Elite Variant

Bonus 100 power stones chapter, Horay!

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/Half an hour later…/

"And… It's done." Dale said as he cut the last piece of meat from the pig, leaving only a few sections of dirty bones left on the ground

'Not pretty, but at least I don't feel disgusted... I'll pat myself on the back this time, I honestly thought I wouldn't be able to carry on with this.'

'It was simpler than I thought... Perhaps I was much tougher than I imagined myself to be.' He thought as a smile started to form on his lips

"Hm… I would say it's decent enough since you lost quite a bit of meat during your skinning… And you damaged it a little..."

"Well! At least you didn't cut the most essential parts of its hide." Misgurd said with a frown that slowly turned into a satisfied nod

"But good job kid! It's way better than what I thought you were capable of."

"Thanks… But one last thing, why did we do this here if I could just bring its body back?"

"Because it's important to know how to act in the wilderness." Testros said with a sharp expression as he started cleaning the ground

"That I understand, but it seems like too much extra work…"

"I've never heard of a soldier afraid of doing work!" He said seriously as he turned to him

"..."

'I better shut up before he gives me more work to do…'

'Next time I can just bring the body with me... Although, I didn't test it...'

'Can I even store the full body of a creature?'

'I don't see how it would be impossible, but if I cannot, then it doesn't matter much, I can still cut it into several pieces even if it damages its skin quality...'

'Efficiency over Quality...'

'Sigh, I should've tested... Now that's going to be in my head for a while.'

"Still, I'm just making fun of you."

"With your... Special 'ability' it would be wiser to skin your game in the Village, though it is wise to practice this Art as you never know when you may need it."

"And the last thing you would want would be to damage your loot after you poured a lot of hard work into getting it."

"We still have a lot of time, and there are still many creatures to hunt and many things to teach…" Testros said as he got up

"So next lesson of today, smell. We all reek of blood and guts, we are like fireflies in the dark for the sensitive creatures of this forest, so what do you think we should do?"

"Wash off the smell?" Dale asked out loud as he scratched his head

"That would be an option... But tell me, how? Do you plan to get in a river or something?"

"I could give you 2 dozen reasons why you should never approach a body of water casually in this place, so let's treat this as a situation where we don't have the time nor the place to wash our body!"

"So uh… We mask our smell?"

"Yes Dale, and this is why I've been grabbing these plants…" Testros said as he put a strange combination of plants on the ground

"When all of these are ground together, they release a heavy odor that is strong enough to mask the heavy smell of blood. Not only that, this smell blends in with the surrounding forest, so most creatures aren't smart enough to discern us from the rest of it."

"Some variations of this can be created to target some specific types of creatures, either shooing them away, or attracting them to our location."

But Dale was focused on something else...

"You said most, what about those that can?"

"Those live deeper in the forest and hence, aren't a subject of today's lessons…" Misgurd said with a frown as he looked at the outside

"Let's hope we don't meet any."

"..."

'Don't raise flags, old man!'

…

And just like that, Dale ground the flowers and applied the resulting paste all over his body.

It wasn't hard, it was even a bit cool, there was some sort of strange fun in grinding and mixing herbs in the forest...

It made him feel as if he was on an adventure and not in a training session... Though depending on the perspective, he was in one.

Following that, they continued on their little adventure, hunting and collecting all sorts of animals and plants they met on their way.

Until they met with something rather peculiar…

…

/Whimper… Whimper…/

"Did you…" Dale asked as he looked around warily

/Close.../

But Misgurd placed his left hand on Dale's mouth, making the latter almost spit because he swore a bit of dirt entered his mouth…

"Shiu…"

Telling him to talk less, Misgurd and Testros made their way to the source of the sound…

"..."

In an open field illuminated by the sun, a young and weakened wolf could be seen whimpering as it licked its wounded legs, but it was clear nothing would change as those two legs were twisted in ways they shouldn't be able to.

It was very pitiful, provoking empathy from everyone…

But Testros and Misgurd had different opinions.

"Is that what I think it is?" Whispered Misgurd to Testros as his expression grew tense

"I believe so, much to my unwillingness to admit it." He replied with a grim expression

"What is happening?" Whispered Dale

[Woodland Wolf (Heavily injured)

Challenge Level: 15-25]

'It's just a wolf? Is there something wrong with it?'

'Perhaps there is a stronger monster hiding somewhere?!'

He looked around warily but saw nothing...

'... That doesn't seem to be the case.'

"Pay attention, that in front of you Dale, is one of the most dangerous things you can encounter in these shallow parts of the forest."

"In fact, I am very surprised we met one like this to begin with." Misgurd said with a serious expression as his right hand moved to his waist

Dale was extremely confused by this statement, but instead of becoming euphoric, he simply asked:

"What?!... In that case, shouldn't we be running?"

'It still says that it's a wolf… A disguise? A trap as I thought?...'

"No need to run as that isn't one of the most intelligent creatures… Nor am I that old to flee from it either."

"Look around you, can you see what is wrong?"

"The forest… Is silent."

"Silent?..."

It was at that moment that Dale realized that yes, all of the sounds had disappeared.

The chirps of the birds, the sounds of the beatles, everything had gone dark.

It was as if this place was dead…

Only the faint sound of the leaves moving in the wind remained.

"So you realize it now, this is one of the many signs of the forest, animals have a much greater instinct than us, being much more sensitive to changes in it."

"They'll notice abnormalities way before us, and this is one such case."

"If that wasn't enough, let us look at this scenario."

"The wolf, its legs are broken, but it's as if it fell from a high place… But where could it have fallen from? Those trees? They aren't tall enough for that."

"Not only that, it feels perfectly at the center of an open patch in this thick forest… Giving us a perfect vision of it…"

"In a normal scenario, the wolf would try to keep silent so as to not draw the attention of other predators and hide, but instead, it's whimpering pretty loudly."

"It is not a cub anymore, this sort of behavior is abnormal."

"Besides, have you ever seen a wolf alone like this? A rather young one even... Too young to wander off alone."

"Still, it could indeed be a wandering wolf without a pack, such a thing isn't uncommon, but during our wandering, did we ever come across any traces of wolves?"

"N-No... Not even once." Dale replied as he thought about the past few hours

"Lastly, take a closer look at the ground near the wolf, do you see it?" Misgurd asked

"Near it?... Oh God." He replied as cold sweat fell from his forehead

Bones, a few pieces hidden beneath the grass.

He even recognized part of a boar leg… He just skinned one after all.

"This Dale, isn't a poor wounded wolf, but the hunting ground of an extremely dangerous creature… A Yirg."

"Yirg?"

This word wasn't foreign to Dale, he had heard it before, 2 days ago when he first came into this world...

'I remember this creature… What was it…'

'Oh yeah, when I first came into Resko, Tina approached me and told me that the guards had attacked me because they thought I was a Mirage Yirg…'

"Is it similar to a Mirage Yirg?"

"It seems you know about it." Testros said without removing his eyes from the creature

"There is a lot in common and not just the name…"

"Both of them can disguise as something else, becoming inflexible and immobile…"

"But the way they do it is different, this is a Yirg, do not confuse it with a mirage Yirg."

"Yirg is the general name of this creature's species, but the ones that live closer to Human settlement and busy places such as roads tend to receive another name, not because it's special or stronger, but because of the forms it takes, making it more dangerous."

"And that is Mirage Yirg."

"This is because they usually take on the form of a Human or of any passerby that they end up hunting, they were so famous that it became a hidden rule to never approach a traveler alone on the roads."

"This one on the other hand lives in the forest, and its diet consists of other animals/monsters, and hence, there is no need for it to disguise itself as a Human… Especially since it may have never met one during all of its life."

After saying this, Misgurd looked at Testros and the latter nodded.

"We can't allow this creature to remain here, it's simply too close to our settlement. So get ready Dale, we'll kill it in one strike."

"Okay!"

'It seems I can't really trust the game as much as I expected… Some of its observations may be wrong, or perhaps without the use of a special skill or certain knowledge, I may end up falling into a trap due to my own lack of attention and assumptions…'

[Yirg (Transformed)

Challenge Level: 60-70

…]

'It's a high-level creature, but only at the average level for Resko's environment.'

"Hum?..."

It was then that Dale realized there was more written on the game panel…

[Yirg (Transformed)

Challenge Level: 60-70

*Elite Variant*

]

'Elite... Variant?!'

'If this creature was already dangerous on its own, how much would it be now?'

'The problem is that this is my first time seeing one, so I can't even compare it to the normal one…'

'I need to warn them... I uh... I have an idea.'

"Wait, I think there is something wrong with that creature."

"I can't tell why, but it just feels… Overly dangerous to me." Dale said to the other two who were about to walk closer to it

'In Azimuth, monsters have their Challenge Levels, and that is how you determine if you are capable or not of taking that creature down.'

'Of course, it is still possible to take on a stronger monster while being below the expected Level... Like in my case.'

'However, that isn't common.'

'Adding to the challenge Level, monsters also have special ranks/modifiers they can get in a variety of ways, increasing their power and challenge Level.'

'Several have been uncovered so far, but the most common of which is the 'Boss' trait.'

'What it does varies, but it comes with an overall increase in all attributes.'

'It can turn something like a slime, a creature that can be defeated by one person, into a monster that can take on an entire party… AKA. A Boss monster.'

'It normally appears in Special areas and Dungeons... And when in a Field, it would be something akin to a Field Boss...'

'I've never read of a Variant, much less Elite… Is it some sort of exclusive high-Level modifier?'

"Overly dangerous?... It might be because it's your first time seeing one…" Misgurd said as he grunted

"No! I'm being serious here!" Dale exclaimed in a low tone so as to not startle the creature

"If that's the case, let's be a bit more careful this time, just because we haven't seen one in quite a while does not mean it's any less dangerous." Replied Testros as he prepared to move

"You're right, I'm being cocky, I'm too old for that."

"There's no harm in being a bit cautious, these scars aren't here for nothing…" Misgurd replied as he touched his arms

"Stay in the back and cover us Dale, pay attention." Said Testros as he took a step forward

"I will."

The trio made their way to the 'wolf', ready to take it down…

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Notes

I've talked about ranking a few times.

Such as:

Church Ranks

Mercenary Ranks

Monster Ranks

Item Ranks

Mission Ranks

Class Ranks

Skill Ranks

Even reputation

Of witch, the only one I've been clear so far was the Item grades:

Normal -> Special -> Slightly Rare -> Rare -> Very Rare -> Unique -> Relic -> Epic ->… Legendary Armament ->?

If you would like to receive more information, just tell me and I'll try to add it in the future.

I would love to receive suggestions as well, cheers!