I did not have time to run away. What turned out to be a snake lunged at me, its green iridescent skin flashing in the last rays of the sun. Its head was as big as my two fists, and its powerful sinuous body was thicker than one of my thighs. I batted its head aside with my hand causing the snake to bite into my hand instead of my face. Its fangs sunk deep into me causing excruciating pain to travel up my arm; I could feel it pumping venom into me. I quickly reached into my belt and pulled out my dagger, and drove it deep into the snake's skull. I swirled my dagger around to make mush out of its brain. The snake stopped moving but its fangs were still deeply embedded in my flesh. The bite had taken off 100 points of health, and my health bar was green....poisoned once again.

I proceeded to cast heal on myself as fast as I could, willing the magic to cleanse the lethal poison from my body. As fast as I healed points though, they would just continue to drain from me. My best hope was just to keep healing until the effects ran out. What felt like an eternity later my health points stopped decreasing, and I was able to heal myself back to full health. The realization of how close I had come to death made my knees weak and made me drop back to the ground where I sat heaving with the after effects of panic.

I decided to look at my notices to take my mind off of what had just happened. congratulations, you have learned the skill clense. Clense lv1: removes all negative status effects from the body such as poison, disease, mind control. The higher the level of the spell the higher the level of status effect and/or enchanment it can remove. I closed my notices screen and took deep breaths.

When I finally got my emotions under control I looked at the bush that had done through all this to get and thought: "this had better work". I used identify on it, the knowledge flowed into my mind. Monster mint. Monsters of all kinds love this bush and usually make their homes around it. I nervously looked around to see if there were any other monsters nearby. I saw nothing else, so I proceeded to harvest about half the plant, making sure to leave enough of the leaves so that it could regrow. I also cut off the snake's head and skinned it. It would probably taste good if I made it into stew. Snake meat tended to be tough so better to slow cook it. I hated to waste so much potential food. I noticed more of the herb around and harvested about half of each bush. I had so many leaves and branches I could barely wrap my arms around the bundle.

Back at my camp I cut most of the snake meat into strips seasoned it with salt and herbs and made a green wood fire to smoke it. The rest I cut into chunks and set to cook in a pot with some root vegetables I had foraged. Waste not want not was something I took to heart, especially when it came to food. I was smoking the meat as a way to preserve it, and make more snake stew later. Eating dry snake meat would probably take so long that it would make your jaw ache. I decided to cure the beautiful snake skin. it really was beautiful, and my favorite color. Maybe I could turn it into a bag and other such things. gods knew there was enough of the skin to go around. maybe I would make myself fancy snake boots, I laughed at the thought of walking around in shinny green snake boots... I laughed, I really would love green shinny boots. I went through the process of preparing the skin like my survival instructor had taught me, and set it aside to work on later when the situation wasnt so dire.

After that was done I took all the herbs I had harvested and cut them into small pieces with my dagger, then used a small stone to grind the tough leaves into a sort of fluffy powder. I kept focusing on what my purpose for this was because if there was one thing I had learned was that intent was everything. I figured that grinding the leaves would release the musky scent and be even more attractive to monsters. I kept doing this until all the herbs I had harvested had been ground. The thought of grinding the monster mint so close to my camp had me thinking about all the ways this could end in disaster for me. I chuckled nervously and moved to finish faster. I felt the shift inside me that I usually let me know I had learned something I looked at my notices:

Congratulations you have learned the skill of alchemy. Alchemy lv1. Use the things found in the natural world, combine them and transform them into useful.

Was not expecting that, but that skill could come in very handy! I closed the menu and continued working. I was thinking that maybe if I burned the herb that would increase the fragrance and would pull in more monsters. It was worth a try, I had no other ideas on how to group monster's together to increase the efficiency of my surging arrow skill. After several hours of grinding herbs I mixed water into the ground herbs and shaped them into balls. By the time I was done I had shaped around 50 balls the size of my fist and set them to dry, looking nervously around to see if my work had attracted monsters. I had felt that shift again and thought maybe I had learned an alchemy related skilll. I had!

Congratulations you have discovered the alchemy specialty monster lure! Monster Lure lv 1: this specialty allows you to create lures that attract different monsters. The higher the level of this specialty, the wider the range of effect of the created lure. The level of the skill also makes it harder for higher levelled monsters, or monsters with resistance to ignore the lures. The lure effects only start upon activation.

I sagged with relief after reading that. It looked like the system recognized my plan as a good one, also thank goodness I would not have to worry about the lures pulling monsters into my camp! I quickly used all the herbs I had prepared and turned them into lures. It was already dark outside, so I decided to turn in for the night so I could get up early in the morning. Tomorrow was going to be an exciting day.

Next day I woke up early. I took a small pouch with some provisions, water and the lures I had made. I had a total of 20 lures weighing down my sack. I set out from my camp at a quick pace and made for where I had killed the spiders before. I made sure to look in all directions including up, and then walked to the center of the clearing an set down the lure. The lure looked like a rounded dry ball of packed together herbs. When I commanded it to activate, it started to slowly smoke from a pointed area in the center. Reminded me of incense.

I quickly backed away and hid behind a large rock to see what happened. After about 10 minutes I saw a spider come scuttling out of the trees, stop in front for the slowly twirling smoke and start to...dance. Not long after, another spider followed, and then another. Soon enough there were 5 spiders crowded around the lure and I could see more coming. As the space became crowded spiders tried to push each other out of the way to get closer to the lure. One spider bit another spider'a rear end in rage, and then all hell broke lose. This was my moment. In the middle of the confusion I took up my bow, and knocked my arrow while mentally activating the skill surging arrow and released It into the mayhem. As the arrow left the bow I saw it glisten with magical energy, engorge and split into two.

Not stopping for even a moment I kept knocking arrow after arrow and releasing them into the throng of spiders. Spiders died and more and more spiders kept scuttling in from the trees rushing for the lure. I was smiling ear to ear, this was fantastic! The smoke from the lure that had started as a small swirl had expanded into a billowing curtain that kept pulling in more and more monsters. After about an hour the smoke of the lure started to wane and I could see the clearing more clearly. Spider bodies covered the grass! I had never seen so many spiders before. I tried to count them..there were over 100 spiders dead in the grass! This combination of skills was nothing short of just....fucking fantastic! Some spiders were still coming but not as many as before. The lure's effects must be waning. Looked like a lure would last about an hour, and that, at least with lower lv monsters the spiders would be madened by their desire to get close to the lure to the point that they would fight each other over it.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The day was still young and I had 20 more lures. I was about to walk away, when I thought about the bodies, maybe I should burn them I thought. Not nice to make such a mess and just leave it. Something whispered in the back of my mind. What about the poison sacks. Surely you should be able to harvest their poison sacks and make use of them? At the very least coat some arrows with it, possibly more. I groaned but could not deny it was a good idea. Thank you whatever lives in the back of my head and gives me good ideas. I got ready to dive into spider bodies to harvest the sacks. Several hours later I had harvested all of the spider sacks which as it turned out were behind their jaws..jaws? Fang? Whatever they were called that was where they were. I carefully put them in a bag. I was about to light the spiders on fire when that voice at the back of my head spoke again, sure you can burn them, buuut if you leave them here something bigger will come here and eat them...another lure!!! Hmm what was this voice....it was too useful. I felt something click into place and I opened my notifications.

Congratulations you have unlocked the class monster hunter. My eyes widened as big as two turkey eggs, and I hurried to read the description

If you refuse to be the hunter you become the prey.

Monster hunter lv 1: +5 % efficiency to the tracking skill per level.

Lures gain 10% potency when made and/or used by a monster hunter.

+1 to dexterity, strength and constitution per level. +6 free attribute points per level.

I threw my head back and laughed, I laughed so hard I felt over in the grass. Eventually I stopped laughing, turned on my back and looked at the sky. My heart over filled to the brim with happiness, and excitement. Look at at the class again and accepted it

When I looked at my character sheet it read: Briar: Monster Hunter lv 1

I was so happy, I jumped, I twirled and laughed some more. I didn't know if it was a rare class, the description didn't say, but that didn't matter. I could not think of a class that would suit me better. Maybe someday I would also hunt the two legged monsters too I thought to myself and laughed.

I moved to a new area in the forest set off my lure and repeated the process all over again.

By the time afternoon rolled around I had used 3 of the 20 lures I had brought with me. by means of the lures I had decimated 290 spiders! absolutely incredible...290! soon I would run out of spiders to mass kill.

I took a look at my skill tab next: You gain +2 skill attribute points for each the general, combat and magic skills section per level gained.

You have 38 magic skill points to distribute under each skill set

I considered how to distribute my points. first my combat skills. Small blades had been useful but with decay I had killed a man 30 lvs above me so, I saw no point in investing in other close combat skills. I went ahead and invested all my points in archery. I went ahead and raised archery to level 20, and surging arrow to level 18. As far as magical skills went I put 10 in healing, 20 in decay and 8 in clense. last but not least my general skills. I put 5 in tracking, 5 in stealth, 5 in focus, 9 in alchemy and 9 in monster lure. I had tried putting all 18 into monster lure, but the system warned me that a specialty could never be higher level than the main skill.

All of that sorted out, I decided to head back to the first clearing to see if my little present had pulled in any thing interesting to try my new shinny levels on.

I approached the clearing as quietly as I with my stealth skill active. As I approached I saw large insect feasting on the spiders. the only thing I could think of comparing it to was a scorpion, but the proportions were completely out of range of any scorpion I had seen before. The scorpion was about twice the size of the spiders, and had an incredibly long tail, with a lethal looking stinger at the end of it. its exoskeleton was red, a red so deep as to be almost black. A drop of something dripped off the stinger, and sizzled when it hit the ground. I tried using my identify on it and nothing happened, no information flooded my mind. I looked at the notices screen and saw that my identify had failed...which meant that this Monster was10 levels or more above me. I was beginning to think that this scorpion was more than I could handle. I was thinking to myself, Mr Scorpion, I hope you enjoy your lunch, courtesy of me. let us now parts as friends as I slowly tried backing away, making sure I had mentally activated my stealth skill.

As I began to move backwards the scorpion turned around quickly and waved its stinger in the air threateningly as it raised its claws. surely it could not sense me right? I continued to slowly back away, being careful not to step on any sticks because for the love of all the gods let me not break a stick now and call this monstrosity down on my head, but the thing suddenly rushed straight at me. I had no idea why it could see me, but I was not about to stay around and ask questions, I started to run like my life depended on it. the beast was faster than it had any fucking right to be. I ran for my life, resisting the idiotic instinct present in all humans to look back when they are being pursued.. still something tingled in the back of my neck and I threw myself to the side and saw its stinger sink into the soft grass right where I had been. I would absolutely not have survived that. I got up and continued to run. I desperately tried thinking about what to do while I ran. Thinking of its long tail and claws I decided that i needed to move into an area where the space restricted its ability to move around, and gave me lots of things to hide behind. I ran out of the clearing and into the trees. I could hear the quick tap tap tap of its many legs on the ground, and willed my self to run faster and faster.

Character sheet as it stands at end of chapter 3

Human lv 19   Class: monster hunter: lv 9 Base attributes: you have 71 attribute points to distribute   Derivative attributes General skills: Combat skills Magic skills Strength: lv 20 Health: 1000/1000 Track: lv 15 Archery: lv 25 Heal: lv 20 Constitution: lv 20 Health regen: 20/min Forage: lv 10 Archery specialty: surging arrow: lv 23 Healing specialty: clense: lv 6

Dexterity: lv 20

Stamina: 60/60 Indentify: lv 10 Small blades: lv 10 Decay: lv 22 wisdom: 24 stamina regen: 20/min Find: lv 1 Hand to hand combat: lv 10 intellligence: lv 10 Mana: 1000/1000

Skill artist:

lv 5

Charisma: 6 mana regen: 50/min

Alchemy: lv 9

Alchemy specialty: monster lure: lv 9 Stealth: lv 20