Zectas Volume I: Enigmatic Village of Nanahuatl (7 page)

 

 

"I didn't know that you could also do iron works. If I had known I would have asked you to fix my knife days ago."

 

 

Smoke took out his knife and showed it to Darius. As Darius examined the knife he concluded that it was beyond repair.

 

 

"I can no longer fix this knife as its beyond help. I do however have this."

 

 

Darius took out 2 shiny knives, one was shorter and stouter (DAMAGE: 6-8) while the other was a little bit longer it sort of looked like a short sword (DAMAGE: 4-10). Both knives had a level restriction of 9.

 

 

"You can have your pick with these 2 knives or you can use them both if you like."

 

 

"Well having 2 of them would indeed be better but I think it would be confusing to switch between 2 knives."

 

 

"Switch? Why not use both of them at the same time? You can dual wield them. Here let me show you how."

 

 

 

Smoke was ecstatic. He had gained another ability and this time it was dual wield! He thought that characters with dual wielding ability looked so cool.

 

 

Smoke took both knives and started trying out moves on an imaginary opponent. He felt that he totally looked like some badass assassin right now.

 

 

Darius chuckled as he saw Smoke doing such exaggerated movements. He then told him to also look for some green herbs. There were some in the plains and in the fields.

 

 

Killing the horned rabbits with a single blow was to be expected now that he has a much higher attack. He was now able to kill the armored armadillos in 1 minute. All thanks to the increased attack speed that he got from dual wield.

 

 

Amidst slaughtering the horned rabbits and armored armadillos Smoke pondered on who in the world Darius was. He has a high level ability of cooking, he knows how to do metal works, and he even knows how to dual wield. Just what kind of job does Darius have.

 

 

After 3 days of having received the dual wield ability. Smoke finally reached his 9,999 horned armadillo. He was too excited to find out what would happen on his 10,000 kill.

 

 

+ You've dealt a fatal blow to the armored armadillo.

 

+ You've killed the armored armadillo.

 

+ You've gained 1 exp.

 

 

Finally all his hard work has payed off. It has been a total of 11 days of non stop armadillo hunting. His theory about killing 10,000 armored armadillos was confirmed to be true. Too bad there was no item drop like last time.

 

 

Even if there was no item drop Smoke's spirit was still high in the clouds. Its time to move on to his next monster. The dire fox. He was confident that he could take on a dire fox now. With all his new abilities and stats.

 

 

The results of his last 2 weeks with the armadillo hunt and with helping out in Nanahuatl Village

 

 

 

Smoke has also increased the intimacy with everyone in Nanahuatl Village to that of a close friend.

 

 

After such an accomplishment Smoke headed towards his new found home in ZECTAS the village of Nanahuatl. The villagers even gave him a house. It was the biggest house in the whole village it faced directly in front of the fountain.

 

 

He already considers himself as one of them. Lately he has noticed that the villagers are going out more, even if it was only just to sit in front of their houses. Then out of the blue he thought of something fun to do for the villagers.

 

 

He called everyone in the village and asked them to gather in front of his house. Slowly the villagers went to his house and saw that there were a lot of tables and chairs outside Smoke's house. When everyone was gathered. Smoke and Darius came out pushing a long grill.

 

 

"Everyone I think its about time that we start having some fun. I know for a fact that you recover faster when you're happy and laughing. So let's all enjoy our BBQ feast. Don't worry I'll still be the one to do the cooking just sit back and enjoy the show of this master (beginner) cook."

 

 

Smoke dazzled the crowd with his fast movement speed, it almost appeared like he was in 4 places at once. One second he would be putting the meat on the grill. The next he was chopping them up into bite sizes and then in almost 2 blinks he was already at their tables serving the BBQ.

 

 

This was the first time in a long time that Nanahuatl Village had a celebration and it was all thanks to Smoke.

 

 

With the BBQ bonanza over. The residents helped with the clean up and afterwards slowly headed towards their houses.

 

 

After those notifications Smoke felt a sense of belonging. These people are more than just NPCs they are already like his own family. Then a sequence of system notifications came up.

 

 

 

Darius then asked Smoke if he could speak with him privately.

 

 

"Smoke, do you remember the time when you asked me about gaining abilities from killing armored armadillos. Well truth is you do gain ability after you've killed 10,000 of them."

 

 

"Oh that, yup I already know that. I just recently got my 10,000th kill."

 

 

"What? It should have taken you more than a year to kill that many but you've only been here for around 5 months."

 

 

Since time inside ZECTAS is 4x Faster than in the real world Darius counted it as 5 months. To the residents of Nanahuatl Village he had been staying with them for almost half a year now.

 

 

"Well did you also manage to kill 10,000 dire foxes? I'm sure that would be a bit more challenging considering as how rare they are in the fields and the in plains."

 

 

"They are pretty rare aren't they? I've only defeated it once but I wouldn't really call it as a win but rather as a draw."

 

 

"Alright let me tell you about this secret fox hole then. It is a bit further away it would take you around 40 days to reach there. Let me indicate it on your map."

 

 

Smoke's map became visible and a dot started blinking in the part of the unexplored territory. Good thing that there was a route indicated towards the dot. If he followed this route he was sure that he would be able to avoid any dangerous monsters beyond his level.

 

 

"If you do head there now though everyone here in the village will start to run out of food again."

 

 

Smoke did a quick calculation and it turned out that he needed around 8,000 pieces of rabbit meat in order to feed the people from the time that he was away. 8,000 pieces of rabbit meat meant like killing more than 10,000 horned rabbits at the very least.

 

 

"Yes about that problem. Do you think there is another food source that we could procure. I don't think that the horned rabbit's meat is really effective to feed such a lot of people."

 

 

"Well you could go try to look for seeds inside the Mandragora forest. But then preparing the land then raising the seeds until they are ready to be harvested would take at least 6 months."

 

 

"How about if I hunt big game animals, like the stone deer or something similar?"

 

 

"You've hunted a stone deer before? Even level 40 adventurers would have a hard time dealing with them. Ahh but you're right the stone deers high defense shouldn't be an issue for you. Now that you have the ability from the armored armadillos."

 

 

"No I haven't hunted one myself. I just happened to see one and thought that it should feed more people, after all it is way bigger than a rabbit."

 

 

The two of them were walking around the village while they were talking about other potential food sources. Then near the entrance of the village Darius noticed a hill that he hasn't seen before. He asked Smoke if he knew something about that hill just outside of the village.

 

 

"Ohh that. That's just the carapace of the armored armadillos that I've been hunting. They were getting to heavy to carry around and since there was no merchant in the village to sell items to. I just decided to throw them into that pile. Maybe they could be useful for something someday."

 

 

"With this many carapaces we could make a dam where in we could trap the fish in the river."

 

 

"That's great to hear. Leave it to wise Old Darius to come up with solutions."

 

 

"Hey I'm not that old. I'm only 150 years old."

 

 

The two of them proceeded to make the dam. It was estimated to take atleast 2 weeks to finish the dam or around 4 days in real time. Smoke didn't mind it all. With this dam finished it would mean that he no longer needed to hunt those pesky horned rabbits anymore.

 

 

After completing the Dam a system notification popped up.

 

 

Assured that everyone will be able to eat fish until his return. Smoke headed out towards the fox hole.

 

 

Running at his top speed and only stopping to rest and eat. It took Smoke a mere 20 days(ZECTAS TIME) to reach the fox hole.

 

 

As he reached the entrance of the cave. He took the time to regain his strength. He ate till his satiety was full.In the moment that he stepped inside the cave. A system notification popped up.

 

 

 

After reading the notification he understood why the level had to be atleast 15. The dire foxes all came at him at once. They attacked him from all the sides.

 

 

Good thing Darius gave him an advice. He told Smoke to fight them with his back behind the wall. In this way he was safe from being surrounded. He only needed to worry about the monsters in front of him.

 

 

The dire foxes came in groups of 5 to groups of 9. As all the foxes in the group jumped to attack him all of them fell dead on the floor at once.

 

 

+ Attack hit dire fox. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 225.

 

+ Attack hit dire fox. Damage 90.

 

+ Attack hit dire fox. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 242.

 

+ You've dealt a fatal blow to the dire fox.

 

+ You've killed the dire fox.

 

+ You've gained 10exp.

 

 

- Attacked by dire fox. MISS.

 

 

+ Attack hit dire fox. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 235.

 

+ Attack hit dire fox. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 221.

 

+ You've dealt a fatal blow to the dire fox.

 

+ You've killed the dire fox.

 

+ You've gained 10exp.

 

 

By using his battle abilities (Agility of the Horned Rabbit, Dual Wield, Armor Break of the Armored Armadillo), the dire foxes were only jumping into their own deaths. It looked like the foxes were jumping into a meat grinder.

 

 

- Attacked by dire fox. MISS.

 

 

+ Attack hit dire fox. Damage 93.

 

+ Attack hit dire fox. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 232.

 

+ Attack hit dire fox. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 222.

 

+ You've dealt a fatal blow to the dire fox.

 

+ You've killed the dire fox.

 

+ You've gained 10exp.

 

 

+ Attack hit dire fox. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 238.

 

+ Attack hit dire fox. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 240.

 

+ You've dealt a fatal blow to the dire fox.

 

+ You've killed the dire fox.

 

+ You've gained 10exp.