Marlon had found the perfect place to set up camp, so he simply removed the dead branches from the spot he had chosen, breaking them into small pieces that would be used to fuel his campfire.

He took the tent out of his pack and set it up in a few minutes, used to the various stages of shelter setup by now. He groaned when he noticed a few holes in the roof of his makeshift shelter, but it would hold for a while before he had to buy another one.

The sun was not yet at its zenith, so the air was cool and made the young man shiver, and he hurried to prepare the fire to warm himself once the tent was set up. Winter was almost here, and he knew that the nights would surely be very cold.

Once these tasks were completed, he took a dented pot out of his pack and filled it with water from the nearby stream before heating it on the now roaring fire pit around which he had made a circle of stones picked up here and there and fulfilling perfectly his task of ambient heating.

He sat down and waited for the water to boil and thought about the best course of action for the next few days, maybe weeks.

He was going to dutifully go through the herbology book he had bought to improve his knowledge, for starters.

Then he would test the new rune he had acquired. With a little luck, he would be able to completely replace the need for various potions and perhaps have some pleasant surprises like with his Fire Tracker spell.

Luna lay next to him and purred loudly as the fire warmed her pleasantly, Marlon stroking her silk-soft back absentmindedly with one hand as he pondered his next actions.

The young man also thought that he would have to improve his archery practice, which would make his hunting much easier and would allow him to increase his hunting score.

A creature was worth a silver coin, it was as simple as that.

"I really like the way you think, kid! And I approve of your plan of action. You've got time on your hands, and a quest that can enrich you greatly if you play it right. Upgrade your professions as much as you can, and above all, don't forget to collect everything you can from the creatures you're going to hunt."

"This is what will make the difference between a decent cash flow and the jackpot..."

Marlon didn't need much sleep, at most four or five hours a night, less if he pulled a little on the rope. He was going to take advantage of every moment spent in the forest of Cronande to improve and enrich himself.

He still had three full vials of blood left, from the rat monsters of Delia's catacombs. Thinking back to that place and what had happened there brought a shadow to his eyes, the murderous part of his consciousness resurfacing as his heart clenched in his chest.

Fortunately, this lasted only a few seconds and he managed to pull himself together quickly, leaving aside the murderous impulses that were just waiting for the right moment to be unleashed.

He needed to release himself to push back as well as possible these desires which often took him at inopportune moments, also he rose, taking his sword which he had put on the ground and going to a few meters from there.

He warmed up slowly by winding his weapon, first with his left hand, then with his right. The weight of the weapon was substantial, and a few weeks earlier he might not have been able to do such an exercise, having to hold it with both hands.

Today, with the training he had undergone, the various fights he had had to do, his body had become more muscular, adapted to efforts he would never have thought possible.

As he began his routine of offensive and defensive postures, images of himself on Earth flashed through his mind. He remembered his physical weakness, his inability to defend himself when he was attacked, his mother always having to defend him as he cowered in the fetal position and cursed his very existence.

His movements became faster, more powerful, as his thoughts wandered between his regrets and his past weaknesses. His blade hissed as it sliced through the air and sweat ran down his face, an unruffled concentration having taken possession of him.

For an hour, he did not stop, taking out all his rage in his exercises until his muscles were white-hot and stood out on his two powerful arms.

Bringing down his sword in a last vertical movement, he planted it up to the half-blade in the ground while pushing a liberating cry with barbaric consonances.

He caught his breath for a few minutes, savoring the feeling of fullness that had come over him as his sword split the air, then he headed for the stream, downstream from his camp and making a perfunctory cleansing of the sweat before it smelled, ignoring the icy cold of the water that bit into his skin.

Strong odors could be much better picked up by various predators and he had to limit them as much as possible if he wanted to hunt effectively, and not risk being attacked while he was sleeping.

He recognized this knowledge as coming from his hunter's tattoo, still finding it amazing that he had assimilated this knowledge as if it had always been part of him. Other useful information was coming into his brain as he cleaned himself up and he put it aside for when he actually started hunting.

He couldn't browse through the information like he could in real memories or like a search engine on a computer network. But what he needed appeared on the surface of his thoughts as if by magic. Perhaps that would change over time, but he already found it very convenient and incredibly well done.

Back at the camp, clean but still a little damp, he decided to prepare for battle against the monsters of the forest. He took out his scrolls and the three vials of blood he had left. He should be able to make about ten scrolls with that.

He decided to play it safe and the first six scrolls he drew were Fire Trackers, blending the three runes of Breath, Spark, and Vision to get out of difficult situations if he was ever ambushed or wounded.

The last three scrolls he could draw were reserved for experimentation. First, he decided to try a combination of Breath and Life, planning to heal wounds as clearly as he could. The strokes were fine and no smears or smudges marred the line he drew. His calligraphy had already improved greatly from the dozens of hours he had spent practicing relentlessly, and he had no intention of stopping anytime soon.

Just before he finished the scroll, he stopped his movement. Grabbing the dagger hanging from his belt, he gritted his teeth and deliberately slashed the top of his left hand, grunting in pain.

The blood began to flow profusely and he took the opportunity to collect a vial, having never tried to draw a rune with his own.

With his hand unbroken, he finished drawing the combination of runes, still projecting the same intent in his mind. Once the last loop was connected, his drawing lit up and a green aura rose into the air as the parchment burned, turning to ash instantly.

The light form floated towards Marlon and entered his body, melting into him without apparent reaction. The young man's body began to radiate, a green glow pulsing from his body, and he felt a wave of well-being pass through him.

The wound on his hand slowly stopped bleeding, then in a few seconds, he saw the wound begin to close as if he had gone back in time and his skin was back to its condition of a few moments ago.

Eventually, the two edges of the gash joined and welded together, leaving no evidence of any wound.

The entire process had taken only a few seconds. Marlon understood that for more serious injuries the time required would surely be much longer, but he had still discovered what he wanted: an alternative to potions, and an effective way to heal his injuries.

Ratmen were simple creatures, and parchment was a very basic medium as well. Perhaps he could increase the healing power by using a catalyst and a rarer medium, but that would require testing that he could not do at the moment.

Once his theory was proven, Marlon proceeded to draw the same pattern on the last two scrolls, preferring to save the vial filled with his blood for an emergency. He just left the last loop of the design incomplete, so he could use it quickly if he ever found himself seriously injured.

The sun was now high in the sky, and its rays warmed the face of the young man who decided to rest a little before going on a hunt. He lay down and Luna stood next to him, alert to his surroundings. He knew that she would warn him if anything happened that could threaten him.

Two hours later he awoke, rested from his nap, his chimera meowing as if to greet him as he sat up and stretched with a loud yawn.

"Sleep well, Sleeping Beauty?"

Having no idea why Loki was calling him that and especially where the nickname came from, he preferred to shrug his shoulders and get up without waiting. He pulled the two wolf traps attached to the side of his bag and retrieved the weapon that he had put next to the fire after having pulled it from the ground.

He rolled up the rune-covered scrolls and tucked them under the belt holding his pants. He would have to find something better for the future, but for now, this did the trick.

Then the young hunter slung the quiver of arrows over his shoulder and took his bow, which he kept in his hand. With his sword and dagger strapped to his belt, he set out and walked under the foliage of the Cronande forest, telling Luna to stay close to the camp and not to follow him. She feinted slightly to indicate her disagreement, but remained near the campfire, following her master as he went deeper into the woods.

The sounds of birds and small rodents walking through the undergrowth were present, so Marlon figured there was no immediate danger.

The trees were close together, but there was enough space between them that he did not have to bother trimming branches to get through. There was also no particular path, testifying to the wildness of the place, only a few paths made by the passage of animals being visible. He recognized them, again thanks to the knowledge left by his hunter's mark, and he decided to set the traps along with two of these paths.

Armed the two mechanical jaws with the strength of his arms, he attached the chain to the nearest tree so that a creature caught in it could not escape, then he covered the mechanisms with dead leaves, taking care not to set them off at the same time.

That would give him food for the next few days, in case he didn't succeed in shooting his targets, which he highly doubted.

The ground was soft, thanks to the multiple layers of dead leaves that had formed thick humus and dampened the sound of his footsteps as he walked.

He was also careful to make notches on some tree trunks as he went deeper into the forest, a necessary marker to avoid getting lost when everything looked more or less the same in this virgin forest of human footprint.

After thirty minutes of walking, the ambient noise disappeared, the birds stopped cooing and whistling, even the small cracking of branches caused by the rodents stopped abruptly.

Marlon hesitated for a few seconds, wondering what approach would be most effective, before pulling one of his tracking scrolls from his belt.

The most violent approach was the most effective until he knew what he was dealing with. He took out the brush, still wet from the blood he had used, and prepared to complete his drawing as loud cracking sounds were heard in front of him.

He cautiously moved forward, doing his best not to attract attention, and within seconds he saw what was making all the commotion.

An Arbol. Much bigger than the ones he had already seen. This one must have been about two meters high, and almost a meter wide. Its bark skin was a khaki green color that blended in quite well with the surrounding scenery, and if it weren't for the noise it made Marlon would surely have had a much harder time spotting it.

It had two massive branches that looked like arms, except they didn't end in hands but in some sort of movable vines that it used as a weapon, if at least it behaved like the creatures the young man had already hunted.

A similar thicket of vines grew out of the base of the monster's trunk, allowing it to move forward and through the undergrowth with ease. The creature had no eyes to speak of, but two dark hollows in the main trunk made it look like one. He had no idea how these monsters perceived their environment, but an irregular slit would occasionally open with a crack and the young man could see sharp fangs appear. Far too many for the creature to be a herbivore.

Arrows would not be effective against it, Marlon having no idea of the creature's weak point. So he decided to take out his sword from his belt and he placed himself discreetly behind the creature, keeping a distance of about twenty meters between them.

He crouched down and finalized the Fire Tracker scroll, imprinting the Arbol's silhouette in his mind as a massive fireball rose from the ashen scroll.

The monster must have realized something because he turned around sharply and his arms flailed violently in search of a target. The fireball had already rushed towards Arbol and he could do nothing against the flames that enveloped him when the flaming sphere came into contact with the bark that served as his skin.

A shrill screech escaped the Arbol's mouth and he twisted in all directions as fire raced even inside him. He saw his skin burn and blacken as pieces of it burst open and dripped blood as green as his own.

Some of the wounds seemed to close, however, and some of the flames were extinguished as if he possessed a latent power of regeneration that slightly weakened his flames, weak but present.

Playing it safe, and seeing that one scroll wasn't enough to finish off the creature, he pulled out a second scroll and finished the tracing, summoning a second fireball that exploded on Arbol like the previous one, reigniting the fire ravaging the monster's flesh. This one seemed to be the right one.

Within seconds, the fire had devastated it and eventually died out, the creature not moving a limb. Marlon preferred to wait a few moments to be sure it was dead.

The fire had not spread at all and had really concentrated on the sylvan beast, thus avoiding spreading and causing a fire that could have been huge, not that Marlon would have minded. But he wasn't sure the guild would have been happy to see the forest reduced to ashes.

He then approached the Arbol while smoke was still rising from the blackened body, and thrust his sword into the gash that served as the creature's mouth. His blade passed completely through the corpse and met no particular resistance, making the young man think that he could surely try a hand-to-hand approach next time.

No movement betrayed any semblance of life left in the monster, so he hurried to fill a score of vials with the greenish fluid that flowed abundantly from the wound left by the hunter's blade.

Once that was done, he tried to salvage some bark from the Arbol, but the fire had rendered that useless, and he shook his head, thinking that even if the flames were radical, it was a shame to lose raw material. Arbol's blood and bark had proven to be very effective in burning the Takpes orchard and village to the ground, so he wanted to salvage as much as he could.

The hunt had been simple, too simple even. Marlon hadn't even felt the adrenaline rush typical of this kind of moment, so he decided not to use the scrolls on the Arbols for the moment. It lacked ... flavor, spice.

He was surprised to feel this, but didn't dwell on it too much, as he heard more creaking coming from his left. Probably another Arbol walking through the undergrowth.

Marlon's doubts were confirmed when he saw another massive figure moving through the undergrowth. And what he saw turned his stomach a little.

Arbol had caught a small fox-like creature with vines replacing what should have been hands, and with his two upper limbs, he was busy tearing the poor beast apart, which squeaked one last time before being cut in half. Then in four.

The Arbol then threw the bloody pieces of the little animal into its toothy mouth and literally took one bite.

Marlon felt his heart clench, an almost sexual excitement overtaking him as he tightened his two-handed grip on his weapon. He knew exactly what to do to avoid the fate of this animal, and the plan of attack he had in mind became more precise, more refined, as he slowly approached the monster.

He was still chewing, and the hunter heard the crunch of what must have been the fox's bones in his mouth.

With only three or four more meters to go before he hit the Arbol, Marlon straightened up, the scary grin returning as adrenaline flooded his system.

Abruptly, he stood up and jumped on the sylvan monster, bringing his weapon down on its left arm and slicing it completely.

Greenish blood began to gush from the wound as the limb fell to the ground, the vines at its end convulsing and twisting in all directions.

The creature's reaction was swift, turning around and sweeping the air with its remaining arm. Marlon deftly ducked and spun around with a downward thrust, his circular motion giving his attack more power. He sliced off the second limb at what should have been the elbow, and the creature's uncomprehending scream erupted from its mouth as Marlon leaped back to avoid having a piece of flesh torn off by the monster's teeth.

But the danger had become relative. The young man had superior reach to the creature now that his arms had been severed and lay inert on the ground.

He first gave a thrust and was reassured to see that the main trunk of the creature was not as solid as it looked. He didn't stop there and began to pierce the Arbol in multiple places, whose movements were slowly becoming slower.

The green blood flowed freely and the young man always stepped back at the right moment, avoiding the monster's attempts to grab him with what served as his mouth but was clearly more dangerous.

The regenerative power seemed to slow the bleeding, but it was by no means enough to regrow the missing limbs or heal the deep wounds Marlon was inflicting on the Arbol.

After five minutes of sharp dancing, the Arbol's movements stopped completely and the main trunk collapsed somewhat, dead.

Marlon played it safe and stung his opponent a couple more times to make sure he was dead, then blew out a big breath and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Inwardly, he was deeply grateful to Jacob and Rastan for teaching him the hard way, for without them he would never have been able to get rid of the Arbol so easily.

The next few minutes were dedicated to dismantling the monster and recovering the available resources.

Thus Marlon was able to cut about twenty pieces of bark that would serve as scrolls, and he filled three more vials with blood, the rest having unfortunately emptied on the ground. Two dead creatures, in less than an hour, was a very respectable score, and he could have gone on for a long time like that, but he decided to return to the camp and refine his preparations.

If the catacombs had taught him anything, it was the vital importance of preparation. And he now had plenty of material to work with.

Following the marks he had made on the tree trunks, it took him twenty minutes to return, his pace faster than on the way out. He took in the atmosphere of the forest, the insects rustling and rattling in the tree trunks as a light breeze carried with it the smell of dead leaves and various other scents of the forest.

Various birds flew over him and some landed on the branches above him, looking curiously at this biped walking through their domain and cackling their disagreement or interest, he wasn't sure.

The sun's rays did not penetrate the canopy, giving a mystical and intimate glow to the place that the young man would not have changed for anything in the world. He enjoyed every breath, every twig crackling under his soles. He enjoyed being alive and being able to feel it all.

Taking advantage of the fact that nothing was threatening him, he noticed a few vines and mushrooms that he picked up, the herbalist's knowledge infused in him helping him to recognize edible or useful species to prepare some relaxing decoctions. It wouldn't be useful to him directly, at least not the concoctions, but he could easily resell this to the Herbalists' Guild or the alchemists, he wasn't sure yet who he would get the best price from.

Once he arrived, he noticed that Luna had not moved and was still lounging by the fire which was now almost out.

Marlon put fuel back on and went to clean his blade in the stream, cooling off a bit in the process. He took advantage of the fact that the sun had not yet set to read his herbology book, improving his knowledge and shaking his head as he recognized a few plants he had come across but not picked up on the way.

This would be a task for the next day, as the sun was now rapidly declining, the young man having read his book for nearly two or three hours, caught up in the exciting content scattered throughout the pages.

Each herb had a purpose, toxicity or not, and could be used alone or mixed with others to maximize or completely change the effects of the decoction. If he was careful, he could make attempts to create invigorating infusions or protect against poisoning for a few hours.

It wasn't really advanced knowledge to help him advance in Alchemy, but it could definitely help him optimize his hunt.

Marlon felt in his element, hunting and improving his knowledge without having to deal with others. He was going to enjoy this time in nature very much.

As the sun set, and he began to draw runes on the bark of Arbol, he heard a very typical howl that even he recognized.

Wolves. Apparently, they came out at night in this world too.

"Nice, I have a feeling you won't be getting much sleep tonight, kid. Haha!"