(My house was without electricity these days because the pole on my street caught fire… (I sent a video of this on the discord server), now the power is back, we will return to normal releases.)

When class was over, Leo said goodbye to Liza and Chris and left alone. The two invited him to hunt, but while they would likely hunt Bronze 1 Star monsters, Leo had to worry about the debt he owed the old man. Furthermore, to be able to hunt a Bronze 4 Stars monster, Leo would need to hunt a lot of Bronze 3 Stars monsters beforehand so as to be leveled enough to face that monster.

Leo wanted to test his limits. So far the biggest challenge he faced was dealing with the Bronze 2 Star Mutant Cow while using ordinary metal knives. For this expedition, his goal was to defeat the Bronze 4 Star monster while he was still Bronze 2 Stars.

‘This is going to be more difficult than I imagined,’ Leo thought, as he looked at the list of monsters he had received from the old man.

If it was just the Bronze 3 Stars monsters, that wouldn’t be a problem for Leo, but unfortunately the Bronze 4 Stars monster was more troublesome than he realized. This monster was called Vulpi and was a monster covered in orange fur, but while the monster’s fur felt fluffy to the touch, the skin beneath the fur was very tough. This monster only had one eye, and that eye was only used during mating. For that reason, the monster’s eye was hidden in its belly, and it was closed all the time.

In order to breathe, the monster had gills on its neck that filtered both oxygen in the air and water, and to orient itself the monster would make noises through its mouth that reverberated around the environment before returning to its sensitive gills, giving a limited, but effective, 3D vision around the monster by echolocation.

Because the monster protected its eye so well, Leo couldn’t use the usual strategy he used of focusing the monster’s eyes and killing them with ease. Instead, Leo would have to think of another, more effective way to deal with it.

‘I need to get stronger. I still have 6 days to hunt this Bronze 4 Star monster,’ Leo thought after leaving the house with the bow and new clothes he’d bought.

Upon arriving at the city gate, the guards nodded to Leo in respect, while Leo waved back without saying a word. With the list in hand, Leo saw that the first thing he would need was five Golden White Water Bronze 3 Stars feathers. With the goal in mind, Leo moved at high speed through the forest with Speed-Hack activated.

All of the Bronze 1 Star monsters were ignored by him, but small Bronze 2 Star monsters were not. Each such monster that came into Leo’s vision received an arrow in the eye before dying.

[Congratulations, you killed a 2 Star Bronze Mutant Deer. You received 50 Experience Points.]_{-ɴ(0)ᴠᴇʟ.}

[Congratulations, you killed a 2 Star Bronze Mutant Gray Wolf. You received 50 Experience Points.]

[Congratulations, you killed a Mutant Gray Wolf, Bronze 2 Stars. You received 50 Experience Points.]

[Congratulations, you killed a Mutant Red Boar, Bronze 2 Stars. You received 50 Experience Points.]

…

For the larger monsters, Leo didn’t bother to take anything valuable from their bodies, and for the smaller monsters Leo took only the valuable parts.

He had killed 15 Bronze 2 Star monsters until he entered the 3 Star monster zone. Of the monsters he killed there, he only took the valuable parts of 6 monsters, as his backpack had limited space.

Bronze 3 Stars monsters yielded more rewards both in terms of Exp and in terms of money compared to Bronze 2 Star monsters, but since the Blue Pearl city did not have such a huge threat from monsters, the amount of Bronze 3 Star monsters and above was low.

Entering the Bronze 3 Star monster zone, Leo became more attentive. His Wall-Hack and Speed-Hack were constantly activated, keeping Leo on the lookout for monsters that might be around him, but Leo’s eyes were continuously focused on the sky.

Leo roamed for 20 minutes going deeper into the 3 Star monster zone until he saw his first Bronze 3 Star monster for the very first time. Just as the Bronze 2 Stars monsters were mostly monsters that lived on land and mutated as they continued to exist there, among the Bronze 3 Stars monsters new species of monsters began to emerge, and the monster in front of Leo was exactly one of those monsters. With green skin, long ears, a humanoid body, and small stature, this was one of the most frightening monsters that hunted in these woods: a goblin.

Though goblins were technically weak compared to other Bronze 3 Star monsters, what these little monsters lacked in strength, they made up for in agility and numbers. Hardly anyone would see goblins walking alone in the forest, and if a goblin was alone, then the Awakened would have to be even more worried, as this was probably a trap, and instead of the usual group of 5 or so monsters that were found in traps, normally there would be at least 10 goblins. _{ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ}

Leo was 30 meters away from the goblin he saw through the Wall-Hack, and just as he imagined, hidden 10 meters away from this isolated goblin was a group of 11 other goblins with pieces of wood in hand to use as weapons to kill the enemy that was attracted to solitary goblin.

Leo had to admit, this goblin trap was pretty good for dealing with other monsters, as goblins were the smartest monsters among the Bronze 3 Stars monsters around here, even for dealing with humans during the first few years, but after that info about how the goblins acted was spread by humanity, seeing a goblin alone already denounced that there were other goblins hiding around. Still, despite the goblins being hidden, humans would hardly know where these goblins were and what the exact number of goblins waiting to ambush would be, so the strategy still managed to kill some groups of Awakened.

ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ As for Leo, his strategy was the best possible one for himself. After formulating his plan, Leo placed four arrows on his bow and aimed all four arrows using Aim-Bot. Unfortunately, that was the maximum number of arrows that could fit in the bow so that the arrows would not slow down.

With his mind focused, Leo used his Aim-Bot to target the 4 smaller goblins hiding in the bushes around the bait goblin.

Swoosh, Swoosh, Swoosh, Swoosh!

The four arrows flew with surprising speed and precisely hit the small goblins’ big eyes. Among the goblins there was a rule that the bigger one was, the stronger he would be, and the smaller one night be, the more agile he would be. That’s why Leo shot the four smaller goblins initially.

With Speed-Hack activated, Leo didn’t even take the time to track the arrows he was releasing and quickly reloaded his bow with four more arrows. Just as the goblins heard the noise of their companions being hit by the first arrows, another noise came.

Swoosh, Swoosh, Swoosh, Swoosh!

Four more arrows flew, aiming once more at the four smaller goblins that were still alive. In less than 5 seconds the group of 12 goblins was reduced to just 4. With only 4 live goblins left, Leo decided to finally start testing ways to kill monsters without shooting them in the eyes in order to be able to kill the Bronze 4 Star Vulpi in the future.

The four remaining goblins hadn’t noticed Leo, but they saw the direction the arrows were coming from, and the four remaining goblins ran towards Leo without a second thought.

Swoosh!

Another arrow flew. These four still living goblins were the 4 slowest goblins among the 12 goblins that were preparing this ambush. When they started to run in the direction where Leo was, he started to run in the opposite direction to always keep a safe distance between himself and these little monsters.

The arrow Leo shot precisely hit the knee of the goblin closest to him.

Arrrrgh!

The goblin screamed in pain when he felt the arrow hitting his knee, but since this time Leo wasn’t aiming at the monsters’ eyes, which was a fragile place, he had to use 100% of his strength on the shot to test how strong the arrows were and how far he could make the arrows go, wnd seeing the arrow going through the goblin’s knee without any resistance made Leo’s eyes widen!

‘This bow is truly a Bronze 3 Star Masterpiece!’ Leo thought, shocked to see that even the goblin’s knee bone had been snapped by the arrow.

Knowing that 100% of the strength to shoot arrows with this bow was too much strength, Leo started taking weaker shots, as he was training to deal with an even more powerful monster. Furthermore, the goblins were much less resistant than regular Bronze 3 Stars monsters. Leo needed to use even less force to simulate a battle against a Bronze 4 Star monster.

Swoosh!

Another arrow flew. While the first arrow had hit the knee of one of the goblins, this time Leo tried to shoot the lead goblin in the neck.

Arrrgh!

The hit goblin screamed, but because the arrow’s strength wasn’t enough, he kept running towards Leo even with his neck gushing blood.

Leo was surprised by this reaction and understood that unlike humans, blood loss wasn’t all that relevant to monsters in desperate situations. It was as if the “adrenaline rush” that humans felt when their lives were at risk was more effective on monsters.

‘I think I read about this, something that said that monsters went into something called ‘Berserk Mode’ when they were in extreme danger of life, and the more powerful the monster, the more powerful this ‘Berserk Mode’.’ Leo analyzed what he was seeing and kept running before shooting another arrow.

This time Leo didn’t aim at the goblin with the wounded neck and shot the goblin that was behind it in the chest, as he wanted to see how long this goblin could last with the arrow in its neck.

The distance between the goblins and Leo was rapidly decreasing, as these little monsters’ agility was much greater than Leo’s. But as there were only 3 Goblins running after him, Leo wasn’t scared or worried. He was keeping his mind calm to learn as much as possible in this confrontation. After all, it was his first confrontation against Bronze 3 Star monsters.

Swoosh!

Just as Leo calculated, the arrow pierced the goblin’s lung, but just like the goblin who had an arrow in his neck, despite the punctured lung, this goblin was still able to run after Leo as if nothing had happened.

Swoosh!

Leo shot the last arrow and pierced the heart of the last remaining goblin. This goblin also kept running for a few seconds, but the final goblin couldn’t last as long as the other two goblins and was the first to die. Soon the goblin with the pierced neck fell, totaling 30 seconds of pursuit from the time he was hit until the moment he died, while the goblin with the arrow in the lung managed to last 49 seconds of pursuit before dying. With every second of pursuit, the speed of the goblins slowed to the point where they couldn’t walk, but being able to last that long with an arrow so deep in their own bodies was something that opened Leo’s eyes.

After these three goblins died, Leo returned to the goblin who had an arrow in his knee and watched. The goblin was crawling towards Loe while screaming furiously, but even though it was obvious that he couldn’t kill Leo, maybe something genetic in the monster made him feel so angry at this human that he didn’t care that he was going to die and just tried to drag himself along to at the very least scratch Leo.

After a few seconds of observation, and realizing that the goblin, despite the great loss of blood from its knee, was still alive and without any apparent harm besides not being able to use that leg anymore, Leo shot him in the eye and finished killing the monsters.

[Congratulations, you killed a Bronze 3 Star Goblin. You received 200 Experience Points x12]

Leo was shocked! Just from killing these 12 goblins he received 2400 Experience points! Adding to the Exp points he received from the Bronze 2 Star monsters he killed until he got here, Leo already had 3,100 Exp points accumulated!

And considering that these goblins’ ears cost $1,000 per each pair, just for killing these 12 little monsters Leo earned practically $12,000!

‘Certainly, the higher the level of the monsters, the greater the reward,’ Leo thought with satisfaction. But he knew that if he didn’t have this bow in his hands, it would be much more dangerous to hunt these Bronze 3 Star monsters – mainly because the cheaper bows couldn’t handle his firing rate, in addition to the force he expelled on his arrows.

Even though he could shoot monsters in the eyes, Leo was worried about always just doing that, and at some point later when he wouldn’t be able to shoot an enemy in the eyes he would be unprepared.

‘Getting this bow was a great choice, and I can still save $40,000,’ Leo thought excitedly.

More confident after dealing with this group of Bronze 3 Star monsters, Leo went deeper into the forest. He was loving the Experience he was getting, and knew that he would come out with a lot more under his belt than he came in with.

———-

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