slipped to the side.
*SLASH*
He slashed it on the abdomen from the side and since it lost one of its legs, it fell forward.
*SWOOSH*
Ayaan was about to shoot it down, but before he could conjure up a bullet, the other level 1 frogmen already made their move. He shot down the closest three frogmen. The captains got back on their feet and came at him at the same time.
*BANG* *BANG*
The swords clashed. Ayaan observed their movement patterns and quickly got a hang of it.
*BAM*
He blocked the attack of the one-legged frog and kicked on the knee of its second leg. The captain fell into the marsh. Ayaan stomped on the back of its head, keeping it down.
*BANG*
He just couldn't land the finishing blow.
*SWOOSH* *SWOOSH*
The water bullets had to be reserved for the level 1 frogmen that came at him from all sides.
The second captain came again.
Ayaan hurriedly took out one of the Black iron swords he got as loot and stabbed the struggling captain under his foot.
[██░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░] 10.0%
Its health bar almost went down.
With both of its legs gone it cannot get up for now. Ayaan took the chance and clashed with the second captain.
He dodged the level 1 attacks and leaped towards the captain. Their swords clashed. Ayaan didn't hesitate to attack its legs. But the captain seemed to have predicted it, it kicked the ground, and pushed Ayaan back with brute force.
As Ayaan fell back, he shot the captain in the abdomen from the side and then at an incoming subordinate.
*SPLASH*
The frogmen captain screeched in pain, but it didn't stop. It mounted Ayaan and tried to stab him in the head.
Ayaan blocked the incoming sword with his own and deflected it to the side. At the same time, he raised his leg and kicked the captain on the back of its head. The captain fell forward. Ayaan dropped the sword and stabbed both his fingers into its abdomen.
*THWAK* *THWAK*
Two water bullets from either side at point-blank range.
The captain fell and turned into a puff of neon sparkles.
*THWAK*
At that moment, two frogmen soldiers managed to reach him and stabbed him downwards. Ayaan barely dodged one and the other one brushed past his shoulder.
HP-2
*SWOOSH* *SWOOSH*
He shot the two of them down and turned around to finish the crippled captain.
He is surrounded.
All the frogmen are crazily coming at him.
He put the sword away and got ready with both his hands.
Three frogmen jumped at him.
*BAM* *SWOOSH*
He kicked one of them down and shot the other two. He stomped the fallen one and took down the other two, before shooting it as well.
*SLASH*
He ducked to dodge the sword attack from the rear, turned around, and shot the frogman in the head.
He got an opening. Ayaan ran through it killing two more frogmen.
Luckily none of these monsters have ranged attacks. Once he got out of the encirclement, Ayaan started running while shooting them down.
The frogmen couldn't control their instincts and kept on leaping to cover the distance. But in mid-air they have limited mobility and became easy targets.
Ayaan also made sure that he didn't run away, instead he ran in circles kiting them one by one. However, when he was almost done with the group with only a dozen or so left, he noticed another group coming towards them.
*SIGH*
Ayaan sighed as he increased his speed. He wanted to be free when he welcomes his new guests.
.
.
.
.
Forty-five minutes later.
Ayaan slumped to the ground sitting in the swamp without any care for its disgusting stink.
[Exp +1500]
[Fatigue +30]
[HP-20]
He tried to catch his breath while gathering all five hearts. Three of them he hid underneath the swamp while the remaining two are left behind by the captains.
Once he gathered all of them together, a familiar but ominous notification appeared in front of his eyes.
==============================
HIDDEN REQUIREMENT
==============================
Hidden condition has been met!
**Player killed all 10 Frogmen captains**
**Player killed all the frogmen soliders in the Marsh**
**Player acquired all the five special items without destroying them**
The Frogmen general has noticed your deeds.
The Frogmen general is enraged.
The Frogmen general has called for reinforcements
==============================