Epoch 2 Afternoon

[ D day - 2 ] [ 41 H :39 M :20 S ] [ Home Town A ]

Vikram swung his knife unbridledly, while jumping around.

He wasn't holding back at all. This pangolin is not like the fox, where they could bite a little of his flesh, and he would recover as long as he kills it and removes the head from his flesh.

First of all, they break limbs, they do not bite.

With how fast recovery is, chances are he would heal the wrong way, then remain lame for the rest of his life.

Secondly, they crush the limbs.

Then he would become lame with perpetual internal bleeding.

Yes, two very lovely options, when one thinks about their life.

Sarcasm aside, the pangolins are increasing in number, over time, Vikram realized the best way to kill is smash a hole in their heads rather than slice their heads.

After all, their skin is thick, and his cutting technique is weak.

Sure, all those heroes in novels gain super powers, and somehow, along with it, super fighting sense.

However, in reality, even if he has super strength, he has no direction to his fighting, then he was a weak fighter. That's what happens with all superheroes.

Like the foxes, the Pangolin increased in size.

Their evolution ran two ways. One is defence, the scales become more and more resistant to sharp weapons, the other is their ability to blend in has improved to such an extent, even with the excessive vision power, one could not notice them.

[ thick skin gene fragment 0.1 ]

[ You have completed the thick skin gene fragment. Evolve ] ( yes) ( no )

Vikram chose yes.

After all, more defense is never wrong.

Even if he did not experience it in person, he has seen the bee and bug swarms in the six months. Nothing protected one like thick skin in insects came in droves.

Now, he has completely given up using the sword, Vikram has settled on the pure iron blunt axe he brought with him.

If not for his enduring muscles, he would have long since given up using this weapon.

Thankfully, he had muscles which work at least somewhat.

Finding chameleon pangolins with his skill is nigh impossible.

His vision may be good, but it's not good enough to find the super savvy hide and seek players.

So, what Vikram did instead is to break boulders at set points.

He bashed his axe with an interval of one feet on every boulder he could see.

He killed more than one pangolin, and startled tens of them into moving.

As soon as they move, it's easy to see them.

[ camouflage skin gene fragment 0.1 ]

[ camouflage skin gen obtained. Evolve ? ] ( yes ) ( no )

Obviously, evolve. Though it may not work out great with the pangolins here, it would definitely work for some other creatures.

As he went in, Vikram realized this particular portal was different from the rest.

The space is ever moving, as if it's a maze.

The bodies of pangolins broke down into sparkles, unlike when he was hunting in the foxhole or sparrow nest.

On top of it, he killed all the pangolin's in this area, but the portal shows no signs of weakening at all.

Vikram moved forward cautiously, searching all over the cliff.

Unlike the other round dungeons, this dungeon is triangular shaped.

Thus, its probably not a full dungeon.

Vikram could see numerous holes all over the place, but he did not want to enter any of them, given most of them are only the size a human could crawl.

Imagine he was crawling in a dungeon like this… then he encounters a pangolin whose mouth could fit the hole. He would crawl right into its stomach. The creature need not even trouble itself to swallow him.

What's he going to do now?

He thought for some time.

He did bring honey with him, but, once he breaks the honey pot, all the pangolins would be attracted to the honey at the same time. The honey pot was the method to lure the boss in the first place.

The next choice is to smoke the holes.

Only,the incense sticks he brought with him are not enough to fill all the holes.

He was stuck in indecision.

What to do ? ..

After some thought, he decided to use the method of elimination.

If he uses his night vision, he would be able to see the paw marks, and the color of the mud the pangolins dragged with themselves.

He hoped there were two types, if there are, then he could block only one series of connected holes.

If they were all connected, then .. well he's out of luck, and he just had to use both methods.

There were not two, but five different kinds of soil.

The problem is one of those openings was the size of a giant doghole.

He hoped the tunnels wouldn't open somewhere in wide open space, and smoked the first hole.

He held the iron cricket bat, and bashed the first Pangolin that rushed out.

And the next..

And next ..

Next. ..

Damn.. he was a white collar worker, damn it. This is more physical work than what construction workers do.

By the time he was done, Vikram was ready to lay back and pant like a dog that's put on a hamster wheel.

He .. if he had worked like this before, he would have had twelve pac, not just a six pac.

Why in the world are there so many pangolins in this cave ?

More than that, they were all thick skinned pangolins.

His thick skin has improved in rating from 'E' to 'D'. He has about ten extra thick skin gene fragments stored in the dungeon orb.

He has more than thousand skins stored in the other dungeon orb.

But he is parched beyond thirst, and he is about to collapse with fatigue.

He dare not delay killing a pangolin, for the fear that if he let even one escape, he would never be able to find them again easily in this rocky terrain.

By now, the afternoon has passed.

He has worked for six hours straight. His legs were trembling, and his hands felt like lead.

His throat is burning, his stomach and heart feel like itty bitty needles are poking through them.

Even then, Vikram kept up with his schedule of killing the lizards.

He sat down, tore into the bread, filling his stomach. There are four more holes to go.

After half an hour of break, Vikram started to work again. Faster this is done, the better it would be for himself. He was surprised that none of the people tried to enter the portal here, when so many people entered the portal in the capital city.

Before he could so much as swing his club at him, the first pangolin spat venom at his eyes.

It's quite a good thing he was wearing a gas mask, or else, his eyes would have been burned through.

The spittle came down his mask, and Vikram wiped it away with the towel he got to wipe the sweat. The pangolins are coming out in droves, and he couldn't let these venom spitters take over.

If he lets them go, they are going to fill the entire place with poison. With how good his super recovery is, he would be tortured into trauma, with the repeated hurt and heal method.

[ poison resistance gene fragment 0.1 ]

This was the third time the gene fragment dropped, by now, poison resistance went from 'G' to E. while his hands are focused on the task of bashing, his towel was already become a bio-hazard material with how much venom he wiped off with it.

The last pangolin, the venom that was spit was acid.

Vikram bashed it's head in as he screamed his head off in pain.

It was so damn painful, he laid down on the ground and rolled all over unable to bear it.

The super recovery took more time than normal to fix his flesh. Just from that detail, one could see how powerful the acid attack was.

Poison resistance evolved directly to 'D' grade from the acid attack. Just by that improvement he knew how powerful that acid attack had been.

He took a fifteen minute break, fixing up the place armor had been melted off completely by poison. He wrapped fresh leather around the point, and tied it off with a rope.

His box of smokes was just enough to bring out one more set of Pangolins, which dropped muscle gene fragments, and equally, were mind blowingly strong.

Vikram had to use two of the spikes, for one is not enough to ill the beast at ll.

In the end, he used the trident to pin the beast, and iron spike, to bash the lizard in.

Thankfully, it worked, though the trident was barely enough to keep the beast pinned, it did pin the beasts in the end.

Similarly, the sword cut through their necks, even if it's a little cumbersome.

Vikram was satisfied, for this is not bad combination seeing how small their town is compared to the state capital.