Hunting: The Dawning

Chapter 17: From Summer to Winter

Perceiving the extraordinariness of this Velociprey, Gordon no longer asked Pig Chop to go and lure the enemy. Instead, he launched the challenge himself.

Facing the suddenly emerging enemy, the Velociprey stopped eating. It didn't pounce immediately but locked its gaze on the hunter, fierce yet cautious.

Gordon placed his right hand on the hilt of the sword on his back. He didn't draw it out directly either. The state of holding the sword would greatly affect the moving speed and was not suitable before the distance between the two sides was shortened.

Eventually, it was Gordon who made the first move. He started to sprint, and the distance between them rapidly decreased.

The Velociprey hissed and also took a step. Its long beak and sharp claws smeared with blood looked particularly ferocious.

Just as the target's head was about to enter the attack range of the Burst Blade, Gordon decisively drew the sword and slashed vertically.

This move, which had been almost invincible against Velocipreys, failed this time. The Velociprey stopped in time, leaped backward a short distance, and easily dodged the powerful blow.

The heavy Burst Blade hit the ground. Gordon needed time to lift it up again. The Velociprey seized this opportunity and swung its powerful long tail towards Gordon's side.

Gordon frowned and temporarily stopped the action of lifting the greatsword. He grasped the hilt with one hand, turned around and came to the other side of the Burst Blade.

Block with the sword!

"Clang!"

The long tail of the Velociprey hit the blade of the Burst Blade. The not-weak force made Gordon's hands maintaining the block slightly numb.

"Sure enough, it has rich combat experience."

Gordon pursed his lips and put away his****. He bent down slightly, drove the power of his legs and waist, and swung the sword horizontally at the Velociprey's legs.

The Velociprey leaped backward in time again and successfully avoided it.

However, this time, Gordon's attack didn't end there.

After unloading the extra inertia from the empty horizontal s***h and swinging through a complete arc, Gordon directly advanced and lifted the sword upward again.

The Velociprey, which thought the hunter had entered the attack interval and was just about to pounce, had the huge hook claw accurately nailed into its lower jaw, penetrated its brain, and its huge body collapsed to the ground.

Killed instantly.

Gordon put away the Burst Blade and let out a light breath.

Sure enough, actual combat was the most effective way to improve martial arts. In just two days, he had polished the originally not-so-skilled greatsword moves to proficiency.

A missed s***h? It didn't matter. The next s***h, taking advantage of the momentum, would only be stronger!

Looking at the extremely intact Velociprey corpse in front of him, a satisfied smile appeared at the corner of Gordon's mouth.

Without Gordon's reminder, Pig Chop consciously started to keep watch of the surroundings.

Taking almost twice as long as usual, Gordon carefully skinned this large and intact Velociprey hide. Of course, those high-quality scales, claws and teeth wouldn't be let go either.

The materials for the Velociprey set were collected!

"Okay, Pig Chop. Let's go home!"

"Meow!"

...

Returning to Kokoto Village, after delivering the task and settling the reward, Gordon immediately took that large pile of Velociprey materials and went to the workshop.

Then he got a piece of extremely bad news like a bolt from the blue.

He had collected enough materials, but he didn't have enough money...

The Velociprey set included five parts: head, torso, waist, wrist and shin. The manufacturing cost of each part of the armor was 1150z, and the total added up to nearly 6000z.

In addition, Gordon hoped that the workshop owner could use the extra materials to make a set of armor for Pig Chop. This would add another expense.

The 2000z task reward he had just received, part of which had to be used to pay back the instructor's debt, was completely insufficient.

Reluctantly, Gordon had to hand over the materials and all his money to the workshop owner first and asked the latter to start making the armor for him. After all, unlike weapons, the production period of a full set of armor was much longer.

And he took Pig Chop, accepted a new task and rushed to the hunting ground again.

In the following period of time.

Collection tasks such as looking for special mushrooms, hunting for meat, collecting deer skins, hunting tasks such as hunting Great Wild Boars, Velocipreys and Khezu, as long as the price was right, he would accept anything.

At first, these one-star tasks that were neither profitable nor challenging made Gordon feel**.

But the instructor told him that this was the daily life of monster hunters.

The ores and materials for making armor and weapons, the countless materials for mixing various hunting items, and the money that was essential for everything.

These didn't fall from the sky.

They could only be accumulated bit by bit.

Take Gordon's Burst Blade for example.

It seemed that it was easy to collect all the materials, but in the end, weren't the huge amounts of iron ore and earth crystals all dug out by Gordon one pickaxe at a time in the past two years?

Without going through this accumulation stage, how could one make stronger armor and hunt more powerful monsters?

So it was better to do the tasks honestly!

Two weeks later, the Velociprey set was completed. After paying the final payment, Gordon finally put on this new armor that he had been longing for day and night.

This was a full-body armor with a low-key style but giving a very reliable feeling.

The bright-colored Velociprey hide, after tanning, turned into an unremarkable dark gray. Although it was leather, it faintly had a heavy texture like metal.

The vital parts such as the chest and joints were decorated with a large number of Velociprey scales and metal-made armors, providing maximum protection without affecting the wearer's movement.

According to the workshop owner, the defensive performance of this set of armor was at least two to three times better than that of the most basic hunter's set.

Paired with the heavy and sharp Burst Blade, Gordon now no longer looked like the "inexperienced and silly boy" as before.

It wasn't just Gordon who changed his equipment. Pig Chop also did.

The nut set with only the advantage of "lightness" was replaced. Instead, it was a brand-new armor made mainly of Velociprey materials.

And the "ore cat pickaxe" carefully forged by smelting several minerals.

All of these made Pig Chop, who was also in its "adolescence", extremely excited.

After paying the final payments for his and Pig Chop's armor, Gordon, who became penniless again, had no choice but to return to the originally busy and slightly boring task life.

However, even he himself didn't notice.

In these unremarkable one-star tasks one after another, his body was trained, his martial and sword skills were improved, and even the impetuous mentality characteristic of young people was gradually calmed down under the tempering of mushrooms and ores.

Summer and autumn passed quietly.

Throughout the autumn, everyone was making reserves for the coming winter. As the only two hunters in the village, the instructor and Gordon also constantly shuttled between the village and the hunting ground, hunting the necessary meat for the villagers to survive the winter.

After the tenth full moon of this year, Gordon, who had been busy for nearly half a year, finally took off his armor and weapon temporarily.

The Schreiter region located in the northwest corner of the continent had an early winter. Under the cold wind blowing from the Akula region in the north, everything withered and the activities of all living things slowed down.

Humans were no exception.

In this season, hunters generally wouldn't enter the hunting ground.

One reason was that the hungry monsters in the snow forest were more aggressive and extremely dangerous. On the other hand, it was also to give the pregnant female monsters during the autumn breeding period a little breathing space.

The heavy snow fell, covering the mountain forests, forest hills, roads and villages.

In previous years, for the sake of face and unwilling to spend the winter at the instructor's house, Gordon was always alone.

But this year, he had a cat!