"The main characters of this stage are the flying venomous serpents."
They were commonly known as "Bisa" (Flying Serpents).
So there were things he needed to prepare in advance. He had planned his strategy based on walkthrough tips he had heard or seen in his prophetic dream in preparation for the Tutorial, and the third stage truly required strategy.
Gaon began scraping together dried leaves and twigs scattered throughout the long-armed monkey area. Then he cut the vines climbing the trees and began bundling the piled twigs and dried leaves.
The completed bundles of wood numbered ten in total. He planned to connect them to each other with vines and drag them along.
That wasn't the end of his preparations. While scanning the nearby trees, Gaon's eyes lit up at one of them; he quickly climbed the tree and used his dagger to cut off a strangely shaped branch.
"This should do as a substitute for a pickaxe."
The thick branch, trimmed slightly with his dagger, unmistakably resembled a pickaxe. Perhaps because it was a green branch, it was incredibly sturdy, so he was satisfied that it could properly serve that role.
Satisfied with that, Gaon moved again. He was looking for a branch that could be used as a tool with a similar but different purpose.
The prey appearing in the third phase of the Tutorial was none other than venomous serpents. They were called Bisa because they would climb up trees, coil themselves, and when a target passed below, they would spread their sides and leap down as if they had wings, biting swiftly.
Although Bisa were small in size, they possessed hemorrhagic venom. If bitten, the wound would not stop bleeding, and the venom caused intense pain, making it excruciating to be bitten even once.
Having prepared various things in advance, Gaon arrived at the third forest.
"So this is what kind of forest this is."
This place, commonly called the Bisa Forest (Forest of Flying Serpents), had smaller trees compared to the previous two forests, and the air inside was unusually humid. Moreover, on the ground along the path leading to the White Tree, knee-high tall grass grew thickly instead of fallen leaves.
"Where would be good?"
The place Gaon was looking for was ground lower than the surroundings. The larger it was, and the deeper it was, the better.
Without moving forward, Gaon glanced around, and his eyes fixed on one spot.
"That spot should do."
Behind Gaon as he moved toward it, the corpses of long-armed monkeys and piles of dried leaves were being dragged along.
Where Gaon stopped was a low space of about five square meters, roughly one meter lower than the surroundings. It seemed that water from the area used to flow and pool there, for the ground was quite damp.
Gaon set down the vines connecting the long-armed monkey corpses and piles of dried leaves he had dragged all the way here. Without hesitation, he entered the low ground and used the pickaxe-shaped and shovel-shaped branches to dig a pit about 1.5 meters deep and 3 meters in diameter in just over thirty minutes.
"The soil is soft, thank goodness."
It wasn't too soft either, so the work efficiency was actually quite high. If it hadn't been, he wouldn't have dared to attempt it, conscious of the time limit.
After catching his breath for a moment, Gaon placed the piles of dried leaves into the pit he had dug with such effort, then used the branches he had prepared beforehand to start a fire. He had gathered suitable materials in the previous stage, and since he had practiced a lot in reality, he had a fire going in just about five minutes.
As smoke began to rise gently from the pit, Gaon began to move in earnest.
First, he began butchering the long-armed monkey corpses he had dragged along with his dagger.
Not long after that work was finished, a faint noise began to reach Gaon's ears.
"Just as I expected!"
Bisa were small and short for snakes, but they were fundamentally predators. Unlike other snakes, in addition to their venomous fangs, they also had sharp, saw-like teeth capable of tearing the carcasses of hunted animals into bits.
Since snakes as a species had a keen sense of smell, they were drawn down to the ground by the scent of blood from the butchered long-armed monkey corpses.
The smell of blood and fresh meat from the corpses of more than ten long-armed monkeys was enough to mask Gaon's scent.
Because of that, they rushed at the corpses without any caution or hesitation, and he even saw them fighting one another. They were competing for food amongst themselves.
"To think they implemented even the Tutorial stage this vividly. Truly amazing."
The horde of Bisa didn't fly as their nickname suggested, but crawled like ordinary snakes, looking like a wave.
Those that approached paid no heed to Gaon's presence, swarming the long-armed monkey corpses and beginning to cut the meat into pieces and swallow it.
Their jaws could open more than 180 degrees, so swallowing prey larger than their heads was not difficult. It was just that, having swallowed such large chunks of meat, their movements became extremely sluggish.
"This is child's play."
The venomous serpents, their upper bellies bulging, had already slowed down. Snagging them with a scoop-net-like tool made from vines and throwing them into the burning pit was no trouble at all.
There was a reason Gaon was hunting the venomous serpents in such a bothersome manner.
"Bisa move so fast that unless you have fairly high agility, it's hard to hunt them properly."
The Bisa coiled in the trees would fly down and sink their venomous fangs into the vital spot of a target passing below. While the prey thrashed in pain, they would tear off pieces of flesh with their other sharp, saw-like teeth and swallow them.
That wasn't all. Even if the target dodged, the Bisa could launch their next attack as quickly as a spring recoiling.
Some players had likened that speed to a bullet; that was how threatening it was.
Therefore, this stage was known to have only one viable method: running through it as fast as possible.
Gaon was confident he could hunt even such Bisa, but to do so, he would have to maintain focus until he passed through the forest, inevitably exhausting his mental strength and tiring easily.
"If that happens, it'll be hard to set a record and pass within the time limit in the next phase."
That was why he had prepared beforehand in the previous stage, and why he had spent thirty minutes digging a deep pit even after arriving here.
The inside of the burning pit was like a jar—wider at the bottom with a narrow entrance—so the Bisa could not easily get out. Moreover, the dried leaves and branches inside were blazing fiercely.
Rather than weakening, the flames inside the pit grew increasingly intense. The oil from the burning Bisa was fueling the fire.
The preparation time had been long, but the hunt was extremely short. In less than about ten minutes, over one hundred Bisa burned to death in the fiery pit.
As a result, announcements rang out without pause.
Shortly after Gaon had thrown nearly every Bisa in sight into the fiery pit, the final announcement rang out.
-138 Kills! You have achieved an unbelievable feat! Please look forward to the achievement reward time!
He didn't know what the standard was, but he had exceeded it. Bonus points were certain.
"Still, it's a relief the next phase doesn't require much preparation."
Even so, there were things to prepare.
Gaon killed the roughly ten remaining Bisa not with a scoop net, but by swinging his club to smash the heads of the sluggish ones. Then he forcibly skinned them with his dagger.
"The texture is terrible since it's rawhide, but I absolutely need it."
It wasn't properly skinned, but rawhide with bits of flesh still clinging to it. He wrapped two layers around each forearm and calf, then used longitudinally cut strips of hide in place of cord to bind them tightly, making it quite usable.
Finally, he coated his dagger several times with the venom dripping from their fangs and let it dry, finishing his preparations.
The Tutorial's fourth stage is the Wild Dog Forest. Originally, the method to pass through this forest was to climb a tree with few leaves and travel using the thick, intertwined branches.
But Gaon intended to hunt the wild dogs directly.
The wild dogs in this forest moved in packs of about five or six, and had the trait that only the pack in question would attack. In other words, the wild dogs of the entire forest would not attack all at once.
"I don't have a single skill, but with my physical abilities, I can easily kill five or six!"
As he slowly entered the forest, a pack of wild dogs spotted him and charged.
Woof, woof!
"Come at me!"
Gaon did his best not to get bitten, stabbing the napes—the vital spots—of the charging wild dogs with his dagger to cause intense pain and bleeding, then finishing them off by crushing their heads with his club once they were all down.
Since the dagger that had stabbed their napes was coated with hemorrhagic venom, even if they didn't die immediately, massive bleeding would eventually set in and kill them. However, he couldn't wait until then.
Naturally, in the process of hunting, Gaon couldn't help but get bitten on his forearms and calves.
Of course, he had already prepared for that with Bisa hide, so he got through it without major injuries. Thanks to the fine scales on the Bisa hide, the wild dogs' teeth couldn't easily penetrate.
Even if he was bitten, it didn't matter as long as it wasn't fatal. A bit of flesh torn off wouldn't kill him, and unlike the main game, he would recover automatically when the stage ended.
It was only because the number of wild dogs encountered at once was about five or six. If all the wild dogs in the forest charged at once, it wouldn't have been easy even for Gaon with all his preparations.
As the hunting continued, at some point the Bisa venom applied to the dagger wore off. This meant he could no longer expect the effect of the hemorrhagic venom.
"I'll have to put in more effort again."
As experience accumulated, Gaon's dagger no longer missed the vital spots. Though the Bisa venom had almost worn off, being stabbed in the vitals several times left them unable to exert proper strength.
Then he would finish them off either by smashing their heads with the club or piercing their hearts with the dagger.
Fortunately, unless he approached within a certain distance, another pack would not attack him, as if they didn't recognize him at all. Because of that, he could catch his breath and rest sufficiently.
"Could there have been other players who hunted the wild dogs directly like me?"
If they were rankers, it was possible. It was possible if they were people who handled daggers skillfully in reality, like special forces operatives.
Gaon finally heard the announcement he had been waiting for. It was the announcement informing him of 50 kills and the achievement of an unbelievable feat.
Of course, he couldn't be satisfied with just this. As he had done in the previous three stages he passed through, Gaon continued to hunt additional prey.
Still, it was fortunate that he had grown accustomed to hunting wild dogs, making it easier to deal with them.
Thus, when nearly an hour had passed, the announcement informed him that he had achieved 120 kills.
"Unlike the venomous lizards, the long-armed monkeys, and the Bisa, it seems I've hunted almost all of the wild dogs."
Judging by the last digit of the kill count, that seemed to be the case. For reference, no one knew how many creatures inhabited each stage of the Tutorial.