At first, the club thought they got lucky when they found a weakened Rank 4 Rock Snake.

But out of nowhere, another Rock Snake showed up. This one wasn’t weakened like the first one. On the contrary, it was stronger than the first one.

The Rank 4 snake was about fifteen feet long and five feet wide, with skin made from rocks and dirt that looked like they were crafted onto the snake rather than its natural skin. The rocks wrapped around the snake's body like an amour, that made it hard to cut. Other than its skin, Rock Snake was famous for its ability to hurl rocks like rain toward enemies. And this one was no exception.

But the one that appeared after the Rank 4 snake was even bigger. It was at least twenty feet long and seven feet wide. Its fangs were also made from sharp, black rocks that looked like obsidian instead of a normal animal fang like the Rank 4 one.

“It’s a Rank 5 Rock Snake,” Bulka shouted. “Diana, Xil’pul, Karl, stay back. Zack and I will handle the two while three of you hit them from afar. Diana, uses [Wither Rain] to dull their skin. Xil’pul, hit them hard with [Piercing Cannon] in the chin, that’s the weakest spot.”

Following Bulka’s order, the four club members took the standard formation to fight against the monster. Two Knights that act as the tank in the front where Bulka and Zack took. One mage in the middle to crowd control, Diana’s position. And one or two mages at the back to deal heavy damage, where Xil’pul and Karl were standing.

Too bad Karl never had any long-range attack skills.

He charged forward to stand alongside Bulka and Zack to act as a Knight.

“I don’t have any long-range control or damage skill. Let me act as a Knight and bait the monster instead.”

Bulka and Zack shared a look, then Bulka nodded, “Got it, I’ll fall back while you focus on the Rank 4 snake. Zack will take care of the Rank 5 one.” With that, Bulka backed off and looked toward Xil’pul. Most likely, Bulka would switch places with Karl and act as a damage dealer. He continued to shout as he dodged a tail swipe from the Rank 5 snake in front of him and Zack. “Focus on the Rank 4, we will eliminate it first before we focus everything on the Rank 5.”

Keeping a cool head even in a heated and unexpected situation, Bulka had a nice quality.

Other than that, the club surprised Karl with their tactic. With how they all had bodybuilder bodies and the way they always shouted train the body and whatnot, he thought they would all gather Mana or wrap a skill around their fist and charge at the monster.

But that wasn’t the case.

Every member had their role, and the control they had over their skills wasn’t a joke either.

On Karl’s side, the snake was slow, clumsy, and easily irritated. Whenever it shifted its focus to Diana or Xil’pul, Karl just needed to throw a rock at its eyes to get its attention back on him. It was simple, almost boring.

Whenever the snake’s tail or the rocks it threw seemed like it was going to land on Karl, Diana used her spell to either push the snake off balance or change the rocks’ trajectory.

It was the same for Xil’pul. Whenever the Rank 4 snake opened its mouth a bit too big or left its eyes unguarded, Xil’pul would snipe it with his skill, dealing great damage to the snake. Once the snake was wounded enough, Karl lured it toward one of the sharps it threw. The pointy edge was still sticking up from the ground.

Back stepping away from the Rank 4 snake while throwing a rock to hit its eyes, the snake chased after Karl into the pointy rock. Observing its neck muscles twitched and contracted, Karl knew it was about to bite. The snake opened its mouth and tried to bite down. But before it could, Karl jumped up high using [Moonless], then [Vicious Word] to make it stop moving for a split second. Once its mouth and brain were directly on top of the sharp rock, he dropped down while using [Mountain Crushing Step] on the snake’s head.

The snake's head was kicked down, the sharp rock pierced through the top of its mouth into its skull and out of the top of its head. Blood and a piece of brain matter the size of a basketball were stuck on the tip of the sharp rock. The brain piece was still pulsing for about three seconds after the snake was pierced before stopping as blood from inside the piece slowly dripped down the rock.

Karl thought with one down it would be easier.

But having the Rank 5 snake going berserk wasn’t part of the plan.

Hunting a Rank 4 Rock Snake was easy now that Karl knew how skilled his seniors were. But hunting a raging Rank 5 Rock Snake was a different matter.

Unlike how it was trying desperately to get to the Rank 4 snake earlier, the Rank 5 snake now acted without caution as it threw its tail randomly without a target. The rocks it threw were also increased in power and speed as the rocks were spinning before being thrown.

As Zack backed away from the Rank 5 snake and Karl regrouped with the members, Diana summoned some kind of transparent green dome around them while Bulka and Xil’pul chanted and made rapid hand signs. They were in sync as they made the same hand signs.

“What is the state of its skin, Diana?” Bulka asked but never stopped making signs.

Diana raised her hand as the snake slammed its tail down the dome repeatedly without rest. “Most of the dirt was washed away, making its rock armor lose. We just need to make one last push toward the spot beneath its jaw.” She said as she pointed at the spot about six inches below the snake’s jaw.

“It would be difficult to aim at the right spot with it thrashing around like that,” Zack commented.

“I can stop it for a brief moment, but it might be less than a second.” Karl offered his assistant.

“A second is enough,” Bulka and Xil’pul stopped making hand signs. “Ready.”

Karl made hand signs and chants, focusing at least seventy percent of his Mana on this one skill. He looked at the others and nodded.

“On my mark,” Bulka started his countdown. “Three, two, one.” The snake raised its head, preparing to fire a massive volley of rocks at them. “GO.”

Diana dispelled the dome. At the same time, Karl used his [Vicious Word], Zack dashed forward and took his stand to throw the spear made from acid. Before the acid spear could reach the snake, two balls of reddish-white flew toward the spot below the snake’s jaw. With a loud bang, the rock armor on that spot was destroyed.

Finding its mark at the exposed and pulsing muscles, the acid spear stabbed into the snake's body. The snake let out a loud hiss that sounded like nails scratching the blackboard.

While the others fell back and planned to wait until the acid and poison took over and killed the snake, Karl dashed forward and jumped up.

The seniors couldn’t react in time. Only Bulka and Diana were able to shout. “Junior,” as Karl shot toward the acid spear and kicked it.

With that kick, the spear was logged inside the snake completely, removing the waiting time.

It seemed that the acid and poison acted quite fast, as barely ten seconds of thrashing around after Karl kicked the spear, the snake bled out like water was leaking out from a water balloon. Blood flooded out of every hole in its body. Green blood fell to the ground.

Moments later, so did the snake.

From an easy Rank 4 Rock Snake hunt to an easy Rank 5 Rock Snake hunt. Not too bad, Karl would say.

“Junior Karl.” But in contrast to his thought, Diana seemed to be fuming.

“Do you understand how reckless you were?” She crossed her arms as she stood in front of Karl.

“No, I don’t. Please enlighten me, senior.” Karl shook his head.

“You.” Diana must have thought Karl was being sarcastic with how her veins were popping off on her forehead and the back of her palm. But when she saw Karl’s eyes, eyes that genuinely didn’t think it was dangerous or wrong to do such a thing, she just sighed.

“Listen, you might think this was an easy hunt, but it was because we are here.” The other three nodded at her words. “We know what each other can do, and we know each other's limits. We also practice and go on hunting missions like this many times before. That’s why we could cooperate this smoothly even though we forgot to ask you about your skills. It was our mistake, but it was still reckless of you to jump in and do something like that. A single hit from even the Rank 4 snake could kill any of us, let alone a Rank 5. Do you understand?”

“You better listen to the girl.” Zack stood next to Diana. “She might be a brute, but she cares about our safety more than anyone else.”

“You shut up, meathead.” Diana's veins were popping for real now.

“What? I’m just telling the truth. Why are you getting mad at me for? That’s so unfair.”

I see, they might be warriors, but they are not survivors. They know how to fight but have no experience truly putting their lives on the line with every move they make. These kids are still protected greenhouse flowers.

“It was my mistake. I’ll learn from it and act differently next time. Thanks for your pointers, senior Diana.” Karl smiled instead.

Though her eyes still looked dissatisfied, Diana still nodded. “Good.”

“Okay, with that out of the way. Let’s gather our spoils and go to the hot spring. I’m dying to soak in those already.” Bulka stepped in between Diana and Karl. “Come one, let your reliable senior show you how to gather material from a Rock Snake.”

“Thank you, senior Bulka.” Karl followed Bulka.

Looking at Karl, who was absorbing everything Bulka was teaching him, Diana couldn’t help but sigh again. “How come youngsters these days are so reckless?”

“You speak like you aren’t just a year older than him,” Zack said.

“…It just brings back unwanted memories.”

“He’ll be fine.”

“…The last time was fine too.”

They didn’t say anything after that.

“Why are you two so tense all of a sudden?” Xil’pul walked up behind them. “Having another lover quarrel? Why don’t you two kiss and make up already.”

“Screw you,” Diana said as she stormed off.

“Huh? What did I do? Why did she react like that?” Xil’pul was truly confused.

Zack looked at Diana, who was showing her technique to gather material from Rock Snake, and sighed. “It was just an old wound.”

Looking at Zack, who had a soft gaze toward Diana, Xil’pul suddenly commented. “You know. I always thought you acted really sophisticated for an Orc.”

“…How do you see us?”

“Well, since a long time ago, whenever there was war, it was mostly started by you guys. Even now, whenever there are small skirmishes between nations, it is always Orcs who stand up as mercenaries. I thought, you know, Orc would be less, well, gentle and caring. You know what, forget about it. That was insensitive of me.”

“That’s an understandable view since we Orcs loved war until about two hundred years ago.”

“What happened back then?” Xil’pul was curious.

“We Orc loved war. Whenever there was a chance to go to war, we took it. But according to my ancestor, everything changed because of an Orc diplomate. He was so skilled at his job that he settled down every single conflict the Orc had at the time. He even traveled all over Eldoria to do so.”

“Wow, that guy must be a peace-loving Orc.”

“No.” Zack shook his head. “He was more war-crazed than any of us. That was why he chose to be a diplomat. He wanted to enrage every other race so that the Orc would always have war. No matter what.”

“Huh? Then how did?”

“He was really, really, really bad at his job. He was so bad, he wrote in his diary that he must have been cursed by the god to get exactly what he didn’t want instead. Somehow, he brought about peace for all the Orc and even got married to princesses and acted as the peacekeeper between races.”

Xil’pul: “…”

“I know that because I’m one of his descendants. My grandfather let me read the diary that was passed down in our family for generations now.”

Xil’pul tapped his friend’s shoulder. “Good thing too.”

Zack nodded. “Yeah, imagine being so bad at your job you got a harem. Couldn’t be me.”

The two looked at each other and laughed. Then both stomped their feet repeatedly, channeling their energy toward the poor and innocent ground instead.

“Oh right, what were you doing back there?” Zack stopped and asked.

“You know what I was doing.” Xil’pul sighed.

Zack laughed, “Mama boy.”

“Shut up.”

“We are done with the gathering. Let’s go soak ourselves in some hot springs.” Bulka called out to the two of them. With all the club members gathered, it was time for some hot spring.