New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 531 The Huntsman

After ending this impromptu interview session, Jack still had many things to attend to, and that was in the little time he had left in the day if he wanted to get back online. The night was breaking in; the sun disappearing over the horizon of the east coast, and much of the streets were already emptying.

It had been a little over three months since the game launched, and already millions of players all around the world trekked its mountains and travelled its roads.

Be it explorers at heart, who only wanted to find every little nook and cranny in New Eden's vast world, or battle-hungry young adults who hunted down the biggest challenges they could, hoping to overcome their limits.

The player variety was widespread, all the way from older players trying to get into the political scene in New Eden, to curious inventors who played with all kinds of new concepts in this world of magic.

But through all these differences, all the players had one thing in common. The chance to have a different life.

Very few were the ones that went the same way in this new world that they had in their life. What would be the point?

Of course, some people still did.

In a forest of the light continent called the Danabor Forest, somewhere southeast of the kingdom of Themisca capital, Themiscus, a single player was stalking a beast. His latest mark.

The mark in question was a dark feline of a tiger's size, with a double-tipped tail, which it was renowned for, as it was its main hunting tool and fur of dark blue and black. This beast was called a Phaser Leopard.

Falchion, a dark-skinned Afro-French man, looking to be in his late thirties, had been looking for this feline for the last half-week, getting the bounty from Themiscus adventurer's board, and he had found it fast enough.

The problem was that he couldn't just pounce on the beast, as it was a level fifty elite zone boss monster, and its stats alone put it out of his league. But Falchion wasn't your average player, either.

In life, Falchion, or Emmerick Duplessis, of his given name, was a huntsman by passion, and a hunter's guide for rich folk by profession. He had hunted many animals, over the years, ranging from hard-to-kill rhinos to man-hunting tigers.

He had thought he couldn't find anything worth hunting anymore, but delight overcame him when he found New Eden. The animals here resembled the ones on Earth, but with some variances.

Some of them were much more dangerous and harder to kill, making them even more enticing for him. With this knowledge, Falchion had bought a gaming pod with his saved-up money, and set it up in his house, in Toulouse, where he was born.

He started playing not long after the first tournament, when a lot of images of different beasts finally caught his attention, and his hunt had begun anew.

Falchion's goal in life was to take down something no one else ever had before, and wouldn't repeat the feat for years to come. He wanted to etch his name into history as the greatest huntsman ever.

Starting small in New Eden, given the stat mechanic, Falchion had worked his way through the levels by taking increasingly more challenging hunts, and bringing them to a close. Monster hunting in New Eden was a well-respected, but very dangerous job, one that very few people took on the regular.

A single miscalculation in your target, and a monster hunter's life ended. But this didn't deter Falchion.

On the contrary. It enticed him even more.

Falchion loved living his life on the edge.

Nothing brought him satisfaction, like knowing his mark could have taken his life just as much as he could. It made the hunt so much more thrilling.

Eyeing his mark from a safe distance, Falchion smiled, slowly reaching for his gnome-built rifle. Falchion was playing as a human since he wanted people to recognize him, be it in New Eden or out.

He had to play a hefty sum to get this rifle, and it was only through his guild master's connection that he could get one of this quality since his guild master had effectively enabled the gnomes to build these rifles.

Falchion's class, Ranger, gave him access to skills in both range and melee combat, and it was perfect for him. He had seen a player in the tournament use this class, and had decided he would use it when he started playing.

With his last few days of tracking, the man had found out the beast's routine and set traps just outside its usual path, effectively forming a trap zone for the beast once the hunt began. Falchion knew he didn't stand a chance in a fair fight, so he intended to use everything at his disposition to take his mark down.

Starting with an extremely damaging first attack.

Setting his cheek to the rifle stock, and looking at the Phaser Leopard through the sights of his rifle, Falchion exhaled slowly, murmuring to himself.

"Heart-stopper."

A blast of gunpowder echoed in the forest as the bullet in the gnomish rifle started passing down the barrel. As it did, it passed many runic rings that started pouring magic into the bullet, accelerating it exponentially until it left the barrel at quasi-sonic speeds.

But as soon as it popped out of the tip of the barrel, a last ring activated a rune on the bullet itself, giving a last acceleration to it, sending it piercing through the sound barrier.

*Bang!*

The next moment, the bullet was piercing through the Phaser Leopard's chest, dealing a whopping hundred thousand points of damage, as it applied its hemorrhage effect, and the weakened status for five minutes.

The Phaser Leopard roared in pain and anger, looking in the direction the blast had come from, its eyes already locking on Falchion, hidden in the brush. The player dashed off, making his way toward his trap zone.

And with this, the hunt had finally begun.