"Where are we going exactly?"
Drill asked after following Shura for a while. He had been quietly following Shura ever since he asked him if he wanted to partner up for the event. But he couldn't stay quiet for long.
After leaving the Deadly Deer's Playground, Shura had kept walking and walking as if he had a certain destination in mind, but Drill wasn't sure where. They kept missing out on mobs because Shura always took a detour when there was a mob area.
'We need to collect dungeon points to win…'
It had already been close to an hour since this started and Drill finally asked anxiously.
"You don't see it?"
Shura asked with visible confusion in his eyes.
"See what?"
"These lines?"
Shura pointed at the ground, and Drill felt like he was going insane.
"There's no line."
"Right."
Shura just said a short word and looked down on the ground, because he could clearly see a crimson coloured mana flowing towards a certain direction like a thread. Maybe it was due to the eyes of Arcana
"I think we'll find something good, come."
Again without explaining much, Shura politely asked Drill to come with him. Drill just sighed in defeat and closely followed after Shura, the jungle had soon turned into a grassland, and the grassland turned into just infertile land as they kept on walking.
—-Rooooaarrrr!
A lion's roar rang out from above them, and both of them looked up instinctively.
[Ruin's Wanderer]
[Level 7]
A two meter long monster that looked like a hybrid between a lion and an eagle was hovering above their heads in a circle, before diving straight towards the duo.
"Split up."
This was the highest level monster that they had encountered till now, and Shura couldn't help but get a feeling that the more he follows the crimson mana thread, the higher the difficulty will be.
'That also means the reward will be higher too.'
Shura smiled lightly, before his expression turned ugly as he crouched down.
'You damn bird, there are two people! Why are you attacking me?'
Shura couldn't help but feel a bit unfair. Drill on the other hand, couldn't be more glad.
The monster started hovering in the sky again after its failed attempt to attack its prey.
—-Rooarrr!
The monster roared loudly, and Shura started aiming with his fingers to launch an ether bullet at the monster.
—-Pew!
And it missed.
'Fuck, I can't afford to waste so much mana. I really need to learn some skills that increase my long range accuracy.'
As versatile as Shura was, he was still bound by the laws of nature and physics, making him unable to land a proper hit.
Shura formed a mana blade in his hand, hoping to attack the monster the next time it tries to attack him.
He didn't have to wait for long though, as just after taking two circles above his head, the monster again started flying down towards Shura's direction.
Shura waited for it to come near him, before he launched an attack.
'',
The monster instinctively bent its wings, changing directions in one fell swoop as it appeared behind Shura.
—-Scratch.
Its sharp claws digged into Shura's monstrous skin and it flew up again.
"Argh! Fuck!"
[You have lost 78 HP!]
Shura clenched his teeth to control the pain in his back.
'We don't even have healing potions.'
"Come down you son of a…."
It was too late by the time Shura realised what was going on. The monster had given up chasing him and started running towards Drill's direction, who ran as fast as he could in a desperate attempt to save himself.
—-Rawwwrr!!
This time, the monster's claw passed right through the backbones of Drill, taking out a large piece of his body meat as it flew again.
The lion-faced bird licked its front paws that had Drill's flesh stuck on them, enjoying the taste.
Shura immediately ran towards Drill and checked his HP. It was flickering in red, but it wasn't fully down yet.
Only about 20% of his max HP was remaining, and he had entered a stunned state after losing a large part of his health.
"S-Shura! Take this."
Drill, who couldn't move, barely muttered a few words as he gestured with his eyes towards his hand that was holding the Hunter's Blade that he had.
"Don't mind if I do then.
As soon as Shura got permission, he immediately took the purple-coloured dagger from Drill's hand and stood up.
'Fuck, I am so glad this thing is alone.'
Shura had no idea how he'd deal with a bunch of the same thing. He was only level two even after killing the bunch of deadly deers.
Shura looked at his mana which was recovering at a turtle's speed, and judged that he couldn't afford to waste another ether bullet.
"Hey you ugly fucking halfbreed! Your mom and dad really must have been desperate. I mean, it's not every day you see a lion and eagle fucking each other."
Shura shouted out a taunt at the monster who was busy again, getting ready for another attack, and he couldn't help but feel offended.
Shura was sure he didn't understand whatever he said, but the language of expressions and taunts was something you didn't need to learn to know that the other person was insulting you.
—-ROAARRR!!!
The monster roared angrily, and charged towards Shura even without completing his signature second circle.
'Guess you're really angry, huh? Good for me.'
Shura took the Hunter's blade in his hand and covered it with a fire elemental mana as he threw it towards the angry monster's head.
Of course, Shura knew that it was going to miss judging from the monster's earlier reactions, but Shura's main goal was the mana blade that would follow right after the fake Hunter's Blade's strike.
But something unexpected happened, and unlike Shura's prediction, the monster wasn't able to dodge the Hunter's Blade as it hit straight at one of its eyes, causing him to cry in agony.
—-WAAAUUUU! WAAUUUU!
Its crying was totally different from the lion's roar from before, it felt more like a kitten's cry as it fell back first into the cry.
—-Thud!!
The monster started wildly rubbing its palm on the place its left eye used to be, while continuously crying in pain.
"...."
If the wildlife protection department saw this scene, Shura was sure to be labelled as an animal abuser.
So he did the best thing he could at that moment.
He ended that bitch's suffering.
'',
Poor animal's he meant.
[You have defeated a 'Ruin's Wanderer.]
[You have gained 48 EXP!]
[You have gained '5' Dungeon Points!]
[You have gained 'Wanderer's Cape'.]
Ever since the reset of levels and equipment, our total equipment consisted of only beginner clothes.
[Wander's Cape
Rating: Uncommon
Durability: 12/12
Defence: +10
*Can jump safely from 20 metres height.
*Has the ability to float if the user is 2 metres above the ground level.]
'Woah!'
Unexpectedly, the item wasn't just good, but it was crazy good! Especially after considering our current situation.]
After wearing the cape on his back, Shura realised that the small wound on his back was already gone. On the other hand, Drill had just come out of his 'Stunned' state.
"You alright mate?"
Shura held out his hand, and Drill stared at it for a few seconds before grabbing and standing up.
"What the fuck? Don't you understand the rules? We need to level up and gear up before diving inside! Fuck, I almost died cause of you."
Drill started shouting before his voice suddenly turned meek. It was only seconds after his enraged rant that he realised who he had directed it to.
He broke out in a cold sweat, thinking that he was gonna die the next moment.
"Yeah, that was my bad."
Shura said as he rubbed the back of his head apologetically.
Drill looked at Shura before heaving a sigh of relief. He didn't expect he would so easily survive the situation.
"But you don't talk to me like that, alright? The next time it'd be your ashes that I'd be apologising to."
Drill didn't even realise when Shura's apologetic smile turned into a scary smile, making him choke for air for a moment.
"Y-yeah. I am sorry."
Drill apologised and Shura nodded his head as if accepting his apology.
"Let's go a bit back and we'll 'level up and gear up' like you want to."
Shura said as he even realised that he was too focused on the red line. His plan was to venture further and directly beat up some high level mobs for equipment, but he forgot he himself had asked for Drill to follow him along.
It was best for both of them to get basic level items and before going in any further.
Drill pumped his fist in the air happily after hearing Shura's words, and then turned his facial expression a bit serious after realising the childish thing that he had just done.
***
In the stadium, it had barely been around 10-15 minutes since the start of the competition, but even the audience was sharing the same slowed time with the players as they looked from one screen to the other.
"Look! Crestfallen has already found a boss monster!"
"Oh nice!!! It's because of the size of his huge guild, he was able to get players faster and was more efficient than the others."
"Yes. Especially since the EXP shared is the same as a single person kill, it's better to party up in this event."
The audience started discussing as they looked at the swamp area that Crestfallen and his guildmates were at, right in front of a crocodile type monster.
***
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