Evolution Theory of the Hunter

Evolution Theory of the Hunter (ETH)
Volume 1 Chapter 91

Standing before me, she was dressed in her Arachne leather armor and had on her Redemption necklace. On her hip, she had her b.a.s.t.a.r.d sword.

She was staring back at me, fully garbed in her hunter gear.

"What’s this? Why are you all dressed in your hunter gear?"

"Because it’s obvious exactly what you were thinking. Let’s go. You want to test your new weapon right? There’s no point in testing it out without my gear."

"Were you always this quick thinking?"

"I’m not an idiot. Give me some credit ok?"

She gave a smirk before walking towards the hostel door while dusting her armor off.

"Here, take this."

I pa.s.sed her a long cloak that had been hanging on the wall.

"What’s this for?"

"If you walk around dressed like that in this neighborhood, something bad is bound to happen to you. Use common sense."

The man to woman ratio at the West Sea City was completely off. It was almost 9 to 1.

This meant it was very easy for a female hunter to get into trouble…even more so if she were to be dressed in armor that hugged every curve as hers did.

There were too many men in this city who were lacking in morals.

"Ho? Are you showing some jealousy? Possessiveness, perhaps?"

"That’s not it ok?"

It was because I didn’t need some unnecessary trouble to happen when it can be easily prevented. There was even that time when Sooah and Yeonkyoung stirred trouble at the market with that weasel and his crew. But I can’t deny that I did feel a little something. Maybe it was a bit of jealousy. Anyway.

If I wanted to upgrade the dancing sword again, I would need another 500 ores.

The ores I had left (invested in my manual) was 676. I decided to first gather enough ores to upgrade my manual first before I performed a second upgrade on the dancing sword.

"Where are we going?"

"Just follow me. I don’t want us to practice in an area with lots of people and end up becoming a spectacle."

"I was just curious hehe."

I don’t know why she was so happy but she was smiling ear to ear the entire time we traveled to our destination.

It was about 20 minutes of walking after leaving the city that we finally found an empty area.

Since there weren’t any monsters in this area, it made sense there wouldn’t be any hunters either.

"This spot looks good. If someone were looking this direction from far away, they won’t even notice we’re here."

This area was like a plain with few gra.s.s and trees. If there were any suspicious characters or monsters nosing around, we would be able to spot them right away. It was really not a bad place for some training.

Sooah looked around for a minute before she hugged the cloak around herself and said.

"Humm…what are you trying to do after bringing me to such a remote and empty place like this?"

"This."

I brought out a level 1 bow from my manual. This was something I had stored specially for Kelby to eat. Since it was an extra item, it didn’t take up a slot in my manual.

And aside from this item, I had a few more in storage that were broken.

"Can I really shoot you?"

"It’s fine. With your skill, I could easily dodge anything you shoot at

Nod.

She held the bow I handed off to her and pulled back the drawstring.

Though she didn’t have any real experience shooting with a bow and arrow, we were only 10 meters apart.

At this distance, even an absolute beginner should be able to hit their target.

"I’m going to shoot now."

"Whenever you’re ready."

Ping!

The arrow flew at me with a frightening speed. It might have been because she was strong but even without any archery skills, she was able to shoot one scary ammo. If I didn’t concentrate, I was sure I would find myself with an extra unwanted hole somewhere.

Ting!

But almost immediately the dancing sword parried the arrow away.

It was a pretty fast and strong arrow, but the sword was able to block it easily. I had a feeling the sword would be able to block at least level 2 attacks.

I made her shoot the arrow several times with different speed. But after confirming the sword continue to parry them all time and time again, I had her change tactics to a frontal a.s.sault.

Sooah took the level 3 b.a.s.t.a.r.d sword off her belt and held it up.

After telling the dancing sword to defend me, I stood in front of her.

I was a bit more frightened than before this time around. If I felt the sword couldn’t block her attack, I needed to act quick and dodge her myself so I needed to be all the more focused.

Even if it was me, I knew I wouldn’t escape unscathed if I were to receive a direct hit from someone wearing the Redemption Necklace that allowed her to copy my ability – speed in this case.

"Why don’t you start out attacking me using all the techniques you have. I want to know the extent of this sword’s abilities."

"I’ll start slow then."

"I’ll leave it to you."

"Ok! Haaaa!"

Slam.

She hit the ground hard as she jumped up into the air.

I thought she said she would start out slow….?

Clang!

The b.a.s.t.a.r.d sword and dancing sword clashed violently.

I worried that one or both of the blades would shatter but, surprisingly, the dancing sword was able to parry the ferocious attack made by Sooah with no issues – though it did get pushed back a bit.

But it was enough to shock Sooah so much that it kept her from making an immediate second attack.

"This…this doesn’t make any sense? I literally put all my strength behind that blow."

"I mean…so why did you go…um…from the start…"

"If I go easy on you, the test won’t be a test."

Sooah said with a bit of emotion mixed in her voice.

Did I do something wrong again?

Anyway, thanks to her help, I was able to finish the test on the sword’s defense and offensive abilities successfully. Put simply, the dancing sword was able to defend against even a level 4 attack.

We also confirmed that the dancing sword was unable to respond if Sooah were to copy my speed and move as fast as she could.

But since there aren’t too many people who would be able to move that quickly, I wasn’t overly concerned about that point.

I did find one thing that was lacking with its offensive ability. Since it was ‘blunt’ after all, cutting something was a foregone conclusion…it would only be able to deliver blunt force attacks.

I had it try and attack Sooah, but it was unable to hit her even once so I had her take off her Redemption necklace and try the test again.

This time, I told the sword to attack the ‘armor’ instead and it was finally able to get a few attacks in. Since her armor as the level 3 Arachne armor, she didn’t get hurt at all.

For now I would just have to make do with its defensive ability being the key point of the weapon.

Trying out different methods and fighting scenarios to fully understand the sword helped the time fly by.

Without even realizing it, almost two hours had pa.s.sed.

"Should we keep at it? I’m kind of hungry."

"Let’s stop here. I feel like we pretty much found out everything we need to know about this thing anyway."

I brought Kelby out.

"Why’d you bring him out?"

"Ah, to feed him this."

I gave the level 1 bow we had used during practice to the fella.

Chomp ChompGnas.h.!.+

"Ah, such a waste. It was probably worth 100k."

"No you can’t think of it that way. This guy has an important role in keeping everyone on the party safe. It’s an investment."

Seeing Kelby eat the bow with such vigor really stirred my appet.i.te.

Ignoring Sooah’s excited clamor to eat alone, I called everyone else and we headed over to where they were.