Chapter 27 Cat Dad and Pirates

Chapter 27 – Cat Dad and Pirates

After the first elite gnoll was dead, Xiaomao rushed back to the cave to find more prey.

Unlike the previous attempts, the first patrol unit of gnolls was no longer there. The subordinates of the elites had retreated.

After walking 50 meters into the cave, Xiaomao hid behind a boulder and waited for the second unit to patrol this area.

It didn’t take long before the second unit arrived.

This unit always quarreled with the first group. They proceeded to this area, and they kept on marching toward the cave entrance.

Xiaomao peeked at them and counted their number.

17

This group consisted of one elite monster and 16 minions. Moreover, the subordinates of the previous destroyed unit merged with this party.

‘Figured. Leaving the minions alive always leads to this. Now, this unit will patrol this area until the dead elite monster is respawned. In an hour, the dead elite will come out with 18 new minions and 1 extra elite monster, and those deserters will rejoin the first unit.’

This was the scary mechanic of the dungeon that scared solo players – The more they hunted elite monsters, the more difficult the dungeon.

They would keep multiplying until the players couldn’t defeat all of them anymore!

However, Xiaomao had a different goal in mind.

‘These two units will be my grinding spot for today. Tomorrow onward, they will be the wardens of the dungeon. It has been a day after that stupid announcement, so explorers and top guilds must have already deployed their men to search for the new dungeon.’

Whenever the game globally announced that an anonymous dungeon had appeared, top gaming guilds always dispatched their people to occupy it as their territory.

This gnoll dungeon was no exception. Regardless of how secrecy it was, someone would eventually find it. And if they managed to find it today or tomorrow, Xiaomao’s grinding routine would be hindered by the influx of players.

‘I’ll hunt down these two groups and multiply their numbers to 1,000! Heck, I doubt they will have the guts to challenge hordes after hordes of humanoid gnolls in a narrow cave. They’re going to feel like they are waging war against Spartans instead of raiding a dungeon. Oh, right. Concentrate, brain.’

Xiaomao shook off the useless thoughts and observed the second patrol unit.

The patrol unit reached the entrance of the dungeon. They suddenly stopped as their captain walked out of the cave and sprayed his pee on nearby rocks, marking his new territory.

The minions didn’t follow their captain. They stopped moving in formation and wandered independently.

Some of them went sniffing the former area of the first squad. The deserters strolled back to the second squad’s territory to explore while the rest of them lazily rested near the cave entrance.

Xiaomao had been waiting for this opportunity.

Every time a unit from another designated spawn point wandered to other areas other than their turf, they often stopped moving in groups and dispersed. Until the elite monster returned, the rest of his minions always patrolled randomly.

Xiaomao got out of the cover and dashed toward the group of five gnolls, which revealed their backs to him. The catopus hopped on one of them and hacked its nape with the cleaver.

Critical Hit!

420!

Looking at the number, Xiaomao had the urge to make some joints for his old-time sake. Unfortunately, as a catopus, he was no longer suited for smoking.

One down, four to go!

The four gnolls noticed Xiaomao. They bore fangs and lunged at him, using the only attack they had.

Xiaomao slid under one of them. He raised his cleaver and cut the hanging thing between their legs.

DOUBLE CRITICAL!

The gnoll whimpered and cried before it dissipated into nothingness. The three remaining gnolls instinctively covered their crotches and ran away in all directions.

Xiaomao broke a sweat, looking at the fleeing gnolls.

“Munya? Why are you fleeing? Come back, munya!”

…

Without the elite gnoll watching over his crews, Xiaomao clipped them one by one.

In 10 minutes, all minions of the elite gnoll were castrated to the last man.

Xiaomao got the hang of hunting with this small body. Although it was inconvenient in many ways, the hitbox of his body was much smaller than a human body.

He could utilize this character like an assassin.

“I’m agent 47, munya!”

While Xiaomao was elated, the elite gnoll walked back to the cave as he finished the exploration and marking.

Xiaomao went back to hiding, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

But suddenly, the game system warned him.

<Warning, your weapon’s durability is low.>

Xiaomao frowned. He had forgotten about the durability of his newbie weapon.

He had been using it for several hours in the fight yesterday. Today, he also used it to kill over a dozen gnolls.

Xiaomao opened his game menu to check the status of his equipment.

…

Fuiyoh Cleaver (Uncommon)

Item Type: Cooking Utensil, Weapon.

Effect: Increase ATK by 10

Requirement: 15 STR

Durability: 10/100

…

It was on the verge of being broken, but it was enough to handle the elite gnoll in front of him.

‘I’ll kill this guy and return to the city. It’s about time I put all my set equipment to the auction house and get back some PACTs.’

GROWL!

The elite seemed to notice the anomaly as its minions were gone. It looked around in caution, searching for the intruder.

As Xiaomao hadn’t coated himself in a gnoll’s dung, the monster noticed his whereabouts right away.

The elite gnoll raised its club and charged at Xiaomao.

Xiaomao shook his head and sighed. He got out of the cover and counter-charged the oncoming monster.

…

TA-TA-TA-TA

The sound of the boat’s magic engine and the sound of sea waves were the only things that Slave One could hear.

The supporter of Xiaomao expressionlessly stood in front of his ship console, navigating his fishing ship east, heading back to his master.

The sea’s tides were big and small, and he sensed that his ship might not be suitable to explore the high sea. Yet, Slave One persisted and kept moving east, rushing back to his waypoint destination.

ZAAAA

500 meters behind the fishing boat, a cog followed Slave One. The skull image on its black flag clearly indicated that it was a pirate ship.

Five red-named players grinned as they looked at Slave One via their telescopes. One of them loaded their musket and got ready for the raid.

The captain of the ship was the musketeer. His red name “Cai Zhong” stood out among the dark-red-named comrades. He also had the title of Coastal Pirate, which enabled him to loot more items from dead players, NPCs, or monsters.

Cai Zhong aimed at Slave One to practice aiming. But suddenly, he had a second thought.

“Meh, it’s a supporting character. Instead of sinking that ship, let’s follow it and find its master.”

The crews looked at their boss in confusion, “But boss. We have been trailing that fishing boat for a while now. Shouldn’t we at least kill the supporter and steal his items?”

In this game, characters with red names were criminals. Players always hunted them for contribution points or their items in inventory.

But in exchange for being a criminal, they gained bonus drop rates from killing monsters. And if they killed enough monsters, their criminal status would eventually disappear.

But for Cai Zhong, who was using this pirate as an alt character, he didn’t care about criminal records or red-named status. He only did it for fun and sea exploration.

“We can kill that idiot any time we want. But since he’s heading elsewhere other than the nearest Seaside Town, let’s stalk him and find out what he is doing. Maybe, he can lead us to a secret farming spot that we didn’t know.”

One of the crewmates agreed, “Not many guilds are exploring the sea since it is costly to build a carrack or a high sea ship. We might actually become the Columbus if we accidentally stumble upon an unknown continent or island.”

“Hahaha! Dream on. We have been hunting transport ships along the coast for a month, but we haven’t found an island on the high sea.”

“Maybe we haven’t left the coast for too far. Come to think of it, captain. I don’t think we have ever come to the high sea this deep.”

“…”

The crews looked at the sky and the dark cloud at a distance. They shivered at the thought of running into the storm and high tides.

“A-Anyway. Let’s follow that fool,” Cai Zhong changed the subject and ordered his men to follow Slave One.