***Author's Note***

Not really important for reading, but important if you want predictability going forward.

Point 1: The days are becoming more restrictive than useful. I thought about it, and sometimes I don't want to sit down and writing 15 pages over 4 hours to release a chapter that involves a series of fights. And I don't want to condense it, like I did with the original series of climactic fights like I did for the end of his arc as a path boss. I'd rather do 7-8 over 2 hours and release it like that. I'm going to keep the Days though, because I still like it was a way to track the timeline, but there will be some days that will, like this one, be split up into parts.

So this is 30.1, and 30.2 will be released later today.

Point 2: I've had a lot of fun writing this rather willy-nilly, but you guys keep nitpicking, so I'm going to start being more serious about the plot. It just means that chapters take a little bit longer, which is why Point 1 is necessary.

Point 3: As an result of point 2, I would appreciate it if y'all would bring up any inconsistencies you see in the comments. I'll do my best to correct as fast as possible. If I just ignore you, it probably is either because I think what you are saying is silly, or that I have that handled, just wait a bit.

Point 4: I'm starting a new job Monday, so I'll likely slow to 1 release a day, late at night my time.

Anyways, thanks to all the new readers, and the old ones who were there for my anonymous days~ You guys are the reason I write. Hope you enjoy.

Day 30

The rumbling ground served as our alarm clock.

“Oh no, the Southwest Deed is collapsing… hopefully no one remains there~”

Ignoring the voice, the three of us, Jester, Toddie, and I walked rather calmly to the edge of the area, inspecting the sinking ground. It was a surprisingly orderly process. Although a few trees cracked and groaned, toppling over. There almost seemed to have been a boundary line pre built into the ground. The height between our level and the normal ground level had widened to about 5 m by the time we arrived at the northern edge.

Jester nodded, as if pleased. “Well, we did our best, Let’s just see where this leads us.”

Assuming he knew more than he let on, I just shrugged and said. “Fine. Let’s just hope we get there before nightfall, because we will die if we aren’t on a Deed.”

Jester stilled. Then the blank, grey faced mask rotated slowly to look at him.

“You’re right.

This.

Is.”

Jester was trembling, his clothes bubbling and shifting, writhing around his body.

“SUCH.

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT.”

A huge wave of mana exploded outward, knocking me onto my ass. The ground cracked and buckled, and the mechanism that caused us to descend shuddering under the abrupt pressure. Then the wave of mana slowly dissipated, leaving the air heavy.

Jester walked over to me and offered me a hand up. “Sorry about that, I appear to have sneezed. But all the crazy bits came out with the snot, so it should be fine.”

I stood up without taking his hand.

*****

“What?”

“Simple!” Jester said in his purposefully cheery voice he had used ever since his loss of control. “For what I plan, we need 2 Deeds. So Toddie and I are going to head to the South one, while you are heading towards the West one. We want the west one because it is surrounded by the sinking land. Natural barriers. Don’t you know anything about defending sieges?”

-Sieges…?

-Does being a path boss for two weeks count?

-Let’s not bring it up. Giving him more information than he already has is dangerous.

“And you are going alone because I can’t BEAR to part with Toddie. So, good luck. Most teams have 5 people, so just ambush 4 and you will have a gentlemen’s duel with the last one!”

So I pondered as I walked up towards the western area. How should I approach? The ground or the vine layer? Or higher? Maybe higher? And-

-Stop. Do not think. You have had people around you for too long. You are forgetting what you are. What you are named for.

-...Predator.

-Yes, so hunt. And kill. It’s the only way to survive.

For the first time in a long time, I activated Aura of the Predator. Leaping, I spread my claws wide and landed against a tree, quickly scaled up to the vine layer. The travel was quick, but I still took enough time to scan below, as I ran along the edge of area where the Western Deed abutted the Southwestern Deed. Although it wasn’t a sure thing, it was very likely that…

My eyes narrowed as I saw a human woman and a strange creature with grey skin peering over the edge, conversing with one another.

It was very likely that our misfortune would draw the curiosity of the Deed above us, and their guard would be down. The human woman seemed normal, but the grey skinned creature was strange. Instead of arms, the upper limbs of its body were huge stomping feet, while the lower limbs were frail looking hands. It’s shoulder were incredibly broad, and its head was set low on its body, giving it a constantly hunched over look.

Lightly, I leapt off of the vines, whistling down almost soundlessly through the air towards the back of the grey skinned creature. But it didn’t seem like either of them were particularly good at scouting or detection.

So they were very surprised when my frame crashed down onto the grey skinned creature’s shoulders, causing it to stumble towards the edge of the sinking land. My hand shot down, claws rending apart the neck of the creature. Then I reached into the would I created, grasping.

I grinned; thank god the creature actually had a spine.

My hand flexed, crushing the vital cord of nerves that connect the brain with the rest of the body. The creature slowly toppled over, sliding right up to the edge of the hole. Turning, my gaze landed on the woman, whose face was shifting from shock, to fear, and then to determination.

She was so close, all I had to do was reach out and grab her, but a huge, draining spike of pain split through my abdomen, doubling me over and causing me to vomit.

“Ahahaha,” The voice whispered in my ears. “You broke the rules! So here’s a bit of punishment. The pain will last 1 minute~.”

-Damnit, you idiot. Your belt is blue!

-NEXT TIME REMIND ME!

I swayed, barely able to stand. The woman put both of her hands up, overlapping her fingers into a squat X. “Kotetsu! I reject!”

A huge force slammed against me, knocking me off the back of the creature and over the hole. I grimaced, dizzy and feeling extremely weak. Falling wouldn’t kill me, I could still see the land below, but it would be annoying to leap back upwards. The ground had already fallen about 200 m. The force continued to push against me, sending me even farther away.

Twisting midair and controlling my rising nausea, I met the woman’s gaze and then raised a hand. I beckoned towards her.

-Just need to be a mage.

Air Affinity activated, rising up behind her and dragging her forward, following me into the abyss. For a few seconds her willpower lasted, but then when she realized the horror of falling and dying, she broke, twisting away and trying to dig her hands into the ground or get a firm grip on a root, preventing her fall.

I summoned a platform of air beneath me, leaping back towards her as soon as the repelling force wore off. Usually I would have made the distance no problem, but the pain insured my jump wasn’t quite enough, and I summoned another right before the edge, hopping over the grey skinned creature and arcing towards the woman. I planned to crush her into the ground with air affinity, breaking her back for causing me so much agony.

But at the last moment before my spell landed, she twisted and rolled, dodging my huge mass of condensed air. She ended up on her back directly beneath me. She crossed her hands. “I REJECT!”

Her voice was raw with fear, I noted, before an even more terrifying force slammed against me, shooting me straight up into the air. The force was so unrelenting that I ripped through the relatively durable vine layer without even slowing. I continued upwards as I shook my head to rid myself of the dizziness. Well above even the tallest tree in this place, my momentum finally ran out, and I experienced a brief moment of weightlessness. I vomited a little bit more in my mouth, my head still pounding. Then I began to fall.

My eyes narrowed, scanning as best I could through the foliage and vines, but it was useless from up here. Instead, I began to channel mana into ice affinity, slowly shaping it as it grew. I kept it off my hands, unwilling to spend such a long time struggling to free myself again.

By the time I reached the hole in the vine layer that my assent made, the ice looked like a huge spike. It was a little roughly shaped, the concentration just made the pain worse, but it would do well enough as a javelin. I continued to drop downward, body wound as tightly as a spring. I would only have a small window of opportunity…

I fell through the hole. My eyes opened as far as they would go, my perception pushed to the limits. A flicker of movement caught my attention; the woman was sprinting away. My entire body flexed, whipping the spike of ice towards her.

Unfortunately, the throw caused me to spin wildly, resulting in me crashing into the ground in an extremely ungraceful manner.

As the spike approached her, the woman sensed it and dove to the side behind a tree. The bark and wood were hard, but still the ice spike punched through, its course deviated only slightly. The spike hit her high in the calf of her left leg, ripping apart most of her leg. The bottom portion was only connected to her by a flimsy one inch of skin and muscle. She curled up on the ground, unmoving.

I moved to go stalking towards her, but then I froze, my gaze wandering amongst the trees surrounding me. Sighing, I turned and looked longingly towards the grey skinned creatures corpse. The pain smashed into the back of my head like a hammer, cracking my previous good cheer.

-Should have reanimated him.

Hammer.

-But I’m so hungry, I planned on eating him before I challenged the rest of the team…

Hammer.

-Too late for that now.

Hammer.

A man with crimson hair stepped out between me and the grey skinned creatures body. A rather fat individual sidled up to the human woman, giving her a bottle to drink. Above me, an insectoid creature with 4 slimy green wings buzzed downwards, its arms folded.

“You are on my land, human. You have harmed my property. Your life is forfeit. Willingly give me your body as feed, or I shall show you 1000 sufferings beyond the ken of your people.” The bug thing spoke with a surprisingly even tone, all mandibles considered.

-Keh, he’s certainly melodramatic.

-But so misguided.

I spread my arms wide, gritting my teeth in the closest approximation to a smile that I could manage with the incessant hammering. “Then come. And may the victor grow strong on the loser’s flesh.”

The bug thing nodded, descending to the ground. The fat creature was helping the woman up. But my eyes were on the ground beneath me, which began to glow with red runes.

In a bored voice, the crimson haired man spoke. “Flame pillar.”

Flames surged around me, hot enough to slowly melt metals. It was delightfully warm to my skin, an excellent distraction from the agony. I dashed through the flames back towards the crimson haired man. His eyes widened, plainly confused. I flexed my hands, my claws catching the light. Stumbling backwards, he made a complicated gesture, pointing at the ground in front of him.

“Wall of Flame!”

A huge curtain of fire appeared, severing him off from the rest of the world. I shook my head, almost sorrowfully.

-He must’ve assume that I was fast enough to dodge the pillar of flame.

-Perhaps even that we targeted him because he was the most dangerous.

-A pity.

-Foolishness.

Without very much sensation, I passed through the wall of fire and arrived right in front of the man. Air Stance, the Cutting Gust. My hand blurred. He formed a shield of fire, but my physical attack was just a feint; he should have been able to tell that from my belt. A wind blade ripped him open from shoulder to opposite hip. His eyes bulging, he fell backwards.

-Reanimate him, his skills will be useful.

-In a minute…

I began ripping out his innards, greedily devoured him. It had been two days since I had eaten, and this was a long time coming. Besides, I needed something to distract me from this persistently miserable headache.

-Can he still cast magic without those?

-Quiet, you know just as much about anatomy as I do.

The flames around me died, and I glanced around, guiltily slurping up the last bit of his lungs. The bug creature had circled around behind me. I noticed that its belt was blue and the fat creature’s was red. The woman’s, obviously, was blue.

A ringing sounded, and finally the pain stopped. I breathed out a sigh I didn’t even notice that I was holding in, relieved.

“Hehehe, that warning was just because I like you. Do it again and I’ll just kill you~”

Shivering, I turned my attention back to my 3 opponents. The bug creature produced a flute and blew a low note.

A strange sense alerted me of the danger, and I leapt to the side. Spikes of earth shot up, riddling the crimson haired man’s corpse with holes.

-Well, we probably can’t reanimate him now…

The bug played another note, and then another. Earth rippled around me, chains shooting up to entangle me. I leapt backwards out of their range, but a huge fist of air was waiting for me, smashing me to the side.

Although the force wasn’t great, it still sent me staggering, and the fat creature was dashing towards me, looking up close like a mole person. He opened his mouth, revealing jagged teeth. In a strange way, it reminded me of the frogs from…

-Hell, it’s been a month.

Feeling strangely nostalgic, I raised my hands to grab and rip off his jaw, then froze.

-Dammit, this shitty belt…

Instead, I simply held my arm across my body in defense as his teeth sunk into my forearm. But my eyes gleamed as frost began to form on his head. The mole person opened his mouth to shift his frosty teeth, and then ineffectually bit again.This time I poured more mana into it, using my fresh blood to freeze his mouth closed around my arm. He struggled trying to push himself away, but I could overpower him at this distance. Careful not to touch him, I held my other hand over his nose, dumping 300 mana to almost instantly seal it within an inch of ice. Now just to wait until he suffocated.

I turned back to the insect who had used the distraction to play an elaborate melody on the flute, producing an ominous rumbling from the ground. A huge crack split the earth and a stone golem clambered up, vibrating dangerously, straightening to about 15 m tall. It swung its huge foot towards me in a kick, and I tried to dodge, but the now frantically struggling mole tripped me up, and I was smashed to the side.

Wincing, I tried to sit up. A fire in my side indicated that some of my ribs were broken. Still…

I looked at the mole person, who had had his lower body smashed off by the kick. I shook my head in condescension. What a weak body. The golem was striding towards me, and I did my best to snap off the neck so just the head was frozen to my arm. I couldn’t move my hand, but…

-For now it’s fine.

The bug creature buzzed at it flickered around, flying behind the golem. “Few are able to duel me if they allow the golem to be summoned. My mana can support it indefinitely, and combined with my mobility… hehehe, let’s just say this will continue until you tire and make a mistake-”

I had only used around half my mana so far, leaving me with a bit under 1000. I summoned 25 20-mana wind blades, totaling 500 mana. The I reached out with my non frozen hand in a grasping motion, using around 300 mana to grab the bug creatures wings and still them with air affinity.

They still trembled, so I used another 100 mana, gritting my teeth. The wings stilled, and the bug creature began to fall.

The golem was right above me, raising its fist to smash me into the ground. Even had I been able to use my physical gifts to fight it, I somehow doubted that I could withstand a punch like this.

I released the wind blades, the hyper-sharp, hyper-condensed air tearing the insects relatively weak body to pieces. To its credit, it died without any annoying screams.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Wind Blade Lvl 6”. Mana costs vastly decreased. Due to increased experience you may now control swarms of wind blades with ease. Accuracy increases slightly.

The huge fist that was descending towards me to kill me, reinforced with the bug’s spell, faltered as the animating energy stopped flowing into it. The fist disintegrated into dirt and stones, still hitting me with a good amount of force, causing me to stumble. As I waded my way out of the mound of dirt that had collapsed on me, brushing myself off, I noticed the woman had positioned herself behind me, and was standing 10 m away, her hands in an X.

But as I watched, she was breathing heavily and trembling, barely able to stand. I looked on with interest.

“I...I……..”

She shivered. I noticed the distinctive bags under her eyes. “ I…..!”

Without any action on my part, she collapsed forward, her eyes rolling back into her head.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Aura of the Predator 5”. The amount of time it takes for the aura to affect nearby victims has decreased. When victims witness you killing another, effectiveness of the aura increases for a short amount of time.

Whistling, I picked up the woman and draped her over my shoulder. Then I returned to grab the grey skinned creature.

*****

I was standing around in the Deed castle of the West for around 2 hours before Jester arrived. Savoring the flavor, I was slowly eating the grey skinned creature’s meaty legs. The woman lay in the corner, still unconscious, rolling around as she was plagued by nightmares. Since she was already listed on the Deed as property, I figured she could be useful if alive.

Jester came in first, his black clothes ripped and bloody. Toddie followed, her clothes even worse. Large gashes across her back revealed a strange plate armor.

“This is so annoying…” Jester muttered, looking around. “Predator succeeded and I did not…? In what world…”

Without a word, Jester walked over to the woman and tilted his head to the side. “Bound to the lease huh? Good, I don’t like leaving Toddie alone. Toddie, you sign this Deed as owner. Predator and I will be property. Stay here and guard the base.”

“And us?” I folded my arms across my chest. My mana was only halfway recovered at the moment. I had an inkling what he wanted, but it would be foolish to move so soon…

“We head for the southern Deed. Fuck, I knew that bastard was going to be a problem… something’s off about him…” Jester returned to mumbling as he walked to the door.

He turned and glared at me. Or at least I think he did, it was hard to tell when he was featureless. “What are you waiting for? We strike immediately.”