Infinite Realm

"Ha, Ha."

Sato breathed out loudly as he tried to calm his breathing.

A few metres away from him was the corpse of a level 18 [Blue Reed Water Snake], one of the monsters that operated by the distributary formed from the Lorls River.

It had been over 12 hours since Sato encountered the first [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile]. When he was close to finishing it off, Sato was interrupted but two more [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodiles] with one of them being an Elite rank. Even an organized party would find themselves stumped if caught in the same predicament, but Sato was able to defeat the three monsters though with a lot of effort. He had even crossed paths with death more than once, under the combined assault of the three attackers.

It was only after Sato had managed to kill off the first croc that he slowly began to turn the tables in his favor. After about 10 minutes of battling, Sato had beat the Elite rank [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile] as well as the Common ranked one with it.

Right after that, he had left the spot for elsewhere, battling monsters for 12 hours(RT) straight, with the only breaks he took being bathroom breaks and sleep since monsters become more terrifying in the nighttime. Even then, that was only 3 hours' worth of time before Sato resumed his training.

The level 18 [Blue Reed Water Snake] was the third of its kind Sato had killed, although it was the strongest as the others were mere level 17. Nonetheless, the monsters were anything but weak as any one of them could take down a [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile] of the same level. Having faced 3 of them in a row, it was inevitable that Sato would get tired even after coming out on top.

'The dangers here are something else, especially during this time of the day.'

In real-time, it was currently 5 am and in Infinite Realm, the timeline was a bit similar. It was the early hours of the day, between 4 am and 6 am [IF]. During this time, the nocturnal creatures would be rounding up their hunt or steadily retreating back to their hiding places. The [Blue Reed Water Snake] was one such nocturnal monster and it could oy be spotted at nighttimes or the early hours of the day such as now.

Unlike the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile], the [Blue Reed Water Snake] wasn't a strength-type monster but more in agility and speed. Add that to the tough scales on its body and its eerie pattern of movement, then the [Blue Reed Water Snake] would be an opponent that one would have to take more seriously than the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile]. One would have to keep their eyes on it at all times as well as be on the tip of their toes, to be able to react to its movement and dodge its attacks.

'All this stress has gotten me about hungry now.' Sato grumbled a bit.

As he had just woken up from sleep less than an hour ago, Sato didn't have the liberty of eating a meal or making one. He had even forgotten to take an energy drink[1] as most of his focus was on logging online.

'If I had a cabin, I wouldn't need to be reminding myself of that.'

Apart from offering quality connection as well as perfect player-to-avatar sync, gaming cabins were also equipped with special functions that checked the status of the human body and also provided them nutrients when needed.

In other words, if a player who was logged into the game was currently hungry, he could send a command to the cabin and the pre-installed energy drink in the cabin's unit would be laser-injected into the body of the player. This way, even if a player was hungry, he wouldn't need to go offline to eat and could instead survive on energy drinks which, depending on its rank, could be better than an actual meal. Apart from that, cabins could also check a player's pulse and nerves to determine whether they were experiencing certain dangers and log them out if necessary.

Feeling the sensation of hunger, Sato wondered whether it was his in-game self that was hungry or his actual body, or even both.

Turning his head towards the side, Sato glanced at the corpse of the [Blue Reed Water Snake] that lay there.

'If only...'

In Infinite Realm, while the most revered subclasses were Blacksmith, Alchemist, and Engineer, in reality, every subclass had its advantages which could even be better than the top 3.

Merchants could easily befriend NPCs and even get discounts with ease, better than others. Farmers had the ability to grow herbs and as long as one improved on the class, they would be able to grow even 3 or 4-star herbs in their backyard. This was the same.s as literally printing money. Chefs were similar to Alchemists except their 'potions' were tastier and had limited effects. A good chef could even make a meal that could give a player some attribute points.

While all the other classes had their advantages, if there was one that could challenge the top 3, then it would be the Scribe(runesmith) and Hunter.

The Scribe needs less talk as if was a known fact that almost every production-based subclasses would still make use of runes. Hence, it could be said that all production-based subclasses were also Scribes.

As for Hunter, the subclass was one of the most ideal for battle-focused players. Not only could it provide practical aid in battle but it could help one survive better. Hunters could track down other players and monsters. They could also set traps that could be used in a fight. However, there was a certain ability of Hunters that quite a few players envied. Hunters could skin monsters for their meat.

In IR, generally, players could only loot monsters for drops like coins, equipment, or materials after which the corpse dissipates. Unless the monster was a meat-type monster[2], there would be no meat drop. But Hunters defied the logic. They could extract neat from any type of monster, depending on the level of the subclass, and put it up for sale. Because they were the only ones with this ability, Hunters were envied by the other subclasses.

Who wouldn't want to taste the meat of a dragon or a Phoenix? Even going a step back, the meat of a [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile] should be quite juicy, right? Sadly, only Hunters could answer this question as they were the only ones with the ability to draw meat out of a monster corpse.

'Yato doesn't have a subclass yet, right? I think I should make him choose Hunter.' Sato thought.

While part of the reason for this decision was because he wanted to have a taste of some monster meat, another part was actually for the team. Having a player who could collect meat from monsters would increase the financial prowess of the team.

One may not know but monster meat was quite an attractive item on the menu. The rarer or stronger the monster, the higher the cost of its meat. Having Yato become a Hunter could increase the fund-raising capabilities of the team and also increase their battle-prowess as Hunter was a battle-focused subclass.

After considering the idea again, Sato stood up and looted the monster before resuming on his journey. He was currently level 18 but Sato was planning on facing 2 or 3 more monsters before heading to the lake once again.

20 minutes later...

Sato had yet to find an opponent as he walked closer to the lake. It was a strange event as the distance between him and the lake was still quite large so it was illogical for there to be no monsters close by.

'What's going on?'

Just as Sato was wondering what went wrong, Milo suddenly appeared by his side.

"Huh? You came out?" Sato was surprised.

Ever since the little feline had left with him, it barely made an appearance. This was because the creature had somehow found a way to enter his void ring and had turned the storage site into its own home, feeding in the 1 star and 2-star materials that were in excess in Sato's ring. It refused to leave at Sato's command and only did so once in a while, probably to see the yellow sun [3].

Since Sato didn't know the origin of the feline and Milo didn't cause any trouble in the ring, he didn't see a need to chase it away and left it to do as it pleased. He has a lot of low-rank materials and they didn't cost a lot so Sato wasn't bothered with Milo eating them. He only hoped that it would get stronger after doing so.

Seeing the creature that only did as it pleased suddenly appearing now, Sato presumed that it was probably tired of staying in the ring and wanted to talk a walk as it usually did before.

"Meow"

Milo suddenly purred.

"Hm?" Sato glanced at it with a raised eyebrow.

Milo had actually taken the initiative to communicate with him which was quite strange.

"What's up?" Sato asked though he knew it was pointless. How could he, a human, understand the meows of a strange species?

"Meow."

Milo 'spoke' again, but this time, it was different. Sato had actually 'understood' it.

When Milo meowed, Sato seemed to have understood its 'words' right off the bat. It was as if there was some Milo translator in his head that directly translated that single syllable into a bunch of words.

While Sato was stunned about this, he didn't forget what he had 'heard'.

"You're saying that you can sense something useful close by? It's very precious and can help in promoting your strength and mine?" Sato was astonished. He was even suspecting that the game was playing tricks on him.

"Meow." Milo nodded before turning towards a certain direction.

"Meow Meow."

"The energy is weak and it could disappear at any moment if we don't hurry." Sato frowned.

The direction Milo happened to be facing was opposite the lake. Going there would mean abandoning his original plan of checking out the lake, after all, Sato didn't know how far Milo was referring to but it was definitely not close. Spending time on what could be a wild goose chase was quite risky.

According to Milo, the trail could disappear at any moment and this could even be while they were tracking it. For such an uncontrollable event, Sato wasn't willing to waste his time on it. There was also the fact that the danger on the other side could be more than what he could handle and such a risk was quite huge to take.

"Meow." Milo urged him.

"Fine." Sato sighed.

His reasons for agreeing were quite simple.

First of all, Milo never had any bad intentions for him so if it said that there was something good for both of them, then there definitely had to be.

Secondly, Sato wanted Milo to get stronger as once it did, it could help him in his fight. Milo had never taken the initiative to ask him for something but it did so now. This meant that whatever was on the other side was very useful to it. So, an opportunity to strengthen Milo was one he was willing to take.

Thirdly, there were no monsters here so Sato felt it wasn't a bad idea to go elsewhere for now. The lake wouldn't change position so he could come back later.

"You win. Show me the way then." Sato smiled.

"Meow." Milo immediately walked away with Sato in tow.

.  .  .

.  .  .

.  .  .

Somewhere a bit isolated within Maldora Canyon, far off from the direction of Sato and Milo, a battle was currently taking place between a group of armed men and an unknown entity.

"Protect her highness!"

Before those words seemed to go far, a shadow swooped in on the speaker almost instantly.

"Ahhh!"

Screams reverberated as the sounds of metal clanging accompanied the fall of men. Blood spilled as lives were lost and breathe cut short.

This lasted for a couple of minutes before silence was once again restored to the region.

AN :

[1] Energy Drink mentioned here is the nutritional drink developed in this world and not the ones you're familiar with. The higher the ranking of the drink, the more efficient it is as well as the more nutrients it possesses and the higher its price. The rankings are as follows:

S : 3 million ALDs

A : 225,000 ALDs

B : 10,000 ALDs

C : 1250 ALDs

D : 200 ALDs

E : 30 ALDs

NB: This is a rough price sketch. Different stores could sell at different prices. Ranks S+ and X can't be bought with money alone

[2] Monsters reared for their meat.

[3] Can be read as taking a walk.