Chapter 13: On the Hunt

Chapter 13: On the Hunt

Zac crept through the woods, slowly making his way more inland. He was hefting hatchet in one hand and his improvised spear in the right. He had found a camouflaged shirt in Davids bag which he had donned which would hopefully help him blend in a bit. He had planned to make some makeshift bracers and shin guards from some of the snakeskin this morning. Unfortunately it was still a bit grimy, so he had to leave it for another day at least to properly dry out. He still wore the amulet of the gathering array underneath his shirt, which continuously imbued him with more cosmic energy. He had a black backpack on his back filled with a bottle of water and a small batch of medical supplies.

He had actually gained a level without noticing while he was asleep from the amulet. It was still hard for him to know how much the amulet was gathering for him, or how much experience killing other monsters gave. There was no experience bar or notifications of experience gain anywhere in the system that could give him a frame of reference. Hopefully he would learn more about it from todays excursions. The two free points he had he had split between strength and vitality. When he allocated the points he had felt the energy rushing into his cells again, albeit far weaker when compared to when he allocated 30 points.

The goal of today was simple. He needed to kill monsters. Almost a week had passed since the world was integrated into the multiverse, and in reality he had accomplished very little so far.

He didnt dare make a beeline for the incursion just yet. He was afraid that there would be monsters there that he still couldnt handle, such as the Heralds themselves. Instead, he was walking around the edges of the island while steadily making his way inland. He had been walking for roughly 30 minutes now and still hadnt seen any monsters. He had seen some animals though. Most were the same as before the change, but some obviously had evolved from cosmic energy. For example hes seen a squirrel as large as a golden retriever. Luckily it seemed very docile, and it immediately escaped into the tree crowns after noticing him.

Finally he heard the familiar menacing growl from ahead. Zac was afraid he had been spotted, and immediately hunkered down behind a bush. There was no charging demonling heading his way fortunately, so he crept forward again. While hiding behind a tree he finally saw the beast 30 meters in the distance. It was the same sort of demon as he had fought before, a 6 legged monstrosity of oversized muscle and maw. This one seemed a bit leaner than the first he had fought, but he couldnt be sure. It seemed like it was lazing about in the sun in a small clearing. There was a small animal carcass next to it, so it appeared that it recently had a meal and was now resting.

Zac had made battle plans based on his first experience fighting these monsters, and now it was time to use them. He inched towards a sturdy tree that was at the end of the clearing, leaving only open field between the tree and the demon. He placed down his spear two meters away from the trunk and picked up a small rock. By now his heart was racing, his hands almost shaking from a buildup of adrenaline.

Ignoring the burning pain Zac quickly scrambled to his feet and got out of the way. But it seemed that the escape was unnecessary, as the demonling had collapsed after the swipe. The grass beneath it was completely stained red, and a large chunk of intestines was hanging outside its body. It was seemingly completely out of steam, weakly growling between shallow rapid breaths.

Ideally, Zac would have preferred to wait it out and let it slowly bleed to death, but the monsters roars had been quite loud. He had no interest in sticking around in case there was backup on the way. He had to be calculative at times to avoid unnecessary risks, but sometimes he had to be decisive as well. Gripping the hatchet in a bloody hand he slowly circled out of sight of the monster. Then with a few quick steps forward swung down with force right behind the middle legs, cutting deep into what he presumed was lungs. The demon tried to rouse a retaliation but was completely out of power, resulting only in a feeble wave of a paw.

Zac repeated an identical slash on the other side, which should mean that both its lungs were punctured. Given that the demons physique was somewhat similar to a normal mammals, of course. The demon barely responded to the second swing apart from shaking with pain or death throes. Zac wasted no time and with one final swing cut right into its neck.

With one final spasm, the monster passed. He knew this without having to check as he suddenly felt the familiar warmth of cosmic energy entering his body.

A quick look around the corpse once again showed no sort of loot spawning or dropping. This made Zac more certain of the fact that there was no such thing as a loot system with the System.

With a last look at the surroundings for anything he might have missed, he once again receded into the cover of the forest. The hunt was not over.