“By the way, I’m going to start my quest after tomorrow so don’t wait on me for dinner or breakfast. I prepared some nutrient bars and a lot of water in my room, so you probably won’t see me till I finish. Frankie, could I trouble you to keep an eye on the bacon in the fridge and the drying boar leather?”

Abel figured he should mention his upcoming disappearance to the couple so that he wouldn’t leave them hanging all the time. Not to mention his other chores he wouldn’t be able to take care of in the upcoming week.

“Don’t worry about it, just do what you have to do and leave the rest to us.”

“Thanks. Have a good night you guys, you’ll probably sleep much less after using the pod all day so don’t get weirded out… I should go log back in, my double EXP buff is still running.”

He headed out of the main house and went back to his room. After a short bathroom break, he jumped back into his pod and logged in to Realm Quest. Fortunately, Sstar hadn’t replied to his message yet so he didn’t have to waste any more time in his user home.

Whooooooosh

He found himself back in the dungeon where he had logged off. After getting his bearings straight, he jumped right back into the thick of things. He started clearing out Coralcarapace Sentinel’s and was inching closer to the next level up.

Although each battle would take around 10 to 12 minutes, the EXP they gave at the end was substantial. He probably had to kill another 10 of these buggers before he reached level 10 and could start using the equipment he had been carrying around. Just the Titanheart Chest Armor alone would bring up his defense stat by a lot.

When he turned another corner expecting to see the weird looking sentinel monster again, he was suddenly attacked from out of nowhere! The monster only became visible after it had unleashed its attack.

-59
-63

*Ding*

Defense decreased by 5% for 30 second

“Inspect”

*Ding*

[Coralclaw Marauder] (Normal Monster)

Level: 16
Attack: 116-123 (+15%)
Defense: 102 (+15%)
HP: 1,495/1,495 (+15%)

Skills: Coral Camouflage???, Rend Armor ???

‘Serpents Dance’

Abel took a look at the notifications popping up while he backed away after activating his movement skill. This monster seemed very different from the last 3 he encountered, it could camouflage itself in the coral walls and passageways!

He didn’t understand why he hadn’t come across it before but it could be a nocturnal monster that only appears at night. That’s the only explanation he could think of for the time being, he couldn’t waste any time thinking about such things with the monster hot on his heels.

Clang
Clang

He noticed the notification about his defense decreasing, he presumed this was the Rend Armor skill he saw in its description. He wasn’t sure if this skill could be stacked but even if it was only stackable 3 to 5 times, that signified a drop of 15 to 25% in defense which was very troublesome.

When he blocked a couple of attacks and put a bit of distance between them, he realized the monster wasn’t as fast as it seemed. It appeared to have some speed boost when attacking from stealth but otherwise, it was a little slower than the Crabby Scuttler even.

‘I got caught off guard but I can still kill it… if I had to define it then it’s probably the rogue among the Coral Creepers which means it has high attack, good speed but lower defense.’

He took a deep breath and carefully studied this new monster. It was a lot smaller than the other monster he came across so far, standing at around 60 cm’s tall and around double in width. The carapace was adorned with jagged edges while its coloration took on a combination of dark crimson, deep purple and different shades of black. It only had 6 legs but they seemed thicker and filled with power.

Its pincers were more elongated but filled with jagged and sharp blades that seemed to excel in quick attacks. However, the creature's eyes were most diverse among the other Coral Creepers he had seen so far. They were dark and predatory, reflecting an intense gaze that added a lot to its intimidating presence.

‘Harmonic Breath’

Abel didn’t want to take any chances and activated his Harmonic Breath skill for an all-round boost. He slowly approached the monster and blocked the quick attacks coming his way before he hit back with his own skill.

Clang
Clang

‘Ecliptic Slash

-234
-58

He was lucky that his fiery slash activated from his sword, dealing an additional 58 fire damage on the monster. He realized that fire attacks dealt more than the 50-damage stated in the swords details but he guessed that only applied because it was a monster aligned with water.

The fiery attack made the Coralclaw Marauder hiss in pain, it seemed to be especially weak against fire attacks. It was a pity Abel didn’t know any such skills so he had to kill it the old-fashioned way. He couldn’t just keep hoping for that 5% chance to activate every time. He took a look at the passageway he was in and thought of an idea.

Clang
Clang

-72
-69
-74

After he blocked 2 attacks coming his way, he stepped off a thick coral on the side and jumped up above the monster and started slashing relentlessly as he landed on its thick back. The creature’s pincers couldn’t reach him and it kept circling around to the back thinking Abel was attacking its rear.

-74
-76
-72

The monster didn’t know what to do to get him off its back while Abel took full advantage of the situation and kept striking at its thick exoskeleton. When the monster tried squishing him on the wall, he kicked off the coral and flipped back onto the other side of its exoskeleton.

-75
-77
-78
-57
-74

He kept striking as fast as he could while hanging on one of the jagged parts of its exoskeleton. He felt a sting in his hand and figured its sharp exoskeleton was also dealing some damage but it was definitely incomparable to his own. When its HP was down to just 200+ he realized his Ecliptic Slash was off cool down so he jumped up, using its own shell as fulcrum and slashed one last time with his sword skill.

‘Ecliptic Slash’

-240

*Ding*

+1,380 EXP (+15%)

‘What a fearsome monster! How the hell did I not cross paths with this creature before… I guess it really is nocturnal, it has to be. I’ve been here all day pretty much but it only showed up now, there’s no way I missed it before…’

After calming down and thinking things over, he realized it had to be a monster-type that would only show up at night just like Umber Wolves. Fortunately, if they keep attacking him in passageways then he devised a pretty efficient strategy to take them down quickly and without coming to much harm.

Besides the initial stealthy strike, he just had to find a good spot on the wall to jump on to the monster and keep attacking it till it’s dead. He got the ointment out of his spacial bag and used up the last usage of this bottle. He was now left with a single potion and 2 more bottles of ointment. With any luck, these supplies should last him till the double EXP buff wears off.

Once his HP was back to full, he got down to deshelling his latest kill. Just as he expected, he didn’t get any meat out of this monster but instead got a bunch of monster parts that seemed useable in forging and alchemy.

*Ding*

Skinning successful:

+ Luminous Eyes x1
+ Coral Claws x2
+ Coral Carapace x1

‘How the hell are they luminous eyes…’

He had no clue how these dark eyes could be called ‘luminous’ or what they would be useful for but he put them away regardless. He soon got back to the same passageway and carried on his way, being much more careful of any potential sneak attacks.

A couple of hours quickly passed by as Abel took down several more monsters when he finally leveled up!

*Ding*

+ Level up
+5 STR
+5 END
+5 DEX….

‘Open Character Stats.’ He checked out his new stats after he equipped his new sword and armor, not forgetting to replace the 2 daggers strapped to his back.

Name: Red Sky
Level: 10
Profession: Battlesmith
Alignment: Neutral
Title: Rodent Ravager
Reputation: 50
Health (HP): 496/590 (+100)
Mana (MP): 318/420
Attack: 167-170
Defense: 71
Strength (STR): 88 (+19)
Agility (AGI): 65 (+34)
Endurance (END): 67
Toughness (TGH): 51 (+8)
Vitality (VIT): 49
Wisdom (WDM): 19
Intelligence (INT): 42
Resilience (RES): 16
Dexterity (DEX): 59
Luck: 9
Satiety: 54
Stamina: 47

He finally retired his old Rustguard Jerkin armor, bringing his defense up to a much more respectable level. If only he could upgrade his boots, pants, arm bracers and helmet then his defense would probably exceed 100 points. But he couldn’t just focus on defensive pieces as his agility would suffer in turn, he had to carefully balance out any future equipment to ensure his agility isn’t lagging behind any further.

If it wasn’t for his currently equipped accessories that were looted from those thugs then his agility would be too pitiful to even look at. It was quite ironic how agility was his strong point before he got the Battlesmith class, going so far as creating the Serpents Dance which boosted his agility further simply by replicating some of the Xiang family martial art. Yet now, it was the one stat that he struggled to raise, specifically looking for armor and equipment that would boost it further.

‘I can’t have my cake and eat it too, I should be thankful I already have such an overpowered class that allows me to be a craftsman and combat specialist at the same time…’

Abel let out a sigh even though deep down he knew he couldn’t ask for more. He was already lucky enough to get such a class with so many benefits. His gloomy feelings about his lacking agility didn’t persist for long, he had leveled up twice in a single day after all. Perhaps this would only be possible now when he was still at a low level and had a double EXP buff.

‘I should make use of the double EXP buff for as long as possible, maybe I can even level up 1 more time before I have to set off for the expedition.’

With renewed vigor and a lust for more loot and EXP, he set off to find some more monsters to kill.