Chapter 232 Monster Hunter Dante 1
It should go without saying that Dante planned to attack immediately. He did not need this information because he wanted to scout out the monsters or know their weaknesses, because he was just a real body descended over a virtual one.
He still had full access to the Apocalypse World's player panel for students, so he could see the stats of monsters on his own. In fact, the information he had right now was bought from players like him by brokers, as natives obviously did not have the benefit of those game-like screens.
What he needed this information for was simply the coordinates, the locations. He didn't want to have to walk around casually looking for a monster at the right rank that he required, so this was meant to help solve that.
Dante looked through and found his first target, a C Rank Lycanthrope. It was a werewolf king who lead a pack of D Rank mutated killer wolves in its territory that was more than 200 kilometers way from Dante's location.
Dante glanced at the map details and compared it to the world map he had in his mind, then identifies the specific place. Using the 3rd Rank Astral Gateway spell, he used the coordinates to fulfill the visualization requirement as a large portal opened before him.
As he was in the wild currently, there was no one around to witness this feat of magical awe. Dante walked through the portal and appeared right in the clearing of the Lycanthrope's territory, with the wolfman glancing at him with bafflement.
?Monster Name: Lycanthrope
Monster Rank: C
HP: 1999/1999
Strength: 122
Agility: 183
Dexterity: 167
Intelligence: 55
Constitution: 98
Vitality: 96?
As a C Rank monster, just like the B Rank Spider Queen who was fully sentient, the Lycanthrope was intelligent enough to understand the world around it, though it could not speak human language.
As such, it knew that people doing what Dante just did was not normal. Even as a C Rank monster, it was confident in its power and abilities, but this was just madness. It immediately howled bravely as if it was about to fight with Dante, but immediately turned to run on all fours.
That previous howl was to call its subordinates to come and swarm Dante, giving it a chance to escape and regroup. Immediately, howls resounded all around the clearing as hundreds of different colored wolves the size of a small car rushed into the clearing, their bloodshot eyes focused on Dante.
Dante rolled his eyes and unleashed his hellfire for an entire 2 kilometers in all directions, turning everything into ash. It was a bit wasteful given the fact that he could have absorbed these corpses to raise his stats further, but he was not in a rush.
He wanted to fight the B Rank monster as he was and try the A Rank as well. If he was not up to par, he could 'power up' like protagonists in anime and then suddenly overcome his foe thanks to his nakama power, or in this case, his superpower.
Soon, the formerly lush clearing was reduced into an ashen hell scape with charred corpses that numbered less than 10, the few formate ones who were not turned into dust. Among them was the corpse of the Lycanthrope, of whom Dante collected the Mutation Core using his spatial abilities.
Like that, Mutation Cores from around flew into his hand and were sent into his quantum depository. After all, no matter how the monsters were dealt with, the absolute rule of the Apocalypse World was that Mutation Cores could not be destroyed.
Dante then left the area and consulted the player forums to cross check the information he got about monsters and their stat distribution.
[The various stat ranges for monsters in the Apocalypse World by Rank - By: Damian Polikser
F Rank: 1 - 5
E Rank: 5 - 30
D Rank: 30 - 90
C Rank: 90 - 180
B Rank: 180 - 360
A Rank: 360 - 720
S Rank and above: 720+]
The stat ranges for monsters could not be too crazy because apart from students with special superpowers, no one could realistically fight a monster with a 700 SDI with just a superpower.
After all, starting from the E rank, monsters in this world gained their own versions of superpowers.
They were not necessarily as powerful as what students had, but they were enough to disrupt the balance of power between the two. After all, a player had to hunt a monster of a certain rank ten times to get enough Mutation Cores to advance.
When the monster had stats like those at the B Rank and above, conventional means were no longer useful.
It was entirely possible to solo F to D Rank monsters if your superpower was strong enough and was leveled up accordingly.
However, it was very unlikely for a C rank superpower student to solo a C Rank monster, especially not one with peak level stats.
Dante obviously did not follow this as his current stats surpassed even S Rank monsters.
What he feared from them was not their physical stats but those abilities they were given on the side which got progressively stronger as they rose in rank.
For example, according to the database, the Lycanthrope's ability was to turn into a human male, which allowed him to infiltrate encampments and go on killing sprees every now and then, or to unbalance or trick players and NPCs in the wild before killing them.
The Spider Queen's obviously was her reproductive and control ability. It was actually an S Rank ability that could spam A Rank and below spiders to fight for her, so you know it was cracked.
It was honestly a miracle as to how players were able to beat her so bad, but then it also made sense that they could never finish her off.
It was because of those abilities, those damned abilities. If Dante met a monster with an ability that countered his powers or was rule-based like 'take 5 steps and you die', he would be finished.
It was an exaggeration, but the point was made. Currently, Dante's target was the B Rank monster called the Winged Viper.
It was a sinister high level serpent type monster with a very strong poison ability and minor flight. Its poison could be released as a mist, as a projectile and even as a domain, so one had to be careful with it.
The worst part was that it was odorless and colorless, so one wouldn't know that it was releasing the poison mist. After all, it wasn't as dramatic as in fictional media where the poison would be dark green or dark purple and exceedingly visible.
Dante had high vitality but was not keen on testing his poison resistance and tolerance, so he teleported a kilometer away from the monster's zone. When he walked through the wormhole and came to the other side, his casual smile changed as he immediately unleashed his hellfire around him.
Dante face became dark - literally - as he coughed deeply, his eyes watering. He was roaring about his despicable and shameless the Winged Viper was to release its poison this far out of its zone.
It completely adopted the mentality of 'fight? Why would I fight with you when I can win?' since Dante could tell through his spirit sense that it was calmly sleeping in its nest while breathing out poison with every exhale in order to maintain the density.
Dante's life essence surged within him and expunged the poison in the form of a black gas while he cast a spatial barrier spell, isolating himself from the world. He obviously could not be poisoned if he was in a whole different space from you.
?Monster Name: Winged Viper
Monster Rank: B
HP: 5320/5320
Strength: 110
Agility: 132
Dexterity: 43
Intelligence: 290
Constitution: 86
Vitality: 444?
Dante walked into the nest of the Winged Viper which was now awakening due to the senses it had. It could tell that death had come upon it, which forced it to cancel its rest and look around vigilantly for the source of the threat.
When it saw Dante walking over with an ugly expressions, its slitted pupils dilated rapidly as it flapped its wings and tried to run. It did not even need to see Dante's spatial abilities, just by the fact that it could sense that its toxin was entering a void when it touched Dante was enough to scare it.
From the perspective of the Winged Viper, Dante was a like a spatial black hole, and the barrier he cast led to the void in between space where nothing could survive. If it tried to fight him, putting aside whether it could even land an attack, it might face a similar fate to its toxic mist.
Dante naturally was not going to let it casually walk away after giving him a terrible cough. Its toxic mist stank like someone had eaten rotten tacos and had unleashed their fury after being constipated for ten weeks.
He was not magnanimous enough to let that go.
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