Loot

Beetle widened his eyes and raised a hand.

The group stopped moving forward.

Slowly unsheathing his short sword, Beetle got into battle stance. Except this time, this group-lead didn't envelop himself with a layer of mana.

Behind Beetle, the two newbies also lowered their bodies. Leaning to the side, it looked like they were ready to jump out of the way or something.

Usually, after being called out by explorers, the hidden monsters would jump out of their cover.

But nothing happened here.

"Are playing us?" Reaper glared at Jake.

Beetle's expression looked even more gloomy. After taking a look at Jake, Beetle picked up a rock.

Out of caution, this team-lead still decided to test things out first. If it's just an old wolf, the monster would be no threat to him. He could easily one-shot a weak monster like that.

However, he couldn't trust Jake's judgment. What if this newbie misidentified the monster?

Aiming a bit, Beetle hurled the rock in that direction. Drawing a pretty arc in air, that rock landed at its mark perfectly.

That rock had bounced off something. All three explorers could clearly see this.

It definitely didn't just sink into that bush. This was not right. The faces of these three explorers became more serious.

As a detector however, Jake could 'see' that the rock had hit that old wolf. Upon contact, the rock seemed to have bounced off an invisible barrier, leaving a few ripples behind.

Because of this barrier, that old wolf was perfectly unharmed.

All monsters in magical realms had various levels of mana barriers. In general, these barriers were pretty effective against physical attacks.

Stabbing the barrier would be like stabbing a layer of cast iron. The attack would be basically useless.

However, when facing magical artifacts and spells, the barriers were generally weak.

Nevertheless, it's still possible to break the barriers with non-magical materials. It's just extraordinary forces were be needed. For instance, against low-level monsters, a bullet could easily tear through that barrier.

'How interesting...' Jake squinted in thought. 'I wonder what's the background mechanism behind this phenomenon.'

Just like the monsters in the realms, humans also have protective mana films on them all the time.

But humans could control the thickness of these films. When people are out-of-combat, the film would be too thin to be visible.

"Cover me for a second! I got this!" Reaper held his hands together as if he was praying. The big dude looked rather excited.

Black smoke gradually rose from the ground, slowly forming into a human figure.

That was the last straw. That old wolf shot out of the bush!

To the two newbies, the wolf moved like a blurry figure of grey. They couldn't even see the monster clearly.

In a second, it had closed in most of the distance!

'A little slow...'

Threat level by instinct: Negligible

Jake carelessly watched the monster approach.

"Eh?! Uh!" Mage hurriedly raised a hand. Rock spikes sprouted out of the ground one after another.

That old wolf jumped back and dodged the attack.

Nevertheless, the spikes had successfully stopped the wolf's charge.

True. The rising spikes were a little slow. However, the area covered was not bad. In that direction, dozens of thin spikes pointed towards the wolf.

If that wolf didn't halt and jump back, it would have been impaled already.

This attack took a toll on Mage though. A pale face. Lightly sweating.

Panting heavily, squinting his eyes, Mage tried to stay awake.

The wolf stared at the group with mindless blank eyes. Wearing a numb expression, it didn't growl or bark. In some sense, this thing looked rather robotic.

Patches of its fur had turned white already. Taking a closer look, the muscles on its front legs looked wrinkled and withered.

The charge seemed to have tired out this wolf. It slowly walked around the spikes. Panting a little, it needed some time to regenerate its stamina.

The rock spikes only sealed off one direction after all. The wolf could just choose another direction and charge in.

Beetle sheathed his sword. He looked rather relaxed, focusing most of his mind on the surroundings.

During this time, Reaper had also completed his summoning. It was a blurry figure made of black smoke, holding a dagger in its hand.

However, Reaper didn't look like that eager to send in his minion.

The big dude pulled a dagger out of his backpack. With all of his strength, Reaper hurled this weapon at that aged wolf.

That aged wolf didn't bother dodging. The dagger landed on its forehead. However, just like the rock before, the dagger was blocked off by an invisible film.

"The rumors are true after all!" Reaper looked rather excited.

"In this case, try this!" Reaper unsheathed a pistol off his waist.

The two newbies could only see a teal-colored blur. Before they could react, Beetle had grabbed onto the gun barrel. His hand had been enveloped by a layer of teal mana. It was as if he was wearing a glove.

Without hesitation, Beetle crashed that piece of metal. "If you want to do experiments, do it when I'm not around."

Reaper glared at the team lead as if he was demanding an explanation.

Beetle glared back.

A few seconds later...

Beetle impatiently sighed. "No firearms allowed."

"What? Why! I've seen H.U.G.S squads use them."

Beetle sighed again. This was the precise reason for experienced explorers to tag along. "Those are gun-shaped artifacts. They have no sound."

"Firearm sounds will attract all the remaining monsters into this direction." Beetle's face turned serious. "If you are interested in fighting a tide of monsters, then please, go ahead."

Reaper blinked a few times. Realizing what he had almost done, the big dude's gaze towards Beetle changed a little. There was some respect now.

"Just finish the battle."

"Right. Right." Reaper pointed at that aged wolf.

In a blink, the smoke figure had disappeared and reappeared behind the wolf.

Maybe it's because of his strengthened body, Jake could catch everything with ease.

The smoke figure dashed in like an arrow. Like the attack from a stinger, the smoke figure stabbed the wolf's neck. Precise and deadly.

Then, the smoke figure continued to move forward until coming to a stop.

All of this happened in an instant. However, the attack looked a little... pre-programmed.

'Against fast-moving targets...' Jake lightly shook his head in his mind. 'The assassin minion will mostly likely miss its shot.'

If Jake wanted, he could dodge attacks at that speed with ease.

Standing there with a blank expression, the wolf slowly disintegrated into dust. The dust softly fell towards the ground, gradually disappearing into the air.

With a soft tap sound, something had dropped out of the disintegrating wolf.

It was a wolf fang. Lowest grade crafting material. Could be sold for somewhere between $100 to $150 on the market. Yep. Pretty cheap price.

But it's just a lone aged wolf, one of the weakest monsters in these realms. What drop could you expect from a weak monster like this?

"Good. Now. By regulation, let's clearly set out the rules for loot distribution." Picking up the wolf tooth, Beetle looked around with his grim face.

Hearing this, Mage's eyes brightened up a little. During this time, he had rested a little. After drinking some water, he was better off now.