Chapter 11: Monster encyclopedia
We were at the cafeteria having our lunch and discussing how we were going to fight more doruso monsters.
"We need a way to attack the belly of the doruso without using too much skills."
I was shoveling rice into my mouth while flipping through a spell book. "Can't we just attack it all at once? We might be able to kill it if we attack together." Saliza said.
"I don't think it's a good idea if we try to power through all monsters we meet. We couldn't kill the doruso simply by charging at it with our skills. We need a plan." said Serith.
While we were discussing, a boy around Serith's age approached us. He was quite muscular and had some decent-looking gear. He had blonde hair and a very punchable face. "Oh look, it's the three idiots that the drunk creep decided to take in." He leaned on our table with a mischievous smirk on his face. Since he had the yutri bracelet, that means he's also ventgard.
"I'm not sure why that senile freak chose you three, but I'm guessing he just really wants to create the next generation of idiots." I don't know why this guy suddenly came here and started insulting us, but it's clear that even if I ignored him, Serith won't.
Serith stopped eating and got up. "What's your problem? We did nothing to you so back off!"
He clearly wasn't happy about the remarks the boy just made.
"My problem? Your entire team is my problem! Ventgards are supposed to be strong, but you three are the complete opposite of that. The only reason you could become ventgards was because that drunkard who cheated his way to the top said so."
Serith was getting furious and Saliza looked like she was going to jump out of her seat and sock him. I didn't want the situation to escalate so I tried to calm the two down.
"Just ignore him. He's probably just going around trying to find trouble to satisfy his boredom." The boy turned his attention to me.
He grabbed my book and chucked it behind him.
"I'm here because I can't stand the fact that someone as useless as you can become a ventgard! You even read books in hopes of becoming stronger!"
I really didn't want any trouble but this guy seems like he wants to start a fight with us.
"What's wrong with reading books?" A pissed off woman holding my book was standing behind the boy. She was in her mid-30s and she had orange silky hair and a wizard robe. She wasn't as muscular as most other ventgards here but she was still able to put my muscles to shame.
"C-Captain!" The boy froze in place after realizing that his captain saw what he just did.
"Laren, wait outside the training room and I'll speak with you later. Cause any more trouble and I'll be kicking you out of the team."
The boy grumbled to himself and stormed off.
Saliza asked the woman what was the deal with that boy. "Hi, my name's Testra Fenro. I'm sorry about him. His name is Laren. He aced my test and has shown great potential to become a ventgard. Unfortunately, his attitude and temper tends to get in the way of training. By the way, you three are Reizo's new recruits right? That explains why Laren did all that."
I asked her why Laren would target us of all people. "Well, Laren was one of the many people who failed to join Reizo. After he failed, Laren held a grudge against Reizo and claimed that the test was rigged. When you three managed to pass, He got even more furious."
So he did all that just because we did something he couldn't do, I'll remember that the next time he tries to start anything with us.
"So how has Reizo been training you?" Testra asked as she handed me back my book. "His training has been tough. First, he makes us fight grus rats in Feilo Forest for hours and now he's adding dorusos into the mix while only letting us use spells and skills three times." I complained.
Testra looked at the gear we were using and asked us what our levels were. We told her our levels and she began thinking to herself. "I'm not sure what Reizo is planning, but it's clear that he's going to make you three fight monsters that are more advanced for your levels, and he's only giving you guys basic equipment. I can't stop his method of training, but if it helps I can give you guys a monster encyclopedia. It contains information on all discovered monsters."
We refused to take the book and told her that Reizo might get mad at us if we took it. Testra stared at a pillar, and shortly after, Reizo came out from behind it. "Yes, yes, I'm fine with you giving them a monster encyclopedia."
The thought of Reizo constantly hiding and watching everything I do is starting to creep me out.
"Your break ends in a few minutes so finish up your lunch and go to Feilo Forest." After Reizo and Testra left, we began reading the monster encyclopedia and searched for information about the doruso. We found the page with the information we needed.
According to the book, the doruso has tough skin and arms that are as hard as a rock, but the skin of its belly and throat is thin and soft. These monsters love eating degar bee honey and grus rats, which gave me an idea.
We resumed training after our break ended. We fought grus rats for about an hour, until we heard the roar of an incoming doruso. I had a plan which I discussed with Saliza and Serith before break ended.
When the doruso came, I summoned a grus rat and threw it above the doruso. It immediately shifted its attention towards the rat, allowing us to attack.
"It's mine!" Saliza rushed forward and tried to strike the monster's belly. The doruso heard her and quickly slammed its claws onto Saliza, who managed to block the attack with her axe.
The monster was slowly overpowering her, so Serith and I took this opportunity to attack it. I threw my dagger at its belly and managed to hit it, but since my dagger was small, it only managed to wound the monster. The doruso was now weakened by the pain, allowing Saliza to begin overpowering it.
She pushed the claws away from her and kicked the dagger further into its belly. The doruso screamed in pain as it backs away from Saliza.
Serith finished it off by thrusting his sword into its eye. The doruso fell onto the ground and laid there motionlessly. Serith flipped the body over and stabbed its throat just to be safe. We did it, we killed a doruso without taking damage and using skills, But there's still one problem.
"Why did you kick my dagger into its stomach?" I said as I stared at the body of the monster. "What? The doruso would have blocked my attack if I swung my axe at it. It's just a little blood, get over it."
After digging through the belly of the monster, I found my dagger covered in blood and bits of its guts. Just a little blood huh? I wanted to wipe off the blood, but grus rats will start appearing soon so I have so choice but to use it.
We fought grus rats for a few more hours before Reizo ended training for the day. I went to the training room to get a new weapon. I looked at all the spare weapons and decided to try using other weapons since it's hard for me to kill higher-ranked monsters with just a dagger. My increased stats have made me much stronger so I should be able to carry around heavier weapons with ease. I decided to pick a short sword as my new weapon.
But the sword didn't have any skills so I had to put one in. I should register a different skill this time and focus on dealing with higher-ranked monsters like the doruso since they give quite a good amount of exp. I registered a skill I remembered that enhances the speed of everyone near me.
I went to the cafeteria to have dinner. While eating, I decided to read the monster encyclopedia. I wasn't able to read much of it earlier since training was about to start. According to the encyclopedia, there are different ranks of monsters based on how powerful they are. There are also level requirements to summon monsters of a higher rank.
The tiers are:
E rank, lv 1 required to summon
D rank, lv 10 required to summon
C rank, lv 30 required to summon
B rank, lv 50 required to summon
A rank, lv 70 required to summon
S rank, lv 100 required to summon
The encyclopedia contained information on all discovered monsters, their tiers, their behavior and where they can usually be found.
It was interesting to read information about all of these monsters, until I realized that I will be forced to fight some of them in the future. Being a ventgard is going to suck.
The next morning, we were at Feilo Forest for our training. For some reason, no grus rats appeared for quite some time, and there was a sticky brown substance scattered across the area. I decided to take a closer look at what the substance is and asked Saliza and Serith to cover me from grus rats if they appeared.
I touched the brown substance and upon closer inspection, it looks like honey. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my right arm.
A large brown bee just stabbed my arm with a dagger-like stinger. I swung my arm at the bee but it quickly flew away. "What is that!" Serith yelled. The bee pointed its stinger at me and charged towards me.
The bee was fast, but luckily I managed to dodge its attack and quickly strike it with my sword. My attack wasn't able to kill the bee but it was able to wound it. Great, this bee is even tougher than a grus rat.
"Behind you!" Serith yelled. I turned around and saw another bee charging at me. I quickly moved to the side and received a cut to the face.
Five more bees flew out of a tree. All of them aimed their stingers at me and begun charging towards me.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone