Second World Chapter 185 - 185. Hunting As A Group

Warpath stood up with an utterly dissatisfied look, but he kept his silence. The others seemed to be intimidated as well. They were still whispering to each other a moment ago, but now they stood still like obedient school students. Jack then checked on his supposed team members using his God-eye monocle.
What the heck! He blurted out in his mind.
He understood that Warpath was low level as he had just died a few days ago, but the others were not much better. The other Fighter was level 14, the same as the two Rangers. The decent one was only one of the Magicians at level 15, while the other was only level 13.
That bastard Bigarm, he had certainly done this intentionally. At this current time where the average players were at level 15 and 16. This bunch was practically newbies. Were they sent here to help him hunt efficiently or to drag him down?
He took a deep breath, there was no use complaining. He was just doing this short term to show some results to gain the guild's trust. It was not like he was trying to make this his long-term career. Furthermore, he never needed the others' help to complete the hunting quests. He supposed he could just treat them as passengers who were going along with him. Even so, it was still better to get them coordinated. He studied them again.
The other Fighter was a teenage man named Dasher. The Rangers were a tall male called Bangstick, while the other was a plump man called Suckit. The two Magicians were both females, the level 15 one was a young girl with the name of Flowerrain, while the other one was a skinny woman called Undo.
He sent a party invite to all of them. After they formed a proper party, he said to them, "okay, listen up. I want you to listen to my orders at all times. If any of you go out of line, I will waste you myself. Do not think I won't do it, I have got permission from Scarface to punish anyone that shows disobedience. Do I make myself clear?"
The part where he had gotten permission from Scarface was a blatant lie. But he figured the ones that Bigarm had sent to him were the ones with the lowest level amongst the guild. So they would certainly feel some kind of insecurity. Such a lie would sound pretty real to them.
As expected, no one showed an expression that doubted his claim. Even Warpath seemed to believe it, judging from his clear attempt to control his temper.
Jack nodded, "okay. We will move in formation. Warpath and Dasher would be walking at the front. Bangstick and Suckit…" Jack paused a moment, what the heck kind of name is this? He had trouble pronouncing it, "… will walk at our flanks, each at one side. You two girls will be in the middle. I will be at the back. Is everything clear?"
They nodded.
"We will walk West to Siren Hill, then we will go North from there to the Harpy Valley. We should meet the monsters in my hunting quests along the way. When we encounter monsters, do not wander too far. Keep the formation as best as you can. Understood?"
They nodded again.
"Okay, let's move out then."
As they crossed the plain to the Siren Hill, there were mostly Silver Wolves and Goblins, they were low-level general monsters which every each of them had accustomed to beating already, so not much difficulty in taking them out.
Jack used the chance on this easy fight to make them get used to the formation. Warpath and Dasher were in charge of taking on the brunt of the monster's assaults. Bangstick and Suckit were tasked to hassle the enemy, attracting their attention and keeping them busy from approaching the damage-dealer team, Jack and the two girls.
As the leader of the team, Jack picked up the dropped loots from the monsters they killed, but he noticed one of the Magician girls, Undo, was taking notes on the stuff he picked up. Apart from picking up loots, Jack mostly stayed put from taking any action, he wanted to see the team's capability.
Dasher had the habit of charging onto an enemy, which caused him to keep on breaking out too far from the formation. Jack had to scold him a few times to get him back to position.
Bangstick had dull attack varieties, he mostly attacked the enemy from the front, competing for skill while he had no outstanding skill to show. Suckit was even worst, Jack figured him to be those kinds of a slow and lazy person. Despite his speed in this game world was not constrained by his body weight and shape, he still acted as if he was being burdened by it. Jack kept on yelling at them to move more, their jobs were to keep the enemies busy, so they needed to move around while avoid getting hit, only to attack from the side or back when an opportunity arose.
The two girls were taking it easy, as they were just standing there shooting from a safe distance. Jack could not gauge their skills under such a safe condition. However, the young one which was the highest level among the lot seemed to be more accurate in her shot, compared to the older one. She also seemed more relaxed, she might have been one of those who had plenty of experience playing VR games. The older one was more stiff, by the way she was throwing her standard attacks, she would most likely waste her staff's ammo before long. Jack hoped she bring some Magic Stone to replenish her staff's ammo.
He had nothing to complain about Warpath's skill, but the guy just did what he wanted. He did not bother to listen to orders.
Bigarm really had given him trouble this time, what's the deal with this lot? He swore he would get the guy back later.
Even though Jack was not involved in the combat, he still received experience as a party member. His Mage class was already close to level 16 before, after a few combats, His Mage class became level 16.
"Congratulations your Mage class have reached level 16
Your HP increase by 20
Your MP increase by 40
Your Strength increase by 2
Your Dexterity increase by 1
Your Intelligence increase by 5
Your Endurance increase by 2
Your Reflex increase by 2
Your Wisdom increase by 4
You receive 2 free attribute point and 2 free skill points"
Like his Warrior class, the boost from Mage class was way better than his basic Magician class. This would improve his Mage's prowess, it would be a great help during his current disguise.
After they arrived at Siren Hill, they didn't go up the hill, they turned North towards Harpy Valley. On the way, they passed through small rocky hills with several mining spots. Gremlin and Gnomes filled the place. Jack had bought a few pickaxes in the city shop for stocks after learning about their use, but he didn't mine any of the spots. His priority right now was to complete the hunting quests to impress the guild's upper echelons.
They completed their quota for Gremlin and Gnome before they arrived at the entrance of Harpy Valley. The valley was home to Green Harpy, Bald Eagle, and Giant Worm, which were the monsters in his hunting quests. They spent more time in the valley as most of the monsters were new types that they had never encountered before, including Jack.
The Harpy and Bald Eagle were especially troubling, as they were level 14 monsters and could fly. The melee Fighters and Rangers in their team lost their initiative in the fight, they needed to wait for the monsters to swoop down to attack before they could counter-attack. The star of the show in this valley were the three Magicians, but they had to be careful as the monsters could bypass the melee players and attacked them directly.
Flowerrain proved to be a decent player. He could see the sign when the Harpy and Eagle were about to make their attacks and moved away beforehand. But due to the monster's numbers, she still received damage from time to time. Luckily, Undo was not as useless as Jack afraid her to be, she did bring some Magic Stone to replenish her staff's ammo. But she did struggle more against the two types of avian monsters compared to Flowerrain.
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