Chapter 30 – Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow

🙞❤︎🙜

“Nice outfit,” said Shuye.

I was wearing the newbie archer gear from Adventure Incarnate which consisted of leather gloves, boots, cowl, vambraces, chaps, and vest. Summer started tomorrow, therefore the days were getting hot and muggy. I thought that the leather would be too much, but some sort of System magic made them comfortable enough to wear. I didn’t even creak when I moved.

The complete set gave a small bonus to archery and boosted my BR.

[Battle Rating:

A number that represents that character’s overall power and fighting ability, which is determined by a variety of factors, such as the character’s stats, equipment, puppet, bonuses, and abilities. The higher the BR, the stronger the character is.]

Back when I played Adventure Incarnate, my character was maxed out in combat and I had a battle rating of over 50,000. BR was used for both players and monsters, which allowed people to easily check if they were outmatched or not.

My current BR was pretty pathetic.

[Violet

Level 1

HP: 100/100

BR: 26]

“Thank you,” I said.

Shuye was wearing his usual brown robe. He rubbed his hand in anticipation and said, “Where are we going?”

“Uh, let’s just take a walk. I’m sure we’ll find something,” I said. It was annoying, but I couldn’t exactly say, “Even though I’ve never been there, I know exactly where the Horned Rabbits live.”

The sun shone through the trees, creating a patchwork of light and shadow on the forest floor. During spring, the ground was covered in a moist and thick layer of leaves and moss. Mushrooms and ferns grew everywhere, and wildflowers bloomed prettily in the sunnier areas of the forest.

We weren’t in a rush, so we walked at a moderate pace, the better to enjoy another beautiful day.

Using the System map, I walked us in a northeasterly direction until, with me stopping once in a while to gather wild mushrooms , berries, and herbs. After three hours, we reached a low cliff jutting over a small valley.

Shuye and I looked down at the dozen or so Horned Rabbits that were hopping around below us.

[Horned Rabbit:

A unique creature found in the old-growth forests of the world. They look like regular rabbits except for the large, curved horns which protrude from their head. Horned rabbits are fast and agile, making them hard to catch. Their diet consists of leaves, grass, and other vegetation.]

Shuye’s hand shook as he pointed at the monsters. “What are those?”

“Horned Rabbits. They’re very common, aren’t they? I see them around a lot when I’m out foraging,” I said. I couldn’t understand why he was acting so shocked. His eyes were almost bulging out of their sockets, and his mouth was open. “They’re not that aggressive, but I wouldn’t want to fight more than one because they’re quite fast.”

I checked the nearest one.

[Horned Rabbit:

Type: Melee

Element: None

BR: 28]

Not only were they fast, they even had a higher Battle Rating than me.

“They look like a really troublesome foe,” I said.

“This can’t be right.” Shuye still seemed rattled. “I know every inch of these woods, but I’ve never seen these…”

He pointed down at the cute little white rabbits. They looked exactly like cute white rabbits, except for the fact that they had one to three horns.

“Do you think the number of horns indicates how strong they are?” I asked Shuye. “I’d like you to stay here beside me and just observe for now. We’re far enough from them I don’t think I’ll be in any danger, but it’s always good to be careful. You’ll protect me, right?”

“Of course!” Shuye looked somewhat insulted.

“Okay, I’ll limber up a little before starting,” I said.

The long walk here had tired my legs a little, but my upper body was feeling a little stiff, so I did a few stretches before taking out a wooden bow and a quiver of arrows from my inventory.

The Combat Screen appeared, showing the Battle Rating of each individual Horned Rabbit. The Action Bar showed the abilities that I could use.

[Archery Skills:

Piercing Shot

Rapid Fire

Escape]

My thrice weekly archery training sessions hadn’t leveled up my combat, but I was now much more confident in using my skills.

I slowly drew my bow and took careful aim at the monsters below me. Then I released the arrow, which soared through the air and sank into a Horned Rabbit’s small body. It let out a small cry of pain before falling to the ground, dead. I felt somewhat queasy at killing a living thing with my arrows for the first time.

Below us, the rabbits seemed unconcerned. Weren’t they disturbed by the smell of blood? I would’ve expected most of them to flee the first time that one of their members was killed.

“Good shot,” said Shuye.

I had only used a “regular” shot, meaning I hadn’t used one of the System abilities. How amazing to think that I was actually able to take down a Horned Rabbit using just my own archery skill! However, I did also want to check how effective Piercing Shot and Rapid Fire were.

“Okay, here goes nothing,” I said as I activated Piercing Shot.

[Piercing Shot:

Imbue the arrow with energy, allowing it to pierce through enemies. The shot is incredibly powerful and can often take down multiple foes with a single arrow.

Cooldown: 5 seconds]

Although the description said I was imbuing the arrow with energy, I felt nothing as I lined up my shot and let the arrow fly, nor did the arrow magically glow. It wasn’t like a game where every skill was accompanied by a flashy animation.

Nonetheless, Piercing Shot was still impressive from a combat viewpoint because even I, a newbie, could clearly see that it was a lot more powerful than my previous shot. The arrow flew so fast that I could barely see its path, and it quickly found its mark. The Horned Rabbit was dead instantly.

Shuye gave me a look of respect. “Is this really your first time?”

“My first time hunting a real, live target,” I said. “I’ve practiced a lot though.”

“Well done,” he said.

I think perhaps the first two might have been a fluke, because I missed the mark the next three times.

Rapid Fire, in particular, was a disaster.

[Rapid Fire:

Fire a rapid succession of five arrows. This ability is great for taking down multiple targets quickly or for taking down a single target with a lot of arrows.

Cooldown: 5 seconds]

The skill made me shoot faster, but the accuracy was lower, which made me decide to use Piercing Shot instead. While I didn’t get the same notifications that I did in the game, I did notice that certain shots killed a rabbit instantly, while others did not. Those must’ve been Critical Hits.

Archery was very tiring. After using around twenty arrows, my arms were already getting tired although I had only killed twelve monsters.

“I’m taking a break,” I said to Shuye.

“Then do you want me to retrieve your kills for you?” asked Shuye.

“You’re going down there? I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I don’t need the meat, and I don’t know if they will attack you if you walk right in the middle of their home,” I said.

“They’re just rabbits!” said Shuye.

“You can fly down there?” I asked.

As expected, Shuye nodded his head.

“I can, but don’t judge everyone based on Prince Baiyu’s abilities. There aren’t many in all the Westerlands who can fly like that,” said Shuye. “That’s why I use the flying cart.”

“Then are you going to walk down there?” I pointed at the valley below us.

“I can’t fly as well as the prince, but this much is nothing,” he said.

He didn’t bother to discuss it further with me and just leapt down the cliff. I let out a little scream of surprise. However, I shouldn’t have been worried because he was perfectly fine. In the middle of his fall, Shuye’s form blurred as though it was underwater, and his body shifted into his beast form.

Even though Shuye was from the White Tiger clan, he had explained to me that most of his fellow clan members had somewhat unorthodox beast forms. Only the ruling family had the ideal traditional conformation. Thus, I wasn’t surprised to see that Shuye turned into a light orange tiger with white stripes.

“Be careful!” I called down at him.

Shuye let out a growl, and the Horned Rabbits scattered. He took a carcass in his mouth and jumped back up to where I was. He placed the remains of the monster in front of me, then went back down a few more times to retrieve the others.

“Thank you,” I said when he had finished retrieving all my kills.

The tiger form blurred and Shuye appeared in his human form in front of me.

“You’re not scared?” he asked me.

I put a hand over my mouth to hide my smile. “No, in fact, I was extremely scared that when you shape shifted back to your human form, you might not have clothes on!”

Shuye guffawed. “Hey, little girl, I’m not Prince Baiyu.”

“What do you mean by that?! Is Prince Baiyu naked when he turns human?” I gave him a disbelieving look.

“No, not normally, but he might do it if it’s you,” said Shuye.

“Ah…” I was somewhat relieved because I didn’t like the thought that Prince Baiyu was always running around naked after he shifted. “Never mind that. I’m having my lunch.”

I put away my weapon and took out a packed lunch from my inventory. The Demon Chef had prepared rice balls, pickled vegetables, boiled egg, and chicken meatballs for me. I sat down on some soft grass and ate the delicious meal while chatting about this and that with Shuye.

He absolutely insisted that Horned Rabbits were not common in these woods. I think he had some plan to wipe them out.

“Why do you have to kill all of them? They aren’t demons, aren’t they? I think having some spirit beasts is good for the forest,” I said in between bites.

“I don’t like them,” said Shuye.

“Maybe you could just monitor them first?”

“Maybe.”

Well, he was the Farm Guide, not me, hence it was his decision to make.

By the time I finished eating, a few of the rabbits had returned. I picked the targets that were bigger and slower than the others, and succeeded in killing a few more. My stamina wasn’t that good, so I had to stop after my arms started to ache.

A few more kills under my belt, I leveled up my Archery to 3.

[Violet

Level 1

HP: 100/100

Strength: 1/99

Attack: 1/99

Archery: 3/99

Magic: 1/99]

I had a long way to go, but it was a good start. Leveling up twice in a day only happened when you were extremely low level since the game was designed to be easy to play but hard to max. Newbie players could expect rapid advancement that gradually slowed down until leveling up became a rare occasion worth celebrating.

My BR increased a little, yet my HP was unchanged. It would also take more than that to increase my overall combat level.

[Violet

Level 1

HP: 100/100

BR: 32]

“I’m done for today,” I said to Shuye.

“When shall I accompany you again?” he asked.

“I’ll be too busy in the next two weeks.”

Tomorrow was a very important day, the first day of planting season, and I needed to focus on it to the exclusion of everything else.