The Earth After Rebirth

Chapter 13: Hunting Duck

With all the quests, he had about 500 gold coins on his person. He was like a child, walking merrily. He'd find himself skipping at times, and would stop himself.

Before he could go to hunt some ducks, he went to have some armour and boots tailored. He walked into the shop, it was by far, the cleanest shop he's been in.

"Welcome treasured customer, what can I do you for?"

"I need cloth armour and boots tailored."

"Rank of the armour?"

"How much would be rare?"

"800 coins."

Kiro gulped, so expensive. What the hell?

"Then, what about uncommon?"

"300."

"I feel like you're scamming me."

"The prices are on the wall." The tailor said and got back to the book he was reading, at the reaction of the customer, he just knew he wouldn't afford anything here.

Kiro obviously didn't take his word for it, he went to check for himself and sure enough they were the right prices. Its not that he wanted to game frugally, he just knew that, in the near future these coins will be his real-life riches. He had to be careful spending them.

He paid in full. With one eye opened. He couldn't believe how expensive armour was, he couldn't wait for Hiro to be a fully fledged craftsman. Because then, he'd make him armours for free as long as he provided materials!

The middle aged man took his measurements.

"You're quite thin."

"I'm working on it." He said through gritted teeth, irritated.

NPCs were programmed to be able to reply in any situation. It gave the game more sense of its realism. Since Kiro was malnourished in real life, it showed in-game too.

It took the tailor about 40 minutes to finish up. Kiro just sat there waiting, twiddling with his thumbs. The boots added 2+ dexterity. The armour added 20+ defense. They felt really comfortable, no wonder they were 300.

"Well thank you Mister."

"No, thank you customer, for your patronage."

Kiro headed straight for the field with mountain ducks. He had made them wait long enough.

Mountain Duck

Level 1

HP: 50

Kiro didn't waste any time, he went straight to the first one. These ducks were pretty weak, maybe it was the fact that he was level 3 now but this wasn't a satisfactory battle. These ones were solely made for noobs to level up. Weak as they were, they could somehow use their beaks as a knife. So if one wasn't careful, they could get fatally wounded.

-30

-20

-50 critical hit.

Ding!

[You've killed a mountain duck for the first time, you're awarded EXP]

The ducks dropped a couple of coins and it's feathers, nothing else. He wondered what he'd do with these, so he decided to keep them.

'Better have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.'

The ducks were now aware that they were under attack. Thankfully, Kiro's weapon could be considered melee but also at the same time, it could be semi long ranged. As he could hit something that's a few meters away without losing his weapon.

He didn't dare to be careless, he kept his distance. He didn't want to be stabbed. He figured it was best to take it slow and not die, than be impatient and get mauled by a flock of ducks.

He swayed majestically from left to right, and would hit any duck that dared to lunge at him right in the gut. He continued like this until he killed a 100 of them. The rest all ran with their tails or beaks? between their legs.

Kiro had Levelled up 2 times. This was definitely a perk of a first quest. With 30 AP and 15 SP. He used up all his AP immediately. He added 5 for each stat. Sagehood was all about balance. So he tried his best keep his stats balanced. After using the AP, only 5 was left. He decided to put the rest on strength.

He quickly went back to the village chief's abode. He smiled brightly at his appearance.

The chief waited expectedly without saying anything. Kiro took out the feathers and gave them to him, hesitantly.

"Young man, not only have you grown stronger, but you've also managed to drive those cursed animals out of our village. As a thank you, it's not much but here are my gifts to you. Continue to grow strong."

Ding!

[You've received a 'Blink Step' skill book.]

Skill: Blink Step, a skill that could be used by many classes. Anybody who learns it will be able to blink in and out of existence.

Rank: S

Mana points per second: 20

Evolvable.

Kiro quickly consumed the skill. He regretted not using the remaining 5 points on intelligence. MP was now more important than ever because of this evolvable S ranked skill!

"Young one you are truly skilled. Can I bother you some more?"

"Anything Chief!"

"We can't fetch water anymore, there's something wrong within the river. Can you investigate what it is?"

Ding!

[The chief has entrusted you with something important. Go the river, east of here and investigate the anomaly.]

A shiver ran on Kiro's spine when he remembered that, he had experienced something supernatural in that very river.

"I accept." He said unwillingly.

He arrived at the river, cautiously walking by the river bank. He noticed that the water was murky, while the river felt serene before, now it felt plain chaotic.

"Setting up a stage for my quest, I see."

As he walked along the river he noticed that, his were the only footprints there. He concluded that the monster's lair was the river and it never leaves it, unless it could levitate.

"Well, the mission is to investigate, not fight." He reminded himself.

He practically forced himself to get closer, as he did, so did the horrible stench that seemed to be coming from the deepest parts of the river. He noticed them as he got closer, about a hundred fish floated above water, dead.

The closer he got, the more he saw many kinds of monsters. Some weren't even marine life forms, which ruled out the fact that it couldn't leave its lair. Kiro had a panicked expression on his face.

All the monsters eyes were carved out, but were left uneaten. Clearly this monster was a sadist, it enjoyed torturing.

"It feels way too human! I won't be susprised if this is some old human witch."

When he noticed that the monsters that were tortured to death were either residents of aquamarine life, or they resided closer to the river. No monster from afar was there.

He felt relief, he could always run if something abruptly turned up. Given he could outrun it that is. He had trust in his new skill, blink step. As he had 100 mana, he could use it 5 times before depleting it completely. Though that wouldn't be wise, since mana depletion meant a comatose state.

The further he went the murkier it got. Not just the water, the atmosphere as well. He wanted to turn tail and go back, but he couldn't complete the quest without knowing which monster resided there. So he was basically using himself as bait.

There was a low rumble, as if someone was blowing bubbles in the water. But when he looked nothing was there. Not a single ripple.

All of a sudden, without warning, the river instantaneously stood 4 meters tall. Kiro gulped. Could he possibly outrun water? The river was in the shape of a serpent. The entire river was the monster. Kiro recognised it, he was baffled that a monster of such calibre was in a beginner village.

"HYDRO SERPENT!" He shouted instinctively. For a moment he was paralysed, with fear.

Ding!

[You've encountered a monster you shouldn't have.

Level 60

HP 70 000

Try your best to survive.]

The serpent didn't waste any time, it shot water balls at the intruder that came willingly to its territory. It liked the dumb prey even more, they wandered willingly to its abode only to be tortured.

The attack was just inches from his face when he shook himself out of the stupor, and immediately activated blink. Blink step allowed you to travel fast, it wasn't a teleportation technique, though to slow people it could seem like it was.

As much as it made the user blink, it was just really fast footwork. The serpent didn't lose to it, it chased down the intruder. It wanted to torture, it's never tortured a humanoid before, it was excited knowing it would catch him.

Kiro had used blink 4 times already. "Log Out!!!" He was out of options.

Ding!

[You can't log out in the middle of a quest. You can always die and try again.]

"F*ck!!!"

He was somehow able to dodge the water attacks, but barely. He didn't want to blink a 5th time, as that meant he would be out of commission for a couple of hours.

Just then, the water ball grazed his left arm and it immediately went limp.

-50

"Sh*t!" He immediately blinked, being out for a couple of hours was better than dying and losing some progress.

Luckily, he was close to the forest so he blinked right behind the trees. The hydro serpent seemed to be bound in that place, so it couldn't chase any further than that. Frustrated, it went back empty handed.

Kiro laid there unmoving. He was still. conscious but he couldn't move due to his mana being depleted, and as a penalty he'd be comatose for 3 hours. As still as his body was, his heart was beating a thousand kilometers an hour, his blood was racing as well.

'What a rush! Though, let's not do that again. Haha.'

Ding!

[You know, there are monsters around these parts. It'd be a sight to see, watching you get mauled, while in that defenseless state.]

The system remarked. He wanted to tell it off, but it was right this time around. He was way too careless, now he was vulnerable to any kinds of attacks.

Luckily 3 hours passed without incident, maybe it was because of the hydro serpent that the monsters avoided these parts.

He slowly walked back to the village. He was exhausted. He recounted everything to the chief about the monster, what it does and how it does it, and just what kind of monster it was.

"Very troublesome. I'll need to write a letter to the capital, asking for help with the subjugation."

The Chief then rewarded Kiro two mana potions and one health potion.

Kiro had noticed that the chief's worries were far from over. So he didn't leave immediately. He didn't level up, he needed at least to be level 5.

"Chief, is there anything else I can do? It's no bother!"

"Are you sure? Well, in the nearby forest, where we collect our fire wood. There are goblins who have erected a village of their own. They kidnap or kill anybody who comes close."

Ding!

[You've triggered a tedious chain quest. Go to the goblin village and kill them all, rescue the villagers taken hostage and you will be rewarded.

Rank: D

Failure: Your relationship with the chief will decrease to a negative]

'Just what do you mean tedious! You made the quests!' He remarked internally.

"I accept, I'll bring back the villagers!" Kiro said excitedly. Goblins were low level monsters, so this was his forte.