Meanwhile, five people were resting among the trees. A male human with heavy armor was eating preserved food on his hand.

"This thing tastes good..."

"Yeah." Female sleethar responded the man. "It also gives us good buffs too!"

"Please let's go to our main hunt after this, boss!" Male wolf beast was talking with ferocious smile. "I'm tired beating skeletons and zombies!"

"As always..." A male elf was sighing after he heard the beast spoke. "Animal brain like you should learn to control yourself first."

"What did you say!? You want to die?"

"Ugh." The female sleethar rolled her eyes. "Not again..."

"You two..." the heavy armored human was glaring at them "Shut up."

"Yes, boss... Sorry..."

The two were apologizing to their boss and immediately shut their mouth. The last man that left out, who was a human, anxiously asking the boss.

"B-boss... W-what is main hunt?"

"Ah, right. You're new, aren't cha?" The boss was looking at the man and sighed. "Main hunt is, of course, this group sole purpose. It's hunting players!"

The man's eyes were sparkling in an instant, then the boss continued.

"That is also the reason you join this group, right?"

"Ouuh...! Yeah, I always wanted to be a villain. Heheheh!"

"Good!" The boss was glad and smiled. "Then it's settled. After we finish eating, we will back to Orbania outer wall and see if there's any prey to hunt."

"Roger!"

・・・

Why did they make nest here? I didn't really understand ecology though. Perhaps it was because the humidity, or there was something drawing them here... food for example. Nonetheless, we had to pass through them.

"We do as we planned..."

Mirage nodded and stayed still. I was slowly walking into the big room. I noticed that it was filled with mosses. Up above, I could see holes on the ceiling. It seemed those holes were the entrance doors for the Mecopteras.

I came closer to the nearest Mecoptera and tried to trigger its aggro. Luckily, they were aggressive monsters. When I was within five meter radius, it noticed me and began to attack me. I barely dodged and ran back to the passage. It was fast. When I managed to enter the passage, I turned around. I instantly saw the claw was right in front of me. It stabbed my chest.

[You have received 298 damage from Mutated Mecoptera]

[Mirage used Healing Serenade]

[568 HP has been healed by Mirage]

Mirage immediately casted healing spell to me, however...

[You have received 272 damage from Mutated Mecoptera]

[You have received 237 damage from Mutated Mecoptera]

'!?'

The Mecoptera hit me with two consecutive attacks. I kept seeing its claws flying towards me. I found it hard to do anything other than evading or parrying. Even though Mirage covered me, its attack speed was way too fast. It was really hard to dodge even with Wind Blessing.

Was my stats the problem? No, it was because I was not an athlete. If athletes were playing this game, they would adapt well. War veteran or trained assassin would beat this monster easily. On the other hands, a person who almost spent his entire life in front of monitor like me would get a hard time dealing with them. I didn't get used with this kind of thing. That was why I kept training until I feel it was enough when I started this game. Still, it seemed I wasn't good enough.

'There's only one way then... I can tank the damage.'

I knew dodging was way more efficient than tanking all the damage, but I didn't do this action because I was reckless. I could build up my character, of course. I might get a skill or two, or I could raise my endurance. I was patient, even though I had to waste a day or a week. Perhaps it was because Aphu personality influence.

'Yeah, hard work is inevitable for people like me.'

My mind filled with 'what if' situations. What if you encountered high AGI players or monsters? What if you fought debuff specialized ones? What if you got hit by high STR ones? Those situations you couldn't avoid... Depending on one specialty wouldn't be enough. In reality, luck was random and you had to be all-rounder. Especially if you didn't have any talents or you weren't a son of billionaire. Therefore, you had to prepare in any kind of situations if you wanted to survive. And that what I was aiming for. 'No pain, no gain' was a perfect line for this matter.

'If it wasn't because of Mirage, I wouldn't be here.'

Indeed, Mirage was my savior. Fighting Uruzak made me realize how weak I was. I even got helped by her when I was about to give up. We would certainly encounter stronger enemies in the future. Because I knew I was just an ordinary and mediocre player.

I took all hits and tried to get closer. Thanks to the narrow passage, its high AGI and DEX were useless. I thrust my sword two times to its abdomen.

Shriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiek!

The Mecoptera suddenly screamed and instantly ran back to the room.

'What? What happened?'

I noticed I cut its HP down below 30% with only two hits. It was actually very weak. Of course, nimble monster would be low in defense. That was a common sense. Still, I could feel something bad was going to happen because of its behavior, and I was right. Mecopteras inside the room turned their gaze to me, and they all immediately flying towards me.

'Shit!'

No matter how weak they were, one would tremble in fear if dozens of monsters swarmed towards them. I told Mirage to run and I followed behind her. I tried to look back and I could see two Mecopteras were chasing us at five meters away. My eyes widened as an idea came to my mind.

'Ah right! I could use that method!'

The passage wasn't wide enough for three or more Mecopteras to fit in. I was in advantageous position since they wouldn't have any space to dodge my attack. If three hits were enough to take one down, then it should be easy to beat all of them... theoretically.

"Mirage, cover me..."

Mirage stopped and turned around.

"Okay!"

I turned right away after I heard her answer. Then I rushed towards them and thrust my sword. As expected, I was slowly decreased their numbers. Mirage kept healing me when my HP dropped low. Of course I didn't make her use all her mana on me, I also drank some potions during the fight. She also drank some mana potions when her mana was low. After ten minutes passed, only five of them remained. However, it was as if they were scared... they suddenly retreated.

'You all dare to show your back to me?'

I grinned and then charged. I used Back Slash followed by one attack afterwards.

'One down, four remains...'

I chased and killed them one by one, until I realized I was back inside the room. I stopped and looked around. I could see countless glowing eyes in the dark.

It was a trap.

There were still plenty of them waiting inside the room. And they finally surrounded me.

'Fuck! I thought all of them were chasing me.'

I saw Mirage standing in the passage. Her eyes widened. It was as if time had been stopped. I was glad she was safe. I smiled to her then I yelled...

"RUN! WAIT ME AT THE TEMPLE!"

I saw an unexpected response, she shook her head and closed her eyes instead. The next thing I could hear was a high pitched sound from her mouth. It almost ripped apart my eardrums. I instantly put my hands on my ears and pressed them hard. System messages popped in front of me.

[Mirage has remembered Siren's Cry]