บท 40: Chapter 40: How much bigger?

Stroph saw a funnel of incredible size in front of him. He had never seen anything bigger before, it seemed to him that Terein itself was smaller than this funnel!

While Stroph marveled at the view before him, Vanessa proceeded to explain: "This is 'The Farm', this funnel was found a few years after Terein had been formed. As you can see, the area is so large that the levels of the funnel have formed their own climate. One part can be a desert and in the other one can be an incredibly cold winter, the number of monsters here is just endless and the lower you go down, the stronger the monsters become, you can go when and where you want."

Vanessa was silent for a while and after a short sigh she continued: "And remember, here you can kill not only monsters, but people too, if you kill even a hundred people no one will arrest you, but you can also be chopped into little pieces for fun."

After these words, Cristo's subordinate said goodbye to Stroph and left.

Stroph and Violet were alone and there was an immense space full of dangers and treasures in front of them.

They were standing just in front of the entrance to the topmost level of the funnel, from a distance Stroph saw that it was an ordinary forest with many vast glades. Also near the entrance to the forest there was a small town, with hotels, restaurants, armories, and so on.

There were a lot of people and looking at it all Stroph understood why Terein, the city in the Slums, seemed too advanced and strong to him all the time. Fighters at every turn, top-of-the-line machinery, rare delicacies, incredible craftsmen. There was nothing like it in his hometown.

It was all about this funnel, or as Vanessa said in "The Farm," the name was quite appropriate, for there was simply an inexhaustible supply of resources.

Stroph was sure that besides monsters there were plenty of rare minerals, gems, and herbs with amazing medicinal properties.

He wanted to go straight out into the woods to hunt and see what monsters were out there, but Stroph was worried about Violet's lack of weapons.

"Violet, let's go and buy you a weapon, fighting with the bare hands will be quite difficult." Stroph wanted to continue and head to the nearest store, but Violet stopped him, "Master, no need, I want to fight without weapons, I think it's better for me" Her voice was calm and confident.

Stroph understood at once that she was serious, so he didn't suggest anything else. They just went forward in silence and after about half an hour they reached the forest.

No one checked them, like Vanessa had said, everyone could go when and where they wanted - the complete freedom of actions. But, it was worth understanding one thing, once they entered the "Farm" territory, they could be killed at any time, of course, if you were strong enough you had nothing to worry about.

They had been walking through the woods for about ten minutes and finally came upon the first monsters. They were small Stone Golems, several thick vines had wrapped around some of the parts of their bodies. They were slow, but rather strong like walking pieces of stone.

Stroph had never seen these creatures before, but it was clear at a glance, that they were not the most dangerous opponents one could encounter. Stroph also noticed a bright red dot in different places on each Stone Golem. At first he didn't understand what was going on, but after a few seconds he realized that it was the effect of his passive skill "Hunter's Eye", he saw their weaknesses, because unlike humans their heads were not weak spots.

Also Stroph immediately used "Evaluation" and saw how strong their opponents were.

[Name: Stone Golem]

[Race: Elemental]

[Strength - 17]

[Dexterity - 4]

[Endurance - 19]

[Intellect - 3]

Stroph expected something like this, their strength and endurance were incredible, compared to other stats, but, in general, they were rather weak.

After a few seconds, he took the Last Light from his inventory and was ready to fire, but Violet interrupted him with her words: "Master, they are quite weak, can I fight them?"

Stroph slightly surprised, but after a while, he just nodded slightly to show his approval, lowered his revolver and got ready for the show.

Violet wasted no time and immediately rushed toward the Stone Golems and attacked them. Her speed was too fast for the golems to react to her attack and dodge. She simply clenched her fist with force and swung it at one of the golems.

Stroph saw that the weak point of this golem was in a completely different place, but it didn't matter at all, because immediately after Violet's strike, the Stone Golem shattered into pieces.

She didn't stop at one golem and for the next couple of minutes, the stones of the already dead golems were constantly flying around.

The Stone Golems were strong and tough, but Violet`s level was higher.

Watching her fight Stroph thought to himself, <Why do I feel like she's gotten stronger?>

He saw slight, but still differences in her strength and speed, compared to their last sparring.

All this time "Snow White Darkness" collected Negative Energy from the dead golems, but for all the golems Violet killed, he received only two units of Negative Energy and increased the skill of "Snow White Darkness" almost to zero.

Stroph decided to wait until Violet was done with this group of golems before heading for more difficult opponents. He came here for the coins and points, he needed to get stronger and that's the most important thing.

When Violet had dealt with the last golem, Stroph shouted to her: " It`s enough, we need to move on."

Hearing his words, the girl quickly went back and then they went on to explore the forest.

They wandered for quite some time, it wasn't that they couldn't find any monsters, it was that everyone was too weak. They saw a variety of beasts, lizards, orcs, goblins, and similar low-grade foes, as well as a surprisingly large number of humans constantly fighting them. Assessing each of them, Stroph realized that they would only be wasting their time looking for worthy opponents in this forest.

That's why Stroph decided to head to another nearby area, if it turned out to be just wimps too, they would have to go down one level lower in the funnel.

But, just as he made the decision to find a more interesting place, he heard a terrible scream coming from about twenty meters away from them.

And just a few seconds later, the body of a man with a huge hole in his chest flew toward them, .

The man's body fell, right next to Stroph and Violet.

"What the..." Stroph was dumbfounded by what had just happened.

He looked at the man and realized at a glance that he was already dead, with such a serious wound it was simply impossible to survive.

A few seconds later, they heard an eerie roar from the direction the man had come from. In the distance, Stroph saw whoever was making that terrible roar. It was a huge beast, with many scales all over its body, sharp claws and a long, thick tail that had an incredibly sharp spike on the end, completely covered in blood.

Stroph didn't know what kind of monster it was, but he had no time to think, for the beast spotted them at once and pulled an entire tree with its tail and threw it right at them.