Chapter 33 - To Blackrock hills (1/2)
He started to run after the rabbits in the carrot farm, but they completely outpaced him when they are running away and not attacking him. At the end of the farm, he could see a large rabbit with red eyes, fangs and horns. The other rabbits were placing carrots around it. He ate a piece of bread to fill up his HP.
[Monster Rabbit Leader] (Special Elite)
Level 2
HP 100
As soon as he came into its vicinity. The Rabbit leader began to attack him. It was far quicker than the others. The rabbit bit into his leg, before he could evade. A notification popped up along with a pop up of -5 over his head.
”You gave been bitten by Monster Rabbit Leader. Bleed effect has been cast.”
”You will lose 2 health once every 5 seconds”
It was already tough to handle the elite rabbits. Now this special elite even had a skill. None of this was posted on the forum by the person who finished the quest.
The rabbit leader was fast but not too fast for him to evade. It also had a higher defense value than the others. Every attack by Balthazar only caused the mandatory damage of 1point. The main problem with the rabbits was that they were small and attacked from multiple directions in a group.
When the rabbit leader attacked the rest moved aside to give it space. Noticing this, Balthazar focused his attention only on the rabbit leader. He slowly managed to whittle away its health without other injuries.
When the HP of the rabbit leader reached 20, it began to squeal loudly. It went into an enraged state. The squeals were clearly a call for help. A few of the elite monster rabbits joined it in the fight.
This was exactly what Balthazar was hoping would not happen. He was already forced to put his entire focus to avoid the skill of the rabbit leader. Now, more of the critters would be supporting it and his remaining health was just 75. The elite monster rabbits along with the leader would easily kill him in a minute.
He decided that it would be best to take down the rabbit leader as fast as while allowing the elite monster rabbits to attack him. He quickly ran towards the rabbit leader and sidestepped it as it jumped towards him. He immediately used his stab skill on its back side.
Due to the skill usage on a sensitive part of its body, the attack caused a damage of four points.
”Stab Skill completion rate:60%, caused 80% skill damage”
He quickly followed it and continued to deal damage. In five seconds,he reduced its health to 10. At the same time the elite also reduced his health by 20 points.
As the stab skill came off cooldown, he repeated the stab skill, but this time he chose his positioning properly and executed it striking the rabbit leader's eye.
A small red colored -7 popped amidst the string of -1s atop the rabbit leader's head.
”Stab Skill completion rate: 90%, caused 120% skill damage. Proficiency increased by 2 points.”
He quickly hit the rabbit leader three times with his dagger to end it's life. He received 30 experience points which is 50% more than the expected amount due to level difference of two. He had only 30 HP left.
”Completed quest: Help Hart to get rid of the rabbits from the carrot field. Report back to Hart for your reward.”
A few of the remaining elite monster rabbits continued to attack him, while the remaining ran away. Balthazar quickly killed the ones attacking him in a couple of minutes and went to loot the rabbit leader.
”[Rabbit's foot - Talisman] (White trash)
Level 1
Agility +2; Luck +5;
Durability 10/10;
To be equipped as an ornament”
He finally got it. The only reason for which Balthazar wasted his time on the rabbits which provided little experience points was this.
He knew that the chance of getting the rabbit's foot was low, but if he is the first one to kill it, the chances were a lot high, close enough to consider a guarantee drop. That's the reason he chose to complete this quest while others were levelling up outside the village.
It had been over 30 minutes since he started playing and almost all the players who started at the same time already levelled up.
Other than the rabbit's foot which he immediately equipped, he also looted a pair of monster rabbit fangs, a rabbit skin pelt and 20 coppers from the rabbit leader's corpse. The corpse immediately turned into white light like the rest. Now, he had a total of 18 rabbit skin pelts and 40 coppers that he received from killing in the carrot farm
He quickly went back to Hart's shop to complete the quest. A quick notification popped up indicating that he had completed the quest and was awarded 50 experience points and 20 coppers.
”Player levelled up, need 380 experience points for the next level”
Balthazar quickly checked and noticed that his strength and agility increased by two points while the remaining attributes by one point each. He also got 4 more free attribute points. He added 2 points to Strength and a point each to vitality and agility before he set off to exit the village.
He bought five health potions and two slowing poison bottles from Hart's shop. It cost him 50 coppers leaving him a meagre amount of 10 coppers. He also used these 10 coppers to buy a map of the surroundings from Hart. Maps were very useful in making decision in such new places. Though they cost 10 coppers which is hard to earn initially, it is in general recommended to get one.
After he spent more than 50 coppers at Hart's shop, a yellow dot appeared on Hart's head indicating, that he had another quest. He then remembered that many such NPCs would tend to have hidden conditions like making purchases after the previous quest to give a new one. It was similar to how merchants would get friendly with customers who make more purchases. He immediately asked Hart if he could be of some help to him
”A request was made to make a necklace from the shaman of a Jundal tribe. Could you please procure few wolf teeth.”
”Ding! You received a new quest. Procure wolf teeth for Hart”
[Procure wolf teeth for Hart] (Difficulty: Novice)
Progress: Wolf teeth obtained 0/30;
The first thing he did after that was to equip the rabbit's foot. Then he went to the weapons trainer to learn the basic Assassin skills. He quickly learned the skill Stealth.
”Stealth: Allows a player to move around unnoticed. Skill Level: 1; Instant Cast. Cooldown: 10 seconds.”