A body dashed through the thin mist that surrounded the area, staying low and quiet despite the swift movement.

He stayed behind a corner, hiding his body under a cover, and took out a palm recorder.

“A herd of armored fleas in the north of point 0, 7 minutes to reach.”

Armored fleas were the names of the creatures I’ve given to this particular monster that I’ve encountered 10 minutes ago. Unlike the name which makes it sound like a cool species of small fleas, they were anything but that.

They were 6-foot creatures that sported a huge needle in their mouth and had a big red sack for a stomach. And unlike the monsters in movies and games where the big red sack would be the obvious weak point, these monsters had it covered with thick shells, which also covered the rest of their bodies.

The only way to reach them would be to get under them, which also meant being under that huge pointy needle.

I stayed hidden for a few more minutes, observing their pattern. Seeing what they do and where they move. I’ve heard that fleas have a good sense of smell, but either due to the rain or because they weren’t actually fleas, just because I named them so for my convenience, they didn’t seem to sense me.

“Numbers approximately 40-50, moving towards the outer parts of the city,” I spoke again to my recorder.

It was already my 5th time that I was going out to scout, but my mind still got weary quickly from the need to stay hidden from everything.

Thus, I slowly removed myself from the area before I was spotted or flanked from behind. Going back home from another successful day of the plan: know thy enemy.

I reached the gates to a house that looked slightly modern than the others, not that I knew that when I first stumbled upon it. Removing my raincoat for the slight rain that seems to continuously pour down in the city along with the mist.

“Phew. Alive again.” I spoke to no one as I entered the house, which lacked the distinct smell of decomposed body now that I cleaned it up.

I walked into the living room, where there were few pages pinned together in the wall to make a growing map of the area. I took the marker and added my new findings for today with the help of my recorder. “A dozen of.... sand hobos here....30-40 armored fleas.... here and a potential safe spot.... here.”

I sat down on the chair and looked at the incomplete picture.

The exploration could only be said to be going at the pace of a crawl. Because I only stayed outside as long as I could keep vitality turned on.

The enhanced effects on my mind which made me notice where to move and how to move silently along with the calming effect made it a necessity even though it made my exploration slower.

My eyes wandered off to the end of the paper-filled map. I thought of going back to the outskirts of the city, back to where we were, to find out what happened to Lea, but the potential danger of the minotaur being there was too large to ignore.

Did she even survive? She was unconscious and, on the ground, when I last saw her, but the minotaur went after me, so she still had a window of opportunity to get away.

Either way, I was not in a position to be worrying about others.

I also needed to find out how he actually sensed us. Whether it was something special to him or whether we were blindingly oblivious about some element in this new world. This was something I needed to figure out fast or I could be potentially putting out bread crumbs leading to me for anything to follow.

I sighed and moved towards the hot bath. Nothing I could do now, though. I removed my cutlery knives, hammer, dress as well as my revolver to experience what is possibly the biggest upgrade from my previous safe house.

Hot water passed over my rigid body and tired body. Melting the aching muscles and bones in sublime pleasure as my thoughts wandered.

I scouted as much information as I could safely. Prepping up for the next stage of events that I was about to do. Even though the scouting could be said to be half a failure because I only managed to cover a 7-minute radius of the surrounding area. It was still a success in my eyes as I found out the rough pathway of the immediate vicinity along with what sort of dangers occupy them.

Plus, I also came out of this whole thing alive. Which was frankly surprising. I was honestly half expecting myself to get killed when I first left out to scour the area.

But thankfully, other than the stragglers and the truly dangerous ones like the minitour. The monsters liked to stay together and carve out a territory, rather than roaming around. Which was good for me, as it made them more noticeable when they were a few dozen of them.

I got out of the shower. Steam emanating from my body as I took the knives I placed in front of the closet.

I did as much preparation as I could. Tomorrow. it was time for the next phase of the plan.

I walked into the living room naked with only the cutlery knife in hand as the water dripped onto the floor.

Tomorrow, it was time to hunt.

My hand moved in practiced motion as the knife flew out of my hand and into the wall. The knife finding its purchase in the exact spot of the map I intended to.

While I smiled knowing my efforts for the past few days were not in vain.

----------------------------------------

Hammer? Check. Knives. Check. Revolver. Check. Bullets?

I opened the cartridge, something that took me an embarrassing amount of time... Check.

Emergency kit? I patted the small bag, which contained some food and some first aid supplies.

“Ok. Got everything. Time to go.” I said as I moved out of the house with my raincoat on.

My feet took me to a particular place towards the south that I found on my 3rd day of scouting. This time I stayed off of using vitality to move. Instead, using my inferior brain to traverse unseen, since I was technically going through charted territory and the place in question was close.

I’ll also be needing every bit of vitality I could spare today.

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I reached the place fairly quickly. The place in question was a completely demolished area where even the ground was split looking as if it was an aftermath of a massive earthquake.

I walked into the end of the cliff which was previously a road and looked further below. Seeing a group of black monkeys gathered up inside a half-broken building with most of the roof crashed down.

This was one of the few or only monsters that I’ve seen in the past few days that even looked doable. Or at least within my own weight class.

The fact that they were monkeys and not some unidentified monsters also made it easier for me to decide to face against them.

Not directly, though. That’ll be stupid.

I walked down on the right on the cliff, going towards a building that was in the middle of construction which was further broken down due to whatever happened here.

The building had only its skeletal shape constructed, so I could see with no restriction that it was indeed safe and nothing had made itself home in the bare-bone building.

I took the cement-colored stairs and got on top of the 2nd floor and walked to the edge. And lo-and-behold the monkeys were in clear view in this position, being in the optimal position and range to be snipped.

After doing a bit of preparation, I stood in place again. They were approx. 30 meters away from me. They also seemed to be struggling and in their last legs, seen from their humane expression and the way they carried themselves.

I took out one of 5 cutlery knives as I readied up in my throwing position. Keeping my left leg forward as my hands went above my head with my elbows bent as the knife soaked in my flared vitality. Strengthening and sharpening it.

I was not going to let the wind or the distance turn this throw into a parabola, but instead pack as much strength into it, to turn it into a bullet knife that travels in a straight line.

I moved my hands in the same practiced motion as the knife flied off again. Hitting the ground just a few inches off my target.

“Damn it!”

The monkey that almost got hit, looked around in surprise at the sudden arrival of the new object and quickly backed off into one of the few rooms in the building with roofs on it.

Guess God deemed him not to die today.

I readied my 2nd knife again as I flared my vitality. Last I tried, I could strengthen objects 5 times a day, so I was planning to do this thrice and keep the rest of the gauge to go back home safely.

It would be slow, even in the best scenario I would only get 3 kills, but this was not a race but a marathon.

My pupils dilated as I threw the second knife, its direction- towards another monkey that was staying still, watching ants or something.

The knife found its purchase deep in its head, as it slammed into the ground with the knife lodged in its head.

I backed off as the monkeys made a ruckus from their comrade dying out of nowhere. The rush of energy flowed through me after a few seconds, confirming its death.

After a few more minutes, the monkeys calmed down enough to stay roughly still, but I could feel their vigilance from here as they stayed on guard, their eyes bouncing everywhere in fear as they huddled together and kept looking out for anything.

Too bad their death was coming from above. In the form of flying cutleries.

I readied my last throw of the day. Paying extra attention and care to it, as my eyes locked on to one particularly big one who stayed outside the open building in guard or search for anything unusual.

My hands blurred as the knife cut through the air, going at a straight line towards its target and disappointingly enough, missed the head entirely as it pierced the shoulder.

Damn. That would be not enough to kill it.

I sighed. All this for just one kill?

No. No. This was a marathon, not a race. The point is- did our eyes meet?

I backed off instantly, staying behind the cover of the pillar as the ruckus caused by the jet-black monkeys increased in volume.

Please tell me if I look back again, they’ll still be staying there, staring at the corpse, wondering how it died. I peeked my head out. Nope. They were rushing directly towards me. The monkey with a knife lodged in its shoulder leading the charge.

No. It was okay. Calm down. It was not as bad as it looked. I had already made preparations for cases like this.

I ran into the front of the stairs, where I laid down my trap for anything that was coming up.

How many were there? About 20? 25? My vitality was cut in half, so I have to get creative and choose sparingly on where I use them.

The familiar monkey noise came from under the stairs. The noise stayed on the ground for a few seconds, enough for me to hope that maybe they wouldn’t figure out where I was. But that hope quickly dashed away as the sound started getting closer.

I readied the steel slab that had a bunch of large pieces of cement rocks in it. Waiting for the horde to come climbing.

The rumbling came first, and then a horde of angry mob of monkeys rocketed from the floor below.

I lifted one side of the steel slab and slide it down the stairs, along with the stack of giant cement rocks that were on top of it.

The effects were even better than I expected as they tumbled down into them like a landslide, taking at least half of them or more. I doubt it would be enough to kill them, and it wasn't, as I didn't receive any flow of energy, but it would hopefully keep them out of the game long enough till I could do that for them.

Unfortunately, that still left a dozen of ripped monkeys that were coming to rip my face off.

I took out my revolver, aiming and shooting at it, but only managed to unload 2 of my bullets as the next one got too close to my outstretched hands.

I dropped the revolver and picked the small hammer that was no longer than a ruler from my waist. And smashed the monkey’s face sideways.

This was actually a good spot for me. They had to climb up while I could hit them from above the stairs with proper grounding.

But one couldn’t expect monkeys to play by the rules as one of them climbed onto the walls and jumped at me as a sugar glider would.

I jumped back, instantly losing my favorable position in front of the stairs. The monkey that jumped had a knife sticking to its shoulders, the one I failed to kill. And it didn’t instantly run towards me but instead waited for the rest of its comrade to climb up while it gave me the stink eye.

We stayed in a standoff-Ish stare, as the rest of the group who climbed the stairs, stayed in their position while assessing me, and I staying in my position because I didn’t want to end up in a chase with angry monkeys behind my back.

And this standstill was broken by one of them finally having the courage to charge at me, and just like that, the rest followed madly, as if a switch was flipped.

Facing an angry mob of jacked-up monkeys, I did the only thing I could do. Run.

I ran to the other edge and jumped into the scaffolding of the building and jumped back inside the building to the lower first floor.

I instantly turned back and readied my hammer and gave a mouthful of iron to customer number one, who also jumped after me. The primate fell into the ground, unable to make the jump as I cringed from the feeling of hitting a hammer to a face that resembled humans or... monkeys?

Why do I feel a little bad?

I readied my hammer for customer number 2 as I drove the unimportant thoughts away.

Except that no one else followed.

They can't see me here. why did they stop?

I heard monkey noises behind my back and turn to see a horde of monkeys climbing down the stairs like normal human beings, running angrily towards me.

Why would you play by the rules now?

I was locked inside the building as there was no proper scaffolding down to the ground floor and my path towards the stairs downstairs was blocked by the oncoming horde.

I briefly considered fighting them but wiped that idea off as I braced myself to jump from the first floor.

My guts made a weird tingly feeling mixed up with fear as I jumped down into the ground, hitting the uneven surface and rolling on the dry cement.

But I gathered my posture quickly and started running again while the monkeys angrily started screaming from the floor above. For some reason, they didn’t follow me and I was fine with that. Maybe they only intended to drive me out of their territory, or maybe it was some other reason. I didn’t care.

But one particular monkey with a knife lodged in its shoulder still wasn’t satisfied with this conclusion as it jumped from the 1st floor into the ground along with some monkeys and ran after me while making loud monkey noises.

They were particularly stubborn as they kept following even after they took considerable distance from their group.

Goddammit, you stupid apes.

I would have turned back and fought as they were only 3 of them. But I was more nervous about the noises that they were making. We were already out of the demolished landscape area. Their territory. And there were far more dangerous things than monkeys in these parts.

And right in queue, a goddamn giant snake slammed into one of the 3 monkeys.

I watched in utter awe and shock as the giant snake thrashed around as it broke the walls along with the streetlights as it swallowed 2 of the monkeys.

Holy shit!

Where the fuck did this thing come from?

After swallowing the two primates, it eyed the last one with hunger.

I ran with vitality burned to the max, determined to be out of its eyes before it could turn around to see me. That was something on the same level as the mother owl, I wouldn’t survive if it locks on to me.

Thankfully, it went after the third fleeing monkey rather than me and I didn’t stay around to change that as I ran home with my measly bounty of just 1 kill.