Ch. 12 - The Hunt

[Completed Peddling Quest II!]

[Experience gained.]

[Leveled up! Please allocate your status points.]

[Gained 100,000G as a reward.]

[Gained experience as a reward.]

[Teleporting to Common Field.]

[Teleporting to Lalocia Ice.]

There was an influx of different announcements, marking this the second time I've experienced this since I'd started playing. I knew that it was only a matter of time before I fulfilled every goal I had moving forward.

"Whew..."

I let out a breath after putting my new points into dexterity. The unrealistic world of VR was sinking into my mind, and I couldn't get the battle from the other day out of it.

That skill...

I was both highly anxious and yet, excited, at the very same time when the PKer had disappeared from my sight. I could hardly contain how amazing it felt to see through and foil the PKer's plan, despite him being invisible. Ah, well, truthfully, I'd only based it on the sound of his footsteps and general intuition, so I'd been nothing but lucky, honestly.

Then, there was that quick attack the PKer had made -- I'd been pretty slow on the uptake which is how things turned out the way they did. I'd honestly thought I was dead meat. Had I died, I would've probably used Gold Resurrection to revive myself.

I put my life on the line and barely made it through. There was also the fact that I fought as a "trader"; every single part of that battle was more fun than I could believe.

"So, now what?"

I checked the current time by opening up the menu screen. I'd gone into the next day without realizing it. Normally, I'd log off and hit the hay around this time, but I felt like playing a bit more.

"Shall I hunt a bit?"

How nice that I was already in Lalocia Ice -- the suggested level for hunting in this area was twenty and above. That said, Common Field was for those up to level ten, and Green Solde maxed out at level twenty.

Either way, that referred completely to those in a combat close, or rather, those far stronger and better than me. In the past, I wouldn't have ever set foot on those hunting grounds, but now, I kind of felt like I wanted to take a crack at it, to be honest.

Lalocia Ice: a snowy field with white snow fluttering down everywhere. Just like the environment, the monsters were of an ice variety. A white bear monster was...as expected, an ice bear. It was the same scenario with the Baba Yaga -- a black humanoid monster covered with straw and carrying a cane in its hand.

[Ice Slime Lv20]

Huh, speak of the devil... It was the first monster I'd come across here in Lalocia Ice.

The Ice Slime was as beautifully clear as ice. Just judging it by its name didn't warrant much concern, but monsters over level twenty required different methods of fighting them. With a body length close to fifty centimeters, they've taken out many a player before.

I was barely able to react at the flash I glimpsed and jumped to the side just as a large icicle came crashing down where I'd stood. Under normal circumstances, that would've been the end of me. So, the Ice Slime had two different tactics it employed: shooting icicles like missiles from a long distance, and tackling its target once in close-quarters combat.

Hmm...

The slime steadily stared me down, almost like it was daring me to attack it.

I had to be overthinking this...

"Rah!"

I landed the first blow, throwing my axe through the air just as the slime seemed as if it was about to launch another attack.

"Pgii!"

Gotcha with a hole-in-one.

"Piii..."

I had no time to celebrate as it sent another icicle flying at me. I wasn't sure if I'd pissed it off, but it definitely felt like it was launching those icicles at me a lot faster and harder than before.

"Slash!"

"Gggiiii!"

I saw the slime readying another icicle and I dashed forward to grab my axe off of the ground. Had I just turned around and swung it right then and there, it would've been a direct hit, but...

"Guh..."

"Pii!

I lost my chance and the slime turned towards me and tackled me down. I had no opportunity to avoid it and took it straight on. As I went down, it once again created distance between it and I.

"...Damn, that stings."

One glance told me that my HP had sunk down by about ten percent. I may have points in my strength category, but I was still only in the production class, and my defense was abysmal.

"Let's do this."

Then again, I could see the slime's health was down around eighty percent, so... If I just didn't miss my attacks here on out, there was a good chance I could take it down.

That was crazy. Even alone, there were still things I could do on my own.

"Whoa, hah..." I breathed out hard.

We'd fought for some time, and I had roughly thirty percent health left.

The slime, however, had half its HP left to go.

How did things go this awry? Yeah, well, the fucker started healing itself.

Whenever it got down to around thirty percent health, it would take some of the snow around it and infuse it for regeneration.

"Huh, never knew it could do that."

"Pigipigi," it cried out.

I stayed my hand until it played its cards. The moment the slime attacked, I would follow up with my own assault -- counterattacking, I found, was super effective. If I tried to rush, I'd get hit by the slime's own counterattack instead.

"Man, fighting you is worse than fighting another player..."

"Pgii."

The slime's HP was over fifty percent, edging up towards the sixty percent mark. I stared at its gauge, standing stock still.

"I should've known this wouldn't be a walk in the park."

I breathed out a sigh.

I had to focus -- it was all uphill from here. I couldn't let out a single peep from here on out.

I moved quickly, stabbing into the slime as it was regenerating. It reacted, readying an icicle to launch at me, but I quickly attacked again.

"Slash!"

"Pgii!"

I struck true, but the problems all started now.

Right after I attacked it, it shifted itself as if to tackle me. If I didn't do something, my speed would be nowhere near fast enough to evade the strike. If I knew what direction the slime would attack from, I could probably counter it, but it was a bit random with its attack. Would it aim for my legs, my torso, or my head? Unlike when fighting another player, there was no way to really tell -- it didn't even have a line of sight to follow. So, if I couldn't figure it out from its gaze, I'd just have to lay down my cards and hope they'd win me the prize.

"Slash!"

I had a sixty-six percent probability rate. The range of "Slash" could either just barely cover from my head down to my torso, or from my torso down to my feet. I couldn't protect my entire body no matter what I did. Still, if I could draw the slime's attention to one of the two methods in particular, I could defend my body in two different ways.

My ability to concentrate was far from lacking, but I wondered if I could execute "Slash" with enough speed to match the slime's attack. I wasn't sure if there was even a point in trying, but I felt that the circumstances called for it. If it tried attacking my torso, then I'd try to match its speed, but if it were aiming for my head or feet, then I'd have to slow my strike accordingly. So long as I could stay a step ahead of the Ice Slime's movements and implement my skill just right, I'd be fine. That was my thought process, anyway. Whether I could actually do it or not was another story altogether.

"Gii!"

I was betting it all on the slime going for my head and torso. The slime would attack my head, and I'd control my arm's movement to strike it at the most optimal moment.

There it was!

"Pgii!"

It rang out a cry of agony -- I'd won my wager and got an edge in over it. It didn't end there, though.

"Now's when the real battle begins," I said aloud.

If I lost focus for even a second, that'd spell disaster for me without a doubt. I took in another breath of air.

"Pgii!"

"...Finally."

[Gained experience.]

[Gained an Ice Slime fragment.]

[Gained 1000G.]

Out of the ten bets I'd made with myself, I'd lost three of them. I couldn't say I'd fought perfectly, but since I won, who cared?

"Eh, it all turned out all right in the end, I guess."

The me before used to run from battles before I'd even fought them. It was unbelievable that now, I was holding out against people at my level and higher. I didn't even feel any kind of sense of accomplishment -- it was just another day of work to me now.

This last hunt, though... Nothing about it bored me whatsoever. In fact, I felt a different sense of accomplishment from when I took down other PKers.

"The odds were definitely against me in that fight..."

Battles took infinitely longer playing solo as a trader. I doubted it'd be anywhere near as hard if I were in a party.

There was no point crying over spilt milk, though. I'd have to throw those thoughts on the backburner so long as I was playing as a trader. My goal here wasn't to lament over my occupation's misfortune, but to further raise my probability for hunting down other prey.

Break time was over -- any longer and I'd forget what I'd come out here for. In another minute or two, the Ice Slime would probably repopulate and I'd go through the process all over again.

"Pgii!"

[Gained experience.]

"Phew..."

I breathed out a sigh after taking down my third Ice Slime.

Fighting them back to back had taken its toll on me. Still, thanks to my efforts, my martial arts were more on point and I had a better sense of things.

"Whoa, it's already one in the morning?" I asked myself out of surprise when I opened the main menu to check the time.

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