"…Damn it…haah…damn…hah…ahh…." Krune muttered as he gasped for air, still unable to heal as he felt his body had become heavy. Of course, he couldn't leave as is. After all, he didn't have enough rations in his cave.

On the tablet, he saw the message telling him that he earned one Godly Point, muttering, "So, they were indeed called Monster Geckos. My naming sense is getting pretty accurate these days. But…"

​​

He sighed, continuing, "I earned one Godly Point, but I also spent one. So, the only extra I got from this was my injuries."

His left hand was useless as he felt pain all over his left shoulder. He didn't even know the extent of his injuries, only barely alive thanks to the Water Essence he had consumed. It was still taking effect, so Krune was able to remain conscious and move.

He retracted the tablet and picked up his two daggers, beginning to work on the Mutant Monster Gecko, cutting its limbs first. Even though it was difficult, he didn't wish to waste anything that might serve useful to him, especially a carcass as valuable as the one before him.

He used the bone tree branch to suck out all the blood. And upon pondering over it, he broke some branches that he felt would be useful for him later, intending to experiment with them.

Once he cut up the Mutant Monster Gecko's carcass into numerous pieces, he used the thread on its fishing rod to tie up the pieces, dragging the lot with him as he moved. Even though it was tremendously difficult because he was in pain all the time, making it difficult for him to even walk, not to mention pull such a tremendous weight with him, Krune felt like he was about to die.

Though, unwilling to waste away, he grit his teeth and continued to move, making a round-about path as he arrived before his cave, inspecting the path behind he had traversed upon using his Neon Radiance, taking note that there weren't any traces of him dragging the Mutant Monster Gecko's carcass.

With that, he transported each piece into his cave, making numerous trips, at the end of which he felt he was closer to death. Setting aside everything in his cave, he laid on the floor right next to the pool, closing his eye as he fainted, no longer able to bear the pain.

His left hand was unnaturally twisted, bent alarmingly. Once he passed out, the effect of the Water Essence kicked in with greater potency, causing mild cracking sounds to emit from his broken left arm.

Such sounds also resounded from the ribs on his left, same for the legs and hip on his right. It seemed that he was injured in a lot of places, enough to die as a mortal if not for the Water Essence's help. A day later, Krune woke up groggily, barely managing to get up as he drank water, carrying some with his pouch before heading to the place where he had stored all the meat, sprinkling the water on them to keep them fresh.

He then ate some meat, returned to the place beside the pool, and fell asleep immediately. Cracking sounds began to emit from his body once again, a sign that he was still healing. The Water Essence was adjusting his muscles to tighten and loosen gently, aligning the broken bones back in their original positions using the muscular contractions and expansions.

As he was injured, and as his body was expending a lot of energy to help the Water Essence in healing, Krune was immensely tired.

With that, he spent most of the day sleeping. In the remaining time, all he managed to get done was drink some water, sprinkle some of it on the meat, and barely relieved himself. After that, he continued to rest, passing the days in such a fashion.

He didn't even know how many days had passed, having lost track of time because the place was dark all around. After a month had passed in such a fashion, Krune managed to recover completely, feeling that he had become a bit stronger than before.

He was already able to move normally for the past four days but decided to rest until he was completely healed. He also noticed the wounds that he had sustained while adrift on the ocean had also closed up completely, not even leaving any scars behind.

A month was enough time for Krune to finish all the meat on the Mutant Monster Gecko's carcass. That was the only way he could still keep an approximate track of the time. Krune judged that as he lacked energy and was recovering, he would have at most eaten twice per day. So, for every two meals, he counted it as a day had passed by.

Even though it was a rough calculation, he had a general estimation of the situation. So, he was able to plan himself accordingly. "The ticket to this place costs about 5 Godly Points. And, I have already consumed one Water Essence. So, my expenditure is at 6 Godly Points. I have to earn at least that much to say that I've broken even. My profit will only start after that."

He shuddered, thinking about having to face more Mutant Monster Geckos and even the Monster Gecko Kings. After all, there were five Kings and 10 Mutants on this Primary Landmass. All he had managed to do so far was kill one Mutant.

On top of that, he took a month to recover from that. So, Krune's pace was slow. Well, to be more exact, he couldn't afford to repeat the same thing every time. After all, he only had one more Water Essence to rely upon. After that, if he still got injured, death would be his only option.

Krune unleashed his Neon Radiance, inspecting his armor to notice that the tear on the stomach portion had closed up at some point in time. "Does this skin armor have the property to heal itself? Is the water beneficial to its recovery too?"

He then pulled it up once to see that it hadn't stuck to his skin, remaining as the skin armor, making him heave a sigh of relief. "Whatever, this makes things easy since I don't have to make armors again and again."

He then arrived at the chamber with the meat and other stuff he placed, situated next to the boulders behind which his berth lay at the top. As he was injured, he hadn't slept at the top. And now that he was better, Krune decided to make a comfy bed first so that his level of sleep would improve.

And while he was using the damaged skin of the Mutant Monster Gecko to make the berth, his line of sight fell on a couple of bone tree branches he had brought with him. They were inconspicuous, looking no different from the bones of the Monster Geckos he had hunted. Though as he looked closer, there was a mild difference in their color.

As he gazed at them for a long time, an idea lit up in his mind. "Right, since time immemorial, traps have always been the best. As long as I can make the temperature of the traps look no different from the stone floor, I should be able to pull it off."

Once he got the idea, Krune set out to work on it immediately, creating a couple of traps within a day. All he did was create a flat plate using one of the bones of the Mutated Monster Gecko and embedded pieces shaped into nails from the bone tree branch.

He made it as tiny as possible so that even if it pierced his foes, they would just assume it to be a sharp rock on the ground and wouldn't bother to look at it again. Only then would his trap work. After all, he had to use the terrain to his absolute advantage, targeting the exact things that the Monster Geckos would gloss over due to their habit.

While he was creating them, Krune left his cave, using his abilities to track the Monster Geckos that were on the prowl, collecting fruits from the bone trees. He managed to kill them using his usual tricks that relied on blinding them first before stabbing them dead.

He deprived their bodies of all blood using the bone trees, returning to his cave to stockpile the food. A month later, he had stored enough meat to last him for more than six months. Seeing that he had prepared enough, Krune began to lay down the traps.

It was just a long plate that he placed on a path and situated a couple of rocks on its ends to keep it affixed to the ground. After that, he poured some of the soil that he had ground over from the stone, using that to hide the temperature difference between the bone and the stone.

As he was the one who laid the traps, Krune remembered the places where they were positioned so that he wouldn't step on them by mistake.

And while scouting, as usual, he noticed that a troop of Monster Geckos was still waiting near the mutated bone tree. They had been stationed there all this time. And during one of his scouting missions, a fruit on it ripened, turning as huge as him. The remaining fruits instantly wilted as if they were just present to camouflage the ripened fruit.

The moment it finished forming, all the Monster Geckos in the area were jubilant, looking at each other with vigor. They dragged the massive fruit with them as the mutated bone tree began to immediately wilt, as if producing the fruit took everything it had.

As Krune followed them from afar, only making sounds that wouldn't be audible to their ears but would be enough for him to get a general gist of the situation, he soon came across what seemed to be a village.

He named it a village, but it was protected by a large column of bone. The wall seemed to be made with a different species of bone trees, one that neither bore fruit nor had any leaves, not to mention any branches. They grew to staggering heights, reaching as high as eight meters, spanning almost a meter thick.

They formed a rigid defensive structure. Using his Sonic Radar, Krune managed to get an estimate of the population of the Monster Geckos within, noticing the Monster Gecko King seated on a throne that was placed on one end of a massive ground—situated in the center of the village.

At present, two Monster Geckos, those with statures bigger than the rest, glared at one another, raging to battle. Upon seeing the group of Monster Geckos bring in the massive ripened fruit, numerous screeches resounded as the Monster Geckos seemed to be celebrating.