Kaian followed Wynfir across the forest with less suspicion and more excitement than before. They harvested the blood of the monster and the hunter immediately filled some of his vials with it. Leaving the rest in a container he took out from his backpack. The blood was light blue, closer to white than blue.

“Alright, now that I showed you what the most important rule is, we can actually begin. The first step is to choose what type of monster or animal you will be hunting."

"Or that’s what I would normally say for someone without blood.” the hunter said, reaching for his backpack and pulling a leather wrist gauntlet out.

“With this, you won’t be a bloodless anymore. Put it on your hand and let the iron spike inside pierce your flesh by hitting the mechanism.” he spoke, as if it was normal.

Kaian took the thing and looked at it in horror. It was a hollow cylinder of leather with an iron circle in the middle. The circle had a hole in the middle and another circle, broken into four parts around it. It was probably for holding the vial when you inserted it in. He looked inside but couldn’t see the spike anywhere.

“Oh, don’t worry. It’ll slide out when you hit the injector.”

This certainly didn’t assure Kaian. Despite that, he knew that he could choose to stop learning anytime. He could just return into the village, live in peace. Find some normal job and grow old.

But that’s not what he really wanted. Kaian managed to acquire a magical stone that could let him become anything with enough time. He had managed to survive transmigration, a trapped dungeon with self-destructing tendencies. He survived a village with a false demonic god, getting benefits for himself. He survived the wilderness, getting into a village alone.

He couldn’t just end his adventure like this. Kaian didn’t want to die, but maybe, just maybe, dying gloriously was better than living like a coward. Determined, he put the gauntlet on.

Kaian took a deep breath and punched the injector.

Slap.

The spike extended, penetrating Kaian’s skin. He could feel it inside his arm. It hurt a lot, but not as bad as he imagined. This wasn’t even the second worst pain he felt. It also stopped very fast, leaving his hand partly numb.

However, even if it wasn’t the worst thing he ever felt, he still dropped on his knees, holding the gauntlet and hissing from pain. Due to it stopping quickly, he recovered just as fast and stood back up, acting nonchalant.

“Hm? I didn’t expect this little of a reaction. Good job, I screamed like a little bitch back then.” Wynfir said, surprised.

It made Kaian feel proud inside. The hunter smiled and gave him the same orange vial he used and started explaining it.

“This one is for highlighting danger. It’s the blood of a pretty common beast. We call him the watcher and despite his blood literally being a danger sense, it’s actually quite stupid, getting caught easily. It’s the most used potion by hunters as it works both on beasts and humans.”

“Oh, that’s why you used it when we spoke, how does it work, though?” Kaian asked, perplexed.

“Well, I’m not really sure. I was told it feels out the intent to harm and sends signals to the brain, manifesting as an orange highlight for humans. Ah, also, it doesn’t work on humans who are stronger than you by a certain margin. Monsters shouldn’t be a problem, I’ve never had it fail on those.” Wynfir replied self-assuredly.

“Now, take this yellow-green one. It will boost regeneration and mute your pain. This one was on the injector’s spike. Makes it easier for newbies to not break down. It’s also done because the first blood will influence how your body evolves and healing is very useful in any situation. The coating is only a minor dose so the influence is not that big, your next blood will have the biggest impact on your body.”

After saying this, Wynfir started walking into a seemingly random direction. He said to follow him and explained that he favored showing Kaian how to hunt practically instead of talking. Kaian agreed, he always found it pretty difficult to understand theory without practice so this was perfect.

They roamed around the forest for the rest of the day, eating meat from the monsters and Kaian even managed to kill a squirrel look-alike that had a gelatinous body. Wynfir taught him more about hunting but it was stuff that wasn’t that difficult to think of yourself - like being prepared and not making loud noises. However, it was safe to say that this day was not wasted, even if just because of the gauntlet and the blood.

…

And so the days passed like this, Kaian going out to hunt with Wynfir until the evenings where he played Azir. Either with the few people that he hasn't before or with merchants that came to sell and buy.

He ripped all of them off and the merchants left disgruntled. It brought him more money which disappeared just as fast in order to keep appearances of living in a house and being normal in general. He even managed to farm some vexapoints, growing richer ever so slightly.

Despite all of his other gains, the most important one was hunting knowledge and new blood. Kaian was now 100% sure about his survival with vexastone and about 50% without. That was if some god-tier being didn’t appear, of course.

On the last day of his week, Wynfir sent him to hunt alone, to show proof that he’s ready to continue his studies. He said that hunting something like an eyeling would be enough. That was the name of the dangersense creature with orange blood. They were extremely easy to find and hunt so Kaian considered it an insult.

He had learnt so much, a mere eyeling isn’t enough. With Vexastone, even a dragon wouldn’t be enough. ...Okay maybe it would.

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Kaian put on a belt with the vials he collected so far and left the inn, purchasing a cloak to ward off the weather and entering the forest.

First off, he’d scout a bit.

[Vexi, Lizard.]

Kaian started becoming smaller yet again. Stopping at a much larger size this time. His eyes took a while to get accustomed to- no his brain did. He saw more colors in this form. They were unexplainable, mysterious.

This wasn’t the best thing, though. He could finally move fast! Hooray! He climbed on a tree and waited for something to come out, enjoying the sun in the meantime.

Ruffle, ruffle.

A green finger emerged from a bush. It was followed by more fingers and a flat body with a tentacle rising from the middle. Or at least that’s what it looked like. It didn’t have any suckers, instead multiple eyes were on the upper part in a circle. They looked all around and then focused at Kaian, glowing orange.

The eyeling’s pupils shrunk and it nearly managed to run away before Kaian reacted. His lizard eyes looked at the scared eyeling and he opened his mouth.

Shhh

He started sucking in air and a blue sphere formed above his tongue. Kaian aimed at the eyeling and spat out the orb.

Ptui.. SMACK

It hit the monster on its neck and it got insta-killed, the bullet tearing through its flesh, orange blood leaking to the ground.

Kaian jumped from the tree, transforming into a human above the ground, his knees absorbing the shock. He quickly grabbed at his empty vials and filled a few, leaving some empty for further blood.

He looked at the bottom of the eyeling, curious about how it reproduced, only managing to find a circle-ish mouth with sharp teeth. After tsk-ing, he climbed back on his tree, hoping that the remaining blood would attract a stronger monster.

And attract a stronger monster it did. Kaian didn’t know if it truly lured it out here or if he just got lucky and it was walking around. Actually, lucky might be the wrong word.

The beast was big, around the same height as Kaian when standing tall, but longer and wider. It was covered by fur which originated on the top of the monster and fell down in clusters. Its one eye in the middle of its face looking at the dead eyeling grimly. Lastly, it had a wooden crown that looked like it was part of its body, maybe antlers of some sort?

It did look quite similar to a deer, so that was most likely. Kaian shivered in excitement, this would be the perfect animal to hunt! His eyes focused on the animal more, trying to guess how it moved and attacked. Its legs looked pretty strong, he’d have to be on guard against kicks. The crown was also dangerous, if he got grabbed by that, he’d get torn apart before he could transform.

The eye was also menacing, this was a magical world after all and eyes seemed like a sign of something special as far as he could tell. Now, would having only one eye mean that it was weaker or much stronger? Well, he would have to find out.

Kaian grinned and opened his mouth, shooting at the beast’s eye.

SLOSH

The hit connected and the beast’s eye got torn apart, purple blood splashing around. Kaian wanted to celebrate, but the monster looked directly at him, seemingly unaffected by the loss of a part of its eye. It looked horrifying, staring at Kaian wordlessly while bleeding.

He got the chills and transformed into a human while holding the tree, quickly injecting an orange vial for dangersense, a yellow-green one for regeneration with smarter thinking and a red one for strength.

He only managed to pull out a dagger before the tree got smashed apart and Kaian started falling to the ground. The monster ran through the tree and it completely obliterated the trunk!

[Vexi, Snail!]

He transformed at the last second, his shell absorbing the rough fall. He immediately changed into a lizard and shot at the beast while it was turning around at him.

Smack.

It connected again! But nothing big happened as the beast only lost a bit of fur. Kaian shot more and the monster shrugged it off, rushing at him, enraged. Kaian changed into a human, standing directly in front of it.

The beast closed in.

[Wait. I have to wait. Just a bit more. NOW, VEXI LIZARD!]

The animal nearly touched Kaian before he disappeared below its body. He shot a water bullet and transformed back into a human, sticking his dagger into its belly. The monster couldn’t stop and its movement just led the dagger to carve out a wound easier.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't be this easy as it reacted fast enough and kicked Kaian with its back legs. He didn’t manage to react fast enough and it hit him in the shoulders, slamming him forward and breaking his bones.

Kaian tried transforming into a snail to defend himself.

“00:00:41”

[WHAT?!] he screamed inside his mind and immediately changed his words to take his lizard form instead. His human shape was basically unusable now, being locked out anyway. The shrap pain was only muted slightly and Kaian really wasn’t able to handle it.

The beast was severely wounded, but not enough to die. And Kaian could only use a lizard and a fish. Wait, he definitely used a wounded form in his escape from the demon god in the lake, how!?

Now wasn’t the time to think, the monster panted and rushed at Kaian yet again. He shot more bullets and they dealt very little damage. Kaian knew he definitely couldn’t let his main damaging form get locked out so he jumped and changed into a fish before contact.

SMASH

He got thrown away, a broken fish experiencing flight. Kaian transformed again, not shooting at the beast this time. He would have to think of something!

They were both near death, yet Kaian knew he hadn’t tried a few things. He intentionally punched a sharp twig while the beast turned around and his lizard shape got damaged.

[..Vexi, Human.]

Kaian started growing, his back slouched, staring at the monster’s bleeding eye. His shoulders hurt like hell, but he would have to manage it.

He started running forward, barely holding the dagger. The indomitable human spirit was at show here, the majestic animal being reduced into a bleeding mess, losing more than its blood. It lost its courage to fight.

It felt like it was fighting an ever changing immortal being. But it had already turned around! It couldn’t run away now!

And so it charged, hoping to come out alive. Kaian grinned crazily and spoke out loud: “Vexi, Lizar-”

SHLUCK

The dagger stabbed into the monster’s eye and made a nauseating sound. It was most likely dead. Despite this, Kaian would still die just from the remaining force if he didn’t do something. Thankfully he had gotten ready.

“-d.”

The moment he completed his previous sentence, he effectively skipped the time required to change and shrunk instantaneously.

The animal- no, corpse fell down, finally defeated.