"Rather than taking him to the hotspots (Areas of strong beasts) to get killed. We will go there and farm points together." Sach clenched his fist as he decided to help Blake.
For the rest of the night, the team took turns keeping watch till the next day.
…
The next day, Sach led the team on a killing rampage as they search for another knight rank beast on the hill in order not to raise suspicions.
"We won't find any other Knight rank beast here. We need to move to a better location." Ansgar complained when he saw the team's point position moved from 1st to 2nd place.
A knight rank beast was worth a thousand points and after Blake had slain the 3 headed venomous python, along with all the beasts they had killed, his team climbed up to number 1 in the test.
"I think he is right. We won't be finding any more knight rank beast here, so we should head out to a different location." Sach had just been waiting for the predictable Ansgar to complain. So that he could move on to the next hotspot.
He led them through a forest infested with elite rank 7 poison centipedes and after close to 2 hours of none stop fighting they finally made it to a lake at the other side of the forest.
The lake spanned about 40 hectares and had a depth of 2000 meters, but the odd part of it was that it was surrounded by a lot of the forest but had no magical beasts drinking from it.
'It could either mean it was a saltwater lake or there are very dangerous beasts in it." Blake thought as the team kept a safe distance from the lake.
The first was very unlikely because water bodies like oceans were probably only slightly salty. But over time, as rain fell to the earth and ran over the land, it broke up rocks and transported their minerals to the ocean making them saltier.
In this case, the lake's surrounding were grasses meaning the first option was scrapped and they were left with the last option.
'Can you detect anything?' Blake asked the system.
[No, the lake is quite large and deep, but nothing is within range.] The system reported.
'So how are we meant to draw out an armored hippo without getting the attention of the others?' Sach began thinking about a plan.
According to the map, the lake was the home to a bloat of armored hippos. Armored hippos were knight-rank beasts with the ability to breathe both underwater and on land.
While in water they possessed smooth skin that enables them to easily swim, but whenever they came on land. They had the ability to use the water absorbed by their skin to harden their skin and form armored spikes.
'Seems there is no other option.' Sach sighed as he decided to use himself as bait. "I will go and check the lake out. If there is any powerful beast we will have to lure it into the forest."
This was the location he had planned on setting up Blake by asking him to go check out the lake, but funny enough the situation has been reversed.
The lake was one of the most dangerous places on the map and the only reason Sach had brought the team to the lake was that it was literally packed with points.
He feared that if they ended up drawing the attention of the entire bloat, they might not be able to escape.
Sach quickly left their hiding spot on the treetops and began walking towards the lake. When he was some meters away from the lake that was when the system began detecting some movements in the lake.
Sach's steps had greatly slowed down as he was now 5 meters away, but that was when ripples began appearing on the surface of the water body.
'Time leave.' Without delay, Sach activated lightning reinforcement and immediately retreated.
It was at that moment that an armored hippo flew out of the water with 6 feet wide jaws open.
Boom!
The armored hippo landed with its tremendous weight causing the ground to slightly shake. It stood at 3.2 m tall with ash-colored skin with blue stripes all over its body.
'What the hell!'
Right in front of their eyes, the armored hippo's smooth skin began hardening and the blue strips began shrinking as thick spikes began coming out of their skin.
[I don't think you want to be hit by any part of its body.] The system warned Blake.
'Of course…' Blake couldn't help but agree as he saw its 4 feet wide lips and tusk-like canines and razor-sharp incisors, capable of easily biting 2 Knox in half.
"Retreat!" Having faced an armored hippo before, Sach shouted for his team to quickly move into the forest.
At first, they didn't know why he was shouting since he was still far away until they saw the armored hippo dash at Sach at a terrifying speed.
"How is that even possible?!" Blake was shocked by how something so big was able to move so fast.
[At the Knight rank armored hippos have the innate ability to manipulate water to some certain extent to boost their physical capabilities.
They can absorb and store an insane amount of water in their system, which they use for their armor, spikes and increase their movement speed by constantly lubricating their joints.] The system said.
'Are you telling me that this thing can move so fast and form as much as armor as long as it still has stored water?' The system nodded to Blake's question.
'Any weakness I should take note of?' Blake asked.
[The 2 main weaknesses are its eyes and its mouth, the latter is quite tricky because it is its strongest weapon.]
The detail about the weakness wasn't for him but his teammates because he had Ebony and Ivory.
"Aim for its eyes and mouth!" Blake alerted his teammates. 'Time to secure a thousand points.'