RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 198

“So, adventurer I have no problem in teaching you, if you can prove yourself to be capable of more than blind killing of beasts. You have already proved that you consider beasts to be much more than simple pieces of walking meat. In fact, you had better foresight than me in this aspect as you have considered this alchemical experiment. So, are you willing to accept my test?” asked the tamer again to which Balthazar had nodded his head in agreement. He took the job and confirmed the quest details by asking Kiran before he left the tamers with a mobile cage which had wheels and a plank that lead into the cage. The cage once locked will have a small field generated around it and the beasts wouldn’t be able to use any magical attacks from within it.

“Received quest item: Mobile cage – Durability: 200/200”

The cage could be put in his bag but only when there is no living being occupying it. The players could only put in tamed pets into their pet pouch or living being which consented to move into it. So, the players needed to move it manually once the cage was occupied. It would be very hard to move it back so Balthazar bought a pair of horses which were the most common beasts of burden in the game at this level.

[Clydesdale horse] (Common pet)

Level 15;

HP: 2400/2400;

SP: 5000/5000;

Movement speed: 130;

Kick attack: 150; (Causes a cripple or stun effect.

The only thing good about it was that it had a higher movement speed, endurance and stamina which is the reason it could be used for long distances. Though its attack has a sure-fire effect of cripple or stun on kicking, most of the time it would only be effective on beasts smaller than it which was a small amount. So, they were mostly used for transport than anything else at this level as they could outrun most other beasts up to level 20.

Capturing a beast was always much harder than fighting one to kill it. Capturing a beast required it to be pushed into the cage. Most wild beasts would fight to death rather than being captured. He needed to have methods to trick and attract them into the cage and if that failed, a forceful way to pull the beast into the cage.

The most common method was to pull a beast into a cage is to use food and blood of other animals to lure it till the cage, but it would probably lead more than one beast using this method. So, he needed to have good number of helpers that would keep the others at bay and probably also need the others to be handled quietly which was the most difficult part. If there was noise which would attract the beast, they would lose the chance to capture it. It is best if he kept the cage at a certain distance with a few others and lure in the beast into the cage. If the cage was close to other beasts both the beast inside and the ones outside would try to attack the cage. The cage was a passive tool which can’t be used like shield or other armaments. So, it would loose its durability and would be wasted if they were near multiple beasts when they managed to get

He immediately contacted Agua Canalon and requested his location so that he could come to him. As he had hoped they were still in the forest and were hunting animals. The monsters in the forest behind the town were mostly blue gorillas, rock bears and star deer. These were the ones that the players usually hunted as they could be found in abundance in the forests near the Murk Water town.

He checked the location given by Agua and realized that they had to move quite some distance from their current location to be able to reach the location giving to him by Kiran. Kiran had mentioned that the mud lizards would only be found in that location which lacked trees and was filled with dirt and mud with most of it being a plain area.

He first decided to meet up with Agua. Though Agua was helping him out of courtesy, he couldn’t ask them to help him in capturing the mud lizard for his quest. They were not a part of his guild and it wouldn’t be fair of him to ask them for their help without providing something in return. He thought for some time and he decided to offer some of his loot from the marshlands and information that he gathered and will gather about the marshlands to them. He could also bargain with them about the information he could collect from the beach. For starters, he already had the location of the coastal guards’ station on the beach.

Once, he met them he requested their help and made his proposal. He already offered them a bit of the poison and the location of the coastal guard station as advance and after a bit of conversation, they agreed to help him. The information that he provided them would sooner or later become available for the others. It is better if he could have a collaborative effort with them in the Murk Water town. He also wanted to expand his own guild to the town if possible. The Valhalla Raiders were only able to have a strong influence as it was still the starting stages of the game. It would be much harder for them to maintain it later.

The town was on the coast which allowed the players to explore the marine territories and it was also in an empire. So, he hoped to be able to get a few guild members to start developing here. He would also have support of the Divine Swords and could probably develop together.

Having reached an agreement, Balthazar led Agua and his team towards the location of the mud lizards. The team was composed of two guardians, an assassin, an archer, a priest, a warlock and four elementalists. Two of the four elementalists were actually fae players. The fae had the advantage of flight and better sight, allowing them a few innate scouting abilities than other species. In any terrain they could always fly up and check for enemies.

The problem was that their wings were like those of flies and the continuous flapping sound could also alert other players and monsters of their presence, if they were close enough. They would also be spotted flying in the air and attract unwanted attention. Their worst problem would be seen after the players reach close to level 20. At that time, strong flying beasts would become common and they would be the hardest enemies that the fae players would have to face.

But currently, they were very useful in hunting in forests. Apart from scouting, they could attack from the air with their spells without any problem of having to worry about damage from most beasts as the beasts’ attacks couldn’t reach them properly. They would also be effective lookouts when the team were hunting. This would reduce the burden on the other players of the team by a large amount.

This is the reason that many teams would try to actively get a few fae members in their team. But it didn’t mean that fae players always had the advantage or that they could alone go hunting. The first problem that many fae players had was the lower weight which allowed them to fly. This made it harder for physical attack classes and tanks. Low weight tanks would easily be subjected to blowback effects than the human players. Apart from that flying depleted stamina of the players at a faster rate. A fae player couldn’t maintain flight continuously during the time, he was hunting because he would keep losing SP as they kept flying.

Even if a player could keep flying throughout the fight and had a lot of stamina, one couldn’t fight while flying all the time. Most monsters would tend to run away if they are unable to reach the players attacking them and would need close combat players and tanks to keep them occupied and from running away.

They slowly made their way to the area that Balthazar had marked on his map. If he was alone, he could move easily through stealth at a faster pace, but with a team they had to fight and kill whatever beast that could pose a danger to them. It took more than an hour for them to finally reach the location.

The area around the place had a number of level 17 and level 18 beasts. The star deer were all level 17 and there were blue gorillas which were level 18 beasts. The star deer were called so as their spots were in the shape of stars. They always moved in groups of seven or eight. They would also fight and coordinate with each other and ramming the players with their antlers and kicking them.

[Star deer]

While fighting a group of deer, it was hard to fight them if there were not enough tanks. They would even surround the player group while they were attacking and it was a decent technique but had a few flaw which players could use to their advantage. The deer were quite fast, would ram into the players with their heads bent low and this was their advantage. They just moved in a straight line at a fast pace without checking if there were any player are before them once they started. A simple dodge would allow a player to escape the attack and it could also be used against the beasts by making them ram into one another or into environmental obstacles like trees. This was a common tactic that was used against similar beasts which he had used a number of times.

So, under Shadow’s guidance they quickly started to coordinate and fight. The fae players were actually very good at it as they could simply fly up causing the deer to ram into others. Though this method caused a lot of meat of the deer to get spoiled and occasionally even their antlers, it was still better as they were able to get a decent loot without incurring much damage themselves. Frankly, the others were just fine with the loot they were able to get by killing deer in this manner, but Shadow kept talking about using their attacks better so that they wouldn’t spoil much of the meat of the beasts till Agua decided to put an end to it.

“Mr. Shadow. Please, stop nit-picking over the smaller details. We have always fought like this and it is hard to maintain such control when fighting so many beasts,” said Agua. “You are censuring over the small things.”

Balthazar also felt that it was true and let them try it out in their own way. “They are not my guild and are just supporting me. I have gone overboard,” thought Balthazar as he realized that he had always led any team in that manner and continued the same with them. They soon cleared up a side of the area so that they could setup the cage and lure the mud lizards. Shadow had already used his weapon to stab into a crippled deer to make it bleed into a potion bottle for that. He also had some meat pieces which he decided to use to lure the mud lizards.

He had the rest of the group wait there just in case to keep watch against any other beasts that were approaching. With the two fae elementalist who positioned themselves on a couple of trees in a direction and also the assassin and archer covering from behind, they had a clear view of the area around and Balthazar was moderately confident that there wouldn’t be any issues that would creep up unexpectedly on him.

“It might take some time for me to lure the mud lizard. I can’t use the lure before I isolate a lizard from the place and I need to do some reconnaissance,” said Shadow looking at Agua. “Please, wait and do not hurry or tense up.”

“We already have expected that,” said Agua. “Once, the beast enters the cage, will you do the rest or shall we have one of my members, ”

“No. Leave it to me. It is best if we have as many people on scouting as possible. If there is already a beast or two in the area, only then get the assassin to position himself close by and lock the cage once the beast is inside,” said Shadow as he went towards the area in the map.

The residence of the mud lizards was in a part of the forest right beside a small waterfall about 10 metres high. It was a small stream that flowed out of a small hole from an elevated area creating a small muddy area that spanned for a quarter of a square kilometre.

It was clear that this area would be the habitat of the mud lizards. It was filled with mud and didn’t even have any obstacles or cover to hide behind. It was a nightmare for an assassin to travel without cover. Though they have stealth, if a beast keeps looking at him straight for some time it is bound to discover the player. He found a few mud lizards on moving around the river. They were dark brown almost black in color and were 2-metre-long.

[Mud Lizard]

Level 18;

HP: 7500/7500;

He observed the mud lizard from a distance through his scope to check its basic physical characteristics to get any idea about its attack patterns. He hadn’t hunted them before, so he needed to observe its behaviour for some time. He found it hard to believe that a beast which was very similar to actual lizards and was only 2 metre long overall would be a level 18 monster similar to a salamandrid that was double its length. With its size, he was sure that its physical attacks wouldn’t be much of a problem

Its tail was small and so were its maw and limbs. It wouldn’t be able to do leaps like the salamandrid or langstonia. Its tail attacks wouldn’t be much useful either as it had a small tail with scales and there wouldn’t be much momentum in its strikes. So, Balthazar believed that its mostly a magical creature with high magic resistance and probably has mud or earth-based attacks based on its habitat.

Realizing that he understood the reason for it being designated as a level 18 beast by the game. All beasts with earth-based magical abilities tend to be able cover themselves with earth or mud armor. Even their attacks tend to have a strong blowback effect.

He decided to experiment a bit before he went ahead and lured them. He chose a tall tree at the edge of the area, climbed it, took out his crossbow and tied the dynamite to the bolt. He released the bolt with dynamite amidst the lizards to check their response and found that they noticed it as soon as it fell on the land and they popped up to check the object that they noticed. A bunch of lizards were underneath the mud and had also come out to check the disturbance. As it exploded, they had covered themselves with the mud to protect themselves.

When he threw a piece of meat, they tried to attack it first indicating that they couldn’t realize the nature of the object thrown. But soon they smelled the meat and started to fight for it as the mud beneath thier limbs moved like a wave transporting them closer to the piece of meat. It was clear to him that these beasts depended on their magical skills even for movement.

He used a few more dynamites tied to crossbow bolts to spread the beasts in the direction he wanted so that he would be able to lure the beasts easily later. The lizards spread away from the bolts when the noticed one fall on the ground dispersing themselves away. Unable to notice the culprit they just covered themselves with mud and spread away from the bolts when they noticed one touch the ground. He did it till he got one isolated from the others. If he needed the beast to follow him, he would have to let it see him and only one of them to see him. He took his time to separate one beast from the others using dynamites and pushed it closer to his location.

“I got one which could be lured from the others,” he informed Agua and the team. “Everything fine on your side?”

“Yes. All is well. Just get here quickly,” replied Agua. “The ruckus you caused has attracted the beasts to our sides towards the location of the mud lizards, but everything is peachy near the cage.”

“OK. I am luring it now,” said Shadow as he quickly shot a couple of pieces of meat lure the other beasts away while he got down and used his clone to attack and make it follow behind him. He didn’t use the crossbow or dynamites as he was afraid that it would recognize him and call for help.

As expected, the beast started to move towards him. He quickly started to spread the blood of the deer and meat in his bag towards the direction of the cage as he threw a large piece of meat inside the cage and waited by the side.