It took me another 2 days to reach Ennis. If I’m being honest, that only happened because I took my sweet time. Instead of powering through the night, I opted to stay in houses that felt safe enough, even if I found them in the middle of the afternoon. It was better to be safe than sorry. The last thing I wanted was to find another monster lurking in the night.

Traveling alone was very peaceful in a way that I wasn’t really expecting. Part of me imagined that I would be assailed by monsters left, right, and center and would have to fight against hordes of creatures. Yet, that wasn’t the case. It seemed that there were not enough animals around for that to be a problem, or they were scared of me enough not to try anything.

I also didn’t find any skeletons or strange things in those houses. There were other things, of course, signs of wear and tear, of something big coming in and out, but nothing that I wasn’t really expecting. There were no appliances, no tools that required electricity, or anything from the old world that I hadn’t seen before. And that continued to be the case until I reached closer to the bridge. Before the fort, there was a town. A ruined town with several buildings collapsed on each other, overgrown vegetation pretty much everywhere, but also wrecks of cars and even what might have been a bus. I wasn’t entirely sure. The large metal was too mangled and broken apart for me to make any sense of it. It almost looked like an airplane crash, but if that was the case, then there were a lot of missing pieces.

There’s a part of me that was telling me to run, to get out of here. After all, this was the biggest city I had ever seen. From start to finish, I counted 12 streets, and those were only the ones by the river. There were double, triple that behind them. This was the kind of place that should be filled with Eaters. But I didn’t get any indication that was the case through my skills. Which meant that maybe this was a safe place.

‘Sys, now that I’m awake and you can access my senses, if you notice anything strange or any movement, let me know.’

[Acknowledged. If User seems unaware of movement that was captured by using senses, System will issue a warning.]

According to Gareth, Fort Ennis was past the city. I should follow the main street, the same one that led to the bridge, and continue going north once I passed two streets with an island of grass in the middle. It sounded strange, but he did say that it was the kind of thing you only understood once you saw it.

And I have to give it to him. Once I saw what he was talking about, it was exactly that. Some land between two roads, like an island. However, before I continued north, something caught my attention. Continuing on the other side of the road, still going west from the bridge, there was something happening. A loud noise, like wood banging against something.

Or what was more likely, something banging against the wood. My curiosity got the better of me, and I started following that sound. Quickly at first, but soon, as the noise grew louder, my steps became slower. Whatever was causing all that ruckus was by no means small, but it also didn’t sound large enough to be an Eater, or a bear. Crossing over yet another street, the origin of the sound came into view. It was a large creature, taller than me. Ashy gray skin, a large tail that was mostly hair and almost touched the ground, four hooved legs, and a long face with a white spot on the nose. The shape and colors made it very much look like a horse, but there was something wrong about it. Something that made it… alien.

It took me several moments to understand why I was having that feeling, but eventually, I came to the conclusion. This creature, this horse, had the wrong proportions. Its legs were too big for the torso, and the length of its body was too long. As if to confirm my suspicion, the equine creature stepped and turned toward me, its spine forming a perfect U-shape for a moment as both its head and its tail were pointing at me. The mouth of the creature also proved its monstrosity. The lower jaw split vertically instead of horizontally. When it snarled, the monster revealed not one, not two, but three rows of teeth, a large one directly below the nose and two smaller, sharper sequences on that split jaw.

[Crookstrider - Tier 1]

The System gave me the information, but it didn’t really help me understand what I was looking at. And that wasn’t all. How could a herbivore become a Tier 1 creature? And how could a Tier 1 creature be so different from its original state?

One way or another, I didn’t have a chance to get answers, as the back half of the monster shifted, going back to the shape of a line just before it charged at me. Even now, with the creature clearly showing hostility, {Predatory Sense} was quiet. As strange as it sounded, the skill wasn’t recognizing the danger, which made me refuse to move away from the charge. I had to trust my skills. What was the point of having them if I would doubt their every move?

The Crookstrider continued getting closer and closer at rapid speed. The ground beneath my feet started to rumble with the weight of the monster, revealing that it was much heavier than its appearance suggested. Yet, I refused to walk away. The skill was right. I wasn’t in any danger, right?

When the creature was about five meters away from me, a distance it could cover in just as many seconds, my fight-or-flight response kicked in—and in this case, it was flight. Jumping to the side, I watched as the Crookstrider bulldozed through the space I had been standing on. If I didn’t get out of the way, I would have become the first roadkill in decades.

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“What the hell?” I asked, baffled by the lack of reaction from {Predatory Sense}.

But understanding what happened would have to come later. The Crookstrider was already spinning around to come after me. The creature was very fast, and it became obvious that I would be at a disadvantage if we continued in an open field. Glancing around, there were only a couple of options. First, the building the monster was trying to get inside, a dilapidated house made out of stone, but the entryway was mostly collapsed. Only a narrow gap in the upper left corner of the door could allow someone through. The next option was a sturdier structure to my right. It had three floors still standing and had a wide-open area filled with concrete pillars underneath it all. This could have been a parking garage. As long as I moved fast enough, using the pillars to my advantage could help a lot.

My last option was to run toward the creature and go past it. There was a small group of trees near the main road that could serve as cover. But that felt stupid. Why would I run toward the creature trying to kill me in hopes of finding a safe place? So, the parking garage it was. Before the Crookstrider finished turning, I dashed like a madwoman toward the concrete building. The creature wasn’t far behind me, but that didn’t matter. As long as I reached one of the pillars, I would be able to go around it and escape its attack.

Or so I thought.

Turning around the pillar was easy for it. Unlike when it tried to do a 180, its turns here made the monster barely lose any speed. With a groan, I changed tactics. Since the creature was coming after me so relentlessly, I might as well face it head-on. Using an old car as a stepping stone, I jumped over the wall between this building and the next, tumbling down on the grass just to get some distance between us. Sprinting to the side so the monster could see me again, I prepared a {Formless Nodus Swipe}.

One more time, the two of us played a game of chicken, with the Crookstrider sprinting toward me with everything it had, its three jaws opening and closing menacingly. This time, I wasn’t just going to run. Taking a page out of some old movies Pops really liked, my attack was aimed at the wannabe horse’s legs. In those old flicks, a broken leg was a death sentence for any equine animal.

Just as the creature burst through at me, I jumped backward, spinning as my staff grew in my hands due {Compression}. Despite the strength of the creature’s legs, the kneecaps were unable to withstand being slammed against a metal pole at such a high speed. Its legs bent backward, causing the monster to tumble forward, doing a few spins before collapsing on the ground. Unable to get up, it couldn’t do anything as I walked over and finished the job by bashing its skull with my staff.

Once I felt the SP flowing into me, I stopped and took a few steps back. This was both worse than I would like, but also better than expected. After facing Eaters that almost killed me and monsters beyond reason, it felt nice to have a one-sided battle where I wasn’t the one getting my ass handed to me.

Looking over at the body, a single thought crossed my mind, ‘This is a lot of good meat.’

I’m sure the people from Fort Ennis would be more than grateful if I took it to them. And that could make my life a bit easier. Showing up with supplies made it so they wouldn’t think I was going to be eating their food and continuing my journey without leaving anything behind to help. This could be a way of paying them back. But this also created a problem. If I showed up dragging this corpse behind me, it would be a bit on the nose that I was someone special, or at least that I was more capable than I wanted them to think. I still wasn’t sure if I was going to share the System with anyone there, so I might just have to take what I can carry and cut my losses.

Unless...

I looked back at the three-story building. The top floor had an opening leading inside. Not a door, but part of the wall that had already broken down. There was a lot of rubble right on the edge. Even better, it was right under a pillar. What I was about to do felt very sketchy, but in a way, it also felt very fun.

Dragging the Crookstrider’s corpse, I placed it directly under the opening of the third floor, in front of the pillar. Using my staff and another cast of {Compression}, I climbed over the gap in the wall, being very careful not to put too much weight on any parts of the structure that seemed about to collapse. The next step was to push the rubble out of the building, making it all fall down on the corpse below.

The sound of the debris hitting the ground was very loud, and for a moment, I was worried it would attract more of those Crookstriders. But staying on top of this building also felt like a very bad idea. I jumped down and found a place to hide, a house that was barely standing. Finding a small gap in the structure, I climbed in and waited.

And as I waited, the System had a few things to explain about {Predatory Sense}.

‘Sys, what the hell happened? Wasn’t I supposed to be warned about any danger because of the skill?’

[Skill {Predatory Sense} warns User of potential threats or potential prey that User’s senses are able to capture. However, if User herself becomes aware of said danger or prey, the activation of the skill becomes irrelevant. For that reason, if User is able to recognize the threat, or prey, the skill will not give yet another warning that could distract User.]

I wasn’t happy about that answer, but at least I knew what happened. After 20 minutes of hiding, nothing seemed to change in the environment. Feeling safe enough, I walked back toward the Crookstrider's corpse. I had to adjust a few of the rocks and brush some of the dirt in the right places, but eventually, I made a pretty convincing crime scene. Most people would believe that the monster slammed its head against the pillar, which in turn caused part of the building to fall down on top of it.

The biggest problem would be convincing people that I truly hadn’t killed this monster. But I wasn’t about to leave meat behind, especially when it could have a skill. Taking out my boar tusk knife, I carved a large chunk of meat for myself and used {Compression} to make it small enough for my bag. Once I did that, the blood in the piece of meat was pushed out of it. After all this time, the idea of using {Compression} to exsanguinate the meat never crossed my mind, but it made a lot of sense. The fibers would become smaller and push the things that weren’t part of it away.

With my bag full of food, I continued north toward Fort Ennis, hoping my acting skills were enough to convince people to come pick this corpse up before any other animal appeared.