Day 14

As the ‘first find’ achievement bonus was going to end today, Bharat decided to take full advantage of its effects by forgoing his usual schedule and entering the forest in the morning, with a goal of reaching level 5 by noon, as that’s when he found the first claw-foot rabbit.

Just like yesterday, he chose small groups of claw-foot rabbits as his targets or the occasional swift-foot rabbit he managed to find in the inner area of the territory.

But instead of using his previous strategy, he would start the fight by killing at least one of the targets by ambushing them and by taking advantage of their initial shock, killing the remaining group became a relatively easy task. Just like that, he was slowly increasing his close combat experience and whittling down the numbers of Claw-foot rabbits at the same time.

The groups he chose were usually limited to a max of four rabbits but he was getting better at kiting them with every fight so he felt that he could also do well against five of them with some effort.

But he was so engrossed in his training that he unknowingly went deeper into the rabbit territory and entered the core area. He only took note of this fact when he realized that the trees around him were no longer marked, something he still does to help him navigate these woods better.

Thinking that it was a good time as any to finally explore the core area, he continued to go deeper inside the territory, soon reaching an open area that was even bigger than the place in which his cave was located, a comparison which was made easier by the fact that for the first time since he entered this forest he could finally see the sky as the trees were too far apart to cover it.

All this time he thought that the weird lighting in the forest was due to the trees blocking the sunlight but he now realized how wrong he was. This was because the sky was actually green coloured instead of blue.

But he only focussed on it for a brief moment before his attention was grabbed by something far more alarming. Quickly ducking down into the bushes, he rushed behind a tree and cautiously looked at the ground inside this clearing.

This was because, the whole area was covered with holes of various sizes and shapes, with a large number of rabbits entering and leaving through them. With just a glance, he counted around a hundred of them and the scariest part about it was that they all were Claw-foot rabbits, with each one of them being no less than level 3.

And the thing that frustrated him the most about this situation was that, inside this clearing surrounded by these rabbits, there were 7 loot box altars right in the open, which was a first for Bharat but he would honestly prefer them to be hidden over this.

For a minute, Bharat just stood there, staring out in the field at the dozens of Claw-foot rabbits leaving and entering their holes, with a chance of there being more of them underground than on the surface.

He felt a strong urge to curse out loud at this situation but held himself back as facing even a small group of them was a nightmare for him. He wasn't going to touch this hornet’s nest anytime soon or maybe ever.

But the sight of those 7 altars in the area, with 6 of them surrounding one far bigger one in the centre very much tempted him. This could’ve been the biggest haul he had till now. But like always, the system wasn’t going to make things easy for him.

So, in order to reach the prize, he would have to leap over this proverbial firepit, a task he was more than confident he would fail regardless of his preparation.

‘I mean, how the hell am I even supposed to beat that?’

Going in suddenly, with guns blazing or rather arrows and dagger blazing, was obviously the worst thing he could do right now as the image of countless rabbits rushing at him performing hit and run attacks sent shivers down his spine. Luring them one-by-one wasn't going to work either as their proximity to each other basically confirmed that he would be calling at least 20 of them once.

He did not need to actually fight this large group on his own as he was confident of reaching level-5 by the pace he was currently going but still…

It weirdly reminded him of those optional quests in games that were far harder to complete but with amazing rewards in the end. Except, of course, he won't be getting multiple chances to complete it if he failed the first time.

‘Maybe I can try to reach a higher vantage point and shoot them from afar?’

One glance upwards at the nearby tree showed that the lowest branch was about 20 metres high, and as the surface of the trees lacked any footholds, he knew that climbing them was going to be a task in itself. Moreover, he wasn’t sure if he could even aim properly at such a large distance.

So, with a heavy heart and taking one last longing look at those precious loot boxes, he left the core area and went back into hunting inside the inner area.

‘Maybe when I’m stronger with a lot more options, I should visit this area once more.’

In the evening, he was once again munching on the berries while searching for any targets when he saw two Swift-foot rabbits walking aimlessly nearby.

He had noticed in the past few days that these creatures rarely did anything except for eating. Well, they did do ‘that’ sometimes but it was a very rare occurrence. Deciding that, why the hell not, he pulled his bow and got ready as eliminating them would hardly take more than a minute.

[Swift-foot Rabbit - Level 5]

[Swift-foot Rabbit - Level 3]

Deciding to deal with the level 5 rabbit first, he aimed his arrow and was about to release it when something strange happened.

Suddenly, the rabbit he was aiming for started convulsing on the ground and started letting out horrible squeals of pain. Its companion, startled by the sudden actions of its ‘brother’ curiously trotted over to its position and started nudging it with its nose.

Meanwhile, Bharat who had his earlier [appraise] results still in front of him saw something that further stupified him.

[hd)*#&@d84 - Ad^98#&]

The displayed level and name of the level 5 rabbit started glitching and showing gibberish. Looked back at the rabbit, he watched with wide eyes as it started changing right in front of him. Its coat getting darker, metal claws coming out of its paws and its size increasing a little bit.

[Claw-foot Rabbit - Level 5]

It mutated right in front of his eyes, a phenomenon he discovered for the first time. All this time, he thought that the Claw-foot rabbits and Swift-foot rabbits were two different species, with the Claw-foot ones evolved form of their spineless counterparts, but if they were changing in real-time, then it was less about evolution and more of something along the lines of a zombie invasion, just with rabbits.

Suddenly, the former Swift-foot rabbit opened his now red glowing eyes and pounced on its ‘brother’, who failed to dodge the unexpected attack in time. The red eyes rabbit pinned his companion to the ground and started gorging on its flesh right then and there but before it could continue the ‘feast’, its instincts warned it of incoming danger before it knew no more.

It Looked like Bharat didn't want to waste this opportunity so while they were busy in their fight, he charged a [concentraated shot] and let it loose at the due, killing them both with a single arrow.

*Ding*

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*Ding*

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*Ding*

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Status

Name: Bharat Kumar

Race: Human (Tier 0) (Level 5)

Level: 5

Titles: [Pioneer Of World], [Newbie]

Health: 171/171

Mana: 147/147

Stamina: 105/135

Stats

+Strength: 20

+Perception: 16

+Endurance: 17

+Constitution: 14

+Intelligence: 16

+Agility: 14

+Luck: 3

Unspent Points: 8

’It looks I have to prioritize killing Claw-foot rabbits unless I want even more of them to crowd the core area, in which case getting to those altars would turn from difficult to damn near impossible.’, he thought grimly.

He remembered the quest he had received after observing these rabbits after their death but the system was suspiciously silent even after he watched the actual turning process so he guessed he would need to explore the situation more in order to complete the quest.

The reward was a free [rare] equipment after all, along with some clues about his training program quest as well but he was stumped about how exactly to uncover the reason behind these mutations.

Walking over to the pair of dead rabbits, he lightly nudged the Claw-foot rabbit with his foot, which was still on top of the Swift-foot one, and rolled it over its back.

Observing it closely while prodding here and there, Bharat was once again amazed by the sight as no signs were pointing to the fact that just moments ago, it was a normal Swift-foot rabbit.

The thought of dissecting it and finding out its secrets did occurred to him in the past but he had avoided performing the whole skinning process on Claw-foot rabbits till now.

One reason was he was wary of whatever caused their mutation to affect him as well. A silly thought, but he has watched too many zombie apocalypse movies that started due to this little detail that he was not going to take any chances.

That was not even mentioning the horrible smell they released after some time of being dead.

‘And really, I wouldn't know what to look for anyway. It's not like I am an expert in animal biology.’, he thought while carefully touching the rabbit’s claws as his knowledge in biology was only limited to photosynthesis and ‘mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell’.

And he really doubted that those two things were going to help him here, so leaving the vicinity of the dead rabbits, he started exploring the forest in search of more loot boxes, hoping to get something useful this time. As he already accomplished his goal of reaching level 5 and the bonus experience ended few hours ago, he didn't see the point of continuing his hunting.

As the boxes he’d found till now were placed in unusual places, he made sure to carefully look inside bushes and even the base of the trees, which was apparently the right thing to do as he found two more [common] loot boxes in such a manner.

As for their contents, he got another [appraise] scroll along with a [Basic-translate] scroll, a [common] health potion and a stamina potion respectively, another steel dagger, and a steel sword.

*Ding*

<< Weapon: Steel short Sword (Common)

Description: A simple sword made of high durability steel for those who like the simplicity of wielding a sword in their battles.

Remarks: It may be short but it's still bigger than yours! >>

Pretty similar to the steel dagger in its description. But honestly, he would prefer using daggers over swords as using a dagger seemed far easier to use than a weapon with a longer blade that would require more proper technique.

‘How do I find more ability scrolls then?’, Bharat frowned in thought as this was the fourth loot box he had found without a combat ability scroll.

When he found the first-ever loot box in his cave, he had thought that the items inside the loot box came in pairs, with a weapon along with its respective ability scroll but this was clearly not the case.

Which meant that he was extremely lucky to have found a complete package otherwise, he had no doubt that he would be at the cave even now, still trying to use the bow properly.

In any case, beggars can’t be choosers so picking up all the items, while being careful to not cut himself with the sharp sword, he decided to return to his camp.

But not even five minutes later, he came to a stop as he caught sight of another loot box placed inside a hollow section of a tree in front of him

A section which was located about 25 metres above the ground.

‘Are you kidding me?’, he thought with a twitching eye as he stared at the loot box from his position on the ground.

In the morning, when he came across the community of rabbits, he had to leave the area for this very reason and now once again he encountered a situation where these loot boxes were being used as bait.

“No way I’m leaving this one”, he muttered to himself as he approached the tree and tried to climb it but just as he’d thought earlier, due to the lack of any footholds, climbing it was not possible.

Suddenly, a proverbial light bulb went off in his head as he got an idea. Gripping his daggers, one in each hand, he jumped straight upwards in the air and after reaching the apex of his jump, stabbed both daggers as hard as he could into the trunk which left him stuck to the tree.

Such a feat would have been impossible for the old him but as his strength has reached 20 points from his previous 13, the task turned from impossible to slightly challenging.

Slowly but surely, he was approaching his destination by stabbing the dagger into the trunk and pulling himself up. It was like climbing a ladder without the ladder part and as he reached the hollow space, he couldn't help but smile after opening the loot box.

Although the box was of [common] rarity once more, he was excited because he finally found another combat ability scroll inside

*Ding*

<< Item: [Basic Light-weapon mastery] ability scroll (Poor)

Description: an ability scroll

Remarks: Absorb it for more information. >>