Despite all the training, he went through, Walter was somewhat anxious compared to his first run-in with monsters as he nearly with mere quill rats...
how much more with the terrifying monsters that dwelled within the den of evil?
While he was sure he could handle quill rats with no problems, with the recent growth that he went through but it also made him understand that stats don't always matter as there are all sorts of monsters to watch out for even if you are among the 'strong'.
Poison is a dreadful thing to experience regardless of what kind it was, so he decided to go with the suggestion that Silvia gave him, hunt the monsters that occupied blood moor (the area just outside of the encampment for those that don't know that).
Then focus on killing, hunting, butchering, whatever you want to call it until you feel confident enough and have a few town portal scrolls ready just in case he came across a strong monster that he couldn't handle.
Thinking about it for a bit it was the best method for him to 'prepare' for what's to come.
Switching to a bow as the moon shined brightly unhindered by any clouds, Walter roamed around an hour before finding a small pack of four quill rats, that was away from any possible reinforcements from the other monsters around, feeding on the corpse of a mercenary that went missing a few days back... well what was left of it at least.
the area they were at had some tall grass as the wind made it fill the area with the sound of grass rubbing together as it blew towards his direction which worked in his favor as these beasts had a keen sense of smell so if the wind blew towards them it would just make things go on longer for Walter as he went into his 'hunter mode'.
so Walter lowered his body to blend in with the grass while moving slowly before he knocked an arrow then aimed for the one that finished eating and away from the rest that was gorging themselves on the rotting flesh and bones of a former acquaintance.
while he wasn't very good with aiming the bow from long ranges, for now, he still knew how to increase his chances by getting closer~
His clueless prey was wiping itself on a patch of grass then when he was within 50 meters of his prey not too far not too close, Walter waited patiently for the beast to provide him with the chance to kill it as it was busy cleaning itself meaning that it was still moving around too much.
the seconds trickled as Walter controlled his breathing, focusing completely on his target before finally, the wind stopped and the moonlight made the tip of Walter's arrow flicker catching the attention of the quill rat that he was hunting giving him the perfect moment as it stopped.
He released the arrow as soon as the beast stopped letting his attack dig deep into its skull ending its life in a quick motion.
Walter laid his body on the ground checking to see if the attack alerted the rest of the quill rats as they all stopped eating, looking around, trying to listen for what the noise came from as they growled and snarled amongst themselves seemingly riled up possibly because of him.
This made him tense as he readied his bow and arrow taking aim towards the one closest to him which was around 100 meters or so from him, as this went on for a good ten seconds then finally!
They went back to eating.
Walter relaxed with a sigh of relief as he loosened the bowstring while putting away the arrow back into the quiver, looked around a bit for any interlopers, since there wasn't any he started crawling towards his quarry as the quill rat that resided within his head was egging him on to get something from the corpse, he reached it then quietly dragged it into the tall grass staying out of sight.
After getting his arrow back, Walter proceeded to 'dismantle' the body since the quills make excellent blowdarts with their natural poison that it was coated with.
He found the object that was causing his new companion to react so much it was some kind of greenstone no bigger than a small pebble, the next thing that happened was it turned into some kind of light before entering his chest that gave him the feeling like something was put back together!
He was curious so Walter checked his stats to find out why it felt like something changed within him.
!@#&!#ty level 0/0 (1/3) fragments
)(*&&^%$ level 0/0 (2/10) available
Sure enough, while his stats stayed the same there were some changes with his skills making him eager to kill the rest of these quill rats but he still had to play it safe.
So he stalked the quill rats for half a day before the beast decided to rest allowing Walter to silently kill them all in their sleep the sad thing though he was only able to get one more of those strange pebble things leaving the rest to be dismantled and sold to the encampment.
but that wasn't the only thing!
after getting that pebble, the Quill rat was now able to take physical form, albeit being a bit smaller than the ones he hunted just now, but it also shared all of his stats meaning that he had a travel companion to help him with his quest, sure it scared the shit out of him at first but it was better than entering a creepy-ass den on his own.
and something told him that the current effects that he sees now aren't the end of the effects of whatever the skill had.
So to test its abilities he wanted to test it against another pack of to check its prowess as new ideas with hunting came to mind.
but his excitement for the skill made him unintentionally noisy thus bringing forth a few bigger problems...
one they were surrounded, two there were three kinds of monsters around, and three... a mad cackle followed as the leader of this group had red skin, longs curved horns holding a burning staff in its left hand and a large jagged dirk in the other!
If he was correct this was a fallen shaman but this guy introduced himself with 20 more little red guys following him!
"ฬєɭɭ, ๒๏ץร, เՇ ɭ๏๏кร ɭเкє คภ๏Շђєг ๒คﻮ ๏Ŧ ๓єคՇ ๔єςเ๔є๔ Շ๏ קгєรєภՇ เՇรєɭŦ Շ๏ ยร! ๒ยՇ ๔๏ภ'Շ ฬ๏ггץ, ןยк'Շค Շђє ๒๏ɭ๔ ฬเɭɭ ๓คкє ﻮ๏๏๔ ยรє ๏Ŧ ץ๏ยг ς๏гקรє!"(Well boys, It looks like another bag of meat decided to present itself to us! but don't worry, Yuk'ta the bold will make good use of your corpse!)
this meant...
it was a named monster!
Title: Hunting, learning more about his skill, Named monster!