[Quest Partially Cleared: Become Stronger!]
[Quest has expanded!]
[Become Stronger!
[The host's current rating is: garbage!
Now that the host has entered the White Desert they may become stronger!
Objective 1: Hunt Beasts [0/100]
Objective 2: Hunt Giant Whitescale Serpent [0/1]
Reward 1: Restoration of item: Worn Out Ruby Ring
Reward 2: ???
Failure to achieve Objective 1: Death
Time Limit: 3 months.]
Upon entering the desert, Furio's quest window updated, giving him two tasks to accomplish.
Furio sighed upon seeing what he had to do, but it did not seem totally impossible.
One hundred beasts may have seemed like a huge number, but hunting coyotes and other such animals would not be of a massive difficulty.
'A giant serpent though?'
He had heard of the giant whitescale serpent before, and was thus not eager to hunt it.
"Hm, but it doesn't say I have to achieve objective two?"
Objective one was mandatory, promising death upon failure
Objective two on the other hand only promised a unrevealed reward upon completion.
Furio was not an idiot, and understood that whatever the reward was, it would probably be quite great considering its difficulty.
Still, a whitescale serpent's scales had innate magic resistance, so he was not at all confident that his magic bullets could pierce through.
'I'll burn that bridge when I get to it, I suppose.'
...
Furio quickly came to the realisation that reversing his sleep schedule was a smarter move.
The White Desert, true to its name, was composed of white sand.
If it were a beach, perhaps Furio could appreciate it's beauty, but in this situation, it was horrendous.
The sun's rays harshly reflected off its surface, causing a blinding effect.
On top of the intense heat, it meant moving around the desert during day was borderline impossible for him.
So, he set up a tent he had bought previously and slept during the day.
The tent, made from a special material, helped ward off some of the heat, although it was still very uncomfortable.
As night set, Furio awoke and set off to hunt.
Even though it was extremely dark, Furio was able to see strangely well.
"...Do I have night vision?"
In the darkness, his deep blue eyes shimmered mysteriously.
With this ability, Furio's confidence had skyrocketed.
He would not be at a great disadvantage against the predators of the night this way.
Seeing a small scorpion crawling across the desert sand, it became his first victim.
"Magic Bullet."
Zzz!
The poor scorpion perished instantly.
[0/100]
Furio checked his status and saw that it had not increased the kill count for his quest.
He clicked his tongue in disappointment, but he was not particularly surprised.
Chances were he'd have to kill animals of a certain size for it to count.
Furio continued to wander the desert.
...
"Maybe it's time I head back home?"
A tall masked man wandered the desert, entirely unconcerned with the pack of coyotes growling at him.
His attire seemed entirely innapropriate for a desert, donning a formal suit.
"Run along, then."
With a single glare, the animals fled with their tails tucked between their legs, recognizing the predator in front of them.
The man expanded his senses, feeling the movements in a massive radius surrounding him.
"Oh?"
A mage, albeit a very weak one, was casting spells several kilometers away from him.
It seemed that he was hunting coyotes, similar to the ones that he had just scared off.
Naturally, someone of his caliber would have no interest in a low level mage, but he felt something strange.
The mana he was sensing.
It felt like an abyss.
"I suppose it won't hurt to stay here a little longer."
...
Hunting coyotes was neither easy nor particularly difficult.
They were normal animals lacking any form of magic resistance.
He had been hunting for two weeks, and had been able to kill twenty so far.
This number could have been much higher, but his accuracy with magic bullet at longer ranges was still poor.
'Still, the pace is satisfactory, right?'
His experience had increased to about thirty percent, with Blue greedily eating most of the coyotes.
Of course, Furio also had to eat, and saved some of them for himself.
Unfortunately, Blue eating did not satiate Furio's hunger.
"Have you grown?"
Previously, the worm was about the length of his pinky finger.
He now noticed that it had grown slightly, reaching the length of his ring finger.
He could not help but wonder how large the worm could grow.
The trait related to Blue was named 'dimension devouring worm', so naturally he wondered if such a small thing could grow large enough to, well, devour dimensions.
Progress was moving quickly, and Furio began to relax his guard in the desert.
He had been staying mostly on the outskirts thus far, too afraid to venture deeper inside, knowing there would be genuine monsters rather than the simple animals he had been hunting thus far.
He chewed on coyote meat whilst looking at the night sky.
'I'm almost at the second layer.'
One he reached that goal, he resolved to go deeper into the desert.
Right now, he would not dare to challenge the whitescale serpent that was recorded in his quest.
He lacked confidence in the piercing capabilities of his current magic bullet.
That was quite literally the only weapon he had in his arsenal, other than a simple hunting knife.
He knew damn well that he wasn't going to stab the snake, so all he could depend on was his spell, which he knew wouldn't be able to pierce the snake's magic resistant scales.
But, this conundrum could be resolved through becoming a second layer mage.
He would be able to attach a basic operation to the spell.
Rather than just being 'magic bullet' he could change it to become 'piercing magic bullet' or 'sharp magic bullet', significantly increasing the strength of the spell.
His familiarity with the spell had grown further, and he now felt as if he could take the bandits from a while ago on purely by himself.
Of course, he would need the stealth advantage.
With such thoughts, he drifted to sleep as the sun rose.
---
LOG 7 - DARK MAGES
Dark Mages are classified in many different ways as per the laws of various countries and empires, but it is generally agreed that Dark Mages use unstable forms of magics derived from the pain and suffering of living creatures. Rather than purely using the mana formed in their own bodies, they use offerings of blood and corpses to utilise spells far beyond what they can cast by themselves. Regardless, the distinction is rather arbitrary, as many archmages have done far more despicable acts in the name of research when compared to regular dark mages, but have faced no punishment. As they say, history is written by the victors.