Chapter 8: Level Up

[Game Starts]

[All players are expected to leave the castle]

[A mission has been assigned to each player]

Seeing the giant screen in the air, Adam immediately opened his own system screen.

On The Hanged Man card screen, a new text in glowing red had appeared.

[Mission]

[Kill ten level C beasts and sacrifice 30 Chaos points to The Hanged Man]

[0/30]

"Level C beasts? That's equivalent to a Unicorn Wolf," Adam murmured to himself.

The players began preparing their equipment and hurriedly left the castle. Among them were Elly and Leon, who now appeared better.

Adam took the time to change the bandages on his shoulder wounds before making other preparations.

Armed with weapons like military knives, arrows and bows, and other equipment like a small backpack and a metal water bottle, Adam was ready to leave the castle and carry out his mission.

The players dispersed.

Adam realized one crucial thing about this second wave. "The prohibition against killing only applies inside the castle, which means the rule doesn't apply outside the castle. The holder of The Fool card will exploit this to reduce the number of players."

Not only him, most players realized this gap. That's what made them choose different paths from each other. No one could be trusted at this point.

Adam took the path towards the sunrise. He considered taking a different route from where the Gigantic Boar had gone earlier.

With missions to complete, shortly after dawn, the castle became empty.

Twenty minutes into the forest, Adam faced the fact that finding level C beasts was quite difficult.

"System!"

[System Ready]

"Can you detect the nearest beast?"

Without a text response, the System immediately adjusted the minimap shape and displayed a dark circle with several white dots inside.

[Detection coverage area is one hundred meters from the Host]

[Points on the minimap indicate the location of the Beast]

[Color differences correspond to different levels of beasts]

[Beast E-None]

[Beast D-White]

[Beast C-Blue]

[Beast B-Black]

[Note: Beasts A and above cannot be detected by the minimap]

Adam scrutinized the minimap carefully.

There were six points in different directions. There was even a white point in the direction Adam came from.

"Level C beasts are marked with blue dots," he muttered while examining the points. And all the points were just white.

Adam expanded the detection range by continuing to walk through the dense forest. Surprisingly, his archery skills hadn't diminished. Previously, he had just assumed it was luck when he managed to shoot the Rabbit Pendant in one shot, but now the same thing happened.

[Blue Fox-D]

With precise aim, the arrow pierced the skull of the fox with its beautiful light blue fur.

[Experience points gained: 6/10]

Aside from completing the mission, Adam also planned to upgrade The Hanged Man card from level 0 to level one. And that required four more experience points.

He spent two hours wandering through the wilderness, constantly detecting the presence of level C beasts.

As his spirits began to wane, a blinking blue dot appeared in his minimap detection range. Adam widened his eyes, feeling a surge of excitement in his heart.

He hurried towards the dot.

Hiding in the bushes, Adam saw a heavily furred sheep. What set it apart from ordinary sheep was that its facial proportions looked menacing. Its eye shape was round, and there was a red line from the base of its eyes to its chin. Its mouth was wavy, resembling a Halloween pumpkin mouth. The sheep was viciously preying on a white squirrel.

[Ghost Sheep-C]

Ignoring its eerie appearance, Adam immediately prepared his aim. With a steady hand, he aimed at the sheep's head. As he released the arrow, it flew silently towards its target. However, in a sudden move, the sheep's head lifted, and it leaped, dodging the arrow which then pierced through the body of the white squirrel.

Adam didn't expect this outcome. For the first time, his shot missed!

The Ghost Sheep immediately growled angrily, looking around.

Adam remained silent in the bushes, already preparing for a second shot. "It'll be hard to hit a target that's aware of an impending attack..." he muttered to himself.

However, he soon got an idea. Adam didn't have memories of his past, but he understood the basics of hunting. In hunting, diversion of attention was a game changer. Especially for a wary target.

Relaxing the bowstring, Adam quickly diverted the sheep's attention. He threw the Blue Fox carcass towards a spot that could blindside the Ghost Sheep.

One drawback to this method was that the time to aim would be reduced since he was hunting alone. After the Blue Fox carcass rolled, the Ghost Sheep became alert and growled at the Blue Fox carcass.

Meanwhile, Adam pulled the bowstring and released the arrow in a split second.

The arrow flew swiftly, accompanied by the rush of wind from the friction.

No!!

The arrow pierced the Ghost Sheep's front knee. It made the sheep unbalanced and it fell when trying to react.

Adam saw that the sheep could still escape and quickly pulled the third arrow and immediately launched it to pierce the thick and soft fur of the Ghost Sheep. The Ghost Sheep struggled for a moment before ceasing its movements.

[Earning three Chaos points exchanged for three experience points]

[Experience points: 9/10]

Adam read with a bit of anticipation.

As he was dissecting the Blue Fox and Ghost Sheep and putting the edible meat into his bag, a thin, sharp object resembling an arrow flew towards him.

Reflexively, Adam ducked and let the object pass over him and immediately stuck into the ground.

Adam became more cautious as his gaze swept in the direction the object came from.

As he suspected, another sharp object flew towards him.

Adam quickly grabbed his bag and jumped to avoid it. He ran into the bushes to block the opponent's line of sight.

While doing so, Adam glanced at the minimap and saw a blue dot right where he was, marked with a cursor-like arrow.

"Another level C beast!?" Adam realized after looking at the minimap. He also realized that the projectile that flew like an arrow looked similar to porcupine spines, but larger and with a combination of red and black colors.

"System!"

[System ready]

"Analyze the opponent." The opponent's figure had not yet appeared, prompting Adam to use the porcupine spine to learn about the beast.

[Sharpshooter Porcupine-C]

[Has the ability to shoot projectile spikes from its body, tends not to reveal itself to prey and tends to kill prey before revealing itself]

After getting that information, Adam got up and began to maneuver.

His steps were silent and as quiet as possible.

With the help of the minimap, Adam was able to easily locate the position of the sharpshooter porcupine.

"It's time for a counterattack." Adam muttered as he carefully drew the bowstring and aimed.

The arrow flew quickly and immediately penetrated the gap in the porcupine's spines, piercing its soft skin. Blood spattered onto the arrow.

The sharpshooter porcupine looked panicked and trembled directly.

Adam saw that the porcupine's spines were trembling abnormally. "It's going to shoot!?" He immediately dropped his body and took cover on a tree branch as the porcupine's spine projectiles flew in all directions.

The sound of the spines hitting the trees echoed.

As the atmosphere became silent, Adam lifted his head to see the sharpshooter porcupine now lying motionless with a bare body without a single spine.

Looking around, scattered spines were everywhere, some stuck in the trees and most scattered on the ground in different directions.

"That was close..." Adam murmured softly.

[Earning three Chaos points exchanged for 3 experience points]

[Target experience points for level increase have been fulfilled]

[The Hanged Man has leveled up to level 1]

Adam read with a little anticipation.