The first stretch part 2

The forest was quiet but easier to navigate alone. Now that he did not have a kid holding him back and his fatigue was as good as gone, Mark felt lighter than he had in years and that caused him to move even faster.

The trees were almost a blur as he ran past them to get out of the red area. Looking at the map, a red blink was near his location and moving at a fast speed. He quickly made his way up the tree and waited.

The monster that popped up looked somewhat like a rabbit, his size almost corresponding to a full-size husky and many parts of the fur were missing and showed visible muscle mass below.

Mark took the aim with his newly upgraded gun which the guide had told him to do and fired. His hands were considerably steady now that he had gotten in a habit of shooting such creatures.

The shot made contact and the monster exploded at the shot. This time, there was no residual and he opened up his inventory to see some new items added.

That was another thing he had explored a while back when he had looked at the manual. Some of these monsters drop rare items (not that rare this early though) which could be used in upgrading.

The boss he had killed earlier had also dropped one but it was not usable. He clicked on the item box once again to check it.

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Item name: Jude crystal

Item description: Dropped by the hidden boss of the first forest. A pretty tinker is a trophy for a living but can be used for more.

Item use: currently unusable

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It was still the same description that made him sigh. He had tried to pry more to see what he could find. There was nothing beyond basic things you could expect but even then some crucial elements were missing from the screen.

First of all, there was no information on his own stats and he had to guess this whole time. That was proving to be a problem because he would never know if he was ready to engage a monster or not.

Every time he tried it just showed an 'ERROR - Data not found' screen which irked him. But that was something he had come to accept.

His map was needed once again as he was checking the system panel and he frowned. There was another monster very near to him. Their frequency was increasing now that he was in deep but he still had almost ⅓ of the way to go.

He quickly made his way down because the moment the creature looked a little weird to be walking. It was almost passing over the trees and he summarized that it was a bird of some kind.

He crouched in the bush he had jumped into as he saw a shadow pass over his head. It flew away quickly and he let out a sigh of relief as soon as he saw it pass.

Flying monsters were a huge problem because they were just much more versatile and had greater mobility which was a pain to him.

His map once again beeped but this time it was good news. There was a yellow spot nearby, really nearby in fact.

He made his way quietly toward the spot and found the box directly at the shore of the river. This could be tricky because it limited his access to the ways out. The river had a really fast flow and it flowed in the opposite direction.

He would really need to be careful when he grabbed the box. Once again making sure that nothing was in the vicinity, he made his way toward the box but this time he hesitated in picking it up.

The last time he did this, it had triggered a hidden boss fight. What if this one was the same. Should he risk it at all? Or should he wait to play it out?

In the end, Mark did decide to pick the box up because it could prove to be helpful in the long run. If the system was pointing it out then he should really take advantage of the offer.

He scanned the box, but all the while he kept his eyes alert and vigilant. He could not make any mistake here at all.

He waited for the monster to appear but nothing happened which made him relax his grip on his gun. He turned his back to the water before he felt it made contact with his back with a force that made him stagger in his spot.

He quickly dodged to his right side as he turned back, only to avoid another attack made on his person. The monster was huge, definitely bigger than the monsters he met before. It was almost the same size as the hodden boss of before.

He had triggered another hidden boss but he had an advantage this time. The boss was some kind of aquatic creature, its morphology completely indistinguishable from its current form.

Mark could run from it easily since it did not look like the monster could come out of the water at all and so he ran toward the opposite side of the river.

He did not make it far before he felt himself forcefully be turned around and start walking toward the monster. The meaning was clear - he would not be able to run away from this fight.

At least his body allowed him to dodge the next attack that was aimed at his person by a wide margin. This meant that the only thing he could not do was to run away.

Mark quickly took cover behind the tree that was nearest to him before the water could hit him. Once he heard the water stop, he turned around the tree and winched at what he saw. The tree was shredded where the water had met it.

That would have been painful, had it connected and Mark was so grateful he had dodged the attack at the right time.

Now he just had to do it a few more times before he could figure it out. He needed information on this monster and he wondered if he could open his guide to look. Surely it had something on this creature that was attacking him?

He quickly changed the tree or his hiding spot once another beam of water was fired toward him. The earlier tree gave a cracking sound which made Mark glad he did so.

There was a thud sound which indicated that the tree had not survived the water at all and he quickly opened up his guide.

He quickly pointed his scanner toward the monster and there was a ting before he had to duck behind the tree again as the water came toward him.

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Type: Hidden Boss - Quincie of the ocean - water

The once peaceful life in the water had turned hostile and taken the form of a hostile guardian viscous to all.

Weakness: Freezing, separate from water for some time.

Beware: The water will turn into acid once the boss's health reaches a critical point and will cause huge damage if hit

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Critical point? What's a critical point? Why acid? What kind of acid?

The crucial information was, as usual, missing in huge chunks but Mark had no time to criticise it at all. For a player, the most important points were already there but he was no player.

He was a living, breathing human stuck in this boss fight he was not sure he could win. But it was not like he was completely helpless like the last boss fight.

His weapons were upgraded and he was healthy. He made another safe switch between trees before he turned around the trunk and fired. The shot somehow made contact and the monster flinched.

That was a success and he did it two-three times before he changed covers. He tried to shoot again but the problem arose here. He was too far back to make contact and his shots were missing.

He needed to make his way closer. And that is what he did. It was thought to be when to hide and when to shoot at the start because the attacks seemed to come at him at random.

But there was actually a pattern to it and once Mark figured it out, it became a game of time and rhythm. He shot and dodged and the monster seemed to miss which was clearly frustrating the monster.

He was about to fire another shot before he felt something was wrong and he dodged another attack by jumping further back. He felt himself jump much further than a normal human but he did not pay attention to that part.

He needed to concentrate on this fight.

He looked at the ground which made him thankful for his dodge because the whole space was melting with an acidic green look. Was the monster in critical health? But it still looked so healthy to him.

The monster was vibrating now and another shot was coming his way which made him grit his teeth and duck behind the nearest tree. He was taking a chance but it paid off when the next attack turned out just to be made of normal water.

He fired a few more shots and only some of them made contact with the monster which agitated it further as it let out a loud roar that shook his ears and the surroundings a little. Mark lost his balance and he saw the water come his way.