Chapter 118: To Catch a Predator (1/2)

Merlin accepted the quest

"You wont have to travel far, several wildcats live in the patches of forest just outside of the walls" Tuli warned "Please don't travel too far, as you may encounter threats far above your current capabilities"

"Thank you" Merlin said, before adding on another question "Oh, by the way, are there any stores that sell good bows in the area?"

"There are a few, but your best bet would probably be theup the slab of bark and disappearing behind a corner

Merlin thanked her before walking out of the building, he noticed that so around at the front desk, and one of the people as filling in a forh the door, a large red alert box appeared before hie fro the server down in roughly an hour Due to some technical difficulties on our end, we're unable to collect data So there will be no briefing at the end of today's session either

Not to worry, your progress will still be saved and we'll be running at full capacity next week

You will receive another notification when it is ti out

If you do not leave by that time you will be forcibly disconnected, pleaseout

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'I guess they're still scraht to hi back down the hill towards the

Once he reached the front of the building he opened the door and walked in, what greeted hie shelves that were packed full with a large variety of wares He was greeted by a workerCould you point me in the direction of bows, please?" Merlin asked

The worker pointed towards the weapons section, and Merlinby a section full of nothing but clothes

Merlin walked past a vast array of ed weaponry There didn't seee, so he was libow made from a relatively pale wood and inspected the stats

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[Maple Longbow (Coth: 15

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"Not bad" Merlin old pieces

He looked around at a few shortbow alternatives, but they didn't really have the dabow did Of course, they would have different benefits that could suit him in other scenarios, but at the e output

He wanted a recurve bow, but even the cheapest one ell out of his budget and hardly worth the price Merlin eventually settled for the bow arrows, priced at two silver coins each

He finalised his purchase, leaving him at a paltry sum of fifty silver and two copper

Merlin was now ready to set out on his journey He threw one quiver into his inventory and equipped the other at his side He climbed back up the hill and approached the wall, there was a large open portcullis with four guards standing by

"Good ateway

It was still dark out, so Merlin suht and left towards the nearest patch of forest The area around him was still e than on the other side of the wall

Merlin noticed the rerown, and if it were still used as a road, it clearly wasn't used very often

Merlin slipped into the forest, his ball of light clearly giving away his position Merlin didn't bother with hiding his presence for now, he was looking for so It took him a few minutes but he found it, a tall wildfloith purple bell-shaped flowers

Merlin pulled out one of his arrows and plucked one of the flowers fro the arrow tip with as e

There was a reason plants were brought up in the training after target practice It was supposed to give you a hint of how to conificantly ramped up in difficulty compared to the first two

One arroould never be enough to kill the wildcat at such a low level If you could even find one, so you were supposed to use poisons to disable it If you failed to disable it in one shot, it would run away and you would never be able to catch up to it

Once Merlin had coated the arrow, he cancelled his light, causing his surroundings to instantly darken to an almost pitch black The issue was that his eyes were used to the light, and he had to wait a few minutes for his eyes to properly adjust to the darkness once more

Merlin's eyes had finally adapted, and when they did he i his presence He stalked around the forest for what seeli atop a fallen tree

The silhouette appeared to be stalking a s under the shelter of a tree with low hanging branches

Merlin silently nocked his poisoned arrow and began holding his breath as he watched the silhouette slowly prowl closer to the deer herd