The Hunter's Guide to Monsters

Krow tucked in to avoid debris, then flipped and landed on the herb field.

The tail swung again, this time for him.

Krow triggered double-jump. 

The length of solid muscle slammed into the field, sank, crushing herbs, stones, and the very ground under it.

"You better hope that doesn't come out of my pay."

Hsraaahhhsssaaasss!

"No idea what you mean." Krow aimed at the eye again. "Hiss this."

The serpent dodged, lunged.

Ugh.

He glanced behind, then leaped backward as he shot. Darkspear after darkspear.

[Critical Hit!] [Critical Hit!]

Hsrraaaahh!

Krow misjudged the distance, his feet skipping past the ledge he'd aimed for. Tumbled over. His eyes widened as the serpent lunged again.

Too close for the revolver to maneuver. Coils whipped around him. He bound upward, using the snake's body as jumping point.

It would not let him go that easily. Fangs came for him.

-30% HP.

Major Poison.

Krow triggered doublejump, levered the skill to whip a leg at the snake's head.

The kick took the possessed serpent by surprise. 

[You have achieved 50 Points of Dexterity!] 

[The subclass Ac…]

He ignored the notices.

A flick of a hand, the revolver disappeared into Inventory. He replaced the weapon with the butcher's cleaver.

Krow landed on the pile of coils, leaped to trigger doublejump again, and buried the butcher's cleaver in the second eye as far as it could go. Critical hit.

He used the cleaver as a lever to flip upward.

Hsraaaaaaaahhssss!

He pulled the cleaver out, covered in gore, put a hand on the serpent's head. Too small to land on, but enough to gain the stability to shove the cleaver into the other eye.

Hsrrrrgh…

The snake shuddered, head lowering to rest on its coils.

Krow straddled the neck and started shooting.

Hss—yaaahhhh…!

A cloud of…something rose from the carcass, the hiss changing mid-sound to something like a scream before dispersing in the wind.

[You have defeated your opponent in battle!]

[You've gained two (2) Silver Serpens from a monster!]

[You've gained twenty (20) Gold Drax from winning a Single Combat Challenge with an opponent ranked at least 20 levels higher than you!]

  [Ilas Krow is the first player to win a Single Combat Challenge with an opponent ranked at least 20 levels higher! Do you want to publish this achievement?]

  "No."

He was stunned as the reports continued.

[You've gained the Underdog Might Badge from winning a Single Combat Challenge with an opponent ranked at least 5 levels higher than you!]

[You've gained the Goliath's Bane Badge from winning a Single Combat Challenge with an opponent ranked at least 10 levels higher than you!]

[You've gained the Rival to Heracles Badge from winning a Single Combat Challenge with an opponent ranked at least 20 levels higher than you!]

[You have gained one (1) level to achieve Lvl 12!]

And he was just lamenting that his last life never had a second badge...

Krow laughed, propped himself against the large serpent, resting.

[You've gained a Silverstripe Wavy Spine from a monster!]

That brought his collection of monster bones to four. He really should have them made into proper Ghost Stones for his Ghostcaller subclass. He kept forgetting.

He placed the bone in the inventory and took out potions to recover. Over half his HP had been sliced off, and was still ticking lower with the Major Poison debuff.

If he hadn't surmounted the half-century mark for DEX earlier, the fight would've been more difficult.

He sighed, opened his Profile.

*

Name: Ilas Krow

Level: 12 (2%) 

Race: Draculkar

HP: 100% 

MP: 100% 

MagicAptitude: 11

Element: Shadow

Battleclass:  Sharpshooter: (Mark Critical @ 11%)(Dual Wield @ 0%)

Crafterclass:  Enchanter [~Skills~]

Subclasses: 

Scout [First Apprentice]: (Eyes of an Eagle @ 33%)

Butcher [Third Wright]: (Knife Handling @ 100%) (Meat-carving @ 55%)

                      Tinkerer ::|Expand|::

Acrobat [Third Wright]: (Rope Trickster @ 100%)(Eight-armed Juggling @ 50%)

Tracker [First Apprentice]: (Target Marking @ 100%)

Ghostcaller [Second Apprentice]

Talents ::|Expand|::

Forester [First Apprentice]: (Basic Skills: |Stalk||Hunt||Trap||Harvest|)(Fleet of Foot @ 32%)(Shaded by Boughs @ 5%)

Main Weapon: Starfall Revolver [Lvl 9/50] [Unique] [Quality: A-]

Stat Points: 5

Badges: [Butcherer][Underdog Might][Goliath's Bane][Rival to Heracles]

*

Fifty points of Dexterity boosted his Acrobat to Third Wright and added a skill called Dual Wield to his Sharpshooter.

Dual-wielded revolvers?

A grin of anticipation grew wide across his face.

It sounded too complicated, really. But he still wanted to start practicing as soon as possible!

About to put all his points in VIT as he generally did, he noted that STR was 47.

STR was faster to gain points than VIT, but…

He really wanted to see what he got from 50 points of STR.

He hesitated, then shook his head.

Alright then! Make up for the VIT points later!

[You have achieved 50 Points of Strength!] 

[The skill Rifle-wielding has been added to your Sharpshooter Class due to your increase in Strength!]

Krow lifted his brows, nonplussed.

Wasn't the rifle a basic weapon for the Sharpshooter class?

Why would he need 50 STR to use one?

Unless the initial stat distribution and the rate of gain for the different stats of each player changed depending on what weapon they chose? Sure, but still didn't explain that much.

Possibly to prevent players from changing weapon types like they changed their clothes.

To encourage Specialization.

Was it that important?

There were different basic weapons within each battleclass, after all. If the developers thought people wouldn't start mastering all the weapons available to them, they didn't know gamers.

If they were subtly pushing for specialization…

Krow tapped fingers against the holster of his gun.

Should he max out the levels of the Starfall Revolver before starting to level a rifle?

That would be difficult.

He'd need the rifle long before he achieved that. Considering the situations where he required a rifle even now, he should start leveling one soon.

"Hello there!"

Krow looked up. A couple of the villagers were waving at him from an upper field.

He glanced around, winced.

This field of herbs was a lost cause.

"Are you alright?"

Krow straightened, waved back. "I'm fine!"

He closed his Profile.

A draculkar vaulted the stone stile and bounded down the steps.

An adult, with a braided black beard. "Are you certain you're alright? It sounded like a difficult fight. The twins came running, saying you were fighting a Silverstripe."

Krow glanced at the upper field. He'd taken a few quests from the twelve-year old twins who kept a small goldencoat goat herd. He smiled at the two pale faces looking back.

Ah, they were staring at the large snake.

He turned back to the draculkar, who was now looking around in dismay.