Chapter 84 Beast Encounter

"Am I reading this correctly?" Bill asked as he had an awe-stricken expression on his face. He couldn't believe that he just pulled one of the rarest drops that these loot crates could give on the first shot.

Mako was even more surprised than Bill, so much so that it rendered him speechless. With this, the possibilities were endless. They could set up a trap for a person who was too dangerous to deal with, they could always have a backup in case they got lost and wanted to meet up with one another, or they could call someone who may wrong them and settle the score.

Billing was still shaking like a little girl going to the amusement park for the very first time. He opened the container and saw a small holoscreen the size of his finger inside. The screen had no function other than to turn on and display a set of characters which was the pin code that they could enter into the tablet to set up the duel.

Mako chimed in with his theories and explained to Bill that we should save the pin code for several situations he thought of earlier.

Bill listened quietly to Mako rant on and on about his theories and in the end just shook his head with disappointment.

"Mako, are you sure you are the smart one out of the two of us?" Bill asked in a low disappointed tone.

Mako paused for a bit to try and think as to why would Bill say something like this but nothing came to mind. He eventually gave up and apologized before asking what Bill had in mind.

"Leon, you idiot!" Bill shouted as he finally made Mako realize that they had made a deal with a gang boss that they would look after his son but here he was with no clue of his past dealings.

The realization prompted Mako to dig his head into the sand. They could use the pin code to set up a duel with one of them and Leon so that they could meet up with him. Once he would arrive, they would cancel the duel and survive together as a group for the remaining duration of the test.

For them to execute this plan, they had to find a tablet and one that was more central on the map so that Leon could get to them a lot faster compared to traveling all across the island to one corner of the island.

They decided that they would modify their plan so that they would reach the general center location in two days' time max. After that, they will try and find a secure spot where they will set up a temporary camp and send the duel request to Leon. They will wait there for Leon's arrival and after he will join the group they would travel to one of the picked locations that Mako had picked in the dining hall.

After the plan was set in place and the preparations for the campfire were also complete, Mako told Bill that he was going to head back into the jungle as there was still light out and will try to locate a tablet so that he could find out more information.

Bill agreed and said that he would remain on the campsite and set up their water situation. Since they didn't have containers such as pots they couldn't transport water or hold it in large quantities. The loot crates were a great solution as each could easily hold 4-5 liters of water.

Bill still wanted to do some training and where better to train his sand ability than on the beach? The environment really affected how efficiently a person trained their abilities. For example, wind ability is better trained in areas with high altitudes where winds are the strongest, or water ability is better trained in an area where there is existing water and in large amounts such as lakes, seas, oceans, etc.

Mako headed back into the jungle but this time he headed in a different direction in hopes of finding a tablet. He was using Analyze skill on everything so that he could better visualize everything that came across him and it helped him level up his skill as well.

He was moving fast because he didn't have to stop and look at anything to figure out what it was as Analyze did that for him. The continuous use of the skill was draining his energy so stopped constantly relying on the skill after about half an hour. He still had Motion Sense active which raised his perception so that he could detect if anything approached him.

Since Mako didn't stop as he did before when he had found the loot crate, he had gone further than before. Soon after entering the new unexplored part of the jungle, Mako could hear some bushes moving up ahead.

Mako immediately took cover and observed the bushes. This could be his first opponent on the island or perhaps an animal he could cook later. The bushes jostled for a while before a spider the size of a dog came out of them.

Mako almost revealed his position by screaming when he saw the giant spider. It was bigger than any other spider he had ever seen, with dark hairy legs, and teeth the size of a finger.

Mako carefully maneuvered around the area to make sure that he was out of the spider's sight. Once he was in a safe spot, he immediately used Analyze to find out more info about this creature.

[Analyze]

[Medium-level Sabertooth Spider]

[Ability: Poison (Level 2)]

[Description: A Sabertooth spider has 3 stages of life where the hatchling come into the world as a Low level beast and naturally evolves into a Medium level beast as it grows up. Once an adult, the Sabertooth spider has to digest several bodies that have been killed by its own venom in order to further evolve into their final form. Sabertooth spiders mostly travel in groups with only one final form spider in a group, but it is not impossible to find one that is separated from the pact.

Sabertooth spiders have very poor eyesight but compensate for it with their acute sense of smell. They mostly smell their way to their destination and have different responses based on the scent of the surroundings. They can detect fear and anxiety of their prey and are most active during night time.]

[Weakness: Penetrating attacks, Fire, Ice]

The system was able to provide ample information regarding the nature, evolution, and weakness of the beast. The system said that the Sabertooth spiders travel in groups, but even with Mako's enhanced senses, he wasn't able to sense any other creature around.

Mako was far enough away so the spider couldn't escape his scent. Using the information from the system, Mako figured out that the best way to deal with this beast is to kill it in one shot. He decided to use Flame bullet because it was his strongest ability and ticked off two of the three weakness of the spider which was penetrating attacks and fire.

[Flame Bullet has been activated]

A small ball of fire started to form near Mako's pointed finger and it started to glow brighter and become hotter as Mako added more aura to it. Mako had tested out the skill a couple of times before and conjured a decent-level flame bullet. He believed that it would be enough to kill the spider and he didn't have to use his full strength.

The spider had stayed in the same spot and it looked like it was chewing on something which was most probably its prey which it had caught in the bushes.

Mako stopped adding more aura and lined up his finger with the spider. After he had a lock on his target, he released the aura from his fingertips and the flame bullet quickly covered the distance and blasted apart the sabertooth spider's head before it even realized what was going on.

*DING!*

[A Medium-Level Beast Has Been Defeated]

[+500 EXP]

Mako carefully walked over to the remains of the spider, which was mostly the body oozing out blue blood everywhere. Mako believed that he had overstayed his welcome as the sun was about to set and he didn't want to be out in the jungle alone at night.

He quickly took out his combat knife from his backpack and stabbed it directly in the center of the body, After carving a small hole in the body of the spider, Mako could see something shiny near where the heart of the spider was.

He put his hand inside the cavity to extract the crystal while trying to not puke all over the place. His hand was completely covered in blue blood as he took out a similar-sized crystal to the one that Brigadier Jones had displayed during the briefing.

*DING!*

Mako had received another notification, but he decided to ignore it for now as he was quite spooked by the eerie silence of the jungle and the appearance of the night sky. He placed the crystal back in his backpack and quickly bolted back to where he had come from.

[Dash has been activated]

Almost 40 minutes later, Mako had made it back to the beach and he finally took a deep sigh of relief. He made himself promise to never go exploring alone ever again because as brave as he might sound for trying to bring world peace and achieving his great grandfather's dream, he was still a kid who was experiencing all of this for the first time and it was bound to be scary.

He met up back with Bill and as promised got to cooking those crabs that Bill had caught. Using the leaves as a makeshift steamer rack, Mako steamed all the crabs until they were cooked. While the crabs were steaming, Mako narrated the entire of how he took out his very first beast and showed the crystal as proof.

Bill was quite impressed by this as for the first time since the test began, Bill complimented Mako for a job well done. The boys ate the crabs while chatting about random things and then decided on the shifts. While on the island, nobody was safe at any time so Mako and Bill came up with the idea that they would take shifts throughout the night watching the area so that they would be out of danger.

Mako lost the rock paper scissors and it was his turn to watch first while Billed cached some Zs. Bill decided to keep working on his resonance while keeping watch as it was killing two birds with one stone.

"I want to awaken my third ability soon as well," Mako said to himself while sitting in a cross-legged position next to a snoring Bill.

***********

Back at the area where Mako killed the sabertooth spider, several more spiders could be seen on the scene as they were sniffing the dead body. Soon they were able to locate a scent and started heading in that direction.

They were headed toward the beach.