He checked his boon and fell asleep. Then, in what felt like the blink of an eye, a new day had arrived and he was standing in front of that warping, glittery wind once more.

With a sniper clutched firmly in his hands and a downgraded ghillie suit draped over him, he actually felt like a hunter for once.

He didn’t at all want to go to another forest biome, but this was supposed to be quick and easy, so he stepped forward into the abstract reality conjured up by the manufactured, divine winds.

In both an instant and an eternity later, he stepped foot on another world.

Thick, leafy trees surrounded him on all sides, their canopies refusing to allow anything except for the barest sliver of light through.

In this hostile environment no bushes thrived, only a vast network of interconnected funguses and a horde of vines strangling the massive trees in a bid to climb upwards and enjoy some of the light.

Perhaps because of that the entire forest smelled musky, there were no sweat scents from flowers just the smell of dirt and decay.

Even the birdsong seemed rather dull for such a lively forest, only a few shallow crys sounded out here and there, it was much the same as it was back on Earth.

Before he did anything else, he grabbed ahold of one of the vines on the nearest tree and yanked it as hard as he could.

His strength was now significantly above that of a baseline human his size, yet the vine held firm. At least, it did for a couple of long, drawn-out seconds until he started to tug with both hands.

It began to give way, eventually snapping as he managed to bisect it with sheer force.

After looking down at the vine in his hand for a few seconds, he dropped it onto the rich dirt.

“Hmm… hopefully not.” He murmured, before grabbing onto a cluster of vines and pulling himself up the tree.

His fears that the higher up he got the weaker the vine would become proved to be unfounded, as the vines remained firm and steady, allowing him to climb all the way to the top.

With one hand firmly grasping the nearby vines and the other holding onto a branch, He manoeuvred himself to face away from the trunk and looked out from his perch.

Scanning the surrounding area revealed an endless sea of trees as far as the eye could see.

The only landmarks around were bigger trees, one of which appeared to be where his Tracking boon was directing him towards.

That must be where the wyvern had built its nest. It was a good spot to do it as well; if he was a flying reptile, that’s where he would make his.

After carefully weighing his options, he found what looked like a perfect tree to set up his ambush. It was positioned at just the right distance to get him a clean shot while also remaining concealed, just in case the first couple didn’t do the trick.

Turning back around, Thomel began the faster climb downwards, kicking off the tree once there was only a dozen feet left.

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He landed firmly on the ground and began the journey towards his ambush site. It had looked far away from all the way up the tree, so he could only imagine how long it would actually take him to walk there.

Stepping over a wide variety mushrooms and stomping them down when he couldn’t, he was making steady progress.

Every fifteen minutes he would take a quick break to drink some water and use his Tracking boon to estimate where to go.

The tree he would climb up once this was over probably wouldn’t be the same one he’d spotted, but so long as it was in the same location that was all that really mattered.

He made incredibly good time since he didn’t need to whack anything out of the way, and it was very flat terrain. Still, it took him nearly four hours before he judged he was at the right location.

Leaning against one of the trees, he took out a couple of energy bars and began to chow down on them.

He might be stuck in those treetops for hours before his prey showed itself since wyverns were crepuscular and only hunted at dusk and during the early night hours.

Hopefully, he’d get lucky and be able to down it before nightfall. He hadn’t encountered anything yet, but the idea of having to wander around in the woods trying to track down a corpse was definitely something he wanted to avoid.

Once he was done with his food, he grabbed ahold of a single vine and tugged at it to make sure it was the same tough species he’d used to climb up before.

If anything, it seemed to be tougher as he was unable to even rip a chunk off the tree. Quickly giving up, he grabbed the nearest cluster on another tree and began his assent.

He reached the top in a matter of minutes. He soon found a nice spot where he could look out and clearly see the tree where the wyvern had made its nest as well as the surrounding area. He used his knife to saw off a few of the vines and tied himself haphazardly to the tree branch he was roosting on.

Then began the long part of this mission, the waiting. It took at least two hours for dusk to finally settle over the endless forest.

The moment the clouds lit up red, the wyvern showed itself, careening out of the giant tree and soaring into the air.

Thomel tracked it as it flew downwards towards the left of its nest. He had his finger on the trigger, but he didn’t open fire.

He only watched as the wyvern burst out of the canopy with something caught in its jaws, choosing again not to engage.

He was toying around with the idea of whether or not he should fire his gun up into the air to attract the beast over towards him when, suddenly, a golden opportunity presented itself to him.

The wyvern was at the halfway point between his tree and its nest, and with just a little bit of waiting it had surpassed that point.

He held his breath and watched, urging it to come closer, but then it dived and he smoothly pulled the trigger. This was about as good as he was going to get.

With a sharp crack, the rifle's recoil shoved him back into the tree, and two heartbeats later, an impact knocked the wyvern from its graceful dive.

Smashing through the treetops, the wyvern fell without even a hint of being able to recover. Even if his shot didn’t kill it, surely the fall would.

Clambering down the tree, he began to sprint towards where it had crashed.

His Tracking boon was of no use now that it was dead; instead, it was telling him to go backwards rather than forwards.

After a tense dozen minutes wondering if he was going the right way or if something was eating the dead body, he reached it.

It looked like an iguana with wings and a sharp, toothy mouth. He didn't put much thought into examining it though, just into attaching the discs to it and activating them as quickly as possible.

Reality bubbled, then popped, and he was suddenly in the containment chamber with a dead, flying lizard.

He wondered if maybe, once this was all over, he should use dino hunting as part of his job experience.

That wasn’t the only hunting he was going to do today either; once he was out of here, he was going right back to those managers and asking for another one.

He hoped the next mission would be just as easy.