Monster Hunting

"Cough, cough."

Two light coughs.

The Witcher apprentice, whose chest should have been ripped open by a large hole, stumbled to his feet from the ground.

"I'm alive!"

Ailin, looking through the dissipating ice crystal dust, saw the slate ground that had been hit and formed a large pit. Cold sweat broke out on his back.

The Witcher apprentice felt a lingering fear.

"Fortunately, ten days ago, the Chieftain gave me the mirage pearl as a reward..."

Fortunately, a week ago, Lady Vesemir activated the Mirage Pearl for me...

Even more fortunately, I haven't slacked off at all this past week, making time to familiarize myself with the Mirage Pearl every day!

Yes, the reason Ailin survived the Drowner King's terrifying attack was all thanks to the 蜃珠 the Chieftain had given him.

Half a minute ago, The Witcher apprentice saw that the Drowner King had not only locked onto him with its eyes.

As its massive body gathered magic power that was almost solid, he immediately sensed something was wrong.

He quickly communicated with the Mirage Pearl, and within seconds, he constructed an illusion of himself fleeing desperately.

Because time was short and Ailin's skill wasn't top-notch, The illusion the Witcher apprentice constructed was actually only of his back facing the Drowner King.

But even with this simplification, the illusion looked very ethereal, and its movements were quite uncoordinated.

Fortunately, the light inside the cave wasn't very good, and the Drowner King's eyesight seemed to have problems as well.

Otherwise, such a vague and awkward illusion would have been difficult to hide from the Drowner King's eyes.

While marveling at his own cleverness, Ailin quickly ran into the cave entrance.

Fortunately, the flames that had been burning were all extinguished by the ice crystal mist.

The Drowners outside the cave had also long been scared away by the burning flames.

"Master Vesemir, I'm fine!"

Entering the cave passage, Ailin quickly shouted to Vesemir to report his safety.

Hearing this, the Witcher Master breathed a sigh of relief.

It's good that he's fine, it's good that he's fine.

The moment Vesemir saw the apprentice pierced by the ice spike, he felt his heart suddenly stop.

"It must have been an illusion,"

The Witcher Master thought. He remembered that the Chieftain had given Ailin a Phantasm Pendant during a practical combat class.

However, don't normal Phantasm Pendants only form fixed illusions?

Why was the illusion the Witcher apprentice used just now temporarily constructed?

"Guala—!!!"

The Drowner King's furious roar interrupted Vesemir's thoughts.

Since Ailin was safe, the next step was to find a way to hunt this monster.

The Witcher Master looked at the Drowner King's robust body, which seemed to have a defense as thick as its arm, and felt a great headache.

Large monsters often had slow short-distance movement and attack speeds.

The reason they were so difficult to deal with was that humans were too small, even with a silver sword that could break through Chaos Magic's favor.

If it didn't hit a vital organ, it was only equivalent to scraping the surface of the muscle.

It was difficult to cause fatal damage.

And the closer one was to the monster, the harder its attacks were to dodge.

A moment of carelessness could lead to death on the spot.

And this monster they encountered this time was even more difficult to deal with than the ones Vesemir had encountered in the past.

None of the dangerous large monsters Vesemir had hunted in the past would actively release magic shields.

He tentatively rushed to the monster's feet, spun, and slashed.

The blue light membrane didn't even flicker this time.

"As expected, a silver sword is not Orichalcum after all; it has very little effect on already formed magical defenses."

Vesemir's headache worsened.

Quickly shifting sideways to dodge the descending giant foot, the Witcher Master slashed forcefully more than ten times before finally breaking through the Drowner King's defense.

Immediately, he bent his right index finger and grasped the opportunity, about to make the Drowner King eat an Igni fire Sign.

"Guala!"

The Drowner King's body flashed with blue light, and its magic shield reappeared.

The fierce flames from the Igni Sign, before they could even touch the monster's skin, were blocked by the blue light barrier.

Vesemir retreated a few steps quickly, watching helplessly as the magic shield formed rapidly after a roar.

He suddenly felt like a mouse trying to catch a turtle, with nowhere to start.

"A monster like this can probably only be handled by a Chieftain who has hunted dragons," Vesemir thought.

Just as the Witcher Master found himself in a difficult situation, he suddenly heard Ailin's shout.

"Master Vesemir, keep attacking and buy me some time!"

Vesemir turned his head sharply.

He saw the Witcher apprentice, half of his body hidden in the passage, with only his eyes and the tip of his sword exposed.

The apprentice was nodding firmly at him, appearing full of confidence.

The Witcher Master hesitated.

Could Ailin really deal with a monster that even he could only stalemate?

"Trust me, I wouldn't joke about my life!"

The Witcher apprentice urged again.

"Perhaps he can really surprise me?" Vesemir heard the confidence and certainty in the Witcher apprentice's tone.

He then suddenly remembered that stunning sword strike from the first practical combat class.

Regripping his silver sword, Vesemir nodded at Ailin with his back turned.

He immediately charged towards the Drowner King, repeating the actions of dodging, breaking defense, dodging, breaking defense.

In a dangerous battle, a Witcher must trust his comrades.

The Witcher apprentice also trusted his comrade.

He stared intently at every move the Drowner King made, gripping Elsa tightly in his hand.

[Ding! Your skill: Monster Hunting LV1 has been upgraded to Monster Hunting LV3]

[Monster Hunting] is powerful, but it has flaws.

Ignoring defense, ignoring weaknesses, once in the Monster Hunting state, if the conditions are met, it can kill a monster with a single blow.

An effect that almost erases existence by rules.

Of course, with such a game-breakingly powerful effect, its usage restrictions are also very large.

Once a target is locked, you cannot lose focus, so it is ineffective against multiple enemies.

While in the Monster Hunting state, only observing and not attacking, the progress of [Monster Hunting] will accumulate very slowly.

Finally, the Monster Hunting state has a time limit. At LV1 [Monster Hunting], the Monster Hunting state can only be maintained for 50 seconds.

Within these fifty seconds, if the progress cannot be fully accumulated, even if the second skill is used in time, the progress from the previous time will not be inherited.

Therefore, during these ten days, Ailin used [Monster Hunting] only a handful of times, mostly to test the skill's performance and rules.

However, through these experiments with [Monster Hunting], Ailin still gained some useful insights.

For example, the attacks of others on the target could also increase the progress accumulated by [Monster Hunting].

Just in case, Ailin spent two special skill points to directly upgrade the skill to level three.

[Monster Hunting (Active): Consumes 150 stamina, concentrates spirit to enter the Monster Hunting state, and upon meeting the conditions, unleashes a fatal blow (guaranteed to kill monsters)]

The effect of the upgrade is simple and direct: increasing the stamina consumed by the skill and extending the duration of the Monster Hunting state.

Everything was ready.

Ailin took a deep breath.

[Monster Hunting] progress 1%

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