[Mission: Annihilate the Brown Gnoll Pack]
Josh found himself in a plain. Everywhere around, he could only perceive yellowish grass with rocky soil. The sky was a beautiful deep blue, quite surprising in the Tower, and there was a calming wind blowing. Where was the usual edginess?
"I summon you, Navi! Give me some info on this Floor! Just the basics."
<Kill only the designated gnoll pack and try to hurt the others as little as possible.>
"Gotcha, so kill them all for something cool to happen?"
Josh began roaming around, trying to make sense of his surroundings. The place truly was vast, for even after a while there was no sign of life yet. It's only half an hour later that he spotted something. In front were about 20 human-sized hairy humanoid creatures.
They reminded him of big dogs, grotesque two-legged ones. Animal ears, long fur, sharp-looking claws, and naked. Their backs were arched toward the front, and in their paws, they clutched large bows.
That's when they all turned toward him. Right, the wind had carried Josh's smell to them. Still, he couldn't help but be surprised at how sharp their senses were. Their muscular arms pulled the bowstrings tout before releasing them. A rain of arrows started flying his way.
He perfectly knew how to deal with such an attack. He grabbed a spear and smacked the most troublesome projectiles while ignoring the others. He had experience with being shot arrows at. But as he did so, he could feel his entire arm tremble and become numb from the shock. These arrows were so powerful!
This wouldn't be a viable solution in the long term. Josh charged as fast as his legs would bring him. But somehow, the gnolls were already done grabbing new arrows. Wait, where did they even get them from?! They didn't have any quiver. But now was not the time for that.
Josh quickly equipped the vine amulet. Just as the arrows were about to fall on him, he dashed as far as possible before using the vines in mid-air to propel himself forward once more. Only with these two steps did he manage to evade without getting pierced.
He repeated the process a few times, except that now the gnolls had learned from their mistake. Instead of sending volleys all at once, they would take turns shooting. This made it so Josh could only progress by mixing evasion and parry as there was never any respite.
He had noticed something quite fantastical about these monsters. Whenever they shot an arrow, another one would magically materialize in their hands. Was it some kind of storage like the Players? Was it straight-up magic? Looking back, the arrows they had fired had all disappeared. Magic!
He eventually managed to cover the remaining distance, finally reaching them. He entered the pack of pink gnolls like a bullet and began a massacre. Why the pink? Well, it was just the group appellation. There was nothing pink about them, well maybe their...Before long, all the creatures were down.
Somehow, the creatures dropped some fur as material. What was he supposed to do with gnoll hair? A rug? A wig? Perhaps a mop? That is when Josh grabbed some of it and rubbed it all over his body. Had he suddenly developed a sudden fury inclination? No, he did so to help cover his smell.
He kept going. This time, he made sure to walk against the wind. This way, his position wouldn't be revealed by it. For once, Josh didn't desire to fight too many gnolls. After all, he was but human. There was a limit to the number of arrows he could block at once.
In the past, bows had been the weapon of predilection to deal with sword masters for a good reason. The whole trick to fighting one against many was to use the movements of one enemy to deal with one of his colleagues. This just wasn't possible with arrows.
Thus began a game of trying to sneak up on alert gnolls. Josh kept failing over and over. There was simply no sneaking on them. He even tried to use Navi and the godly rat as distractions, but the enemies would very quickly lock on him nonetheless.
Josh kept hunting and hunting. After the pink gnolls, he killed the orange gnolls, the red ones, the blue ones, and finally the green ones. Right after 5 packs were down, something finally happened.
The earth began trembling. Barking was heard in the distance. That is when approached a lone gnoll at an incredible speed. If the normal gnolls looked like big dogs, this one truly looked like a monster.
The first thing Josh noticed was the eyes. Somehow, it had glowing green eyes, the kind that would look like lasers in the dark. Then there was the bow. Its weapon was even bigger than Josh himself. It seemed to be made of dark bones. Then there was the fur color. It was pitch black. This was a true Boss!
<Gnoll Hunter Piercing Eye Lv 23☠️>
Piercing eye, was it? More like Piercing Arrow! It had just shot a huge 2-meter long arrow at Josh. The shaft was incredibly thick, and the head had insane penetrative power! As he dodged the projectile, he could see it bury itself so deep inside mother earth.
Were Josh to take such an arrow, he would be a goner. Josh grinned as he intensely fixed the monster. It was time to play! Josh easily evaded the monster's attack and then went on the offensive! … Only for the gnoll to flee at full speed.
That is when Josh realized a huge problem! This monster was way faster than him. This meant that no matter how much he evaded, he wouldn't be able to defeat it, ever. Simply because he wouldn't be able to close the distance.
Quite ridiculous, wasn't it? Still, Josh had no good method to increase his speed. He was guessing that the usual party would split up to somehow slowly drive it into a corner. Or perhaps were they usually using skills to slow it down? So what was Josh to do then?
Well, he began hunting for the elusive brown gnolls. Yes, the proper mission. He did so while faithfully followed by a big dog that kept trying to nail him to the ground. At the very least, it was rather easy to evade.
A few times, Josh tried suddenly switching direction, but the creature always managed to run. Josh simply accepted that this was his life now. Soon he managed to find his targets. All the annoyance he felt at the Boss, he vented on the little ones.
Afterward, he simply raised both middle fingers to the Boss that was still on his ass while shouting: "Teleport out!".
In Josh's eyes, one could have seen the burning desire for revenge. He'd be back soon. Real soon….
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