Armipotent

"Have you found Calamity Cockatrice? It's Rank 6 Calamity," Madaki asked.

Tang Shaoyang thought about it for a moment, but this was the first time he heard about it. He had been running around in this abandoned world, opening his Enchanted Chart. He encountered many Rank 6 Calamity, but he was not sure what Madaki talked about.

"Can you tell me this Calamity Cockatrice's characteristic?"

"It's a chicken but with the body of a dragon. They are much smaller than the common dragon. The tallest is around six to seven meters. Have you seen them?"

Tang Shaoyang contemplated for a moment, and he remembered them. It was the calamity in the south, deep into the south of the city. He thought of fighting this chicken calamity, thinking it might taste good just like Tortoine. But then he found out that the chicken calamity was Rank 6 Calamity. He put them on the map and the list of hunts later.

"I think I found where their habitat is." He nodded.

"Nice find. They are known for their vigilance and high sensitivity, but there is one moment when they are at their weakest. It is during mealtime, especially when they have their favorite food. If you can find their favorite meal and use it as bait, you can hunt them easier. Kill them in one shot. If you fail in that one chance, you might not be able to catch them with how fast they are."

Their favorite meal is Rank 3 Calamity Soaring Serpent, Rank 4 Calamity Burrowing Worm, and Rank 4 Calamity Lava Worm. Find those first, then use them as bait to kill them." Madaki winked his right eye at Tang Shaoyang.

"But remember this Tang. Don't use poison because they will know it, and also don't try to dismantle the bait to take the materials. With how cautious they are, they might not take the bait."

"Thanks for the tip, Madaki," Tang Shaoyang smiled, "You can take one fifty-meter tortoine and one sixty-meter tortoine."

He left the workshop with a big smile. During the last four days, he had changed his mindset. There was no point in trying to test the limit of how strong a calamity was in each rank. He just needed to find their weakness and hunt them. The mission was to hunt them, and this was not a war. He just needed to find a specific target and hunt the target with every means, even with poison. There was no need to fight them head-on.

'You are a hunter, pick a prey and hunt them. There's no need for you to gauge how strong they are!' That was what Manoe, the exotic restaurant's owner, told him. That was what changed his mindset.

Hunters had many ways to hunt, setting a trap, using poison, ambushing them from camouflage, driving the prey to the corner, and more. But he had done the most important one, scouting. He opened the maps, and the map covered the wide areas. The map was marked based on the rank of calamity. With the map, he could hunt his prey

Madaki was not the first one to tell him about a weakness of a certain calamity, but the others as well. Duvrag and Manoe were the most generous ones with the calamity's information and their weaknesses.

'When are we going to start with the hunt? You have covered a lot of areas already. It's time to hunt.' Avyn asked. It seemed the Last Kankara'Xeo could no longer hold her boredom after days of not doing anything despite meeting many monsters.

'You know we will start hunting tomorrow. There's no need to hurry. Everyone I know in this city told me to be careful going outside at night. They said the high-rank calamity roamed outside their territory at night. We might encounter Rank 7 Calamity and higher at night.'

Tang Shaoyang returned to his lodging. There were not many people compared to the first day he arrived. Only four tables were occupied at the moment, and he recognized the familiar back at the counter. Ira was having her dinner as usual. She had been here for the last three nights on the pretense of having dinner. In fact, he knew she was here for him.

He smiled and took the seat next to Ira. This was the first time he approached the Admin Assistant, "It seems like you put a quite big bet for you to be here three nights in a row."

"What do you want to eat, Tang? You can't have your usual. A certain someone bought them all, and we are running out of the ingredients. You have to wait at least four days for your usual order," Oby, The Cook, smiled wryly.

"I see… Do you have a recommendation then?" He knew it must be Ira's doing.

"What about Tortoine's stew? Trust me, you will like it." Oby also got his share of tortoine meat from Tang Shaoyang.

Tang Shaoyang was skeptical. Even though he heard a lot about how good this tortoine was. He had not tried it, at least, not until someone he trusted to cook for him. He intended to bring it back for Elin, and he would try it if it was Elin's cooking. She knew his bud taste, so he might like what she made than Oby and Manoe. But since Oby recommended it, he might as well try it.

"Then I will have that."

"Are you a merchant or what? You haven't been really hunting anything aside from Tortoine and a few Rank 2 and Rank 3 Calamity. Are you really not interested in the prize for the first place?" Ira asked after Oby left the counter, "Or do you really want a dip in my bet?"

Tang Shaoyang just smiled, not responding to her. He did not know what the bet was, and it was a lie if he was not interested. However, it felt like it would just cause trouble for him. He did not care and did not want to know about the bet. He was just enjoying his time in this trial.

Ira let out a sigh and stood up from the chair. She left without saying anything.

"It seems like she has given up, huh?" Oby returned with a food tray. The tortoine stew and a bowl of rice.

Tang Shaoyang shrugged and checked the stew. The tortoine meat looked more similar to pork than beef when it was cooked. The first thing he did was taste the broth and nodded his head, "It's good."

The tortoine meat was diced to bite size. He scoped one and tasted the meat. His experience with Calamity's meat was bad because of Manoe. He was reluctant to have a calamity dish unless Elin made it for him.

"Hmmm…. Not bad…." The dish tasted good, but he could not really tell the difference. If Oby said it was beef, he would believe it was beef stew instead of tortoine stew. That made him confused as to why these people were so worked up for tortoine meat.

"Atta boy, it seems you misunderstand something about tortoine. What's special about tortoine is not the taste, but the effect after you eat the meat. Just finish it, and you will know." Oby smiled.

Even though he was skeptical, Tang Shaoyang finished the stew. The effect was not immediate. It took like a minute for him to feel the effect. He felt heat coming from inside, making him want to do something. It felt like his body was being rejuvenated.

"Can you feel it?" The chef had a suspicious smile on his lips which Tang Shaoyang responded with a nod.

"Then why don't you spend a night at the red light district to let out some steam? You will have a great night."