Dante rested beside the tree near the northern edge of the clearing. His weapons were kept in his arm as he closed his eyes, but focused his hearing acutely. In this deathly silent forest, apart from his own steady breathing, he could hear nothing else.
Soon, there was the inevitable sound of rustling from the energy bushes as a whole group of the Weeper Rabbits rushed over while hopping excitedly, diving into the plentiful flesh available. They paid Dante no attention as they gorged themselves as they assumed he was another corpse from the way he was seated without moving.
Dante raised his head and took aim from his potion, easily dispatching all the rabbits that came in less than one clip. He had learned to be more conservative with his bullets. As for the recoil, with his current strength value, it was like shooting a toy gun or a water gun at best.
He gathered the corpses of the rabbits casually and extracted them. He then tossed them to the pile and went to sit down again. About 30 minutes later, another batch of rabbits came, this time they were met with a group of mutated two-headed dogs who came from another direction to investigate.
It didn't really matter to Dante, as both teams were dispatched after they began fighting with each other over the spoils. After extracting all of them, the number of corpses in the area reached a truly worrying amount.
The worst part was the lack of flies buzzing over the meat and flesh, but that did not stop the stench from spreading far and wide. Dante knew that with a stench like this, normal F-rank monsters would no longer dare to come here as there was too much death in one area.
No, the only monsters this would attract were the confident overlords of this small outpost's area, the E Rank monsters. Each E Rank monster had a small territory spanning between 10 to 20 kilometers in an almost spherical shape depending on their personal power and prestige among other E Rank monsters.
Given that Dante had appeared in this range when he descended and the territory was less than 3 kilometers from where he spent the night in that cave, this territory could only belong to his target: The E-Rank Withering Irradiated Zombie!
Dante only had to wait an hour for him to hear that inhuman screech that caused one to be stunned. This time, its effect was slightly weaker on him due to his increased intelligence, but not by much. After all, his intelligence was his slowest growing stat due to the fact that the monsters in question did not have much to give.
His seated potion also would not work, as that monster likely viewed the world with either sound, heat, or some other sense. So it could detect his lifeforce and would attack him first, so he rose to his feet and waited patiently.
Much like a typical zombie, the E-rank monster staggered out from the nearby shrubs in an almost silly and comical way, shambling toward Dante. However, Dante's expression became serious as he held his Kalashnikov in hand with a tight grip.
He still remembered the oppressive presence and stats of the zombie that caused him to feel the previous time.
Monster Name: Withering Irradiated Walker
Monster Rank: E
HP: 45/45
Strength: 7
Agility: 4
Dexterity: 8
Intelligence: 2
Constitution: 1
Vitality: 9?
And compared to his present stats after farming for this while;
Player Name: Dante
Player Race: Human
HP: 100/100
Strength: 6.18 -> 17.9
Agility: 10.08 -> 22.5
Dexterity: 7.64 -> 17.1
Intelligence: 1.447 -> 1.88
Constitution: 3.64 -> 10
Vitality: 3.64 -> 10
Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)
Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)
Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?
Clearly his idea to farm weak monsters was the best. He now had enough stats that it should be the Withering Irradiated Zombie that should feel fear and pressure from his existence, not to mention he was armed and ready.
The only reason Dante was still so wary was because, from the E-Rank and above, monsters did not just rely on their stats to be equal and even superior to players or natives of the same level. No, just like how players had superpowers through 'mutation', these mutated being naturally had something similar.
We had already seen the Irradiated Withering Zombies won in the form of its screech that was an almost absolute stun.
It was because of this that students often had to team up and work together. Because at each Rank, the monster had better stats than you and even had its own special ability you had to be careful of. Soloing monsters above the E Rank was impossible but for the absolute best of the students which were mostly made of people like Dante.
Those who had two or more superpowers, the natural one they had, or those they got from the Zero Gate and the one this world gave them. Naturally, with so many powers at their back and call, they would be able to suppress any monster to death.
Dante began firing without waiting for the monster to pounce. His Kalashnikov bullets roared toward the zombie and struck it brutally, tearing off parts of its body with ease. Dante's clip came to an end and he quickly reloaded without trying to slip up since he was not a professional at this.
The Zombie wailed as its torn body began to close up and reform. It had 9 points of vitality, so its regeneration and life force were strong. By the time it patched itself up, Dante had finished reloading and taken 3 steps back.
The Zombie roared once more, releasing its special stun effect. Dante had been ready for it and pulled the trigger the moment it made a sound, causing it to be interrupted. After that, he had no qualms and emptied another clip.
He then rushed over and grabbed the Zombie before taking out his tactical knife and severing its head. He hadn't done this the first time because he wanted to bait it into using its stun screech ability in active combat and then disable it.
Dante put its head to the side and then dismembered its body quickly, spreading each part away from the other. After waiting for 5 minutes, the zombie's body began to rot really quickly. He then brought the parts together and extracted them using his superpower.
The duration was slightly longer this time and the stat increase was quite good.
Player Name: Dante
Player Race: Human
HP: 100/100
Strength: 17.9 -> 19.3
Agility: 22.5 -> 23.3
Dexterity: 17.1 -> 18.6
Intelligence: 1.88 -> 2.28
Constitution: 10 -> 10.2
Vitality: 10 -> 11.8
Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)
Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)
Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?
Dante collected the E-Rank Mutation Core and noticed that it was easily twice the size of an F-Rank Mutation Core, and far more vivid. He put it away as he would need to take down 9 more E Rank monsters or buy them.
He naturally preferred to do the former rather. Done with his objective, he packed up and began to return to the outpost with a light jog. At his current agility, his light job was the full-on sprint of a cheetah, and the world around him blurred as he moved fast enough to feel the air pressure.
Dante knew that if he wanted to keep this up, he would either need to constantly wear equipment like this or find some special material that could withstand extreme friction and pressure.
If fact, not only for his movement speed, but his attack speed and his strength, otherwise anything he wore would just rip like he was transforming into the hulk. That could be sorted out since he now had a lot of F Rank mutation cores to sell for money.
When Dante reached the outpost, the guards glanced at him with an expression of horror. Not only was his armor bloody, but it was clearly blackish and green blood, meaning it was definitely not his own.
Not to mention he was completely unharmed, but his physical presence had magnified more than ten times. They felt like a loose movement from him could easily blow their heads off their bodies.
Dante only greeted them in passing and then returned to his residence. He noticed that the cat had gone out to do something or the other, so he took off his armor slowly and then put the dirty parts in a basin to be scrubbed later.
As for himself, he locked the residence up and then lay on the bed and closed his eyes. He did not plan to sleep in the Apocalypse World as his gene treatment was just about done in reality and he had to discharge himself.
As such, Dante logged out from his game character in the Apocalypse World and returned to his real body which was still floating within the treatment chamber. The moment his eyes snapped open, he felt the difference right away.
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