Hunting Leshy

…

"Danton sends the signal," Adrian said and activated his Taunt skill.

With those words, Lorn silently walked left, following a trail that was etched on the ground an hour ago. Sybil walked right, leaving Yara and Adrian together in the tall grass. Lorn soon reached an 'x' on the ground, and with that, the group should've perfectly surrounded the monster they were hunting, a Leshy.

A type of monster that inhabited the deep forests, or areas with tall grass. The forest variants assumed the form of a giant made of tree branches and leaves, but the plains version is a humanoid creature covered by a mass of vines, moss, grass, weed, all sorts of things.

The place it lives soon becomes overgrown with trees or tall grass and it's said that their size determines the Leshy's strength. The grass surrounding Lorn and the rest were about twice as tall as them. Nothing too out of hand, but not something they can make light of.

They liked to stalk their prey in their domain, feeding on their fears before going in for the kill.

Lorn activated his Gravitational Pull skill and searched for one jagged rock that was left for him. He found it and prepared to use all his strength to pull at the rock.

He heard something sliding through the ground, some ten steps away from him. Patiently, he waited for the signal.

"RRAAARGH!"

Adrian's shout echoed through the plains.

Lorn pulled at the stone with all his might and instinctively dodged down. The rock didn't fly over him, but instead made a squelching sound in front of him, followed by a deep howl. Five other such similar squelches came from the Leshy, before a high-pitched sound of something shattering resounded.

Lorn immediately dashed in with a dagger in his hand. He saw the Leshy struggling on the ground, trying to protect the bright brown core that was exposed to the world. Masses of thorns and vines were wriggling around it, trying to keep the enemies from reaching its heart.

Adrian, Sybil and Danton were furiously hacking away at the vines, while also trying to smash the core to pieces. Screeches resounded in the area, as smaller versions of the Leshy started running at the group, trying to surround them. They looked like children trying to protect their parent.

Lorn was about to cut at the lesser Leshies, but Adrian stopped him.

"Kill the Leshy! The rest will disappear by themselves!"

Yara soon joined the chaos and so did Lorn. He furiously cut at the wriggling botanical mess, ignoring the vines and thorns slamming onto his back. He really started to worry about this plan of theirs but at some point, the chaos stopped.

Everything stopped to a standstill. The plants stopped moving, and soon enough, Adrian and the rest stopped cutting. The little leshies and the tall grass surrounding them withered down at miraculous speeds, revealing the gray sky above.

Normally, a Leshy was a pain in the ass to kill. Although it assumed a humanoid form, that was only to induce fear in others. Its true body was that of a bright brown core and Hunters needed to destroy that.

But no matter how much they hacked at the plants, they wouldn't be able to completely destroy the Leshy. Although it didn't have an infinite supply of plants, it didn't mean it was going to fight to the death. If enough of its plants were destroyed, it would run away.

People expected fire to do the trick, but most Leshies were covered in vines. Those things were filled with water, so they could never burn. It was the same thing as trying to set fire to a salad leaves or watermelons.

Lorn and his teammates had to ambush it and hit it hard. Lorn's part was simple. He needed to use a jagged rock to initiate the attack. Then, Sybil would continuously fire rocks at the spot Lorn hit and hopefully reach the core.

If she hits the core and cracks it, the Leshy's control over the plants would weaken tremendously. At that point, everyone would just have to go nuts and destroy the core completely.

Lorn looked at the Leshy and found a brown hued soul floating silently above a mass of withered grass.

'Ding!' came a sound inside his head.

He picked up his mirror and looked at his Status.

[You have passed a qualification to receive a Combat skill. These skills appear when a Hunter accomplished something extraordinary in the field of Combat. You have hunted the Leshy, a monster related to plantations, growth and fear. You will receive a skill tied to its concepts.]

Lorn looked at his Rank up screen once more.

[Ready for rank up. You will receive five out of six possible benefits:

- Spirit capacity will increase by 4.3 times;

- Spirit consumption will reduce by 20%;

- From here on out, each time you level up a skill, you will receive 0.8 of a corresponding stat.

- You will receive a skill that benefits your Spirit Bond. It will be shared with your partner.

- You will receive a Behavioral skill related to the concept of Manipulation

- You will receive a Combat skill related to the concepts of plantation, fear, or deepness.

- Special Bonus: You will receive the Draconic Vitality skill and one random skill of the Fog Wyvern.

Branching options: Enhancement – Rogue; Manipulation – Gravity; Manipulation – Elusive; Enchantment – Assassin, Enchantment - Berserker.]

He was hunting quite a lot during this trip, so his Spirit Capacity bonus was almost twice as high. Though, according to Adrian, the maximum was five. Lorn felt that after he absorbed the Leshy's soul, he would reach the number.

His Spirit Consumption reduction, though, was stuck on 20% for a while now. He trained almost all day, every day, so perhaps he reached the limit quicker than the rest.

Speaking of limits, his skill-point bonus was reaching it as well. The last skill he leveled up was his Strengthening skill, and with it, the bonus went up from 0.7 to 0.8. Lorn felt it wouldn't be able to get better than that. But he wasn't disappointed. Not at all. For most, the maximum was 0.5.

"I think I'm ready for the Rank up," he said. "I unlocked the sixth benefit. It's a Combat skill."

The rest looked at him. They were all busy cleaning the greenery off their clothes.

"Really? What's it about?"

"Something to do with the Leshy," Lorn replied. "Can Sybil and me absorb that soul? With that, my Spirit capacity will probably increase by five times."

Adrian looked at Yara and Danton. They both shrugged, expressing their agreement.

"In that case, be our guest."

Lorn and Sybil went up to the soul and absorbed it in unison. Lorn suddenly felt full, the same way he felt when he absorbed Jabber's soul. He checked his Status and saw the number rise from 4.3 to 4.9.

'This is good enough…' he thought to himself.

"Do I just rank up here?" he asked.

"Danton, see anything odd?"

Danton activated his skill, Sense Life, and shook his head.

"We're the only things with a soul around here."

"Alright," Adrian smiled. "Let's see what the Rank up of an Undying looks like."

Lorn sighed, picked up his mirror, and spoke aloud.

"Activate Rank-up: Manipulation – Elusive."

[Are you sure of your decision?]

As they were fighting, Lorn received two more choices for his Rank-up. Assassin and Berserker. One because of his melee fighting style and the other probably because of the wyvern's egg he ate. Lorn couldn't think of any other reason he received the last one.

And after some consideration, Lorn settled on his Manipulation – Elusive. The other two branches didn't really suit his skill-set, and he was more curious about his choice as well.

"Yes," he said to the system's prompt.