Chapter 88 - Hunting Group
One by one, participants are starting to meet with each other. But neither one of them saw Ellena. They could only remain patient and gather others, recruiting them to join their scheme.
"This could be the breakthrough of our riches. If we hunt The Masked Mosnter's head, we can equip ourselves with high-quality equipment."
"You are an armor maniac! That's not the way I'm going to use the money if the reward was money. I will use it to buy some women! I'm itching to have one."
"Hey! The Masked Monster was a female right?! Why don't we taste her first?"
"Ah... Your lust is leaking! Can't you have any class? That's a corpse! Why would you fuck it!"
"Of course I will save her when she is strangled! Do you think I'm crazy to have sex with a corpse?!"
"That's not what I mean... Forgive me, brother."
"Tsk."
Everyone was showing their excitement, as they had already built a plan for their future after the hunt. Even though it was stupid to make such, they couldn't resist it as it was only an opportunity that rarely appeared.
Each of them carried a variety of weapons. Of the five of them, only three were talking, while the others were silent, only there to exploit the assistance for the hunt.
For the whole day, they could only gather a group of five people. While others are also barely doing great, gathering four from the 20.
This time, there are 3 separate groups, unbeknownst to each other that they thought the same thing when they heard the announcement.
In the first group, the acting leader sat on a huge rock. He wore slightly worn out equipment and used a sword as his ability was close-combat, being an expert when it came to thrust.
His sword was a customized forged one. It was slightly thin and had less weight than others. It was specially built for his ability —fencing.
"So, this was just the group... We're only five and I think this is enough to defeat her." The acting leader said, almost speaking like a true leader that has filled their voice with courage. However, the other members just cringed as to why he would do something unfit for them.
"Are you a soldier or knight? Can't you see we're mercenaries here?"
"Come on! Stop with the stupidity, brother. We'll just fight a girl who can do a massive number of quests. She's fighting with a mindless monster, so it's obviously possible to kill her easily, depending on her ability!"
"You're annoying too! You act like a smart guy, huh?!"
The three of them continued with their debateful conversation while the remaining two were just silent. They gaze at them with a hint of disdain in their eyes. Seeing the three of them as stupid chess pieces.
As the night rested, they took a rest for the mission they'll do tomorrow. By any means, they must find The Masked Monster before others. If they couldn't, the rewards would disappear from their sight.
The sun peeked behind the mountains and started to go out. Without noticing it, it was already the third sun and the official second day of the test. This day, they will start their plan.
Waking up, they prepared their breakfast and scattered the remains of the bonfire. After it they started to use some of their abilities to find The Masked Monster.
One of them, who had navigating ability, used his ability. He willed using it and in a mere seconds, the image of the geography appeared in his mind. It wasn't for a blink, but it lasted for seconds before his stamina started to drop.
The image he saw showed dots representing the location of what he wanted to find. Since he had already seen The Masked Monster in person, he knew where to look at the image.
"I found her! In the east! She's there!" The navigator exclaimed.
"What a useful aptitude for Earth Magic!!! That was great, brother!"
"Let's go!!! Please have your bones working, mister scout." The acting leader said to the one who was also silent. He nodded and didn't mind the offensive remark.
The scout started to move and used his ability to move quickly. He leaped on the branches of the trees to look out for the area. After securing it, he reported it to his group.
"All safe in 500 meters. Following it, however, is a pack of mutated wolves.They are about 7 in number."
"7 huh... We might have a fight here. Don't mind it! Let's just coordinate with each other."
They finally started moving, directed to the east where the navigator pointed. As the scout said, after 500 meters, grotesque mutated wolves lurk.
Just after seeing it, the ranger, the last member of the group, quietly stepped out. The acting leader saw it too and smiled when he noticed that he was responsible for his job.
"That's good, archer! Please have the initiation, brother." he said with an enthusiastic voice, but the ranger just shot a glare at him.
"Don't call me brother. Although I appear to cooperate with you, I don't like to be associated with you after it." The ranger said with a scornful expression on his face.
After he turned around, the acting leader gritted his teeth, feeling insulted by those words. Nonetheless, he could do nothing about his prize as the ranger was important to their team.
The ranger started preparing his customized-built bow and arrow. His bow was flippable, which can not be easily seen as a bow. He swung a stick and the bow appeared.
Seeing it, his teammates were amazed by it. In their eyes, this could be one of the most must-have costume-made bows.
The ranger used his palm, measuring the distance, and licked a finger to check the air. He nods after concluding something and takes out his arrow from a storage ring.
"How rich is this guy?!" Everyone cried except for the scout.
The ranger prepared a thin arrow in silver. As he stretched the string, his rune glowed slightly as he finally released the arrow.
"Force Slip," he mumbled secretly as he called the ability he used.
Force Slip is an ability that bestows equal force. For example, the equal force created in stretching would be equal when he released the arrow. Hence, the arrow contains force apart from the momentum the bow gives.
The arrow flew straight and hit a mutated wolf, who growled in agony as it pierced through the stomach.
"What the heck was that?! That's strong! Even if it didn't die immediately, it would surely be enough to kill it easily!"
"Oy! Can you stop crying there? Get your bones working." The ranger said with an irritated tone.
"Yes!"
While the mutated wolves are panicking with the sudden attack, three men attack them. Using their swords, each of them took the chance to inflict injuries on the mutated wolves.
Despite the difficulty of C-rank monsters, the three of them show some abilities that a Bronze-ranker can not easily do. Since C-rank monsters cannot be easily dealt with, they are considered beginner's partners since they have got to put up a fight before defeating them. And these three are doing it favorable to their side. They deserve the recognition of potential silver-ranker.
"Yosh! Let's keep on killing these wolves!" They cried and continued to surround one mutated wolf to easily kill it.