Edge crossed the streets of Puppet Town in the misty morning light.

Although it hadn’t been long since the sun had risen, people were already up and about. Most were on their way to eat breakfast or taking care of one chore or another. The day started early in a settlement centered around hunting and gathering, and not even the apocalypse could overcome the power of routine.

Today, Edge was trying to keep a low profile. He avoided the main thoroughfares and didn’t engage anyone along the way. The fewer people who saw him leave, the fewer might wonder what he was up to. Why he was heading into the grasslands alone and unarmed, save for a knife and his skills.

He still had another day until he started Trapper’s training. The crew was out on another hunt, and he wasn’t ready to join them yet. Having the day to himself suited him just fine, since Edge would have a hard time stealing skills on the sly with so many perceptive people nearby.

After talking the matter through over dinner the day before, he had to admire the crew’s resilience. Trapper’s team had come close to death, only days after finding themselves stranded on Ord. But they were willing to learn from the experience and refused to surrender to their fear.

They were determined to keep growing stronger. To push past their prior limits, before the wilderness became even more dangerous than it already was. Edge was of the same mind. He was certain that the shadowreavers were only the first new threat to appear.

Since the surface of Ord had been reconfigured by the anomaly, the magic flowing across the plains was growing stronger by the day. With that much mana to sustain them, more monsters and high-stage beasts would wander into the biome from beyond the frontier. Before long, what had once been one of the safest places on the planet would be populated by lethal predators.

Trapper was one of the first people to come to grips with the truth of their new circumstances. If the residents of Puppet Town wanted to survive what was coming, they would have to push themselves harder than ever before. They needed to cycle-up, gear up, and rank-up their skills, before the storm that was coming broke over their heads.

Even given all of that, it couldn’t have been an easy decision to make. To willingly step beyond the gates of town, and into a wilderness filled with tooth, fang, and claw. A world where disaster was only a single mistake away, and death lurked behind every corner.

It took a whole lot of bravery and perhaps a splash of madness to keep on hunting on the plains, now that they were playing for keeps.

Not that Edge had room to talk. He was doing the same thing and was probably taking a bigger risk than they were, all things considered. Going into the wild alone was a risky venture at best, even with a stage-one core.

But he needed to be able to use entangle and conceal without anyone finding out, and far more critically, [Extraction]. Today, he would engage in his first solo hunt since evolving Skill-Eater, and Edge was looking forward to stealing more skills and cycling-up his core.

He had thought long and hard about what powers he wanted to claim next, coming up with a list in order of priority. There were several beasts that he had in mind. He wouldn’t commit to a target until he found one that had a suitable skill and was in a favorable location with no dangerous creatures nearby.

He’d come too close to death in his prior fights to take a risk when the odds weren’t stacked in his favor. The weapon he’d commissioned wasn’t ready yet, but he still had elemental blade and entangle. Not to mention Trapper’s knife for some mana-efficient slashing. Edge figured that he would be alright if he chose his prey carefully and hunted it using appropriate tactics.

While these thoughts passed through his head, he made his way through the northern gate. After checking to make sure that no one was following him, he continued on his way. The plains spread out before his gaze, a land of ethereal ivory in the hazy light of dawn.

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Edge planned to stay close to the settlement today. He wanted to have a line of retreat in case he ran into roaming monsters, or fucked up his hunt and bit off more than he could chew. It would also let him carry his kill back to town more easily, increasing the profit he made. That was the reason why he was carrying a large sack over one shoulder, which he had purchased for a few credits the night before.

He could range further out once he had more attributes under his belt, or ideally, a mobility skill that would let him escape from anything too tough to take down.

Since he didn’t have any better leads, he decided to start off by trying out the tip that the woman who had given him the apple had shared. He’d seen her twice since. But each time that he tried to approach her to feel out her intentions, she was gone by the time he arrived.

Edge still didn’t have any idea who she was. She wasn’t one of the town’s long-term residents, since he hadn’t seen her on the feed.

Regardless of the details, he couldn’t deny that her advice was sound. Since he was poorly geared and didn’t have much experience fighting beasts with his new powers, he wanted to play it safe. Taking on a stage-one jobo would have been far too risky if the creature had a viable attack skill.

But if was down to just leap and its natural abilities, he thought he could win without getting into too much trouble and steal its powers along the way. Just because the beast couldn’t use its skill with an injured arm, didn’t mean that Edge couldn’t [Extract] it.

Both leap and combination strike would be useful to acquire. He would be happy to add either to his collection. Besides, if they didn’t work out as well as he’d hoped, he could always absorb them to improve the skills that he already had.

His first order of business was to find the territory of the beast in question. Then he would wait until nothing else was around, and the jobo was vulnerable. When the time was right, he would launch an attack from ambush. Maximizing his chances of success and minimizing the risk he took in exchange.

Edge had taken Trapper’s warning to heart.

While they were chatting and sipping their beers, the woman had revealed her hunting philosophy. Laying it all out over a table topped with platters of grilled meat.

“Nothing that survives on a planet as hostile as Ord fights fair. Most beasts outweigh you, have superior physical attributes, and skills that will either let them kill you in the blink of an eye or stop your attacks from landing.

“Letting them get the drop on you is the worst possible outcome. If a monster or beast is going in for the kill, you can be certain that they have the means to follow through. Don’t wait around long enough to find out what they’re planning. Run for your life and consider yourself lucky if you survive.

“A spontaneous brawl is better, but still far too risky a venture. It becomes an impromptu contest of technique, strength, and skills, along with variables like weather and terrain. If you’re lucky, your skillset will be effective against the creature in question. If you’re not… well let’s just say that hunters who battle head-on too often are destined to die young.

“The only true way to hunt is to strike from the strongest possible position. Come up with a strategy after studying the nature of your foe. Watch them. Track them. Learn where they live. Where they eat. Where they drink. Select the right equipment, prepare the field, and come at them on the ground of your choosing. Create a moment where you’re at your best, and they’re at their worst.”

Trapper stopped to drain the final drops from her bottle, then leaned in close to share one last bit of wisdom. “Never let them see you coming, Edge. And never, ever fight fair. Use tricks and traps and psychological warfare. Use tools and tactics and play as dirty as you can.

“Hit them when they're sleeping, eating, fucking, and fighting. Bait them with lures. Strike from their blind spots. Target their sensory organs and attack from places where they can’t fight back. Make no mistake, predators will come at you from a position of strength, and one day, they will likely succeed. Give each moment your all when stalking your quarry and hold nothing back. That’s what it means to be a hunter on Ord.”

It was solid advice, offered from the heart. The distillation of a way of life from someone who had survived here for over a decade. An approach that Edge intended to study until it came to him as naturally as breathing.

He knew that it would take time to appreciate the true wisdom of her words. But he would try his best to follow in Trapper’s footsteps until he had enough experience to develop his own approach.

There were countless creatures on Ord that could kill him without breaking a sweat, Skill-Eater or no. But that didn’t mean Edge couldn’t bring them down. His goal was to win and claim their skills for his own, not to overpower monsters and beasts in a contest of raw strength.

Although, if he fucked up and couldn’t get away, that’s exactly what would happen today.

He knew that despite his best efforts, he would be getting into plenty of fights over the coming weeks. But he intended to give himself every advantage he could before the battle began.

On that note, he turned his thoughts away from the future and back to the task at hand, taking out the jobo with the wounded paw. He walked north for another twenty minutes, until he saw the hillock that the girl had mentioned.

Edge’s first solo hunt was officially underway.