Red Monster

Chapter 74: Skill Drop

The fireball exploded on impact, and Red underestimated the explosion. The fire reached up to the tree. The head reached his face, and he was pushed back by the shock force from the explosion. If not for the branch behind him, he might fall out of the tree. The scream, along with the explosion, resounded in the air.

Red quickly recovered from the fall and repositioned himself away from the explosion. He sought a higher place with a better vision to check the aftermath.

He drew a cold breath as he saw the aftermath. The roots, leaves, and bark were on fire. He saw two kobolds running around while their bodies were burned.

Four were on the ground, unmoving, possibly dead. He saw three burning bodies on the other side of the explosion. Two of them were the ones with the round shield, but they no longer had the shield and blade. Their legs were on fire, their backs were charred, and their helmets were off somewhere.

The third one supported itself with the tall root, terrified as it looked at the aftermath. He was not the only one, but the other two were also terrified.

Red didn’t give them a chance to recover as an arrow flew and hit the head of an armored kobold. Its body flopped down to the ground.

That shocked the two remaining standing kobolds. They no longer had the courage to fight or even to look at their attacker. They tried to escape as Red fired his second shot.

The one who relied on the root was not capable of running, but the one with armor was. The second shot was aimed at this kobold.

He predicted incorrectly that this kobold might be slow with the scalding wound on its legs. It was quick, and the arrow missed. He gave chase, not willing to let his loot flee.

The giant roots became its obstacle. The kobold was in a panic as it ran in a straight line instead of navigating its path, taking the easier path. The second arrow hit the back of the kobold, sending it down to the ground.

Red didn’t have the same confidence when shooting a moving target. He aimed at the body and hit the kobold, slightly below the right shoulder. He fired the third arrow and hit the back. That was when the kobold was completely paralyzed. It was still alive, the body was twitching, but it no longer attempted to get up.

The hunt was not over. There were still four more kobolds that he needed to kill. The first two were wounded by the Jakar, then the one who was pounced on by the Jakar, and the fourth one was the last one to survive the blast.

The fourth one was not far, and it could barely walk, let alone run. An arrow pierced its head. Then he looked at the one who got pounced on by the Jakar. This one was getting blasted by the explosion as he found it was not in the same spot anymore.

An arrow in the head solved the problem. The two kobolds who ran around while on fire were on the ground, dead, while fire still burned them. Then he moved to find the remaining two wounded kobolds.

The one with a wound on the neck was dead, and the one with a wound on the leg was crawling, trying to get away from the area.

Swish!

An arrow to the head killed the last kobold. Even though he had killed them all with the arrows, he didn’t come down right away. He moved around between the trees, trying to check if there was any danger lurking. He didn’t forget the Jakar who survived sixteen kobolds’ encirclement.

He didn’t want to get ambushed by them after seeing what they were capable of. Those three Jakar might be smarter than he thought. They used the chance he gave them perfectly. The moment they had the chance, they struck. The moment they saw a way, they fled.

After ensuring nothing was lurking around, Red climbed down. The first area he visited was where he shot his fireball. The fire was still burning the bark, but not as much. He noticed the fire was getting weaker, completely failing to spread as he thought it would.

A charred mark on the roots and trunk was a reminder for him to be careful with his skill. He almost got blasted by the impact as well. This was a lesson that the fireball might be more dangerous than he thought.

He didn’t dilly-dally; he quickly exchanged the dead bodies for loot. He saved them inside the pouch, and the surprise came from a skill scroll. Because he didn’t just get one, but two skills.

He didn’t read what the skill did as he quickly left the area. It was a big explosion, as it might attract the other kobold groups. He didn’t even linger around in the area, going further before checking his skill.

After ensuring he was in the safe area, no beast or kobolds were around. He then looked at the scroll in his hand.

[Do you want to learn Efficient Cooking (Passive) skill?]

Red was about to say yes, but then he stopped at the right moment. He blinked his eyes a few times to make sure he didn’t hear or read it wrong. He put the scroll down and picked it up again.

[Do you want to learn Efficient Cooking (Passive) skill?]

The same notification rang, realizing this was not wrong. It was a skill related to cooking, meaning the skill was not for him, but for Darla. He then retrieved the second scroll from his waist.

[Do you want to learn Ingredient Whisper skill?]

Red didn’t know what to feel about this. Not that he lacked a skill, but it was safe to have more in his arsenal. On the other hand, he was happy that this skill might help Darla make better food, hopefully. The first one might help her; he was unsure what the second skill meant.

He didn’t dawdle on the skill, as he didn’t consider it a loss since it helped Darla. Then he moved to his core harvest. The two bodies that gave him the skill scroll didn’t give him cores, but it was generally a good harvest.

His eyes widened in surprise when he counted the cores. He had forty-four cores, but two of them were from the previous hunt, where he saved them for Darla. It meant he got forty-two cores and two skills from this hunt alone. That was a crazy harvest.

He separated the Might and Magic Cores as usual: twenty-four Might Cores and eighteen Magic Cores.