Chapter 8:

CHUNK!

AGHHHHH!

The shrill sound of a pig crying out in pain rang through the morning sky.

The grasslands swayed with the wind, and the light from above beamed beautifully down onto the land.

Crow was currently finishing another boar he stumbled across.

Blood leaked from one of its eyes as it stumbled, trying to maintain its footing.

'Up till now, I still don't feel a difference in my strength. Was yesterday all just a dream?'

Thoughts circulated in his head as he finally rushed the piggy, dodging to its side and jumping onto its back before rapidly stabbing its other eye out.

As it breathed its last, Crow sighed to himself as he watched the black boxes eat away at the piggy's existence.

This was already the 3rd one of today, and he hadn't even gotten the chance to eat.

He could only pout at the body of the disappearing piggy, 'Greedy boxes...'

Yet, he then saw something that made him freeze.

______

[Crow]

[Race: Human]

[Occupation/ Class: ◤⫸△▆ ]

[Realm: 0]

[Stage: 2]

[Source: ◤⫸△▆ ]

_______

'My stage went up...' he quickly looked over at where the boar's body just was.

'How is that possible?'

The game's leveling system was different than others.

Though Players were 'Blessed' and it wasn't exactly known how they leveled up, they could still undoubtedly get stronger.

The same couldn't be said for NPCs.

So now that Crow saw his stage bump up after defeating a pig, he was skeptical. 

This was unheard of, and he was perplexed, yet slowly a smile spread across his face.

He reached into his bag and took out his map, marked with various locations, 'Only 1 way to know for sure.'

.

.

.

That day, a whole swarm of piggies was slaughtered.

Though minimal, Crow felt an increase in his strength, speed, accuracy, perception, and everything overall was just better, and so dispatching the little pork pudges was a bit less of a hassle.

Finally, in around the afternoon, the boy had just defeated his 8th piggy of the day and opened up his panel to inspect his stats.

[Crow]

[Race: Human]

[Occupation/ Class: ◤⫸△▆ ]

[Realm: 0]

[Stage: 3]

[Source: ◤⫸△▆ ]

"Heh," a smile rose on his lips as he observed his rapid progress in only 1 day.

Though some may observe and view gaining 2 stages as low, the fact of the matter is that in the month that he had been in this world, the highest level he had heard of players obtaining so far was [Stage 8].

For Crow's progress to be so rapid, it truly sparked an ambitious fire in his heart.

Yet, the sound of footsteps awoke him from his dreams of grandeur.

He quickly ducked down into the tall grass, turning his head to see the cause of the noise.

"I told you, it's just a stupid NPC!"

A white skinned slin player with a bow strapped to his back blabbered about as he sauntered through the fields.

A bit behind him were 2 girls, 1 beastkin cat with a robe and staff, and the other a human with a robe and a book.

In front of them, and next to the slin was a leather armored stump with 2 daggers sheathed at his sides.

Crow took note of this: '1 ranger, 1 mage, 1 healer, 1 thief. A diverse party.'

The boy peeled his eyes, though he had yet to go too far into the grasslands in fear of running into too difficult an enemy, he was still relatively deep, deep enough where seeing players here was suspicious.

He focused his gaze on the blabbering Slin.

Yet, his eyes widened as a panel appeared before him.

[Player 1]

[Race: Slin]

[Occupation/ Class: Ranger]

[Realm: 1]

[Stage: 2]

[Source: None]

Crow was taken aback, 'Woah... this must have something to do with what happened yesterday. I wonder if everyone can see each other's stats, or if it's exclusive to just me.'

The boy's mind wandered as he began taking a look at the entire party's stats.

After a few moments, a confident smirk spread across the boy's lips, 'They're all the same Realm and Stage.'

This eased Crow's heart a bit; he still had the stage advantage.

The night he defeated Magnus's party wasn't a fluke; he had clearly seen the party was inexperienced and targeted their lack of coordination, but if he were to try something like that with a more experienced team that night...

Cold sweat ran down his back.

Shaking those thoughts out of his mind, he continued to watch as he eavesdropped.

"Bro, where is this stupid NPC?" the pale-skinned Slin complained as he lumbered on.

The rest of the party cast an annoyed side-eye at the Slin before the stump finally had enough.

"I told ye, the quest said that the criminal who killed a Novice Knight is somewhere in the grasslands."

This answer didn't satisfy the Slin, and he continued to complain, "But what if that criminal's already dead?"

The stump's face turned red with annoyance, "Shut up! You've been complaining the whole time! Like I said before, even if he's dead, if we find proof of his death, we'll be rewarded an entire [Stage]."

This caused Crow's eyebrows to rise.

A [Stage] was equivalent to more than a day's worth of pure grinding, that's without accounting for how later levels will most likely take longer; truly, such a reward would entice any player.

Especially since it was a whole stage, there'd be no harm in bringing more players as each would get their [Stage] while only increasing their chance of success.

'Shoot, I wish I could take quests myself, then again...' Crow pondered for a bit.

'If I can level up, maybe I can take quests,' he put that thought in the back of his mind and observed the group for a bit.

His eyes were trained on them and prepared for any moment of weakness.

The Stump and Slin continued to argue as they walked, causing the girls to lag in the back a bit, a trace of disappointment on both their faces.

Crow smiled in heart at this, 'Another inexperienced team, another free meal.'

He considered killing the healer 1st, but upon seeing how disorganized and lax the team was in these wilds, he decided to kill 2 birds with one stone.

Crow had circled around and towards the front of the team, so once the 2 boys who were too busy bickering walked right past, the 2 most vulnerable members of the team were left wide open.

SWOOOOOSH!!

The boy zoomed from his hiding spot and right towards his 2 targets!

The girls' eyes widened as Crow rushed towards them.

The boy ruthlessly slashed the healer's throat before turning and stabbing the mage right up through her chin, before pulling it right out.

Quickly, he caught both bodies before they could drop, their corpses already being consumed by the black boxes.

Cautiously, he turned to see the 2 boys still arguing, 'They still didn't notice me? Must be more of a dick-measuring contest than an actual argument, then.'

Crow knew if he rushed the 2, they would hear him, so taking advantage of the element of surprise, he quickly sprinted forward and threw the dagger at the back of the stump's head.

"I told you, dumbass, we're almost th-UGHHH!" 

CHUNKKK!

The stump's eyes widened as he froze, the Slin seeing his party member freeze suddenly turned back to see a blur speeding right towards him, "Agh-"

Yet, before he could even speak, he was met with a knee to the face, sending him flying.

Crow didn't talk, he dislodged the knife from the back of the stump's head and slit his throat before running forward and stabbing the Slin in the heart, pulling it out, and then slitting his throat.

The Slin gargled on his own blood as the light from his eyes faded; he could only gaze up at the mud-skinned boy above him, who beamed down with a malicious grin, "Congrats, you found me."

Then everything went dark.

The black boxes consumed everything; not even a trace of blood was left.

Crow then took a look at his stats.

[Crow]

[Race: Human]

[Occupation/ Class: ◤⫸△▆ ]

[Realm: 0]

[Stage: 7]

[Source: ◤⫸△▆ ]

The boy's eyes widened with shock, 'Seriously, players gave out this much experience?'

That was equivalent to a stage gained for each player killed.

He looked around the field once more, 'Since the black boxes don't even leave a drop of blood, I suppose if I were to go and farm players it wouldn't even leave a trace.'

A smile formed upon his lips, 'Off I go then.'

.

.

.

[Hours Later Somewhere in the Grasslands...]

In the grasslands, a whole swarm of teams had spread out in search of this Novice Killer NPC.

Though players were arrogant in the beginning, they quickly fell in line once they realized the profound strength of some NPCs, and they all knew never to harm an NPC in broad daylight, especially not a Novice Knight.

They could only shake their head in pity; this NPC was doomed, unaware that this "doomed NPC" had already swapped from being the hunted to the hunter.

A variety of teams had swarmed the lush grassland fields since the early morning, yet only now did the player teams that were higher level and confident in their strength finally begin to reach the middle area in search of their quest target. 

Yet, unbeknownst to any of these teams, their target was not in the middle area of the grasslands anymore.

.

.

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[In the Grasslands near the Town's Entrance...]

A group of rookie players was bumbling around, trying to catch a "Newbie Rabbit," a foe many players would have to overcome before receiving their 1st [Level Up].

They had considered going after the bounty, yet the fact that they still struggled against a simple trash mob like the "Newbie Rabbit" made them reconsider.

Unbeknownst to them, however, that bounty target was already nearby with his eyes locked on them.

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