Chapter 6 06 - He's A Monster!

Edward was curious as he looked at how Leo was acting. Unlike normal students, who were either very arrogant when entering a Bronze 1 Star forest, or were very fearful, Leo was acting quite calm. He was not calm to the point of being relaxed, but he was calm as he held the bow armed with an arrow ready to shoot at any moment. Meanwhile, his face showed no fear of these monsters.

This was a forest with mutated vultures. These vultures were Bronze 1 Star monsters that attacked in packs when they saw a target alone or preyed on monster corpses that Awakened left behind. Against aerial monsters, this student's idea of ??bringing a bow was a very good one, something that made Edward give Leo a mental compliment.

Within minutes of walking Edward noticed a flock of buzzards flying around looking for prey. The young man beside him apparently hadn't noticed these monsters yet, as the perception of an Awakened Bronze 1 Star was far less than a Silver Awakened.

Without Leo noticing, Edward started to minimize his presence so that the vultures wouldn't feel he was a Silver Awakened, which would surely scare them away, as he wanted to see how this young man would deal with these monsters.

After a few seconds, the young man next to Edward finally noticed the buzzards flying above them and began to pull back his bowstring while slowly pointing the bow upwards. The distance was 30 meters between the monsters and them, a very short distance for a skilled archer, but the young man apparently did not intend to shoot for the time being.

Without even looking at Edward, the young man kept his eyes focused on the three buzzards that were flying by as he adjusted the aim of the bow.

As Edward didn't want the vultures to notice him, the vultures didn't pay him any attention. In the pack's vision there was only a single human walking through the forest.

The buzzards hovered for 30 seconds before finally starting to attack. Their falling speed was very high, much faster than the speed a Bronze Mutant Cow 2 Stars would have while running in a straight line. That was the air advantage.

Edward thought the young man would be startled by the precipitous descent of the buzzards, but the young man remained calm and continued to aim without changing his expression at all.

For a second Edward thought the young man was frozen in fear at the sight of three monsters flying towards him, but before Edward could do anything, the young man released the arrow he was holding. The bowstring that was released so abruptly pulled the arrow with great force causing the arrow to fly at a speed that literally cut through the wind.

The buzzards only heard a whistle before the head of one of them was blown off by the arrow, letting the arrow pass the first buzzard and hitting the chest of the buzzard behind. Edward was shocked by this scene.

'With a single arrow he managed to kill two Bronze 1 Star monsters?! Is that why he was so calm while aiming with the bow?' Edward's brain started to work at high speed trying as much as possible to understand everything that had happened in front of him. But before he could say anything, Leo's body moved quickly to catch an arrow from the quiver at his waist and apparently without even aiming he shot a second arrow.

This made Edward a little disappointed. 'If this boy still kept calm, he could aim for at least 2 more seconds before the remaining buzzard attacks him, which would allow him to aim even more accurately and have less risk of missing the target..' Edward thought, but before he finished the internal monologue about this possible mistake by Leo, he saw that the arrow that Leo shot was even slower than the first one, but it still precisely hit the vulture's head, thus causing this third monster to also drop dead on the forest floor.

Edward was shocked when he saw this. He thought that Leo would miss the shot, or at most hit a non-lethal spot on the vulture by not aiming when he fired the second shot, but contrary to what he imagined, this boy still hit another arrow perfectly in the center of the bird's great head!

Seeing this, a question popped into Edward's mind that he couldn't help but ask. "Why was your second shot weaker? If you pulled a little harder this arrow could have done even more damage and could have been more accurate..."

The young man who had been so focused was a little startled by his question, but Edward knew it was because he had hidden his presence so well that perhaps this young man might have even forgotten he was there.

But after the scare, the young man opened a gentle smile and replied, "I could really do that, but the heads of these vultures are very fragile. If I released an arrow with too much force maybe it would blow his head off and the arrow would keep flying. I have few arrows, so I have to control myself so I can pick them up after the confrontation."

"Pfft.. your answer exceeded my expectations, hahaha." Edward started to laugh after hearing Leo's explanation. He thought of several possibilities for this student to have done this, but he never imagined the reason being that he didn't want to lose the arrows for lack of money.

After that he had to add another adjective to Leo: frugal. 'He knows how to manage resources.'

It was normal for children of wealthy Awakened to kill monsters using powerful weapons and armor. This makes these young people grow in strength very quickly, but the bottleneck they suffered was much greater, making most of them unable to cross Bronze 5 Stars and become a Silver 1 Star.

But a student like this one in front of him was rare. With a great skill in the bow, this student could earn much more money than he would spend on these arrows just selling the materials of these vultures, but still he preferred to avoid losing as many arrows as possible to conserve expenses, something very commendable.

Seeing the young man looking at the carcasses of the three vultures after he took out the arrows, Edward understood what he was probably thinking. "Just take the beaks and claws of these monsters. They are the only valuable parts," Edward explained patiently.

Leo finally showed an enlightened expression and removed the three vultures' beaks and their pairs of claws.

"These vultures were weak monsters, but the beaks were good products for making potions, and the claws were good for producing some kinds of utensils. The pair of claws with a beak could sell for approximately $150. These three vultures would most likely net you approximately $450," Edward explained to Leo.

p??d? n?ve? Hearing this, Leo was very grateful. These vultures were at least 50% more valuable than the cows, plus the vultures' valuable parts were smaller than the cows' horns, which would allow him to carry even more in his satchel.

In addition to all this, something only Leo knew about were the messages that appeared floating in front of him after he killed the birds.

[Congratulations, you killed a Bronze Mutant Vulture 1 Star. You received 13 Experience Points.] x3

Just for killing these three vultures, Leo received 39 Experience points, which was almost equivalent to a Bronze Mutant Cow 2 Stars.

He was currently at 119 Experience Points, which meant approximately 22% remained to reach Bronze 2 Stars, or 60% to raise Aim-Bot to level 3!

Excited to see how much experience he would get from killing buzzards, Leo was determined to achieve Bronze 2 Stars by the end of today!

After Leo removed the most valuable parts of the vultures, Edward continued explaining about these vultures, from the hunting habits of the monsters to their weaknesses. Leo, meanwhile, listened with great interest and attention, as this information would be very useful to him.

"As the beaks of these vultures are valuable, less skilled Awakened aim at these monsters' chests, while more skilled Awakened even train to aim at these monsters' necks. Although usually the only Awakened that can hit the vultures' neck are Bronze 4 Stars, which for many may be a limitation, but for you it may not be so impossible at your current Rank." Edward gave Leo some tips.

Hearing that, Leo understood the best place to aim for the next few times, and it didn't take them long to find another group of the buzzards.

Edward sensed them before Leo did, and then hid his own presence. But what surprised Edward was that as soon as he hid his presence, Leo went into alert mode as he took another arrow from his quiver and looked for where the vultures might be circling.

'Did he realize that I hid my presence and understood that there were probably vultures flying close by?' Edward was shocked by this!

But there was still another thing that confused Edward, that at this moment Leo was holding his bow with two arrows drawn ready to shoot.

'Don't tell me he intends to shoot both arrows at the same time!?' Edward was shocked by this.

On the one hand, he was excited that Leo could actually shoot both these arrows at the same time, but on the other hand he was worried that Leo was just acting cocky in front of him to try to look cool, just like the other students would normally do.

'If you miss this shot out of arrogance I will be very disappointed in you,' Edward thought with a serious expression.

This time it was a group of 4 vultures flying overhead, but just like the other time, Leo waited for a few seconds until the four monsters started to descend before shooting.

Swoosh, Swoosh...

The two arrows flew through the wind, and under Edward's astonished gaze, the two arrows hit the necks of the two buzzards flying toward the front! Before the vultures behind them could think, Leo had reloaded his bow with two more arrows and fired once more.

Swoosh, Swoosh!

In Leo's vision more messages emerged.

[Congratulations, you killed a Bronze Mutant Vulture 1 Star. You received 13 Experience Points.] x4

He had just received 52 more Experience points, which was more than a Bronze Mutant Cow 2 Stars!

As Leo looked at the messages with a smile, Edward looked at Leo with a truly shocked expression. He had told Leo that Bronze Awakens 4 Stars could hit these buzzards in the neck just as an incentive to make this young man train even more and grow to even greater heights in the future, but he had never imagined that that this young man would be able to shoot not just one, but two vultures at the same time on his first attempt!

'I just found a true monster!' Edward thought as he looked at Leo in shock.