Chapter 3: Trappers

The sun had fully set, and Asteria was nervous. She knew that if she was hit even a single time, it would be the end of her.

Knowing this, she had spent the past few hours creating spike traps, ropes, and ditches.

As a result of this she gained the skill basic trap creation which had allowed her to make better traps almost instantly at the expense of her mana.

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Skill (Active): Basic Trap Creation [E]

You can create basic non magical traps out of the surrounding materials in an instant by using magic. Lethal traps cost more mana to make.

Cost: 10-50MP

Duration: N/A

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Unfortunately, each trap lethal trap had cost her 50MP to make, and her low mana regeneration left her with only 124 mana to fight with.

Because of this and the fact that all her enemies were much stronger than her, she would only have one minute to use a magic weapon or twelve seconds of Levetation.

On top of that, her stamina was at rock bottom from all the running and trap making that she had done.

If she was going to survive this, she would have to strike fast and hard. She estimated that she could evade their strikes for maybe two minutes tops.

With this in mind, she began to stalk her way towards the camp fire she saw in the distance.

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The four men sat in a circle around their camp fire in silence. Each one had their hand around a rope.

They had been setting up nets around the clearing so that they could catch the star child without killing it.

After all, if they could capture it alive they could take more blood from it, and more blood meant more money.

Especially if could find someone like the blood alchemist that bought live monsters to experiment on. If they could sell such a rare monster, they'd become rich overnight.

With this thought in their minds, they prepared themselves to catch their prey.

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By this time Asteria had already made her way to where she had killed the man previously.

She had already set up the rout that she would take to leat them through her traps without losing them or getting caught. All she needed to do now was to execute her plan.

As she creeped closer towards where the men were camping, she felt a strange sense of unease.

Frowning slightly, she decided to push on regardless as she continued to sneak through the underbrush.

Avoiding a few obvious traps, she skulked towards where the men had left their bags so that she could hopefully find herself a weapon.

As she searched through the bags as quietly as she could, the only notable things she found inside were a map, two hunting knives, and a first aid kit with bandages and a strange bottle of clear red liquid with a cross on the label.

Grabbing the two knives and leaving the rest, Asteria was about to begin her attack when she suddenly felt danger above and below her as she immediately levetated and dodged to the side.

MP: 114/404

Avoiding the net just in time, Asteria jumped into the tree above her as she prepared to attack the first person she saw.

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The men had grins on their faces as they walked towards the trap that had been set off.

Since the trap was made using two teir one magic circles, the first one would drop the net as soon as something was removed from the bag, and the second one removed the ground beneath them so that they couldn't dodge the net as it fell.

Since this trap was obviously impossible to dodge, the men didn't bother to protect themselves.

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As the men laughed and walked towards her, Asteria readied her knives in a reverse grip and pounced towards them.

Flying towards them from above, her eyes and hair glowed brightly as she used half a second of levetation to increase her momentum.

Striking down like a comet, she took both of their heads as she hit the ground just a bit too hard.

Rookie Monster I (3/10)

HP: 93/103

MP: 117/412

"FUCK!" Shouted the short man as he created a magic circle in front of himself.

While he was doing this, the taller man dashed towards Asteria with bloodshot eyes and a manic grin.

Seeing this, Asteria couldn't help but shudder as she dashed towards her own traps.

She was thankful that she had made her traps so close as the man chasing her was much faster than she had expected and was quickly gaining on her.

Just as he was about to reach her she grinned as the floor beneath both of them opened to reveal dozens of sharp thin sticks.

The man cursed and cut at her as she flew over the trap she made and ran back towards the short man who seemed to be a mage.

HP: 80/103

MP: 97/412

'Damn for such a small scratch thats a lot of damage' Asteria thought as she dashed towards the mage.

As soon as she reached the clearing again she felt danger infront of her as she clumsy dodged in surprise.

An arrow of fire streaked past her as she continued running towards the mage.

She dodged several other fire arrows while moving ever closer to the mage.

When she was almost in striking distance of the mage she suddenly felt danger assault her senses as she dodged to the side to avoid a tier 1 magic circle that had appeared in front of her.

Unfortunately she was just a moment too slow as an explosion rendered her right arm mangled and burned.

HP: 30/103

While she had just lost use of her main arm, she was now close enough to kill the man in front of her.

She plunged her knife into the man's neck and pushed it through to the other side, severing his spinal chord and ending his life.

Rookie Monster I (4/10)

HP: 31/104

MP:101/416

Seeing the man's corps on the ground she didn't bother to retrieve the knife and instead walked towards the water to clean her wounds.

Grabbing some bandages from the bag, she sat down at the waterside and began to remove the clothes from around her wounds, but before she could get far she felt danger from behind her as she rolled to the side roughly.

HP: 26/104

She was too slow in dodging the sword that had struck at her back, but she didn't feel the sword cut her as she noticed that the sword had bounced of her hair as though it was metal.

She didn't waste any time pondering this however as she tried do dash toward the corpse where she had left her knife, but before she could reach it, she was kicked in the throat and knocked back towards the water.

HP: 6/104

Looking above her with tears in her eyes she saw the tall man that had fallen into her trap.

He was covered in blood and holes all over him. His face was contorted with rage as he limped towards her and stepped on her throat as he brought his face towards hers.

HP: 4/104

"I'll take your eyes for that," He sneered as he reached towards her right eye and attempted to gouge it out.

HP: 1/104

But before he could pull her eye out Asteria gathered up all her magic into a long needle and she stabbed it into the side of his head as it exploded.

*CRACK*

MP: 0/416

The man's skull was blown apart as his headless corpse was blasted to the side.

Rookie Monster I (5/10)

HP: 2/105

MP: 4/420

Seeing that she was finally safe she tried to move toward the bandages, but before she could make it more than a few steps she stumbled and fell into the water as her consciousness faded.

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

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[Asteria Level 10]

Class: Star Child [D]

Race: Star Child

Titles: Rookie Monster I (5/10)

HP: 2/105(+5%)

MP: 4/420(+5%)

VIT: 10

INT: 40

PER: 30

AGI: 20

STR: 10

DEF: 0

Unassigned Points: 70

Skills: Basic Light Magic, Basic Illusion Magic, Basic Water Magic, Levetation, Danger Sense, Basic Trap Creation, Basic Dagger Skills, Disguise

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