Bab 19: City of Ravens (5)
Being back the first thing that I did was to visit Arnold's Armour Shop to have my armor readjusted. It took a few hours, but I was again able to move perfectly in it, and as a bonus, the few scratches on it were also patched up.
While waiting, I bought food for Emily and resupplied the fridge in the room. When all as taken care off I entered the MCA and picked up a mission for killing Crocottas. In the past they were a big problem, luring in people with their voices and ambushing them. Now, in the age of information, it is almost impossible for them to attract someone in.
I entered the hunting ground, and soon I found traces of Crocottas. Chunks of meat littered on the ground, and marks of dragging. Crocottas are cowards, they only ambush those weaker than them or eat corpses that were left behind.
Following them, I soon stumbled upon a small spot, in between tall bushes with Crocottas chewing on dead goblins. Judging by the slash marks, they were killed by humans.
Before the fight I had to consider the physique, goblins had a similar enough build to humans, but Crocotta are more wolf like. Breaking one of their lags wouldn't have as big of an impact, on the other hand attacking the spine would be possible.
There is four of them, I will ambush the first one, killing it. When they attack me, I will try to dodge their attack while aiming for their spine or neck.
I climbed up a tree and slowly made my way above them, I prepared my soul image and jumped down. Falling on top of one of Crocotta I quickly grabbed it by its neck and snapped it. The lifeless body sunk to the ground, with other Crocotta noticing my attack.
They didn't wait and attacked me with no hesitation. When I dodged the first one, I shifted my body and sent a punch towards its spine.
'SNAP!'
Feeling the spine snapping like a twig under my punch I couldn't help but be surprised. I wanted to break it, but I didn't expect such an extreme result! I trained a fair bit over the last week, and with the symbols adding on to my growth, I knew that I got stronger. But not that stronger!
Another Crocotta came at me. It was making weird sounds, like a machinegun. I kicked it in the head and with the sound of bones breaking and flesh tearing its head almost got separated from the body!
I finished the last one as easily as the rest. With the blood gathering in a puddle, I sat on the body and contemplated the amazing change that I was facing. The speed that I was getting stronger at was already godlike when compared to Martial and Arcane artists, but now…
Crocottas are too weak for me to face any difficulty, it will be a waste of time for me to continue hunting them, I need to find other prey. When I was hunting previously, even goblins in large numbers were a challenge. But I could never predict such a high increase in strength.
After meeting my quota, I hurried back to the MCA, then back to my room. I searched for other monsters that can be found in this hunting ground.
Adarna, Rain Bird, Ushi-oni, the further one ventured into the hunting grounds, the rarer and stronger the monsters become, until now I was hanging around the edge of the hunting ground. With it having over 73 thousand square kilometers if I wanted to go deeper in I would need to go out for a few days.
A few minutes later I found a good prey, Orthrus, a two headed wolf, with a large build and strength that was many times higher than that of a Crocotta. Not only would it be more of a challenge, but also much higher profit. The fur of Orthrus is highly sought after, its protective properties are slightly lower than Kevlar, but with it being low weight, with enough layers it can be even better.
The chest armor I'm wearing right now is a single layer of Orthrus leather reinforced with Cerberus skin on the vitals. One Orthrus is slightly larger than a bull if I can get its skin in good condition the gain will be significant.
If I go it will have to be for a few days, finding and killing it won't be easy, and evading other monsters will be needed to be taken into consideration.
I started to list everything that I will need while I stay in the and slowly gathered them. The plan is to stay in the hunting grounds for five days and four nights. Two days traveling, and three for hunting.
The night before I was to leave, I spent researching any monster that I could meet, how to avoid them, and week points of the Orthrus. I talked with Emily, but there was no progress made in the translation.
She mentioned some ancient tablet and ruins in Asia, but the meaning of the symbols was still unknown. Hopefully, soon there will be some progress, and by the time master comes back she will be able to translate more. When that happens, I could take her to the ruins and let her translate the symbols on the altar.
When I woke up, the sun was still down. I dressed, packed, and left the room. The town was still fast asleep, with only a few marauders walking around. The MCA works 24/7 so when I entered an attended greeted me as per usual.
I checked if there were any missions for Orthrus and to no surprise, there weren't any. For rarer monsters' private deals were made. But since I was already here I picked up a mission for Crocottas, I will slaughter through them on my way deeper into the hunting ground.
"I'm sorry, are you Dominque Blake?" one of the attendants said. He looked at me with a tired expression and weak voice.
"Yes. What is it?"
"Good, I was just about to call you. I remembered your face from your file, I was asked to relay a message, you need to speak to your handler. There was an official challenge issued to you. When you contact your handler, she will explain everything more in detail to you. I still must make some calls, if you would excuse me."
He left, and I couldn't be more speechless. Someone issued me a challenge?! They only happen when two artists have a feud that can't be solved by words. So, they leave it to the most primitive way, fight and dominate. Whoever wins is in the right!
I can't think about it now, I will talk with Evelin when I get back.
Entering the hunting ground again I was filled with newfound confidence, without me realizing I grew much stronger and was now going deep into the forest.
But before I go anywhere, there were two things I had to do, find the entrance to the ruins. I have the recording how I go there so I should be fine finding it. Then I need to secure it and hide it.
I went through the hunting grounds leaving a trail of bodies, not wanting to waste any time I just kept walking with no regards if I would get anything from it I just killed.
Noticing a similar scenery, I turned off the camera, while following the video I found the shaft leading to the ruins. Gathering some sticks and leaves, moving some bushes and rocks, I concealed the entrance.
When I finished the entrance was no longer visible, if you didn't know it was there, chances are no one would be able to find it.
There was only one thing that was bothering me, the golden raven was watching me. I can't be sure it was trying to stay hidden, but I was only able to catch a few glimpses of it with the corner of my eye.
I tried to turn quickly to catch a good look of it, but I never succeeded. In the end, I had to give up and leave.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
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