Stretching my bowstring, I gathered fire element particles.
Condensing them and refining them, I increased the free electrons in the flames.
-Crackl!
With a crackling sound of thunder, an orange-yellow arrow of lightning materialized on my bow.
The shape was just right and the thunder leaking out of it didn’t hurt me.
Aiming for the closest flower, I fired the spell.
The thundering arrow of (Tier-2) was loud but not enough to attract big creatures.
With a ‘boom!’ and burning sound, the first flower burned and the lightning passed through all six of them.
One by one, all of them burned with agonizing screams.
(Chain lightning) 𝐞𝗼𝘃𝐞𝐥．𝗰𝐨𝗺
A (tier-2) spell with improved output.
The arrow form increased the range and its condensed form increased its destructively.
The power of the spell decreased as it passed through the last two flowers but they still burned.
This was more powerful because I increased the free electrons in this bolt of lightning.
It was an easy win and I now had a flower with a tremendous amount of Mana.
I climbed down the tree and walked towards the flower.
These plant monsters were an easy kill and there was no one else to look for.
There was definitely no one, I even checked with (Serch wind) but, it was clear.
Then… why did my heart suddenly start running wild?
[Quickstep]
This was now an instinctive response to abnormal situations like this.
And… thank god I did that.
A small light blade silently passed through the spot, cracking the ground with a small earthquake.
The area was silent and there was almost no one there.
Not in physical form, at least.
A small figure materialized from the shadow beside the crack in the ground.
It was smaller than me, had a humanoid form, and was wearing a ninja-like black outfit.
The blue eyes under that pitch-black cloth-like body were enraged.
It was clear that it was angry that I managed to avoid its near-perfect ambush.
[Shadow crawlers]
An (Orange) ranked besat of darkness attribute.
They were humanoid creatures with a chibi figure but, that was the scariest thing about them.
They were heartless killers and perfect assassination-type creatures who hated when their first attack went wrong.
Unlike normal assassins, they would do everything to finish the target that had escaped their grasp, and… that wasn’t the scariest thing about them.
[Quickstep]
My heart never stopped exploding like that and I knew the reason behind that.
Another cold light of metal fleshed in the dimly lit open space.
But, unlike last time, there were two of them.
More powerful and more destructive than before.
Just like before, two small figures materialized from the shadows.
One had enraged crimson eyes while the other had chilling ember eyes.
All three pairs of eyes were locked on me and I knew I had fallen into the worst-case scenario.
There were three (Orange) ranking beasts before me and they were angry.
I knew they won’t let me leave and there was only one thing I could do in this situation.
‘Kill… or be killed.’
This was a dangerous situation but, my chances of winning weren’t zero.
I could still win if I try and I knew I had to maintain my distance s much as possible.
The creatures before me were powerful, close-range, assassination-type beasts.
According to books, they didn’t have any long-range skills but they could throw their blades made of shadows to a small distance.
A plane was created in that small time we were having an assessment competition.
The blue-eyed ninja melted into the shadows, signaling the start of the fight.
[Quickstep]
Widening the distance between us, I took out my bow.
The red and yellow-eyed ninjas also vanished and the three materialized at my previous spot at the same time I took out my bow.
Stretching out my bow, I fired an arrow of light in the air.
(Flash)
A bright light lit up in the open area as the three of them closed their eyes strongly, not being able to handle the light at all.
I moved towards the flower and put it in [White Crack].
Securing important things was important and my white crack was the best for storing something with limited time use.
It preserved it inside as if time is stopped there.
The flower was secured and I had gained pretty good distance and running away wasn’t an option.
The light vanished and the ninjas disappeared into shadows again.
I have prepared light arrows but, now they were on high alert.
This fight will be long and mentally tiring.
The three assassins had near-perfect coordination and finding loopholes in their attack pattern was difficult.
They had [Shadow walk] as their main skill and the blade that materialized in their hand was difficult to avoid if they got too close.
The fight was going to be difficult and I knew that.
Taking out a small glass bottle with golden, thick liquid, I took another few steps back and avoided the flaying blade coming toward me.
‘Let’s see what this can do…’
The forest nectar from the great tree. Something that I had in a pretty good quantity.
But, its quality was still unknown to me.
This long fight will be a great help to gather data on this thing.
Opening the lid of the glass bottle, I gulped down the honey-like thick liquid.
It tasted like orange and had a thick but smooth texture.
I can use this in cooking if given the chance.
But… its reaction came a bit different than I thought.