4 Meat
The skill she owned has only ever been hypothesized, but never found in reality.
' FlaBlaRT' it's called lovingly on the hunter-net forums.
That was short for ' Flash Blink Teleport '.
It is called. Flash moves fast. Blink moves between short distances instantly. Teleport moves between dungeons freely. As long as you enter a dungeon, you can go to any other dungeon.
Flash was found around this time, Blink was discovered a year after, and Teleport after five years, though known users have been rumored for a long time.
Claire looked at the fat gray rabbit on the side, with a single step, moved beside the rabbit. Her awl flashed, and the Rabbit was speared through its eyes, straight to the skull without damaging the skin.
Rabbits are level 1 monsters all around. However, the level 1 creature one encounters in E - Rank dungeons is killer rabbit. It is four times the size of this gray rabbit, and ten times stronger. All of its body is made of tough muscle. Its skin is very rough. When killed, it either drops meat or skin.
As one progresses through the dungeons, the level 1 creature's strength drops significantly.
The killer rabbit changes to kicking rabbit as you enter level 20s and D - Rank dungeons. Kicking rabbit changes to Jumping Rabbit, which only runs away when it sees people in the C - Rank dungeons.
The fat gray rabbit she is holding is called the gentle bunny, which only tries to run away slowly in the A-Rank dungeon.
Its skin is lustrous and soft. Its meat is juicy and melts in the mouth.
Yet, it's not hunted at all.
One does not come to the A-rank dungeon to collect rabbit meat. The hunters eat one or two when they are hungry. That's about it.
So, the bunny happily jumps around in the fields of the lost village, eating a few rice kernels here, digging through the wheat fields there… nary a care in the world. To note, what these fields are growing is spirit rice, which is a premium variety. As such, these bunnies are eating a better diet than Claire and her family.
A fire of passion lit in Claire's eyes. In under a minute, she snagged ten bunnies, all killed straight through the eye, not touching the skin or meat. Sometimes, she killed so fast, even the picture in rabbit's eye did not reflect her form.
After ten, she grabbed the ears of these rabbits, teleported back to the slime dungeon.
She put down the rabbits to clean. Only, they vanished the moment they touched the floor.
' Hey ! What are you doing? ' Claire screamed at the dungeon.
A second later, a ring fell in front of her.
Claire picked up the ring.
It's a black ring, which looks like it's carved out of dungeon stone. There's a round area in the center, on which a picture of a slime is carved. The entire thing is seamless.
Claire tried to jog her memory to identify the item. She can not call appraisal, nor can she use a status board. The hunter status board is more of a human made thing than one that existed as part of the system. The current status board is found out to be limiting growth of hunters. After ten years in the future, a new system comes out, which injects a specially made chip at the back of a hunter's neck. This was considered a true status board as it is made with elven technology. Ofcourse, Claire did not have it because this cost an arm and leg. She did not want to accrue more debt.
She put it on.
There was a small sting on her finger. It seems the ring is blood bound. Claire remembered !
This is called the Dungeon Ring. It occasionally drops in the dungeons, when a dungeon considers a hunter a welcome visitor. With the dungeon ring, you can enter the dungeon from anywhere in the world. Usually, all the previous people she has known to have this ring are pioneers who stuck to a single dungeon, clearing it over and over, not leaving even the smallest part be.
More importantly, they were all dungeons in higher ranks.
She never heard of a F - Rank dungeon dropping a dungeon ring.
Claire tried to enter the ring and see what's happening with her lackluster meditation skills.
There were ten rabbit skins and ten perfectly dressed rabbits in front of her.
Claire tried removing a skin from the ring, and it came out. She tried to put it back in. but the skin won't go in.
' Ah ! so it works like a processing ring. It wants me to put in materials from other dungeons. ' she surmised.
' Shall I test this ? ' She thought.
She shoved the skin through her belt by the tail, then entered the A-rank dungeon once more.
This time, she chose a farther away location, which was not seen by the other hunters.
She killed a rabbit, and tried putting in the slime ring.
The rabbit went through.
She continued doing it till she reached the twentieth rabbit, when the rabbit wont go in.
Claire returned to the slime dungeon. She placed the rabbit on the floor. The rabbit vanished. A second later, meat and skin fell from above. She caught both of them.
' I think it is enough for the day. ' Claire thought. She walked out of the dungeon, skins shoved through her belt by tails, and the meat in her hand.
There's not even a hint of blood on the meat, so it did not even smell much.
Zayne's snakeskin bag seemed to be about full.
" That's pretty fast. " He said, as he looked at her.
" It's your turn. " She told him, taking the snake skin bag from him, and looking around for a leaf to wrap the meat in.
" here. " Zayne said, pulling out a plastic bag from his snakeskin bag. It seems he brought extra bags. That's quite thoughtful. Claire put the meat in one of the bags, then handed the biggest plastic bag to Zayne.
" Don't try to fill the bag. Keep track of time, return in an hour. " She told him.
" Yes. " Zayne said, as she stood in front of the dungeon with an awl, he entered with the tang knife.
The school finished at three, after picking up children, giving them snacks, they reached the dungeon by five. Claire took half an hour inside. The sun down is near seven. They have to go down the mountain before seven. So, six thirty is just right for Zayne to come back out.
The slimes came to attack her even if she was standing still. The near full snakeskin bag had become bulging by the time Zayne came out. In the plastic bag were marbles which looked very much like skill orbs. The skill orbs Claire has seen are the size of a golf ball, but these are the size of a marble.
Conspicuously, there are many colors but no red marbles, which indicated the fire skills.
They both walked home happily.
Today, they walked later than yesterday, so they encountered no one outside.
Robin and Dolce, the youngest of the lot, were watching cartoons on the tablet.
On the other side, Brie and the twins are doing homework. They seem to be about done.
Claire started working on dinner.
The rabbit meat is sliced thinly, tonight, stir fried with red and green jellies from the slimes, a bit of soy sauce, bunch of garlic and a hint of sesame oil with toasted sesame seeds on top.
Dinner was served.
Once again, the children's eyes lit up with stars. Claire used two rabbits, which are supposed to be enough to feed ten grown adults, but they all vanished along with the porridge.
The empty dishes made Claire extremely happy.
In her last life, she never remembered eating a meal with this much relish. She ate because it's needed for survival. The rabbit meat melted in mouth, the red and green jellies were a perfect mixture of spice and fresh. Together, with the meat and sesame, they tasted like heaven.
Zayne did not stand on ceremony, lifted up the pot to pour the remaining sauce in his bowl.
He was so entranced with the meal, he perhaps did not even realize his eyes were brimming with tears.
It's only after he finished his bowl he saw the surprised look of Claire.
He blushed looking at the empty bowl. Finally, he felt the wetness on his cheeks. Even the tips of his ears turned red upon the realization.
" It tastes just the same as my sister-in-law. I never thought I would taste it again in this life. " he mumbled awkwardly.
Claire shook her head with a smile.
" I am happy that you enjoyed it. There's no greater reward for a cook than someone truly enjoying their fare. " Claire answered him back.
" I will help you wash the dishes. " Zayne got up swiftly, started collecting the dishes.
Claire did not stop him.
" Shall we read a bedtime story ? " She asked the children.
