Starting from Zero Chapter Book 4 - 7 – The Dart

Book 4, Chapter 7

The Dart

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Note: "Dart" should be the na of the new pet. But this is not ntioned in this chapter.

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"AHHH!"

Elfy and I were knocked flying by a strong force. Night Shade hopped to in ti and caught on his back, while Hawk saved Elfy with a skillful volleyball save.

"What was that?" I look around. "Saw anything?"

"Not ." Hawk is searching around the area too, nervously. "There was just sothing blurry in front my eyes, and you two were in the air before I know it."

"I think it was so kind of small animal." Elfy steadied herself and took out a strange-shaped arrow from her quiver. "I touched it. At least it was sothing with fur."

Nope. The woods around us is totally silent.

"Rosy, look out the area for us."

The dirt around us began to shift, then tentacles with crystal eyes crawled onto each of the trees within the periter. They began to look around like caras.

"Noticed sothing?" Hawk asked.

A bigger tentacle raised in front of us, an image appeared in the crystal ball. We saw a shadow flying among the trees. It's too fast for us to make it out. The moving image is apparently made up from continuous pictures shot by different tentacles. Now that's surprising, I got myself a living cara.

Elfy let out a warning. "Watch it! It's coming!"

From the "Cara", I saw the black shadow approaching from our backs.

I drew my swords. "Let's back up each other and leave no blind spots. Lucky, take down all the trees around. Oh and, throw them away so they don't get in our way. Phantom, co out and look for the target. See if you can control it. Phiona, watch us from above. Loong'er cast your gravity field around us. Knights, spread out!"

Lucky is the fastest one to move as always--the trees are already falling down in bundles like wheat. Rosy helped cut off all the roots so Lucky only needs to carry the trunks and throw them off the mountain, creating an open area for us.

"Over there!" One of the knights caught sight of the shadow and threw his spear at the sa ti, without hitting it. Not surprising, as the spear is almost as thick as the monster itself.

"There!" That was Elfy.

A series of spears went over. Still nothing.

"Above!" I saw it this ti. I wanted to check on Phiona, but a black stuff blocked my sight when I raised my head.

Phiona created a strong gust using her wings and disrupted the shadow's movent. Sothing showed up from the shadow. It's a...white, furry...ball?

"[Shadow Barrage]!"

Elfy released her arrow which she has been holding for so ti. I only hear one shot, but a wave of dense arrows went past . This is a powerful Archer skill used to restrict the movent of any fast target. Only half of the arrows are real, though whoever got caught inside the wave probably doesn't have the ti to judge it.

However, the speed and size of the figure still allowed it to slip past the attack.

I'm helpless now. I never knew how to deal with fast targets. I've fight with monsters with high HP or high attack but I'm yet to figure out how to catch sothing I can't even see.

The shadow made a turn and went at Elfy. Looks like it wants so revenge.

Rosy's vine blocked its way just before it reaches Elfy. This forced the shadow to change it's course--it used the tentacle as a platform and jumped towards elsewhere.

The Phantom Knight leader pointed at sowhere. "[Iron Cage] ready up! Seven, two-three, launch!"

Schhhh! 10 spears shot themselves out in unite. From the looks of it, their landing point is the estimated location where the black shadow is about to reach. The shadow realized it too. But apparently it can't fly--it can only adjust it's postures but not change its direction in mid-air.

They reached the ground at almost the exact sa mont--the spears clustered into a round cage-like structure, trapping the shadow inside. Phiona dropped from the sky and landed on top of the cage, which is the only open exit.

"Aha! No where to run now." I walked to the "cage" and peeked inside.

It's a white little animal that looks like a squirrel. But no squirrel has such long and silky fur. It looks more like a snowball, actually. It's tail is even bigger than it's own body. That should be why it was so agile. There are two miniature balls on it head, probably ears. Those eyes...are big, round, with the color of sapphires. The brightness of the eyes made it appear like the critter is about to cry.

"This--oof!"

"Awwww it's so cute!" Elfy pushed and Hawk aside with abnormal strength. Her eyes are literally shining. "Aren't you adorable, little friend. Will you co with big sis?"

It jumped around the cage, obviously saying "no". That's not gonna work though.

"Hey dear, call your friend NOW! I want it as my companion!"

"Um? Oh!"

I stopped Hawk as he tries to make a call. "No need. My side class is Breeder, rember?"

"Oh yeah, You said you are Soul Manipulator which is transferred from Tar. As far as I rember, all Tars would choose Breeder as a side class."

"Yup. Tars will need companions to fight. Surely no one would want to buy companion from others every ti they need one."

"Makes sense."

"What are you two doing?? Help capture it!" Elfy pushed Hawk aside (again) and dragged over. "Quick! Do it!"

"Okay okay, don't push!"

I began to cast [Capture] at the little thing. It got more violent as I try. The cage is shaking from its struggling.

Looks like it's not really a strong monster. It only took a dozen tries, probably because of my level 17 [Capture]. I saw it sowhere that you won't find many people who got the skill over level 10 at the current stage. This is not surprising if you look at my companions though, each one of them would give so serious skill exp, especially Night Shade--he just stood there for an entire afternoon, waiting for to spam skills on him.

"Here." I gave the egg to Elfy. The size is similar to either a small waterlon, or a really big apple.

"Yay!!" Elfy wiped her hands clean before carefully taking the egg. I was giving out a relieved sigh, when her words choked it back down my throat.

"How long do I have to stay on it to hatch? Do I hold it against my stomach? On my laps? Hug it all the ti? Can I ask soone else for help?"

"Baahahaha! Haaa-cough cough cough--eww cough--"

I crouched and held my abdon to ease the pain caused by that laughter.

"Ok, now I see why you said companion eggs are super rare out there. You--*snigger*-- you never seen anyone hatching an egg in the ga did you?"

More confusion is now written on Hawk's face. "Hatch? We don't even see many players carrying real companions! Do you know how you scared the heck out of us when you showed your companion team this morning? Last ti I checked, an egg between level 300 and 400 worth 30k crystals! CRYSTALS! And you won't get one easy even if you can offer that price. No one has high level capture skill yet, and NPCs only sell eggs below level 200. Good ones are on really short supply."

Weird. I know eggs are hard to co by but this is a little TOO scarce, if you ask .

"You can capture any monsters into companions right? Is it so hard to produce eggs?"

"You...wait I'll explain. You have to cut down the monster HP to 1 or 2 points when trying to capture, or it will just try to self-destruct or sothing. Those who don't explode will just get furious and go into berserk mode, making it impossible to proceed. You need to be very careful how much damage you do and how much HP the monster regenerates. One tiny mistake and you will kill it by accident, or leave too much HP. Now wait a second, that little thing didn't get angry or explode did it now?"

"I don't know..." I looked at the egg. "I never seen any monsters explode on capture. Maybe there are so hidden requirents or attributes you need?"

"Let's leave those questions later!" Elfy is still obsessed with her egg. "Tell how to get it hatched first!"

"Oh, that's simple." I grinned. "Find so hay and build a chicken coop. Sit on the egg for three hours."

Elfy rolled her eyes and kicked at . " The truth! Now!"

"Sorry! I-I surrender! Make a cut on your finger and drop blood on the egg. It will hatch once it gets so blood."

...Was that too obvious?

"Hey hawk! Co here!" Elfy grasped Hawk's hand and took our her dagger. I don't think she's going to just "make a cut", with that kind of movent.

I quickly snatched the egg away. "What the heck are you doing??"

"Get so blood of course?"

"You...don't want the egg then? The companion will consider whoever dropped his or her own blood as master. If you cut Hawk, he will beco its master instead."

"Tell that earlier!" Elfy patted her chest in relief. But she noticed sothing on her dagger. "Is this...blood? Hawk, did I cut you?"

Crack! The egg broke in my hands. A furball jumped around a bit, then crawled onto my shoulder and began to hug my face.

But...! My hands...!

"Ahhhh! You cut MY hand!"

I took off my gauntlets to raise the success rate for [Capture], and Elfy's dagger left a 1-inch long laceration wound on the back of my hand when I was taking the egg back!

"What the-- Why is this happening?? I don't want a pet dog using up my slot! Noooo!"

Phantom interrupted : "Hey master, this little one is no pet dog. It--I an, he, is a level 700 Aurora Fox. That's higher than at least. I heard about this species before. They're the champion in this world when it cos to speed."

"No kidding?" I opened it's status window.

[Aurora Fox], level 0.

Attack: 15-25,

Defense: 10,

Speed: 750,

HP: 300,

MP: 50.

The other attributes are ordinary, even worse than common monsters. That speed though...that's twice as fast than Night Shade! With the proper attacks, no one would notice what got him.

Elfy looked at the furry creature and whined. "Nnnnn...but I want it!"

"No worries. We can find another. You saw how easy I captured it right?"

"Glad to hear it but, are we really going to find one?"

"You said the monsters would spawn non-stop on this mountain right? That pretty much told us there would be more of it."

"Well that was for normal monsters." Hawk looks worried. "I don't think this little one is a normal monster. The strongest monster we t before would be sowhere like level 500 or so, a level 700 is unheard of."

"Now you ntioned it...What happened to the mob waves you were so afraid of? We walked so far and this thing is the only monster we encountered. According to you two, our paths should be filled with all kinds of ghosts 'n' goblins by now."

Elfy looked about. "I...don't know. That's what happened last ti. And we didn't even reach this far before we were driven out."

I turned to Phiona: "Scout from above, let's see where the monster ran off to."

"Alrighty."

A strong current caused us to lose balance a bit. Phiona turned into a black dot in a flash.

She ca down after a brief mont. "There are a group of players fighting with monsters on the other side of the mountain. A lot of them. All the monsters elsewhere are marching towards them like tidal waves!"

"Ohh. So soone is doing the job for us..." Hawk mumbled.

Elfy jumped onto his shoulder. "Quick! Now we'd better not waste their effort. Let's get up there and claim whatever treasure lies ahead!"

"Right. Let's hurry it up." I hopped on Night Shade too. "Onward! Here I co my precious!!"

"Hey--wait for us!"

I charged ahead out of too much excitent, leaving the couple a good distance behind.