Ruminas took a deep breath, gripped the dagger tightly, and then took steps in the direction the arrow pointed.
Outside, the sky was still a gloomy gray, dark clouds hovering overhead, blocking out most of the light. The air reeked of mold and dust. The streets were deserted, with no one in sight, only traces of destruction.
She carefully observed her surroundings as she moved, each step being light to avoid making unnecessary noise. Although Ruminas had some combat experience, she was not yet confident enough to face stronger creatures. She needed to avoid unnecessary fights and only attack when absolutely necessary.
After leaving the safe zone, Ruminas quickly realized one thing—the road ahead was not simple.
Not to mention the destroyed and obstructed path, the monsters moving back and forth in front of her were already troublesome enough.
Ruminas silently used appraisal on them.
[Low-level Chaos Monster x8]
[Parasite Stage One x6]
"A total of 14 of them… even with my new skills, there's no way I can beat them. But it would be a shame to let them all go, this is a chance to complete quests and increase my combat ability!"
Ruminas hesitated again.
She then decided to wait for one of them to separate and attack, and waited until it was almost dark when one of the parasites wandered out.
Ruminas also started moving closer to it and just when no one was paying attention—
She rushed out and stabbed the knife straight into its heart.
The monster was about to scream to warn her, but Ruminas immediately kicked it in the mouth, causing it to fall. She took the opportunity to distract it and used her strength to press the knife down even harder.
She finally succeeded in killing it but Ruminas did not stop and immediately hid somewhere else.
"Phew…"
Even though Ruminas had succeeded, her heart was still pounding with excitement.
"Let's see what happens"
[Receive: 20 EXP, 1 monster skin]
"20 experience for one? It's a bit low but what can I do… I can only kill more of them. I don't know how many of those lower-level monsters I have, but seven stage 1 monsters are worth 140 experience. How can I pass up such a bargain?"
Ruminas decided to play along with them tonight.
She rested for a while to regain her strength and then continued to stalk her prey. She planned to take out the parasites first to reduce the number of enemies and also because they were unable to detect strong enemies like the chaos monsters.
Ruminas remained absolutely silent, hiding in a nearby bush, and as soon as she saw a parasite move away a little, she immediately started moving to approach it.
To be safe, Ruminas drank another small mouthful of black blood. She remained motionless for a few seconds to let its effects slowly take effect and also to stabilize her mind.
"Good"
Her stats were increased by a certain amount and combined with this dagger, she now felt like she could one-hit the parasite.
"Let's try"
She got closer and closer to the parasite that had split off from the group, and once she was close enough, Ruminas rushed out.
The parasite also quickly discovered its enemy, its claws immediately lengthened and slashed towards it but Ruminas simply swung the knife straight towards it and as a result, its claws were immediately broken.
Not stopping there, she immediately turned around with the knife slashing through its eyes.
The monster let out a painful cry, but Ruminas quickly kicked it down and then pounced on it, stabbing the knife straight into its heart. The monster died after a few struggles.
[Receive: 20 EXP, 1 monster skin]
Ruminas immediately stood up and ran away quickly because other monsters would soon arrive.
"Two children"
Ruminas then waited for more than thirty minutes before continuing her actions in order to lower the monsters' vigilance. Even though some of them had split up several times, she still did not take action because this time the monsters would react very quickly.
"Maybe it's time"
She started moving again.
This time the target was two parasites that were walking together. Although there were two of them, since they were already quite far away from the others, Ruminas decided to take them both out.
"First, if we can ambush and seriously injure or kill one, that would be best."
She began to calculate the distance and surrounding terrain, since her intelligence quotient was quite high, it wasn't difficult for her to come up with a battle plan in such a short time.
Ruminas glanced around, identifying a possible ambush spot. A fallen tree trunk across the road and a few large rocks should provide enough cover to give her an advantage.
"Attack from above is probably best"
She silently climbed onto a large nearby rock, keeping her center of gravity steady, waiting. As the two parasites approached, Ruminas held her breath, gripping the knife in her hand tightly.
The moment one entered attack range, she swooped down like a sharp blade.
Thump!
The tip of the knife plunged into the parasite's neck before it could react. Black blood splattered, but Ruminas paid it no mind. She spun around, kicked the fallen monster's body to gain momentum, and jumped to attack the other one, pushing the other away at the same time.
The second parasite sensed the danger, roared, and swung its claws. Ruminas quickly took half a step back, avoiding the attack, then took advantage of the moment before it could adjust its posture, crouched low, and stabbed the knife into its abdomen.
Swish!
The monster roared in pain, the tentacles on its belly twitching wildly, but Ruminas quickly turned the blade, made a long cut, and pulled it out forcefully. The monster quickly lost strength, staggered, and collapsed.
Ruminas went up and finished it off with a stab to the chest then went up to the previous one and did the same.
[Receive: 40 EXP, 2 monster skins]
"Good, four of them."
But just as Ruminas was about to retreat to rest, a monster attacked from behind with one of its tentacles.
Ruminas sensed danger and quickly dodged.
Turning around, she saw a low-level chaos monster chasing her. It was likely that it heard the scream just now.
"Should I attack now…?" Ruminas hesitated a bit, not knowing if there would be any more coming besides it.
In the end, she decided to temporarily avoid it to see if any came, as well as continue to lure this one further away because she knew she couldn't take it down in one blow like the parasites, so if she wanted to fight, she had to ensure her own safety first.
So she turned and ran, the monster chasing after her.
Because the effects of the black blood still remained, Ruminas' speed was quite fast, allowing her to always maintain a large enough distance from the monster behind.
"Here should be fine…"
Ruminas stopped at a ruined place, the terrain here was relatively difficult to navigate but also advantageous for her to conduct guerrilla warfare and be able to retreat if needed.
She turned around, facing the monster.
The last time she faced it, fear was the dominant emotion, but this time Ruminas was calmer than before. Although her hands were still shaking a bit, at least this time she dared to fight.
"If you don't want to go up, then I will!" Ruminas said, she drank another mouthful of black blood and then proactively charged forward.
Ruminas charged forward at a faster speed than normal thanks to the effects of the black blood.
The low-level chaos monster reacted immediately, swinging a tentacle towards her. Ruminas quickly leaned to the side to avoid it, while sliding close to the ground to close the distance.
Whoosh!
Another tentacle swept in from the side. Ruminas jumped back, narrowly escaping the attack range.
"Reaction speed is the same as the previous one"
Ruminas attacked again, the initial goal would be to probe what its attack pattern was and the methods it used to attack.
The battle that followed was Ruminas taking the initiative to charge forward and then retreat to avoid the attack. According to the information obtained, within five meters it would have the ability to detect enemies through sound waves, so its reaction speed would also be much faster.
"It can't be used in close combat." Ruminas was clear on that. "If only we could use fire, that would be great, but there's nothing around here that can catch fire."
Ruminas looked around again, she found a few fallen trees but they were quite far apart so even if she created a fire, she wouldn't be able to surround the monster.
"Calm down, outside of five meters it can only rely on normal sound, so we can take advantage of this point…"
Ruminas immediately picked up a stone and threw it, the monster immediately reacted and attacked that spot.
"If only we could make a lot of sounds at once, then maybe it would work." Ruminas looked around again, the houses had collapsed but there were still a few places standing, however with enough force, it could still collapse.
There were a few points like this and an idea popped into Ruminas' head.
She took out the ropes and started tying them to the pillars, trying her best to change their shape so that if she broke the pillars, everything would collapse.
During this process, Ruminas was also attacked by the monster several times, so she had to make noises to distract it. Finally, Ruminas successfully connected these dots together.
Her plan was simply to make a series of loud noises to distract the monster and in the meantime she would approach it and strike a quick blow.
"I don't know if it will work, but let's try."