Second Week

It was almost 5 am. We were outside of the training room going over my plan.

At 5 am, Reizo came and brought us to Feilo Forest. First, we would look around and plan out where we would hide.

When a grus rat jumped out of a grass patch to attack Serith, he slashed it with his sword and killed it. We heard something moving in the grass patch so we quickly hid in bushes.

I summoned a grus rat and made it go to the spot where we were standing earlier and used my skill to mimic the call. A whole pack of grus rats appeared out of a grass patch and started looking around the area near my summoned rat.

When I gave the signal to Saliza and Serith, the two of them jumped out and attacked the pack with their skills. Saliza used a skill that engulfed the blade of her axe in fire and increased her attack and range. Serith used a skill that made his sword glow and create a small explosion upon impact.

They were able to kill most of the rats, but one of them managed to escape so I chased it down and stabbed it with my dagger.

"Whoa! I gained seven levels from that!" Saliza exclaimed. That was nearly half our total level. My plan was a success.

For the next few days, we kept repeating it at the start of training. Saliza and Serith had become significantly stronger as a result.

Saliza was lv 24, Serith was lv23, and I was only lv 17.

A week has passed since we started training. We were waiting for Reizo outside the training room. When he arrived, he told us to enter the training room.

Reizo gave us brand new armor identical to the ones we bought since our current armor can barely offer us protection with all the damages on it.

"You three have completed your first week of training. Your second week of training is going to be a little different. I'm also increasing your skill usage to three."

"What's going to change?" I wanted to know if these changes are going to affect my rat pack trick. The only response I got was "You'll find out soon enough."

I assumed that I could still do the trick so once we reached Feilo Forest, we did the same thing that we have been doing for the past few days.

We were hiding in a bush and when the pack of grus rats appeared, Saliza and Serith prepared to attack.

This time, a roar coming from the further parts of Feilo Forest caused the entire pack of rats to flee in terror.

This must be the change that Reizo told us about. We could hear something running in our direction.

A bear-like monster appeared. It had grey arms that looked like it was made of stone with small spikes on it and its body had thick orange skin and green fur. The bear crushed my summoned rat in-between its jaws, causing it to disappear. The bear was confused and looked around for its prey.

This was a new monster so I didn't know what to do. I wanted to wait and see what the bear would do so I could figure out a way to deal with it, but an overconfident Saliza charged at the bear and unleashed her skill.

She managed to strike the side of the bear and wound it, but it was not enough to bring the bear down.

The bear retaliated and swiped Saliza with its claws. Saliza tried to block the attack with her axe, but the bear managed to break it and knock her backwards.

This is bad, Saliza was several levels above me but she couldn't take down the bear. This bear is going to be tough to kill.

Serith ran towards the bear and also tried to attack it with his skill. The bear managed to block the attack with one of its arms and slash Serith with its other arm.

I had to help them, but with my stats, I couldn't do much to stop the bear. For now, I had to help get Saliza and Serith away from the bear.

I threw my dagger at the wound Saliza made, causing the bear to growl in pain and turn its attention to me.

"Find a place to hide!" I yelled while hiding in a bush. The bear was now running towards the bush I was hiding.

The cooldown for my grus rat summon ended, so I summoned a grus rat and threw it out of the bush and made it run in the opposite direction. The bear started chasing after it.

Saliza and Serith managed to hide in a bush while the bear was distracted. Once we regrouped, I used my last two skill usage and healed the two using a spell I remembered.

"What was that monster? It survived my attack!" Up until now we only fought grus rats which were easy to kill, so Saliza just assumed that she was very powerful since she could kill a large number of them with her skill.

"That monster is called a doruso." We were startled by Reizo who was behind us. "I lured a bunch of them here for your training." Why does he keep doing these things to us?

"That monster is too tough, how do we beat it?" Serith asked. Right now Serith is the only one with a weapon, so we need to rely on him since we can't possibly beat that monster to death with our bare hands.

"Figure it out yourselves." Reizo said before disappearing, forcing us to fight the monster by ourselves. The doruso came back after chasing my rat. It managed to catch my rat, so the summon was now on cooldown.

Since Serith is the only one with a weapon, me and Saliza had to somehow help Serith kill the doruso. The skin of the doruso is tough and its arms are even tougher. Serith is not strong enough to pierce through its skin and kill it.

I noticed the wound on the doruso which I threw my dagger at. Even though I'm weaker than Saliza and Serith, my dagger managed to pierce through the wound. I realized that if Serith attacked the wound, it might be enough to kill the doruso.

But since it's now on guard after our attack, someone had to distract it and create an opening for Serith.

"Serith, do you see that wound." Serith saw the wound and understood what I wanted him to do "That doruso might also figure out what I'm trying to do if I just charge at its wound."

Saliza offered to distract it and let Serith deal the finishing blow.

Just to be safe, I asked Saliza to use her last two skill usage and use spells to enhance Serith's attack and her speed.

Saliza ran out of the bush and started yelling at the doruso. Thanks to the speed spell, Saliza was able to outrun the monster.

Saliza led the doruso near the bush Serith was hiding in. Once the doruso was close enough, Serith lunged at it and used his skill to attack the wound. The attack was a success and Serith managed to plunge his sword deep into the doruso.

The doruso was knocked over and struggled as Serith pushed his sword deeper into the wound until the doruso died.

Despite Serith being the one to finish off the doruso, all three of us gained exp. Serith gained enough exp to level him up twice while I didn't gain much.

"Suck it you stupid monster!" Saliza said as she kicked the doruso's corpse. I scanned its body so that I could summon it and use it to deal with another doruso.

*Scan completed, C rank monster added*

When I tried to summon it, my screen displayed 'level requirements not met, must be lv 30 to summon C rank monster'

Great, I can't summon the monster that survived blows from Saliza and Serith.

"Oh good, you guys managed to kill it." Reizo was standing behind us. "I hope that wasn't too difficult because you'll be fighting more of these monsters this week." I had to start figuring out a way to kill this monster without using too many skills. Dealing with just one of them was hard enough.

"How did I gain exp even though Serith was the one who killed the doruso?" I asked.

"When multiple people attack a monster, the exp gained by each of them is depending on how much damage they did to the monster.

Now that the doruso is dead, you can go for your break now."

I decided to examine the doruso corpse. I pulled my dagger out of the corpse and tried to cut the skin with my dagger. Its skin is even tougher than steel, I can't even pierce it.

I then poke its arm. It felt like it mas made of rocks. "Hey Zeigel, what are you doing?" Serith saw me poking the doruso corpse. I told him and Saliza that we should take this opportunity to examine the body of a doruso and find any weaknesses.

We started testing out if we could pierce the different parts of its body. Saliza and Serith could pierce the skin, but it was difficult for them to do so. None of us could pierce the arms.

I decided to see if I could pierce the belly. We flipped over the corpse and I tried to cut the belly open. I could pierce through it with my dagger with ease. The skin on its belly is quite soft.

Now that we know where its weak spots are, we could find a way to deal with this monster more efficiently.