Chapter 13: 1.8

There was a loud cracking sound, as if a thick piece of wood had been snapped in two by a heavy stomp, and Kid suddenly woke up and snapped into an upright position from where he had been lying down.  He quickly turned his head to the right and met the gaze of a deer who had apparently been equally startled.  He took a brief moment to use Identify during the stare-down before quickly reaching for his revolver and blasting two shots aimed at the deer's face.  The first shot was likely the killing shot while the second seemed to hit the base of one of the horns and blow it off to the side.

He sighed and gave himself a few moments to calm down from his adrenaline fueled awakening.  As his breath grew steady once more he decided to begin reloading the revolver but changed out all of the rounds that were still in the cylinder with the some of the few real bullets he had.  His goal was to take on something that should be a decent bit stronger than he was today, so using some of his better ammunition to ensure he accomplished his task felt like the wiser move.  A quick change in decision had him putting only one mana bullet in the chamber that would fire next so that he could shoot off the other of the deer's antlers and once that was done he made sure that there were real bullets in all of the chambers and holstered his weapon.

He decided to try and work his Blood Manipulation control to its limits since he had a good enough opportunity to practice at the moment.  He made a cut in the deer's neck and stood up while trying to pull the blood out of the wound in a small stream and up to his mouth.  It was actually a lot more difficult than he had anticipated but after several failed attempts he finally managed to get the blood to come up to his mouth for his breakfast, although he had to do it by gathering it together into one little marble at a time.  After he felt that he had drunk enough to not be ravenously hungry anymore he decided to try and use what was left of the blood to work on his Blood Magic as well as try to learn Dark Magic.

He took a brief moment to root through his backpack for his noted and then spent the next hour trying to get at least one Dark Magic spell to activate.  The closest he got was a slight and brief darkening of one particular circle he had drawn after which he received the notification he had been hoping for and promptly put Dark Magic into his last racial slot.  He used the rest of the blood he was able to pull from the corpse to practice his Blood Magic and then decided to try and build a small fire.  He had his knife, a fire starter, and a full tinderbox so all he really had to do was clear a bit of ground and gather some sticks.  It took some work, for sure, but it was a lot easier than trying to rub sticks together in his opinion.

As soon as he saw that the fire was actually going he pulled out his dismantling knives and got to work on dismantling the deer as best he could.  The pelt was skinned poorly, the slabs of meat were cut in different sizes, and none of it looked as clean as when the dismantler at the guild had done it but he was satisfied that he had got at least something that the guild would buy in addition to the antlers.  All but the smallest piece of meat went into the burlap sack he had pulled out, which he carefully used the excess of to try and wrap around it so that whatever leftover blood there was wouldn't leak out and soak the things in his backpack.  Then he put it at the top of his backpack and tried to put the antlers on top of that but had the antlers half sticking out.  A few adjustments made sure that at least they wouldn't be poking him in the back of the head.

The small piece he had saved he pierced with a stick that he thought seemed relatively clean and held over the fire in order to try and cook it.  It took quite a while for the meat to cook and he even managed to practice his Mana Manipulation, Detect Life, and Meditation while he waited.  After what was probably close to an hour he saw that the meat had begun to change color from a light pink to a delicious looking brown.  He gave it a few more minutes as he twirled it around a bit to make sure that it was getting cooked evenly all around and then pulled it from the fire and began blowing on it to help it cool quicker.  Once he thought it was at a safe enough temperature he started eating it while it was still stuck on the stick.

It wasn't the most delicious thing he had ever eaten but he didn't find it all that bad.  It was still in a rare state so he probably could have cooked it a little longer and with no seasoning it was a little bland but somehow it still tasted better to him than the fresh bread he had bought a few days ago.  He felt satisfied with his meal and stood up to start kicking dirt over his little campfire to put it out.  He didn't rush since he wanted to give his meal time to settle and by the time he was done cleaning up the area he felt ready to travel.

He walked back to about where he had turned away to rest for the night and then continued in the same direction he had been traveling last night.  Now that he had some stuff in his pack that would spoil if he took too long he was really hoping that he would be able to find some kind of monster that fit the requirements before the day was over.  He pushed with his Detect Life as he walked and noticed that the range he was able to detect had actually increased a little from when he had first gotten it.  He had level several skills a little bit up to this point but this was the first time he was actually noticing the difference and it somehow lifted his mood a little to have some of his work recognized and rewarded in some way.

As he was lost in his happy thoughts he caught something that seemed different somehow out of the corner of his eye and realized that he might have almost missed something important.  He stopped and walked backwards a few steps while looking at the ominous forest and realized that there seemed to be a spot where he could almost see a little further in than anywhere else.  Most of where he could see between the trees seemed dark and had almost no sunlight that could break through the canopy provided by the massive trees but at that one spot there seemed to be some light from further in which he took as a sign of something being there.

He thought through several scenarios and possibilities about what he could encounter and finally took of his pack as he walked towards a nearby tree with some low branches.  He looped the straps around the branch and settled the pack on top of it so that it wouldn't be easily seen or taken.  Then he took a few moments to make sure he was calm and ready for whatever he might encounter while making sure his revolver was in one hand and his karambit was easily accessible.  Satisfied that he was as prepared as he could be, he crouched low and began to carefully make his way through the trees in the direction of the light area.  

It wasn't a far distance, taking no more than maybe a few moments at the slow speed he was using to creep forward, until he saw what the light area was.  There was a clearing among the trees where many trees had been simply knocked over, allowing the sun to shine on this spot.  There was little mystery about how they had been knocked over either since in the middle of the clearing was a strange creature that looked a lot like a lion that was lying down and resting, though definitely not asleep.  Identify gave him the information that he was looking for: it was a monster with a role.

[Manticore][Assault]

The assault role was a bit worrying but as long as he didn't ever get hit by an attack he should be okay.  He took a deep and quiet breath then aimed carefully with both hands as he let it out back out.  He did a mental check on his posture and stance to make sure that he was as stable as he could be while he breathed in one more time.  Once his breath was fully let out the second time, he squeezed the trigger until the gun went off, nearly surprising him, and then he proceeded to fire the remaining 5 shots as quickly as he could make sure he was aimed in again.

The first shot hit the monster dead center in the forehead, causing it to blink in confusion.  The next five shots, in order, hit it in the nose, the cheek, the shoulder, the ear, and the same paw as the hit shoulder.  Kid only took a moment to see that he hadn't killed it and ducked behind the nearest tree to begin reloading.  He had hoped that it having no defense bonus from assault would mean that he had a decent chance to take it out quickly but considering that a headshot had only confused it, he was now questioning his life decisions.  At the front of his mind he knew that even if he died that he would just come back at the temple.  At the back of his mind, however, was the constant scream of his subconscious yelling that he was in danger beyond belief.

He finished reloading his revolver and had put two of the spent casings into his belt when he suddenly felt that something was off.  Taking no time to try and figure out what it was, he threw himself onto his hands and knees and began scurrying towards the nearest set of bushes to hide.  As soon as he got there he threw himself flat on the ground and rolled a little so that he could keep his gun trained in the monster's direction.  Just as he stopped moving he heard a loud roar and the spot where he had fired from, as well as the tree he had jumped behind and the whole area around it, exploded.  At least three trees were essentially uprooted and began falling over while the one tree that he had hidden behind that was nearest to the center of the explosion seemed to almost disappear entirely.

He opened his eyes again, only just now realizing he had closed them, and saw that there was now a small crater where he had been but moments before.  A bit of cold sweat appeared on his forehead and back as he wondered how he was going to deal with his current situation.  He tried to be extra quiet as he used the muzzle of his gun to part the bush in front of him just enough to see.  The manticore was bleeding from every place that Kid had shot, even the head, which was good news in that it meant it wasn't unkillable.  The bad news was that shooting it in the head didn't seem to be enough.  The worse news, which he was seeing now, was that there were actually two heads as the tail seemed to actually be a snake that was looking around.

He tried to stay calm and quiet while he aimed and thought about what he could shoot to try and end this as quickly as possible.  The head on either side was definitely a bad plan: one was too tough and the other was too small and quick.  He considered trying to aim for the heart but this was some kind of strange monster and there was no guarantee that it had a normal anatomy.  That left the neck.  The monster seemed to be breathing and had roared so if he could damage and puncture the neck enough then he should, by most forms of logic, be able to kill it.  The biggest problem with that plan was the mane that hid that neck and prevented him from being able to aim well.

He let out one last big breath as quietly as possible as he saw the manticore look to the side and then fired all six shots as quickly as he could while staying somewhat accurate into where he thought the neck should be under the mane.  He didn't even wait to see if he had fully succeeded or not.  In case that thing roared another one of whatever those attacks were at where he was, he wanted to be somewhere else as soon as possible.  He scooted back only a little while still lying down and then started rolling off to the side.  Once he thought there was a little distance, he got on his hands and knees and started crawling in an attempt to circle around the clearing a little bit as quietly as he could.

There was no second explosion so he stopped when he got behind a reasonably large tree and sat down to reload once more.  With only 6 real bullets left he had to put a mana bullet in the last chamber but at least he managed to keep all of the casings this time.  He waited when he was done for a little bit to make sure he caught his breath and was ready to run if need be, then peeked around the tree and saw...nothing.  Feeling a little wary, he got on his hand and knees again and carefully crawled around the other side of the tree that he had peeked out from in an attempt to get closer to the clearing and try to find the monster.  He finally reached a bush that he thought he could hide behind reasonably well and peeked through it using the muzzle to part it slightly once more.

His gaze immediately met the gaze of the snake tail.  The manticore was down and seemed to be choking on its blood from the lion head but the snake head seemed to still be fully active and ready for vengeance.  Kid immediately fired a shot as a kind of panic reaction and watched what looked like a small spark fly off of the snake head as the bullet merely bounced off.  His first thought was on just how unfair that was and his second was about how he had no clue what to do now.  The snake opened its mouth as if it were going to do something, even though it was still quite far away, and Kid began firing again.

Apparently one of his bullets managed to get the snake in the mouth because he saw it suddenly fly back and fall down with blood flying everywhere.  That was the last thing he saw, though, before whatever the snake had done hit him in the face and caused his vision to turn to white.  When his vision returned soon after he found himself in the domed room of the temple with several prompts floating in front of him.

Congratulations!  You have earned the Adrenaline Junkie title.

Congratulations!  You have earned the Guerilla title.

Congratulations!  You have earned the Double Death title.

Congratulations!  You have earned the Deadeye title.

Congratulations!  You have earned the Hand of Death title.

He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that.  He looked over himself briefly and realized that his pack wasn't with him.  It was good to know that the things he didn't actively have didn't respawn with him when he died but now he needed to go all the way back to get it.  He also needed to figure out what to do with the body of the manticore he had apparently committed double suicide with.  Or was it double homicide?  Did killing a monster even count as homicide?  These were questions that he probably shouldn't be asking himself at the moment.

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He got up and started to quickly walk around to try and get out of the temple, having to occasionally stop nearby priests to ask for the way out like normal.  Once outside he began to jog towards the guild, thinking that they would likely be able to tell him what he should do about the manticore corpse and maybe even come with him to help retrieve it.  As he neared the building he spotted Randy and decided to ask him instead since he seemed to not be teaching his students at the moment.

"Hey!"

"Hm?  Oh, hello there.  What's wrong?  You look a little rushed...and kind of haunted..."

"Ah...I'm just getting over a fight I just died in.  I overestimated myself a little more than I should have, I guess.  I didn't think level twenty five monsters would be as strong as the one I fought and even though I won, it still got me.  I did get a lot of stuff for it, though, so there's that.  Anyways, I have to go get my bag back, especially since it has deer meat in it, as well as try to figure out what to do with the monster's corpse.  I've only learned to dismantle a few normal animals and I have no idea what could be valuable in it either.  I don't suppose you have some time to come with me and help out...?"

"Hmm.  I...think I can spare a few more hours.  I sent everyone out hunting so they could learn a little independence but it should be a little while before they start coming back.  Lead the way."

"Right.  Thanks for this."

Kid began jogging in the direction of the ominous forest while Randy soon sidled up to him and kept pace.  It was quiet for a while before Randy finally broke the silence.

"So what kind of monster was it?"

"A manticore."

Suddenly Randy was in front of him and he had to stop hard to keep from crashing.  He looked up and saw Randy staring at him hard with an incredibly serious look.

"A manticore?  I thought you said it was level twenty five."

"Well it's not like I can see something's level.  The guild said the strongest things around were level twenty five and I fought a manticore so I figured it was a level twenty five manticore."

"There's no such thing as a level twenty five manticore.  Manticores shouldn't even exist on this layer but even if they did all manticores are born at least at level thirty.  Alright, since something is apparently strange here I need you to hop on.  I can run faster than you, so you just point me where to go while riding on my back."

The serious look brooked no room for argument so, with only some minor hesitation, Kid got on Randy's back and started giving directions as best he could to where the manticore fight had been.  Randy hadn't been lying about being faster and they arrived near where he had turned to go off into the nicer forest to sleep for the night in less than an hour after leaving the town.  He asked Randy to slow down a little so he could try and keep an eye out for his pack since that would also point out where they needed to go into the dark woods at.  

After about half an hour more of travel, he spotted his backpack and told Randy that they had arrived.  Randy let him down and he ran over to grab his backpack, which he put on without checking too thoroughly and then began leading his slightly impatient mentor through the trees to the location of their fight.  The manticore was lying in the same spot, now dead, and Kid breathed out a sigh of relief at getting the final confirmation.

"So, this was a level thirty monster, huh?"  He asked as Randy moved forward to examine the corpse.

"Try closer to one hundred and thirty.  One hundred thirty two, to be exact.  It's definitely a Lesser Chimeric Manticore.  So...I have to ask...are you just some kind of walking disaster magnet or something?  You picked a forbidden skill to start with, got a Nightwind mentor, and faced off against a monster that shouldn't even be in the first five layers.  At this rate you might be able to get the system to give you a title for achieving to live even another ten years."

"Well, other than the skill thing it's not like any of that is my fault, exactly.  If I had known what that was I would have probably just run away."

"So you admit to the forbidden skill, huh?  No, I won't say anything and you shouldn't either.  Like I said, I don't really care and don't even believe that it should be forbidden.  As far as this is concerned.  Well...this is a little difficult.  This should most definitely not be here and you most definitely do not want to be in the public eye for now.  If anyone finds out you had anything to do with this then..."

"Then I'll probably spend a lot of time being questioned and locked up and stuff.  Then it won't be long before someone checks my skills and sees what I have..."

"Pretty much.  So, here's what we'll do.  You found this.  You told me about it and came to show me.  I recognized that this shouldn't be here and killed it.  In return for 'showing me here' and 'helping bring it back' I'm going to give you some nice rewards.  The first of which is some money, as soon as we get back.  It won't be anything near what this is actually worth.  I'll admit that now.  I'm not trying to cheat you but if someone finds out that I pretty much gave you all the rewards for this thing then there's going to be some questions.  Instead, I'll do you a few favors that I'm sure you'll appreciate on the next layer.  Deal?"

"It roared some kind of explosion into the trees over there, which is where the crater came from, and the snake part spit out something, which is what killed me.  Just in case anyone asks about what it could do or something.  We should also probably do something about the bullets, I guess..."

"I'll take care of all that."

"Okay, ya, deal.  So...now what?"

"I'm going to take care of any evidence of you fighting this.  Wait nearby for now just in case I need to make sure of something and I'll make sure to bring you back.  I have to get back soon, myself, anyways."

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