Gun Chapter 47: Monster with Challenge Rating (Patreon)

The battle proceeded in an orderly rhythm. Wakasha stood behind the tree trunk without moving his feet even once, harvesting slime lives through nothing but the firing of both guns.

The output efficiency of the dual guns far surpassed that of a single gun. A slime swarm that would normally have taken a long time to wipe out was now shrinking at a visible rate.

Deathbird’s Gluttony effect continued to activate. Every time he killed a monster, it restored a small amount of his mental power and mana.

Combined with the 30% recovery boost from the class skill Mana Surge LV3, plus the replenishment from Solar Sphere’s Embers effect, his mental power and mana both remained above 90% the entire time. He had absolutely no need to worry about overconsumption.

The number of slimes by the puddle kept dropping. The once densely packed mass of gelatinous bodies gradually became sparse.

Those ordinary green slimes and pale blue slimes had almost no ability to fight back under the hail of dual-gun fire. One shot, one kill.

Even the giant slimes, though larger and tougher, were still taken out in a single shot thanks to the bonus from Precise Strike.

Only the pale purple mutated slime stood out as something special.

This mutated slime was even larger than the giant slimes, its whole body coated in a layer of sticky pale purple mucus that gave off faint toxic fluctuations.

It moved faster than ordinary slimes, and it could also split off smaller purple slimes on its own. Each time it split, its own body shrank slightly, but the small slimes it produced still retained some offensive ability.

Unfortunately, killing those split-off mini slimes didn’t grant any EXP.

When Wakasha’s bullets struck this mutated slime, they penetrated its gelatinous body but were instantly wrapped up by the mucus inside it, losing all their force and failing to deal fatal damage.

“Oh? So it can do that?”

Wakasha raised a brow, curiosity flickering in his eyes, but he didn’t panic in the slightest.

He adjusted his strategy immediately. Rather than using ordinary mental bullets, he poured mana into both guns and loaded Solar Sphere’s effect into them, selecting the version that caused a direct area explosion on impact, dealing continuous high-temperature, light, and fire-element damage.

At the same time, he activated the class skill Precise Strike LV MAX, condensed a thread of mental power, and flicked it toward the mutated slime. An invisible mark attached itself to the monster at once.

[Precise Strike activated: Marked target · Mutated Slime. Next attack gains +180% hit rate, +30% crit rate, and triggers Skullcrusher effect (if the head is hit, the attack is guaranteed to crit, with +100% critical damage).]

Wakasha gripped both guns and aimed at the mutated slime’s core. Slimes didn’t really have clear heads, but since the thing was so large, shooting straight at the core had a high chance of triggering Skullcrusher anyway.

Bang! Bang!

Two gunshots rang out together. Two bullets infused with the power of Solar Sphere, glowing with golden-red light, struck the mutated slime’s core with perfect accuracy.

Boom! Boom!

Two heavy explosions went off in succession. Golden-red flames instantly engulfed the mutated slime’s body. The intense heat scorched its gelatinous flesh, and the purple slime evaporated continuously in the flames with sizzling sounds, while a sharp burnt stench spread through the air.

The continuous fire damage kept eroding its body, making it let out pained sizzling cries as its form twisted violently.

The mutated slime tried to split off smaller slimes and escape, but the moment the tiny slimes emerged and touched the surrounding flames, they were instantly burned away, unable to survive at all.

Wakasha gave it no chance to breathe. He kept pulling the triggers, firing bullet after bullet loaded with Solar Sphere’s effect, pounding them into the mutated slime.

Every explosion dealt massive damage. Its body grew smaller and smaller, the purple slime dwindled, and the toxic fluctuations steadily weakened.

After more than ten shots, the mutated slime finally lost all vitality. Its body melted in the flames into a puddle of purple liquid that seeped into the puddle, leaving behind only the faintest trace of toxic residue, which was quickly burned away by Solar Sphere’s heat.

[Monster Killed: Mutated Purple Slime (Challenge Rating 1). Gained 100 EXP

Talent: Law of the Jungle activated. EXP ×20. Actual EXP gained: 2000

Concept Armament: Deathbird gained 2000 Skill EXP

Skill: Precise Strike gained 2000 Skill EXP]

With the death of the last mutated slime, the marsh finally fell silent once again. Only the rustling of the low plants in the wind remained, along with the heat from Solar Sphere baking the muddy ground by the puddle into wisps of white steam.

Wakasha dismissed the dual guns, then lightly brushed Solar Sphere with his fingertips. The golden-red orb instantly shrank back down to the size of a marble, gently settled into his palm, and its light gradually faded until it disappeared completely.

The two Mage Servants had completed their task as well, silently returning to Wakasha’s side to await new orders.

At that moment, Wakasha opened the system.

Challenge Rating?

There was actually a slime here with a Challenge Rating?!

No wonder it had been so hard to kill.

A monster with a Challenge Rating and one without were on completely different levels of strength.

If ordinary monsters were just basic mobs, then monsters with a Challenge Rating were at minimum elite mobs, if not outright mini-bosses.

In a one-on-one fight, only a class-holder could directly face a monster with a Challenge Rating.

No wonder the guild warned beginners not to wander too deeply into active monster zones.

Still, as the difficulty of the fight increased, so did the reward.

Killing that slime had given a base EXP of 100!

A hundred times what a normal slime gave!

It had directly pushed Precise Strike to EX rank.

And...

[Achievement Unlocked: First Signs of Greatness. Successfully killed an elite monster with Challenge Rating 1 or higher. Obtained Limit Break Point ×1]

(Monster tiers: Ordinary, Elite — Challenge Rating 1–5, Master — Challenge Rating 6–10, Transcendent — Challenge Rating 11–15, Epic — Challenge Rating 16–20, Legendary — Challenge Rating 21+)

[Limit Break Point: Can be used to break through one of your EX-rank skills, elevating it into an entirely new skill while preserving all existing effects. The skill’s level will reset to 1.]

[Elite Challenge Quest unlocked: Kill 10 elite monsters. Upon completion, one talent or skill will be randomly drawn from among those 10 monsters and converted into an adaptive skill.]