** Sorry for going MIA there for a day, there are A LOT of not-so-great things going on at home, and I am trying to deal with it all. Now then, onto my real message.
Chapter 400, damn, well, let me start by saying I hope yall are enjoying the Passing Down Arc; I know it seems a bit long, but I promise it’s almost done. I always sneak in some valuable info for long arcs like this; I wonder how many of you picked up on it, haha. Anyway, I’ll keep this short; thank you for your continued support, and JOIN THE DISCORD; I keep posting all kinds of goodies for yall. Anywho, I can’t let this break too many words; enjoy!**
POV: Gabby
-You have selected the Master Difficulty, adjusting the settings and parameters for your Trial Quest.-
-In 30 seconds, you will be transferred to a virtual realm. In this realm, which takes the form of a jungle planet, you will find that Beasts have entirely taken it over. As a Huntress, you are expected to do exactly as your Classification states, hunt. –
– Your objective is to hunt, battle, and kill as many beasts as possible in one hour. You will receive 1 point for a successful Tracking, 1 point for a successful kill, and lastly, you will receive additional points for the Beast’s Tier, 1 point for Tier-2, 3 points for Tier-3, 5 points for Tier-4 and 15 points for Tier-5.-
-The Strongest Beasts in the realm are Tier-5.-
-The minimum score to pass this challenge is 30 points. The higher your score, the more benefits you will receive.-
With rapidly flicking eyes, Gabby scanned the contents of the Passing Down Interface and took a deep breath before her vision suddenly blurred.
In an instant, Milo and Gabby arrived in a lush jungle utterly untouched by civilization. Crouching low on Milo’s back, Gabby observed her surroundings with a mixture of her [Scent Tracking] and [Eagle Vision].
-Tier-2 Huntress Skill: [Scent Tracking]-
-Category: Active Skill –
-A Huntress doesn’t only rely on their eyes to find their prey but also their acute sense of smell. By infusing Mana particles into your nose, you can locate items, creatures, or beings, so long as you first have their scent added to your catalog and they are within a 3-kilometer radius from you. Once you have locked onto a scent, you will be able to see a hazy mirage in the form of a trail in the same color as your Origin, Affinity. Follow that trail, and it will lead you to your prey.
-Cost: 1% of Available MP every Minute the skill is in use.-
-Cooldown: 10 Minutes.-
Although a shot in the dark, since [Scent Tracking] required her to have already added the scent of a previously hunted object or Being, Gabby figured it didn’t hurt to see if any familiar scents were floating around. Unfortunately, there weren’t, but thankfully, she wasn’t alone.
Milo didn’t laze around upon arriving in the jungle. After pawing at the soft and moist ground a couple of times, the adult lion-sized Milo took off, racing through the heavy brush with his heightened senses on full alert.
Unperturbed by her lack of locating any prey, Gabby’s eyes underwent a radical change as her pupils and iris took on a feline aesthetic. Although she had yet to reach 50% Partner Bond and thus couldn’t unlock her [Beast Partner Fusion] skill, upon reaching 25%, she obtained a shared sight skill, one that allowed her to see the world through Milo’s eyes.
‘Be on the lookout for any Beast ranging from Peak Tier-2 to Tier-4 Milo, there is no point going after weak prey, and we need to rack up as many points as possible in one hour.’ Speaking through her Bond with Milo, Gabby telepathically gave instructions to the silently yet swiftly moving Smilodon-Thṓs.
‘Kay Mama,’ Milo replied with a voice not far from an 8-year-old little boy. After reaching Tier-2, Milo couldn’t speak using his mouth, but he could transmit his thoughts through his Bond with Gabby.
This was primarily due to Gabby’s Psychic Affinity, but the Bond between him and Gabby couldn’t be counted out.
Keeping low to the ground as they weaved through the jungle, Gabby and Milo covered dozens of kilometers in minutes. Still, the strongest Beasts they had located were only Tier-1, with the strongest barely being able to qualify as Peak Tier-1 until Milo suddenly swerved and headed west while picking up speed.
‘What is it, Milo? Did you find something good?’ Gabby asked as she flicked her wrists, extended her wrist-mounted crossbows, and chambered a bolt in both using her Psychic Affinity.
‘Mhm, I feel strong prey.’ Milo said joyfully as he soon reached his top speed of over 230 kmph *142 mph*.
‘Be careful; we don’t want to end up confronting something too strong; what Tier does it feel like?’ She had realized during her training in the Egresses that Milo had an uncanny ability to “feel” how strong an opponent was.
Unlike the brothers, who had created a method of determining how strong something was based on its Mana Fluctuations, Milo being a Beast, had the uncanny ability to sense a being’s strength innately.
‘They are weaker than Meanie Cyn and Bran but stronger than Mel-Mel.
‘How many, silly boy?’ Rolling her eyes at Milo’s use of nicknames for her friends, Gabby flicked his left ear, which twitched in response.
‘Mmmm, how many are my front toe beans again?’ Looking back at Gabby on his back, Milo counted the presence he was feeling and compared it to the eight-toe beans on his front paws.
‘Eight; your cute little feetsees have four toe beans each, so that would be eight.’ Gabby said as she smiled and remembered how much Milo loved when she poked his toe beans.
‘Yeah, dat many, eight, there are eight guys between Meanie Cyn and Mel-Mel, and den um, I think four are weaker than Mel-Mel. That’s how many legs I have, right?’ Tilting his head in thought as he hid his presence while running, Milo asked.
“Yep yep, you have four legs and four toe beans on each paw, so that means there are 12 prey, four of which we can easily kill, and eight that we must be careful of.’ Giving Milo some scritches behind the ear, Gabby was patient in helping him with Math since he was still a baby.
‘Kay kay,’ Milo chirped as he enjoyed the scritches.
A few minutes later, they entered a less densely packed stretch of jungle and took to the trees to hide better. Leaping from tree to tree, Gabby adjusted the tree with her Affinity and eliminated the apparent scent trail they left as Milo ran.
Eventually, Milo stopped 50 meters away from a clearing the size of their dorm, and it was then Gabby saw what they were dealing with.
Resting in the small clearing was a herd of mutated BoscageStags. The smallest ones seemed to be in their adolescent stage based on how many points were on their six antlers, while the oldest ones, which had over a hundred points on their eight antlers, were well over 300 years old.
Seeing the herd, Milo unconsciously licked his lips and could already imagine how tasty the beasts would be if Meanie Cyn were allowed to cook them up.
Although Cynrik was a true menace and loved scolding and glaring at Milo, one thing he was good at was cooking. Or at least that was how Milo felt.
Knowing what was going through her little glutton’s mind, Gabby smirked and carefully hopped off his back before flitting away to another tree and flanking around the opposite side of the clearing.
This was one of their standard tactics. Even though Gabby was quick and agile, for some reason, Milo, with his lower stats, could still outmaneuver her when it came to tree fighting.
‘BoscageStags, are single Affinity Mutated Beasts with the Chloro Affinity; the number of antlers and points on each can be used to determine the Beast’s age and give a rough estimate of their strength.’ As she got into position, Gabby began teaching Milo about the prey.
‘So cause they’ve got lots of little nubbies on their head, they are old or strong, got it.’ Milo nodded his large head while crouching as low and moving as little as possible.
Without Gabby on his back, Milo needed to be extra careful not to move, or his Armor would make noise.
‘They are quick to startle, so once we make a move, they must all be stunned or injured, or else they will run away.’ Narrowing her eyes and beginning to channel a large amount of Mana into the two crossbows, Gabby formulated a plan of attack.
‘When I give you the signal, I want you to tackle the big one; based on its antlers, it should be around Peak Tier-3. But keep your guard up around the smaller one beside it with many of what you call nubbies. It is Early Tier-4.’
Slowing her breathing, Gabby held up her arms and simultaneously aimed down the small iron sights of both crossbows.
Gabby’s feline pupils constricted as she targeted all twelve of the BoscageStags.
‘After you hear my Crossbows fire, wait until you breathe three steady breaths, then attack.’ Knowing Milo would get confused if she tried giving him a numeric signal, she resorted to using something simple, how many times he took a breath.
TSST TSST SWOOSH SWOOSH
Clenching her fists, Gabby forced the Mana stored in her gauntlets to move, releasing both bolts.
Hearing the strange sound coming from above and off in the distance, the eldest bunch of BoscageStags whipped their heads in the direction of the sound, leaving only the younglings to look around in confusion. Inevitably, that was the worst decision they could have made.
The Tier-4 Stag uttered a strange huffing sound as it tilted back its head in fear.
Cutting through the air were two Amethyst objects, which soon became twelve, as the bolts fragmented like a scattershot, forming two small groupings of six partial bolts infused with Psychic Mana.
That wasn’t all; invisible to the Beasts, or even Milo for that matter, were twelve small shockwaves rippling behind the tail end of the bolts.
Just before the attacks hit their marks, Gabby uttered the name of an Affinity Skill she had only recently learned. It allowed her to produce a small weaponized strand of Psychic Mana which would enter a Being’s mind, and stun them for a short amount of time, be it a fraction of a second against higher Tiers or a full 1 to 2 seconds for lower Tiers.
“Psy-Shock.”
Two things happened as the bolts slammed into their targets; the first was the small shockwaves tore off from the bolt tails and entered their target’s head. The second was the projectiles that pierced into the flanks of all but one Stag; only one of them managed to dodge despite being under the mind-shattering effects of [Psy-Shock].
‘THREE!’ Milo suddenly yelled and shot forward so fast and with so much force that the tree he was standing on instantly exploded into woodchips.
In a flash, Milo’s entire body slammed into the stunned Stag, which had avoided being hit by a bolt, the force of which shattered all four of the legs of the creature. The result was Milo sprawled out on the ground, rolling, and the oldest Stag emitting a pained scream similar to an Elk.
‘GO ALL OUT, MILO; WE ONLY HAVE A FEW MINUTES!’ Leaping down from her tree, Gabby began unleashing one attack after another, mixing up Affinity Skills and Crossbow shots.
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