1 Lone Hunter
Year 2030, VR games became widely popular. People all over the world chose VR to reality because for one reason. They could do things inside this Virtual world that they couldn't do in reality.
Different VR games spread throughout the world but there was only one that peaked the highest among all virtual games.
World of Legends. A game consists of billions of players ranging from children to elders.
A game where you'll live as an average player to a Legendary being that dominates the world.
My name is Christian, I'm one of those introvert boys who only like to play games and stay at home. You could call me your average weeb but sadly for 2 years, I haven't left my room. Anxiety and depression hit me after experiencing the death of my sister whom I loved and cherish my whole life.
I was actually a very cheerful and extroverted person until a traumatic experience happened to me.
Well I won't tell you the story of it today but I would say that the effect of it on my daily life had a massive effect on it.
I'm a 1st year college scholar in University of the Philippines. But after the death of my sister. I quit school and only stayed at my house.
For 3 days after her burial, I didn't eat and only stayed at my room. I even tried attempting suicide several times but my parents did everything they could to find a cure for my illness. They brought me to therapist for psychological tests and after they knew that VR games were not only for enjoyment, it also helps the persons mental health to improve and the biggest game that had a positive impact to a person was The World of Legends.
They didn't hesitate to buy me a capsule for the game because they wanted the old Kris back.
A year and 2 months of playing the game, my depression disappeared but I still had a trauma when I talk to people.
The only persons I could initiate a conversation were my parents.
My parents saw my improvement and supported me at everything that I wanted that they had sold the 100 hectare lot in our province and loaned huge amount of cash still today is left unpaid.
They were even willing to sell their kidney just for the sake of my wellness.
***
Inside the game, my name was Kris and I'm a level 180 Swordsman. I wielded dual sword and I love to kill and just go wild. My level was only average to most players. But 4 years had passed since the release of the game. Those veteran players had a level of 300+ while experts and those one of the rankings had already reached levels of 400+
I had only played the game a year ago so my growth was faster to few folds than average players. Average players would take 2 years to reach my level but I only did it on a year. Reason for my fast growth is because, I love clearing quests related to killing.
For a few years inside the game, I had rarely seen a player since I had a habit of avoiding people. The time that i had saw a crowd of players in one place was the beginning of the game.
I had to stay on the starter town for 2 weeks before going out in the wild so I stayed on the basic training center and started hitting a practice dummy. I felt a sense of relaxation every time the wooden sword in my grip hit the dummy.
So I continuously hit it.
After the 80th hit, a window notification covered my view showing that I had raise my strength to 1.
I felt happy to what I accomplish and continued on batting the dummy while only resting to maintain my stamina and vitality. The result of my patience paid off resulting to my status to raise.
I also did errands around the town so I could earn a bit of cash for my supplementary needs.
I made a bit of experiment, I thought that hitting the dummy for 80 times felt a bit long so I tried to use two wooden sword and hit it alternately.
The result was a success, hitting it by 80 times took me 10 minute to finish now that I could use two swords, the time it took me was halved.
I didn't notice that players on the training hall had longed spectated me and thought I was madman. Eventually, they were also eager to copy what I was doing and now, I became an inspiration and influence to the players and even NPCs talk about my story which I was unaware of because when the 2 weeks passed, I had long since gone from the town and had wandered the world.
I could strike conversations to NPCs because I knew they were only Artificial intelligence made by the system. But I only talk to them to receive quests. But if the quest was not connected to slaughtering, I would not hesitate but refuse.
In the town of Mercado, I got a quest from a retired knight to subjugate a cave full of poisonous spiders and thought it would be great.
QUEST
Slaughter all the spiders inhabiting Widowed Cave to avenge the sick and retired Knight, Jared's 3 fallen comrades and return the necklaces of knight found on their remains.
Difficulty: C
Rewards: You will receive a mystery box from Jared leaving his most priced possession. +1 level. +3 gold coins and 40 silver coins
Penalty: Jared will die unhappily and he will haunt you. -2 levels.
Duration: Until Jared's last breath.
He didn't hesitate but accept the quest.
Kris first went to the alchemy market to buy a basket amounts of fire bottles.
Fire bottle
Type: Throwable
Rated: E+
If thrown on a designated area, a flame explosion will occur dealing 500 damage to all the target in the area. To the targets who are affected by the explosion, they will be in a burning state dealing 50 damage per second, duration of 10 seconds.
- Doesn't choose whether an ally or enemy.
- 30% additional damage against insect type monsters.
This item was the most favorable to this quest.
Each one cost 15 silver coins and all of the cash he spent was a whopping of 3 gold coins.
'Still, I believe that all of this pays off.' Kris muttered to himself and travel to the Widowed Cave located on the outskirts of MoonShard Kingdom.
Luckily, the town was near the borderlands so the outskirts weren't that far, it only took me 30 minutes to reach the area where the cave resided on.
I entered Black Forest, which I arrived approximately 10 in the evening. This was my first travel in this area where the map accurately tell the designated location of Widowed Cave.
Black Forest was famous from its name originated from the Ancestors who had once discovered. They named it Black Forest because after evening strikes, the forest would be pitch dark and you needed light emitting items to find your way out.
This is also where the infamous level 300 Night Jaguar, a mid tier boss lived in. Its hobby was pursuiting its prey. It is very sensitive in light so players who would need light to find their way would only lead to death.
Also, the Night Jaguar could see in the dark even Assassin classed players who are expert in hiding would be easily hunted by this monster.
It only shows up at 11 pm so if I don't want to meet up my end, I had to hurry up and find the cave.
40 minutes passed, it seems that I had lost my way.
The path I was walking had a sense of familiarity.
I kept walking then I saw footprints along the way.
'Isn't this mine?' I ask myself.
I checked the footprints, thus it was positive.
'Fuck! Why am I moving in circles?' I retrace back my footsteps but then the window panel appeared.
Time: 11:00 pm
Snooze-Silent
I had set an alarm just before entering the woods.
It was to avoid the Night Jaguar which would awake at exactly in that time.
'Shit!' I quickly fasten my pace and went to different directions.
Though I haven't personally saw the Night Jaguar but I had heard rumors about it from NPCs living near the borderlands.
There was also forum about it found on the internet on how strong it was that they would need at least three level 300+ experts to have higher chance of defeating it.
Even if it was only mid-tier boss.
The advantage of it is actually because of its terrain.
Since it only shows up at night, the difficulty of subjugating it was rated: as a A- but after a few fights from experts, they had learnt that the Night Jaguar is not only difficult when fighting at night, it is also powerful that they theorize that it might have Buffs. So now they have calculated it as rated: A++.
Growl!
A loud roar could be heard nearby so I quickly had to move at fast rate.
Thud!
While I was running, I hit a branch on my head causing me to trip over the ground.
The torch I was holding flew a few meters away from me.
"Aargh!" I made a slight groan and went back to my feet.
'The Jaguar should be nearby' I was about to retrieve my torch but suudenly, tssshh... the flame was purposely turned down.
My vision went dark and the only thing I could see were two aging crystals just a few meters away from me.
I rub my eyes a bit to clearly see the gems but they were not floating crystals, they were the yes of the Night Jaguar.
'I didn't want to use this but.' I pulled out a bottle encasing a bright purple liquid from my spatial inventory.
Potion of Night Vision
Type: Consumable
Rate: CC-
A drinkable potion that if used, let's you see the dark clearly.
Duration: 15 minutes
+20% Tenacity
+10% Evasion
This potion cost a whopping 5 gold coins, that if converted to cash would be $500.
'Damn it!' I didn't care about the cash. If I were to die, I would lose a level that I had raise for 3 days with full efforts.
And I didn't want Jared to die because it made me feel bad that I felt like I had to blame myself to his death like how I blamed everything to myself that my sister had died.
"You want me to play? Then let's play tag!" I quickly pulled out a scroll from my pocket and activated the chants.
Sprint Scroll
Type: Chanted
Rate: D
A scroll that greatly increases the user's speed that is favorably used for chasing or escaping.
Duration: 10 minutes
+40% movement speed
+10% Evasion rate
I flee away while being chased by a Jaguar who is also keeping up the pace, I went up to different directions and every time I came contact with a branch, I would slash it as an obstacle to slow the Jaguar's speed for a moment.
8 minutes passed my buff was almost over and it seems that the Jaguar had already knew of my tactic and could effortlessly avoid my traps.
I reached into a plain area and it feels like I was in the heart of the forest.
'Wait! The cave is found in the heart of the forest so it must be here!'
I looked around while being chased and I saw two caves beside each other.
'Two?! I thought there were only one!' I sprint towards the caves and I could feel the Night Jaguar's pressure keeping up to me.
I gave a slight glance to above my vision and looked at the time.
At 11:10 pm, I had to take my medicine and it seems that the time is already 11:11 pm, just a minute behind schedule.
'What now?' I couldn't logged out in the middle of a battle so I had to make a choice.
'There are two caves, which is which? Ah! Right! It should be right!' My instinct told me it was right so didn't hesitate but enter the cave.
Tudud! Tudud!
I tumbled down the cave and what I see felt disbelieving.
Growl!
The Night Jaguar just stopped in the entrance of the cave
It was scratching the air like an invisible barrier had force him to not enter the cave.
A minute passed, the Night Jaguar knew that there was no way it could enter and slowly walked away thinking that it had lost its prey.
Phew! I close my eyes a little and after gently opening it, I was surprise that the wide entrance disappeared only leaving a wall that seems to be a part of the cave.
"Where am I?"
