Episode 5. The Unknown Man X (3)
Zone 3 was a slightly different place from Zones 1 and 2.
First, Zones 1 and 2 had many places to hide. That was because there were forests at the edges of the wide plains, as well as trenches made by users.
However, Zone 3 had none of that.
“There are way too few people.”
The users in Zone 3 numbered barely a hundred—not even half of half of those in Zones 1 and 2.
Because of monsters in the early-to-mid 100s and the considerably strengthened skills users fired off, the ground of the plains and the nearby forests were completely devastated. Hence, there were no proper places to hide.
Monsters simply kept pouring out from the forests and caves far in the distance.
“No wonder.”
First, the monsters here used area attacks.
A monster called
A monster called
This was very tricky for users who had just broken past level 100. Area attacks went off everywhere, making team play difficult.
Of course, if one thought about the final reason, those were nothing.
The final reason.
There was one extremely nasty monster here that was hard to find anywhere else….
“I shouldn’t be getting bitten already.”
Ted had to give up 1 stat point without even realizing he’d been bitten.
“Ngh… I came here for this, but still….”
The ultimate reason Ted had come to Zone 3. The
It couldn’t be seen. Its level was unknown, and its name wouldn’t even appear on the status window.
It was fast, and as an event monster, there were only a few on the field. At the same time, it was an extremely cautious creature that dodged area attacks.
If attacked by it, stats were permanently reduced at random. True to its name, it gnawed on stats like an agwi.
“But its attack power is 1.”
The acquisition requirement for the Innate Ability
This was an extremely difficult condition for beginner users.
Be attacked 99 times with 9% health? Against ordinary monsters, one would surely die before being attacked 99 times.
Moreover, hunting 99 monsters was also difficult.
However, the continent was vast, and there were a few places where this was possible; one of them was here.
The Invisible Agwi Bird’s attack power was 1. Gnawing on stats was scary, but the attack itself was not frightening.
“It can’t be helped. Indomitable is worth that much.”
Ted started by deliberately taking a hit from an Orc Shaman.
After positioning himself and getting hit evenly here and there on his body several times, his health dropped to roughly 7%.
“Come on. Bite me!”
Then he moved far away from the battlefield.
Most hunting parties that came here brought shield magic or artifacts.
But Ted crouched in a corner of the Zone 3 plains without any equipment.
“Ngh….”
A stat of 99!
It was so precious it could bring tears of blood.
Because if it fell 99 times, it was practically the same as dropping 20 levels instantly.
Occasionally, Ted shot into the air with a boiling heart, but the invisible creature wouldn’t easily get hit.
“First, let me finish hunting 99 monsters too.”
Ted decided to vent his anger on the monsters.
Then he sniped them with his musket.
Bang, bang, bang—!
However, whenever he had a spare moment, Ted fired bullets into the air. It was when he had continued hunting like that for two hours.
Tap—
“Got one!”
A small bird that had suddenly appeared in the distant air fell to the ground.
If the Invisible Agwi Bird had an advantage, it was that it gave stats if you caught it. Apparently, it randomly vomited up the stats it had eaten until now.
Ted carefully headed toward the battlefield and picked up its corpse. There were no items, but this thing’s body was the reward itself.
“With this, I’ve collected one Ssauron Coin.”
Unlike the other monsters of the Ssauron Plains, the Invisible Agwi Bird was the only avian species, so it sometimes left the plains.
So they sometimes entered the County of Ssauron and gnawed on the stats of users or NPCs, which was a huge headache for the Ssauron County.
Catching these transparent and swift creatures required dispatching high-ranking personnel, and the cost was never cheap.
So the Count of Ssauron’s household decided to make use of the vouchers for the Ssauron County shopping district that they already operated.
If you caught an Invisible Agwi Bird, they would give one coin per carcass.
“But I’ve had 50 stats gnawed away and they only give one coin? Though I did get 11 back….”
At first, Ted had believed in his attack power and hoped for luck. He thought that if he shot anywhere, he could catch ten of them during the five days in Zone 3.
But they were much harder to catch than Ted had thought.
“At this rate, it’s too much of a loss….”
Once he obtained Indomitable, he would enter the middle of the battlefield and fight. In the rear, users in the front blocked the way, so he couldn’t fight smoothly.
There, area attacks went off continuously. Therefore, the Invisible Agwi Birds didn’t enter the center of the battlefield.
On top of that, he would face other monsters, so his chances of catching them would decrease even more.
“For now, let’s keep hunting.”
Ted spent another two hours hunting monsters and firing his musket into the air.
But this time, he didn’t catch a single one.
“Ngh… I only ever had bad luck in serious situations; I wasn’t this unlucky with trivial things….”
What could he do?
He had no choice but to blame his bad luck.
At that moment, when Ted was bitten by the Invisible Agwi Bird for the 99th time. A slightly different status window popped up.
“Oh. Finally!”
―Activates when health reaches 10%. Adds 50% of total attack power to physical defense and magic defense for 1 minute. (Cooldown: 7 days)
“Great. Now my survivability will rise insanely.”
The most efficient Innate Ability among the various ones Ted had considered.
Originally, Indomitable was an Innate Ability mainly acquired by tank-class warriors.
They basically had high Vitality stats, so their health was extremely high. Therefore, it was easy for them to meet the acquisition requirement.
The most important thing for them was none other than defense. It was because they often died from drawing too much aggro.
For such tanks, an Innate Ability that added 50% of attack power to defense for 1 minute was extremely efficient.
Conversely, almost no dealers tried to obtain this Innate Ability. It was more profitable to get an ability related to attack power rather than raising defense.
But Ted was the exception.
“From now on, when my health hits 10%, my total defense will be in the thousands for one minute. If I raise my level, it’ll rise to hundreds of thousands.”
Ted, whose attack power was abnormally high thanks to the Miracle of +19!
In that situation, the Innate Ability
Then, a novel status window popped up.
“What?”
Ted, who had been more or less happy with whatever he obtained until now, gaped openly.
“I can receive two Innate Abilities?”
This was a message even Ted, who had been rolling around in the game for nearly ten years, was seeing for the first time.
< Ted > 106 (Reincarnated 1 time)
It seemed the (Reincarnated 1 time) at the top of the status window had brought this fortune.
“This is really good. It’s a real jackpot.”
Ted clenched his fist tightly.
Then all he had to do was gratefully take one more Innate Ability.
“Alright. I’ll set aside time separately to carefully select another new Innate Ability.”
There were hundreds of known Innate Abilities alone.
Ted had to find, among them, something absolutely necessary for himself.
“For now, everything up to here is perfect… but something feels uneasy.”
He had obtained Indomitable, his first goal after reincarnating and making a new resolution. And he had received an unexpected gift.
Yet he didn’t feel refreshed.
“Ngh… my precious stats… it wasn’t 10 or 20….”
It was because his stats had been gnawed away by 89 or more during that time.
Moreover, the coin he would obtain was only one.
He felt annoyed for a moment, but Ted closed his eyes and muttered, “I am an icicle.”
“Right. It can’t be helped. How much can I expect from my own fate? It’s all futile. I should just hunt.”
“
Ted got up and used the skill to properly enter the Zone 3 battlefield.
He shot the Out-of-Nowhere Mosquito Round to recover health.
Bzzzt….
Soon, a flimsy mosquito popped out of Ted’s musket and headed for the battlefield.
“That stupid thing won’t bite a user again, right?”
The moment Ted looked at the mosquito with suspicious eyes.
Swoosh—
The Out-of-Nowhere Mosquito vanished into thin air.
“Huh.”
Ted rubbed his eyes and focused his vision again. But the mosquito was nowhere to be seen, and his health did not recover.
“Good grief….”
When he thought about it calmly, he gradually understood.
“You Invisible Bird bastard, so you’re a bird after all and ate the mosquito. You’re annoying me to the very end….”
A sigh escaped him.
The Out-of-Nowhere Mosquito must have been eaten by the Invisible Bird while flying.
“Whew….”
Deep anger welled up inside him.
Ted moved far away from the battlefield and sat down.
“What if I shoot the moment it eats the mosquito?”
Upon further thought, it was impossible. Because the Invisible Agwi Bird was extremely fast. At best, he’d have to shoot predictively, and such imprecise shots couldn’t easily hit.
“Wait.”
Something came to mind then.
Something very important….
“Could this be…?”
Ten minutes later, Ted used Out-of-Nowhere Mosquito Round.
Soon, a feeble and stupid mosquito popped out of Ted’s muzzle.
“Can this really work?”
Ted soon took out
Specters pop out of the poisoned target’s body for 5 minutes.
―Remaining uses: 10
The Specter Poison that had exposed Ted’s location during the fight with the Junior Balrog!
Before the mosquito could fly far from him, Ted used
He had worried that the mosquito might get poisoned, but since it apparently wasn’t recognized as a living being by the system, that didn’t happen.
“Go… go… please….”
It was a gamble now.
The Invisible Agwi Bird might catch and eat it, or his health might safely(?) recover.
The moment Ted watched the situation with wide eyes.
Swoosh—
The Out-of-Nowhere Mosquito coated with poison vanished without a trace in the air.