NOVEL WEB Chapter 8: What Happened?
*DING* [Quest Updated, Slay 50 Horned Rabbits (50/50)]
"Yay! That's the last one!"
Maria was far off into the grass field. She noticed that there was no one around and that she was already close to the forest.
"Forest...we meet again."
Maria said as she narrowed her eyes. Her first virtual reality experience was inside of a forest and it wasn't a pleasant one.
Remembering the ravenous wolves tearing at her body, Maria started trembling in fear.
"No! I c-can't be scared now!"
While in the grass fields, Maria noticed that she couldn't find any wolves around. There were only horned rabbits, slimes, and dark sprites roaming about. The other two monsters weren't in her quest objectives so she naturally ignored them.
Since she couldn't find the wolves, she could only assume that they were inside of the forest in front of her, just like when the first time she had encountered them.
Maria gripped her staff tightly to try and ease her fear. She stepped forward and walked into the forest slowly.
"Don't worry...I have a weapon now. I'm no longer that helpless little angel..."
"AAAWWWWWOOOOOOO!!!"
A wolf's howl was all it took for Maria to begin shaking in her boots again.
"E-e-e-e-ev-v-veryth-th-things...going to b-b-be a-a-alr-r-right..."
She did finally learn how to use the staff properly however. While out hunting those rabbits, she did take notice that the players who were wearing similar looking clothes as hers were also wielding staffs, but instead of going around and beating the monsters with it, they were instead staying at a distance and sending little white orbs flying at the monsters.
Maria tried to do the same thing, at first she didn't understand, but eventually she was finally able to use her staff properly. This upped her hunting speed and it didn't take long for her to finish the rabbit slaying objective.
Of course, she didn't stop going around beating the monsters with it. Maria only used her ranged attack if they were moving a bit too far for her staff to reach them, but opted to strike at the monster when it closed in on her. She grew more and more confident with each monster that she felled.
Now that she was inside of the forest however, all that previous confidence had been flushed down the toilet.
She carefully made her way into the forest. Ducking down in between bushes and moving around as quietly as possible, making sure she stuck to the darker areas of the forest. She didn't want to commit her previous mistake where she was suddenly ambushed by monsters.
Maria was finally able to meet her first monster while roaming around the forest periphery. It was her quest objective, the small wolf.
"[Inspect]"
[Small Wolf Lv. 4]
HP: 1000/1000
"Good, it's alone...I can kill it!"
Seeing the monster all on its lonesome, Maria mustered up her courage and began channeling her mana into her staff.
She pointed her staff straight at the wolf and a white orb of mana flew out of the tip and accurately struck the unsuspecting wolf.
-25
The damage was pretty weak compared to her normal attacks. This was why Maria opted to go in and strike with her staff instead at times.
After being struck by Maria's attack, the wolf rushed right at her. Seeing the ferocious wolf charging at her, Maria trembled a little before she got into a golfer's stance.
In real life, she was pretty well versed in these kinds of sports, badminton, tennis, golf, horse riding, fencing, and the like. It was mostly because of her family's social status influencing her upbringing and the fact that people in her father's social circles having similar hobbies. With her father being ever so doting, he would bring her along with him to attend these social gatherings and her father's friends would teach her the ropes.
Maria gritted her teeth and waited for the wolf to get into range.
"I'm. not. AFRAID!!!"
THWACK!!
Right as the wolf jumped up to bite her, Maria swung her staff straight at the wolf. Her attack connected perfectly, hitting it squarely on its underbelly. Her attack dealt a critical hit and sent the wolf flying back through the air.
-100!
"Yay!!!"
Maria jumped and cheered. The wolf landed back on the ground and reoriented itself. The battle between the wolf and the Fallen Angel was a repeat of the wolf running towards the girl and being punted away with the staff.
*DING* [Wolf slain! (1/50)]
Maria pumped her fist in the air. She had successfully conquered her fears! No longer was she the angel that would cower at the first sign of danger. Unfortunately for her, her joy was quickly cut off when the furious howls of multiple wolves rang in the surroundings.
"Eh?"
When Maria looked around, she was surrounded by wolves.
"N-no..."
She began tearing up at the sight of the numerous wolves surrounding her. Was she going to be eaten alive again?
Seeing her cower, the wolves saw this as an opportunity to attack. They immediately charged and pounced onto the poor girl.
Maria wanted to face her fears so she put on a strong front, she stopped her trembling and swung her staff at the first wolf she saw.
-50
Once she struck the wolf, she chased after it single-mindedly and repeatedly struck it with her staff. She didn't mind the jolts of pain landing on her back. She braced herself and continued attacking the wolf she first struck.
To her surprise, multiple 'dings' sounded in the next instant.
*DING* [Wolf slain! (2/50)]
*DING* [Wolf slain! (3/50)]
*DING* [Wolf slain! (4/50)]
*DING* [Wolf slain! (5/50)]
*DING* [Wolf slain! (6/50)]
*DING* [Wolf slain! (7/50)]
*DING* [Wolf slain! (8/50)]
"Eh?"
Her momentary lapse in attention gave the wolf she was attacking the time to retaliate. It jumped up and bit at her hand. She flinched at the small jolt of pain, but she finally noticed something shoot at the wolf in the next instant.
A black feather had shot out from behind her and accurately struck the wolf, once one feather came, a whole deluge of feathers rained down on the poor wolf until it collapsed dead on the ground.
"Huh??!"
She turned around and observed her surroundings. The wolves that were previously surrounding her lay sprawled on the ground with numerous black feathers piercing their bodies.
"...what happened?"