Red Monster

Chapter 75: Great Haul

Red absorbed all the cores and continued his hunt. He was on a streak, excited to hunt more kobolds. His excitement beat his hunger, so he didn’t bother to go back for lunch.

It took him some time to find the next group, and the next group was even a bigger group. A group of twenty kobolds, and it might be the same group he found in the morning. More kobolds meant more cores, but that was when he triggered Levelheaded and calmed down.

The fireball was strong, and he was confident in his bow. However, twenty kobolds were still too many. Another consideration was that the group had six archers, and he could not see the level of the two kobold archers.

He reminded himself that the sixteen kobolds were a lucky find. The group was engaging three Jakar. He got four free kills, and Jakar took down three kobolds out of sixteen. In another, he was hunting thirteen kobolds and having Jakar as a distraction. It might not work the same against twenty kobolds.

Another reason that discouraged him was the fact that he only had seventeen arrows. He might kill three to five kobolds in one shot, but the rest would need more than one, maybe two or even three shots. This was too risky even with his fireball.

Red calmed down and left the group alone, looking for a group of ten up to thirteen or maybe fourteen kobolds. More than that was too risky.

He kept searching and found another group, a group of seventeen kobolds. He only trailed them for a moment, ensuring they didn’t head to the village. Then he left to search for more kobolds.

The next group was still too big for him, and he finally got lucky to find a group of fourteen kobolds. It was doable because they didn’t have archers. They had four kobolds’ levels that were covered, but he was confident since they didn’t have archers.

His first target was the higher-level kobold. An arrow to the head killed the kobold. That alarmed the remaining kobolds, but a few managed to catch where the arrow came from.

Red was not afraid of getting spotted as he fired the second arrow. His target was looking in his direction, but he still fired anyway. But that was his mistake. While his arrow was fast, the kobold still had a quick reaction. The kobold dodged, and the arrow missed.

That was when the kobold said something, and everyone was looking in his direction. The canopy still covered him, and they had nothing that could hurt him. He changed his target to the lower-level kobold, and he aimed at the chest.

Whish!

The arrow whistled through the air, and the kobold still could react to his arrow. The kobold tried to dodge, but it was too late. The arrow hit the area slightly lower than the right shoulder.

The kobold screamed as it fell backward. The kobolds shouted something that Red could not understand, and they spread out. Two kobolds pulled the wounded kobold with them and sought cover behind the tree.

Red also moved while making sure not to make any noise that would alarm the kobold. The kobolds were still communicating. He understood nothing of it, but it didn’t really matter. He circled his way until he was behind the kobold.

The kobolds were hiding, a few using the tall roots as a cover as they crawled toward where they spotted him.

He smiled while pulling an arrow and aimed at the second higher-level kobold. The sound of a steel helmet getting pierced by his surroundings rang in the air, startling the remaining.

The remaining kobolds turned toward their dead friend before frantically looking around. At that moment, Red shot his fireball. This time, he just tripled the mana instead. It was more stable and also bigger. He aimed at the clumped kobold, at least eight kobolds.

The fireball exploded as the fire roared, which was later followed by screams and angry hisses. While the kobolds were in panic, in disarray. He started to fire more arrows.

While the kobolds didn’t have an archer, he made sure to keep moving, not willing to waste his arrows because he knew the kobolds could dodge his arrows.

After hitting three kobolds down, he then shot the second fireball. That was when the kobold realized that they could not fight back. The kobold fell into chaos; the four kobolds that didn’t suffer any wounds abandoned the fight and tried to flee.

Red would not allow them to escape. They were his loot, and he didn’t want the information about him to reach the kobold village. The hunt went longer than the previous hunts, especially with the chase, but he finally got them all.

He then returned to where he started the ambush. While he chased after the kobold who fled, he had not killed all the kobolds. There were still a few kobolds alive. Sure enough, he found five kobolds crawling, trying to climb the root, still trying to escape. Another two were still alive, still twitching on the ground.

He finished the five kobolds that were still trying to escape by crawling. After finishing four kobolds, he tried to reach another arrow only to realize that he was out of arrows. He used all seventeen arrows.

That made sense considering he missed two and used two arrows on a few kobolds. Remaining cautious, he scanned the area two times just to make sure there was no danger lurking.

The explosion might attract unwanted attention, so extra precautions were necessary. After ensuring it was safe to come down, he went down and finished off the remaining kobold with his blade.

Then he started to proceed with the loot exchange and retrieved the arrow. He wished for maybe another skill scroll that was useful for him, or maybe a book that contained a set of skills. He didn’t get other skills, but he got a lot of cores.

He tracked the four kobolds that had almost escaped before back to the tree. Then he was back on top of the tree with his loot. There was bad news for him. He lost five arrows, and it was he who did it, or to be more specific, it was his fire. Five arrows were caught in the fire.

The good news was that he got thirty-seven cores from the loot, sixteen Might Cores and twenty-one Magic Cores. Another big haul from one hunt. He absorbed them all without hesitation, and then he checked his progress for the next level.

Level: 8

Health: 878 Stamina: 378 Mana: 952

[Tier 0 Might]

Strength: 88.2 (+3.8) Endurance: 87.8 (+4.2) Vitality: 88.8 (+4) Dexterity: 88.4 (+3.4)

[Tier 0 Magic]

Intelligence: 129 (+4.6) Wisdom: 129.6 (+4.2) Arcane Perception: 129 (+4.6) Mind: 130 (+4.6)

Skills:

Tier 1 Skill: Mana Sense - Level 15, Levelheaded (Passive) - Level 18, Appraisal - Level 16, Bleeding - Level 2, Fireball - Level 4, Bow Mastery (Passive) - Level 2 (+1)

Tier 3: Mana Smelting - Level 6, Mana Refining - Level 4, Mana Sharpening - Level 2, Mana Repair - Level 2

Tier 4: Mana Forging - Level 1, Mana Tempering - Level 2, Mana Authority (Passive) - Level 2

Tier 5 Skill: Infernal Berserk - Level 1