– What is this animal? Ray asked the question as soon as the whole group had gathered.

Everyone looked at him a little surprised, and only a moment later understanding flashed across Vearn's face.

– You don’t remember… These are the traces of a gsarkh, but slightly special.

Ray didn't interrupt, realizing that he hadn't finished yet.

- This one is much larger than usual, and if we found not traces, but himself, then we would only have to run.

Three people died last year. Vearn said in a slightly sad voice.

“And five more two years ago,” one of the hunters continued.

After thinking about it, Ray asked the only right question:

Why didn't you kill him?

– This animal is very cautious, does not go hunting during the day. And most importantly, we have never found traces of him in the winter ...

The hunters nodded with understanding and passion in their eyes, but these words did not clarify anything to the guy, rather the opposite.

Why is winter important?

“Only at this time you can try to find him,” turning his eyes to Ray, in which a clear intent to kill was read, Vearn finished, “because his fur is as black as night itself.

"It makes sense." – reasoned guy. “In winter, the forest does not look so dense, due to the lack of leaves ... But is this gsarh really so smart that he did not allow himself to be caught by them?”

Taking another look at the predator's footprints, Rey heard Vearn's command:

- We return to the city, it's time to take revenge.

The guy even heard how tightly the fists of each of those present were clenched, but he didn’t care at all about the deaths caused by this beast.

And so, after spending two days and one night in the forest, the detachment returned to the city. Rey saw the fire of hatred ignite in the eyes of the gate guards when they heard the reason for the return. Observing such a reaction, he was once again convinced of the devotion of the forest to each other.

They returned closer to the night. In fact, the return would have taken almost a whole day, but all the way to the city, they ran almost without stopping.

Ray endured such a test quite steadfastly, because he had the opportunity to restore strength with the help of souls, but the rest, drenched in sweat, regardless of the surrounding cold and the severity of the prey, ran forward with burning eyes, not wanting to let the killer of their comrades get away.

Less than an hour later, a detachment of 16 hunters was assembled, who were supposed to finish off the gsarkh.

The night was moonlit, and, as an excited Vearn told him, "perfect for hunting."

Rei was standing in the square in front of the south gate, in a huge crowd of foresters who watched the group leave the city. The townspeople wished them luck, and the guy only drew attention to the fact that each of those who set off wore a hood, and also to the fact that Arvus, dressed in strange gray armor, led them.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

When the detachment departed, everyone slowly began to disperse. No one knew how long the hunt would take, so there were hardly any left. Ray left too. He went towards the training ground, not to practice, but to leave the equipment he had taken.

Immediately after that, he left the city, he needed to test the theory that arose during the hunt. The guy decided to head north, away from the cluster of forest, waiting for the return of hunters on the south side of the city.

Rei, as always, was in the form of a snake. Finding a small wolf, he crept up to him with already polished movements. Usually, he would inject poison into the most important places on the body, but this time he chose his paw as his target. The wolf lying in front of him was only a meter long, so even in the form of a snake, Rei looked quite impressive in front of him.

With one quick throw, he easily bit through the skin of a young beast, but this time he did not back down. Immediately turning into a forest hunter, he took out a pair of daggers from the Inventory, which he took from that same elite hunter, who had been killed by him, it would seem, quite a long time ago.

The wolf also did not stand still, not even a moment after the bite, as he rushed towards the offender, but when he saw how a man appeared out of nowhere in the place of the snake, even the beast was numb for a second. This was enough for Ray to drive the dagger from below into the head of the animal, up to the hilt, forcing the end of its blade to appear on the forehead of the beast. The guy took the soul and finally checked the Status. He did not notice the change, but did not focus on it, turning into a snake again, Rey with a displeased hiss went on ...

As it turned out, there were quite a lot of wolves in the area, but he was looking for those that were at a distance from the main pack, which took some time.

And now, almost an hour later, Ray stood with a satisfied gleam in his eyes, over the corpse of the fourth wolf that night. The animals were asleep, so after the second kill, Rey even stopped poisoning them, simply approaching them in the form of a snake and killing them with one blow already in the form of a forest.

And now he was pleased because he had already checked the Status and was convinced that he was right. [Dagger Mastery] has grown to the second level, and now he has the first skill - [Retreat].

It would seem that Rei should have been pleased, but now he mentally scolded himself.

"Why didn't I think of it sooner? This is a game, it is unlikely that players would want to pay money to train all the time ... "

Clicking his tongue in displeasure, Rei straightened up and began to figure out how to use the skill. But everything turned out to be quite simple, as soon as the guy just thought about him, his body shifted one meter back.

"HM?"

The sensation was quite strange, because Rei didn't even feel that he was moving. Trying to activate it again to get a better understanding, he realized that he could not do it. Only this time, the guy immediately guessed what was the matter, so he just waited, although he could only find out how long the skill would recharge by experimenting, because the damn game did not give out any information regarding this.

"It's a starting skill, so it's unlikely the cooldown is too high."

Ray turned out to be right, because after 15 seconds he could use it again.

After several alternate trials, the guy completely got used to and admitted that the skill was incredibly useful, because it was applied without any delay or external visual accompaniment that could inform the enemy about its use. Only a small green flash remained on the trajectory of movement, but it appeared after the use of the skill, so it did not interfere.

"It's worth experimenting a little..."

After spending five minutes, Ray made a few more deductions about the skill. Firstly, it could only be used backwards and only from a standing position. Secondly, the skill did not work if there was an obstacle behind, because the guy did not manage to go through the tree. Thirdly, he did not know what resource was spent on using it, after dozens of uses, Rei did not feel tired or anything else.

Satisfied, he again turned into a snake, in the form of which it was easiest to search for prey. Turning his white head in the direction of the heat pool, the pack of wolves, Rei followed. This night promised to be the last for this pack, because he was not going to stop hunting, increasing the skill level by only one.

Unfortunately, his plans did not come true. Devouring the soul of the seventh wolf that night, he heard a loud howl in the distance. The guy did not think for a long time, there were several dozen wolves here and it was crazy to fight them, so, immediately returning to the form of a snake, he rushed south to the city.