Hidden Path
Ayaan felt a slight kick against his finger and the arm.
The recoil from shooting a 3 MP bullet is high, but it is still bearable. He just kept on shooting taking down the second wavecaller and then the third. All done within two minutes. Now, he shifted his focus to the remaining mob.
The shield is still intact, and Ayaan still used 3 MP bullets. The Level 2 mob didn't have the same level of defense as the wave callers. Ayaan took down three to four creatures at a time and soon the whole place is almost cleared up.
Except for the Tricksters who were already standing farthest to him and the moment they foresaw the slaughter, they swam back to the
Fourth dwelling.
Ayaan collected his loot and jumped into the stream.
When he reached the fourth dwelling he didn't find the trickers or other brookborn, it is completely empty. He guessed that they might have gone to the fifth dwelling. The last one.
Ayaan didn't go immediately. He sat down and checked his status.
His fatigue reached 15.
His health dropped by 20. Mostly by the virtue of the tricksters and their first illusion on him. If not for the water serpent king armor, he would have been done in there.
His MP on the other hand if full. The level 3 creatures are giving him 100 MP and Level 2 are giving him 10. Either way, they are giving him more than whatever he could expend on them. The only problem he has with it is that he has a limited capacity for MP.
He can only store 120 points.
He also have has many doubts regarding MP earning. For example, in the previous quest, he killed a Level 4 Frog King, but he only got 100 MP. But with system's usual progression he should have gotten a thousand.
He just shook his head to suppress these thoughts and focused on something else.
The Exp.
He gained 29000 Exp points in total. Quite substantial compared to the second quest. But with the amount he needs for the next quest… this is just 29%. Even with the 9% he had before. That is only 38% for him to go to Level 4.
Ayaan took a deep breath and jumped into the stream. As he got close to the fifth and last cave dwelling in this path…
*SCREECH* *SCREECH*
The screams of the tricksters are getting clearer with every passing second.
*BAM* *BAM*
And at the same time, Ayaan heard the sounds of battle. This surprised him. When he got close enough to the cave dwelling, he managed to see the scene a bit more clearly. Just like all the cave dwellings, the one also had open space that has water with less depth and a passageway to the other side.
However, this passage leads to the waterfall where all five streams merge.
That will be exit of the passage.
Ayaan's focus is nowhere near that passage though. In the open space, the Brookborns are in the middle of a heated battle. A large blue colored serpent is in that open space as it moved around and chewed off one of the Brookborns.
The river serpent albeit being higher level, is not as big as the water serpent king. It is much smaller, maybe just 20 feet long, and its head is around a couple of feet wide. Even with that smaller build it is huge.
It didn't have a lot of space to move around and occasionally crashed against the cave walls.
The river serpent swallowed the Brookborn, and as soon as it did, the serpent that had a bunch of wounds on it started healing.
Level 4 River Serpent(Guard to the Path of Abyssal Guardian) [█████████████████████░] 97.0%
Ayaan watched as the Brookborn tricksters tried to deal confuse the serpent. But it just crashed into one of them and chewed on it.
[██████████████████████] 100.0%
Its health went back up. Ayaan quickly calculated in his head.
There are five paths, that means five level 4 guards. That's fifty thousand points. But fighting four level 4 guards… even with the level up, he doesn't know if he can do it. But that is just too good for him to pass up.
He also wanted to check the other paths anyway. He looked at his inventory while moving forward.
As soon as he entered the dwelling and came out of the water, all of a sudden the river serpent which was about to bit into one of the wave callers, dropped it and looked at Ayaan.
Its eyes turned red and rushed towards Ayaan.
Ayaan took out his assault rifle and started shooting.
*RATATATATATATA…*
The continuous onslaught of bullets hit the serpents head and his primary target was the eyes. The rifle had a 600 RPM. Only the twenty bullets only needed two seconds to be emptied.
[█████████████████████░] 97.0%
*CLICK*
Ayaan changed the magazine and shot it again.
[████████████████████░░] 93.0%
The serpent went a few steps back. Ayaan checked the serpent's head. He checked the damage not just in terms of HP, but from what he can physically see.
Some scales are shot off, the eyes did burst open and the mouth is punctured. But the damage is not too severe. There won't be any residual health drop.
The serpent seemed to instinctually know where Ayaan is. It got back and crashed its head towards him. Ayaan jumped into the air, dodging its attack. He took out his shot gun…
*BAM*
The slug penetrated missed its head, but it hit its body. A chunk of flesh flew off its body. The wound is big and bleeding profusely.
[███████████████░░░░░░░] 72.0%
That was a big drop in the health. The serpent slowed down and its health kept on dropping. He took one of the hand guns and started shooting at it.
*BANG* *BANG*
[███████████████░░░░░░░] 70.0%
The bullet didn't do much when he aimed at its skin. But when he shot the wounded part its health went down more.
The handguns are not that useful on Level 4 monsters. Ayaan even shot the Brookborn nearby and saw that it still worked on it.
It seemed like the attraction the serpent like creatures have on Ayaan is way too high. Even in that wounded shape, the serpent came at him at raging speed.
Ayaan emptied the magazine of his handgun. He threw it to the side and took out the second hand gun before emptying it as well. He aimed at its wound. But the snake is still agile enough to dodge and he only got in a couple of hits.
[████████████░░░░░░░░░░] 64.0%
That's what two magazines got him. Ayaan held the Shotgun again and dashed forward. He slipped to the side as its head rushed towards him. He side stepped and aimed the shotgun at its head.
*CLICK*
*BOOM*
[████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░] 40.0%
The serpent crashed to the ground. A bunch of scales on its head are burst open. He can partially see its bones.
Ayaan stepped forward and blasted it again.
*CLICK*
*BOOM*
*CLICK*
*BOOM*
The head finally opened up completely, ending the serpent's life.
'Four Slugs'
[Exp+10000]
[MP+1000]
[You defeated the Guard of a Stream Path. River Serpent]
The notification came. That MP+1000 stung him a bit. Because his maximum capacity didn't extend and he has access to only 120 MP.
Ayaan placed the shotgun back in the inventory and looked at the remaining brookborns. A water bullet conjured at his fingertip.
.
.
.
Five minutes later. Ayaan collected his loot. The Serpent of course gave him something different, but it is only one item.
He threw the empty handguns and the assault rifle away, creating three empty slots. He put the reward in there without checking. The bodies disappeared and the bloody water is flowing towards the large passage way of this path, leading to the waterfall.
This path is a bit different from the rest. It is wider than them and there is some space to walk on either side. Not too much, but it is enough.
Ayaan walked slowly and soon reached the end of the cave path. There is a bit of an open space. Ayaan walked to the left of the stream and took in the scene.
He is standing on the edge of a cliff. There are four other pathways apart from the one he came. The five of them combined together formed a semi-circle and Ayaan is at one of the end points of that semi-circle.
To his right is the stream he came through and to the right of that is a cliff edge. To his left a few meters away is another stream and it is coming from the second pathway.
Further left to that is the central stream coming from the central pathway. It could be considered as the peak point of the semi-circle. To its left and exactly opposite to Ayaan's position are two more streams coming out.
All these five created this semi-circular cliff edge. The water from the five streams is coming out of these five points, merging together and is falling down over the cliff into the lake below.
Ayaan leaned forward a bit to take a peek at the lake.
Level 4: Abyssal Guardian Embryo (Evolving 20%) [██████████████████████] 100.0%
Even with the increased perception, he barely caught the sight of a large submerged in the much larger lake. The marker on top of is what made it clear.
Ayaan looked at the other streams. Some of them are coming in different colors. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out what's happening there. The creatures are dying. Gears swiftly turned in his head and he walked towards the stream to his left.
But when tried to go into the passageway…
A translucent barrier appeared stopping him. There is no system notification or a marker. It just blocked him from getting in there. The water is still carrying the blood of those creatures.
He hurriedly ran back into the stream he came from. He used all his strength to swim towards the third cave dwelling. Ayaan climbed wall of the cave and soon reached a crevice hidden in the walls. A crevice barely enough to fit two people inside. He climbed into the crevice and started crawling forward.
Soon, he reached another opening.
A notification appeared in front of him.
==============================
DISCOVERED HIDDEN PATH
==============================
Player has discovered the hidden cave connecting two stream paths. Defeat the guardian of the hidden cave to get access to the other stream path.
==============================
Ayaan sighed as he looked at the notification. It is so predictable. He remembered Ark said not to settle for the minimum, but it has become way too literal. Every level has a hidden thing, but for this level, it is way too obvious.
At least in the first and second quests, triggering the hidden conditions required him to do something very excessive.
But the current one… just the knowledge of the hidden caves and the connection between the stream paths… it all appeared a bit too obvious. Ayaan poked his head out of the hole he was in. The path is high up on the wall and below is a small pond.
And in the middle of the pond, there is a huge crab staring Ayaan with its big eyes.
Level 3: Gurdian Crab [██████████████████████] 100.0%
Ayaan looked at his current position and then at the Crab. He didn't even bother getting out of it. The crab cannot climb up and he has the altitude advantage. It would be stupid to not take it.
He aimed his finger and started shooting 3 MP Bullets.
*POP*
*POP* *CRACK*
He shot two bullets and the shell cracked with some gooey substance coming out of it.
He loaded another bullet and shot it.
*POP*
The health bar went to 0 and the creature died.
[Exp +1000]
Ayaan came out of the hole and came to the pond. The Crab's body disappeared revealing a drop. Only one drop again. He placed it in the inventory. His inventory is almost full. There is only one empty slot left.
After that, he went to a corner of the room and found another hole to crawl into. The passage leading to the next stream and if his memory serves right, he will go to the second cave-dwelling of the next stream path.
Soon, he did appear in the cave-dwelling but it is empty with no sign of any monsters.
Ayaan got out and jumped into the stream going to the next cave-dwelling the path.