Chapter 3: Red Ruby Champion
Red Ruby Champion.
Similar to how the Red Ruby Lizard looks, the Red Ruby Champion comes in a stronger and taller body. Although the agility of the beast is reduced due to the weight, the Champion comes with an extremely sharpened tail instead. They carry the shape of three thick and hard scale that grew into the form of a blade.
And because the movement of a Red Ruby Champion is not as agile as it younger unevolved junior, the Champion attack is more than often executed by using its tail. But still, the jaw and the claws of this monster cannot be underestimated as well.
"Roar!" the Red Ruby Champion take a few steps forward before swinging the tail horizontally at Technos. This attack took many of its targets by surprise. With the attack came horizontally, half of them will choose to jump forward to dodge the attack. But when they did that, the jaw from the Red Ruby Champion will come to tear them apart.
This attack that kills nine out of ten opponents was executed to test how will this human reacted.
Forced to fight against this attack the Red Ruby Champion is so proud with it left Technos with two options. First, he can choose to leap across the attack that traveling along the path of his kneecap height and tried to withstand the assault from its jaw.
Or second, he can try to deflect that attack and end up with some injuries. But this option has no assurance he can remain standing after the hit.
Without too many time for him to slowly consider his option, Technos prepared himself for a leap. As he bends his knee slightly to push himself forward, he noticed a small pointbreak that will allow him to decide his next move.
Putting some force in his feet, Technos leaped. But instead of moving forward to where the tail blade passed, he jumped back to get himself closer to a tree! When the tail blade struck on the tree, leaves that soon to fall scatters and slowly descends from the tree.
That small opening when the tail is stuck on the tree allowed Technos to grab an opportunity and stabbed the tooth dagger on a yet to harden wound. A stab is all he needs for it to start the bleeding all over again. Crying out loud, the Red Ruby Champion struggles to pull it's tail out while dealing with the pain.
But Technos grabbed that opportunity. Instead of leaving when the monster cried in pain, he positioned that blade facing downward before using the tail as a jumping board to reach the monster's unprotected neck. With a stab from the back of the neck, the strike pierced through plus restrained the Red Ruby Champion from struggling.
Unexpected to him, instead of falling dead on the ground, it stills possess a small ember of stubbornness inside, and tried to attack the human by furiously clawing everywhere of its reach. Unaware of its range of attack, Technos was scratched twice.
Luckily, the attack did not go too deep into his flesh and bone. With a sachet of Green Crystal Powder following with Ruby Lizard Paste, he coated the wound with the powder first before putting the paste to act as glue. With not even 30ml of blood is spilled, he continues his attack using another remaining dagger.
Aiming just on the softer part of the skin on the back limbs, Technos stabbed his dagger right into its pelvis. That attack took the monster by surprise before it fell on its ground. Reluctant to let a dangerous monster to threaten him, he jumps on top of the beast to remove his weapon before adding a strike on the Red Ruby Champion's head.
No longer struggling on the ground, Technos tried to touch the body using his left hand. As of how it should be, the corpse vanished inside the Left Wrist Guard along with an additional selection for him to choose. It comes in the shape of a hexagonal stone.
As he has no idea on what to do, Technos went ahead and swiped on the selection. The countdown came in once again to begin counting. When it finally reaches 100%, the left Wrist Guard went dim before the Right Wrist Guard flashes with something new in its selection.
Curious about the item inside his Right Wrist Guard, he swipes on the collectible materials to bring it out. Like how it was depicted by the Right Wrist Guard, this collectible does carry the look of a hexagon. But in term of quality, only valuable can be used to describe them.
The Hexagonal Stone is in fact, Ruby Salt. In this world, salt is no longer a cheap commodity that can be obtained everywhere, especially when the location they're now is in the middle of a forest. To enjoy the flavor of salt, only can either choose to hunt the Red Ruby Champion, or travel two hours out to search for the Salt Mine.
The Salt Mine is also sometimes called as the Medan Mine by the hunters because of the two mineral vein interlink with each another. But even if the Mineral Salt mined from the cave is edible, they're still a quality lower than the precious piece of Ruby Salt.
In fact, the Ruby Salt is twice more valuable than the Mineral Salt due to the lack of supply, the amount of time a Red Ruby Champion needed to produce the Ruby Salt, and of course, the number of Red Ruby Champion is low, to begin with.
As for their price, they can only be counted by weight. By using a traditional weighing scale that only available in the stores, they can measure their weight precisely depending on the item sold and bought. Worst of all, the business is handled by none other than those from the Elite Fortress Society, which monopoly sound really accurate here.
According to the Dominus Currency Trading Rate, a Dominus Coin can be used to purchase 10gm of the Ruby Salt. And for a gram of Ruby Salt, they can be exchanged with 2gm of Mineral Salt. Lastly, each gram of Mineral Salt worth 5pound weight of meats from a Red Ruby Lizard.
But the piece of Hexagon shape Ruby Salt is at an estimated 50gm weight. Which means, he will only need two Hexagon blocks of Ruby Salt to exchange for another Medan-Material Short Sword. With a smile on his face, Technos kept the Ruby Salt away in his Right Wrist Guard before continuing his hunt.
WIth his Left Wrist Guard no longer vibrating, he calls that a day. After all, he caught a total of seven Red Ruby Lizards and one Red Ruby Champion. Based on this profit alone, he collected 70pound worth of Red Ruby Lizard Meat, 20 Pound worth of Higher-Quality Ruby Champion Meat, 40 pellets of Ruby Lizard Paste, and one Hexagon Block of Ruby Salt worth 50gm.
Plus the collectible resources, he brought back at least a week worth of food home. As the house is only resided by himself at this moment, this amount of food will be too much for him to finish alone. For the sake of preserving his wealth, Technos decided to went over to the Store to executes an exchange.
Since the prices of Mineral Salt is heavily monopolized by the Elite Fortress Society, Technos has no choice but to trade according to the rates they're offering on that particular day. And today is one of the worst rates he'd seen in his life.
1gm of Mineral Salt for 9pound of Red Ruby Lizard's meat
1gm of Mineral Salt for 45 Sachets of Green Crystal Powder
1gm of Mineral Salt for 8 pellets of Ruby Lizard Paste
As their location is densely populated with Red Ruby Lizards, this affects the rates offered by the store against the seller wishes to exchange their merchandise. Although some other store offers might be better, the distance they had to carry the merchandise may cost themselves more.
Like how the others felt, Technos complains in the heart before he took the amount worth 10gm of Mineral Salt to be exchanged. But the moment he completed his transaction, a different staff came forward to adjust the pricing of the exchange once more before they close.
1gm of Mineral Salt for 11pound of Red Ruby Lizard's meat
"What the heck! Luckily I exchange the meat earlier!" some people that felt their action was a correct choice comment at the new exchange rate. He considered this issue is not related to him and left the store. With 10gm of Mineral Salt in hand, he went to another store selling weapon and armor.
By showing his Medan-Material Short Sword with a special Insignia on it, the shopkeeper allowed him to enter a private area only caters to Qualified Hunters. Inside here, their exchange currency no longer follows the material like Paste, Powder, or Meat, but Mineral Salt.
Still, the weapon he can exchange using the Mineral Salt is mere tools smelted by the craftsmen using the old world steel, with the durability is just slightly better than Bone Weapon. But in the world of a hunter, a little is what they need to keep surviving and give them the hope to return home.
"Ah... My boy Technos, you're a Qualified Hunter now. Good job boy, Good job." the storekeeper of the private area praised the youth for his ability to obtain the qualification. In fact, he's the skillful weapon-master that lived alone and quietly beside Technos home.
He was also the person that teaches Technos how to use the weapon and hunt for monsters. If it's not because of the rule prohibiting random people to become a teacher, this weapon-master may already become a favorite instructor in the academy.
"Uncle Don." he greets the storekeeper politely. Following him from behind, Uncle Don took him to appreciates the weapon placed on the shelf for appreciation. Compared with the Lower-Quality Weapon, the item inside this private area is much well designed.
"Here, take this weapon. It will be my gift for you to pass the exam mission to become a hunter." When they reach a section with three knives, Uncle Don took one and placed them on the hand of Technos.
"This is a Throwing Knife. If you utilize them the way I taught you, it will be a marvelous weapon for you to land the first killing attack at the monsters roaming outside our Dominus Fortress. Take that to have fun, if you needed more, salvage some Old World Steel." the storekeeper pats his shoulder as he turned around left him there.
"Thank you, Uncle Don. I kept some of the Red Ruby Lizard's meat aside, so please come to my place to enjoy a dinner later." Technos bowed slightly to express his gratitude before leaving. After leaving the building, he went back home to prepare the food and awaits for Uncle Don's arrival.
Like a family, the two of them enjoyed their dinner. After he left, Technos sharpened his weapon for his next day uses before going to sleep. But as he was asleep soundly, he failed to notice what happened to the wrist guard.
A light circled the wrist and elbow part like receiving some signals. After continuing such a feature for four hours before returning to normal once more. When the sun rises from the east, the warmth came inside the room to wake Technos from his slumber.
He prepared himself and went to the academy quickly. With the First Examination is completed, his class from today onwards will be combined together with the others in the same sector before they were educated to face the Second Examination.
In this academy that compulsory to every youth in their sixteen years old to attend, the art of hunting, crafting, and exploration will be taught to them for their first three years of studying. Two exams are held each year to expel the useless students from the academy.
For those successfully pass their first examination, they're rewarded with the qualification of a hunter. And for those passes their second examination, they will receive a raise in their social standing. The higher they go, the better is the reward.
But all of these will be gone if one failed to pass the examination.
"Alright students. I believe all of you here received your Medan-Material Short Sword." unexpected to him, the class is filled with three instructors, and two hundred students including himself. But among the two hundred students, only seventy came from the Outer Fortress Society, and the remaining students are all from the Inner Fortress Society.
"Yes, instructors!" they answered the question immediately.
"Good, with the three of us here evaluating your performance, go out to the forest and capture something back. Your time limit is two hours. Points will be given according to what you bring back. The ten highest point students will be rewarded with a set of Old World Steel Equipment." one of the teachers stated.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
yungsern87
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This is my last chapter for the day, do expect one to two chaps tomorrow, best 3 if I get the opportunity to complete them. Thank you for the support!
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