??

Thirteen days after my arrival, I can finally move somewhat freely.

Skills really are something crazy, I didn’t particularly notice at lower levels but now I find my steps are utterly silent - it’s almost automatic at this point. With my [Stealth] at lv 5, moving around is a hell of a lot easier - I haven’t been noticed by any monsters, much less chased by any; the difference is like night and day.

On the first day after my week of training I focused on seeing just how effective [Stealth] actually is and found that I could practically tickle the chin of anything on the island and get away scot-free.

My newly attained ability to move unnoticed is impressive, but the real gems are [Vitae Manipulation] Lv 3 and [Vitae Sense] Lv 2; where before the energy the was so stubborn and difficult to move, I can now bend it to my will as easily as breathing. Well… more accurately as easily as long division, but I’m pretty good at long division.

Functionally, it means I can now use vitae abilities successfully nineteen out of twenty times.

You might think all of that would be enough for me to go ham trying to stealth kill everything that so much as made my nose itch, but I’m not quite willing to start fights unless I know what I’m getting into. 

Every single monster around here has the home field advantage and without a clear picture of the island’s landscape, it’s possible if not likely that I could find myself cornered or outmaneuvered.

As raring as I am to get on with it and get some meat, I’ve decided to leave nothing to chance. It might be a negative trait of mine but... I all but refuse to play a game unless I know I can win; I’ll stack the deck in my favor as much as I have to if that’s what it takes.

With that in mind, I spent the next couple of days exploring every nook and cranny that I could - once again [Stealth] showed its worth and with some effort I ended up with a fairly functional mental map of the area and an actual map of some description scribbled on the brown paper wrapping of one of those gift boxes with a smidge of charcoal.

Okay so it’s not gonna win any prizes but it’s a somewhat useful shorthand for marking relevant landmarks.

I’ve probably missed a bunch of stuff and the island is nowhere near as small as it looks in the map… [Accurate Measure] is telling me it’s about 50-70Km from the northernmost spot to the beach at the southern end.

Still not sure on my compass rose there… I think it’s north but I can’t really confirm anything because the ‘compass’ I have only points towards the church.

The point remains… I feel like I’m ready, I’ve got a plan of attack. 

I’ve prepared my equipment, I even used my [Epic Enhancement Scrolls]⁴Rarity: Epic
Quality: S+
Type: Misc
Description: A scroll inscribed with inscrutable sigils, it calls upon the magic of the world to empower a single object (100% base success chance reduced by number of enhancements x 5%, 50% destruction chance on failure) to get my equipment in better shape; the results speak for themselves.

I know the decision to enchant my cellphone is an interesting one - but I had to see if it would work and it paid off! Apparently ‘self repair’ includes recharging. Not sure how that works in the face of conservation of energy but… that’s not my problem. 

Again I was concerned with using resources, I was always the sort of RPG player to never use potions but… this isn’t an RPG; besides, I’ve got 9 more of those Treasure Boxes and I’m sure I’ll get something as good or better out of the next one.

Bah, I’m stalling… even as prepared as I am I feel nervous; but looking at it empirically, I’m as ready as I’m gonna get. A lot of the attributes are hard to accurately measure but the one that finally convinced me was my agility.

An agility score of 164 apparently sets me squarely in the super-human bracket as I discovered yesterday when I jumped 4 meters straight up in an attempt to see just to see how high I could go. I nearly broke my ankles landing, but I managed to roll with the blow and I was right as rain this morning.

Keeping in mind the ‘I’m superhuman’ bit, I choke down my anxiety and get ready to go.

Armor, check. Weapons, check. Potions, check. Bombs, check. Camouflage, check.

“No time like the present!”

Fully suited up with everything ready, I set out from my home - a light jump sends me soaring over the wall around the town into the branches of a tree. 

I become little more than the breeze as I move from branch to branch, carefully avoiding the territory of the wolpertingers aka ‘The Bastard Zone’ as I edge north around the boulder filled clearing to the opposite side of the hill where the Giabal Birds flock.

Crouched in the branches of a sturdy oak tree, I survey the open ground and the avian creatures that are to be my prey... 

The are about sixty or seventy of them with varying colors of plumage pecking about the field, eating the vegetation and sometimes snapping up snakes or lizards. Their familiar shape and the range I’m viewing them from plays an interesting perspective trick on my brain, from a distance you’d be forgiven for thinking they were normal chickens - but they definitely aren’t.

They’re pretty terrifying critters, the smallest of them are about 1m tall and what I think to be the dominant male is cresting just above 3m if you count his plumage.

I’ve spent the last few days watching them to figure out how to go about hunting one and the best solution seems to be catching one on its own.

I’ve seen how dangerous these things can be in groups, especially when they’re on open ground; if anything tries to fuck with one of the flock, the target gives off a loud cry for help and the rest mob it and tear the poor fucker to shreds in a scene reminiscent of a mute sociopathic elf child in a green tunic getting his due.

Every now and then, one of the males goes out on its own to hunt, usually aiming for the wolpertingers but sometimes heading down to the lake’s shore to catch alligator-like monsters by luring them in with a smaller carcass.

I called them stupid before, but that seems inaccurate; they’re just extremely sensitive to movement of any kind and tend to prioritize it. Even with that instinctual response they’re clever enough to make plans and lay in ambush; I’m just hoping they’re not clever enough to recognize something trying to ambush them.

Lost in thought, I almost miss it - one of the smaller males is wandering towards the west.

Just what I was waiting for.

I tail the big rooster looking bird, keeping up with it’s idle wandering pace as it meanders towards the aforementioned ‘Bastard Zone’, probably aiming for a wolpertinger.

I manage to keep eyes on it long enough to get [Size Up] to spit some details at me.

About average as the giant chickens go... guess it makes sense for them to prey on the wolpertingers with stats like those.

I suppose I could’ve aimed for one those little bastards, but I haven’t the foggiest idea how to go about cleaning one of them and seeing as they’re a substantial percentage raccoon and squirrel by volume… gamey might be an understatement.

No, the answer has always been chicken - or rather chicken-like monsters.

Fifteen minutes of trailing to make sure it’s well away from the flock, I finally get my chance.

We’re just on the edge of wolpertinger territory and the bird is sort of waddling along stomping on the bush every now and then; a strategy for scaring prey out into the open I assume.

The crossbow is out, unfolded, locked, and loaded.

Now, I just need to take aim… with a [Crossbow] skill of Lv 3, I feel like I can safely land a hit… but this is about more than just landing a hit; even if we’re far away from the flock I don’t want this thing calling for help.

I need to kill it in one shot.

I lift the crossbow and look down the iron sights mounted on it, holding my breath… and for a split second I swear I can see a targeting reticule flash green. 

[Assassin Arrow]

Thinking the name of the ability, I feel vitae rush from my core and enshroud my bolt in the split second before my finger depresses the trigger.

Time slows to a crawl as the crossbow releases the shot… the bolt flies true with a frightening black and red aura wrapped around it and pierces the side of the Giabal Bird’s head - speeding through the other side before disappearing into the distance.

[Critical Hit - 15x Damage]

The sound of the body falling shakes me out of a trance and leaning to the side I can see that shot not only completely pierced the bird, but the tree behind it and another behind that… leaving smoking holes in their trunks.

“Well then…”

Hopping down, I survey the results of my attack… and the scene on the ground is a nasty one; the top half of the Giabal Bird’s head is gone; grey matter reduced to a fine mist and one eye dangling from gruesome threads of nerve and muscle..

The only thing I can compare it to is… what I think something looks like after being shot it with a high powered rifle.

I pull out a dagger and prepare to start draining the body⁵I can’t say I know exactly how but hanging it up by a rope with the head cut off seems to be the usual depiction. but before I get more than three paces towards it, the bird snaps up onto its feet and launches a kick at me; the grisly wound seeming to hamper it little as it launches a retaliatory strike.

“[Quickguard]!”

The word flies out of my mouth faster than I thought possible, just before the moment of impact - vitae swirls in my chest before rushing outwards and forming a thin buffer over top my body.

The clawed talon makes contact with me square in the chest and, thanks to that rapid response, doesn’t puncture my armor or set off any explosives… it does however send me flying feeling like I got drop kicked by a dump truck.

While mid air, I can’t help but remember the stories of chickens surviving with their heads cut off and curse myself for not thinking of it before now.

Somewhere in my flight vector my body is twisted and I slam into a tree trunk, half wrapping around it before sliding down and landing in a heap like a sack of potatoes.

I can’t say it, but I sure as hell think it, ‘mistakes have been made.’

Now, anime would have you think that I’d cough up some blood, smile like a badass, and then  deliver some corny line. 

That is not what happens. 

I mean, apart from the coughing up blood bit; that part happens

After that, I feebly drag myself up to my feet as my lungs struggle to re-inflate after being smashed flatter than most ikea furniture boxes.

Through vision blurred by pain, I can see the stupid bird peering around looking for me, one grisly dangling eye wobbling to and fro uselessly without an orbital socket to contain it.

For a moment I wonder just why it hasn’t stomped my head like a grape on concrete before I remember that these birds depend on vision over their other senses.

Its just… stopped.

Its a risk, but I go out on a limb for an idea, moving at a snails pace I circle the mangled bird and… nothing.

No way...

I lean down to pick up a little pebble and toss it and like clockwork the bird pecks and stomps on the brush it disturbs.

“Huh…”

With one of its eyes hanging on by a thread and the other looking worse for wear, I might get out of this alive if I minimize unnecessary movement.

Now the question is how to kill this thing - acid would kill it but probably destroy the meat, same with fire only with the added fun of trees going up like matchsticks.

Getting my crossbow back out is a possibility, but actually loading it would probably involve too much movement.

The bird is still looking around, as much as that’s possible in its condition and my movement hasn’t been enough to provoke it - it’s actually not really clear how much thinking it’s capable of right now.

Its basically a vegetable only responding on some sort of instinct now, but that’s no reason not to be careful of it, this bird- 

My train of thought is halted by a THUMP as the bird falls into a heap.

- is… dead.

“I... win?”

Looking at the scene, I can only guess that it bled out while I was thinking. I suppose that makes sense based on the massive cranial trauma but… somehow this feels unsatisfying; not that it’s all that important.

I guess it just goes to show, this isn't a game; if it were, there'd be some sort of climactic battle that I'd triumph over - over here in reality, I shot a bird's brains out and had to wait for it to die.

"Next time, I'm aiming for the neck..."

Now I need to get 150kg of dead bird drained and back to my place for dinner.