Evolution Theory of the Hunter

Overwork?

Before I could figure out what it was Soo-ah suddenly shouted with great vigor.

“Woooah! Crazy! I’ve gotten hella fast!”

Soo-ah is on a rampage suddenly. She seemed almost two times faster than before.

I was wondering how this happened but I remembered that she was copying my reflex.

As my reflex went up her speed also increased drastically.

The stamina use would become that much higher. I should check the additional technique first.

Overwork : Able to increase one stat by a level for 24 hours. Permanently decreases endurance.

It was a 24 hour long buff. It weighed on me that the endurance would go down but it couldn’t be seen as a complete trash technique.

It was like the number of cards I could use had increased by one after all.

Also, it was a time when I needed this technique the most. There was no need to think about it.

If I didn’t kill the Black Tiger in front of me there would not be another time. It was a lot better to lose some of the endurance stat than to lose my life.

– The endurance stat goes down by one level. Reflex goes up by one level.

I could feel my body getting lighter. Even if my endurance decreased it was still at 450. If it was like this I could still fight.

I jumped up by stepping on the Dancing Sword. Thanks to the reflex that increased by over two times I could see all of the Black Tiger’s movements.

Once I crossed the imaginary line that I had marked as shouldn’t be crossed the Black Tiger turned its head to look at me.

I could clearly see it lightly shrinking and then explosively kicking off the ground with its back legs.

I stepped on the Dancing Sword that I had positioned in front of me ahead of time and flung myself to the left side.

The monster swung its paws in vain in midair. I could feel him being taken aback.

I stepped on the ground and jumped up once more. In my hand was the Hunter Greatsword. I mustered as much strength as possible and stabbed the sword straight into its lower stomach.

I almost lost grip on the sword. My entire body had been deflected back let alone pierce his leather.

The hand holding the sword was throbbing. It wasn’t that good. The fact that the impact came back to me meant that the monster didn’t take any damage.

The Black Tiger landed on the ground lightly. I couldn’t feel much of a tremble even though that huge body just came down.

Not only agility but it also possessed strength, speed, and great defense. I guess a level 10 is a level 10.

There were no weak points that could be seen.

“Does the level 8 weapon not work either?”

“I think we have no choice but to aim at its eye.”

“As long as we don’t die by getting bitten.”

The Black Tiger had similar attack methods to the Giant White Tiger. Biting, swinging its paw, and if it had another one it would be its powerful roar.

If one didn’t maintain their senses then they would go rolling into the thing’s mouth on their own with a single cry.

As such, it was almost impossible to aim at its eye.

Before stabbing the sword into its eye I would be penetrated by its teeth and even if it wasn’t so I would be dismembered by its paw. The me right now who didn’t even have armor would definitely die.

I had even sacrificed some endurance to increase the reflex stat to 800% but in the end there was no possible method of hitting him.

I was thinking about how to attack its eye when a thought suddenly passed through my mind.

The Eight Trigrams Scutum.

Although it could only be used once a day it was a weapon with an attack that was that powerful and fast. If it was this I thought that even the Black Tiger would be unable to avoid it.

“Keep it focused on you and if I send the signal come straight to my back!”

“Yes sir!”

I matched my eyesight to the monsters and stood on the Dancing Sword. I could see Soo-ah flying around the Black Tiger’s giant body.

It looked like a mayfly flying around a cat. In reality, Soo-ah was not doing any damage to the Black Tiger.

Nothing could be done against the endurance of a level 10 monster with Thor’s Hammer.

If even 1 damage went through then it would be possible to defeat it by stacking those but the damage right now was 0.

If the attack were only ticklish there was nothing in the world that would die because of that.

“Ah…….”

Soo-ah’s foot that was stepping on midair suddenly got twisted weirdly.

Did she twist her ankle?

As if it thought that it was a chance, the Black Tiger that was moving reservedly because of Soo-ah’s overwhelming speed showed its claws as it swung its paw.

I quickly aimed the Eight Trigrams Scutum at the back of the monster’s head while flustered. Even if it could be seen I had to attract its attention for now. However, at that moment Soo-ah made an eye signal at me.

Did she create a gap on purpose?

Several trees got swept away and disappeared due to the front paw the Black Tiger swung. Dust and debris, leaves went flying with great force.

I was being nervous due to not being able to see Soo-ah’s figure anywhere but she came out of the dust cloud while leaving afterimages.

The Black Tiger got enraged and jumped up to the sky by kicking off the ground.

“Now!”

Soo-ah shouted. The Black Tiger that was able to travel 20 meters with a single jump opened its mouth at Soo-ah and I.

I held up the Eight Trigrams Scutum and pointed it at its mouth.

“I’m pretty sure I said that I would give the signal.”

“More importantly now……!”

The Black Tiger’s mouth opened wider. The moment I could feel its breath I aimed the Eight Trigrams Scutum right at its eye.

“This will hurt a bit.”

Flash!

A blinding light shot out from the Eight Trigrams Scutum.

The monster jumped up and down as if it got stung by a bee. This one properly got through. However, looking at how lively it was it seemed to be far from dying.

I passed Soo-ah a Cooldown Reset Potion.

“This is……?”

“Give me the 1 person buff. If the recasting time comes drink this once more and use it one more time.”

Nod.

The light that came out of her hand embraced me and I could feel my body becoming lighter.

Reflex 1,200%.

With this, all the preparation I could do were over. What was left was to kill the monster.

“Let’s go.”

“And the strategy?”

“You keep it busy and I kill it.”

“It’s nice how it’s simple.”

Soo-ah ran in midair. I also kicked off the Dancing Sword to fly towards the Black Tiger. Soo-ah from the top and me from the front.

The Black Tiger’s pupils moved quickly at the attack that was coming from the Y axis. Every organism found it difficult to look at things up and down in comparison to left and right. On top of that, it had its field of vision drastically decreased.

However, I couldn’t let my guard down because of that. The monster had a good sense of smell and hearing on top of sight. Even with one eye gone it was still a dangerous beast.

The monster’s head was right in front of my nose now. My legs were trembling and my spine tingled.

My heart was beating like crazy. I even thought that I might die just like that.

When was the last time I met an enemy this scary?

When I met the level 4 monster on the road? The first time I faced an irregular in a dungeon?

Was that situation worse than now?

All these situations were dangerous and could have died.

But I was still victorious.

Right, I knew the method of winning.

As always I will survive this time as well.

“Haaah!”

I rotated my body in the vertical axis direction and swung the Hunter Greatsword. The speed of the dash, weight, and rotational force was added. It was the greatest and strongest attack I could do right now.

The Black Tiger twitched and twisted its head. The attack failed.

As wide of a move it was there was a gap and the Black Tiger swung its front paw at me. As I avoided that Soo-ah smashed Thor’s Hammer on its head.

With a tremendous sound electricity scattered around.

Did it work?

However the monster flinched and jumped at me instead of Soo-ah.

Instead of running away, I also went towards the monster. The Black Tiger opened its mouth wide.

“No!”

Soo-ah let out a short scream. The heat from the monster’s body burned my face.

At the moment the distance between me and the monster decreased to 1 meter I threw the Bloody Sword at it. The target was the left eye that was damaged by the Eight Trigrams Scutum.

Stab!

A great sound came out of the Black Tiger’s mouth. It was to the point that the roar that it shouted out could almost be seen with my eyes.

Strangely, a ringing noise could still be heard after the sound disappeared.

When I tried touching my ears that felt stuffy, blood got on my finger.

It seems my ear drums popped.

The Black Tiger that had one side of its eye stabbed with a spike of sorts started destroying the nearby forest area.

No matter if it was a boulder or tree, it was destroyed in moments as the area turned into a plain. As I couldn’t hear the sound could only be felt as vibrations.

Instead of drinking a Wound Cure Potion, I held the sword and ran forward.

This situation where I couldn’t hear was a good thing on the contrary. There was no need to fear the Black Tiger’s roar and I didn’t have to feel that pain again either.

“Ahhhh!”

I dashed at the monster while shouting. I could hear some kind of humming sound. It was like I could somehow hear myself shouting even if I lost my sense of hearing.

It was not easy to close in on the Black Tiger that was rampaging like it went insane.

However, this was the last chance. Even if I stabbed in the Bloody Sword a level 10 monster there was a high chance that it should be able to regenerate while ignoring the blood sucking state.

Soo-ah and I kept trying to attack the Black Tiger that was rampaging like a crazy guy.

There was no time to even think about how much damage might be going through. I just attacked if I saw a gap and dodged if an attack came.

It seems the Black Tiger figured out that Soo-ah’s attacks didn’t hurt as it ignored her and started only looking at me.

A 20 meter long tree was broken into bits and pieces due to its teeth. I dashed towards the monster while dodging the falling debris.

A double jump on the tree, dash forward kicking off the Dancing Sword.

The Black Tiger’s head shot up.

The moment I thought the attack worked the Black Tiger raised its front paw and swung it at me.

I could see it.

I was preparing my next attack after dodging by twisting my body when something hit my body.

Huh?

Splash!

Before I could even realize what had hit me I flew several dozens of meters into the middle of the lake.

Damn. What was this?

Before I sank down I grabbed the Dancing Sword and got out of the water.

As soon as I got out of the water I could see Soo-ah getting flung back here in the same way as me.

The Black Tiger’s front paw had definitely not hit Soo-ah. Even though there was a distance of over 1 meter between it and Soo-ah, Soo-ah’s body had been flung back.

Was it some kind of strong wind?

For now, there was nowhere painful or broken so there was no real damage.

That meant that it’s purpose was not to kill us but to move us far away.

The Black Tiger’s line of sight went to the right.