Chapter 67: C-rank Magical Beasts (2)

It took Allen quite a while to kill the Armored Ant. It took him at least two hours from the time he found it to the time he killed it.

(It took me a long time. Now, I have to collect its magic stone.)

He drove his dagger into the chest of the upturned Armored Ant.

Squeak

“What?”

Allen’s voice unintentionally leaked out of him. The exoskeleton on the chest was only slightly dented by Allen’s dagger. He tried hitting it with his dagger a few more times.

(Oh no, maybe this dagger can’t even collect magic stones?)

Apparently, his dagger was not enough to dismantle the Armored Ant. The dagger is going to lose its sharpness, and I don’t want to spend any more time on it. It turns out that this dagger can only cut through knots.

It took me a long time to kill it and I couldn’t collect any magic stones. A number of my E-rank Beasts were also killed, causing me some E-rank magic stones loss.

(This is not an enemy that can be defeated by physical attacks. It should be weak against magic attacks. It’ll be tough to beat it physically without a large weapon like a two-handed sword.)

In Allen’s mind, the Armored Ant proved to be a tough foe to defeat.

Allen looked at the sky and saw three Eagles flying in the sky as if they had already finished their search.

(Don’t come down if you found an Armored And. Come down if you have found an Orc.)

One Eagle came down and landed on a tree’s branch. It then started guiding Allen towards the Orc.

After about twenty minutes of running, Allen found a Magical beast sleeping against a tree.

It was a pig-faced magical beast wearing tattered clothes. Allen only knew its sitting height, but it was definitely bigger than an adult human. There also was a large spear on the ground.

(Do magical beasts sleep too? Didn’t the Ant sleep too, thanks to Swallowtail’s special skill? It’s a little late for that anyway. So, this Orc uses a spear, huh? It’s already asleep. I can’t miss this chance. Come out, Tama!)

Peeking out from behind a tree, Allen summoned 14 E-rank Beasts.

“‘Gururururu’.

The summoned beasts surrounded the Orc that was sleeping in the shade of the tree. All of them were strengthened to Level 5, and all of them used their special skill [Scratch].

“Buhiiiiii!”

The Orc suddenly screamed. The Orc’s fresh blood stained the brown fallen leaves.

(Oh! The E-rank Beasts have Attack Power of 250 at Level 5. They can hurt the Orc.)

It looked like the 14 Tigers could defeat the Orc without Allen joining the fight. Seeing the Orc reminded Allen of something.

(I see. Good thing we arm wrestled.)

I remembered the arm wrestling match I had against Rodan and Gerda. I won against Gerda but lost against Rodan.

Based on Allen’s Attack Power of just under 300 at the time, he estimated Rodan and Gerda’s rough attack strength.

Rodan, Attack Power 300-350.

Gerda, Attack Power 250-300

Rodan could hurt a Great Boar with a spear. So, one needs an Attack Power of 300 to 350 to hurt a Great Boar with a spear.

While Allen was thinking about it, the summoned Tigers continued their attack, and the two-and-a-half-meter tall Orc fell to the ground, shaking it in the process.

[You have killed one Orc. You have acquired 1500 Experience Points.]

Now, E-rank Beasts with Attack Power of 250 defeated a C-rank magical beast Orc, the same rank as the Great Boar.

(They were able to defeat a C-rank magical beast. The effect of the special skill [Scratch] should be to increase the Attack Power by 1.5 times.)

Based on the arm wrestling match and the amount of damage the Orc received, Allen guessed the effect of the special skill [Scratch].

The important thing in hunting C-rank magical beasts this time was whether or not the attacks of E-rank Beast, his summon that specializes in physical attacks, affect the enemy.

The E-rank Beast Attack Power of 250 is not that high compared to his father Rodan and the Great Boar hunters back in Kurena Village. I’m sure the defense of Orcs and Great Boars is different, but I wasn’t sure if the attack would go through.

I was thinking of going back to hunting Goblins if I couldn’t damage an Orc or Armored Ant.

However, the Armor Ants were difficult to deal with, but with a combination of 250 Attack Power and the special skill [Scratch], the Orc was easier to deal with.

(I lost three E-rank Beasts in this fight. With Swallowtail’s [Scales] and my support, I should be able to prevent my magic stones from running out.)

I place the dagger on the chest of the fallen Orc and collect the C-rank magic stone. Unlike the Armored Ants, the dagger cut through and a purple color magic stone the size of a ping-pong ball appeared.

(Finally, after a year, I can hunt C-rank magical beasts now.)

I’m deeply moved. I can hunt a magical beast of the same rank as a Great Boar by myself now. I can now do it without trapping them as I did with White Deer.

In the past year, I killed over 10,000 Goblins, raised my level, and steadily raised Strengthening to Level 5.

(Mmm? What are you so proud of? You are not there yet.)

I admonished myself against my feelings of being overwhelmed with emotion. Just six months ago, I lost to Cecil’s brother, Mihai, without any chance at victory.

The result of more than eight years of hard work was defeated by the Talent he had honed in the Academy for just a year. The Dungeon conquest of only two months turned out to be far more effective than eight years of my work in improving my skills and leveling up.

I learned how fast the Talented and their power grow in Normal Mode.

(And the Academy graduates are especially strong in this world.)

Mihai gave us a friendly talk about the Academy. To sum it up, it seems that the Talented and the Untalented are not the only difference in power.

The strongest are those who have graduated from the Academy with a Talent.

The second strongest are those who are Talented and have not graduated from the Academy.

The third strongest are those who have no Talent and are blessed with physique and stats.

The fourth strongest are those who have no Talent and are not blessed with physique or stats.

It seems that only less than one percent of the population falls into the first category; the first and second categories together account for about ten percent.

The Academy has exams and costs a lot of money. There were several tasks to complete before graduation, and if you didn’t complete them, you would fail. It sounded like graduating from the Academy was quite a status.

So where do the Knights fall in all of this? I’m talking about a 50-50 split between the second and third.

The first category is a candidate for being a Leader among the Knights. It seems that the Knight Commander and Vice-Commander fall under the first category.

This story reminds me of the Vice-Commander who was beaten up by Kurena when she was five years old. According to Mihai, the Vice-Commander was much stronger than him. Even though he heard that story, it was hard to believe for Allen who actually saw the scene where he was beaten up by Kurena. It’s not clear if Kurena was too strong or if the Vice-Commander took it easy on her.

It seems that most adventurers are in the third category. Most adventurers have no talent. Raven told me that adventurers who fall into the second category will be considered for the B-rank, while those who fall into the first category will have a chance of reaching the A-rank.

(I guess there’s more to Normal Mode than what meets the eye. Well, I’m in Hell mode, and I’m going to continue hunting. Next, I will try to take on a pair of Orcs. Search for two Orcs within a three kilometers radius.)

I quickly changed my mind. Today’s hunt is not over yet. At Allen’s order, four Eagles spread out in search of the Orcs.

Then about four hours passed.

In the end, I killed 1 Armored Ant and 15 Orcs that day. In terms of experience, that’s 25,500.

I had about a 60% success rate. I also found out that I could kill up to three Orcs at once without taking too much damage if I used the [Scales] and Iron balls to support the Tigers.

(All right, I’d better get going.)

I checked the position of the sun. I don’t have a watch, so the position of the sun is one of the few ways I can figure out what time it is. I had come farther than usual, so I pulled out early. I mustn’t forget to catch a few magical beasts for food on the way back.

(Hmmm… I think I got around 25,000 experience even if I tried my best while hunting Goblins. If I focus on Orcs and hunt from the morning, can I get 50,000 experience? I would have to kill about 40 Orcs for that.)

I was able to determine that hunting Orcs was more efficient. From that day on, the prey changed from D-rank Goblins to C-rank Orcs.