Xuan looked at the system with contempt, and this thing had done this exact thing before, suddenly asking him to not only survive but also become General Yulin's slave.
Xuan took a deep breath, trying his best to relax his nerves. Even though he had come here to hunt with gusto, he was still just a salaryman; he hadn't yet killed a bird. But now he must somehow deal with this horned rabbit—a single attack from its horn could very much destroy his legs, or worse, if it hits his stomach he'd just straight up die.
After a few minutes of breathing exercises, Xuan finally calmed his nerves; the rabbit had also almost finished eating the giant coconut-sized fruit. And from the looks of it, the way the rabbit ate it with ease, Xuan could at least deduce that this was this rabbit's territory.
"Otherwise it wouldn't be eating so slowly, as if it has no fear of a predator attacking it. Also, it's already so large. I wonder how big its predators would be."
Xuan started moving, determined to not overanalyze stuff too much and take action, as he slowly began closing the distance between himself and the rabbit. The bushes were excellent cover, and as Xuan got within a certain distance to the rabbit, its ears perked up.
Catching the cue that the rabbit had sensed his presence, Xuan immediately drew one of the three daggers from his waist, throwing it at the rabbit's large body while simultaneously breaking into a wild run, trying to close the gap between him and the rabbit quickly.
The dagger, as expected, hit air as the rabbit dodged it, but instead of running away from Xuan, the rabbit instead charged at him. Xuan felt startled; even if it was another world, he had at least thought this rabbit would behave like prey rather than a predator.
"Damn it, even rabbits of this world are deadly." Xuan immediately jumped to the side as the horned rabbit took off from the ground with a jump, trying to pierce Xuan's stomach open.
As Xuan dodged the attack by a hair's breadth, the rabbit's horn lightly grazed his skin. He hurriedly tried to swing the sword down on the rabbit before it could land on the ground. But as expected, despite his hours of practice, when it came to it his hands trembled as he missed the rabbit, only managing to lightly hit its legs.
The rabbit took off again with a jump immediately after landing as it tried to hit Xuan in the stomach again. This time, as the rabbit attacked him before he could turn back, his balance was shaken. So instead of dodging, Xuan used the blade of his sword as a shield to block the attack. But to Xuan's utter shock, the horn of the rank one horned rabbit pierced through the blade, grazing past his shoulder, leaving a deep gash.
"Ughh…!" Xuan grunted from the pain as he tried his best to regain his focus and footing. The rabbit on the other hand was relentless as it immediately attacked him again without even stopping. "The hell is this damned freak!"
But despite the rabbit attacking him again, Xuan noticed a slight difference in the rabbit's jumping speed and velocity. This time he ducked his head, his beastly wolf eyes intensely fixated on the rabbit's trajectory as he immediately tried to poke at the rabbit's belly from below with his broken sword.
The attempt resulted in a small slash at its belly; the rabbit this time didn't immediately jump at him after landing. Instead the rabbit slowly stepped back as blood started to fall from the slash wound he had inflicted on it.
Xuan gave a pained smirk as he resisted the urge to grab his bleeding shoulder. "Good, now you're toast, buddy. Now come at me again, why don't you?" said Xuan, running at the rabbit. The rabbit didn't try to attack him again as it started running off. "Why are you running now?" screamed Xuan as he followed the rabbit.
On the way, he picked up small stones, hitting the rabbit over and over. The rabbit's speed started to gradually slow down as Xuan aimed another one of his daggers at the rabbit.
"Please connect this time around!" Xuan prayed as he mustered as much strength as he could while running, throwing the dagger at the beast's back.
The dagger shot out at speed, and just when it was about to hit the rabbit, the rabbit took a wild turn as the dagger missed it completely. He then threw his third and final dagger as it managed to barely hit the rabbit, leaving behind a large wound; the rabbit staggered.
And just as it was about to regain its balance and run, "Good try, buddy." Xuan towered over it, his wolf eyes shining with silver gleam. He immediately plunged the broken but sharp end of his sword at the rabbit's back. The rabbit died within minutes from loss of blood.
[You've slain a Rank 1 Horned Rabbit]
[Quest Cleared]
[You have obtained an E-Class Rune Stone]
[Would you like to claim it? Y/N]
Xuan denied as he looked around himself; he had come far from his fighting place. But just as he was about to go back, he noticed red gleam from within each of the bushes around him, numbering more than ten.
"Shit, they've surrounded me without my notice," Xuan thought back to what Chen Mei had said about not developing tunnel vision when fighting. "So much for that. Despite being careful at first, I still developed tunnel vision when fighting. Now what?"
[New Quest: Defeat 20 Rank 1 Horned Rabbits]
[Reward: D Grade Mystery Box]
Xuan sighed. Even though he was surrounded and the only way out was by running and killing whatever got too close to him, fortunately, as the rabbits came out of the bushes one by one he noticed they weren't half as big as the first one he had killed.
"That was probably at the peak of Rank 1 and was almost about to evolve and reach rank two," Xuan deduced as he brought out the [Impulse Stone] he had acquired after completing the first quest.
He quickly crushed the incredibly soft impulse stone with his fists as he felt strength surge through him. "Okay, change of plan. I'm gonna kill all of you!" said Xuan as he bared his fangs, his eyes gleaming with silver light.
He held the broken blade with one hand as he charged at the swarm of horned rabbits.