Second World

They would need to hunt 100 Crowing Birds to complete their hunting quest. Good thing the birds were not as strong. For the Horned Rhino, they needed to kill ten. They proceeded to approach the second Horned Rhino in the vicinity. Around it was also some Crowing Birds, but not as much as the first. Using the same approach, they dispatched those monsters without a hitch.

After getting used to the two monsters, it didnʼt take long for them to complete their quota. They then proceeded to the next territory to hunt the last monster in their hunting quest. They went further North across the vast savannah. There were more Horned Rhinos and Crowing Birds as they passed through the yellow sea of grass. Jack led the way by utilizing his radar so they did not engage in any unnecessary fight.

While on the move, he noticed one red dot which attracted his attention. The reason was the red dot was larger and had a darker shade on it. He had encountered such a red dot before. The first time was when he encountered the Skeleton Captain.

At first, he thought that the dark red dot was indicating an elite or higher grade monster, but he had met several elite monsters but not all of them had the dark red color. The other time was when he went to fight the Horned Ogre boss. And the most recent was when he was facing Winston when he was possessed by the Cardinal of Phobos.

From those experiences, he could deduce that this different representation of the red dot was not showing that the monster was special grade, but instead indicating that the opponent was much stronger compared to his current self.

And the degree of dark tone was different. For the Skeleton Captain, its red dot was only tainted by a little bit of dark hue. While possessed Winstonʼs red dot was much darker. He summarized that the larger the gap of power between them, the darker the hue was. This one on his radar at the moment was almost as dark as Possessed Winston. He immediately went alert from the revelation.

”Stop!” He said.

”Whatʼs the matter?” Bowler asked.

”We need to circle around, follow me,” Jack said in a low voice. The large dark red dot was still a distance away from them, but he didnʼt dare to take a risk. If the thing could hear them or have a larger scope of sense, then they would be done for. The thing could kill them all in a blink of an eye if it possessed the strength in comparison to Possessed Winston.

”Why do we need to go around?” Bowler asked again with a low voice, imitating Jack, ”and why are we whispering?”

”There is a very strong monster in that direction,” Jack didnʼt keep the truth from them.

”How do you know?” The Man asked.

”Bro here can detect the positions of monsters and players around him,” Bowler explained.

”Really?” The Man exclaimed, impressed.

”Really, now keep your voice down,” Jack said.

”But I see nothing, except for a hill there,” The Man said in a whisper.

”Maybe itʼs hiding behind the hill.”

Just as Bowler finished his sentence, the small hill budged. At first, each of them thought something was wrong with their eyes. They blinked and wiped at it, when they realized all of them were doing the same action, they realized the problem was not with their eyes. They looked back at the hill, it was shuddering now, yet they felt no earthquake.

”Could it be…,” Bowler uttered with a shaking voice.

A loud roar was heard as the brown hill rose up on four legs. Now they could see the full appearance of the creature. Even from this distance, they could see how colossal the monster was. It had a jagged back with a hardened surface, which was the reason they had mistaken it for a rocky hill when it was lying down.

Its four massive legs were covered by rocky scales, with large and sharp claws at the ends. Even without the claws, Jack had no doubt the weight of the leg itself could pummel them into meat paste. It had a tail that swung around wildly, as if it was flexing after a long nap.

Its head was covered with sharp spikes all over, with equally sharp teeth along its elongated mouth. Its eyes were small considering its proportion, but Jack was sure it would be larger than a basketball if he could measure it. The brown snake-like eye darted back and forth, surveying the surroundings.

The four of them instinctively laid flat on the ground, didnʼt dare to make any noise. Even the reckless The Man was pale as if he had seen a ghost. They heard the creature started moving as the sound of its footsteps echoed in the air. Their bodies tensed when they realized the footsteps sounded louder with each step. They could see its silhouette through the gaps between grasses. Was it coming towards them?

Jack felt bad for had brought them out here. It was fine for him since dying for him only meant losing some experience due to his Immortal Soul, but it was not the case for the others. If this creature had discovered them, he would put himself to block it while the others tried to escape. It was the least he could do. Although he was not sure how much time he could provide, considering the monster could probably kill him with a single slap.

As they were lying still with their hearts beating at an insane rate, the sounds of footsteps slowly receded. They looked at each other. The creature was leaving? They stayed down for some more time, didnʼt dare to lift their heads to check. Only after the footstep sounds were very faint that they gathered their courage to take a look.

They could still see the large monster in the distance. It was trampling around the Savannah, scaring the other monsters away. It was heading to a landscape with rows of mountains in the distance. After making sure that they were out of danger, they finally exhaled a breath of relief.

”That was insane! I donʼt know monster like that exist here,” Bowler exclaimed. ”Anyone did an inspect on that thing?”

”Are you stupid or something? We were busy hiding from it, where did we get the time to take a peek and Inspect on it?” The Man spat.

”Good thing that it was a distance from us. If we entered its range of detection, we would be done for,” Flame added.

”I think we do enter its range, but since we were hiding, it didnʼt notice us,” Jack said as he remembered to have seen the silhouette through the grass. That meant the creature was passing close enough to them.

”But how did it not notice us?”

”As long as the creature didnʼt discover us with its sense, they would not know we are nearby even though we stood right next to it,” Jack explained.

”What? Really?”

”Wait, you guys donʼt know? You guys never tried ambushing a monster before?”

”What ambush, mostly it was monsters ambushing us,” Bowler said.

Jack looked at Flame, ”You have the Silent Step skill, you never used it to your advantage?”

Fierce Flame shook her head weakly. But Jack didnʼt blame them, he had also rarely ambushed a monster, the first was when he first met the Skeleton Thug. Since then he mostly just faced the monsters directly.

”You should try it,” Jack said. ”You can score extra damage from a sneak attack that way. It was a good way for initiating combat.”

Bowler smiled wryly, ”easy for you to say, bro. You have the ability to detect monstersʼ positions. Most of the time we donʼt even know there are monsters until it was right next to us. By then, it would have seen us already.”

”What was that monster anyway?” Flame asked. Her gaze was still on the monster that was now very far already.

”I donʼt know, but if not for Broʼs detection skill. We might have stumbled onto it unknowingly,” Bowler said.

They went silent afterward, contemplating it. The wilderness of this world was much more dangerous than they imagined, if they could stumble into such a monster unknowingly. The guilds had made the right decision by being careful and focused on strengthening themselves first before exploring.

”It was a young Land Behemoth,” Jack suddenly heard Penielʼs voice in his mind.

😉