Second Life: Welcome to Gaia

Chapter 84: The Dodo

When Ye Yan showed the Silk Atlas of Comets to the cat, he kept silent for a few seconds. 

When Ye Yan thought that he had made the wrong choice, the cat started speaking.

"Hum. It looks that you have some knowledge, but theory without practice can't help you in the long run. Meow." When the cat meowed at the end of his speech, he started to cough to disguise it. He can't lose his dignity as a master.

"Now, I want to see how mad you can be in order to achieve what you want. Seeing that you are only level 9, killing the monsters outside can be challenging enough for now. There are some powerful monsters that walk around the palace ruins, and what I want you to do is to kill them and bring back to me some proof of it."

"The first monster I want you to kill is the Man-eating Flower. A powerful plant that grows in this region. I don't think you will have problems finding it. Just beware that it is very smart and likes to surprise its prey." The cat chose exactly the monster Ye Yan just killed. He just doesn't know if this is a good or a bad thing.

Ye Yan only hopes that he will not have to wait for it to respawn for him to kill it again. Then, he decided to tell the cat that he already killed it because, maybe, he can have an alternative option.

"Hum. I see." The cat raised his head a little and made a slight movement with his muzzle as if he were sniffing something. "Indeed. You have the smell of the Man-eating Flower in your body. So, just show me some proof that you have really slaughtered it."

When the cat asked for proof, Ye Yan readily showed him the stem and vines he looted from the monster's body.

"Hum. As I can still smell the monster in you, I will treat it as you completed the first task. However, you need to remember that if more than one hour pass after you kill a monster or if you take a bath, the monster smell will disappear and it will not count."

"It looks like you indeed have some madness in you, but are you mad enough? Breaking through the barriers of what is considered normal, of sanity, is not an easy matter. You are already good like that, but can you become great?" The cat spoke and took a break to groom himself.

"There is a Dodo that likes to walk around the north area of the palace ruins. This monster shouldn't exist anymore but it not only came back to life but it still came from another region of the planet just to steal my food sources." Another pause for the cat to do a little more grooming.

"However, I am a pacifist and can't kill it just because of some personal problem. I believe that we should only kill something with the objective of eating." He looked at Ye Yan in the eyes.

"The Dodo's meat could be very beneficial to you. I am sure you will find it very delicious. So, kill it and don't leave a feather behind, but don't eat it because it can easily make one choke to death, and the exit later would be even worse. It looks like you gave birth to a chick." 

Ye Yan looked at the cat, only thinking that he could have kept the last part for himself. 

After getting the new quest from the cat, Ye Yan crawled back to the palace ruins, and later, he went to the north area to look for the Dodo.

There are many rubbles in this area and just a few trees. You can see the water stream in the left part of the area, giving a bucolic feeling.

From afar, Ye Yan saw a big chicken run. First, he thought it was a Chocobo but later, he understood it should be the Dodo that the cat asked him to kill.

To make sure it is the right monster, Ye Yan used the scroll to identify it.

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[Dodo] (Elite)

Description: This flightless dove-like monster was an extinct animal endemic to the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, but some scientists made it come back to existence. However, they injected some foreign DNA into it, changing some of the Dodo's original characteristics.

Level 18

HP: 2.500

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"Shit!" Ye Yan couldn't help but curse. This monster is also an elite but it is two levels higher than the Man-eating Flower. He must be really mad to want to fight this monster alone.

However, even having this thought, he is excited about fighting a monster so powerful.

The Dodo has a greyish plumage, a tuft of curly light feathers high on its rear end, a grey and naked head, a beak with black and yellow colors, and legs stout and yellowish, with black claws.

The Dodo also has some characteristics that aren't from its species like cat's eyes, a black mark around the eyes like a pair of glasses, and a walking stick-like third leg.

Ye Yan looked at the Dodo, took a deep breath, and started approaching the elite monster.

Soon, the Dodo noticed Ye Yan approaching and rushed at him at full speed, aiming his beak at Ye Yan's chest.

Ye Yan saw the Dodo coming in his way and he opened his folding fan, getting ready for battle. When it reached him, Ye Yan spun, evading the attack while saying "Ol!"

He couldn't help himself. He imagined that his fan was a red fabric at the moment and even he not liking bullfight because it causes unnecessary suffering to the animal, he is enjoying dodging the Dodo in this way.

After passing by Ye Yan like that, the Dodo soon stopped, turned his body, and looked at him with eyes full of hate. The Dodo raised his third leg and stomp it on the ground after, showing what he wanted to do to Ye Yan.

Looking at the hole left on the ground by the Dodo's stomp, Ye Yan felt cold sweat running down his back. He has to say that even this third leg being strange, to say the least, its attack power is impressive.

Now he understood the difference between the Dodo and the Man-eating Flower. He is sure that only one hit is needed to kill him. Thus, he will have to be extremely careful in this fight.

The Dodo kept rushing at Ye Yan, trying to attack him with its beak.

Ye Yan decided to fight the monster dodging it and attacking at the same time. Every time the Dodo passed by him, he would spin with his right arm outstretched holding his fan, and slash the monster with it.

The speed of the monster started to increase after each onslaught. Noticing this, Ye Yan started to kite it to the direction of one of the few trees in the area. He decided to use it as support in the fight.

Ye Yan threw his fan at one strong branch of the tree and started to swing on the fan's wire as Tarzan with the vines.

While he was fighting this way, a strange thought passed through Ye Yan's mind, that made him feel relief one more time for not having to use the pink headband anymore. He didn't want to have anything remotely similar to the legendary knight that like pink and used chains in battle. 

What Ye Yan doesn't know is that, because of this thought, he will suffer less from Mage of the Cold Nights imagination in the future. If she saw Ye Yan in pink, using chains-like wire, she would want him to use his body heat to warm Dovakin in one of her stories. As a Dragonborn, Dovakin depends on the heat of the environment to regulate his body temperature, so he would need Ye Yan's warmth on cold nights.

Luckily, Ye Yan will never know what he escaped from.

In all the duration of the battle, Ye Yan kept swing on the wire and attacking the Dodo with punches. In this way, the fight took longer but it was safer because the Dodo only uses physical attacks that need contact with the enemies and, as Ye Yan kept dodging, there is no way for the Dodo to hit him.

If Ye Yan didn't use such a strategy, he would have died already because the Dodo is very fast and strong. It just would need one hit to kill Ye Yan.

In this way, even the elite monster being powerful, it can do nothing but recent Ye Yan's trick.

In the end, nor its normal attacks, nor its enraged attacks, could hit Ye Yan, that only needed to have the patience to kill the Dodo.

When the boss finally fell, Ye Yan's eyes shone in excitement.  The experience he gained was very high. The Dodo alone gives 1,150 experience points, plus the 80% bonus for being eight levels higher, it gave a total of 2,070 experience points. 

If Ye Yan kills a little more monsters like that, he will be able to level up again. However, he doesn't have time today because it is already very late and he needs to go back and turn in the quest to the cat.

Thus, he looted the Dodo's body and went back to the astrology room. He didn't have time to look carefully at the items dropped but he knew that they should be of great quality. A pity that he can't use them now because of the level limit.

That's why his friends don't farm high-level monsters. They not only can get experience faster when killing monsters of the same level as them because they are easy to kill compared to high-level ones, but they also can't use the items left by them.