Liam kept a calm mind, falling back. The five rabbits fletched their teeth and hopped after the intruder.

  “Get ready!”

  Liam warned his teammates, but it turned out to be unnecessary. The two young women were indeed martial artists in real life, not flustered by a mere five rabbits.

  Silver Bde took a step forward, ready to fulfill the role of tank. Meanwhile Cye swung her wand. Mages had normal attacks as well, dealing magical damage.

  [-62!]

  A surprisingly high number rose from the head of a rabbit, caused by Cye’s new equipment.

  The rabbit didn’t have much HP, dropping dead on the spot.

  Silver Bde smiled brightly at her best friend:

  “Good job Cye!”

  The smaller girl smiled foolishly, clearly enjoying the feeling of triumph over the monsters.

  At this moment Liam arrived with the other four rabbits. He stood still, swinging his sword.

  [-42!]

  Immediately another rabbit was down to critical health. But the fierce oppos also knew how to attack.

  Sharp teeth s Liam’s leg. The warrior calmly pced his sword in the way, not taking any damage.

  [Stance -4!]

  Silver Bde had already watched Bleary Mirage fight, easily grasping the basics. With her big shield it wasn’t difficult to defend against two rabbit attacks.

  On the trary. Wielding a shield influenced one’s stahus the two attacks only deducted four points for Silver Bde.

  With three level 2 characters Liam and the two women obviously overpowered their oppos. The rabbits stood no ce.

  Two more of them fell under Cye’s magic attacks, while the st one was defeated by Liam.

  “Ha, so easy!”, excimed Cye happily as she went to loot the bodies.

  But Liam hastily stopped her.

  “Wait.”

  “Why? I clearly have lucky hands! Just let me do the looting. I promise I won’t hide anything.”

  Liam looked skeptically at the woman’s mischievous smile, but this wasn’t the reason why he stopped her.

  “We should let Silver Bde loot them; she has her quest after all.”

  “You mean it doesn’t t if I loot?”

  “No, you ’t get the quest item.”

  “’t I share the quest?”, asked Silver Bde from the side.

  “No. Most os ’t be shared.”

  “Pity. Then I will loot…”

  “Ok…”

  Silver Bde stepped forward but when she saw the struggle in Cye’s eyes, she couldn’t help but say:

  “Why don’t we do it like this? You loot every fifth rabbit, Cye.”

  “Really?”

  Cye looked between Silver Bde and Bleary Mirage. Notig that they both didn’t object, she quickly went ahead as well.

  Silver Bde looted quickly while Cye rubbed her hands together, building up her luck.

  “Ewh!”

  Suddenly a strange scream could be heard. Liam and Silver Bde both looked at Cye with shock.

  “What happened?”

  “It’s an eye! Wah, I looted an eye!”

  Silver Bde stared for a moment before chug at her friend.

  “That’s not funny! How they make us loot eyes?! Here, you take it!”

  With those words Cye threw the eye to Silver Bde who calmly caught it in the air.

  Liam watched from the side, his gaze fixed on the eye, once again realizing how lucky Cye was. Although the eye was an alchemy ingredient of det worth, it had another important effect which might e into py soon.

  But trary to Cye, Silver Bde didn’t seem quite as fortunate, not getting a single fur from the rabbit.

  The group wasn’t disced though, and tinued hunting. Liam repeated the same strategy luring another five rabbits.

  After this fight went fwless as well, the group grew bolder. Silver Bde and Cye urged Bleary Mirage to aggro more monsters.

  Liam nodded and sneaked closer toward the ter. Instantly nine pairs of eyes turowards him.

  Let’s see how the girls do. So far they have shown quite the talent for someone who has never pyed games. Maybe martial artists really have it easier in the game.

  Liam even had time for leisurely thoughts as he returo his two panions.

  But Silver Bde and Cye felt some pleasure. They gripped their ons tightly, eyes focused on the rabbits.

  Cye cleverly took a few steps forward to get more attacks in. She swung her wand, a small white sphere flying at one of the rabbits.

  [-61!]

  With a sad squeak the rabbit toppled over and ceased movement. His peers weren’t intimidated in the slightest though as they chased after Liam.

  Suddenly a small spear of light formed in the air, shooting at another rabbit.

  This was Cye’s skill [Holy Strike].

  [Holy Strike (rank 1)

  Cost: 8 Mana

  Effect: Strike the target with holy magic, dealing 140% (MDMG) magical damage. Has a ce of doing an additional 10% (MDMG)holy damage.

  Cooldown: 6 seds]

  [-84!]

  The rabbit couldn’t be more dead as the spear hit it.

  Liam showed some pleasant surprise reag the two women. Cye had already returo her position at the back, waiting for her normal attack to be ready.

  “Well pyed.”

  “Good job.”

  Receiving praise from her two friends, Cye smiled happily.

  But seven rabbits still arrived, ready to reveheir brethren. Silver Bde immediately took a defense posture, fog on three oppos.

  Meanwhile Liam brought in a quick attack before three mouths snapped for his legs.

  The veteran showed practiced movements, evading two enemies while blog one.

  [-8!]

  Suddenly Liam almost froze in pce, doubting himself. One rabbit actually mao hit him.

  How?!

  He didn’t uand how he could miscalcute the speed of a level 1 enemy.

  Liam almost felt embarrassed as the two women looked at him in surprise.

  “Expert, did you just get hit?”

  “Well… I was thinking about something else.”

  Liam threw out a random excuse, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the rabbits.

  If this was real life the rabbits might get an ominous feeling now but ihe monsters were fearless.

  As the wave of attacks arrived, Liam trated. He evaded perfectly, with not oep wasted.

  But his instincts still warned him that something was amiss. Those little monsters did indeed move a tiny bit faster than he was used to.

  This difference was negligible. Most pyers wouldn’t pay it any attention. But for Liam and other pros, everything about the game had to be thhly analyzed to find even the smallest advantages in tough situations.

  For now, Liam could only shelve his doubts as the timing for an attack opened up. Two more rabbits dropped dead.

  Now only five remained, a he team was already used to. With their fury built up it didn’t take long for the rabbits to die.

  This round rewarded them with some fur and another eye, bringing them closer to the quest’s pletion.

  Unfortunately, with one level differehere was a heavy redu in the EXP gained, further diminished as it lit among the party members.

  Thus, Liam’s EXP bar filled at an agonizingly slow pace.

  [EXP: 20/500]

  Fate of aboul had always been like this. The first level was more of a tutorial, easily achievable within a day for most people. But from then on you had to put in the work.

  The difficulty was even bound to increase again when reag certain thresholds.

  But oher hand, there were many possibilities of earning a rge number of EXP. Rare, hidden, and unique quests, dungeon raids and field bosses, would attract the attention of pyers soon.

  But for Liam’s party this was still a thing of the future as they tinued luring in rabbits.

  With renewed tration Liam didn’t get hit again.

  Meanwhile a few other pyers had also arrived at the se, learning from Liam and only pulling a few rabbits over.

  Doomsday had e for the poor rabbits.

  Silver Bde and Cye eve somewhat bad as they tio empty the field.

  Gradually new rabbits spawned and were immediately killed again.

  After getting rid of another wave of monsters, Liam’s party tinued looting. Silver Bde already had eight out of ten pieces of fur, close to pleting the quest.

  But at this moment she suddenly pulled back her hand in surprise.

  “Hey! I found an eye as well!”

  Liam instantly perked up, waving at his panions, already prepared for this moment.

  “Quick, guys, e over here!”

  “But I’m not done looting…”

  Cye spoke with a pout, about to reach out with her hand.

  “You will have enough to loot ter on. Hurry up.”

  The two women were fused but they had enough trust in Bleary Mirage by now.

  Stopping what they were doing they jogged towards Liam, who retreated to the edge of the area.

  Just as Silver Bde and Cye arrived, they heard a otion behind them.

  A low rumble spread. Dity scattered, falling in the geous clear water.

  Not far from the creek a hole suddenly appeared in the ground. Twe red eyes could be seen in the darkness, staring at Liam’s group angrily.

  The eyes moved. The dirt around the hole crumbled. Slowly a fat white body was revealed. Long cws could be seen grabbing onto the grass, ripping it apart.

  A few seds ter a white rabbit, the tips of its long fluffy ears at the height of Liam’s neck, reached the ground. Its pressure enshrouded the entire Rabbit Creek.