Bab 4: 04 - Lots of Money
Mooooooooooooo!!!
The 2 Star cow ran wildly towards Leo. The distance between the two was 25 meters. Leo stood in place mentally calculating, just waiting for the right moment. In less than 1 second, because of the cow's high speed it had entered the range of 20 meters.
Leo didn't think twice and threw two of the three knives that were in his right hand. Due to the Aim-Bot, Leo knew he was going to hit those two knives in the cow's eye, but unfortunately the cow closed its eyes at the last moment.
Even the Bronze cows 1 Star could deflect Leo's knives if they closed their eyes with the tough leather of their eyelids, but they didn't have good enough reflexes for that. Unfortunately, besides having the thickest leather, the Bronze Cow 2 Stars had a quick reflex enough to close its eyes before either of the daggers could hit their mark. The knives got stuck in the cow's eyelids, but they couldn't make their way through to the eyes of this enraged monster. However, it gave Leo an idea.
When the monster cow opened its eyes again, it was already 13 meters from Leo, but Leo dropped his remaining knife from his right hand and took another horn from the backpack on his back.
As Leo took the horn out with his right hand, he used his left hand to hurl a horn at the cow's eye again. The cow already knew he was going to do this and closed its eyes again, but Leo was also quick and threw the horn he had just pulled out as well.
If someone from the outside were to watch, they would see that the trajectory of the horns was not going towards both eyes of the cow but rather aiming at only one eye. When the cow closed its eyes, the two knives that were stuck in its eyelids also lowered. Leo's idea was not to throw the horns to penetrate the cow's eyelids, but to hit the knife stuck in the cow's right eye!
Just as he had planned, the horn he threw with his left hand hit the knife stuck in the cow's right eyelid, causing the knife to penetrate the eyelid a little, but not enough. But the horn he threw with his right hand, which was his strongest hand, hit the knife and caused the cow's eyelid to rip open, leaving the knife's path free to go deep into the monster's head and into the brain.
Moo!
The mutated cow mooed one last time before falling to the ground with no strength in its body now that the brain could no longer send orders to the organs.
[Congratulations, you killed an Alpha Bronze Mutant Cow 2 Stars. You received 50 Experience Points.]
Seeing the cow fall to the ground and the System message floating in front of his eyes, Leo was finally able to calm down. He knew that if his strategy hadn't worked, he would just be another tally in the death stats outside the city walls.
But looking at the large amount of Exp he received, Leo knew it was worth it. He received 50 Experience Points for killing this Bronze Mutant Cow 2 Stars, which is five times what he would have received for killing a Bronze 1 Star, which also meant he would only need to kill 10 more cows like this one to move up from Bronze 1 Star to Bronze 2 Stars.
This would be a huge strength improvement for him, but even with so many advantages, Leo wasn't stupid. He knew that with his current strength and equipment, it would be too dangerous to hunt this type of monster, so he decided to just take the horns of this cow and go back to town.
With the 13 pairs of horns he had already taken from the other cows, Leo would get approximately $1,300, and adding the horn of a Bronze 2 Stars cow, Leo could raise that number to $2,000!
'Two thousand dollars for a day's work… Few people get that amount of money in a week's work, and I got it in a single day!' Leo said mentally excited.
He knew that even Bronze Awakened 3 Stars could hardly make as much money as he did in a day, as Awakened usually hunted in squads and usually prioritized monsters weaker than themselves to ensure their own safety. After the group sold the goods they got and split the money, they would hardly ever give more than $1,000 to each.
'But with my current strength, hunting alone is much easier and more profitable, mainly because I can focus my Experience points and improve my skills much faster than other people. Maybe hunting with others will slow down my leveling if the Experience is also shared …' Leo thought.
The trip back to the city was smooth. He came back much more confident than when he left town. This was even noticeable in the way he was hunting initially, from a novice who stayed hidden waiting for an opportunity, to someone already more familiar with hunting who was actively chasing prey.
When the guards saw Leo returning with a full backpack, they couldn't help but be shocked. After Leo walked past them, a guard commented, "This kid went alone with an empty backpack, and now his backpack looked like it was going to burst!"
"I saw it too! Is he really a Bronze 1 Star?"
"Probably. Look at his age; it took me ten months to go from a Bronze 1 Star to a Bronze 2 Stars. This kid seems to have said that he awakened his Quirk yesterday!"
"What should we do?" the second guard asked, confused.
The first guard knew what his mate meant by that. "Let's warn Corporal Joseph about this. He'll know what to do."
"Yes, this is good news for the city!"
Leo had no idea that he had surprised the two guards with what he'd shown them, and they'd be even more surprised if they knew there was a horn of a Bronze Mutant Cow 2 Stars inside his backpack, but it's not like he would have cared much had he known of their shock.
With his backpack full, Leo went to the nearest trading post so he could get the money, as well as an Awakened ID - something that would make his life a lot easier going forward. His clothes could very well be something that would attract attention if he went elsewhere. Green camouflage clothing stained with blood and soiled with dirt was not something people saw frequently throughout the city, but inside the government trading post it was the most common style of clothing, both for the soldiers who were stationed there and for the Awakened that went in and out of the place. But if Leo's clothes didn't attract attention, his physical appearance did.
Leo has always been concerned about his own health, and since he was 15 he went to the gym to work on his physique. His goal was never to build a mountain of muscle, but to have a balanced body to be able to deal with monsters in the most efficient way possible.
This made his body grow to 1.80m (5.9 feet). He always kept his beard neatly trimmed, while his black hair almost reached his eyes - blue eyes, almost dazzlingly bright how they glowed. And he was sure to keep an always confident expression on his face.
(You can see Leo and other characters' visual representation on our discord, link at the end of the chapter)
Despite wearing "standard" clothes for where he was currently, Leo's appearance still attracted the attention of some of the people there. People sitting in the inside cafeteria of the trading post sometimes glanced at him - whether it was men who were feeling uncomfortable, or mostly women who were curious about this handsome young man.
It didn't take long for a young clerk to come up from the counter to serve Leo with a smile on her face. "Hello sir, are you an Awakened by any chance?" she asked in a respectful way.
Leo looked at her and flashed a small smile before answering to the affirmative. That smile made the young attendant take a deep breath to maintain professionalism.
"Yes, I awakened yesterday and I need to get my ID card," Leo responded while keeping his smile.
"Perfect, I can help you with that right now. Come with me," she said as she looked away and thought, 'Looking at him smiling like that is dangerous…'
Leo continued holding his backpack and followed the attendant. The process was very simple; he just had to show his ID and prove that he really was an Awakened, which consisted of just showing the screen with his name. No explanation of his quirk was needed, as this was the biggest secret of every Awakened in the world. Only public figures normally showed or explained their own quirk, as this sort of thing could also expose their own weaknesses.
In just 15 minutes a transparent holographic credit card-like chip was made with Leo's basic details.
[Leonardo Lentz
Age: 17 Years
Rating: Bronze 1 Star]
As an Awakened Bronze 1 Star, Leo receives discounts on hospital treatment, accredited supermarkets, and even had free access to public transport within the city. Of course, for Leo, who had a high-ranking sister in the army, he already had that sort of thing, but receiving those privileges because of his own merit was far more thrilling.
The trading post was more like a shopping mall: some food and drink stores, weapons stores, armor. All sorts of things an Awakened might need would be found in this big place.
Leo hadn't been here before, because just as the quality of the products was higher than elsewhere, the price was correspondingly higher, and money wasn't something Leo had to spare until yesterday.
Looking at the holographic panels dotted around the place, Leo finally found the place to sell the horns he had gotten. Thirteen pairs of Bronze 1 Star horns and one pair of Bronze 2 Stars horns netted Leo $2,100. A little more than he'd imagined, but it wasn't something he was going to complain about anyway.
With so much money in the bank now, Leo could finally buy some really good stuff to further accelerate the speed at which he could kill monsters, and consequently gain more Experience points.
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I've created a discord server, join to see how the characters looks XD:
discord.gg/ky35Kv7GHr
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