22 First Mission Pt. 2

Waking up at 4, John cleaned his room and took a shower using a special body wash and shampoo that removes scent. Returning to his room, he took out a specially sealed bag of clothes. Over the years, humans had developed many different ways of hiding their scents from monsters, and these clothes were one of the most commonly used countermeasures. Made entirely out of monsters, they were treated with an alchemic formula makes their scent disappear into the background of a danger zone. After treatment, they're sealed for long term storage. Unfortunately, they only last for a few days after the seal is broken so John would have to send them into a special dry-cleaners to be cleaned and have the treatment done again after he returned from the mission.

After getting dressed, John picked up his already packed bag and grabbed Snakey from her nest before making his way to the weapons locker. Last time he'd borrowed a protective necklace that blocked poison and fire damage. Today, he decided to check out a pistol. While he hadn't managed to pass the basic proficiency test yet, John had become a decent shot. He planned on letting Snakey, Mike, and Steven do most of the fighting, but having the ability to fight back would be useful... and he wanted to kill bunnies!

Walking into the weapons locker, he approached the window and rang a bell. A old man with a grey beard slowly walked over as he scratched his beer belly, yawning. "What are you doing here so early?" He asked when he finally saw John through the safety glass installed to keep people from breaking into the armory.

"We're leaving on a mission soon. I'd like to check out a pistol." John said with a smile.

"Already? It's only the first week for god's sake." The man said, shaking his head as he tried to wake himself up. "What grade and ammunition?"

"Low Spirit, and at least 3 clips of normal and 1 of armor piercing."

"Alright, that's 20 credits for the pistol, 2 per normal clip and 5 per armor piercing. Any unspent clips must be returned, you'll get a refund if they're in good shape."

Thinking for a moment, John nodded saying. "Alright, 5 normal and 2 armor piercing just in case." Using his phone to transfer 40 credits to the armory. The man grunted an affirmative and handed the goods over as Mike walked in.

"Hey Jerry, I'm going hunting!" Mike did a double take when he saw John putting his clips in a special belt holder that made them more accessible. "John! I didn't expect to see you here."

"I've never seen you so happy in the morning." John said, shaking his head, "It's 430 for god's sake, you should be grumpy and bitter as hell."

Mike chuckled a bit as he checked his rifle and ammo out with a giant smile on his face. "Of course I'm happy, I get to kill something today!"

"Be careful!" Jerry said as he handed everything over to Mike. "There's trouble brewing, don't draw too much attention to yourself."

An hour later, Mike, Steven, and John all walked through the barrier and into Gallandwell Forest. They all took a moment to breathe in the fresh air.

"There's something about the air in a danger zone." Mike said.

"Yeah, it seems more alive somehow. As if this is where we belong." Steven said, his runes beginning to glow a little in the pre-dawn light.

"Let's get a move on!" John said after taking a deep breath, his legs still a little shaky but for some reason his migraine had dispated. 'Maybe the higher concentration of mana helps to stabilize my soul.' John thought.

The group's demeanor changed the deeper they went into the forest, starting to use hand signals they'd learned in Stealth class instead of speaking. Snakey was slithering along several hundred feet in front of the group, sending back information on what was ahead to John through their mental bond.

All Tamer's have a kind of mental bond with their tamed monsters, but John hadn't realized just how strong it was until he started seeing double. It threw him off at first, but now he'd gained enough control that he could focus on his body while somehow knowing everything that Snakey saw.

Suddenly, John held up his hand in the universal sign for stop. Instantly, Steven and Mike froze carefully examining their surroundings while John walked closer to them and whispered using a special technique. In Stealth Class, they'd been taught how use mana when they talked to deaden the sound so that it only travels a foot before fading into the background noise.

"Small pack of rabbits, all minions, no more than 12 of them." John said using that special technique, "Should be fairly simple, Snakey say's she can take them all out but I don't want her eating that much.."

Mike nodded in agreement, taking a silencer attachment out of his pack and putting it on his rifle. "Let's sneak up and let me take as many of them as we can before they notice. Don't chase, we'll have plenty of targets and we don't want to draw too much attention after the news last night and what Jerry said this morning."

"Agreed." Both John and Steven said.

John carefully lead the two of them to a good vantage point that Snakey had seen. It was a large tree branch, overlooking a small valley where another small pack with a rank 9 bunny had joined the group.

"22 10th ranked, 1 9th." Mike said, pulling up his scope and callibrating it to make sure he didn't miss before setting his rifle to semi-auto and getting ready. "I'll take out the 9th ranked first then take as many of them as I can as they scatter."

"Snakey and I will watch for trouble while Steven grabs the bodies." John said, pulling out his pistol as he sent a command for Snakey to climb further up the tree and make sure there weren't any monsters hiding out up there.

The muted crack of Mike's rifle rang out, and the 9th ranked bunny fell over with a hole through it's heart. The other monster's didn't even notice until Mike had taken out another 5 of them. They scattered, running in several directions looking for their attackers. Mike adjusted aim to kill the ones running away from them as Steven stepped up, a glow coming from under his shirt as ran into them.

John could tell Steven wanted to yell a war cry, but held himself back trying to keep the volume down. Steven summoned a brownish glow, surrounding his body in it and letting the rabbits slam into him. The sickening sounds of bones crunching rang out every time the bunnies attacked until another 8 of them lay on the ground, broken and twitching. Reaching down, Steven quickly finished them off by snapping their necks before pulling out a sack and stuffing them in.

The sack was a spacial artifact loaned out to them by the school. It was incredibly low level, so not only was it bulky but it only cut down 90% of the weight. This meant that as they filled it up, the sack would start weighing more and more. In actuality, it was considered a failed artifact by the Maker's Guild so they gifted them to the school as a part of the contribution.

All together, 1 9th ranked bunny and 16 10th ranked bunnies were all shoved into the sack before Snakey sent an image of a Monkey swinging through the tree's in their direction to John. Taking a moment to focus, he realized the monkey was a 8th ranked monster like Snakey, and would be on top of them in moments.

Without time to think, John ordered Snakey to shoot fire at it so he would know the monster's exact position. A moment later, the monkey appeared surrounded by a blue glow as it flew through the fireball and landed on a tree not 20 feet away.

Instantly recognizing the monster, John went over a monster profile automatically. 'From the 4th Volume of the Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters, the Water Monkey is a common monster found in jungle and forest danger zones. They posses slightly increased mental capacity along with universally playful personalities. They prefer to pester and annoy their prey until they let their guards down, at which point they drown them or kill them with Water Bullets. Known abilities include breathing underwater, Water Shields, Water Bullets, and Dung Throwing.'

"Disgusting." John said quietly as he quickly switched to armor piercing rounds and took aim. 'Distract it.' John thought to Snakey, and was surprised when Snakey launched herself at the Monkey trying to bite it.

Instantly, the Monkey summoned a water shield before punching forwards, a bullet of water slamming towards Snakey.

Shooting flame from her mouth, Snakey evaporated the water bullet before slamming into the shield and bouncing off. However, Snakey hit the monkey with enough force to cancel the water shield, and before the monkey could reapply it John took the shot, killing it instantly from 20 feet with a headshot.

"Shit that was loud!" Mike cursed, turning from his scope to see the 8th ranked Water Monkey falling to the floor where Snakey was waiting for her dinner.

'Don't eat it.' John sent to Snakey with as much force of will behind the order as he could manage. Normally he'd let her have a bite, but it'd be bad for her to eat a water attributed monster's flesh.

"Time to go." Mike said, quickly jumping from the tree as Steven rushed back and shoved the Water Monkey into the bag.

"We need at least another 20 rabbits to make this worthwhile, and we need to grab some herbs." John said, telling Snakey to take the lead.

"Not here." Steven said, "That shot will attract too many monsters, next time we all need to get silencers."

"Agreed." John said as he followed along behind Snakey at a run, trying his best to maintain stealth despite the speed of their movements.

5 minutes later, a panther leaped from a tree top and sniffed in confusion. It'd learned to expect human scent where it heard that cracking noise, and human's make perfect food. 1 more and it might break through again to become a boss monster. Leaping back into the tree, it decided to follow the scent of the Fire Viper, it was out of place here and maybe it'd lead him to something interesting...