Chapter 97: Desert Stalker
“What in the world is going on? This is the 8th Berserker Boar in a roll that ran into your sword…” Nina mumbled in a dazed voice as she stared at the monster corpse in front of Leo, who killed it without moving a single step.
“Who knows, but I’m not going to complain.” Leo shrugged.
“Is your sword actually an artifact?” She asked, her gaze fixated on his sword with a curious look on her face.
“No, this is just an ordinary steel sword.” Leo showed his sword to her.
Nina caressed the cold blade with her fingers and mumbled afterward, “You’re right… There’s no mana in this sword. It’s really an ordinary sword. But how come it can penetrate the Berserker Boar’s tough skin with such ease? That doesn’t make any sense, even if you imbued it with your mana.”
“There’s no need to overthink it.” Leo said with a stiff smile on his face. “Anyways, let’s take a look at our rank. We’ve gained around 20,000 points in just three hours. That should put us at least top 100, right?”
Leo looked at his watch.
[Rank: 219]
“Not even top 200? Just how hardcore are the students in our academy?” He was disappointed by the results.
“Actually, our progress is really good. We’d managed to increase our rank by 100 in just three short hours. If we continue at this pace, we should reach the top 100 within a few days.” Nina said.
“Alright, then let’s continue our hunt!”
The two of them continued to wander the Wilderness, and over the next several hours, they would hunt over a hundred monsters, most of them being Blood-Eyed Howlers and Berserker Boars.
Once it was sunrise, they decided to take a short break to clean their bodies and eat breakfast.
“Are Desert Stalkers rare in this area? We haven’t encountered a single one even after many hours.” Leo asked her as they ate.
“They’re not as common as the other two, but they’re not rare either. The thing with Desert Stalkers is, unlike most monsters, they are more active and aggressive when the sun is out because their glowing purple eyes are less obvious during the day than the night, not to mention their camouflage magic is also much stronger during the day.”
“I see… So we’ll be seeing them more often now that it’s morning…”
“Do they have any special attacks that I should be worried about?” he then asked.
“You only need to watch out for their sneak attacks. Desert Stalkers cannot camouflage themselves and attack at the same time, so they can only do one or the other. The moment they attack you, they will reveal themselves. As for their strength… They are neither strong nor weak.”
“I understand.”
After breakfast, they relaxed for another ten minutes before they went back out to hunt again.
An hour later, right as he was going to attack some Blood-Eyed Howlers while Nina distracted them, Leo noticed a tiny purple dot hovering in the distance near the corner of his eyes.
However, he was already committed to attacking the monsters before him, so he didn’t have the time to look elsewhere.
After killing the Blood-Eyed Howlers, Leo immediately turned to look in the direction where he saw the purple dot, but he could no longer see anything there.
‘Was I just seeing things? No… I am sure I saw two purple dots floating in the air.’ Leo continued to stare in that direction with narrowed eyes until the skeleton warrior finished harvesting the mana core.
“What���s wrong?” Nina suddenly asked him.
“I’m pretty sure I saw two purple dots before killing the Blood-Eyed Howlers. It could be a Desert Stalker, but I don’t see anything right now.” He said.
Nina turned to look in the same direction with a pondering face. “It’s most likely a Desert Stalker. They like to stalk their prey for a while before they attack, and they only spring into action when they’re confident that their attack will connect. That’s why they’re so annoying. They’re basically cowards.”
“Is that so…”
They continued to hunt monsters shortly after, being much more alert now that the possibility of a Desert Stalker watching them was quite high.
“Lilith, let me know if you see the Desert Stalker.” Leo said to her.
“That’s only natural,” she nodded.
About half an hour later, Leo and Nina encountered another group of Blood-Eyed Howlers, but as they prepared to attack them, Lilith suddenly said, “Leo! There’s a Desert Stalker about 50 meters behind you!”
However, Leo didn’t immediately turn around. Instead, he remained still and said to Nina in a low voice, “Don’t look back, but there’s a Desert Stalker 50 meters behind us.”
Nina’s eyes widened after hearing his words.
‘How did he notice the Desert Stalker that’s coming from behind us without looking back?’ she asked herself, as she was certain that Leo had been focused on the Blood-Eyed Howlers in front of them this entire time.
“Lilith, let me know once it’s right behind me.” Leo said to her.
“I got it. The Desert Stalker is slowly approaching you right now. 40 meters… 30 meters… 20 meters… 10 meters— now, Leo!” Lilith said in a loud voice.
Leo immediately turned around while swinging his sword, catching the Desert Stalker off guard.
Whoosh!
The steel sword penetrated the Desert Stalker’s defenses with ease, slicing through its body like a knife cutting tofu. The Desert Stalker released a ghastly scream right before it died, alerting the Blood-Eyed Howlers in the distance, and they quickly started throwing boulders made with magic at Leo and Nina.
However, Nina hadn’t summoned her skeleton mages yet, so she couldn’t block the attack.
“Watch out!” Leo instinctively wrapped his arm around Nina’s slim waist and picked her up before dodging the boulders with her.
“Skeleton mages!” Nina summoned her servants the next moment and had them bombard the Blood-Eyed Howlers.
“Thank you. You can put me down now.” She said a few seconds later.
After putting Nina back down on the ground, Leo immediately began running towards the Blood-Eyed Howlers with his sword ready to strike.