The reticle didn’t move.
Ember stood frozen at the cave mouth, holding his lantern shutter down to a thin slit of light. He kept his eyes locked on the red marker burning through the fog. It hovered about chest-high on something he couldn’t see—no shape, no silhouette, just a red glow suspended in the gray mist. Whatever owned that weak spot was completely still. No heavy breathing, no shifting boots. Just watching him back.
He counted his gear out of habit. Nine arrows, one knife, and a target so big that Weak Point Detection had to scan six feet deep into the dark just to find a single soft spot. He had no clue what it could do, or if it even cared that he was there.
A hunter who asks if he can win has already lost.
He pulled the shutter tight, closing off the light, and took a slow step backward. Then another. He kept his chest square to the tunnel opening the whole way. The red reticle held its ground until the thick mist swallowed it whole. Then it vanished. No heavy steps, no scraping claw—nothing to prove it was ever there except the cold sweat running down his spine.
There had to be another way in. There always was.
He circled the rock outcrop, his boots squelching through wet clay, until he found a narrow crack half-hidden under hanging roots. A thin trickle of water ran down the stone inside. Not the main entrance, but that suited him fine. He wasn’t here to pick a fight with whatever was lurking in the dark.
The side crack dropped him into a low, dripping tunnel lit by patches of pale moss on the ceiling. He’d gone maybe thirty paces, keeping his focus loose, when a screech split the quiet and three dark shapes dropped from the roof.
[Appraisal] Monster
Name: Cavewing Bat Level: 5 Rank: Common HP: 100% Behavior: Nocturnal / Group Hunter Special Attack: Sonic Screech Description: A small dark-furred bat that inhabits caves and underground tunnels. It navigates through complete darkness using sound and usually hunts in small groups, feeding on insects and small cave creatures.
The first scream hit him like a physical blow, rattling inside his ears and making the tunnel tilt. His vision blurred for a second, but his feet moved before his brain did. He jammed his back heel into the dirt to stay upright and fired blind. The arrow hit the lead bat mid-air and slammed it against the wall.
The other two split up—one flying high, one skimming low. Ember dropped into a crouch, letting the upper bat swoop over his shoulder, and drove his knife upward as it tried to turn. The last one lunged from behind. There wasn’t room to draw an arrow, so he spun and took the impact on his reinforced forearm, slamming the creature against the ground.
Quiet settled back over the tunnel, punctuated only by the steady drip of water.
[Skill Proficiency Increased] Basic Survival — Fighting through disorientation has improved your proficiency. (+1.4%)
He knelt beside the nearest creature, working his blade under the wing membrane. He took his time, following the natural seam the way Martha had shown him back at the farm.
[Skill Proficiency Increased] Basic Gathering — Careful harvesting has improved your proficiency. (+0.9%)
[Item Obtained] Obtained: • Bat Wing Membrane ×3 • Echo Fang ×3
His ears were still ringing faintly as he kept moving. Whatever was guarding the main cave mouth clearly didn’t care about what happened back here in the side tunnels.
Ahead, the passage opened into a wide, shallow riverbed. Silt-dark water drifted sluggishly over flat stones. Three big, mud-colored lumps sat along the bank, looking so much like river rocks that Ember almost missed them until one shifted, oozing a few inches to the left.
[Appraisal] Monster
Name: Ironsilt Slime Level: 3 Rank: Common HP: 100% Behavior: Territorial / Slow Special Attack: Shard Spit Description: A dense, dark-colored slime that absorbs iron-rich silt from riverbeds and muddy caves. Its heavy body makes it slow-moving, but the minerals it stores give it surprising durability.
They looked completely harmless, which usually meant trouble.
He tested the closest one with a quick shot to its back. The arrowhead bounced off with a dull thunk, barely scratching the dark, gritty crust. The slime didn’t even react; it just kept sucking up mud from the stream bed.
Right. The outer shell is a non-starter.
He activated Weak Point Detection and waited through the full two-second delay. An amber line flickered low on the slime’s underside, right where its body met the wet stone—the one spot where the mud hadn’t hardened into a crust.
To get a shot at that angle, he had to get uncomfortably close. He waded wide through the shallows, stepping with the current to muffle the sound of his boots, and dropped to one knee in the cold water. He lined up a low shot, skimming the arrow just above the water line.
It punched through the soft underside. The slime didn’t scream or burst—it just melted, turning into a heap of gray-brown sludge and leaving a dense, fist-sized core behind.
One down. Four more to go.
Each one took longer than the last, not because the monsters got smarter, but because there was no way to rush it. Every single target meant wading through freezing water, holding still for two long seconds, and taking the exact same low-angle shot. No panic, no rush—just slow, tedious work until his knees burned from crouching and his fingers went stiff from the wet draft.
By the time the last slime collapsed, the pale daylight filtering in from the main entrance had faded to a muddy brown.
[Gathering Complete] Ironsilt Slime Fluid ×5 collected. Gathering EXP: +30
[Quest Updated] Kael’s Reagents Progress: Ironsilt Slime Fluid — 5 / 5 Collected
Three out of four task lists done.
He climbed out through the side crack, glancing back toward the fogged main entrance as he passed. Nothing was watching him this time, which somehow felt worse than being stared at.
The trail toward Loam territory cut through thick, old-growth forest where the canopy blocked out most of the sky. Ember let his passive skills do the heavy lifting while he walked, keeping an eye out for disturbed soil or overturned leaves—details he would have walked right past a month ago.
He was crouched near a rotting log, checking out a muddy depression that looked like a slime burrow, when the woods went dead silent.
A second later, birds burst out of the trees in a frantic swarm. A deep, heavy snort echoed through the brush, followed by the loud crunch of snapping branches moving fast.
[Appraisal] Monster
Name: Thorn Boar Level: 10 Rank: Common HP: 100% Behavior: Aggressive / Territorial Special Attack: Charging Rush Description: A heavily built boar protected by hardened thorn-like bristles. It relies on powerful charges to crush anything in its path.
Level ten. His stomach dropped before he could even process the number. The sound of something massive smashing through the brush set off every alarm in his head. The ground shook under its huge, dark body, and every instinct he had shouted the exact same thing: move.
He hadn’t even touched the burrow, but apparently existing near its territory was enough to trigger a death threat.
The boar broke through the bushes at a full sprint. Ember didn’t think—his body just reacted. He threw himself to the side, his boots sliding in the damp leaf mold as the boar missed him by inches, the wind of its momentum knocking him off balance.
Okay. Time to run.
He took off. Branches whipped across his chest and face as he scrambled over slippery roots. Somewhere in the first thirty seconds, his lantern popped off his belt and vanished into the brush, but he didn’t dare slow down to look for it. Behind him, the boar crashed through saplings like a runaway cart.
I picked a bow so I wouldn’t have to deal with this, he thought, hauling himself over a fallen trunk.
The boar didn’t care about his build. It just wanted to stomp him into the dirt.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter