Chapter-12
Beast Hunting
Cover Art Credits: Evan Lunes (@suptlr on discord)
Ha-Jin dodged a punch from a 10 foot golem made of stone. He punched it right in the solar plexus, shattering it into tens of pieces of huge rock.
[Quest has been updated]
[You have finished the quest: Golem Slayer]
[Rewards are being evaluated]
[You have slain 63 golems]
[You will receive one Epic skill!]
"Phew.. it's finally finished." Ha-Jin let out a sigh of relief, not bothering to look at the new skill he had received as a reward for completing the quest.
"It's been a long time since I came into this 'realm' huh?" Ha-Jin muttered under his breath, sitting down on the rough and harsh ground of the rocky region he had fallen into because of a certain someone
Winter was approaching, making the atmosphere cool and nice.
"View Quest Window." Ha-Jin called out, making the cold, blue Interface appear before him.
[Quest: Getting Stronger]
[1. Train alone in the jungle. Status:Complete]
[2. Train in the jungle for 2 years. Status:Complete]
[3. Meet up with Jae-Woo. Status:In Progress]
[Time remaining: 13:43:39]
Ha-Jin laid back onto the ground. He was tired… tired of fighting for the past 2 years. He succumbed to his exhaustion, his vision slowly fading into darkness as he fell into the dreamworld.
Though not a dream, rather a memory, he dreamt of how he had gotten here, the journey of completing this combo quest…
***
Ha-Jin and Jae-Woo had just met up with Alex in the "training grounds" that Jae-Woo had prepared.
"What is this place? It's just the darn forest all over again." Ha-Jin asked, shifting his gaze from the tree covered forest to Jae-Woo who was grinning at them like those times when something bad was about to happen to them that he knew full well about, albeit never warned them.
"I don't like that gosh darn grin on your face.." Alex said in a calm tone as if he were used to this.
"Ah, don't mind me! I'm just a silly man, you see? This forest is just a normal forest, we'll be training by using these trees!" Jae-Woo said, the sarcasm practically dripping from his voice.
"Why don't you two go on first, I need to take a leak!" Jae-Woo cried out with excitement evident in his voice.
"Why are you so excited about taking a lea-" Ha-Jin tried to ask but was quickly cut off by Jae-Woo pushing him and Alex forward into a portal that appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
"JAE-WOO, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" Ha-Jin cried out before his voice was drowned out as he fell into the portal.
His eyes fluttered open to face a completely new region, a rocky terrain with no plants or trees of any sort whatsoever. A complete opposite of the forest he had been in just a second before.
There was no sign of life in this rocky terrain at all, just huge pieces of rocks that littered the ground.
"Ah.. right. My stats.. Since the Quest Window suddenly appeared after so long, it also said that my previous overall stat evaluation was wrong.. I forgot to check the new evaluation." Ha-Jin muttered under his breath before calling out to seemingly nothing. "Stat Check!"
[Name: Ha-Jin]. [Age:15]
[Title: Martial Artist]
[Strength]:A+
[Speed]:A
[Durability]:A
[Endurance]:S
[Mana]:???
[Intelligence]:A+
[Potential]:???
[Overall Stat Evaluation]:A+
"Oh, wow.. one of my stats is S rank? But what about my Mana and Potential? Why are there three question marks?" Ha-Jin thought.
He was deep in thought, letting his guard down since he didn't see anyone else in the terrain. The biggest Amateur mistake.
Three cracked ribs. From a single punch that seemingly came out of nowhere.
Ha-Jin saw a big furry mouse-like creature, cute and with fluffy fur but with a muscular body riddled with scars.
"Scratch cute from there, that thing is borderline terrifying!" Ha-Jin thought before throwing himself onto the mouse and punching it.
Instead of the beast recoiling in pain like Ha-Jin had thought, it was the opposite way around.
The fluffy fur of the beast was rock hard and as sharp as a blade.
[New Quest is being created]
[Quest:Run]
[Run for your life]
[Reward:2 Uncommon consumable items]
[Penalty:Death]
Ha-Jin didn't hesitate at all and sprinted away from the monster. "Pride goes to hell, I don't wanna die!" He thought, not daring to look back at the beast that he could feel was right behind him.
Ha-Jin hid behind a large boulder as the beast ran right by him. He let out a sigh of relief and started to catch his breath.
He quickly jolted his head to the left, barely avoiding a spear made of bone that instantly shattered the boulder he was hidden behind.
Shattered pieces of rock clattered on the ground of the rocky terrain, making it even harder to move around than it was before on the uneven ground of the terrain, albeit perfect for the beast or maybe beasts attacking him from all directions.
Spears made of solid and sharp bone shot out from the sky, which Ha-Jin had to keep avoiding to prevent himself from dying in this accursed terrain that Jae-Woo had sent him into.
As if that weren't enough, the huge boulders and rocks of the terrain started cracking and forming into golems nearly 12-15 feet high.
[A new Quest is being Generated]
[Beast Hunter]
[Slay 0/12 golems]
Reward: 1 Rare Active skill
[Slay Bone Master]
Reward: 2 Rare Consumable Cards
Ha-Jin ducked, dodging another spear. However, he was quickly thrown off his feet by one of the golems and smashed into the ground where the shattered pieces of rock still lay.
A look of horror spread across Ha-Jin's face as he saw the pieces of rock below him, a large spear of bone heading towards his head, its trajectory clear. It was definitely going to impale his head when he fell down.
Time seemed to slow down as Ha-Jin brainstormed ideas to possibly dodge the spear and save his life.
Ha-Jin's body almost as if it were moving automatically spun in the air, moving his body in the slightest manner to the left, barely dodging the spear.
Though, it was not without drawbacks. Ha-Jin's face was now facing the ground, where a huge piece of rock lay.
Ha-Jin's head hit the rock extremely hard, giving him a concussion.
The beasts, with somewhat intelligence of their own, realized their advantage in the situation and started targeting Ha-Jin.
One picked him up off the ground and trapped his arms in its powerful and rough grip. The other golems started ganging up on the restrained Ha-Jin as another spear soared through the sky, heading straight for Ha-Jin and the golems.
Ha-Jin was healed a lot quicker because of his Regeneration skill. Realizing the presence of the spear that would clearly kill him, Ha-Jin used all his power to turn around. The golem who was holding him now faced the spear's incoming wrath. The other golems realized this as well and tried to scurry away, tripping over each other and falling onto Ha-Jin, creating a powerful shield of some kind.
A warm, crimson colored liquid trickled down Ha-Jin's forehead as he got up, pushing away the large pile of shattered rocks that used to be Golems.
[Quest 1 completed]
[You will be awarded 1 Rare Active Skill]
"Reveal Skill" Ha-Jin commanded as The Interface appeared in front of him once again.
[Dempsey Roll]
[Rarity:Rare] [Grade:F]
Description: The Ultimate Boxer, Heh
Reveal Full Description?
Ha-Jin ignored the description and focused on the fight at hand, dodging spears, though barely.
[You are using your Main Skill]
[You have strengthened your eyes]
Ha-Jin looked around, spotting a huge creature made of bones and only bones. A large skull rested on top of its torso as its head. It had large teeth, covered in blood. It held a humongous bow, one of the huge Bone Spears already ready to be shot.
The creature was standing in the middle of wolves and probably the entire family of the mouse-like creature that had appeared before him before he ran into this mess.
As Ha-Jin had spaced out to locate the beast that was throwing the spears at him, the previous mousey beast slashed him on the torso with its long and sharp claws that were now bloody.
"Shit!" Ha-Jin cried out as he lost his balance and ended up getting hit by one of the spears, right in the stomach.
Blood spurted out of his nose and he coughed out blood, blood pouring from the hole that was created by the spear passing right through his stomach.
Ha-Jin tried to fight again, knowing that if he fell unconscious right now, he would enter that "state" of instinctual fighting once again. He knew full well the drawbacks of that skill that never appeared in his skill menu no matter how much he searched.
It damaged his body severely every time he used it. Hell, he didn't know if he would have even survived the drawbacks had it not been for Jae-Woo and Joo-Hee.
Ha-Jin's body gave up and dropped to the floor, luckily dodging another spear.
"It.. hurts so much…" Ha-Jin thought, his mind giving in to the pain, it was too much for his body, even if it were, it was unbearable for the mind of a teenager.
Before Ha-Jin succumbed to the pain completely and fell into the realm of unconsciousness, he saw one last notification from the Interface that filled him with dread.
[Activating Auto-Battle Mode]
When Ha-Jin came to his senses once again, he was sitting on top of the mouse-like beast, holding one of its broken claws in his hand, lodged in the monster's heart.
The monster's head was nowhere to be seen, it had been roughly and painfully ripped from its neck.
Ha-Jin's gaze fell upon his right hand. The fingers of his right hand were twisted and mangled, the tip of a Bone Spear stuck on the palm of his hand.
Blood poured out of his palm as Ha-Jin let out a cry of pain as an Interface notification popped up in front of him.
[Activating ??? Rarity Skill: Regeneration (Grade:C+)]
Before Ha-Jin could console himself and relax to heal his arm better, he heard a shrill cry come from the cliff that the "Bone Master" was standing upon, snapping Ha-Jin out of the pain.
The Bone Master leaped from the cliff, descending right in front of Ha-Jin as a determined look spread across his face as he got up, getting ready to fight for his life once again.