I slowly made my way across the cave wall, making sure to stay high enough up to not look like a tasty target. Although I couldn't see it, the vibrations from the various battles in the caves were still going on. God knows what it must sound like in here. It would seem like the monsters here are instinctively drawn towards the bigger caves like this, which once again explained the poison jar type this planet gained. Tier 1 monsters were born somewhere in the tunnels, fought there, and got stronger while making their way towards a hub like this. And then they pitted themselves against other Tier 1 creatures.

This was, of course, only speculation based upon limited knowledge. What would cause them to move on from here then? Maybe once they evolved into a Tier 2 monster, they'd move on to a deeper layer of the planet? Or were Tier 2's hanging out around here too, farming some easy XP from their lower leveled adversaries before moving on? Could even higher tiers move up here as well, or did they stay well down below? I had so many questions, yet no one was answering. I did try to ask the system at some point, but it only answered about things relating to my status window, sadly.

While I was absorbed in my thoughts, the wall I was hanging on to shook violently, almost causing me to lose my footing. Hanging on for dear life, I waved my eyes around, and soon found two monsters locked into battle behind me. Apparently, one of them was thrown into the wall. Hard. I squinted my eyes, which didn't help much, to try and figure out what was going on. If I judged this right, one of them was some sort of giant monkey, while the other was maybe a cat? Judging by the size and black coloration, maybe a puma?

Anyway, the monkey was running circles around the puma, which annoyed it to no end. Its claw swipes continued to miss the agile monkey, who made sure to abuse every opening it got. The puma had to deal with quite the punishment without being able to retaliate, but eventually, the monkey made a mistake. It was just a tiny bit too slow after sending a haymaker into the puma's face when the big cat's claws finally found purchase. A spray of red entered my vision as the monkey got slammed into the wall.

It must have been dazed a bit because it didn't have time to react as the puma viciously pounced on the monkey. It put its entire weight on it to stop it from escaping and started going to town on the monkey with bite attacks. Yeah, looks like that monkey was done for. It didn't take long for the monkey to stop moving and the puma to secure its kill. To my surprise, the banged-up puma stepped away from the monkey. It started doing a little perimeter sweep, probably to make sure no other predators were sneaking up on it. Big Mistake.

I didn't want to take my chances earlier, because I was still recovering, but this time the situation was overwhelmingly in my favor. I should assume the puma could climb a certain height up the wall I was on, but I could just retreat higher up once the deed was done! It didn't dare take the time to slowly get closer to the monkey corpse, so I just conjured up a poison shot right where I was. I took careful aim before letting it go, and missed completely. A bit miffed I shot again, and I missed. I took another shot, and I hit something! It wasn't what I was going for, so I guess I missed. I shot again, but I missed again. At this point I was getting worried, my MP only allowed for one more shot, and I wasn't exactly proving my capabilities as a sniper here.

Not thinking too much about it, I sent my last poison glob on my way, and finally managed to hit the monkey! Success! The ugly fact that my Agility was locked at 1 was rearing its head, as accuracy was influenced by that attribute. You'd think as a former human I wouldn't be hit by that fact as much, but it would seem like the system was correcting me to hit less in this case. Not exactly a nice thing to find out, especially since my only real weapon was accuracy-based. I guess I just got lucky that my other fights were in close quarters.

Having finally done the deed, though, I retreated up the wall a bit more, until I could barely make out the monkey below me. It didn't take long for the puma to return to its kill, apparently satisfied that it could eat in peace for now. It started ripping into the monkey with abandon, sating its violent hunger. It kind of reminded me of myself when I ate. Apparently, that was just a thing monsters did, so I should either make sure I was somewhere safe to eat or learn to control this urge. Since I could just store my kills in the inventory, I shouldn't have too many issues with this, though.

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I'd love for the system to tell me when I poisoned something right about now, but it continued to be silent about it, so I was left being anxious about whether or not my plan was working. I know for sure that the puma had taken on quite a bit of damage, so it was entirely possible that my poison could finish it off. Unless it had a crazy high constitution and still had tons of health left. The puma continued to dig into the monkey until none of it was left. I could tell its movements were a bit sluggish, and it even looked like it was swaying a little, so I guess my poison was doing a number on it.

But, it didn't die. It moved over to a natural hiding spot behind some rock formation and settled down, maybe to sleep, or just rest until the poison had run its course. I crawled a bit closer, hoping to get that notification of me getting a kill, but it just didn't come. It would seem that the puma would live to see another fight. I'd love to ambush it while it slept, but my only avenue of doing so was getting right up into its face and shoving myself down its throat. My MP still hadn't recovered enough for another poison shot, and even then I needed to get close and make sure my poison landed in its mouth somehow. And after seeing it decimate that monkey, I refused to get anywhere close to these teeth, or claws for that matter.

I left disappointed, but with new information. This was a viable way for me to get kills. By finishing off the winner of a fight with my poison, I could potentially kill monsters that were way stronger than me. There were still a couple of issues with this, though. On one side, my poison might not be enough to finish off the victor of the fight, so I needed to invest more into intelligence. On the other, the only safe option for me to poison the corpse of the loser was with Lethal Poison Shot, and my accuracy was terrible. There was little I could do about that, except make sure I was as close as I could get and hope, since the system locked my agility at one.

I continued on my merry way along the wall without anything else of interest occurring. Until I stumbled upon what seemed to be a small pool of water. I may say small, but it was still big enough for several monsters to be lined up around it and drinking. Oddly enough, they weren't fighting each other here. I had heard of animals not fighting around sources of water, but it was weird seeing a bunch of monsters who were created for nothing but combat doing the same. I could barely see it, but I think this pool of water was fed by a stream of droplets from the ceiling. I immediately thought about poisoning the water supply for easy kills, but once again, there was no way my poison was strong enough to kill a monster with full health.

This might be an avenue of easy XP farming down the road, but for now, it was pointless to even attempt. I was feeling somewhat thirsty, so I made my way down towards the water as well. Nobody had started a fight the entire time I was observing, so I judged it to be safe for me as well. I made it down without issue and approached the water. I could only assume that I was getting side-eyed by everybody else, but I didn't pay it any heed. And finally, I was drinking the probably not-so-fresh water. Yet, just like when I was eating, I didn't taste anything. The only sensation was the water running down my throat and going into whatever stomach slugs had.

While I was drinking the hydrating liquid, I reconsidered my plans. My original plan was to go back into the tunnel I came from and just duke it out with whatever passed by. But my encounter with the puma reminded me about just how ineffective a hunter I was. I got lucky with my two hyena fights, but what if something didn't actually ingest my poison? For example, the centipedes I had seen in the tunnels, might not ingest any of my poison even on accident. And then what if I missed all of my poison shots? I'd just be a sitting duck waiting for my death. Or even worse, I was fairly certain the giant toad I had seen could probably just swallow me whole and be done with it. Sure I'd be in its stomach and could apply my poison liberally, but I wasn't very keen on the whole experience.

No, for now, I should probably hang around this cave and try to get some kills by finishing off half-dead winners. I'm sure this would involve a lot of waiting around for opportunities, but it'd be a lot safer. There was also the water in here, which would make for a nice base of operations. It was close to the wall, and monsters didn't fight here. I might even be able to eat around here in secret. I could just pick off some monsters, and make my poison more potent until I could use my poison to bring about mass destruction in here!

Yes, this was a good plan. It'd ensure my safety to a certain degree. The most important thing was to remind myself that, even though I've won some fights I rightly shouldn't have, I was still a slug. And as such, my options were extremely limited. It was better to proceed with a good strategy in mind. After all, my human intelligence was the only thing that made me somewhat of a threat around here. Well, that, and my poison of course.

With my further course of action decided on, I made my way back to the wall I came from, intent on biding my time until I got lucky.