by John Nest
He would have wanted to create a second clay golem, but the Animate ability required him to spend 500 MP/second to retain its form. With his current mana regeneration at 268/second, he could only keep his clay golem for another three minutes.
Deciding to maximize his clay golem's duration, Smoke attacked five santelmos at once. Yet, this proved to be a miscalculation on his part, as the clay golem was the one targeted by two flaming monsters.
One of the santelmo's red hands grabbed hold of his clay golem's neck and arms, giving the second santelmo the opportunity to strike at Smoke's undefended earth minion.
Desperate to save his clay golem, Smoke disregarded the santelmo attacking him, and targeted the one attacking his golem instead.
Smoke was attacked from behind, but only suffered 150 damage points. Wielding his twin lightning rods with blitzing speed, he killed all five santelmos in six minutes. Yet, he suffered 10,000 damage points and his clay golem's duration ended.
"This won't do at all," said Smoke out loud.
Turning around, he quickly headed for the Fourrage forest's exit. His metallic golems slowly dragged their feet as they followed him.
Using his Hyper Jump ability, Smoke reached Eleve in a matter of seconds. Only Igniz could keep up with him, as his sloth-like minions were left behind.
"Faux? It hasn't been even an hour and you're already calling it quits?" asked Eleve.
"No, I just wanted to clarify something first," said Smoke. "Since I'm a Sonstwelter I can leave to go to my world, but if I do that will I be able to return here?"
"I'm not sure on this one, but I think you should be able to," said Eleve. "Provided you didn't die of course."
"Of course," said Smoke, smiling.
"Why are you happy? When you're clearly behind schedule?" asked Eleve, confused.
"I think I was just pressured by the idea of killing one monster per minute for the next eight days straight, that I couldn't see the answer clearly," explained Smoke. "But I think I'll try the more aggressive servals. Maybe, I'll have more luck with them."
- Entered Harceleur Forest
- The creatures of note in this forest are badger, dogs, badger dogs, lemurcats, and servals.
- Suggested level for entering this place is 200.
'Lemurcats, huh?' grimaced Smoke as he remembered the tiger-like monsters with the face of a lemur. They looked ridiculous because of their faces, but were formidable opponents. He and Saru, the albino Simiavulg, were almost killed when they faced four of them at once.
'I'm sure Saru would have died if Ledur didn't rescue us,' thought Smoke.
After seeing the notification window of the forest, Smoke decided to back out of the forest. He quickly grabbed for an ancient bison jerky and bit a big chunk out of it.
'Golems would be useless against them. The badger dogs could already kill them, what more if lemurcats were added to the mix, and I don't know what these servals are like,' pondered Smoke.
Igniz flew above Smoke's head, but not too close as to upset his thinking.
Taking a peek inside his backpack, he saw that he still had fifty jars of pompom juice. One jar could restore 50,000 MP. He wondered if he should use it here, since he only needed to rest twenty-four minutes to restore his mana bar to full capacity.
"Alright, Igniz, why don't you scout above the trees?" he said to his symbiote who was eagerly waiting for instructions.
At once, the dark ember sprite entered the forest.
His Cunning of the Dire Fox could already sense more than a hundred monsters near the entrance, but Smoke wanted to get a visual of the monsters' locations.
Using Symbiote Vision, Smoke saw one of the lemurcats attacking three badger dogs at once. Then, he spotted a flash of orange-light whizz past them.
While the lemurcat was chasing after the badger dogs, three more blitzing orange-lights passed near their area.
As the three-meter lemurcat was about to lunge on one of the badger dogs, the four orange-lights smashed into the tiger-like monster and pinned it to the ground.
Igniz stopped directly above them, giving Smoke a better view of what was happening. The blitzing orange-lights finally showed their true shape. They were half-meter orange flaming cats with black spots and pointed ears. These monsters were only slightly larger than your average house-cats.
One of the servals went straight for the lemurcat's jugular, while the other three went for the joints on its limbs. The lemurcat's life bar rapidly went down to (84,250/250,000 HP).
Their flaming bodies greatly damage the lemurcat, but the large monster would not give up without a fight. The lemurcat clawed off the serval on its neck, and revealed the serval's life bar (150,000/180,000 HP).
'That's a lemurcat for you, one attack and it already got in 30,000 damage,' thought Smoke, shaking his head.
However, that was the only attack the lemurcat could do. The four servals torched the massive tiger-like monster's life bar to zero.
'So that's what a serval looks like,' surmised Smoke. He then sent a message to Igniz, telling his symbiote to head towards the center of the forest.
Along the way, Smoke saw similar scenarios scattered throughout the forest. He could see badger dogs being hunted down by lemurcats. Whereas, the servals, who hunted in a pack, chased after anything in sight.
'Looks like I was wrong about the lemurcats being the strongest monsters in this forest,' thought Smoke.
Then, at the center of Harceleur Forest, Smoke saw a reversal. Six servals were surrounded by four lemurcats.
The simultaneous attack of the lemurcats scattered the servals' formation. In a single glance, Smoke understood that even two servals were outmatched by one lemurcat. The flaming monsters that fought one-on-one with a lemurcat were devoured in a matter of seconds.
Smoke canceled his Symbiote Vision and jumped straight up. He equipped his Digger's Wand and opened his Wings of Cologus, gliding directly to the center of the forest.
"Igniz, to me!" he ordered his symbiote when he got closer.
The dark ember sprite did not need Smoke's instruction. Igniz orbited closer to Smoke creating a large fiery comet as he traveled around him.
Unified, their large flaming mass burnt the branches of the trees blocking the center of the forest patch as they fell through it.
CRASH
Smoke used his Comet Crush ability, making a deep impact on the ground, stunning both lemurcats and servals in the area.
While the monsters were immobilized, Smoke pointed his wand downward and created a deep pit. Bewildered, all four lemurcats and the surviving servals fell in.
Smoke expertly glided and landed on the edge of his pit. He then turned to Igniz. "You just aim for the lemurcats, while I'll finish off the rest."
Both lemurcats and servals desperately attempted to climb out of the pit, but none of them could do it. They all fell back down.
Igniz hurriedly hurled his fireballs at the lemurcats trapped in the deep hole. Whereas, Smoke used his earth-spikes to attack servals from a safe distance.
After five minutes, multiple notification windows popped up.
+ You have dealt a fatal blow to the lemurcat.
+ You have killed the lemurcat.
+ You have gained 200,000 exp.
+ You have dealt a fatal blow to the serval.
+ You have killed the serval.
+ You have gained 150,000 exp.
He ignored the similar windows as they kept popping up.
After killing all of the monsters at the center of the forest patch, Smoke turned to Igniz. "This is it, Bud!"
Equipped with the Digger's Wand, Smoke started widening the pit. His Cunning of the Dire Fox alerted him of hostile monsters nearby, but none of them came close to attack him.
Undisturbed, he targeted several trees that were caught inside his pit. He had Igniz burn them with a sea of firewalls. He spent the next hour doing just this until he finally had a massive hole in the ground.
"This should
be big enough," he said to Igniz. He signaled his dark ember sprite, and together the two of them headed into the trees.
With his power chainsaw bow out, Smoke hit all of the monsters within range. Badger dogs, lemurcats, and servals alike, none were discriminated by their attacks.
Due to their larger size, Smoke could easily target the badger dogs and lemurcats, but the servals were a different story.
Luckily, Igniz's flame attacks annoyed the fiery house-cats and turned the servals' flames into an angry red, making the fiery cats chased after Smoke as well.
Despite being tailed, he calmly traversed the forest patch in a clockwise manner. His Cunning of the Dire Fox indicated that there were close to seven-hundred monsters chasing after him.
The lemurcats were fast, but they were not close to Smoke's speed. Only the servals could catch up to him. Their attacks dealt 600 damage points, quadruple the damage of the santelmos.
Injured, Smoke relied on his well timed Hyper Jumps to evade the servals. He ran around the Harceleur Forest for fifteen-minutes more before heading for the center.
He stopped using his Hyper Jump ability, and braved the back attacks of the servals. Smoke incured a damage of close to 30% of his maximum life bar.
All of the pursuing monsters were gaining in on him. Yet, Smoke did not change course. When he got to the center of the forest, he dove straight into the pit that he had dug earlier.
The servals immediately behind him, leapt without second thought. This made the other monsters do the same.
Smoke then opened his hooded cloak and glided safely upward. Yet, the monsters on the end started to slow down. He pointed both his palms at them. He slightly raised the ground, creating an inclined plane which slid the monsters into his pit.
Igniz then started creating a sea of firewalls, but only the badger dogs and tiger-like monsters were damaged. Whereas, earth-spikes protruded in and out on the bottom of the pit, damaging both lemurcats and servals.
One Smoke's sharp earth attacks skewered several monsters in one go, inflicting the Bleeding status on them.
The trapped monsters used their claws to climb up, but Smoke's earth-spikes suddenly protruded from the walls and sent the monsters hurtling down.
As Smoke and Igniz began killing the monsters inside the pit, several notification windows popped up once more. He planned to ignore them until they killed the last one, but one of the windows would not be denied.
+ Level UP!
You have 10 stat points ready for distribution.
Your HP has increased by 6,100.
Your mana has increased by 6,100.
Fame has increased by 1.
Smoke smiled. Seeing that particular window could never be a bad thing. Yet, he kept on piercing the captured monsters with his earth-spikes.
It took him thirty more minutes to kill all of the monsters. He then eagerly checked the summary of the notification windows.
+ Killed badger dogs: 695
+ Killed servals: 217
+ Killed lemurcats: 88
+ Total experience points gained: 58,820,000
It took him one-hour and thirty-minutes to kill two-hundred-seventeen servals. At this rate, it was almost like he could kill two servals in under a minute.
However, his mana bar was completely depleted, and his life bar was left with 60%. Not to mention that his satiety bar was already at a dangerous level. He dove into the pit and started brewing a rejuvenison soup.
While his meal was still cooking, Smoke started collecting the loot dropped in his trap.
+ Acquired lemurcat hide.
+ Acquired badger dog meat.
+ Acquired serval foot.
"No rare items at all," he grumbled to himself. He grumpily sat down and began drinking his rejuvenating concoction.
While the soup may have helped with his HP, he needed to spend another twenty-minutes for his MP to be fully restored. With his satiety, life, and mana bar filled, Smoke leapt out of his deep pit. He winked at Igniz, and together they headed out on the other side of the forest.
The two of them repeated the same process for the next seven hours, giving him a total of 2,540 servals and one more level up.
His current level was now at 112.
"If this training is just grinding, then I could do this easy," said Smoke to Igniz, while the two of them were resting near his brewing rejuvenison pot.
"I really appreciate the boost in experience as well," said Smoke.
Deeply contemplating at his character window, Smoke stared at the unused 40 points that he had not used in his last four level ups.
"What do you think? Should I use all of them on Int?" he asked Igniz. "After all, I am playing the role of a Mage at the moment."
Igniz replied with his typical purple-flame shrug.
"Fine," said Smoke, annoyed. "I'll do all of the thinking myself."
He clicked all of the unused stat points into Intelligence.
"There, it's over," he said, hesitant. "But I know that this would be really useful."
He looked at Igniz and raised his eyebrows. "What? Not convinced?" he asked Igniz. "Alright, let me check. Regen Window."
HP Regen: 20/second
MP Regen: 283/second
A wide grin appeared on Smoke's face. "See? What did I tell you!"
With this, his MP regeneration could now completely compensate for his Earth Manipulation or Fire Manipulation and then some.
As a daily habbit, Smoke then proceeded to do the exercise that Eleve taught him. He directed his palms at the flames under the pot, and began creating up to eight flickering flames. He spent one more hour of this tedious exercise before stopping.
"Okay, I think I'm gonna call it a day, Bud," he said to Igniz. "You're free to attack the badger dogs, but don't try the lemurcats, okay?"
Smoke then logged out of Zectas, as he planned on getting a quick power nap of an hour in the real world.
* * * * * *
After discovering his method, Smoke spent the next five days honing his luring techniques. He had slightly increased his pursuers to almost one-thousand-five hundred.
During this period, not only did he collect thousands of lemurcat hides, badger dog meat, and serval foots, he also gained two more levels. This time, he allocated all of the stats to Intelligence.
Another eight hours passed, and it was time for him to take his scheduled power nap, but he did not. He was only short three-hundred servals to reach the coveted ten-thousand mark.
"Still up for one more round?" he asked Igniz, to which his ember sprite nodded with excitement.
They gathered the monsters in the Harceleur forest once again. Within these past few days, the two of them had already mastered the in and outs of these woodlands, and the respawn points of its creatures.
It only took them thirty-minutes to gather a horde of a thousand pursuers. Despite the redundant process, the monsters still fell for their trap, as none of them could live to warn the others who were freshly respawned.
A sea of firewalls and sharp earth-spikes ushered the badger dogs, lemurcats, and servals to their deaths.
After fifteen more minutes, the anticipated notification window popped up.
+ Learned Ability: Serval's Glow
Passive
Level: Beginner Level 1
Experience: (0/1,000)
After killing 10,000 servals, you have understood how they use their Fire Gahum.
Effects:
> Increases Fire abilities by 0.2%
> Initiates Kindling
One of Smoke's eyebrows raised. "Does this increase my attack damage? Fire Resistance? What does this exactly mean?" he asked out loud.
"Igniz attack that lemurcat with a fireball," he suddenly said to his symbiote.
At once, Igniz obeyed. Yet, before the purple fireball could hit the tiger-like monster, Smoke used his Fire Manipulation and redirected the fireball to the badger dog beside it.
A big hole with burn marks appeared on the
stomach of the badger dog, and it fell down shortly afterwards, dead.
"It looks like it increased Igniz's fireball damage, but is that all there is to it?" he asked Igniz, to which his symbiote shrugged.
'I better ask Eleve what this ability really is,' thought Smoke to himself.