"Are you sure you can hit it?" Han asked, studying the distance with a critical eye. "It’s a complicated shot."
Ren hesitated a moment before admitting: "I don’t know, I’ve never tried it before."
Min, Roran, Jun, Trent, and Taro clamped their hands over their mouths to stifle laughter that might attract the sentinel. Their shoulders shook with suppressed mirth, eyes watering with the effort of containing their amusement.
Above, in the branches of nearby trees, several white weavers observed with feline curiosity, their moth wings folded while their bright eyes followed every movement of the group. Their antennae twitched occasionally, sensing the subtle changes in the air.
"Why don’t we just attack all together?" asked Liora, clearly anxious for some action. "We’re more than enough to defeat it."
"Because I want to see if I can do it alone and because it’s not just the male," explained Ren without shifting his gaze from the target.
"...In the cave there are hundreds of females that would respond to his call. If we attack with too many people and it perceives a threat, they’ll all come to its aid. That’s why the arrows are to lure it and draw it away from the entrance. If I can attract it to the forest edge, even better… I’ll have a more certain shot."
Ren drew the bow, the string taut against his fingers.
Han observed Ren’s posture and shook his head. "You won’t hit like that."
"Do you have a better suggestion?" Ren asked, without a trace of defensiveness in his voice.
"Actually, yes." Han approached and adjusted the position of Ren’s arms. "Raise your elbow... like this. And when you breathe, do it deeply. Release on the exhale, not the inhale. And remember to compensate for distance and wind by aiming higher."
Ren nodded, focusing intensely as he aimed. With a fluid movement, he released the arrow.
The projectile crossed the air, tracing an elegant arc... that ended almost 5 meters to the left of the target. The jellyfish-bat didn’t even seem to notice it.
"Not bad at all for a first attempt," Han commented diplomatically.
"It was terrible," Mayo murmured, earning an elbow from Luna.
"Try again," Han encouraged. "This time, aim a bit higher and to the right to compensate."
Ren prepared another arrow, incorporating the suggested corrections. He inhaled deeply, his mushrooms pulsing with intensity. For a moment, it seemed everything around him vanished, leaving only him, the bow, and the target. With a new understanding of his weapon, he released the arrow.
The second arrow embedded itself in one of the monster’s tentacles, provoking a furious hiss but dealing no significant damage. The entire appendage contracted like a spring before slowly unfurling again.
"Good shot," Luna acknowledged, her tone revealing genuine admiration despite herself.
"It’s detecting something," Lin warned, her posture tensing as she prepared to intervene if necessary.
The creature emitted a sharp screech, its tentacles thrashing violently as it turned in the direction from which the attack came. The air seemed to ripple around it as its sensory organs expanded to their full capacity.
"It saw us," Taro warned when the creature began advancing toward them.
"Not yet, it’s searching for the culprit with its sensors, but we’re still far from them," Ren announced calmly, setting down the bow and taking his spear. "Luckily that screech of pain wasn’t a call for the females… And it won’t be able to distinguish us among the trees and bushes from there. Now comes the dangerous part."
"More dangerous than attracting that thing?" Min asked incredulously.
The shadow stalker began cautiously advancing toward them, its sensors methodically scanning the area, sending out barely visible pulses of energy that disturbed the air.
"Now or never," Ren positioned himself ready to go, mentally measuring the maximum distance he could maintain from the monster without sacrificing precision in his throw.
The shadow stalker advanced ever closer, and everyone could feel the mana pressure diminishing in the environment as the creature voraciously absorbed it, creating a subtle mana vacuum.
Before anyone could stop him, Ren emerged from his hiding place, advancing in a zigzagging pattern that seemed specifically calculated to confuse the creature. The jellyfish-bat understood the movement a second later, its tentacles extended as it descended to intercept him.
"It’s too fast!" exclaimed one of the maids, watching in horror as the distance between Ren and the creature rapidly decreased.
But everyone underestimated what Ren was now capable of. With his strength increased by 160%, his movements were faster and more precise than anyone would expect. His feet barely seemed to touch the ground as he darted between patches of cover.
Ren stopped abruptly, his mushrooms pulsing intensely as he calculated angles and trajectories. With a fluid movement that seemed almost rehearsed, he threw the spear with all his strength.
The weapon cut through the air like lightning, its tip briefly gleaming before penetrating the center of the jellyfish-bat. There was a moment of absolute silence as the creature remained motionless, suspended in the air as if time had stopped.
Then, the jellyfish-bat fell to the ground with a dull thud and began to convulse. Its tentacles twisted erratically before falling inert, and its slightly luminescent body gradually began to fade, the light dimming like a dying star.
The silence that followed was broken by Larissa, who began to applaud enthusiastically. "That was incredible!"
"It wasn’t a big deal," Ren responded modestly while approaching the fallen creature to recover his spear. "Their movement patterns are predictable since they always launch straight to absorb their prey’s mana. They have no predators."
Lin observed the scene with both, amazement and concern. The force with which Ren had thrown the spear was much greater than should be possible for someone with a 60% increase, even with her training...
Her thoughts were interrupted by Taro and Min, who ran toward Ren to examine the creature up close.
"How did you know it would work on the first hit?" Taro asked, observing how Ren methodically began examining the jellyfish-bat, identifying the parts he needed.
"Throwing with my hands feels easier to me," Ren commented as he carefully began extracting the translucent wing membranes with his dagger. "Based on its anatomy, I only needed to hit a vital organ, and aiming for the largest one had the highest probability of success." Enjoy new adventures from freewebnovel
The others approached gradually, curiosity overcoming their initial caution.
"Careful with the tentacles," Ren warned. "They’re quite dangerous even after death."
"Hearing that from you is even creepier," murmured Han, instinctively stepping back.
"Those materials," Liora approached to observe the membranes and tentacles Ren was extracting, "what exactly are they for?"
"Among other things," Ren responded, focused on his task, "they’re excellent for absorbing mana if you block the vitality absorption... Though I’ll need a large bark stalker again."
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Ren extracted the tentacles with meticulous precision, using cheap gloves to avoid direct contact. One by one, he deposited them in skin bags he had brought specifically for this purpose, each sealed with a careful knot.
"But if there are potions to control your mana saturation, why do you want those?" asked Luna, observing the care with which Ren sealed each bag.
"They’re different, plus I ran out of the ones I had," he responded simply. "They’re invaluable for certain cultivation techniques."
"How much is all that worth?" Roran asked, watching the parts that Ren was meticulously separating.
"The wing membranes, about a thousand crystals each," Ren calculated. "The central core almost nothing, the tentacle filaments, and other parts could be used as Bronze beast discards for 100 crystals, but probably nobody would want them because they’re dangerous to handle..." he smiled slightly while extracting a crystalline structure from the center of the creature.
"Only two thousand in total," Mira calculated quickly. "A Bronze creature and it’s worth so little!"
"Don’t worry," Ren responded while carefully finishing packing his trophies. "This was just the beginning. The real gathering starts now that we have access to the cave."
Min looked at him with disbelief, his eyes widening. "Wait a minute. This whole time you’ve been telling us how dangerous it would be to alert the females because they’re too many and deadly in groups. And now you want us to go directly into their nest?"