The hunter

Sounds of an ongoing battle echoed over a sparsely populated pink meadow.

A raggedly dressed man wearing flashy trousers could be seen fighting a mutated animal whose sounds of struggle were getting louder and louder as its body was scored multiple times by the man's weapon.

The man raised his weapon, a crude-looking spear, and stroke at the creature's upper body with all his might. The plague hopper evaded the first few blows but the many small cuts on its hind legs and ankles restricted the beast's movements allowing for the 5th blow of the spear to connect.

*Squelch*

Blood and guts spilled from the monster's body, colouring the ground in a sickly-looking green colour. The man changed his grip on the weapon preparing to execute thrusting movement when he heard a shrieking sound coming from nearby shrubbery.

"You won't allow me to kill another one of your kin so easily, will you?" The man said, a small smile forming on his face. He turned his body towards the direction two new plague hoppers just arrived from. "Luckily this one was only level 2 and didn't require me using Dodge or Lunge." The man, Delvin, uttered under his breath looking at the unmoving, but still breathing, plague hopper.

The two fresh monster's carried the same appearance of every other plague hopper Del had seen so far; dark green fur with protruding venomous spines, a hunched back and sharp, elongated teeth. The monsters moved closer to their injured brother, sniffing and licking it much like wolves did when one of their pack members was wounded. This action granted Del the time needed to successfully Inspect them.

Del learned in previous fights that Inspect activated only when he focused his vision and willpower on an entity for a full 2 seconds; any shorter and the skill wouldn't register.

[Plague Hopper] (Common)

Level 4

HP: 55

[Plague Hopper] (Common)

Level 5

HP: 68

"A Level 5 Hopper, its front paws appear to have grown serrated claws." Del had been hunting level 3 and 4 plague hoppers for some time now; this was the first level five he had faced so far. The only visible difference Del could make out were the claws on the monster's front legs. "I'll have to be careful around those, they seem to be infused with venom."

The hoppers turned their attention to the human who mauled their sibling and screeched violently as their mouths foamed with green mucus, coating their disgusting teeth in venom.

Del braced for impact when the weaker hopper rushed towards him, fangs bared and eyes aimed; the stronger one circled around Del's left side in an attempt to flank him.

Delvin wouldn't give it the chance.

Activating Lunge and Dodge in quick succession, Delvin dodged the weaker hopper's foul bite and buried his knee in the monster's abdomen. He then brought the blunt end of his spear into the monster's skull, sending it crashing into the ground.

A quick 180 degree rotation of the spear saw Delvin smash the pointed end of the spear in the monster's head while activating the Thrust skill. The stronger hopper was already moving towards Delvin when it saw how he performed this series of moves within seconds, but the damage its brother received was already done.

[Plague Hopper]

Level 4

HP: 23/55 (Severe brain hemorrhaging, Critical concussion)

Delvin continued to hack and slash away at the stunned hopper in hopes to knock out the fight completely but the level 5 one got there too fast.

Instead of the easily dodgeable bite attack which all previous hoppers made, the overlevelled hopper made a series of swipes and slashes at Delvin's legs; a single cut and his bloodstream would be invaded by the paralysis-inducing venom.

Delvin defended with a flurry of parries and blocks but his Stamina wouldn't allow for a prolonged fight. 'I have to wail it down, bit by bit and use the ring to get an HP advantage.' He had used Nature's Grace three times already during his hunt when the fighting got too close for comfort.

The Hopper stopped its assault in order to execute another new move Del hadn't seen before. The green mucus in the monster's mouth congealed around its tongue and shot out of the opened mouth towards Delvin's head.

He dodged the flying ball of poison as easily as he did a projectile stinger earlier today. "My reflexes are too fast for you lil' guy." He dived forward when he dodged the attack followed by extending his spear-hand forwards and stabbing the monster's shoulder.

Delvin tried to drive to spear deeper into the monster's flesh but the hopper reacted to this by rapidly hopping backwards, causing Del to stumble onto his belly.

*SCREECH*

The monster shrieked as it took the advantage of the human's loss of balance. It jumped forwards and slashed the human's body as he was getting up from the ground. The human let out a squeal of pain and the hopper lunged forward, aiming its prized teeth and claws at the human's neck.

"Aargh! Fuck you! Hiyaa!" Del pushed his spar horizontally across the monster's open mouth, acting as a shield. The force of the monster's jump sent Del stumbling backwards, but he capitalized on this backwards momentum by intentionally falling to the ground, sending the monster flying a short distance

Del rose to his feet just as the hopper was preparing another charge, giving him a brief moment of respite to pick up a handful of dust which was thrown at the monster's eyes moments before its talons could tear into Del's throat.

The hopper rolled into a ball-like shape and started screeching violently while gnawing away at its eyes in an attempt to remove the pesky dirt cluttering its vision. Del exploited this short moment to assess the situation and check his own health points.

HP: 42/67 (Mild poison – Paralysis)

The hopper's quick two-three swiped took more than a third of Del's HP, while he had only dealt 10 damage. Realizing Nature's Grace won't secure his victory, Del started sprinting towards the near-dead Level 2 Hopper.

Del threw the Eshewed Spear towards the hopper's body, piercing it and killing it on the spot.

[You have slain Lvl.2 Plague Hopper(Common)]

[You have received 17.5% exp]

Del jumped over the downed hopper's body while picking up his spear and continued sprinting forwards; towards where the Level 4 hopper was slowly recuperating from the concussion effect.

Seeing the clarity slowly returning to the monster's eyes, Delvin gave it no time to breathe as he bulged his right-arm muscles and fired his spear towards the beast's cracked skull.

*Thup* Was the sound of spear connecting with skull and the sound following that one was the sound of coming victory.

*DING*

[You have slain Lvl.4 Plague Hopper(Common)]

[You have received 25% exp]

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 5!]

Del's body was briefly enveloped in golden particles, hiding it from the Level 5 hopper's eyes who had just recovered. The monster's puzzled look was one that Delvin was going to remember as his sweat, blood and wounds all disappeared when he levelled up. 'It even removes debuffs like poison. Good to know.' Delvin thought.

"Round two lil' guy, can you dance some more?" Delvin asked mockingly. The hopper seemed to understand it was being taunted, that or it had lost all sense of reason, because when those words left Del's mouth the monster surged forward at much higher speed than before.

But with the loss of its rationality, the monster failed to account for the difference in reach between itself and the opponent. Delvin activated Slash and managed to score a nasty gash on the beast before its claws could ever hope to touch Del.

Del's refunded Stamina bar allowed him to execute the high-cost combo of Dodge, Lunge and Thrust which had become his go-to combo for finishing off fights. A quick dash invited the monster closer which, combined with his increased dodging rate, resulted in the hopper's right side being left completely open; a swiftly-executed, high-efficiency Thrust dislodged multiple internal organs.

The strategy Del applied for the rest of the fight was hit-and-run, he made one or two shallow cuts while always maintaining a safe distance from the beast's claws, spines and teeth. This allowed him to slowly but surely impose his style of fighting on the monster, ending the fight a few minutes after the crucial Thrust.

[You have slain Lvl.5 Plague Hopper(Common)]

[You have received 15% exp]

"Whew, adding points to both strength and perception when I hit level 4 was smart, but I should bump both VIT and END and get them to 10 if I want to maintain a sense of security; add three points to VIT and one point to both endurance and agility." He also added one point to agility when he reached level 4.

"Man, I've been hunting them for almost five hours already. I'll check the nearest Safe zone before going back to my cave." Del had scoured the pink meadow far and wide for any forms of life. All he found were plague hoppers. 'Only one more monster remaining until I lose the experience buff.'

He had found 21 plague hoppers before he faced these last three one after the other. "Based on all of these fights, the Defense of armour pieces directly correlates to lower damage received; the exact math of damage and defense conversion still eludes me but one thing I do know is that Critical Hits are OP." When he drove his spear through the head of the Level 4 Hopper he had achieved a 'Critical Hit' which doubled the damage enemies received.

The various positive effects of good gear opened Del's eyes to the power of items and he resolved to acquire more powerful one. But upon looking at his inventory, Del struggled to find potential room to house the many items he hoped to possess in the future.

The inventory was packed with various poisonous sacs, fangs, pancreases and eyes. All very much toxic and very much useless to the current Delvin; but upon looting the higher-levelled hopper's corpse Delvin got, apart from the credits and aforementioned body parts, a new type of loot called 'Weapon Material'

< Alpha Plague Hopper's Claw > (Uncommon)

-Material (Weapon)

The serrated edges of this sharp claw are laced with paralyzing venom which induces paralysis and hallucinations on all beings below Tier 1.

If treated by a well-learned blacksmith or armourer this small claw could be fashioned into a dagger/dirk type weapon.

---

"I'll have to give weapons-making a go when I find some free time. Experimenting with monster drops could end up yielding ways of making them into valuable resources." Del said when he read through the description of the hopper's claw. "But not now, 300 meters to the south and I'll locate the last zone of the day." He said as he started walking towards the marker on his map.

Del discovered 3 zones in the past five hours and all of them were either moss-filled caves or dark, cold hollows. He reached the location of the latest safe zone and before entering was awarded with a delightful notice.

[Due to your action, the system has awarded you with the skills: Sprint(U), Throw(U)]

[Please open your 'Skills' tab for further inspection.]

"Well this is simply fabulous, looks like a whole afternoon of experimentation didn't go to waste." Del was going to call the newly unlocked skills' information when he heard a *swish* sound.

Del immediately activated Lunge and if he hadn't his head would have been pierced by an arrow coming from the safe zone. Before Del could call out to his would-be assassin, he was greeted with three fastely approaching arrows