Chapter 101 - Night Monsters

Jacob’s mention of Liberty caused Hiro to immediately open his friend list full of hope, but that hope only turned into disappointment when he saw that the friend list he sent her still hadn’t been accepted.

Hiro let out a long sigh and looked back at Jacob.

“What do you mean she was looking for me?”

“I don’t know, she didn’t tell me. It looked like she was worried about you like I was, bro,” Jacob said very relaxedly.

“Did you fight that badly for you two to avoid each other like this?”

Jacob was a little curious this time, but Hiro shook his head. They never fought to begin with, so he didn’t correct Jacob.

Hiro forced himself to focus back on his target. He already promised himself to become stronger.

If possible, he wanted to have become immensely powerful when his brother appeared in another unusual way most wouldn’t expect. He believed that WynterRain, who was called a ghost player, a cheater, a game master, and other nonsensical names, would definitely show himself sooner or later.

Hiro then told Jacob about his other reason for coming to his house; he asked him how to gain the trust and attention of a dwarf tribal chief to trigger the quest he greatly needed at the moment.

However, according to Jacob, the dwarf tribal chief Hiro mentioned was very fierce and unwilling to accept guests at night. Moreover, Jacob wasn’t sure where he could meet the dwarf after day had turned into night.

Hiro had no other choice. Jacob asked him to rest in his house for the night and said that he would accompany him to look for the tribal chief the next morning.

Hiro had no reason to refuse, so he nodded in agreement. Next, he was led to one of the rooms in the building. To his surprise, the building was actually more spacious than he thought. On the corners of the house were numerous partitioned rooms akin to an inn.

When Hiro mentioned the number of rooms as the two walked, Jacob explained that he was indeed intending to also open an inn in the same building to gain more profits.

Hiro was allowed to sleep there free of charge for the night and was even given the freedom to choose which room he wanted, so he just chose whichever.

Like the inns Hiro often found in the world of games, the room he just entered on his own only consisted of a wooden table and a single bed, as well as a pillow and a tidily folded blanket on it.

The only light source in the room that wasn’t more than three square meters was an antique kerosene lamp hung in front of a tightly shut wooden window frame, and above it was ventilation that allowed air to normally enter and exit.

‘Not bad. Guess I’ll let my avatar rest while I log off.’

[System Off]

[Logout]

As soon as Hiro completely logged out, a delicious fragrance immediately greeted his sense of smell. Without a second thought, he quickly took off his VR helmet to find the source of the smell that kept calling him.

His legs had moved toward where the delicious fragrance was coming from; a kitchen without a door separating it from the other rooms in the apartment Alice rented for the two.

“I knew you’d come back soon. You must be starving.” Alice put down a large pan of who-knows-how-many portions of cooked instant noodles onto a rectangular wooden table in the middle of the kitchen. The thick cloud of warm smoke continued to gather above the pan.

Rumble—

Hiro couldn’t control the volume of his stomach’s growl when his eyes were already locked onto the food.

“Sorry, this is all I have at the moment. Let’s eat.”

The two immediately ate the delicious instant noodle without a word. The next seconds were just filled with the sounds of chopsticks and spoons occasionally touching the small bowl as well as some slurping as they ate.

In just five minutes, the pan quickly became empty without any leftovers. Meanwhile, a satisfied expression was on both Alice and Hiro’s faces.

“Thank you, Alice,” Hiro genuinely expressed while gulping the glass of mineral water Alice gave him.

“You do the dishes. Also, it’ll be your turn to cook tomorrow.”

At that moment, Hiro regretted thanking Alice who had quickly stood up and left the dining table to walk toward the long sofa Hiro previously used to game.

He judged the lady too quickly.

Even so, Hiro still did the house chores he was assigned without a complaint.

…

After everything was cleaned up, Hiro no longer wasted his time. Even though the old clock on the wall showed that it was already 1 AM, he didn’t immediately go to sleep.

He was determined to grind when everyone was asleep to catch up on his level and aim for the top 10 of the game’s opening event in the first month.

He still hadn’t given up on the prize money.

[Checking the connection…]

[Synchronizing player information, please wait…]

[All set]

[System linked]

[Welcome to Last Shelter Online]

Hiro’s senses were returned to his avatar, which was lying on the bed in Jacob’s house. Moving sneakily like a thief, he left the building while making as little noise as he could.

The streets of Vul Faldur City were very quiet at this hour. Furthermore, despite it not snowing at all, the air was extremely cold.

Hiro didn’t want to return to Beginner Town just to grind. The transportation fee was considerably expensive, and he didn’t want to pay that amount again for just one trip.

He checked Monster Wiki with his HUD system to obtain information about the monsters he could fight in the areas near the place. And it worked. Information of level 30+ monsters had been registered on Monster Wiki.

It seemed that numerous players had contributed to gathering various monster information.

Hiro hurriedly headed to the location he had marked on the map. According to Monster Wiki, he would meet over 20 of the monsters called [Flying Bats] at that spot.

They were very active and brutal when it came to attacking. However, the EXP that could be gained from defeating these monsters was also quite significant, so Hiro would most likely be able to reach his target of 3–5 level-ups before the morning came.

However, when Hiro arrived at the location he correctly marked, the monsters he saw seemed different.

Ding!

[New monster information has been unlocked]

[Level 37. Zombie Flying Bat.]

[Race: Demon/Undead/Unholy/Beast]

“Ah…”

‘I forgot some of them change at night.’

The name bar of the flying monsters in front of him was red. This signified that they were too strong for him to fight at his current level.

Even so, Hiro still wanted to defeat those monsters other players hadn’t encountered.

The monsters were in the form of black bats, and they were each the size of a golden-crowned flying fox of the megabat species famous in the Philippines. They all had destroyed, messy faces covered in blood, emitting a sharp smell.

There were only five of them there, but Hiro was sure that just those five were at least equal to 20 normal [Flying Bat] strength-wise.

“Let’s show those monsters what the real vampiric power looks like,” Hiro spoke to his greatsword.

As if it was responding to his words, the Blood-Eater Vampire gleamed.

Hiro then readily positioned himself while pointing his blade at one of the nearest zombie Flying Bats to activate his Sword Combo skill.

Whoosh!

Splat! [Critical Hit]

Splat! [2x Critical Hit]

.

.

Splat! [7x Critical Hit]

Hiro’s combo was completely uninterrupted once he swung from one target to another. With his damage continuing to multiply following the combo, he was able to defeat one monster with three slashes at the beginning.

And when his combo reached 5x, he was able to defeat each one of them with just a slash.

Hiro also received bites and scratches, which brought more sharp stinging pain to his bleeding arms than he thought. Fortunately, perhaps it was because the monsters he was going against were normal-type monsters, but he didn’t have to worry about turning into a zombie even after getting scratched and bitten.

Splat! [10x Hit Combo]

Hiro’s combo had to stop and restart every time he reached the 10x threshold, and this dissatisfied him a little. He really couldn’t wait to activate the Sword Combo Skill awakening he obtained from the CBT version.

Hiro continued to swing his greatsword without a word. When the 10x combo was once again reached, he intentionally swung his blade horizontally, simultaneously slashing five bats and killing them all at once.

Ding!

[Base level up 1x]

[Job class level up 1x]

Hiro managed to eliminate five of them at once for the first time. He was preparing himself for them to respawn one by one like they previously did when all of a sudden, a unique phenomenon occurred.

Hiro reflexively used the back of his hand to cover his face when an exceedingly bright light suddenly shone in front of him. It took a brief moment for the light to dim, but it still didn’t completely disappear.

Ding!

[New monster has been unlocked]

[Level 45. Chiropteran Behemoth (Boss)]

[Race: Demon]

A zombie bat-like creature with torn white membrane as its skin and wings covered in cuts had appeared on the ground in front of Hiro. The monster was enormous for a bat, its size approximately equal to an adult elephant with a slimmer body.

Its entire body was white, and the creature had a flattened head filled with rows of sharp teeth coming out of its jaws.

Screeech!