Allen saw the message as he found himself back inside his . The gauge hovering on top of the quickly recovered every second as any sign of physical damage on his body disappeared. There was also a 12-hour countdown now present for the warp function’s cool-down.

  “WHAT THE HELL!!!”

  This was the first time that Allen experienced such a humiliating defeat. He was taken down in three hits. The Vulpia didn’t even make any real effort. It was as if swatting a fly.

  Still furious, he accessed the in the terminal and looked up the information on Vulpia.

  Allen wanted to bang his head against the terminal. He didn’t know how much the gap in strength between Class I and Class III was, but based from his experience, it was enough to turn him into a joke. The Vulpia was supposed to be weak, and he had thought so, too. He should have taken the trainer’s advice more seriously.

  Feeling a bit depressed, he went to the bed and sat down.

  He considered dropping the quest, but he didn’t want to risk chances and test himself against the unknown punishment that served as a consequence. It also seemed like this quest will affect the results of the research that the was performing.

  “What should I do?”

  He whispered under his breath. He remembered the glorious days he had with the girl who had been his partner for five years. They were the strongest. They cleared all quests they took easily. Even if they encountered an extreme challenge, they could still overcome it by relying each other. They would always watch out for each other’s back.

  The assassin and the priest; The taker and preserver of life.

  The taker preserves the life of the preserver from his enemies; The preserver takes the life of the taker’s opponents.

  Their roles were opposite by general consensus, yet they switched roles to protect the other, breaking any sort of common sense.

  For the first time, he felt the emptiness and loneliness of not having her by his side.

  “This won’t do.”

  He shook his head. He had a goal he must achieve. This was just another challenge. His partner may not be by his side, but she was in his heart, providing him with the courage and motivation to persevere even in the direst of straits.

  Slapping his face, he changed his mindset and firmed his resolve. He will not underestimate any opponent he would face from now on.

  He swiftly made his way back to the . Jake was surprised to see him, but immediately understood what had happened.

  “Its strength caught you off guard, didn’t it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “We’re losing personnel every month because of those things. If you succeed in this mission, you wouldn’t only be helping the doctor but also all the people in the base. One less of those creatures is a blessing for everyone here.”

  Seeing that Allen didn’t respond, Jake turned to look at him. He saw in Allen’s eyes a determination and resolve he had not seen in others before. He smiled and patted Allen’s back before getting on the Worldrunner and leaving the base.

  Allen had already drawn his weapon before proceeding deeper into the forest. The starlight and moonlight was blocked by the dense cluster of leaves, but he could still see quite clearly. This was also an effect of the implant.

  Slowly, he made his way back to the place where he had seen the Vulpia. He was crouching low and treaded the damp soil with caution, avoiding dead twigs and leaves to reduce any noise. He had also covered the surface of the sword which he rested on his shoulder with mud to prevent it from reflecting light.

  Soon, he arrived at his destination. There, the Vulpia was again lying down on the grassy soil, resting. Its body gently raised and lowered in tandem with its breathing. Every now and then, its tail would move, indicating that it wasn’t fully asleep. Its body was slightly bigger than what was recorded in the and its fur were gray instead of black. The crystals on its body were not as random as in the data, but were more clustered around its front legs and around the spine. If it had a weak point, then it would be the area on its lower front torso, the stomach.

  Allen was in the same spot as he was when he tried to ambush the beast. He looked down and saw the faint footprints he had made, as well as that of the Vulpia. He followed the Vulpia’s trail and found himself on the opposite side of the clearing from where he was initially. That meant that the Vulpia retreated in the opposite direction of where he was before, then circled around silently in the span of a few seconds.

  He felt admiration toward this opponent. It was quick, strong, and intelligent, and still has room for growth. Under the moonlight, the crystals on its body shimmered with a faint miriad of colors.

  ’I’m not even worthy of being its opponent’

  Suddenly, a gust of wind blew from behind him. The Vulpia’s nose twitched and its eyes lazily opened, staring at his direction.

  ’So this was how it had found me earlier!’

  There was no turning back for Allen now.

  He stood up quickly, with his left hand touching the on his belt. In the instant that the Vulpia stood on its four legs, he had already opened the storage and located the , his eyes never letting the beast disappear from his sight. In the corner of his vision, the was already in his hand and the option in the IIW was already selected, just waiting for a final confirmation.

  The Vulpia didn’t attack. From its dark green eyes glinted a light of wary. If it seemed like it had looked down on Allen on their first confrontation, now it had detected his change in his attitude. Slowly, it took a step back while lowering its body. It was a posture where it was ready to dash on any direction.

  Allen smiled wryly. Now that the beast was completely serious in taking him on, does he even had a sliver of chance to come out of this victorious?

  Why do you dare to face against those stronger than you?

  This was a question that Allen asked his old partner when they were just starting out. During that time, they were still low-level characters. The under-geared assassin had invited him to challenge a ten-man dungeon on their own.

  It’s to challenge myself!

  Why would you do that?

  Huh? You don’t know?

  Know what?

  Whenever you conquer a challenge, you become way way stronger than you were before you took it.

  I see… What if you failed?

  Hahaha!

  Why are you laughing?

  Because that was a funny question! If I fail, then I will pick myself back up and face the challenge again. Being able to do that is also a process that can make you stronger! Every time you fall, you look back up from where you were, see the mistakes you made, and improve upon them, then face the challenge again until you conquer it. That’s how you become strong!

  But what if you can’t conquer it even though you have failed so many times?

  That’s what you are here for, right?

  Looking back in the past, it was her who was truly the strong one. She had only brought him along with her to the peak in her search for greater challenges.

  ’So why had not she chosen Base 19?’

  For now, Allen kept that question in a corner of his mind. There was a more important matter that needed his attention.

  The Vulpia decided to make the first move, seeing that the human in front of it had no intention to initiate the attack. It dashed forward to the left, the side where the human was holding its weapon. The other hand was gripping something, and that had made the beast wary. By moving toward the side with the weapon, it was further from the unknown object, and the human would not be able to perform an attack with enough power behind it.

  For Allen, the move the Vulpia chose was the worst possible. The beast was truly an intelligent one.

  Attack with the blade, throw the grenade, dodge to the center of the clearing, or into the forest… Right now, Allen was at his peak condition. Choices appeared in his mind as his brain worked in full gear. In that split second, he had looked over all the possible actions he could take and their probably results. He went through them one by one, discarding those with the lowest chance of success, slowly chipping away the failures.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  He did as she had told him, to look at the failures and continue improving upon them, to reach that point where he could finally conquer the challenge, except that he was doing it all in his mind. This was how their legend started of being the undefeated pair. If she relied upon him to help her gain victory, then how could he let himself fail even once?

  Outside the game, in the real world, the Virtual Gear System Drive was processing information at an unprecedented speed. From the usually silent device, a high-pitch whirring sound could be heard and it was gradually heating up.

  Back in the game, the situation was slightly different compared to when they were together. This time, he had failed once, and from that failure he had learned a great lesson. He wouldn’t fail a second time. It was not something that he could allow.

  The action he chose to take…

  …was to take no action. He waited for the Vulpia to come close to him.

  The beast thought that the human which was supposed to have died from it earlier but suddenly disappeared was being arrogant and foolish. It felt that he had not learned his lesson from that experience. Just because the human had survived and had brought a strange item with him, he thought that he had a chance against it.

  With a low growl, the Vulpia jumped forward and landed half a meter away from Allen. Its right paw with a set of sharpened claws and layer of hardened crystal lashed out toward him at a speed that was barely visible with the naked eye.

  During that time, Allen was quietly observing the beast, watching every slight movement it made. In his mind, he simulated the beast’s next probable set of action and what he would do during those cases. The simulation changed with every minute change in the actual beast’s movements. If a normal person heard of him doing something like this, they wouldn’t believe a single word of it.

  When the Vulpia jumped, Allen had noticed that its weight had shifted to its left, and its right paw was slightly higher off the ground. In his mental simulation, the beast had attacked with its right paw.

  Allen shifted his body with small but compact movements, and moved forward to meet the attack with his body. He turned his body to the right while shifting his sword over his head from his right shoulder. When the sharp claws approached, the sword was already raised in an almost vertical position, the flat of its blade touching his left arm.

  The sharp claws met the flat of the blade supported by Allen’s shoulder from the other side. Although he managed to block a direct attack, he already knew beforehand that the force of the Vulpia’s attack wasn’t so simple. Before he was thrown off to the side, his and the beast’s gaze met. As they did, he showed a smile of success. The Vulpia’s gaze moved toward his left hand. The was not there anymore.

  While Allen was changing the position of the sword to block the attack, he had already activated the beforehand because it had a three-second countdown before it exploded (forgot to add this information in the previous chapter). By taking small actions, the beast’s wary gaze transferred from just the item in his hand to all over his body. That moment of loss of attention did not escape Allen’s eyes. He tossed the grenade vertically, hidden behind the blade that he raised to defend.

  -120

  Even though he had defended, he still received a huge damage. He was knocked to the side, leaving the grenade still hovering in the air. He fought hard to keep his balance in mid-air, landing on his feet and sliding a few inches on the ground. By that time, the grenade had exploded right in front of the Vulpia’s face.

  The bright burst of light brought a searing pain into the beast’s eyes which were normally more sensitive to light. The accompanying shock wave rattled its brain, causing its body to slightly stumble forward, then fall down on its side. It had lost its sight and motor control. Allen knew that this would not last forever.

  Taking this opportunity he dashed with everything he got and swung the sword with all his momentum behind it. The tip of the sword glanced against the soil, slicing off blades of grass. Allen’s eyes were directed in a single place. His target was the currently exposed stomach.

  -100

  -50

  -13 Bleed

  The sword embedded itself in the beast’s abdomen, a part of the edge and the tip buried deep within. Gritting his teeth, he pressed the trigger and twisted the sword, then swung it to the side, tracing the Vulpia’s torso toward the front, cutting of one of its front legs.

  -10

  -200

  -200

  -200

  -26 Bleed

  He could feel the Vulpia’s bones and organs being crushed and sliced inside its body as the sword’s blade went through them. Even though he had dealt such huge damage, the beast was still alive. This was a game after all, and no matter how many times he destroyed its organs, it wouldn’t die as long as it had a single point of left. The Vulpia still had about 40% left.

  The grenade was about to run out of its effect. With the sword raised and pointed to the moon, he prepared to swing down and cut the Vulpia’s head off, betting on the chance of a probable fatal or critical hit. As he was about to bring down the sword, the Vulpia’s eyes opened and gazed at him for a moment, then shifted to look behind him.

  It was looking at something behind him. Allen could tell that it wasn’t a feint. There was a mix of unbridled anger in those pair of dark green orbs. It was an emotion that Allen had not seen in the beast’s eyes during their clash.

  Unable to constrain himself, he turned to look behind him. The sight almost drained every inch of blood in his body.

  More than ten pairs of glowing red orbs filled with blood-lust where directed at him from within the forest. No, they were directed at the heavily injured beast in front of him.

  From the forest, the rustling of leaves accompanied the movements of those red eyes. Black figures covered in crystal shards came out of the shadows into the clearing.

  More than ten Vulpia had entered the scene uninvited.

  The leading Vulpia suddenly lurched forward catching Allen off-guard. It pounced at him with its maw wide open, ready to bite and rip off his neck.

  Unexpectedly, the Vulpia behind him stood up with its remaining three legs, and pushed him to the side. The two beasts clashed and bit each other’s neck. They both had formed a layer of crystal around their necks, causing them to both be unable to penetrate.

  Allen who was thrown off to the side could clearly see that there was an enmity between this pack of black-furred red-eyed Vulpia and the single gray-furred green-eyed Vulpia. Their differences in appearance could be clearly scene. The latter was even slightly bigger with more shards of crystal on its body.

  Before he could make sense of the situation, three black Vulpia pounced at him.

  Frustration, dejection, and confusion were mixed together in Allen’s mind. He was now sitting on his bed, brooding over what had happened.

  There were clearly an enmity between the group and the single Vulpia, but he had no idea what might have caused it. Looking back on it, the Vulpia he had fought against had a noble air around it, while the ones that ambushed their fight were more savage and wild.

  Allen had died twice and was now unable to log in for 12 hours. He lied back down on the bed and closed his eyes. It was almost 3 am, and right now, his mind was completely exhausted. The fight had taken a lot from him.

  …

  …

  …

  Within the game, the gray Vulpia was speeding along the forest, leaving a trail of blood. It had run away from the clearing after the human had been preyed upon by three of the beasts. It had caught the sight of the human suddenly disappearing like in their first battle. It knew that the human was still alive somewhere.

  The Vulpia had stimulated the inside its body to heal its wounds slowly as it ran away. The first part it healed was the cut off leg. It did not regrow but instead used the crystals to form a prosthetic leg.

  After a while its entire body had fully healed. The pack of black Vulpia that chased and had been right behind it the whole time had now been left behind after the full recovery. It was much faster than them, and there was no way they could chase it.

  After about three hours of running the Vulpia decided that it was already far away. The trail of blood had been cut off when it had healed, and there was no way for those beasts to track it down. The Vulpia slowly came to a halt upon a small clearing on top of a hill and gazed at the slowly rising sun. It then looked down at its prosthetic leg that reflected and shimmered with prismatic colors.

  The human was actually stronger than it had thought. It got down on the grassy ground and started licking its paw. After that it curled its body around and closed its eyes. It basked under the warmth of the rising sun and dozed off to a light sleep.

  Budumtss!

  Early post... simple because I will be busy the whole day tomorrow.

  T_T

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