The next day, Zack woke up and went to buy new clothes without wasting time. Fortunately, those were being sold close to the dungeon. In the shops of the Thunder Guardians guild, they showed a lot of stuff from their territories outside since they had a lot of those things. Their territories were essentially used to harvest materials that would help them fight against each other.
Zack felt a bit weird buying a full set of dark leather clothes. He stood out quite a bit while wearing that, but at least he immediately felt warmer. They looked like simple clothes, but they truly had magic effects. They cost five thousand credits, though…
The exterior of the guild headquarters was a sight to behold. Massive stone walls reinforced with steel encircled the compound, providing a formidable barrier against any potential threats. Turrets lined the walls, manned by guards who kept a vigilant watch over the surrounding area.
At the entrance, a pair of intricately carved wooden doors stood sentinel, adorned with the guild's emblem: a fearsome thunderbolt striking through a shield. Flanked by statues of guild hunters, the doors opened into a grand courtyard where guild members congregated and prepared for their missions, or visitors proceeded with their routine to use their services.
Inside, the guild headquarters was a hive of activity. The main hall was spacious and grand, with high ceilings and polished marble floors. Banners bearing the guild's insignia hung from the walls, while rows of wooden benches provided seating for guild members awaiting their assignments.
"I heard this guild focused on making a lot of money, so they also control where their hunters go," Zack thought when he noticed the people around him staring at him.
In any case, Zack ignored that and just proceeded to talk with the guild's receptionist. This time, it was a man wearing glasses and had this air of seriousness and non-nonsense policy. Wearing a suit and very neatly brushed to the side black hair, Zack felt that this kind of guy would be very hard to interact with.
"How can we help you?"
"I want to use the territory of the giant ice slimes," Zack said.
"The cost to use the teleportation circle for that zone will be five thousand credits."
Zack passed his credit card, and soon, its value was discounted. Before long, the receptionist began to guide him to the teleportation room in question. The receptionist and the mages around the teleportation circle didn't feel like wasting time, so they quickly teleported Zack as soon as he stepped on it.
"Time is money… I guess they are truly living by that saying," Zack said when he was teleported.
Zack found himself in a scene of desolation. The cityscape around him was in ruins, blanketed by a thick layer of snow that glistened in the pale sunlight. It was a haunting sight, a stark reminder of the devastation wrought by the monster invasion.
Many of the buildings had collapsed entirely, reduced to piles of rubble and debris. Others stood precariously, their structural integrity compromised by years of neglect and decay. Jagged edges jutted out at odd angles, creating a maze of obstacles for anyone brave enough to venture through the city.
Nature had begun to reclaim the city, its relentless growth evident in the way vines and ivy snaked their way up the sides of crumbling buildings. Snow-covered trees sprouted from cracks in the pavement, their branches reaching skyward in a desperate attempt to reach for sunlight. It was a surreal sight of urban decay and natural beauty, a testament to the resilience of life in the face of adversity. Still, Zack didn't have much time to think about that since he soon heard the sound of the giant ice slimes approaching.
The giant ice slimes were one-meter-long spheres of ice that rolled around the area in search of targets. Calling them giant with a size like that seemed laughable. Still, they were extremely hard and then froze everything they touched, so their name deserved some respect… one of them approached Zack from behind. Soon, he activated Auto Aim and put three nails on the spot again and again.
The nails pierced the same spot and stopped the creature's movement simultaneously. Five of them created a crack in the monster's body, but the beast seemed a lot more resilient than Zack had assumed. He had some free points, but first, he decided to see how much he needed to kill them with his current strength.
Once the cracks on the monster's body appeared, Zack had an easier time making the nails pierce. Still, it took twenty of them to eventually make the beast stop completely… that was quite a high amount.
(You received 20 XP.)
"At least they grant a lot of XP," Zack thought. "Anyway, nails could have worked on the Petrifying Eyes, but I need something else against these guys. I either need extra power or a different type of projectile."
While Zack was thinking about that, he looked around for a place to hide and think. That was a bit annoying, but it was probably his best option. He had to think and find the most efficient answers, after all.
"I still have the Anti-Blood Knives… they are heavier, too. I need to find a good use for them here." Zack thought.
In the end, finding a solution to that problem wasn't difficult at all. In the beginning, Zack used only the knives and made them pierce the body of the giant ice slimes by making them hit each other's back. Five of those did the trick, and Zack was able to kill them in less than two seconds. The giant ice slimes still had the chance to fire ice lances at him, so he felt like he could improve that.
Zack's second strategy had been to throw a single knife at the monsters and then throw something large and heavy on the same spot, like a block of concrete, or a steel bar. That worked as well, but it was damaging the knives and they also made him waste two extra seconds.
The final strategy made Zack gain one extra second, though. After throwing the knives at the target, he would approach them using instantaneous movement and then attack them with palm strikes on the backs of the knives. Instantaneous Movement actually made his body gain a lot of momentum, and adding that to a punch was powerful enough to make the knife pierce deeply into the monster's body and then completely shatter it.
"I guess this is enough… it hurts like a bitch, though," Zack said while looking at his hands.
Before long, the last enemy began to melt, and then the core was revealed. The core of the giant ice slimes resembled a crystal-clear orb encased in a semi-translucent shell of ice. Within the orb, tiny ice crystals danced and shimmered, giving off an ethereal light that illuminated the surrounding area. The core seemed to emit an aura of coldness, causing the air around it to chill and frost to form on nearby surfaces.
Despite its icy appearance, the core of the giant ice slimes contained a potent energy that could imbue objects with ice properties. When harvested and properly prepared, the core could be used to give items and weapons a temporary coating of ice, enhancing their effectiveness in battle.
The effects of the ice coating lasted for one hour after application, giving the wielder a temporary advantage in combat. During this time, weapons and items imbued with the ice properties would radiate a faint blue glow, signaling their enhanced capabilities.
"Their mobility is limited and since they can't fly, they rarely come in groups of three or more," Zack thought. "I guess I should start exploring this place more thoroughly.
Zack could tell with more or less precision where the magic circle was so he wouldn't get lost. It was fifty meters North of a metallic tower that resembled the Eiffel Tower. He had knocked the snow off it earlier when he hit it with a knife just to see why that thing stood out like a sore thumb, and he found that.
Without wasting time, Zack began to head North, the direction most of the monsters came from. Soon, he began to feel the difference, and the number of encounters increased.
"Come to think of it, they say that the monsters came through wormholes, but they never said if those were closed forever," Zack thought. "Instructor Amanda never had the answer to that question either; it was apparently a secret for the guilds."
After jumping over some hills of snow, Zack eventually found something quite interesting ahead. There was this massive slope going downhill in the middle of the city. It didn't seem natural… so he wondered what happened there. If he had removed all of the snow, Zack imagined the place would have looked like a massive crater.
"Something caused by the monsters?" Zack rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I never heard of several species of them coming and attacking the same spot."
While many aspects of their history remained shrouded in mystery, certain facts were well-known and widely accepted among hunters.
One such fact was the phenomenon of localized monster types. It was a curious occurrence where, in certain areas, hunters only had to contend with a single type of enemy. This meant that in a particular region, whether it was a forest, a mountain range, or a desert, the monsters that roamed there belonged to a single species or type.
This localized concentration of monsters provided hunters with a unique advantage. By focusing their efforts on studying and combating a single type of enemy, they could develop specialized tactics, equipment, and strategies tailored to that particular foe. It allowed them to become experts in dealing with that specific threat, enhancing their effectiveness in battle.
Before long, Zack saw some monsters climbing the slope. They. They were heading in all directions, and some of them were coming in his direction as well, which was convenient.
"I guess I should find a lot of them just by moving around this slope," Zack thought. "Perhaps I can ambush them with Instantaneous Movement. Still, I will need more strength and a bigger weapon."
Blunt weapons worked better with monsters like that, while short weapons like knives worked the least against them. Zack only used the same knife against them, and while that lasted for a while, the tip was starting to bend, and once that happened, it was time to change it.
It was a tough call, but in the end, It was for the sake of efficiency. Zack used all of his free points and increased his strength further. Then, he looked for a steel pipe to attack the monsters.
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