Next Smoke asked them if they knew how to cook. All of them said yes. Since Darius already taught them before in order to help feed the sick and the hungry.
Smoke was pleased to hear that they already had the cooking ability. He was about to show them another recipe, the 'medical deer stew+'. When suddenly a rain of rabbit meat fell on them from the sky.
"What is this? What's going on here? Why are there so many falling rabbit meat?"
Five falcons were flying up above and each one carrying dozens of horned rabbit meat. Thyrsus quickly apologized and commanded his falcon to perch onto his shoulders. The rest of the Hunters immediately followed his lead.
"I'm sorry Master Smoke. We forgot to tell our falcons to drop them properly into the container bin."
"Falcons? You guys have pets falcons? And I told you to drop that Master bit."
"Yes Master Smoke. ahh I mean Smoke. It is one of the prerequisites in becoming a Hunter. You must form a bond with an almost grown up falcon. Imprinting from when they hatch is the conventional method of gaining a pet but for us Hunters we take on a different route."
"Thank you for that explanation Vijaya. So how long did it take you guys to form the special bond with the falcons?"
"Well they would put you inside this huge cage with many young falcons hiding inside their nests. If one of the falcons decide to go near you. Then you will be officially recognized as a Hunter. Thyrsus took the longest time to get a falcon go near him."
"The only reason why the rest of you got shorter times was because you followed what I did. Who would have known that your suppose to call out your falcon's name even before you met them."
Smoke was amazed to hear the process of becoming a Hunter. He was intensely listening and understood how difficult it must have been to think of the falcon's name.
"Yeah, that sounds really hard. So how did you know your falcon's name. Or rather what did you name your falcon?"
"Naturally I gave my falcon a name that means gallant, brave, heroic and handsome. I called my falcon Thyr!"
"What?! Don't tell me the rest of you named your falcons after your own names?"
"Well after we called out our respective names the falcons immediately went down to perch on our shoulders."
"Anyway I'm impressed that your falcons can manage to hunt horned rabbits on their own."
"Of course! Our falcons are all above level 40 and most of us are almost level 60 as well."
Smoke couldn't believe his ears. He has a lower level compared to everyone in his private army. Well in a way that's still a good thing. It just means that he has gathered some dependable members.
"Good. That's good to hear. So let me go back to my demonstration before I was covered in rabbit meat."
He proceeded to show them how to make the 'medicinal deer stew+'. Since they needed this in order to overcome the poison damage from the poison slimes. He told them the number of hours they needed to stay in the poison state in order to gain the poison resistance attribute.
"Darius already taught you how to make fire arrows right? Then all you're lacking is the ember stone. Well then I'm gonna loan it to you guys. During your time in Mandragora Forest I want you to collect as much poison pellets as you can as well as the front legs from the orchid mantis."
The four left for Mandragora Forest in high spirits. Excited to gain the poison resistance attribute as well as the ability to use the poison arrows.
After they were done with their own required preparations. Smoke and Adder headed for the mouth of 'Murray River'. In order to clear the waterways into the open seas.
The Murray River is a very wide and very deep river. On an average it is around 3 kilometers wide but the widest part is at 8 kilometers. The fishing weir that Darius and Smoke constructed was on one of the wider parts of the river. Although there are some parts of the river that are shallow.
James Jackal have given them 'specialized earmuffs'. These specially made earmuffs offered no defense whatsoever. However it did drown out all external sounds. Smoke had planned to use this against the murlocks stolen ability 'song of the siren'.
Once they tried out the earmuffs, they found themselves in total silence. Smoke immediately recognized the great disadvantage of losing the ability to communicate.
He knew that he should train with Adder in using hand signals. He thought about imitating the military special forces in the real world.
Traveling along the trees in the riverbanks, they encountered some gigantic powersaw crickets. These powersaw crickets were about 3 feet tall and 5 feet in length. Smoke had felt their presence with his ability 'Cunning of the Dire Fox'. He thought that this would be a great opportunity to try their practiced hand signals.
Smoke formed a fist calling for Adder to stop, next he used two fingers to point out the directions of the powersaw crickets. Lastly he motioned for Adder to head towards the enemy on right, indicating that they take out that enemy first.
Adder promptly complied. Leaping with his mantis blade he struck the powersaw cricket from above. After the first hit they immediately felt strong vibrations all over their body. The rest of the power saw crickets must have been alerted.
The struck powersaw cricket indicated a life bar of (9,112/12,000). It was desperately rubbing both of its hind legs together. This must have been the signal that alerted the rest of the powersaw crickets. Since they were using the earmuffs they couldn't hear a thing.
Smoke went to the side of the powersaw cricket and began hitting it with his poison arrows. Adder's damage was around 2,500 and Smoke's damage was around 1800. It only took them a couple of seconds to deal with their first powersaw cricket.
+ Your party has dealt a fatal blow to the powersaw cricket.
+ Your party has killed the powersaw cricket.
+ Your party has gained 5,000 exp.
While gathering the loot. Smoke was back attacked for a damage of 200pts. The powersaw crickets had thorns on their hind legs and they would use this as their projectile weapon.
The 'Cunning of the Dire Fox' didn't detect the projectile attacks of his enemies. Smoke didn't know about this handicap. When he was fighting with the Tree Ent 'ReenTe' he was able to feel the presence of its whips. Although whips have a long range they are still considered as a melee weapon.
This was a great disadvantage of 'Cunning of the Dire Fox'. He signaled for Adder to retreat from the powersaw crickets. They kept on getting hit since their backs were exposed as they ran.
They finally reached the plains and still had more than 40% of their total HP. Smoke and Adder removed their earmuffs so they could discuss what had happened. As they removed their earmuffs they immediately heard the loud sounds coming from the powersaw crickets.
"Are those sounds coming from the powersaw crickets?"
"Aye, I think they are. No wonder we felt our skins vibrating."
"Yup. If we didn't have our earmuffs on. We would be deaf by now. So I just discovered that my detection ability 'Cunning of the Dire Fox' cannot sense projectile attacks. With that said, we should make sure that all our enemies are in the front. This way we can at least see the projectile attacks and somehow dodge them."
"Smoke, you want us to go back and hunt the powersaw crickets?"
"I think they'll make some pretty good practice for our silent attack pattern."
"I see, since they also have some form of sound attack. They will serve as a dummy murlock."
After regaining their health and eating some medicinal deer stew, the two of them headed back into the territory of the powersaw crickets.
This time Smoke made sure that they wouldn't be surrounded. They efficiently took down and looted each powersaw cricket.
Their target powersaw cricket would make a sound indicating their location and after a few seconds rain of thorns would come their way.
Smoke and Adder had learned the powersaw cricket's attack pattern. They would immediately hide behind some trees or some rocks.
The duo moved slowly and carefully until they had killed the powersaw crickets in the vicinity.
Sensing that there were no more powersaw crickets. Smoke signaled Adder to remove his ear muffs. They were to make camp and rest for a while before proceeding.
With their health fully recovered. They proceeded once more towards the mouth of Murray River. They were about 40 kilometers away from their destination when Smoke sensed an army of powersaw crickets heading their way.
He immediately signaled Adder to stop and locate an advantageous position. In the event where their enemy would rush them from the front. Adder was to play the role of tank, while Smoke sniped the enemies from the back.
They waited for the army of powersaw crickets to come but Smoke sensed that they were slowly declining in number. He then felt another presence of some unknown monster mixed into the army of powersaw crickets.
They slowly moved towards the direction of the unknown monster. It was a thorny devil lizard. It's about 5 feet tall and at least had a length of 8 feet. The thorny devil lizard was covered in hard thorny armor.
The thorny devil lizard were devouring the powersaw crickets. The powersaw crickets would try to use their thorn attacks but it looks like the armor of the thorny devil lizard withstood the thorn's damage.
There were about 60 thorny devil lizards. Smoke targeted the one furthest away from its pack. Using the same attack pattern. Adder leapt and managed to do a critical strike and a back attack on the thorny devil lizard.
The thorny devil lizard's life bar indicated to be (21,512/24,000). It quickly tried to take a snap at Adder but somehow he managed to position himself safely behind the thorny devil lizard's back.
Smoke took notice that the armor did not cover the lizards neck. He proficiently launched his volley of arrows as the lizard continued to snap at Adder.
The thorny devil lizard was confused with the two pronged attack. The duo managed to kill the monster in under 3 minutes.
+ Your party has dealt a fatal blow to the thorny devil lizard.
+ Your party has killed the thorny devil lizard.
+ Your party has gained 10,000 exp.
Smoke and Adder could stand their ground against one of these monsters. But not against a pack, Smoke understood this and decided to take a detour away from the pack of thorny devil lizards.
They continued on towards the mouth of Murray River without much incident. They journeyed slowly, relying on Smoke’s ‘Cunning of the Dire Fox’ to detect any monsters.
After traveling for about 4 hours, Smoke felt the presence of a lone thorny devil lizard. Thinking that this was free experience, they silently stalked it.
The thorny devil lizard went near the edge of the river to drink some water. Adder was about to leap behind it. When Smoke grabbed him and and just barely managed to stop him from jumping. Just a split second before Adder would have jumped, a gigantic black alligator snapping turtle came out and ate the thorny devil lizard.
Smoke didn't feel the presence of the giant snapping turtle, until the last moment when it emerged out of the water. It had completely blended into the river leaving no signs of any killing intent. After swallowing the thorny devil lizard whole, it submerged into the river without a trace.
The two stood their ground in disbelief. There was another undetectable monster in the Murray River. From a safe distance, Smoke took the time to study the part of the river where the gigantic alligator snapping turtle came out from.
He noticed that the part of the river was really dark. He concluded that gigantic alligator snapping turtle had dug a hole and was only waiting for prey that would come near its hole.
Feeling confident with his theory. Smoke presumed that if they would just notice those holes then they would be safe from the gigantic alligator snapping turtle.
They continued on with caution, careful to take notice of all their surroundings. After a total of 40 days, they finally reached their destination.
An army of around 500 murlocks were out in the open. With great fortune the army was in shallow waters. Equipped with the earmuffs and the enemies in shallow waters, it was the perfect scenario to wipe out the murlocks.
Smoke signaled for Adder to proceed, while he starts shooting from behind and slowly move forward. The murlocks were shocked at the rain of arrows that arrived out of nowhere.
In the direction of the volley of arrows, ran a lone warrior who was charging at them. They quickly regrouped. The females of the murlocks immediately activated their ability 'song of the siren' and the males headed towards the warrior.
The murlocks expected the warrior to stop running. However the warrior only continued on and started slashing the murlocks that came his way. The murlocks did not notice that they have been poisoned. The murlocks that were nearing the warrior were also especially targeted with arrows.
