Bottleneck

"If you say so.. Okay, then." Munching on a piece of stale bread as breakfast, Lucas withdrew his weapon out from the item box and headed towards the next wolf pack site.

[1 Silver Wolf has been successfully killed.]

One helpless wolf was taken down by Lucas's casual slash. He didn't even learn proper swordsmanship, he just ran wild slashing at the creatures.

The more he did it, the more he understood what movements should be kept to a minimum in order to maximize his slashes.

That alone was enough, not much strategy was involved other than aiming at the vitals for a clean kill.

He was improving at an inhumane speed, all by himself.

Swing! Swishh!!

"Haa.." Elgin heaved a huge sigh after he just finished raiding another pack.

He was currently stuck at Level 6. He had killed three packs worth of wolves, and yet the level up notification hadn't come yet.

He knew the experience yield had decreased, but at this rate, when was he going to level up?

It would be too slow. Yesterday, just to defeat four packs, he had to spend approximately two hours. Although, most of the time was spent walking around the forest locating the packs.

'At this rate, I won't be able to trigger a 'special' condition...' Lucas gritted his teeth.

It seemed like the Hidden Class he wanted was becoming farther and farther away.

"Hey, Cecil, what do you think about this? Do I continue..?" Lucas was unsure, so he turned to Cecil.

[Hmm.. It certainly is impractical. This experience curve is most likely due to you killing wolves a little bit too much. I don't think it's your level's fault.. Not yet.]

[There are other monsters in this area. Why don't we go pay them a visit? The wolves were a good start, but if it's the current you, you'll be able to take them on with no problems at all.]

"I'll do that." Lucas cleaned up the rest of the wolves in the pack with ease, spending less than thirty seconds on each wolves' head. It had gotten so efficient.

Too bad he couldn't continuously farm these guys. It wasn't worth it.

He shoved the corpses into his seemingly limitless item box, then looked at the map.

From there, Cecil and him decided on their next target: the Crystal Rabbits.

Crystal Rabbits were not an opponent to be underestimated.

They had a small body, and a prominent horn stuck out of their foreheads. Their crystal horn and eyes got them their name. They looked particularly harmless, except for their rather creepy appearance for a rabbit.

So, why was this creature infamous for being the worst beginner hunting target, you ask?

Because their agility. These little guys were fast as fuck.

So fast to the point where unless you could beat their speed, if they wanted to run away from you, it would be as simple as jumping into the nearest bush.

You're guaranteed to never catch another glance of them unless you're desperate enough to look for a long time. Poof. Gone, just like that.

The rabbits were sensitive to all five senses except for one.

They didn't have good eyesight.

As per mentioned earlier, their eyes were covered by a layer of crystal. Even though they weren't blind, they had a hard time seeing objects, especially ones that were in a far distance. Their other senses covered up for this drawback.

Imagine aiming down at one, believing that you would get the little shit, and then missing because the rabbit sensed your hostility from meters away.

Losing to a partially blind prey.

Ha!

An instant recipe for disappointment!

Despite their low catch rate, there were still many people that tried their luck and went down to hunt the rabbits because of their high selling price. Their horns as materials, and their meat as food. It was good money.

The fact that they were hard to hunt only increased their market price even further.

[It's a nice target for you. You bought a bow earlier, right? I think it's time to use that! Lucas, make sure to sharpen your eyes up!]

As they began to enter the Crystal Rabbits' spawning area, Lucas became more and more unconfident.

"Hey, don't you think that this is a little too much? Even expert hunters have problem dealing with Crystal Rabbits. This will be my first time shooting a bow, how can I possibly.."

[Oh, come on! I believe in you. Just try it out on your own first. If you fail, I'm going to tell you what you did wrong and what you should do instead. We can try again. What's wrong with failing a bit?]

[Besides, with your current abilities, I'm one hundred percent certain that you're able to kill these little guys.] Cecil assured him with a wide smile.

Lucas wasn't entirely convinced, but he thought to give it a shot anyway. It wouldn't hurt him. Although the rabbits were fast, they were skittish and rarely would attack humans. They preferred to run away straight up without engaging in battle.

Plus, this was the first hunting ground the Players could reach.

If there were strong monsters in this kind of area, Ulya and the other neighbouring small town would be destroyed once a swarm occurs since they didn't have adequate protection and strength.

Naturally, the rabbits, like other monsters in the Rudis Forest was not life threatening to a hunter if one was sufficiently prepared, just like Lucas did.

Not long after walking without a destination, Lucas came across one Crystal Rabbit.

His bow was already firmly clutched in his hands, but there was a lot of nervousness in him.

He stopped in his tracks, afraid to startle the creature even by the slightest bit.

He immediately went into position and aimed at the rabbit that was currently feeding on some wild plants.

His heartbeat began to sped up.

[Mmm, your posture is alright. You got this. Shoot it, child!] Cecil cheered as she pointed towards the rabbit.

'She makes it sound so easy...' Lucas sighed.

It was clearly not an easy task.

Lucas took a deep breath, pulling the bow and aiming it towards the monster.