Chapter 10: Grilling up Monster [4]
The crowd of players are buzzing about the topic of the ranking leaderboard. Many players are here around Level 3 and 2 as they gathered to form a party with other players.
But it was then Kevin's voice cut through the buzzing novice square and all the players went silent.
Jason turned back to see which direction Adrian went , so can all follow him .
Then Jason opened the map to see which hunting spot in this direction Adrian went.
Jason looked at his party members and asked.
"Are you sure he went to dis direction"
" Yes brother he went over there, I see with my own eyes" one of his party Archer answered.
"It could be that he went to the direction of Level 8 Wild Fox Ridge, or it could be the Dugbog Valley, monster swapping zone."
Jason as he scratched his head.
"Do all of you have the courage and trust in me ?" His eyes gleamed as he turned to the others.
" Yes Brother we trust you fully" all his party members reply.
"Let's head toward Wild Fox Ridge or Dugbog Valley. One of those has to be where that guy went. If we can meet him, maybe even team up with him, then we'll dominate this entire novice zone."
Jason Yates hesitated, map open in his hands.
"Those places aren't close. They're out of the way, monster-infested. We'd burn hours just getting there."
The uncertainty in his tone spread like a ripple.
Everyone was a little hesitant. The two strange areas were remote and it would take a lot of time to go there.
A few of the players shifted uncomfortably, whispering about wasted time and the risks of elite monsters lurking beyond the safer fields.
However Kevin was prepared from the beginning. So he had brought some items from the Novice Store. As he folds of his coat he produces a scroll edged in green light, its surface shimmering faintly with magical runes. As he held it up for all to see the light in the Darkness.
"We recently found this," he said, savoring the collective intake of breath.
"A group acceleration scroll with One time use item. Its effect is to triple our movement speed for twenty minutes."
Silence cracked into exclamations.
"With that… we could actually reach Dugbog Valley in time!"
"That's worth days of grinding if it puts us beside a master like him!"
One by one, the hesitation in their eyes turned into hunger. Someone finally shouted,
"I'll go!" and the rest followed in a chorus.
"I'll go!"
"Let's go too!"
"Then let's go."
At the same time we could see how Kevin's lips curled upward showing a cunning smile like was planning something bad for someone.
He opened the scroll and let the runes burn away with a flash of light.
A ripple of light green colour energy surged outward into him and his teammates which washed over the players like a wave.
They feel lighter than usual, every stride feels lighter, every heartbeat quicker and faster as the item shows its effect.
Their feet barely touched the ground before leaping forward again like a bullet train.
A group of players immediately ran in the direction Adrian left.
They shot across the plains like a streak of green fire, chasing the path Adrian had already taken.
---
Meanwhile, at the entrance of the Dugbog Valley,
Adrian was killing the monster inside it fearlessly as he gained more exp points.
This hunting ground looked deceptively ordinary but a dense group of bushes or trees as well as thorn bushes, a rocky choke point between two cliffs, and beyond it was a deep gorge where guttural calls of mantled howler monster could be heard.
[A/N : Guttural refer to actual speech sounds, like certain consonants or the calls of animals]
Any ordinary player would have turned away from this place at the first glance because of this scary environment.
Too narrow, too deep, too dangerous.
Adrian bent down as he smelt the sticky substance like resin that stuck in his hand. So, he started dipped it with a cloth and began to spread a thin layer across the rock ground. His motions were fast, precise, measured, almost ritualistic.
But this task is also time-consuming work, but it must be done soon so I can get better results from his hard work or I could say smart work.
If it applied too concentratedly on the rock surface, it won't just stick to as many monsters as they tried to cross this road but will also start distributing it in the surroundings.
So I should spread it too thickly, and the adhesive would hold only a few monsters before tearing loose.
Spread too thin, and they might break free.
But with the right balance, with patience… it would become a killing ground.
The smell of these chemicals mixed into this Valley atmosphere, it was sharp enough to sting the nose, but Adrian didn't flinch an inch.
The movement of his fingers moved like a professional, as if the brush were an extension of his will and he is a painter.
In his Earthling life, he had wasted years doing odd jobs like carpentry, repairs, anything that paid enough to keep food on the table just so he could survive.
Now those skills served him in ways no one else could imagine.
———> 20 minutes later.
He worked steadily for nearly twenty minutes, smearing resin along every stone, filling every crack until the entire choke point gleamed faintly in the dying light. From above, it looked like a massive, invisible snare waiting to be sprung.
When he finally stepped back, Adrian's lips curved in satisfaction. To anyone else, it was a barren strip of rock.
He built a large mouse trap to capture this monster so he can easily hunt the Higher level with ease.
He just waits for the monster to fall right into his trap . By that he made preparation by tightened his grip on his spear and glanced into the valley.
It didn't make him wait long as many monsters rushed from the depths and came down with guttural cries of the man-eating baboons.
He remembered their appearance well; he noticed their thick-furred brutes with fangs like daggers and a taste for human flesh.
In his previous life, countless players had died screaming in these canyons as they were prey by this man eating baboons.
Now, they were prey.
Adrian's heart beat rapidly, not from fear but from anticipation as his trap was ready. All he needed now was bait then in.
He stepped into the shadows of Dugbog Valley.
---
The deeper he went, the more the cries multiplied. Then suddenly red eyes glow in the gloom Dark night, first it is around a dozen, then it turns a hundred.
This monster followed the smelled of intruder's blood, and hunger drove them into a frenzy now.
Adrian rushed out from this prey's eyes and his footsteps deliberately made sound by stepping against stone.
Every motion screamed challenge.
The horde answered.
The Shrieks of Adrian tore through the canyon as the baboons gave chase behind him.
Pebbles keep falling down the cliffsides under their stampede of this monster.
The ground shook with their pounding fists and clawed feet.
Adrian didn't slow.
He ran faster, weaving between boulders, drawing more and more into the mob.
This mob turns from dozens into hundreds, a living tide of fur and teeth surging behind him like crazy wild animals.
At the back of the pack, three hulking forms loomed larger than the rest.
Their fur shimmered with faint blue light elite monsters.
A single one could slaughter a party of five.
For Adrian, they were a bonus prize.
When the roar of these mobs became deafening, Adrian smiled broadly. By now he was almost at the cliff.
This is also the very place where he has set the sticky trap for this monster and now he his baiting them to fall for it.
---
At the valley's end, he could see the sheer rock face rise before him.
To most, it would have been a dead end. To Adrian, it was an opportunity.
He jumped to the other side of the clif, he is also switching smoothly between classes like his assassin class midair, a dagger flashing in his hand.
He landed with his boots, the other side found that he held something extraordinary none could seem to exist, and in seconds he had scaled halfway up the cliff.
Below, the cliff the baboons were shrieking in frustration, clawing at the stone unable to move around because of the glue.
More than dozens poured in behind them, almost bottlenecking the narrow canyon.
Adrian pulled himself onto an in front of these baboobs.
He went up to sit on a boulder the size of a cottage, precariously balanced on a lip of rock.
Perfect.
His hand shifted again during class change.
Along with the class change the dagger also vanished, replaced by the long, polished spear of his in hand.
He exhaled once again, his stance steady and controlled.
Then he aimed his spear at the boulder.
With a flash of speed he rushed towards the rock, as soon as it hit the rock a thunderous crack sound arose.
During the attack Adrian used his skill.
" Dragon Head ."
The shot struck with precision.
The massive stone trembled, lifted by the force of the skill, suspended in the air for a heartbeat as if gravity reclaimed it.
The boulder plummeted.
Adrian straightened slowly, watching as the chaos unfolded below.
The trap had been sprung.
---
(to be continued in…)