Chapter 206: Hunt

Few hours passed since Angus started modifying the rune trap he found under his invisible cloak. While Angus began modifying some rune traps, he found some nasty traps, such as poison to a little explosion trap.

Angus decides to tinker all of the rune traps stealthy without triggering any of them. Another few hours passed, and Angus felt a few groups approaching his location through his [Mana Echolocation].

Angus decides to use all his capability to hide his presence and is ready to attack anytime. Then, a group of people with the same clothes style came towards his location.

"Haa… I will never get used to this hot desert." said one of the incoming people.

"Quit rambling. You already said that countless times. Do you think I want to stay in this place?" said another person.

"*sigh* Let's just check the rune trap and be done with it already." said another person.

"But, don't you think this kind of patrol is useless? There are already other teams that intercept any monster or beast from coming here. Besides, all of us don't have any knowledge about runes." rambling one of the people.

"Sushh.. Just look over them and go back already. I don't want to stay here any longer." said another person.

Then, the incoming group looks around without checking the rune trap. All they did was make sure that none of the runes were triggered before going back to the hidden area.

Hearing the little information from these people, Angus got a few more ideas to disrupt the other villages.

'It seems they decide to prevent any incoming beast towards this location. No wonder there are no other monsters in the surrounding area. Let's see if I can do something about it.' thought Angus inwardly.

Then, Angus continued modifying the remaining rune trap under the scorching environment of the Surya Desert. Fortunately, Angus already has [Hellfire] to resist the hot temperature nearby.

Unlike the first time he entered the Surya Desert, he didn't get heatstroke or get tired under this harsh environment. Soon, he finished modifying all the rune traps without triggering any of them.

"Fiuuh.. This is easier than I expected. It seems the enchanter is only focused on making it stable with basic hidden features. Well, not that I complain if they make it this way." said Angus.

After that, Angus begins to search the team where they intercept the monster. Since the other villages decided to camp in an open area like this a few days ago, many monsters should be attracted to them.

However, from the conversation he heard, he speculated some people keep the other monster at bay. Angus decided to find these people in case he could do something to them.

As an ex-assassin, Angus knows a place like this only needs a little bit of disturbance to make it collapse on its own. He plans to do a lot of sabotage on many things to make the situation here more chaotic.

After running around for a few hours, he found a blue-clothed team fighting against a huge scorpion. Using [Analyze], Angus found that there are two fourth-grade combatants, three third-grade combatants, and five second-grade combatants.

The giant scorpion is in the third grade and seems could be killed at any moment. However, the two fourth-grade combatants decide to let the others handle this to give them some experience.

Looking at this, Angus immediately gets an idea. While in stealth, Angus decides to approach them slowly. After close to a few dozen meters, Angus talks with Draven that hides in his shadow.

"Draven, get ready. I want you to target the closest people with that big scorpion. Kill them stealthy while they are in the way of getting attacked by the scorpion." said Angus telepathically.

"Yes, master. Finally, a fight after a long time." replied Draven.

Soon, a blue-clothed person is going to be attacked by the scorpion tail. The person is ready to retread back and dodge the attack. 

Suddenly, a sharp black spike coming out from his shadow punctured his heart, instantly killing the man. Then, the man's body gets pierced by the scorpion's tail. 

"Agni, You monster bastard!!" roared the other person while charging at the monster.

The other blue-clothed people were also surprised at this development. Before they could react, the yelled person already charged at the scorpion.

As he clashed with the giant scorpion, another black spike pierced his heart and killed him before the scorpion claws grabbed his body. Seeing that there are two casualties already, the two grade-four people immediately react.

"Everyone move back, now!!" shouted one of the grade four combatants.

The two grade-four combatants immediately clash with the wounded scorpion that seems to become more aggressive. While this happens, Angus decides to call Draven back. 

Fourth-grade awareness, endurance, and reaction speed are more significant than the two lower grades that Draven killed before. It will take more than Draven's current sneak attack to kill them.

After calling Draven back, Angus starts to cast his spell silently from far away. Normally, casting a spell will give one presence because of their mana fluctuation. However, Angus found his wooden bracelet could absorb any excess mana he created when using a spell.

This makes his presence hidden while casting the spell. Of course, there is a limitation, such as he could only use low-level circles, could not use overcharged spells, and many others.

Still, this is a great advantage for him. After a while, Angus cast his spell silently and shot concentrated mana towards one of the fourth-grade combatants [3rd Circle - Snipe Shot]. 

*Whosh* The concentrated mana traveled in the blink of an eye and penetrated one of the Fourth Grade combatant's heads. This attack instantly kills the fourth-grade combatant. Coincidently, the scorpion claw is also in the way to crush this fourth-grade combatant body.

Because of this, no one realizes about Angus's sneak attack. Although the fourth grade is an elite combatant, they still have the same weakness as any other living race. If their head or heart gets destroyed, they will still die like any others.

Furthermore, Angus created [Snipe Shot] as his own spell that focuses on speed and penetration. If it is not because of the need for spell stability, he may lower its circle to the two circle spell instead of the third circle spell.

He noticed that there are many kinds of barriers in this world as life-saving items. So, he decided to create a spell that could penetrate all these barriers. After a few months of researching, he finally managed to make this spell. 

However, he couldn't use it until now since it takes time to cast the spell with Angus's current capability.

Seeing her partner getting killed by the scorpion claw, the other fourth-grade combatant decides to retreat. Although the scorpion is wounded, she still was not capable of killing it without risking her life.

"Retreat, call for backup!!" shouted the fourth-grade woman while dodging the scorpion attack.

All of a sudden, a small concentrated mana ball pierced her head and killed her instantly. The giant scorpion claw immediately crushed her body into pieces. Seeing that all the fourth-grade leaders died, the other combatant decided to retreat and run for their life.

However, Angus decided not to give them any mercy. He immediately told Draven to kill all of them. Soon, all of them died under the sneak attack of Draven and him. Then, Angus leaves all the corpses to the giant scorpion monster.

"Two people are high-grade combatants. Not a bad harvest for the first hunt." muttered Angus before running to another fighting team.

Soon, Angus found another team with similar numbers to the previous one. Using the same tactic as before, he begins killing them one by one and leaving their corpses to the monster. After hunting a few more teams, Angus decided to hide and rest in the stone forest nearby.

"Fiuuhh.. twelve high-grade combatants on the first day. I bet they will send more people to their team by now. Well, with these large areas to cover, they will just think it is the work of the monster." said Angus.

"By the time they realize there is something wrong. It will already be too late. Anyway, let's rest up for now. Draven, please stay on guard while I rest." said Angus while sitting under the shade of protruding stone.

After resting for a few hours to recover his mana, Angus continued his hunt. As he predicted, the other villages begin to send more high-grade combatants to fight and subdue the incoming monster.

Angus even found a few fifth-grade combatants that began massacring a group of monsters. He decides to leave the fifth-grade combatant team for the time being and target the team consisting of fourth-grade combatants.

He didn't know if his [Snipe Shot] could instantly kill the fifth-grade combatant, especially the warrior type one. He also didn't want to test it since if he failed even once, he would get exposed, and the plan to reduce their manpower is gone.

Then, Angus began to continue his hunt for the fourth-grade team combatants. As long as the highest in the team is fourth grade, he decides to hunt them down.