James stared at the crystal in his hand. There was always a place in his pocket for gemstones, but these ones were stranger than the norm. Even if they hadn't come from the inside of a monster's head, he could tell they were special. A blue light shone from within the crystal and swirled in delicate patterns across his vision. Each permeation twinkled like stars across the night sky.

[You have picked up a lesser spirit crystal (water). Would you like to consume the object?]

He pocketed the crystal. He wouldn’t consume them like the words floating in front of him prompted him to. Part of his job was understanding that even the prettiest of plants and animals could be deadly in the wrong situations. Whatever was inside these things could be deadly to him, or worth money. If he ran into more creatures he wanted to be in his best condition. Consuming it now was a huge risk that he wasn't willing to take.

Would it make him stronger?

The thought fluttered through his mind before he could stop it. Everything else that he had encountered so far today had been designed to either kill him or strengthen him. Sometimes both. Killing those creatures had given him levels, just like in a game, and he could feel his strength growing after assigning himself stat points. He shook his head and put the crystal away in his pocket. He would have to find out what they did later.

Rocks crunched under his feet as he made his way past the house cluster. He'd turned off his truck, taking everything, he felt he needed with him. There was a chance that when he came back the houses wouldn't be safe anymore. He might not even be able to drive too far with the forest blocking the road on one end and the town under siege on the other. His attention turned toward the trees around him, and he chose to move in the direction of Mrs Spire’s backyard.

There would always be a time to step back and consider whether what he was doing was worth it. After all, the town had guns and there was always the possibility that they would win against the invaders. But from what he had seen it was a slim chance. He also had no way of reaching the floating town. If the Khuls could smell him like a dog, then he had little hope of hiding and waiting it all out. They would come to him when they were ready to kill him, and they would bring the numbers to make sure it happened. He intended to get to them first. The element of surprise was the only thing on his side, and he intended to use it wisely.

His job had taught him how to hunt animals. Step one was always finding their habitat. Step two was monitoring their habits and setting up a trap to capture them. Once there was a target in mind, there was no running away and hoping the prey would catch itself.

The cluster of houses quickly disappeared behind the flora of the forest and a few minutes later James paused behind a thick tree, crouching low as he heard a sound nearby. He crept along the tree until he could see what was making the sound. A single star-tailed lizard sat up among the grass, glancing nervously around it. James raised an eyebrow at it. This lizard was the exact reason he was in this situation in the first place. The damned things were supposed to be rare and now they were appearing everywhere.

Other than the reptile’s appearance the forest was oddly silent. At first, he had attributed it to the lazy evening air, but after his hours of morning exploration he'd started to grow suspicious. There was no such thing as a quiet forest when the animals were happy and safe. They would only hide to avoid predators. Or they were silent because they were dead. James gripped his spear tightly and waited for the lizard to run away. After a few moments of tense breathing the animal scurried deeper into the forest and James stood up.

The sight of a single snapped twig gave him pause again. The lizard hadn't broken it. Something much larger had. James examined the twig and noted that the area around it was also damaged. He'd already found their trail, and the enemy wasn’t being subtle in their movements. Broken branches lay scattered across his vision and on closer inspection he could see lesions on the trees around him.

A quick perusal of the ground as he walked showed more concerning signs. He could see the nests of birds and excrement of other animals. Rabbits, wild dogs and even cattle had inhabited this area only days before, but it was all old now. Nothing except the monsters and the lone lizard had come past this trail in the last couple of days.

His shoes pressed into the dirt as he made his way carefully through the forest, following the path of destruction.

"Status screen items.” He whispered.

Items

Spear.

Rations x4.5.

Two hunting knives.

James had discovered that the menu of words was adjustable. He'd made a major change by adding the [items] list on the screen. Adding a section to the screen wasn't hard. He just had to think of what he specifically wanted to add, and it would appear. Conversely, if he thought about collapsing some of the options then they would disappear from the status screen.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It annoyed him that he didn't know what most of the screen was displaying. His [race] was listed as unknown, and the percent of progress next to it was increasing over time. There was also the question of what pillars were. Somehow, he had made a lot of progress on completing the first pillar. Since it had risen to 33% completed that likely meant that it was increasing in batches of 16% or had gone straight to 33%. If the former was true, then he had completed two out of six of the required criteria. There was only one thing that came to mind that he had done recently and could have contributed to this progress bar.

Killing the two Khuls.

Was increasing the progress bar good? He didn't know. It was hard to imagine that killing would yield rewards, but it seemed to be what the screen was trying to get him to do. The mission he'd been given to wipe out the invaders was proof of that.

The snap of a twig ripped James out of his thoughts. His body whipped toward the sound, and he spotted a short figure standing among the trees. A Khul. Unlike the others it didn't pay attention to him, gazing only at the object in its hands. The lizard from earlier. Saliva dripped from the Khul's lips, and its thick canines glimmered moist in the evening light. James recognised hunger when he saw it. This Khul was starving.

James raised his spear but didn't throw it. His target wasn’t the Khul. Not yet. He needed information.

The Khul raised his head and sniffed. James froze, expecting it to find him. After a moment it bit into the Lizard, the still-alive reptile wriggling in its hands. James watched the Khul feast on the helpless animal with pensive eyes. The Khul was further away than the one that had been searching his truck and hadn't spotted him yet, which means that their sense of smell wasn't as developed as a dogs. That was a relief. If a Khul could smell him from a mile away then it wouldn't matter how sneaky he was, he would be hunted down without a fight.

The creature stopped after eating the lizard halfway, bones and all. A bloody mess was left in the foliage around it and the Khul let out a satisfied burp. Then it turned, keeping the lizard in hand, and walked deeper into the woods.

James watched its back and frowned as he spotted a peculiarity. This Khul had a single black wing on its back, flapping limply as it walked through the foliage. He watched it move and before it could disappear from his site, he took a step forward and began to follow it. He'd stalked prey before, but the circumstances were different now. This thing was intelligent. He was sure that a single snapped twig would cause the creature to find him, and he couldn't stay downwind. Instead, he chose to let it go out of sight and he listened as it broke through the forest with wanton abandon.

Each step he took gave him time to think over what he was planning. He knew that there was a group of the creatures somewhere in the forest. Enough to take out everyone that was living in the housing cluster. If he could find where they were, then he could plan an attack. At the very least he would have more information than he had now. After all, the first step in catching his prey was finding their habitat.

The journey through the jungle was tense as James kept his distance, relying on the distant sounds of crashing as the Khul smashed a path through the forest. It wasn't difficult to keep a track of the monster. He could see each footstep deeply imprinted into the ground. On the right side of each step was a small drag mark, dirt and plants crushed under the creature’s clawed toes. Something had hurt it. And they had hurt it enough to make it limp on one side. The grunts in the distance soon became distinct to his ears and he heard the odd yelp of pain from its mouth.

It was definitely injured.

James crouched down and raised his spear as his instincts took over. Before he had been surprised by the attackers, but now he was the hunter. It was familiar territory.

His legs tensed and he pushed more energy through them, preparing to catch up to the monster. It had stayed in a steady stride for the past few minutes, and it was safe to say that its habitat lay in this direction. He marked a small arrow etching into a tree trunk as he passed it. He had done the same etching on the trees behind him as well. The forest was growing darker in the evening light, and he didn't want to become lost.

As he walked further into the forest, he noted a change in the surroundings. The green was slowly replaced by yellow and red plants, and he spotted more and more star-tailed lizards. Each one stared at him curiously before going about their business. He'd been worried that they would react violently or noisily to his presence, but the loudest sound was still the creature in the distance.

Then it stopped.

James froze, keeping his breath steady as his ears perked up and listened for the creature. It was just out of sight, hidden behind a grouping of trees. He crept carefully toward the spot where the sounds had stopped and saw a mass of yellow bushes blocking his vision. No. Not bushes. They were tree branches. Each one had an assortment of yellow leaves swaying in the wind. It wasn't the branches that surprised him. It was how low they were. Most of the trees in the forest only had the odd branch dipping toward the ground. These ones should have been no exception.

He tenderly lifted one of the branches and stepped forward. Then he lurched as his foot hit empty air instead of ground. He jolted and lifted himself up with his steady foot and pushed himself back, stopping his fall without making too much noise. Gazing down he realised that the branches of the tree weren't hanging low, the tree itself was planted down below in a small valley that was hidden by the branches. This section of the forest was a steep cliff that led into several meters of sheer drop.

The Khul he’d been following was nowhere to be seen. However, as he wavered between the edge of the cliff and the branches, he heard a sound. It wasn't the pained grunt of the monster, or the shrill cry of a lizard.

It was the frightened shout of a human.

James followed the sound with his eyes and pushed aside another branch, revealing the valley below. He could see large stones placed in a strange pattern resembling a hedge maze. It was the size of the town, and in the middle of the maze was a large clearing, devoid of all but one thing. Humans.

Six figures lay huddled in the clearing. Each one sported injuries to their heads or bodies. But aside from bloodied clothes they seemed more fearful than hurt. They were the neighbors that Mrs Spire had seen being abducted. He looked further ahead and narrowed his eyes as a mass of smoke and flames entered his vision. There was a large fireplace behind the stones, and he could make out several figures huddled around it. Each one had deep red skin and they were quickly joined by another one that had a limp. He had found the Khul’s habitat.

It was time to begin his hunt.