Chapter 60: First Blood
’Reinforcements?’
’Good timing!’ Desther thought to himself as he estimated the distance between him and the five capillary waves that obviously contain five of the same creature he just killed.
Taking a quick glance at the notification, Desther finally knew the name of the creature.
[ Marked target eliminated! ]
[ Free Attributes: +9 ]
[ Theft Mark: 5/5 ]
Not only that, Desther was quite lucky, as he was able to actually gain experience points after he killed the monster.
[ You have killed a monster: Blastoad- Experience Points +15% ]
Perhaps it was due to its skill that it was called that, or it might be due to its name that it has that kind of skill.
Now that he knew the name of this creature, Desther finally felt at ease knowing that it should have no other skills aside from that.
Dismissing the screen, Desther refocused his attention toward the incoming capillary wave.
For others, facing five opponents of the same tier might be too much to handle, but for Desther, this was actually the ideal number.
With five Theft Marks that he could use simultaneously, it was truly a waste of time if he fought monsters one by one.
Although its buff effect would not stack for the same type of attribute, his enemy would still have their highest attribute halved.
This was a broken ability that directly weakened the enemy by half.
The only downside about it was that he could only cast Theft Mark once he had a visual toward the target.
With them still under the muddy water, Desther could not cast the Theft Mark yet.
Their distance gradually thinned down.
When the five capillary waves were merely eight to ten meters away, the five of them leapt upward one after the other and immediately opened their gaping mouths.
Water blast after water blast shot toward Desther at extreme speed.
This time, their speed and power were greater compared to what the Blastoad released earlier.
Without getting their Intelligence Attributes halved, these water blast skills were indeed lethal.
Desther did not underestimate them in the slightest.
Using his acute perception and senses, he evaded one water blast after the other with great precision and agility.
With overall body enhancement, Desther was truly no longer the same as before. A comprehensive increase without any weakness, he was in his utmost, tiptop shape.
As he dodged their attacks, Desther did not forget to cast five Theft Marks toward each of the Blastoad that leapt out of the air.
Knowing what their next movement was, Desther was not in a hurry and allowed them to dive back to the muddy water.
With his Theft Mark on them, Desther could acutely tell their location even without the capillary wave forming on the muddy water’s surface.
From the looks of it, every time they dived down, they would immediately swim away as quickly and as far as they could.
Once they reached the optimal distance, they would then make a sharp turn and charge toward it, forming a capillary wave in the process.
Although it was strange of them to do that, Desther guessed that it might be a prerequisite for them to use the water blast skill.
Thinking of that, Desther observed their actions clearly this time.
His guess seemed to be correct. As they formed the capillary wave, he could not help but notice a slight phenomenon right behind it.
From the looks of it, while charging forward and forming the wave, they seemed to be sucking the surface water through the holes on their back too.
’They must be using those waters to fire those water blasts...’ The idea of the skill gradually formed inside Desther’s mind.
He had read too many novels to not point to that kind of connection and process.
Once the Blastoads gathered enough water, they would then leap off the muddy water and blast the water they collected toward their target.
Although low, the Blastoad seemed to have intelligence too.
This time around, the five of them actually did not swim toward the direction but scattered themselves throughout the swamp forest before making a sharp turn to converge toward him once more.
Unfortunately for them, Desther had already prepared a good countermeasure for their tactic.
Calculating the distance mentally, he quickly pinpointed the Blastoad that was much quicker than the others.
The quicker the Blastoad, the quicker they would be able to reach him, and the quicker they would leap out of the muddy water.
’Its you!’
Choosing his target, Desther did not stay in place anymore and immediately bolted toward that particular Blastoad.
With a distance of five meters, the Blastoad was about to leap out of the muddy water when it was greeted with two successive Magic Bullets.
It was squarely struck on the face, allowing its barely emerging head to submerge back into the muddy water.
Blood floated out of the water, but the notification did not appear. The Theft Mark was still there, so Desther knew that it was not dead yet.
He did not linger in the spot any longer.
He noticed that the other Blastoad did not leap up earlier but instead followed him.
Earlier, he guessed that they needed to gather enough water before they could use the water blast skill. At the same time, he also thought once they gathered enough, they must immediately blast it out.
However, from the looks of it, these creatures could actually hold it in as they followed behind him, not releasing the water blast skill recklessly.
When he stopped in his tracks, the closer Blastoad finally tried to leap up.
Unlike earlier, Desther did not intercept its action. He was afraid that it would retreat back to the muddy water like the one earlier.
As it leapt up, Desther aimed it at the peak once more and cast two Magic Bullets one after the other.
As expected, the Magic Bullets struck its stomach and propelled it backward due to the force.
Another Blastoad leaped off the surface, and this time, it was able to cast its water blast skill due to Desther’s momentary distraction.
However, that was all there was to it.
Desther had fought many battles where he had to face multiple opponents at the same time.
Honestly, five of them were just enough to fill the gap in his teeth at this point.
After all, he had never underestimated any of his opponents, no matter their strength, no matter their numbers.
Using his expertise and experience in fighting, Desther was able to kill the Blastoad one after the other without any suspense.
Notifications flashed multiple times in his vision, confirming the kill.
Desther gained a solid 41 Free Attribute points after he was done with them,
Out of the five of them, another two provided him with experience points.
It was indeed true that newly emerged dungeons have a higher chance of giving experience points compared to regulated ones.
[ You have killed a monster: Blastoad- Experience Points +10% ]
[ You have killed a monster: Blastoad- Experience Points +18% ]
Different monsters provided different experience points, even if they were of the same level.
The logic behind the experience points distribution was just so chaotic that even the experts gave up trying to make sense of it.
Anyway, his experience points steadily increased, and he was getting closer to Level 3.
Just as he was about to check his Profile Page, another set of movements garnered his attention once more.
A frown surfaced on his face as he saw the multiple capillary waves moving toward him.
’Another set of reinforcements?’