As Jude let the string go, the arrow sprang forward and dug into the body of the green monster. The imp jumped once before it fell.
"One more shot."
He aimed carefully once again and shot another arrow. With one last shudder, the imp dropped to the ground, lifeless.
[You have gained three points.]
In the early stages, zombies gave one point while imps gave three. With the amount he had now, there was nothing he could buy, but he would happily collect even a speck of dust for the future.
Jude drew his bow and carefully approached the body. In the beta, corpses had been an everyday thing. Countless monsters were hunted, either by other monsters or by bored veterans, and back then he had not really cared about an imp's corpse. But seeing it now with his own eyes, it felt different.
"It's the first time I've ever killed an animal this big..."
When the apocalypse came, he would have to kill more monsters, and maybe even some humans.
The imp's blood had splattered into the water, and perhaps because of it, something was swimming close to the bottom. Because of the light reflecting on the water, he could not see it clearly.
Jude turned the imp's corpse over with his foot.
"Let's see what you have."
Imps had a habit of collecting whatever they liked, though most of it was junk.
With those thoughts, Jude cut the rope around the imp's waist with his knife, and then he saw something strange. It was a knife so dull that he doubted it had been made by hammering at all. It looked like a collection of iron beads slapped together haphazardly.
"You're carrying something useless."
It might count as a weapon for an imp, but not for him. Other than that, the leaf pouch held some oily fruit and a white powder.
"This is Serene Grass powder."
If it was mixed well with oil and left to harden, it became a healing ointment. Its effect was quite good, quickly stopping any bleeding and closing the wound. Of course, it was not the kind of healing potion found in stories, since there was no way something as hellish as the beta would have had one.
There was Serene Grass and a source of vegetable oil nearby. He had gained some good information. Jude recovered the arrows stuck in the imp's body, took a shovel out of his bag, and started digging.
The imp's group must not find the corpse. Otherwise, they would track him down wherever he went, because they were persistent little bastards.
It was not easy to dig a pit big enough for the body, even more so in a state of exhaustion, and his endurance ran low.
As a remedy, he took one of the frozen berries from his bag and ate it.
[Effect: Endurance Recovery]
[The effects of the frozen berry restored a lot of endurance.]
His strength came back, and it was time to keep digging before he could push the old imp's body in.
Then a deep growl could be heard in the distance.
His eyes darted around, and his body started to shake. The growl was far too deep for any ordinary bear. Which meant...
An Archaic Bear.
Jude hurriedly pushed the imp's body into the pit and ran without looking back. The growl echoed through the hills once again, and he ran as fast as he could until he could no longer hear it.
He sat down with his back against a tree. His lungs were still busy pumping hot air out through his mouth.
An Archaic Bear was a monster only one level below a Mountain Beast. If he ran into one in his current state, he would not last three full seconds.
Just when he had managed to find and kill an imp, a real monster had appeared. Should he just give up the hills?
"Never," he said weakly.
The hills were more dangerous than he had first thought, but he still could not give it up. After all, the outside world would be far messier than this place.
For now, he could not face an Archaic Bear, so he had to run, and it was time to go home. He called out Random Teleportation, and the next moment, he was back in his room.
There was a lot of work left to do, but he did not want to pay any attention to it, because his body was sore all over, as if someone had beaten him.
Jude buried his head in the pillow and closed his eyes. At that moment, he did not care whether the men in black suits came or not. He was just that tired.
As soon as he opened his eyes, a barrage of pain assaulted his body.
He groaned and forced himself to get up. Fortunately, unlike usual, he did not have to make any preparations to open the shop today.
He opened the window and tasted the peace that would soon be gone. In twenty-five days, it would all turn into a giant mess of chaos.
When he looked at his reflection in the mirror, he had lost a lot of fat from his cheeks, and his stomach looked as if it had lost a lot of fat too. He looked fairly athletic now.
After enjoying his slight transformation, Jude turned his computer on and checked what he had to do. First, he needed to order solar and diesel generators. They were fairly cheap when he ordered them from an Azian shopping site, but just in case, he also bought one of each from a shop in Yorbia.
They did not have to be powerful generators. At the very least, he only needed them to charge a laptop and a phone. Everything else could be fixed once he built a full safe zone, but for him as he was now, that was too grand a goal. If monsters like the Archaic Bear appeared again, he would have no choice but to abandon everything and run, just like yesterday.
Archaic Bears were far larger than any bear of his world, with long claws, and they hunted at night. They were mainly active around valleys.