A First Quest (3)

Chapter 11: A First Quest (3)

His form was on point, and so was his imagination, to say nothing of his circumstances.

Once he released his arrow, Jake could have said this one had been powerful. He felt that with the archer's soul, body, and heart.

Similarly, the innocently sleeping wolf could have felt the same as the arrow went through his tough fur and flesh, fixing itself on his forehead. The pain yanked him from his nap, and his eyes sprang open. He leaped onto his four legs so fast that it seemed to have been to a lag.

Which was impossible as no one had ever recorded a lag in the virtual reality game!

[You have done a critical strike!]

[-61 HP!]

Jake and the boss held each other in narrowed eyes. 

Only one could have seen any system messages, but it wasn't a reason to celebrate as the damage Jake had left was too little, and it had been the critical strike! The boss's fur and skin were so tough that getting to his brain was like getting blood from a stone!

Those thoughts may have crossed his mind, but Jake didn't take them to heart. 

He stood in his soldier form and drew his bowstring behind him, shooting another arrow. This form was the one he'd learned from Richard: the same the newbie helper had corrected so as to Jake could draw out the extent of his strength.

It wasn't a bad form, but it had a few disadvantages that Jake's Master had pointed out. 

One of them was that Jake's movements were significantly restricted and that it was unsuitable for someone aiming to conquer the tutorial island!

Jake came to understand that the more he hunted in the forest.

Nonetheless, it was the form he was the most familiar with. His muscle memory turned him into a mechanical beast that took arrows from his quiver and nocked them on his bow before he could have noticed that himself.

Jake shot three more arrows during the boss' wild rush.

It was his territory, and so the monster didn't hold back in the slightest. He charged with his towering frame, taking head on any arrows zooming in his direction. Perhaps because he was so angered, and in a rush, none of Jake's arrows had left critical damage, let alone lodged on the monster's fur.

All arrows broke and dropped onto the ground, only to be smashed into pieces by the boss' paws.

Just before the boss entered his reach, Jake switched his form. From the soldier stance, he entered into what he called the joker form, with his left foot extended forward and the other with its heel up. He leaned his shoulders down and pulled behind his bowstring, his anchor point different.

He didn't draw his bowstring as much as he had done in the soldier stance, focusing on speed rather than strength. Before the monster threatened his life, Jake released the same amount of arrows he'd done in the soldier stance. The damage was, of course, less, but he'd been hoping to make up for it with critical strikes.

Alas, once again, the luck was not on his side.

Jake, however, didn't let that get to his head. 

When the monster loomed over him and was about to swipe his paw to hurt him, Jake executed another advantage of the joker form and leaped backward like a rabbit. 

His stats were quite low to go beyond what Olympic participants could do in the real world, but Jake's jump was enough to widen the distance between him and the boss.

His adrenaline and excitement came over him as he flew, compelling him to draw his bow and shoot an arrow. That obviously failed, as Jake had absolutely no experience doing that. His arrow flew, but it missed its target and was so weak that it'd better not be mentioned.

Jake dropped and instinctively crumpled into the joker form. This time, he turned his feet to the side a little, intending to jump back in another direction. Which he did the second later.

He couldn't fight the boss back because his opponent was too huge and fast. The distance Jake created with his leaps was insufficient to shoot out even rapid and weaker arrows.

'If that's the case!' Jake shouted.

He avoided another blow with his form, then turned on his game system during his flight. He put his quiver and bow into his inventory just before dropping. Once he touched the ground, Jake threw his upper body behind and did a few somersaults to widen the gap with the boss as much as possible.

He rose to his feet, opened the game system as fast as he could, waved his hand like an angry grandma, and took out his quiver and bow. He dropped the former onto the ground after taking out one arrow and nocking it on the bow, finally shooting his arrow at the boss.

[You have done a critical strike!]

[-73 HP!]

The boss growled and impatiently breached the distance between them. He was so close to scratching Jake's face with his paw that Jake could have felt a taste of death on his nose. 

He ran behind.

[Your stamina has fallen below 50%!]

[You're getting hungrier!]

Sweat trickled down his temple, and his breathing was rougher than ever before in the game world—Jake understood that he was getting tired mentally and physically.

He looked up at the boss' stats.

[The Forest Wolf Boss Lv.5 HP: 313/500 MP: 100/100]

The second later.

[The Forest Wolf Boss Lv.5 HP: 313/500 MP: 0/100]

The boss howled.

His roar was invisible, yet it sounded like a metro going past Jake. For a moment, it felt like Jake had been hit by a train as he fell backward onto his rear.

[You have been stunned for three seconds.]

It was more than enough.

The wolf ran to Jake's side and raised his paw, lowering it down to finally deal the first-ever damage to Jake in the entire tutorial island!