I managed to stay in the river for the whole day, continuing with my unusual method of fishing, even as the beasts got stronger and stronger, though not as much to prevent me from handling them from a strike from my sword.

[+54 Experience]

[+130 Experience]

…

[+71 Experience]

[+30 Experience]

"At least, it was not all bad," I murmured as I pushed to the surface once more. More confident, now that the darkness had fallen once more, not afraid that I would be noticed by the occasional flying castle or fortress that was in the sky.

The number of Flying Fortresses alone had reached a dozen, while the smaller castles had reached almost three digits, further highlighting the capabilities of the world I had found myself in.

Hiding was turning out to be better and better.

At least, until I felt a sudden sense of presence underneath me! One that recognized as the weight of the Charisma, though it hit me differently than Toross' aura of trust — later replaced with some kind of madness — or Falael's pressure of obedience.

It was more of a call to distraction, asking me to swim closer, just like the stories of the siren. I was glad for that, as without that presence, I wouldn't have noticed the stirring in the river bed until it was too late.

I swam to the shore as fast as I could manage, though I barely moved a few feet away from the radiating point.

Some kind of ambush predator, I realized even as I stretched my new capabilities to the limit to avoid its attack. If it wasn't for the early warning, I would have been taken down by the beast, which wasn't exactly good news.

I wasn't able to catch its appearance, as the moment it burst out of the bottom, the mud and sand spread, turning the river into a turbid mess. Though, even with my impaired vision and challenges of dodging underwater, it hadn't been particularly difficult to avoid the attack once I had moved in the opposite direction the creature wanted.

I moved toward the shore, though I swung the sword in front of me preemptively, in case it could correct its direction rapidly.

Instead, I heard the sound of a huge body bursting out of the water, and falling back in. I continued moving toward the shore, and my perception stretched to the limit. When it attacked me again, it once again came with a warning, the same pressure that I ignored easily thanks to Resilience.

It only helped me to predict its charge, nothing more. As I felt the water move, the sword was already moving — and sank right into its huge open mouth.

Unlike the previous times, the hit of the magical sword didn't result in a sudden burst of experience, just another wave of mental pressure, more primal and much stronger — yet still ignored easily. The voice ordered me to fear, but I just gripped the sword harder, which gave me leverage to avoid its huge jaws.

It charged, ignoring the injury, and I held the sword, ignoring the fear. Its linear charge worked to my benefit, and before it could slow down, I felt ground under my feet. I didn't know if the beast was intelligent enough to understand the tactical implications of that mistake, or if it was driven by instincts, but it started pulling back.

But the way it suddenly twisted its head, the pull strong enough to drag me back if I didn't react by releasing my grip. As the beast retreated back into the water, the pressure once again easily ignored.

The beast tried to attack me again, but I was already at the shallow edge of the river, and I threw myself to the side.

I pulled out of the water, and I even dashed away, ignoring the cries of the beast and the pressure it radiated, and instead hurriedly pulled the dagger out of my little pack. Though, I couldn't help but feel a pang at losing the magical sword in the chaos.

Soon, its cries had subsided, along with the thrashing in the water, even enough to avoid my Perception. I might have even believed that, if it wasn't for the constant pressure, begging me to get close.

"Fascinating," I murmured as I started walking toward the hill first, glad that there was a nice little hill not too far away, blocking my view, swinging my dagger to take down a bird that decided to dive down to kill me.

[+13 Experience]

I was tempted to run along the riverbank, dipping under water whenever there was a caravan close by, but the presence of the creature that could be still felt was enough to dissuade me from it.

Whatever pulled the chaotic fire was radiating to distract the stronger monsters, it was sufficiently away that even the stronger creatures were out of its range of pull.

It was time for the next stage of the plan. I did my best to squeeze my clothes dry, then put them on — though after ripping the silver symbol on the chest, another rip was sufficient trade to make the robes look even more ordinary. I even grabbed a handful of dust to spread along my clothes, giving an even messy appearance.

Since the robe had many signs of damage, it was better for them to look immediately.

Then, I climbed to the top of the hill, and took note of my surroundings. The first thing I noticed was the number of caravans below the hill. I could see dozens of caravans sprawled around the relatively flat landscape, even the smallest caravan with more than a few hundred tents and campfires.

I swung my blade once more to deal with another little bird that decided attacking me was the best idea.

[+3 Experience]

"Interesting," I murmured as I continued my observation, trying to decide which caravan to try and infiltrate.

In a stroke of luck, of all the camps I could see, the one that was closest to the river gave me the best opportunity to sneak in. However, it was not a coincidence, as I could see several caravans, positioned in layers, the outside ones looked … more chaotic … compared to the groups that were on the inner side of the camps.

I had a feeling that it was less of a coincidence, and more of an intentional structure. The camps at the outer layer were under a constant siege of creatures, most small, some large, almost constantly battling. Surprisingly, while they had some ranged capability, they were only using that against the larger beasts, and dealing with the smaller ones exclusively through close combat.

Not that shocking. Facing that many creatures, saving ammunition were clearly a reasonable objective.

The layout implied — and their state confirmed that — the outer camps were inferior to the inner ones. Conveniently, even among the outer camps, the worst camp was the one nearest to the river, though it was bigger than most camps.

An interesting change from my world, in which being close to the river was a great advantage. Though, not surprising under the light of my own experience in the depths of the river. They had good reasons to be afraid of the water, especially when combined with the mental assault of the beast.

Inner camps had a sense of discipline. Their tents were larger, mostly uniform, and set up perfectly, and they had armed patrol groups moving around, ready to defend, but there were almost no animals attacking them.

Order was clearly a foreign concept in the outer camps, especially the one I was planning to target. The camp itself was dispersed, with several groups of tents sprawled around far too widely to be reasonable in a monster-filled world.

Unless the members were more afraid of each other than the monsters.

Among the twelve distinct camps I could see from the hill, the one closest to the river was by far the worst to be a part of. Which meant, it was the perfect location for me to poke around.

Naturally, I didn't come directly down the hill and rushed to the camp. I double-backed for a mile, and then started to walk toward the camp. Trying to sneak into the camp was risky, but not as risky as going forward blindly with no information.

If the worst happened, I could have just dashed back to the riverside, hoping that the magical orders of the monster would be enough to deal with the followers.

As I started to get closer, I started to notice more accurate details. Like the fact that there were almost constant movements between two groups, but it wasn't an equal flow.

I noticed that, after killing the beasts, they didn't leave them on the ground, but dragged them toward a large tent, some kind of large butcher station, where several people continuously worked on the beasts, separating various parts.

And, after a sufficient amount of choice cuts were collected, a small group of couriers piled them into a cart, and brought them to inner camps. Occasionally, some people from the camp arrived to pick some for themselves as well, but most of the beasts were thrown onto a huge bonfire, to be destroyed.

It was against the principles of hunting to waste such a great amount of material, but considering it was the beasts that were constantly attacking the group, I was willing to cut them some slack.

As the monsters, I decided that it was a good moment to check the current state of my abilities. I closed my eyes, and called the System…

[Class: Hero

Level: 10

Experience (0/43,500)]

[Health (3/225)]

[ Experience: 98.436]

[STATS

Resilience: 30

Vitality: 15

Strength: 18

Agility: 17

Perception: 15

Memory: 3

Charisma 1

LOCKED…]

[Stat Points: 1]

[SKILLS: Archery of Destruction (0\X)]

[ABILITIES: Elevated Life - Basic - Human ]

[Alignment: Unaligned]