One Single Blow

Do or Die is the same

As he ran his brain on full force, a plan started to take form in front of him.

Qiao could feel that this was the end of the rope and he had to take action quick. The monster was angrier than ever. He could not retreat any further.

His grip on the temporary weapon tightened. Inside his head he was sharply calculating the movements of the monster.

It seemed as if he was at the brink to kill it or embrace the death helplessly.

"Buddy monster, you see I have no choice either," he gritted his teeth and focused on his position.

From the time he entered in the cave, due to the following scampering around away from the monster, his clothes were in tatters. If someone saw him they would take him as some level Zero loser who always struggled but could never reach level one.

There were ten levels for a human to achieve the level of Hunters King, in this world.

A level which was myth for most of the senior hunters.

A level five or up hunter could form a Guild of his own and rarely anyone happened to meet level nine or ten hunter in their entire years of hunting. Top levels were hardest to achieve in first place.

Every level depends on the dexterity and strength, which include, thousand bells per level. A bell* refer to the soundness of the strength.

The earlier two chasers who lost rationality after witnessing horrible death of the third chaser had the lowest bells of strength. This hindered their dexterity limit and in turn their battle output.

Only someone who could face the tough conditions would ever reach to next level by reaching required dexterity and strength which was thousand bells per level.

This situation in which Qiao was caught in demanded high level of strength in bells. To stand against the increasing strength of the monster which was rare in normal circumstances.

Until now, he did not put any damage or blow to the monster which could count as his experience points.

The experience points were actually converted into bells, and as long as he was persistent, he could reach level one. A thousand experience points to reach next level. Although he himself was oblivious to anything, what matter most was to survive first now.

The monster of unknown race was really angry that it might burst with the extreme anger at any time.

Qiao took a deep breath and yelled, "For my brother's sake," as he took the support of a nearby cave rock that jutted out. Raising himself to a higher level he jumped forward. His target was the point which kept oozing out slimy liquid out of the monster.

Other than this, the whole monster has slowly turned in to defensive state yet this part seemed to be constantly breathing out.

It must be the vital part, thinking such Qiao pierced the level three shredded stone thrusted into the monster's vital.

If Qiao thought that he would be saved, it could be considered fascination of an exhausted brain.

*CREUAGHH*

The monster let out a piercing scream as it was in pain. Qiao was thrown away due to the sudden impact by the monster. Th monster on the other hand was now spouting lava at a rapid pace, as if bleeding to death.

Qiao got hit against the hard rocks, quiet far from the place the monster was. But still the monster threw rocks in all direction, some of which managed to hit him, burning him in some places.

Qiao dragged himself to save his last breaths, trying ot distance himself from the dying monster. He struggled hard to avoid those rocks by hiding under the small opening yet it was impossible to hide entire body in compact place.

There were ear splitting noises from the monster, before the whole body turned into smoke slowly leaving behind something sparkling.

Some crimson crystal stones fell as the smoke disappeared.

Qiao had no time to think about spoils, nor did he knew that there could be some perks of killing such monster.

He was gasping for breath, the close encounter with angry monster was like a nightmare for a youth who had only killed monsters in games. In the real world where he lived for many years never had he encountered something as violent as today.

Still his grit to not lose was exceptionally high which allowed him to ebb over the problem today.

He had a slight chance at life when facing the monster and he didn't want to loss that any cost. And he had succeeded.

"Congratulations! you seem competent, you will be given a chance to revert back the curse if you happen to defeat me in the future," the voice again appeared and from the tone one could tell, the man behind the voice was mocking him.

Qiao listened to the voice and he could not help but compare it to those bullies who always created troubles for the weak and felt pleasure.

"You…, just you wait bastard, it would be definitely you who would face the horrible death not me," Qiao spoke through gritted teeth.

The injuries were intensely coming to his nerves.

"Sure but don't forget about your younger brother, and that you might take a long time in leveling and... don't forget the consequence if you are not able to level up," the voice echoed before vanishing again.

The wicked hunter was sure that this youth would not be able to reach his level in his entire lifetime much less to reach level one, for him it was impossible.

Qiao lost consciousness due to his injuries and waste of blood, and the last straw that made him lose conscious was the voice which made him feel more guilty as it reminded him of his younger brother.

If he lost, he would not be the only one to die, his younger would also be affected. Who knows what would happen to him after his death. If the voice was speaking the truth and the hunter really decided to kill him in front of his brother, then his brother would lose his sanity after witnessing his horrible death.

He cannot let that happen.

That's why he had to become stronger.

As he drifted off into a sleep, the token around his neck shone with a bright light before it settled. It shone a number which corresponded to his experience points. It was two hundred.

[* Here bell is used as flare, for example the fierce strength and capability of the hunter]