Putting aside the Interface and any thoughts on the surreal nature of the situation in general, Ryan collected the equipment in the hide, with exception of the electronics, and packed his backpack. Having expected to be picked up by truck, he had brought more gear and not everything fit. He carefully considered what could safely be left behind and what replacements, if any, were available at the homestead, which was his destination and only a six kilometre hike.
In the end he elected to pack his canteen, trail-mix, sunscreen, camo net, and the extra ammunition for the revolver, sleeping bag and jacket into his day-pack. He holstered his revolver and ensured it was accessible for a quick draw if needed. His hunting knife was also sheathed on his hip. Only then he strapped on his quiver and picked up the bow, stepping out of the hide.
Ryan carefully approached the bait, arrow knocked, intently listening for any sounds that were out of place. Nothing. Arriving at the tree, he immediately picked up the impact site of the leopard and a substantial blood trail. Although the blood had dried he could clearly determine that he had indeed perforated the leopard’s heart from the amount of blood and spray pattern of the trail.
He sighed in relief, having confirmed the veracity of his Log in announcing the death of the leopard. Following the trail, he spotted and picked up the arrow, which was lying a couple of paces beyond the tree, having passed through the animal entirely and having spent most of its momentum. Ryan kept his arrow knocked while following the trail, the leopard was not the only predator in its range and he did not yet know what effect the quantum system mutations had on the local wildlife. Rather safe than sorry, he thought.
He found the leopard about 50 metres after starting on the trail. Slowly approaching the body he panned around for any threats, not seeing any of the scavengers he would have expected in the usual course of events. Having come reasonably close he saw that the body was glowing softly, the glow concentrated around the teeth and claws. While he was intently staring at the strange glow his interface notified him.
“Skill learned: Analyse! Analyse allows the Player to determine whether an object has value. Higher level in the skill will provide additional information about the object. Skill triggered by intently focusing on an inanimate object. ” Quickly taking a peek at his System Log gave him a summary: “Leopard, L5, (dead). Pelt, Claws and Teeth may be valuable. Meat edible but high risk of trichinosis contamination.” Ryan quickly changed his Interface settings to give him a telepathic summary on everything he analysed, considering the provided information useful, although, in this case he knew the provided details beforehand, just wondering what was considered valuable by the System and why.
Taking out his hunting knife he proceeded to skin the corpse, carefully making the initial incision along the belly and then cutting and tugging the skin until he had it removed. Rolling it up he tied it onto his day-pack and proceeded to pop out the teeth with the tip of the knife, then electing to just chop of the toes for the time being to harvest the claws. Waste not, want not, he thought, considering that if the system deemed something was valuable and he had opportunity to collect it he probably should.
A small noise alerted Ryan, the scuffing of a paw on the hard ground, maybe fur brushing against the knee high grass or a thorn-bush. Ryan inconspicuously unholstered and cocked his .38. Drawing it up into a ready position he slowly got up, back still turned towards the origin of the noise, careful so as to not spook the animal, whatever it was, into charge or flight. Taking a step over the corpse triggered an explosive huff of breath and the pattering of claws on rock. He spun around, aiming from the hip, no time to get into stance. A small body was charging low along the ground, orange fur, black back and Ryan pulled the trigger.
The loud detonation of sound startled up surrounding birds. The little scavenger collapsed nearly at his feet, still trying to reach him. The shot was not immediately fatal and Ryan pulled the trigger once more, killing the jackal now a mercy, as the hollow point had done a number on its shoulder. Analysing the corpse gave him Black-backed Jackal, Mutant, L2, (dead). Pelt, Claws and Teeth may be valuable. Meat edible but high risk of trichinosis contamination. He quickly skinned the little corpse, leaving its claws and teeth, considering why it had attacked him. Jackals would generally not attack animals bigger than themselves, they were clever survivors, hunters and scavengers. Only when rabid would they attack anything in sight, which made him wonder whether the mutation of the system had triggered anomalous behaviour.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Once done he hoisted his day-pack and grabbed his bow before he started walking through the bushveld in the direction of the jeep-tracks that were about 150 metres from the hide and heading south along the fence back to the homestead. The sun was now just cresting the horizon and he kept his head on a swivel, carefully scanning his surroundings. So far, he hadn’t spotted anything that seemed out of the ordinary, no monsters, no mutations and no strange occurrences. The various sounds of the bushveld rousing to greet the new day confirmed to him that everything was normal. He harvested some donkey berry in passing, contently chewing on the tart fruit and spitting the pits on the ground once the meat was gone.
Nonetheless, he did not relax and stayed vigilant while walking on the tracks back to the homestead. Spotting a herd of Kudu in the distance, accompanied by a magnificent buck, he decided to attempt a stalk and observe them a bit closer. Confirming that he was downwind he continued walking to the sandy riverbed crossing the tracks in front and was heading in the direction of the herd, who were browsing in the luscious bush adjacent to it.
Crouching down, taking care where he placed his feet, he silently approached the herd. Once he got within 100 metres of the nearest antelope he slowed his approach. Pausing every so often, moving in fits and starts, keeping bush between him and the herd. Deciding he was close enough he slowly edged around a camelthorn tree on the riverbank, trying to see if he could observe them.
The animals were restless, browsing but not being calm about it. They behaved as if they had been alerted, but Ryan again confirmed that he was downwind. If any had spotted him the antelope would have spooked and disappeared like grey ghosts. He couldn’t see all of the herd from his position, so to get a better vantage point he climbed to the first branch of the camelthorn. The rough bark abraded the skin on his arms, but the little bit of pain was worth it, he could now see the rest of the herd.
The buck was behaving strangely, it kept lowering its head and smashing its corkscrew horns into the bushes on its left repeatedly. The heifers kept their distance, skittish. Staring at the buck the interface prompted: Skill rank up: Inspect, L 26, Rank: Journeyman, Inspect allows the Player to determine information about a living creature or animated object. Higher level in the skill will provide additional information about the object. Skill triggered by intently focusing on an animate subject.
Once again Ryan had to check his system log for details as he had not set the interface to provide information on results of Inspect. The Kudu was Level 2 and mutating. Ryan did not consider it a great threat, having hunted Kudu in the past and having extensive knowledge of their habits and abilities, he elected to stay and observe. He was intensely curios about the outcome of a Quantum System mutation and the chance to directly observe the process was probably too good to pass up. Ryan also understood why Inspect would be Journeyman whereas he had only acquired Analyse a little bit earlier. He'd been inspecting animals closely and with a lot of focus during most of his hunts, whereas he usually just glanced at inanimate objects in passing, probably never before having so intensely scrutinised an inanimate object with the focus he brought to bear on the glowing corpse of the leopard. Ryan made a mental note to go through his skill list later today, to see what skills of his the System considered Skills.
Half an hour later, silently swearing at the awkward position in the tree and at his developing cramp, Ryan decided that enough was enough. Before he could climb down however, the Kudu arched his back and roared. The sound issuing from its throat bore no resemblance to its natural voice and the heifers immediately fled. The buck sped after a young heifer, quickly gaining on her. It angled in from her side and rammed the tips of its horns into her neck, piercing the main artery by design or by luck.
The force of the bash threw the heifer of her legs and while she tumbled to the ground the buck quickly loped back to where she had fallen and speared her again before she could rise. Ryan watched transfixed and horrified as the buck started tearing bits of meat out of her stomach, opening the cavity and attempting to wedge its head inside to reach the liver. Ryan barely comprehended that he had nocked an arrow, drawn, aimed and released before the shot was already in flight.
His aim proved true and the fletching disappeared in the abomination, which bucked, took several stumbling steps and silently collapsed. Ryan dropped from his perch, dropping into a crouch to absorb the momentum and walked the short distance to the corpses. Analyse showed that the pelt and horns of the Mutant Kudu, L3, (dead) were considered valuable, however harvesting both would just add a further burden to his already heavy pack and he was unsure if he could carry so much weight.
Ryan carefully examined the buck, not finding any obvious abnormalities. Foregoing the meat on the buck he opted to only take the sirloins of the heifer, quickly removing them from the corpse and adding them to the bottom of his pack before recovering his arrow. He should be able to take the bit of extra weight and could prepare them later and possibly also make some biltong if he chose to stay at the homestead for a while. He was unsure how long he would give himself as he really needed to find out if his parents and daughter were indeed gone. He also had to check whether his brother and his girlfriend, who had babysat Victoria, were safe.