16 Leaving the Swampland

Same as before, Kirou ignored the server announcement and looked at his current stats after leveling up.

[You have reached level 10.]

{Name: Kirou}

{Race: Werewolf(Lycan/Human)}

{Class: Weapon Master}

{Subclass: Crafting Master}

{Level: 10}

{HP: 336/336}

{MP: 280/280}

{Str: 26.5 (22+4.5)}

{Int: 10 (-10)}

{Def: 21}

{Const: 28 (23+2+3)}

{Dex: 20 (18+2)}

{Agi: 23.5 (18+2+3.5)}

{Luck: 55/100}

{Skill Points: 33}

{Fame: 2500}

{Money: 1000 g/21 s/50 c}

Looking at his stats, Kirou was quite surprised that he managed to jump two levels from defeating that boss. Thinking about it further, it was a level 15 boss fight and he nearly died due to its corpse almost falling on him. If he didn't get an extra level from that fight then this game truly was biased against half-lings, much more than they already are.

After staying on the floor for a few minutes, Kirou finally stood up and brushed himself off before staring at the huge corpse of the Swampland Crocodile King a few feet away from him. He still remembers the fright he just went through and could only shake his head before approaching the giant corpse. Looking at the size, he'll be there for a while.

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After spending roughly twenty minutes to completely dissect the corpse of the Swampland Crocodile King, Kirou was left with the following items:

[You have received the following items: Excellent quality SCK leather x12, excellent quality SCK bones x6, excellent quality SCK claws x4, excellent quality SCK teeth x4 and 10 lbs of excellent quality SCK meat x4.] (In case it wasn't obvious: SCK=Swampland Crocodile King)

Looking over his haul of items from the Swampland Crocodile King's corpse caused a smile to form on Kirou's face.

'With this haul, I finally have all the materials I need to craft my gear. I can probably use the meat to test out my in-game cooking.' That was Kirou's thoughts as he walked away from the Swampland Crocodile King's corpse which was fading away in a mass of light. Less than ten seconds later, the mass of light finally dispersed, removing any trace of the giant corpse being present in the current area.

****************

As Kirou was backtracking the route he took to get so deep in the forest, there was currently a big debate going on about his record-breaking feet. Many players, and by extension, their guilds, were currently looking for any information on who the mystery player was the soloed the Swampland Crocodile King. They were also looking into who got the first advanced class from a few hours earlier and were wondering if it was the same person who claimed both.

The Swampland Crocodile King, as a world boss, wasn't that rare. A bunch of players had explored the swampland map before and claimed its first kill award already. It had to be known that for all four outer continents, similar areas were present for each, which means similar bosses have been found and killed on them as well. What shocked the other players, however, was the fact that someone claimed the first solo kill and the difference in rewards.

As each party that faced these boss monsters can attest to, it took them ample preparation, time and resources to take down such a boss. Now less than a week later after the first discovery of such bosses there is an announcement that someone was able to take down such a monster alone. How could the average players not be interested, much less the top guilds that are interested in the other rewards?

Almost everyone could guess what skill the skill book would give if they saw the boss monster themselves but the title was a complete enigma to everyone. It's a feature of the game no many have discovered so far after the few weeks since Immortal Era's release. According to the game's official website, titles are said to give bonus stats when equipped and depending on how they are obtained, the titleholder can gain other benefits when fighting in certain areas or against certain monsters. The official website also hinted that getting a certain amount of titles in a certain series could allow a player's character to gain another primary trait. This primary trait was independent of race or class and was said to be a huge bonus in the later parts of the game.

With such info made public knowledge while the specifics remain secret, many players and guilds are hunting for ways to obtain such titles, even if only to experiment for themselves. What these players, however, fail to realize was that the method of obtaining the titles was given from the start.

The excerpt from the official website goes as follows, 'A person is awarded a title whenever he or she has done something warranting great merit to their region, class or race as a whole...'

Most players see this and question what would warrant such actions, not realizing it could be anything so long as it's done for benefit. The few players that do realize this has done pretty much all they can to realize said goal but fall short as they never stick to any one thing for too long before moving on.

In Kirou's case, you could say that his unlocking a title was a foregone conclusion. Not counting the fact that he has been playing the game on manual mode and had managed to harvest excellent quality materials from his kills like he's breathing, he's managed to hunt down every monster species in the swampland. Not only that, the fact that he had systematically hunted down every monster species in the swampland area more than two dozen times each had already made him qualified for the lesser title, 'Swampland Hunter.' Had he killed just one other monster, he would have received that title. Who could have predicted that the next monster Kirou would fight and kill just so happened to be the boss monster for the swampland? With him slaying the overlord of the swampland plus his other feats combined, the system decided to award him the title, 'Ruler of the Swampland' in recognition of his deeds.

With the 'Swampland Hunter' title, Kirou would have gained a 20% boost to his stats when fighting in a swamp area along with +2 strength, defense/mag defense, and agility. With the 'Ruler of the Swampland' title, however, Kirou now gains a 50% boost to his stats in swamp areas, a 15% boost in stats when fighting against reptiles and amphibians found everywhere else and +5 points to strength, defense/mag defense, and agility.

If others were to learn of this, they might scream how unfair it was for Kirou to have this title or claim that he's cheated to gain it since it's so strong. Of course, if they learned how Kirou received it then no one would ever speak about the matter ever again. At least until they themselves can pull it off.

And like that, many players and guilds would be using a lot of resources and manpower in order to find out about Kirou, only to come up empty as he's staying under the radar...for now.

******************

Kirou was currently nearing the outer edges of the swampland. Unlike when he first entered the swamp and killed all monsters that crossed his path, Kirou was doing his best to avoid combat whenever he met a monster he couldn't kill in a few hits. This was even more so when he ran into groups of monsters such as the giant poison frogs, swamp crocodile, and the swampland salamanders. Besides fighting, he also made it a point to collect any herbs he found interesting along the way. There were many herbs to be found in the swampland but only a select few caught Kirou's notice.

After traveling another five minutes, Kirou ran into a lone swampland salamander ahead of him. He didn't immediately engage the salamander as he noticed a rare herb not too far away from the salamander. It seems like that lone swampland salamander was guarding this herb.

Kirou retreated a few feet and sat down for a moment in contemplation. The monster ahead of him is one he would normally ignore as he wouldn't be able to kill it in just a few moves.

Monster: Swampland Salamander (Elite)

Level: 12

HP: 3350

Skills: Bite, tackle, water bullet, acid spit

After contemplating it for a few minutes, Kirou decided to try something out. He took out a type of rope made from vines from his storage and set a trap in the area he was in. After he was done, he wrapped a smaller piece around one of his hands before approaching the swampland salamander.

Noticing his approaching, the swampland salamander rose to its feet and stared at the approaching Kirou who stopped less than five meters away. It didn't immediately pounce on him like the others he encountered before but it did give him a menacing look as if daring Kirou to take another step forward. And that is what Kirou did.

After taking that step forward, the swampland salamander immediately spat a water bullet in Kirou's direction. Kirou didn't try to parry or block the attack, instead opting to narrowly dodge the water bullet. He genuinely lacked the supplies to make up for any damage taken and he didn't plan to spend any extra time meditating to recover his missing health after the battle.

Immediately after dodging the water bullet, Kirou rushed towards the elite swampland salamander. Before the salamander could launch another attack, Kirou was already right in front of its mouth. It tried to bite Kirou's leg but was given a solid hit to the skull after Kirou sidestepped its mouth. Following that hit, Kirou manipulated the vine rope into sealing the salamander's mouth before he pulled it up and slash the salamander's neck with his knife using the cutthroat skill.

[-63]

[-341]

Following his successful attack, Kirou gave the salamander a kick in the face before turning around and fleeing in the direction of his trap. With the vine rope still around its mouth and quite pissed, the salamander gave chase after Kirou, only to fall prey to his trap.

If there was a third person present, they would be able to see a three-meter long salamander currently being suspended in the air with vine ropes holding up all its limbs and head while there was a werewolf slashing at its underbelly with a knife. Honestly, it was quite a hilarious sight to see.

After half a minute of slashing the salamander's belly, it finally stopped moving and its body was lowered to the floor. Out from behind a tree walked another werewolf while the one that was slashing the salamander sank into the shadows and returned to the newly emerged werewolf.

After spending another minute or two to dissect and harvest the usable materials from the swampland salamander, Kirou finally made his way over to the plant it was guarding. Before him lied a small plant with purple petals on each bud. According to what his display was showing, this plant was called the 'Swampland Lily.'

Plant: Swampland Lily

Description: A small flower with no more than seven purple petals on each bud. Tend to grow in swamps.

Effect: One of the ingredients required to create a medium grade paralysis recovery potion. If ingested as it, may cause the person to lose control of their body for a few minutes.

Looking over the details for the plant, a small smile formed on Kirou's lips.

'Others may spend their time in making you into a simple medicine but I have other plans for you,' was what Kirou thought as he carefully harvested the plant and placed it in a storage container. The container was made based on the info provided by the female elf, Reya. It's wasn't as good as hers but it should do for now.

Now that he was done collecting the herb and his storage truly couldn't hold anything more, Kirou made a beeline for the exit of the swampland. He passed by a few players on the way out but they paid him no attention. It seems they weren't interested in a small werewolf operating around the swampland and instead went deeper in search of the one who killed the boss monster.

Kirou kept traveling and eventually got back to Elderwood Village no later than twenty minutes later, after which he went to the tailor's shop.