Marc put the new Boon out of his mind. Well, he tried to. It was currently very useful for actually tracking the monsters they were hunting.


    MONSTER TRACKS


    Basic Monster Tracks. Indicate that the animal is traveling North. Created less very recently.


    They even gave a subtle highlight to the tracks themselves, which was convenient. Tracking like this was something Marc hadn’t ever done before.


    “They’re close”, he said to his companions. Both of them, by now, had finished their talk about the best restaurants in the city, and were instead incredibly quiet. With Marc’s Survivalist boon and Lloyd’s high finesse, Jacky was the least stealthy despite her massive level advantage.


    By now, Marc had Fray’s axe in his hands, ready for use. His axe, he corrected in his head, since it did belong to him now. He looked at it for a moment, bringing up a system tablet, courtesy of Spectator Effect.


    Axe of Iron Mountain (Iron, Mundane, E1/L5*)


    An axe depicting the deeds of Halren, a great hero of Iron Mountain.


    Rarely scores critical hits. Increases level with wielder.


    He dismissed the tablet with a thought, something he only tried to do today. Pushing some leaves aside, he caught sight of the Spine Deer. There were only three of them, but each one was the size of a horse and had antlers. Marc held a hand up, and turned to the other two before pointing. Lloyd smirked, while Jacky’s gaze hardened with resolve. Marc regripped the axe over and over again, bracing himself for the impact.


    All three of them ready, Lloyd got right next to Marc. He pulled out a throwing knife, winding up behind him with an almost unnatural flexibility, before flinging it through the brush. It hit deeply into the flank of one of the Deer, and the fight had started.


    Marc rocketed out from his crouched position, axe brought back for a fully dedicated swing. Jacky began chanting for a spell, but Marc met the first deer to charge him before she’d finished. Marc fully wound up, took one last step, before swinging the axe like a baseball bat. The edge cut partly into it, but the angle it hit caused it to twist away. A minor hit, but one that, with Marc’s might stat, batted the monster away for a moment.


    The deer spun on its hooves, clearly angered. It put it whipped its neck and some spines flew harmlessly to one side, away even from Marc’s allies. It charged again. Marc hadn’t even fully recovered from the hit, and held the axe like a spear. It had a spike at the end, but nothing more.


    His eyes reflexively closed, ready to get skewered by the very sharp antlers, but they never met him. What he felt instead was the resistance of the axe as it bit into the monster’s leg. The spike did its job well enough to keep him from damage, and after shifting his grip, the blade too stabbed into the monster.


    The Spine deer itself was thrashing, caught on the curve of the axe. As it moved itself around, Marc did everything he could to hold on to his weapon. Another one, far paler but just as bloodied, had rounded to Marc’s right. This was the one Lloyd had already hit, and as it whipped its neck towards Marc, a number of sewing needle-sized spines ejected from the tines of its antlers, sailing straight towards him. As they bit into his arm, the shock more than anything ensured he let go of the axe with his right hand, and the caught deer was even less controllable.


    Then, Marc saw the results of Jacky’s Spell. A hand of mud rose from the ground and encased the deer Marc had hit, allowing him to pull his axe free. Looking back on the fight, Marc should have realized that the spell was the same he’d been trapped in in the wheelbarrow, but he was more preoccupied at the moment.


    When another dagger flew out of the treeline and into the paler deer, it fell to the ground. Marc wound back for a big swing against the entrapped one, but got batted away as the final deer, this one far larger, ran into him. It was like a full body tackle from 400 pounds of muscle.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    Marc’s head was spinning, and he vaguely saw that he was Dazzled. What he really noticed was that his axe wasn’t in his hand, and the deer was preparing to flick its spines into him. Looking around, he saw it was feet away, far outside of reach in the time he’d need it


    Marc braced himself once more, forcing his eyes to stay even a bit open despite his instincts. The world slowed down for a moment, but once more he was saved. Lloyd, appearing from the shadows with a grin far more sinister than his usual half-cocked smirk, brought a dagger down into the deer’s neck. With a single sneak attack, it was dead.


    There was a lull then. The only remaining deer was completely immobilized by the hardened mud summoned by Jacky, and was helplessly producing spines from its antlers without flicking its neck to give them any speed. They fell uselessly to the ground. Marc stood up, dusted himself off, and grabbed his axe with his bruised left arm. Looking to each of his party members, they didn’t move to stop him.


    <hr>


    The group sat around a small campfire as night fell over them. Marc couldn’t help but internally laugh at the fact it took the three of them more time to set up camp and start a fire than it did to take down three monsters that were known to kill inexperienced solo adventurers. If he was alone, Marc was sure he would have added to that statistic.


    Lloyd was the one preparing to butcher the deer, with only his dagger. Jacky, meanwhile, was casting healing spells on Marc’s injuries. Which, to his displeasure, felt exactly like a pile of mosquito bites. Marc, being the one injured, was “allowed” to just sit there, though in truth they all felt it was a fair trade.


    Lloyd was their damage, Jacky their crowd control and healing, and Marc was the one getting hit. The triangle of MMOs covered.


    “Heya Marc, can I borrow your axe for this? I don''t think this is made for breaking bone.” Lloyd called out, holding up his dagger.


    Marc said, “Sure”, grabbed the axe, and brought it over to Lloyd. As he got to the block to hand it to the human, he got a notification tablet. He hadn’t seen one appear before the deer, but after the combat, he and his allies had gained the experience from them, letting Marc level up and see the glowing white granite tablet. The same kind he saw right now.


    SURVIVALIST


    Would you like to loot 20% of this monster’s valuables? Other parts must be harvested manually.


    {YES}  {NO}


    “Huh.”


    “What’s ‘huh’?” Lloyd turned to him, arm outstretched for the axe.


    “Oh, uh, let me see if I can. . . “ Marc tapped the Yes button. A pile of expertly butchered meat appeared in a pile on the bench. The carcass deflated oddly. There was even the weird wax paper that butchers tended to use underneath it.


    Jacky looked at him, not for the first time, with a look of. . . well, Marc couldn’t really tell what it was. Reading emotions was not something he excelled at, and she was a tree. “Marc”, she started, “when can you tell me about your boons?”


    The trio told each other about their boons late into the night, all the while feasting on the finest Spine Deer meat any had ever eaten.


    <hr>


    They quickly fell into a routine. Marc would find them, Lloyd would throw some knives for damage far beyond what their size would suggest, and by the time they had recovered, one of Jacky’s spells was ready to be cast and either restrain or entirely finish off one. If anything was still alive, Marc would charge into combat head first, while Lloyd and Jacky played support from range. In the few times he got charged again, Marc used Estrange to divert them, if slightly. Using it was weird, like imagining using an extra arm, but only practice could make it better.


    At the end of it all, Jacky had gained an entire level, while the new adventurers were sitting comfortably just below the level 10 mark. The experience they gained, while dramatically boosted for fighting things above their level, was also dramatically reduced against things of lower level.


    As they were traveling back, Marc looked at Jacky and Lloyd. Using Spectator Effect felt similar to Estrange, though the former could also be used by treating a conjured tablet like a smartphone.


    NAME: Jacky


    RACE: Dryad


    CLASS: Shaman


    LEVEL: 38/50


    ECHELON: 1


    HEALTH: Excellent


    A Northern Dryad from Grand Vale. Prefers Healing and Earth Magic. Curious about the unknown.


    NAME: Lloyd Emmint


    RACE: Human


    CLASS: Rogue


    LEVEL: 8/50


    ECHELON: 1


    HEALTH: Excellent


    A Human Rogue from the Sage Lands. Eager to please. Has many secrets.


    Marc’s “Outsider Locus” held most of the things they needed to provide proof they actually hunted the things they said they hunted. It actually worked a bit like a Vracht Pack they discovered. By this point, Jacky and Lloyd had started asking if Marc had a mystery boon or magic item for a number of scenarios. The monster materials themselves could be used in crafting magical items, or even mundane items. Open hunts themselves didn’t pay much at all, given their nature, but the materials were always in demand.


    Walking back through the gates of the city, they returned as adventurers.