Sleep was not allowed for the supposed leaders of a new camp. Aloy had to stay awake day and night figuring out where people could rest, where they could eat, and where among other things they could shit. It was meant to be delegated to those actually in charge, yet her experience with the area was once again biting her from behind. It was not something she could complain about but not having brought another [Hunter] that had been there before was perhaps a mistake. She was not a [Scribe], [Builder], or [Optimizer] and she most definitely did not know how to properly place different sectors of the camp up. Yet, that was expected of her, the [Warden]’s word of trust was worth more than what she could do.

At some level, the guards trusted too much. He was wise, yes, but the short moments where they could see that wisdom always made them misinterpret the truth. Just because he believed Aloy to not have lied during the start did not mean she was expected to run the entire operation. She could barely read and write and now she had to fill out forms on behalf of a former [Royal Knight]?

Staying up in a tree and watching for the movement was the best course of action. Just a few of them had been left standing around the camp, the people having needed the space more than the woodland critters. But, there was something special about having a tree high above the masses. It gave the same vision as a well-made outpost while not requiring days of work to create. The [Architects] they currently had were hard-pressed to make anything that could support a ceiling. Ordering them to make a twenty-meter tall tower was how one asked to die from structural failure.

Yet, the [Hunter] couldn’t judge the workers too much. They had cleared an entire chunk of the forest within mere days, had created some form of shelter for the guards and themselves in hours, and had made fencing that could stop most of the smaller creatures from sneaking in without being seen. The actual houses with proper insulation would have to wait yet the current set-up was enough until the [Builders] from the nearby towns could be escorted out. Many were meant to come within just a few days, after all.

The camp itself was still relatively simple. Near the river was the exit to the bridge, a few guards being posted around it to make sure nothing could get through the opening. Then came a small path over to where the ores from the Dungeon were kept. There was meant to be some form of a larger storage unit for them but that would soon be made. Further inside was where the [Guards] slept and stayed for the most part when they weren’t used for menial labour. Even further inside was the middle of the place, the housing where all prisoners were kept.

They had bedding and just about everything needed to survive but there were still a few guards around that part of the camp to make sure nobody tried to make a run for it. Not that there was any real reason to. If they escaped the guards, they would die from the monsters around. Even without the best hearing, Aloy could hear the growls in the wind. Monsters had been sizing them up from the moment they first arrived.

A [Skill] has been improved!

You have understood [Visual Perception] more deeply

And there came the second good thing from staying up constantly to watch out for possible threats. Even when the creatures thought themselves smart, hiding in the bushes, behind trees, or maybe even digging a bit underground, Aloy always spotted them. Years of training helped but it was mostly her knowing what each creature was and how they liked to think. If not, she might not even have noticed the small group of [Giant Mice] trying to sneak up by using the tall grass as cover.

Drawing her bow, she aimed, taking a moment to hold exhale as she fired the first of four arrows, each able to hit a mouse right in their skull. They died on the spot but their brethren only continued to walk until they too met their demise at the hands of the woman. No other sound came from the [System] at that moment. It seemed they hadn’t been powerful enough to make her get to another level. Or maybe she just hadn’t killed enough. Aloy guessed towards the latter.

Making another archer take her spot, Aloy went down from her tree to get back her arrows. While it was quite impossible to get arrows back safely while in the Dungeon, any place outside called for it. There were only so many of high quality that she had left and those that were made by her hand couldn’t handle the explosive elements added to them. Having them explode before they were fired at all was a consequence she refused to be a part of, hence the need to regather all that had been fired.

Jumping the fence without hesitation, the woman noted how annoying tall grass was. It reached nearly up to her knees, the small distance from the river creating the perfect environment for the plants. She had gotten the guards to cut down everything within the camp itself but anything outside it had been allowed to grow. That needed to be fixed in the coming days.

However, it would take a while before such a time would come. The night was still young, darkness only recently coming over the skies. It was becoming colder with the days passing to the point where the hunter wondered if they were in for an early winter. If so, they would need to gather a larger defence to stop the attacks from the creatures to reach the prison or the camp. When those monsters felt like they couldn’t survive sleeping in the cold, they did everything possible to make sure that they could hibernate without issue. One of those was to eat others of their kind or eat everything else. Stampedes were not the most uncommon event during those years.

Looking back to the primitive fencing around the camp, one which even the [Hunter] could jump without issue, Aloy found herself wondering if they should increase the daily pay-out for all the [Builders]. Having higher-quality workers would do wonders in making sure they weren’t killed from an accident alone. However, it would shorten up their coffers for the month. Even with the rare ore, they had gathered, they had still not set up any trade routes that would help sell it. No merchants had arrived yet, either, none deeming it important enough to make use of a [Teleportation-Mage]. Such thinking was fair but the massive amounts of potential money in the ore was quickly looking to be more of a paperweight. If nobody sought the material from them, it was effectively worthless.

They had no refinery, no place they could create actual, workable materials from the ore. It was just a tiny bit shinier than the rock it was close to. It was perhaps a bit harder but no armour or weapons could be made at the current moment. They were too far away from any form of self-sufficiency. For now, they could only hope that the current budget would hold until the merchants could gather. If they had been right on the timing, more than a few of the larger ones had been around the local cities. If they too had seen promise in what the Dungeon could give, they might have granted the place another look before leaving. For now, the carriages with items were still undecided. Aloy could only hope that they arrived in a few days.

Finally finding the mice lying dead on the ground, the [Hunter] began pulling out the many arrows. It was annoying having to dig them out from the creatures’ skulls. The higher speed they had entered made it hard to dislodge them without breaking the tips, the one thing that Aloy cared about. The wood and back parts could be replaced within mere hours but those tips were near-impossible to make in the wilderness. Even the [Forge] in the prison needed luck to not break them during their creation, the [Smith] being better at repairing armour. It did not matter, however. Aloy had grown adept at getting them to put without too much trouble. Sitting there on her knees in the grass might have been uncomfortable but the reward for such a thing was that she wouldn’t need to work with subpar equipment in the long term.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

However, being so close to the ground also allowed the sound of the nearby woods to gather in her ears quicker than before. It allowed heavy breathing to be heard, Breathing not normally found in humans, elves, or even the fattest of orcs. No… the archer was hearing the breathing of a monster nearby, one that had hidden through unnatural means until it got close.

Only the first two arrows had been retrieved at that point but the archer took no heed of such detail. Throwing the current mouse up in the air as a distraction, she jumped to her feet and made a direct line for the fence behind her. It was only twenty meters away yet the distance was more than enough for something to catch up on her. This was why she liked staying in the trees more.

The trampling of the mice she had worked so hard on was heard from behind, their small bones breaking without a moment of hesitation. It was something big, a mammal of some form. A [Bear]? It could’ve been a variant of some sort, one that the [Hunter] didn’t normally meet. Those creatures were not normally ones that used stealth but it was most certainly possible that recent energy surges could have made one appearance. And since it was night, a [Dark Variant] was very possible.

Reaching the fence in just over a second, the Hunter jumped to the top of it as quickly as she could. It was nearly two and a half meters above her yet her knees reached the top without issue, almost letting her get over it without a moment of pause. Yet a moment there was and that was used against her.

There was no real idea what it was that hit but Aloy felt her flesh tear on the backside of her left foot. The footwear was nearly ripped off by what seemed like claws as any piece of her flesh that had been too close to it was taken off as well. She nearly screamed but that would have distracted her landing too much.

“All [Guards] to arms!” the archer shouted finally as she reached the other side of the fence without issue. She nearly fell to the ground in pain when her left food reached the dirty soil but she remained standing no matter how much it hurt. Finally, a moment had come where she could look back without the chance of losing her face as a consequence.

Her bow had been drawn again as she turned, an arrow fitted perfectly into it the moment her eyes were on the fence, already preparing to aim through the small cracks in it. Yet… there was nothing to aim at. The moment her eyes had adjusted to the area yet again, she found nothing but empty air.

There was no creature of larger size, no animal or monster that could take out a piece of her foot by just swiping at it. There wasn’t the smallest of clues that there had been anything at all, ignoring her still bleeding foot.

The moment that a few of the guards arrived at her location, she made them keep watch while she saw the new wound on the body. It stung getting the dirt out of the blood but it was required if she were to be able to walk on it in the morning. Her muscles close to it were cramping, meaning that something wasn’t right. Opening up her [Status Screen], the archer was dismayed at what she found.

Character Screen

Name:

Aloy

Gender:

Female

Level:

14

Class:

Hunter

Race:

Human

Title:

Seeker of the Lost

Health:

109/130

H-Regen:

0.12/sec

Mana:

118/120

M-Regen:

0.12/sec

Stamina:

192/200

S-Regen:

0.19/sec

Basic Stats

Strength:

12

Wisdom:

11

Vitality:

12

Intelligence:

12

Dex:

19

Willpower:

14

The [Hunter] found it hard to believe that such a small wound had any chance of taking out so much damage, meaning that the health loss wasn’t due to its physical nature alone. They were working against a creature with a higher level of [Magical Talent]. That wasn’t good at all, Aloy knowing how much of a pain those were to kill. It also explained how it was able to hide so easily.

“What happened?” Alexios, one of the other leaders in the camp, came around to question. “How did you get wounded?”

“A larger creature has been spotted outside the fencing,” Aloy reported. “It is suspected to have a momentary form of [Invisibility] which eliminates sound made as well.”

“Any chance that it could have been humanoids?” Alexios asked, not taking the news great but not sounding distressed. It was but another perk of working with former [Knights]. They were forced into so many bad situations that they could take anything standing.

“Impossible withs its steps,” Aloy said, rejecting the notion. It had claws as well. Tore up my foot using one.”

“Of course,” the guard said, accepting her word without suspicion. Looking over to the group of guards close to them, the man began to shout orders. “No guard is to leave alone or in numbers smaller than three. Set up a schedule to guard the perimeter of the entire fence. We need to make sure this monster doesn’t try and break in without our notice.”

Two of the five guards left instantly, running towards their centre of command to distribute the order to all other occupants. The three others began to move towards the fencing to look out for anything out of the ordinary. Aloy, on the other end of the spectrum, was helped up by Alexios and was further assisted in getting to the guard post herself.

“Why did you think it would be a good idea to get outside alone in the night anyway?” Alexios questioned whether to create some form of small talk or maybe just remove the silence while they slowly walked towards the post. Guards ran by them every so often, moving much faster than them. The issue of a broken ankle was too much. The man offered to carry her but that was rejected.

“A few smaller creatures attempted to breach the fence line so I shot them,” Aloy answered without much hesitation. “Had to go retrieve the arrows.”

“Not the smartest thing to do during the night.”

“I am aware.”

…

The silence kept on until they reached the guard’s post. There the [Hunter] was quickly deposited in a crude chair of her choosing before being left alone while Alexios went out to do his job. There was no real emotion other than an annoyance in the air.

Though, Aloy did suppose she could finally sleep. Working as a wounded leader did have some benefits, one of them being that they didn’t want her to die too soon. That was for later.