Evolution Theory of the Hunter

Evolution Theory of the Hunter (ETH)
Volume 1 Chapter 38

There was no reason for me to keep trying to persuade him to do otherwise.

Chop!

"Keuk?"

I made a chop to the back of his neck. I guess I didn’t properly control my strength because I heard a small sound, but it was fine – he didn’t die. I tossed his unconscious body gently to the side and drew my sword.

As soon as I raised my hand up, Jung Sooah made an OK sign in return. A bright light came down over my head.

Beep.

[10:00]

The 10 minute timer had been set.

I kicked back on the ground and ran. Reflex 225%. I just needed 1 second running in top speed.

The monster’s body came almost to my nose.

Grawwwr!

Its strength was its sheer power, its reach…but also its defense. The longsword and b.l.o.o.d.ysword were not enough to pierce this b.a.s.t.a.r.d’s skin.

Its weakness?

Eye.

I used the momentum of my run to climb up its body.

I could feel the 300% in strength boosting my legs to run so fast it felt like I was flying.

I swung my sword straight into its neck to lever myself up onto its shoulder. From there I jumped up and stabbed it in the eye.

KRAWWWWR!

So close. But I didn’t put enough force behind that attack to pierce it. I jumped off the monster and jabbed at it with my longsword. It yelled out once more and stepped back.

I rolled my shoulder a bit and moved to the side.

This time the monster raised both its arms to try and slam them down on top of me.

Should I rush in?

I’m rus.h.i.+ng in!

It slammed down both arms.

I barely missed being crushed, but the ground shook – and I shook with it. A big plume of dust rose into the air, and I could see its head poking out from within the brown cloud.

"Haa!"

I jammed my sword into its head.

It felt as if my spine were about to snap.

I could see its claw rus.h.i.+ng toward me. I couldn’t miss this chance. I watched the path of the claw and and stepped forward.

The sharp claw just barely missed my ear.

Everything was dim because of the dust that was still in the air. But that was the same for the beast.

I kept slamming at the monster again and again as if I were chopping wood with an ax.

The monster finally seemed to crumble. But another claw came flying at me. This time as I moved out of the way, I stabbed upward with my sword.

KRWAWW!

The monster hollered. It wasn’t able to follow my quick movements – especially with all this dust.

I kept at it.

Though I still wasn’t able to pierce its tough skin, it could still feel the blunt trauma I was delivering with each blow. I needed to sap it of all its strength. Then when it couldn’t move well anymore, I would stab at its eye again.

The dust clouds finally settled.

"Krrr."

"SunbehOppa’s the best!"

During the time I stepped back to catch my breath, I heard Jung Sooah yelling out loud.

I made a small smirk and ran at the monster once more.

Again the sharp claw!

I dodged left, right. Two times, before I moved to the side. An opening.

I slammed my sword into it again, and it seemed be ready to topple over me. I made two more quick blows before stepping back.

Slam!

It finally collapsed to its knees.

[9:31]

Only 31 seconds had pa.s.sed.

I still had a lot of time left to keep dealing it damage.

[01:51]

"Whew. whew."

"Krrrr…"

I bowed my shoulders to try and catch my breath. 8 minutes had pa.s.sed. The monster looked just about worn out now too. I had been dealing the blows this whole time, but it was still not down. I was able to truly appreciate the ferociousness of a level 4 monster.

But I would be victorious.

I ran behind it.

The monster slammed the ground where I had been, but the force behind it was much weaker than when we had first started out.

I slammed another blow and it flinched – but wasn’t able to dodge. It was too big to be able to evade any of my blows. So I continued to deal him blow after blow all over

And finally, it began to throw up blood.

The blood that was spurting out splattered onto the blade of my b.l.o.o.d.ysword.

Slice!

This time, I was able to make a slight cut. It wasn’t a big one, but it was enough. I jammed my b.l.o.o.d.y sword into that opening.

KRAWWWR!

It yelled out viciously and rolled around. Now that the b.l.o.o.d.ysword was lodged into its body, its time was ticking. But then again, time was almost up for me too.

The timer was telling me I had 8 seconds left.

I ran toward the monster and jumped up high. Falling from the air was a dangerous move. Because there was no way for me to dodge any oncoming attacks.

For this reason, I was trying to use the element of surprise by attacking quickly.

This was my chance to stab it in the eye.

It swung out with its claw. Did it still have energy to fight back?

Smack!

Ah. s.h.i.+t.

Slam!

Hit by its attack, I flew about 10 meters in the air and fell to the ground. Hard.

"Keuk."

I can smell blood from inside my mouth. My stomach felt queasy but I could still move. Thank the lord for my armor.

[00:00]

Bee beep.

Slam!

At the same time the timer went off, the monster made a giant noise as it collapsed. My longsword was sticking out of its eye. Right before I was..h.i.t, I was able to succeed in connecting my sword with its eye.

"Whew…"

"Krrr…"

Seeing as it was still alive, it was a st.u.r.dy one. Under usual circ.u.mstances, I would immediately run up and slice its throat or twist the sword in its eye. Because a monster had amazing healing abilities. But I didn’t need to in this case. My b.l.o.o.d.ysword was lodged into its body – sapping away its lifesource.

The more I thought about it, the more I took a liking to that weapon. It was pretty great. Though its attack power was a bit lacking, it made up for it in other ways such as this.

"Eum…"

I could hear helmet guy starting to wake up behind me.

Great for him. Waking up after all the good stuff is over.

"Are you awake?"

"Keuk. What the h.e.l.l did you…"

"If you want to commit suicide, just jump off a bridge. Don’t you know it’s an awful nuisance doing something like that in a dungeon?"

"What the h.e.l.l do you care? …Anyway, what about the monster?"

"I took care of it."

"Wh…what?"

He looked to where I was pointing. The monster was collapsed face down and taking its last breath.

"Did it die?"

"Almost."

"That’s good."

He drew his sword and started walking toward the monster. I stood in front of him and blocked his path.

"Move. I need to kill it."

"I can’t let you do that."

"Why is that?"

"I was the one who took care of this monster. If it happens to drop an item, then there could be a conflict in who claims owners.h.i.+p."

"Whatever comes out, I’ll give it to you so move."

"I said I can’t let you do that."

If he kills it, then all my reward points would fly right out the window."

"I said move."

Helmet guy pointed his sword at me. I didn’t respond.

"Why the h.e.l.l are you blocking my way…"

"I have my own reasons…"

"This is my brother’s revenge. What bigger reason can you have than that?"

"That’s my business."

"Keuk…"

His sword began to quiver.

Tap.

He ultimately dropped his sword and fell down to his knees in front of me. I could hear a thick voice coming out from his helmet.

"Would you listen to my story a bit?"

"No. Take this, rip it, and get out of here."

I handed over the escapee scroll to him.

[+400]

I sent helmet guy out and got my reward points after about 10 minutes. It was a pretty c.r.a.ppy amount compared to the 10 minutes of h.e.l.l I went through. I felt kind of ripped off since it was way more than twice as strong as a wolf boss…while only giving me double the reward points.

"You know that no matter what drops…I get a piece of it too right?"

"I know. I’ll pay you with money."

"I don’t need money. I already have a lot from what you paid me this past month…"

"Then?"

"Buy me dinner. Something expensive."

"Something like that is easy."

It wasn’t hard to do. And no matter how expensive dinner was, how much could it really be? To think that she would be fine with just that. Good for me. If it wasn’t for her buffer, I would have had a real tough time against this monster. I was planning on giving her at least 10%.

If it was just ores, then it wouldn’t have been much. But if it was an item, she could have made somewhere upwards of several thousand to several tens of thousands of dollars.

"You promise?"

"I promise. And we can take this opportunity to even invite all of the party members so I can buy something real expensive."

"Ah really. Are you that slow?"

"What do you mean?"

"Whatever. It’s nothing."

I couldn’t figure out why but it seemed like she was really p.i.s.sed off. Oh well.

It took a long time for the monster to evaporate. Was it because it was a level 4 monster?

After a good and long time, it was finally done. It probably took close to 20 minutes.

Tap.

"Huh? It’s a book?"

"Is it a skillbookk?"

I grabbed the book that had fallen to the ground. It wasn’t a skillbook.