Kal'o Kir stalked through the dense underbrush of the plains along the outer edge of the island. Her targets were two human hunters, both with levels in the low 30s.
By now the humans were being forced to come this far out to hunt worthwhile prey, and their progression was slowing to a crawl. Many of them would soon hit the limit of what they were capable of achieving within the tutorial due to the increasing scarcity of prey.
But that didn't matter to her. What mattered was that the ones she hunted were comparatively weak to the elites of the humans, but strong enough that they may have connections and information that she needed.
Val Kazar wouldn't agree to put pressure on the humans in an attempt to have them give up the one named Devon no matter how much she attempted to persuade him. He continually insisted that it was likely that one wasn't in the camps because it was unreasonable to assume he could truly evade detection completely when he had so many vishan keeping an eye on the camps.
That left the possibilities that either the human named Eve had been lying or Val Kazar was overestimating the vishan. Was it truly so unreasonable that one who had given them so much trouble from the start was capable of exceeding their every expectation? Even assuming Eve had been lying about Devon being in the camps, the fact that she'd either been led there by him or known about the conflict between them was proof enough that she'd been in contact with him.
This train of conclusions had led her to the possibility that there may be other humans within the camps who knew about Devon's whereabouts. It was possible he was actually a well respected member of their community, and the vishan had no idea because of the divide they'd created between themselves and the humans. Even if he hadn't made any connections within the tutorial, because of the way the system drew in groups of people it was also possible he'd entered with friends or family.
Somebody had to know something. But she'd never find out if she stayed passive as Val Kazar wanted her to.
I'll get my revenge, no matter what. Even if I have to burn every bridge left. Even if I become the single most despised creature within this world, if I can just achieve my desire before death then I can be at peace. There's no choice left but to take drastic actions.
The two hunters finished off a kill before taking a break to catch their breath and restore their stamina. Kal'o Kir sensed her moment of opportunity and leapt from the underbrush, bringing a crude wooden cudgel down on one of their heads. The cudgel wasn't usually her weapon of choice, but she needed something to knock her target unconscious, not dead.
The wooden weapon broke against the skull of the human but Kal'o Kir didn't pay it any mind before she moved swiftly toward the other hunter, who was frozen in surprise. They desperately tried to raise their weapon in a weak show of defiance, but they were far too weak to be a true threat to Kal'o Kir. She knocked their weapon aside with ease and grabbed their scrawny neck before slamming them into the ground. They lost consciousness as the back of their skull hit the ground.
She quickly threw both of the unconscious bodies over her shoulder before dashing away, towards the forest. The plains were far too open for the next task, she needed one of the confined spaces that could be found within the many burrows of the forest.
Several hours passed before the two hunters saw the light of day again after being released from captivity. Despite being freed, their forms were changed.
One of the two was covered in wounds, missing an arm and a leg, and blood ran down their face in two streams from where their eyes had been gouged out. That had been the first subject, and Kal'o Kir had forced the second to watch in horror for the entire process.
The second was considerably less injured. Kal'o Kir had thought that if they had both been left in the condition of the first their chances of survival were virtually nonexistent. And she needed them alive. They were to bring back her message that the one called Devon would be given to her, or she would carve up and torture as many humans as it took before somebody finally talked.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The two hunters hadn't been of any help. They'd known nothing about the one called Devon and had kept mostly to themselves since the beginning of the tutorial. According to them, they were a pair similar to the soulbonded of the vishan, what they called husband and wife.
A worthless pair of ignorant people. Oh well, on to the next. Someone from the forest might have a better idea, that's where Eve usually hangs out, after all.
She hoped she would encounter somebody who had actual answers soon, otherwise she would be forced to get truly desperate. According to the intelligence Val Kazar compiled and distributed to all of the overseers the human known as Devon had been observed only once since the beginning of the tutorial, on that first day. And he hadn't been alone.
There had been two others he'd shared a fire with on that first night. One of them was Eve, who she already knew had been in contact with Devon since. The other was the de facto leader of Plainstown, the one known as Trey.
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Val Kazar cursed as he read over the message one of the scouts had sent.
That damn fool… She's threatening to turn this already twisted tutorial into a chaotic hellscape that I won't be able to predict.
In the beginning Val Kazar's plan had been simple. Leave the humans to their own devices and reap the harvest once their protected period ended.
But the humans surpassed his imagination at every step, and Val Kazar knew now that to proceed with such a stupidly simple plan would only end with him leading the vishan to their deaths. No, he needed to treat the situation with extreme caution, as any misstep could spell disaster.
He'd already lost three vishan to the humans. How many more of his kin would have to die to succeed in this gambit called the tutorial?
According to Kal'o Kir, the human named Eve had said that the one called Devon had been responsible for the death of Kal'o Dar. Val Kazar wasn't sure how the human had done it so early in the timeline of the tutorial, but he had to admit the series of events made sense.
First he kills the chief's daughter in the forest, then he flees to the mountain where he manages to kill Ka'o Dar. But what about the third, Yur Kuzak?
Yur Kuzak's death was one they had virtually no information about. The one called Devon shouldn't be within either the forest or the plains, his scouts would have seen him. Even so, Val Kazar couldn't discount the possibility that the human had found a way to slip past every single vishan, however unlikely such a possibility was. But there was also the possibility Yur Kuzak's death was orchestrated by another.
The system favored the initiates in matters of overseer vs initiate conflicts. When an overseer broke the vow they'd made with the system every overseer and human received a system notification. However, initiates were not given the choice of their participation in the tutorial, so the system gave them the advantage of discretion when they voided their protected status.
It was entirely possible there were two or even three overseer killers loose within the tutorial. Val Kazar leaned towards the assumption of two, with the chief's daughter and Kal'o Dar being killed by Devon and Yur Kuzak being killed by a third party.
But with Kal'o Kir's actions that number threatened to go up drastically. His lower leveled scouts could easily find themselves the victims of wrathful retribution against his kind if he didn't sort this situation out immediately.
It's time to remove the most prevalent thorns in my side.
There were two thorns, so to speak. The first was Kal'o Kir, who threatened everything. The second was the human named Eve, whose existence was an unmistakable danger.
He had no idea how she'd done it, but she's gained 7 levels within a single day at level 40. Such progress usually took even the most talented vishan months, if not years. Of course, the vishan were starved for resources, which was the main factor in their stunted growth, but even so. An individual with such frightening potential could not be allowed to exist. They posed far too much of a threat.
His actions would require discretion. He couldn't allocate so many vishan to the task that the humans noticed something was wrong. The one called Nix in particular was especially cunning.
He mulled through possibilities for over an hour before he came to one he liked. The setup for it would likely happen whether he took action or not, which meant he should only need to dedicate two individuals to the task, one of which he'd been meaning to test the mettle of for a while now.
Waiting… Connection established.
[Val Kazar]
It's time to do some work, human.