Chapter 183 - Night Hunting (1/2)

”You guys have a pet, yet?” asked Shadow as they entered.

”I have one,” said Rudra pointing to his eagle which was perched on his shoulder.

”Not that. I mean nocturnal ones. I would suggest a nighthawk eyas if you want a scouting pet. They have more here,” said Shadow.

”Ok. Slaine can get that, but what about the rest of us? I hope you didn't want all of us to buy scouting pets, did you?” asked Perennial Light. ”Just scouting pets aren't enough to fight in the night. We have heard of players attempting it already.”

”No. That is not what I had in mind,” replied Shadow. ”I have found a light source which can be tied to a bird's feet and with it in the air, we can have a good source of light. It will be much easier with that in the air providing us guidance. I wanted birds so that they can stay in the air away from the other beasts.”

”But it is true. We don't need all of us to buy the scouting beasts. There are variety of nocturnal beasts which you could go and check,” said Shadow taking them to the second floor. After some time, Slaine ended up with a nighthawk, while Perrenial Light took a rock python to support his physical attacks. He was a druid who had got a unique staff from the Shrine similar to Merlin and it mainly had magical attacks and support spells. So, he decided to follow a magical type build for himself and chose a physically strong pet. The three of them all bought a pet pouch.

Once they were outside the store, Shadow took the team outside the Welog town to hunt. At the gates, he had tied the equipment to his pet, so that two containesr containing two fireglows each were attached to each of the bird's legs. As it flew a few meteres above them, it threw a mild light all over the place. Though it is not the same as sunlight during day time or even like having a lantern, it still allowed a player to observe his surrounding to a certain range.

”The range is quite small, but I doubt we can use the lamps for scouting. It is like painting a target over yourself,” said Slaine. ”It could still be killed by a beast in the forest unless it can fly higher.”

”It can, but the light that comes down to us will be very mild. It won't be of much use for us then. That is why I want to go beyond these small woods to reach this place,” said Shadow sending them an image of the map on which the directions to the salamandrids habitat were marked. He had made an image of his path after he had killed the salamandrids.

”We can get hold of more fireglows at this place, but it is very dangerous and will be filled with high level monsters. The fireglows will be along with salamandrids which are level 18 beasts and even attacking them physically inflicts fire damage on us. But once, we have more fireglows we can hunt during the night increasing our level faster than the others,” said Shadow explaining his plan.

”You got those from killing those salamandrid?” asked Rudra.

”Yes.”

”Knowing you, you would have killed more if possible. What stopped you?”

”It is dark, and I need someone to keep a lookout when I am attacking them. I could be ambushed by other beasts. I got these in the early stages of twilight. Now, there might be more beasts prowling around. So, we need to have lookouts capture the fireglows and kill the salamandrids quickly,” said Shadow.

”Ok. Let us go. I will be the scout along with Roll,” said Slaine. ”The rest of you can focus on the beasts and insects. We have already emptied our bags at the bank and stocked up on health and mana potions like you told us.”

”I need to explain more about the place. There will be random burst of fire from the ground and lava from the air occasionally. We need to be very careful. By the way, did you guys hear of any fire protection items or consumables?”

”No, didn't hear of such items yet and based on the thing you just told, is it really advisable to get to the place for a few of fireglows can't we get them anywhere else. We can also use the ones available right now,” said Perennial Light.

”We won't be going deep into the region. Just skimming the outskirts. The deeper parts near the volcanoes don't have low level monsters. We just need to be on lookout for the occasional big ones. We all have scopes and we plan to have two of us on lookout permanently during this hunt for the bugs. So, it is quite safe. The chance of a random attack from the surroundings like ground fire or lava spouts is much less on the fringes of the place,” said Shadow trying to convince Light.

”Let us try it out. If we get more fireglows, it is a good thing. If we notice any danger coming towards us, we can evade and then channel our hearthstones. At worst, we will die once and lose 10% experience points. It is nothing bad. With the unique equipment, we already are stronger than those with a level or two more than us,” mediated Rudra deciding to attempt it once.

They slowly made their way through the forest. Realizing that nighthawk could be killed easily with such a low light if it hung low among the trees, they decided to pit it Perennial Lights armor as he was the magical class player and coudl attack from a distance. The dim light of the fireglows actually attracted quite a few of the beasts of the forest. Luckily, the half of the team were at level 16 and the others at level 15 with three of them having unique weapons and they were fighting beasts at level 15 or 16 at the very most. They kept killing them and managed to travel in the forest for about 40 minutes before it became hard.

”The light is attracting too many beasts,” said Perennial light. Brick and Rudra have already taken out shield and were using it to block the attack of the beasts continuously.

”We could just put the lights in our bag temporarily scout using the night hawks and make way till our destination. We are already quite close to it. Would just take 10 minutes,” suggested Roll.

”Ok. We will try that out. Perennial keep the lights away. We will go ahead in the dark after we clear these wolves,” said Shadow agreeing with the decision of the others. Perennial Light put the lights inside and they cleared up the beast around them before they let out the two nighthawk eyases. Perennial Light also released his pet, the python to stay close behind one of the nighthawks as guard while Slaine guarded his own pet. Shadow and Roll went into stealth and took the lead in scouting the forest as they slowly made way to their destination.

In another 20 minutes, they reached their destination. The rest of the team were quite surprised to see the environment there. It was their first time experiencing such a hot climate in the game and they started to notice the effects it had on them. Shadow had already warned them about the climate during their journey, but none of them felt it good enough.