Zectas Volume I: Enigmatic Village of Nanahuatl (30 page)

He took on three more rounds from the three rabid raccoons' attacks. His lifebar became (11,214/36,850 HP). Since he did not have any ability to attack with his legs and with only 30% left of his life he called for Adder and Igniz to eliminate the monsters that were attacking him.

 

 

The three rabid racoons were killed in under 4 seconds. Adder took down two while Igniz dealt with the last rabid raccoon.

 

 

Smoke ordered for the two of them to protect him for the next 2 minutes since it took that long for his life to fully recover.

 

 

Normally when sitting down and using the 'medicinal deer stew' it would take about 10 minutes in order to completely heal.

 

 

However, now that he has found a new medicinal recipe from one of the books that he read, the recovery time has been reduced to one third.

 

 

The recipe is called: 'medicinal curry', its ingredients are potatoes, yellow medicinal herbs, fish, deer meat, coconut, jaggery, garlic, and jalapeño.

 

 

The spices are still in short supply so he can't make too many of this new dish. The effects of the dish are 1% recovery rate and 'burned status' which meant 150 damage/second. The effects also last for 30 minutes. Since Smoke has gained fire resistance of up to 50% he didn't take any damage from 'the burned status'.

 

 

He didn't want to take any unnecessary recovery periods. So he opted to try dodging just one rabid raccoon.

 

 

- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.

 

- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.

 

- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.

 

- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.

 

- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.

 

- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.

 

 

Still handicapped by the two books. Smoke just kept on dodging the rabid raccoon. 20 minutes have passed and the effects of his 'medicinal curry' had ran out. He asked for Igniz to take out the rabid raccoon.

 

 

"Time to recharge guys. Let's head out to the plains and eat some curry."

 

 

As they settled down to rest. Adder started preparing the meal. Once everything was set. They started eating. Seeing that Smoke can't use both his hands he had asked Igniz to become his pseudo spoon.

 

 

Igniz would create a small fire shield and scoop down the curry and feed it to Smoke. This made the curry a little bit hotter but he found the temperature to be just right.

 

 

"Wow, Igniz sure seems to be pretty useful."

 

 

"I know, I just asked him if he could feed me somehow and he was the one who came up with that ember spoon."

 

 

"I wish I had an ember sprite. Or anything that could replace my missing left arm."

 

 

"Yeah, about that I've been looking for books on limb restoration for humans... and I'm afraid that all I found was creating prosthetic limbs. Of course you need a specialized craftsman in order to make moveable limbs."

 

 

"I see, well I'm in no hurry to get prosthetic limbs. Although I may miss my left arm but if it weren't for that I wouldn't have been driven to learn the ability 'Grip of the Silver Gorilla'. There are still a couple of good things that came out of that unfortunate incident."

 

 

"In any case, I'll still keep on looking for ways of getting you a better arm. Okay? You good to go? Let's head back."

 

 

The experience gained from one rabid raccoon was barely visible. Yet the progressbar from the ‘Agility of the Horned Rabbit’ increased by .003% when Smoke dodge against the three rabid raccoons.

 

 

He decided to stick with dodging three monsters. He just needed to think of it as being attacked by one rabid raccoon that happens to be on three sides at the same time.

 

 

After three hours of repetitive training he gained a better understanding of the rabid raccoons' attack pattern. The damage that he gets in a ten minute time span has been reduced from 6,000 to 4,000.

 

 

It was after 12 hours of doing the same routine that he managed to drop the attacks to a measly 1,500 within 10 minutes.

 

 

Working hard really paid off. His supplies for making the 'medicinal curry' were almost running out. So he really needed to clear the three rabid raccoons without getting hit ASAP.

 

 

With the damage that low he could confidently switch to the old recipe the 'medicinal deer stew'. His ability 'Agility of the Horned Rabbit' needed just 20% more before reaching Advance Level 5.

 

 

On his second day of training, a pleasant surprise popped up. He received a system notification for his efforts.

 

 

 

He made a winning pose and raised both books up in the air. Now he could step up his game and try dodging 4 rabid raccoons at once.

 

 

After only getting misses from the four monsters for an hour. He decided to increase them to six. The moment he added two more rabid raccoons into the mix he started receiving damage.

 

 

However the damage was still below the healing rate of the 'medicinal deer stew' so he continued the pace at six rabid raccoons.

 

 

The progressbars on the books displayed that they would be completed in the next forty five minutes. Yet the experience bar from his 'Agility of the Horned Rabbit' remained at 96.5%.

 

 

"Well, my real purpose here was to kill time while I acquired these books' knowledge anyway. Looks like I'll just have to increase 'Agility of the Horned Rabbit' some other time. Adder, Igniz it's time to head home! Hurry up and finish these monsters."

 

 

Smoke had already estimated the travel time required for their return. Igniz was happily orbiting around Smoke once more while he was running with the two books still held tightly in his hands.

 

 

As the borders of Nanahuatl Village came into view so did the progressbars of the book came to completion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

+ Your total 'Acquired Knowledge' has increased your Intelligence by 10.

 

 

He couldn't believe what he was reading in the 'Acquired Knowledge' window. Nanahuatl Village held such a secret! Darius knew all of this all along.

 

 

His first memory of Nanahautl Village was an old run down ghost town. He wondered what terrible thing might have happened that caused the village to be such a desolate place.

 

 

The only way to find out is to ask Darius. He increased his pace and started sprinting for Darius' house. Acquiring the knowledge of those two books led to more questions than answers.

 

 

At the fountain in the village. Smoke asked Adder and Igniz to go to his house and sort out their supplies and the loot that they've gathered. He knew that Darius would ask them to leave anyway.

 

 

Smoke reached Darius' house and didn't bother to knock. He felt more familiar with him than the Manager of the Game Center, who he thinks as his second father.

 

 

"Darius, I'm coming in. You sure have a lot of explaining to do. Why didn't you tell me the truth about Nanahuatl Village? Also, the missing sixth family token, does it belong to Kumbaba? Darius? Darius? Where are you Darius?"

 

 

He had checked the kitchen, the library, and even the backyard but he didn't find Darius anywhere. He usually just hangs around his house.

 

 

The he remembered that Darius also had a cellar like the one in his house. He went back inside and rushed downstairs to the cellar.

 

 

Darius' cellar wasn't bare like his. The cellar was filled with books, potions and other equipments that he knew nothing about. Suddenly, one of the walls shifted down and Darius stepped out.

 

 

"Oh, I thought you'd be back after one more hour. I was just doing some tidying around my knowledge chamber. You know... for our 'talk'. Ahh, I can clearly see that you're flooded with questions. I told you that reading those two books would make the talk simpler."

 

 

Smoke knew that in games like these you have to fulfill certain requirements in order to activate certain events. Yet he was still pissed that Darius didn't tell him any of this stuff before. He thought that they were already close enough that he would tell him everything.