Second World

Jack was wondering if he could sneak into the main hut undetected. After observing for some time, he decided it was impossible. The encampment was not very big, but the Lizardman population was quite dense; he would meet with at least one no matter which path he took.     

Even for Rangers with their Silent Step skill, sneaking through the camp would be a stretch. Furthermore, there was still a Boss inside guarding the treasure. It would be utterly foolish to sneak into the main hut successfully, only to end up fighting the Boss and getting surrounded by the rest of its minions.     

He wondered how strong was the Boss inside in comparison to the Lizarman Blood Guard he had fought in Tutorial Period.     

After studying the encampment and understanding that there was nothing he could do here, Jack decided to leave. He kept low and paid attention to his radar as he moved away from the camp.     

He noticed Lizardmen going on patrol. They always moved around as a team of two. Unlike the disorganized Gnomes and Goblins, the Lizardmen seemed to move in a fixed path around their encampment.     

Jack saw patrols going the way he was heading. He moved carefully, avoiding detection. He was not a Ranger with a sneaking skill, but he had played some stealth games in the past, so he was no stranger to stealth maneuvering.     

When he was hiding from one patrol, he noticed a side path where the ground sloped downward. Jack crawled over there to stay out of sight of the patrol. He checked his radar and couldn't see any monsters along the side path. He followed the way down into a long and deep ravine. The track narrowed as the sheer sides of the ravine drew closer to each other. As Jack went further, the ravine widened in some places and narrowed in others. In the narrow parts, only one person could pass at a time.     

Jack stopped and looked back at the terrain. He thought for a while as an idea slowly formed in his mind. He then asked the Fairy, "Peniel, if I attacked the Lizardman in the encampment, will they come out to chase me?"     

"Of course, haven't I said that before?" Peniel said. "Why did you ask that dumb question?"     

Jack ignored her mocking. He asked another question, "How far away will they chase?"     

"It varies depending on the size of the settlement and the type of monster in the settlement."     

"Can you make an educated guess for that Lizardman encampment?" Jack continued to ask.     

"Don't tell me you are planning to do something with that encampment," Peniel said with a surprised expression.     

"Just answer my question first, will you?" Jack said.     

Peniel stared at him uncertainly. She was probably wondering if the guy had lost his mind. But after seeing his serious expression, she figured she should just indulge him. She floated up high and looked in the direction of the Lizardman encampment.     

After a while, she flew back down and said, "Well, I cannot say for certain, but my best guess would be that they'd give up the chase about ten meters back."     

Jack looked around closely and then scoped out the exit of the ravine. It was still some distance away from where they were.     

"If I kill a Lizardman from that encampment far away from the encampment, like here, for example, will they respawn?"     

"If you kill a settlement monster inside its settlement or out here, they will respawn the following day, as long as their settlement has not been successfully raided."     

Hearing the answer, Jack gave the matter some more thought. After a while, he finally decided.     

"All right, let's give it a try then!" He said.     

"Give what a try?" Peniel asked.     

"You will see," he replied as he took out a whetstone and sharpened his sword. He then cooked chicken soup and consumed it. Ready for battle, he walked back the way they had come.     

"You really are going to disturb that hornet's nest, aren't you?" Peniel asked him.     

"Hehe," Jack replied with a grin.     

Peniel gave him a helpless sigh. "Up to you, let's see how you fare then. Your speed should be fast enough to run away if something goes wrong."     

Jack came out of the ravine and boldly strutted towards the encampment. The sun had already set, but the full moon gave Jack enough light. A Lizardman patrol was coming out of the encampment as he neared. The Lizardmen stopped with stunned expressions: a human had come into their territory!     

They started to shout in a strange language as a warning to their other brethren. Jack responded with a Mana Bullet, hitting a Lizardmen squarely in its face. Its partner roared angrily at Jack and ran toward him. Jack heard many footsteps and saw many more Lizardmen boiling out of the encampment.     

"Wow, so many... It really is like a hornet's nest," Jack commented.     

After enraging an entire camp, Jack turned tail and split. He ran at full speed towards the slope. On his radar, Jack could see many red dots coming after him. There really could be a hundred of them; Jack mused as he continued running. His Dexterity stats made him faster than the Lizardmen, but he kept a fixed distance between them to bait them to keep chasing after him.     

He took the side path into the ravine and stopped just past the first place where only one person could pass. He turned around, drew his weapons, and waited.     

The closest Lizardman, with its bulkier frame, struggled to get through the narrow pathway towards Jack. Jack fired another Magic Bullet into the Lizardman's chest. He then sent continuous range attacks from his staff. The Lizardman could not avoid the attacks; there was no space for evasive maneuvers in the narrow passage. It took damage but kept coming. When it was close enough, it stabbed forward with its spear. Jack switched his staff from range attack to Magic Shield. As his shield blocked the stab, he landed Power Strike on the Lizardman's head, dealing critical damage.     

He continued to block and attack the frustrated Lizardman. The other Lizardmen arrived, but they could not pass. So they queued up behind as the one at the front combated the intruder.     

Jack was not afraid that there would be Lizardmen coming from behind him, as they would need to walk a long way around the ravine to enter from the other end. Halfway there, they would reach the limit of their pursuing distance and turn back to their settlement.     

He was afraid that some Lizardman might have chased along the top of the ravine and might jump down on him.  If that happened, he would have to abandon this tactic. Fortunately, no Lizardman got that bright idea.     

He activated Heightened State to increase his mana and stamina regeneration whenever the skill was off cooldown. Despite their comrades dying at the front, the rest of the Lizardmen continued to queue behind, obediently waiting for their turn.     

As the Lizardmen continued to pile up at the choke point, Jack continued to hack away at whichever came to the front of the line. It took him a minute or two to slay one Lizardman. He practiced all his sword skills, killing one Lizardman after another.  Luckily their bodies disintegrated when they died, or Jack would have had quite a pile.     

It was also good that Jack had prepared lots of healing and energy potions for tomorrow's dungeon; as he took down Lizardmen, he used one potion after another whenever his health, stamina, or MP got low. He would send a message later to ask Silverwing to bring replacement potions.     

Jack persevered for close to three hours. Finally, the number of Lizardmen started to thin out.     

When the last Lizardman fell, there was a pile of loot scattered along the narrow path. Jack was panting after the long, non-stop fight. If this were in the real world, he would have long since dropped to the ground from exhaustion.     

"Surprisingly, this has gone according to plan, without a hitch," Jack exclaimed.     

"Well, they are basic low-level creeps, after all. So their levels of intelligence and attack patterns are rather low," Peniel commented.     

"That's a good thing for us. Never complain about a plan that goes well." Jack said with satisfaction while sitting on the ground catching his breath.     

"You had better go collect that loot: these things disappear three hours after they drop. The first Lizardman you killed was about that long ago," Peniel said.