Shadow Author

Chapter 97 77. Rhino

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Prepared to hunt my first monster within a dungeon I launched myself from behind cover and attacked the enemy.

Coming up behind it before it could notice my presence I slashed with Nightfall at its rear end.

Drawing blood I followed up the attack with another before falling back.

Hearing the monster roar out in anger the last place I wanted to be was directly behind it.

At a slight distance, I watched as the rhino kicked its hind legs in fury.

Seeing that I knew I made the right move to retreat.

When the monster didn't feel any connection with anything it slowly turned its body around to face where it thought I was.

However, the moment the rhino started moving I did the same and moved just outside of its vision.

The monster was far too big to cover all sides of itself so hiding out of its sight was extremely easy.

When the rhino faced the direction that it was first attacked it snorted angrily and slammed its hoof on the ground.

Ignoring the intimidating faction of the monster I made my second attack.

Like the last, I came up behind it and dealt multiple slashes before retreating.

Doing the same time over and over it didn't take too long for the beast to fall into exhaustion.

Seeing the rhino collapse down on the ground I went in for the kill.

Coming up behind it like I had done so many times before I looked at the hundreds of wounds that covered its rear.

Blood stained its back as the creature was slowly bleeding out and losing hope.

Appearing behind the monster I walked alongside it until I came up just behind its neck.

In a last-ditch effort, the rhino whipped its head in my direction in an attempt to pierce me with its horn.

Unfortunately, I was just out of range and the attack failed.

Putting the monster out of its misery I embedded some Aether into Nightfall and struck down on its nape.

Slicing through it cleanly the bones split like butter and the head fell off its body.

Seeing the decapitated rhino I realized it was a bitter-sweet victory.

It was true that I defeated my first monster but the way I went about it wasn't done in a direct confrontation.

If it had, things might not have gone to plan.

Although it was the most honorable kill, a kill was still a kill.

Walking over to the nearby head of the rhino I crouched down and carved out the horn.

Using Nightfall with the sharpness rune activated, the butchering wasn't difficult.

When the horn was finally free of the corpse I sent it into my spatial ring before continuing my journey.

'The first of many.'

While traversing through the open field I ran into many more unique and different monsters.

Some posed challenges while others fell easily like the rhino.

While pulling out the claws of a lion-like monster and tossing them into the spatial ring I scanned the distance and saw a difference in the terrain.

All this time it had been open fields with tall grass but some distance away I spotted something rising into the sky.

Believing it to be a forest of sorts I made that my next destination.

When I was done taking the valuable parts of the lion's corpse I started my adventure toward the tree.

Fortunately, I didn't run into any more monsters while I was moving and I reached the forest in the shortest amount of time possible.

Coming to a stop outside of it I made note of how one terrain changed into another.

Surprisingly there was no meshing or connection between the two.

Instead one simply ended and the other began.

Taking a single step forward I left behind the plains and entered a dark forest.

It didn't take long before my eyesight was affected and I was unable to make out anything in front of me.

Left with a dilemma I had to decide whether or not to pull out the lantern in my ring.

If I did I would be able to see but it would also alert every nearby creature that I was in the area.

It didn't take long for me to make up my mind though as I ended up walking right into a tree and falling flat on my ass.

Realizing that the dark was much worse than I thought I was forced to pull out the lantern otherwise, I wouldn't even know I was being attacked until it was too late.

Calling upon the lantern from my spatial ring the object materialized in my hands and the darkness vanished when the light appeared.

However, the ability to see was both a blessing and a curse.

I could make out the landscape around me and actually see where I was walking but when I moved the lantern around it revealed all the secrets hidden.

A countless amount of eyes reflected the light as hundreds of pairs of tiny circles stared back at me.

'Fuck me.'

Taking a quick scan of the immediate surroundings I found a gap between two trees and made a break for it.

Sending the lantern back into my ring I ran at a full sprint as I could hear the sounds of monsters changing after me.

Diving down on the ground now that the light was gone I went flat on my stomach and held my breath.

All around me, I could still hear the sounds of critters crawling about.

I did my best to stay as still as possible but I almost wavered when I felt the tiny paws of something wall over my legs.

Thankfully the creature didn't seem to notice anything different as it continued on its way past me.

Eventually, all the others either moved on or stopped their advancement.

Now knowing that light was a no-no I slowly rose to my feet and began moving through the forest.

I could still hear the sounds of little monsters moving about but they didn't seem too interested in me.

I sighed in relief when I made it a distance away from where I first summoned the lantern.

'They seem to only be attracted to light.'

Realizing that so long as I didn't do anything to disturb the beings who lived in the forest I would be fine to move through it.

In the end, it was a long and tedious journey, most of the time I was forced to crawl on the ground.

Every time I tried standing up I would either get whacked in the head by a low-hanging branch or trip over a root.

However, I would rather be lost in a dark forest than go up against unknown monsters that could easily kill me.

Spending much of the day in the forest I eventually made it out however what became visible to me on the other side didn't improve my mood.

… It was an open desert.