On the Hunt

After arriving at the same low-level forest area that he was at the last time, Victor walked steadily with the hopes of finding enough prey to complete his missions. Although he understood that it was unlikely.

After an hour of walking, he found his first prey, or to be more accurate, his first ten prey. The animals looked similar to rabbits but had sharp teeth that showed every time they munched down on the large corpse under them.

If it was before when Victor only had a knife and nothing else he might have avoided it. Yet right now he didn't care if he ended up injured and struggled against the small animals. After all he was excited to use his skill! The rabbits might be hard to hit and follow, but with a little luck he should get ten kills crossed off!

Excitement rushed through his body as he stayed hidden making sure that the creatures didn't see him. It was only after he got close enough did he attack as the skill book taught him to. Ignoring the pain that assaulted him throughout his body as he focused his energy into his blood and through his hand silently, it shot!

Some creatures heard the sound of whistling of the wind against the blood ark and looked up, probably expecting a bird. Yet it was too late for many of them, it was on the same ground level as they were leading to an instant kill on Three of the ten rabbits! With a shrill scream, several rabbits twitched and tried to struggle for a few seconds until they finally succumbed to their fate.

Soon all the rabbits jumped up with several starting a full sprint away from Victor! There was no way he would allow that! Ignoring the fading Pain from his hand he attacked! Two more rabbits fell! Still, he shot again! Only one was hit. One more shot!... The rest escaped.

Ignoring the searing pain he looked around hoping to see another creature, but all he saw were the already dead bodies of six rabbits. Sighing he also knew he shouldn't be too greedy and stored the bodies while checking his system progress.

[Quest For Cultivation!]

[Kill 100 living beings and collect their blood (3/100)]

Seeing the number only go up 3 instead of the 6 he killed Victor was shocked. Yet after thinking about it for a moment, he realized that it did make sense if he had two quests working at the same task. 

[Invite a Player Quest]

[Kill 100,000 living beings and collect their blood (3/100,000)]

Looking at the large quest that was taking half of what he earned Victor cursed. "I can't even fit 100,000 bodies in my storage system!"

Despite wanting to curse the system more he simply sighed as he shoved his knife back into his inventory. At present, he is already using most of the available slots. Due to some experimentation, he also was able to understand more about his system or at least the inventory.

 If it is a dead animal then the storage can hold 1,000 corpses no matter what. As for living creatures? He doesn't have any to test it out on. Plant material is different as it can only hold 100 items this can also include food. The category is man-made items or materials which can only hold ten items. He can put ten couches or ten knives, it is all the same in the eyes of the system. 

That said the system still has some distinguishing features as items are still categorized. Bladed are all available in one category. Furniture is one category, Plant based food, Meat based food, and so much more. Everything has a category, yet at the same time, it all falls into the restriction of what it is. 

Although not fully satisfied, Victor once again went on a hunt.

After nearly a full day walking through the forest, Victor came across one of the horse-like creatures again. This time knowing that a herd was most likely nearby he felt rather excited! After all, now that he experienced what a herd could do, he knew how to deal with the herd.

After killing the horse he quickly started searching around. After a short while, he found the herd!

As soon as he was ready another blood ark formed in his hand as he attacked! With a shrill scream of pain, the entire pack was alerted to the death of their companion. They didn't hesitate to chase Victor after seeing the scene of their pack member with its head chopped nearly completely off.

They acted with great fury in their eyes! Despite being slightly spooked by their bloodshot eyes as they rushed and attacked, he quickly shot the next blood ark he had already prepared leading to another kill.

This pack had 24 members originally. Well... now it has 22.

Seeing another one of their members die didn't scare these creatures, they only turned more bloodthirsty for the one who caused the death of their companions. When the creatures were a few meters away, Vitor had already conjured another blood ark.

With a powerful shot, the horse was killed. This speed was much faster than before as he needed a full three seconds before, but now only required two seconds. Despite his happiness at his increasing proficiency, Victor didn't let it distract him from the killing of more creatures.

A meter away he killed another while scrambling up the tree he had chosen before. Having planned it all out he made sure that this time he would be in a safer place to deal with the bloodthirsty animals.

Two seconds pass as the creatures jump up to try and bite him. Yet, even as he kills one, the creatures jump so high that they come far too close for comfort. With his perfectly chosen perch, Victor sends blood ark into the crowd without stopping!

The seconds pass as he attacks, 1.9 another falls, 1.8 another falls, 1.7, 1.6, 1.5, 1.4, 1.3, 1.2, 1.1, 1, 1. Reaching his speed limit for now he doesn't let it stop him as he keeps attacking! There are only seven left, all of which are far warier of his every move. They seem to care a lot more for their lives than their herd members before. 

Yet Victor doesn't care and attacks again! Of course, he didn't realize that as he attacked the creatures also planned something against him. He had chosen this tree as he could climb it easily, but these ungulates don't have hands like humans and realistically can't climb.

Unfortunately he underestimated the creatures too much! As another ungulate failed to avoid the attack, a hidden eighth ungulate came from behind! 

Not expecting an attack to reach him he quickly loses his footing and falls into the pile of corpses that he had just made below. Yet it was also this gruesome scene that saved him as the dozen corpses brok his fall saving him from a broken bone or other potential injuries. 

Unsure how afraid he should be of the six ungulates, Vain pulled out his knife from his inventory at the same time he conjured another blood ark. The creatures all seemed to be prepared and even as he prepared his attack five of them attacked!

In a moment of life and death, people choose either to run, fight or freeze. After his first encounter, Victor realized that running is pointless if you aren't fast enough which he wasn't at that time, so he could only fight.

Now he is given almost the same situation but with his experience, he doesn't turn his back, instead kills the closest with his knife! Although this time it isn't as clean a kill as the knife is quickly becoming more useless as it dulls with each cut he makes through the thick flesh of these creatures.

Killing one more with his skill, Victor is left with two enemies attacking. The fight he expects is stopped by a bleat that he remembers as the signal for retreat! Yet at this time with his adrenaline still pumping he doesn't hesitate to shoot another blood ark at the retreating figures. 

Knowing he couldn't chase them as he was becoming increasingly exhausted, Victor instead prepared another blood ark. As he was tired his newfound proficiency didn't help as much as he took two seconds to prepare and shoot it.

With a wave of his hands, the blood-colored ark flew through the air, missing the neck of the closer horse as he wanted, but it did end up hitting the hind legs of the one who let out a bleat of retreat! 2 seconds later another ark flew this time just hitting the side of one of the closer creatures. It looked like it had wanted to doge the attack to the heart, yet Victor didn't know enough about these creatures to know if that is true.

The last creature escaped into the distance with one of the injured ungulates. Only the creature with two injured legs still struggled to escape. Victor didn't wait and simply used his knife to kill the creature.

After the fighting was done he suddenly felt a sense of fatigue. "What? Oh- this skill uses blood and energy..."