Chapter 71 - Test (1/2)

The larians had very simple attacks. They didn't even have claws. They were very small and couldn't bite either. The only thing they did to attack was to spew large amounts of fire from their mouth. It wasn't much of an attack, but they are always seen in groups of 10 or even larger.

With the larians rushing towards him. He didn't have much time to think about something else. The only plan that came to his mind was to throw them into the water to slow them down. He couldn't go to stealth and use cheap shot as he needed the larians to come close.

As they reached the shore, they began to slow down. He noticed that these larians were even smaller than he expected. He immediately recognized them to be all pups. This would make his work much easier. He ran towards them instead waving his garrote in one hand to aggro them. His stupid movements had somehow worked. They jumped towards him.

The only advantage he had against these were their small size. If he could get a hold of them without having attacked, he could throw them into the water with his strength. The larians began to bark instead of any kind of attack. ”Shit, these really are pups and they are calling for the older ones. How could I forget! This is a breeding ground,” thought Balthazar reminding himself of Barbotul's speech.

He needed to kill them quickly before the bigger ones come. He didn't worry about any damage and directly caught one of the pups by its leg. He swung it into the water behind him. The pup flew into the air and splashed into the water and began to yelp and sputter. Seeing that it was effective, he ran after the others too.

It was an easy chance to kill at least 50 of these monsters and he didn't want to miss any of them. Though the yelps of the pups seemed pitiful and heart breaking, he had no concerns about morality with them being the enemy. He was an assassin in real-life, and he had seen far too many die. He definitely wouldn't pause especially for a bunch of virtual monsters.

Soon, a couple of notification sounded in his ears. He was quite close to reaching level 9 and the notifications of death made him very happy. But even after 10 of them, he didn't level up. Confused he checked them in the log.

System: 1 Larian killed. Obtained 1 life essence from a monster of the dark faction.

”Shit! This damn test doesn't even give me experience!” he shouted loudly in anger. He has no chance of getting to level 9 in this manner. By this time, he had thrown almost all of the pups into the water. It was a simple task due to his high agility due to the leopard skin set he was wearing.

He soon heard the notification of the remaining pups dying. But the thing that concerned him was not that. It was the sudden barking of more larians that were coming towards him. It seemed that the pups yelping and wailing managed to successfully attract a few more big ones.

[Larian] (Common monster)

Level: 8;

HP: 3000/3000;

They were about a couple of hundred which were running towards him extremely angry and howling. They were about 2 feet tall and began to spouting fire out of their mouth. It was coming like it was a flame thrower. He immediately ran into the water to save himself, but the larians continued behind him.

It seemed that killing pups had put them berserk and continued to attack them despite them getting slow. Visible cracks were seen on the larians as they stepped into the water. The embers from them fell into the water causing smoke to rise. The water also crept into their joints producing steam and cracking their porcelain like skin.

But they continued into the water till only they began to form a line and attack him one after the other. They were taking turns use their attacks. There were like living flamethrowers. It was like a firing squad formed by multiple lines of the larians.

He was at a distance of 4 meters from them and could still feel the heat from their attacks. He began to run along the shoreline in the water to get away from them. With them being slow in water, it was a sensible option to escape from them.

It proved to be a sensible option as the larians couldn't follow him much far running in the water. A couple of them came close to Shadow, but it was very easy pickings for him. As they got brittle in the water and were already losing health a couple of hits cracked them into pieces. The only problem was to evade their flames.

If it became too hard to escape the fire, he could use his throwing knives through the fire to stop the larians. But he could only use if the situation was too grave. He had only 6 of the throwing knives which he could use. He had to retrieve them after each throw to make sure he didn't lose any. Luckily, a single throw shatter their skin and made them dizzy as they were in water.

This crazy chase continued for over 20 minutes in which a hundred and fifty of them got killed. Most of the damage wasn't even done by Shadow. The only thing he did was to make the finishing hit. They harmed themselves trying to kill him by entering the water. Sometimes a single kick by him just to escape their flames did the job.

As their numbers reduced, the larians came to their senses and made their way away from the shore. They couldn't do anything to shadow as long as he stayed in the water. When Shadow saw them retreating, he was really happy that the craziness was done. He was so tired that he fell down on his ass in happiness completely drenching himself in the water.

But a minute later, he realized that his quest required him to kill the larians. Though the past 20 minutes were crazy, he killed 50 pups and his notifications showed the death of over a hundred a.d.u.l.t larians.

He decided it was best to get up and move into the island to hunt more of these creatures. The spirit didn't give him a specific target on the number, and he had to attack and kill as many as he could so that the spirit would be satisfied once it returns. This probably is a quest whose rewards will be based on the number of larians, he kills.

He went into stealth and got out of the water and moved slowly towards the volcano. There wasn't much vegetation on the land and as he got close to the volcano top, it became a barren land filled with lava streams.

There were only a few stone building sparsely thrown on the land. In fact, he didn't notice before due to the larians attacking him. But most of these structures looked almost like the ruins on the floor of the lake.

It seems that the volcanic island was also a part of the same civilization which fell into ruins. The Spirit Guardian is probably a spirit bound by this civilization to the building to protect and sadly, it was only one remaining of that place still stuck at the lake bottom due to a binding spell or item.

The island had only one species, the larian which were drinking the lava from the hill. These beasts need a source of fire to grow and lava is one of the best sources. There were a few small mold like red colored vegetation growing by the lava streams which were being consumed by the larians.