Golden Grasslands
On our way to the destination, Stivi shared the details of the quest with me.
"A father and son duo had gone out to capture a Wild Dog pup. We have to find them. We must bury them deep in the ground if they are dead. If they are alive, we have to bring them home, safe and sound."
The quest sounded relatively straightforward to me. However, it was a Penance Quest. It would not be as easy as it sounded.
While I pondered about the chinks in the quest, we arrived at our destination.
Vast grassy slopes shining under the golden sunlight greeted our sight. An occasional bark of a wild dog was carried to our ears by the gusts of wind.
Stivi stopped and checked the quest map scroll. She turned it around numerous times and tried to match it with the surrounding terrain but could not make sense of it.
Frustrated, she thrust the map into my hands and said, "You lead us from here."
I quickly got to work.
It was around afternoon, nearing evening. I located the sun and determined the west direction.
I also aligned the map correctly with our direction. Matching the terrain was much easier after the map was aligned with our sense of direction.
I found our destination within seconds after that. Yet, I made sure to be thorough and took a full minute to study the map and match the terrain.
I pointed to my right a minute later and said, "We go that way. Our target is on the other side of the hill."
Stivi did not doubt my words at all and started walking upward from the slope.
Zamir raised his eyebrows upon seeing Stivi's absolute trust in me. Noticing his questioning gaze, she shrugged her shoulders and explained, "He is good with stuff like this."
Nobody questioned her anymore, and followed us to the top of the hillock.
When we finally reached the top, our eyes widened with fear while our hearts jumped with excitement. Everywhere we could see, packs of Wild Dogs roamed in the golden, grassy plains.
There were three to five dogs in each pack. Each of them looked like a German Shepherd with less fur, a leaner body, and bigger ears.
Zamir stealthily closed the distance with a pack and shared their stats with the party.
—---
Wild Dog
Lv 5
Attack: ★★☆
Defense: ★☆
HP: 500
Skills - Rabid Bite, Infectious Claws.
—---
When Stivi forwarded me the stat, I could not help but curse. I had not even killed an Lv1 mob yet, and here I encountered Lv5 monsters!
I looked at the other Party members to gauge their reactions. Their faces were similarly grim, which did nothing to boost my confidence.
"If we have to face such monsters, how are we supposed to clear the Penance Quest?" Mamamia whispered her concerns, her cute little face scrunched with worry.
Stivi threw her a reassuring smile, but nobody refuted her concerns. She then glanced at me with a smile but did not say anything.
It seemed like they wouldn't be able to take care of themselves in front of monsters who attacked in packs, much less provide me protection.
So, it has come to this once again.
Even in such a grim situation, a smile formed on my lips. I was reminded of our days in Kailan when Stivi would land our party in trouble and depend on me to devise a solution.
This time was no different. I shook my head with a smile and started to do what I did best - Cleaning up after her mess.
If the Grandeur Guild's party wanted to clear this Penance Quest, they needed every advantage they could get, whether it be terrain, monster's weaknesses or some thing else. I started to survey our surroundings, paying attention to details to ensure that I would not miss any possible advantage.
While I was busy studying the terrain, I noticed that three Wild Dogs had appeared out of nowhere to our left. They hid in the grass and quietly approached our party but no one else seemed to have noticed them yet.
"Three Wild Dogs. To our left." I quickly sent a message to Stivi and watched her party jump into action.
Like a well-practiced team, Stivi and BigSoftie immediately covered the cloth armor classes behind them. HardBro and MamaMia flanked me on both sides, not forgetting to protect me.
Seeing the players jump into action, the Wild Dogs knew their silent hunt had been discovered. Two of them jumped out of the grass and pounced on BigSoftie. At the same time, the remaining one went after the smallest person in our group, MamaMia.
BigSoftie did not have a shield or a weapon. Instead, he had found a pair of armguards. Knowing his hands would be protected, he unhesitatingly thrust his forearms into the wide maws of the two dogs, rendering their bites useless.
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Two successive numbers appeared on his head after he succeeded in blocking the bites of the Wild Dogs.
HardBro cast an Icy Wind to slow the movements of the dogs. A chilly breeze blew in a fan shape covering all three dogs and lowering their movement speed by 20%. The magic spell also took away nearly 40 points each from all three dogs.
Stivi took this opportunity to slash at the two dogs whose jaws were held in place by BigSoftie.
Stivi executed her three-hit combo on one of the dogs, causing significant damage numbers to pop up on its head.
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She continued to slash and stab at the dogs as their struggles to escape from Big Softie's grasp grew even more frantic.
Our MT was losing HP every time one of the dogs struggled. Even though he had 200 HP, his HP bar was already down by nearly 25% in just a few seconds. He could not even free himself as he was the only person who would decide whether we would win or would we be wiped out.
HardBro had stepped forward and engaged the third Wild Dog. The monster swiped at the mage with its front paws and took away 33 points of his health. This was almost a third of his total health.
Seeing the damage, cold sweat formed on his head. HardBro knew he could not engage the beast in a frontal combat so he backed away a little and maintained some distance between himself and the Dog.
He occasionally poked the Wild Dog with his long staff to keep its aggro focused on him. Though his melee attacks were barely doing any damage to the beast, he just had to hold it off until Zamir returned.
The situation seemed stable when suddenly, the third Dog got tired of playing with HardBro. It switched its aggro to MamaMia, who was in the midst of healing BigSoftie. The Wild Dog bypassed HardBro and pounced towards her.
"Mia! Watch out!"
HardBro yelled as he saw the Dog leap from the ground. But it was too late. There was nothing she could do to dodge this attack.
The situation had suddenly turned grim. If this Dog succeeded in taking out MamaMia, our Tank would also fall soon. Stivi alone would not be able to hold off two wild dogs, and the party would be wiped out for sure.
I could not let that happen. At this moment, I stepped sideways and covered Mia behind me.