Kapitel 86: The Virident Forest

The Virident Forest was the embodiment of what one would expect from an Elven fantasy forest.

Lush greenery carpeted the forest floor, the sky covered verdant canopies, and the melodious buzzing of bugs intermingled with rhythmic sounds of distant flowing water.

These serene and picturesque scenes created a soothing atmosphere that made one unknowingly relax their senses. However, hidden behind this beautiful picture were the sinister monsters of the Virident Forest.

—-

Eight-Wing Cicada (Elite)

Lv 15 (Tier 0)

Attack: ★★★★☆

Defense: ★★☆

HP: 1050

Skills: Sonic Burst, Bug Buzz

—-

Shadow Weaver

Lv 16 (Tier 1)

Attack: ★★★☆

Defense: ★★★

HP: 2350

Skills: Shadow Web, Soul Thorn

—-

Forest Chameleon

Lv 17 (Tier 1)

Attack: ★★★☆

Defense: ★★★☆

HP: 4200

Skills: Stealthy Strike, Gooey Bind

—-

None of these monsters was ordinary.

The Eight-Wing Cicada was a speedy little critter that was hard to hit. Its Bug Buzz skill was even a mental attack skill that lowered accuracy and dealt magical attack damage.

Combined with the Sonic Burst skill that dealt damage while increasing its speed every time it was used, hitting the Eight-Wing Cicada was a nightmare for every Class.

Even an elite player like Stivi had missed more attacks while striking down one of these bugs than she had in her entire journey through Dreamverse so far.

The only downside this overpowered bug had was its low defense and HP. However, if the players could not land their attacks on the Cicada, how were they supposed to take advantage of this?

Others might struggle, but not Samar. He had the skill, Homing Arrow, and had combined it with Power Shot, guaranteeing him a critical hit that could not be evaded.

Samar locked in on the Eight Wing Cicada ready to unleash its Sonic Burst attack and let his arrow loose.

-1072 (Crit)

The arrow pierced through the Cicada and pinned its body to a nearby tree, emptying the entirety of its HP.

[You have killed a Lv 15 Elite Eight-Wing Cicada. You have received 428 Exp.]

[You have obtained the Eight-Wing Powder (x 1).]

[You have obtained Poison Sting (x 1).]

Samar didn't know what Poison Sting could be used for but Eight Wing Powder was actually one of the materials he needed for the Forest Prowler Set!

Excited, Samar shot down the other Eight-Wing Cicadas in the vicinity as soon as the cooldown time of Homing Power Shots ended and collected the 10 units of Eight-Wing Powder required for his Forest Prowler Set.

These Eight-Wing Cicadas were also the favorite prey of Shadow Weavers, a type of spiders. If a player killed too many Eight-Wing Cicadas, the Shadow Weavers would arrive to protect their food source.

This was exactly what happened in his case.

Two Shadow Weavers stealthily arrived in the shadows of the trees after he finished collecting the loot from the kills. They targeted Samar and Stivi separately with a Shadow Web.

Black silky threads emerged from their shadows, spreading upwards, trussing them up with their own shadows. These threads did not deal any damage, but they immobilized the body.

Even a simple action such as raising the arm required one to use twice the amount of force as if they were lifting a heavy weight, not to mention the increased amount of time taken for such an action.

The skill thus drastically reduced their attack speed, movement speed, and slowed their reflexes.

Samar was fascinated by the skill because this was the first pure control skill used by a mob that he had seen in Dreamverse VR!

The only way to break free from such a skill was to either slash through the webs using your blade, like Samar and Stivi had done, or break the webs using overwhelming brute force.

Moreover, these strings of shadows turned into real objects after they finished binding. Even after Samar cut through them with his blade, they did not disappear.

The shadowy strings fell to the ground and could actually be picked up and collected into inventory. After picking up one of them, Samar realized these threads were the second material he required for the Forest Prowler Set, the Shadow Weaver's Web Threads.

Samar quickly put them all in his inventory and joined Stivi in attacking the spiders. One of them quickly fell under their combined assault, never getting the chance to use its second skill, Soul Thorn.

After some risk assessment, Samar left the other one alive to farm for a few more Shadow Web Threads.

After a few rounds of Shadow Webs, it finally unleashed the skill Soul Thorn on Stivi. The attack dealt a massive 116 points of damage to Stivi, which was almost 30% of her health.

It was horrific damage. Just two more of such attacks, and any player other than tanks would be dead! The important thing to note was that this was not a Boss monster but merely a mob!

Effects of the Soul Thorn had also disoriented Stivi, making her attack all adjacent targets, including Samar.

"These damned critters!" Samar could not help but curse as he moved away from her, to avoid her attacks. At the same time, he launched a flurry of arrows at the sole surviving Shadow Weaver, breaking its control over Stivi.

Extra cautious after her ordeal, Stivi carefully avoided every Soul Thorn launched by the Shadow Weaver. She also forced Samar to endure all the Shadow Webs himself, helping him to only cut the webs when they turned corporeal.

As soon as Samar had collected the 50th thread required for his Forest Prowler Set, Stivi launched an aggressive assault on the Weaver with vengeance. She chopped it into pieces, resting only after the notification for successful kill arrived.

[You have killed Lv 16 Shadow Weaver. You have obtained 564 Exp.]

Next, they headed deeper into the forest in search of Forest Chameleons and the Mimicking Mimosa Vines that grew near their habitat.

Forest Chameleons were a piece of work. They had balanced Attack and Defense and plenty of HP. Yet, instead of fighting head-on, these buggers camouflaged into their surroundings and liked to sneak up on their unsuspecting prey.

Samar was targeted by one of the Chameleons as soon as the duo entered their habitat.

The two meter long creature slowly moved closer to Samar and suddenly slammed its pointed tail into the Ranger's back.

- 56

"Man that hurts!"

Shocked and pained by the sudden attack, Samar cursed. Just one of their Stealthed Strikes had taken away more than 15% of Samar's HP!

Moreover, these monsters preferred to live in groups of two or three. If one could not pay attention to even one monster, it would quickly blend into the surroundings and launch its signature skill, Stealthed Attack.

Meanwhile, the exposed Forest Chameleons would entangle the player with their sticky tongues in a Gooey Bind, which not only reduced movement speed but also chipped away at health gradually.

In the face of these monsters, the bleeding effect provided by Stivi's Sanguine Armor Set came in handy.

As long as these Chameleons were bleeding even a little, they could no longer effectively blend into the surroundings. It made detecting them a lot easier and they could no longer use their strongest attack, Stealthy Strike.

Without it, they were just slightly stronger mobs that Samar and Stivi could take care of in a few minutes. What did differ from the ordinary mobs was their generous amounts of Exp and loot.

Each Forest Chameleon killed provided 791 Exp. Thanks to it, Samar quickly advanced to Lv 15. Stivi also leveled up to Lv 16 shortly after they killed the fourth group of Forest Chameleons.

After hunting the tens of Forest Chameleons, not only did Samar collect more than the required number of Forest Chameleon Dermis for his Forest Prowler Set, but they also got 19 of the incredibly rare Blood Seeds!

Blood Seeds were only dropped by Tier 1 and above monsters with a low probability. Yet, almost every two out of three Forest Chameleons had dropped one.

Each of the Blood Seed could be sold for 10 Silver in any Elven Merchant Shop. This meant they had obtained goods worth 2 Gold coins from hunting just the Forest Chameleons!

The abundant Mimicking Mimosa Vines also provided the last material, Mimosa Vine Extract, that Samar needed to create the Forest Prowler Set. The only thing left to do was bring them back to the Craftsman association and find a Leatherworker to craft this set for him.

Stivi and Samar ended their hunting session for now. Their bags full of monster materials, they decided to return to Torana Town.