Chapter Eight: Where tracking leads to downfall.

Several days had gone by since Rory had received his class and Peter had nearly been mauled to death.

Each day the clearing got more and more habitable and if it weren’t for the repeated animal attacks, lack of sanitation and constant fear of starvation, it could almost be considered idyllic.

A rudimentary wall of sharpened stakes had been erected around the camp, offering some delusion of security. Basic latrine had been dug so people were no longer going like animals. Their shelter had evolved from cowering under leaf fronds for cover to leaf huts that were surprisingly warm were less cramped than everyone piling on top of each other to get under cover.

The materials they had harvested from the plantlings had been a great boom and now nearly everyone had some sort of weapon and there were enough tools to start felling tress.

Every day, it was getting harder and harder to gather enough food to feed everyone, though the repeated attacks by random creatures helped somewhat. Search parties were ranging further and further afield for animals of opportunity or anything else they could find.

Rory, Peter and eight others found themselves in one of these parties searching for anything edible. So far, they had been at it for two hours but had yet to find anything of note, not even a blackberry bush.

The camp had very few people with any sort of hunting or survival skills and to make it worse, the animals in this tutorial didn’t stick to the normal rules, more than once the group had been following an animal trail for it to disappear entirely. The honour of tracking their latest target, which they had been tracking for an hour, fell to a US park ranger in his late twenties. He had sun bleached blonde hair and sun-kissed skin, though he sported a large well-built frame he was scarily quiet on his feet.

The rangers who went by Alex crouched down and examined the dirt where shallow footprints and droppings could be seen. "This trail is fresh. It shouldn’t be much longer before we catch up with whatever this belongs to.”

Excitement rippled through the group at the prospect of not having to return to camp empty-handed. With new found energy and determination, they continued on their pursuit.

Fifteen minutes later, the group were crouched down behind several bushes observing a small herd of about twenty strange quadrupedal mammals that stood two meters tall and three long, which sported a meter long trunk that hung droopily.

Their body sported short fur which was crimson coloured and seemed to ripple when it caught the suns rays, strangely their four powerful legs were completely bald and where Rory had been expecting hooves there were instead toes, four of them on each foot all the weight of the animal was concentrated onto the balls of their feet. Casting analyse on one of the animals gave Rory their name and a brief description.

Crimson Tainion Doe- level 15

Description: An intelligent and caring herbivore, they stay in groups for protection. Their trunks are highly dexterous and are used in grooming rituals and foraging. When threatened, the Tainion’s coat will emit embers to scorch and ward off attackers. Their powerful legs are used to deliver devastating blows and to outrun pursuers.

The level of the Tainions was worrying to Rory as while the average level of the group had increased due to the constant attacks on the camp, he was still the only one with a class.

“Is there anyway we could split up the group and try to take down one or two of them?” asked Peter.

Scratching his head in thought, Alex took his time before replying “one thing I can think of is using Rory to create distraction to get them running away from him while we wait in the opposite direction and try to skewer any that come close."

No one else came up with a reasonable idea and with a knot twisting in his stomach, Rory slowly crept away from the group and tried to circle around the herd. Five minutes later, Rory thought he had circled around enough for the plan to have a chance of working, though he had long since lost sight of the others and he was going by guess work.

Rory summoned fire magic into his palm, intentionally losing concentrating on it such that the magic unravelled and rather than form into a fireball, a loud explosion resonated from his hand.

As one, the Tainion paused in what they were doing and their ears stood up on their heads and swivelled in Rory's direction. With a start, the herd bolted away from Rory and hopefully, towards his group lay in wait.

Just as Rory was poised to celebrate, a Tainion has as big again as the others emerged from behind a tree. It differed from the other Tainions, not only in size, but due to the fact it sported an impressive set of antlers. Rory threw a quick analysis its way.

Crimson Tainion Buck- level 32

Description: An aggressive and territorial herbivore. A Crimson Tainion Buck is very protective of its Does and will not hesitate to throw itself antler first at any potential threats. Its antlers are used to gore and impale its foes, while its powerful legs crush anything foolish enough to get in its way.

Rory cursed at the appearance of this much stronger buck and immediately cursed again as the buck had zeroed in on the noise he had made and, with lowered antlers, charged straight at Rory. The Tainion moved remarkably fast and before Rory knew it, the buck was upon him. Acting on instinct, a shield materialised on Rory's arm just as the Tainion collided with him and instead of being impaled, the antlers scored along the flaming shield, leaving his arm numb and sending him spinning away.

Landing gracelessly on his back, Rory had just enough time to raise his shield to protect himself from the bludgeoning trunk that impacted against his shield. Rolling to gain some distance, he staggered to his feet. His arm hung uselessly at his side, having gone completely dead from the force of the last attack.

The Tainion scrapped its feet in the dirt and snorted through its long nose, clearly frustrated at having not already killed Rory. The Tainion started to glimmer as sparks of flame seemed to shed from its coat before it once more charged at Rory. This time Rory was ready and before it even managed to get half way to him, a lance of flame struck the Tainion, which let out a trumpet of surprise and shook itself, visibly disoriented by the attack.

Displeased with the lack of damage from his attack, Rory took the Tainions moment of distraction to hastily retreat towards where the others were.

Shaking itself one last time, it frantically whipped its head around, searching desperately for Rory. Letting out a triumphant cry, the Buck charged again at Rory for in response broke into a full on sprint before jumping out of the way at the last second, missing the lowered antlers by inches.

The Tainion skidded to a stop and before it got a chance to turn around, Rory hit it with a wall of flames spreading fire along its rear all the way to the nape of its head.

Screaming in rage, the Tainion dropped to the floor where it proceeded to roll over in an effort to put out the flames. Rory carried on his escape, bursting through the bushes and coming face to face with a wall of Spears, the others having froze in indecision by the sudden attack.

“Come on, it’s too strong. We need to make a run for it” Rory shouted, annoyed that he had almost impaled himself on his teammates' Spears.

Continuing on, Rory saw that the plan had been successful and a dead doe lay nearby. Not stopping, Rory willed the carcass into his bag, causing the Doe to vanish and snapping the others out of their daze.

With everyone else close on his heels, Rory ran aimlessly through the forest, the sounds of crashing bushes giving a clear sign that the buck was following them. Luckily, the increased vegetation slowed the buck down somewhat, but it remained every present at their backs.

Just as Rory was considering stopping and making a stand, due to the fact several members of his team seemed to be flagging, the ground below him collapsed revealed a deep pitch black pit. The rest of the group followed him in, their momentum making it impossible for them to stop. A snort of frustration came from the top of the hole, the Tainion having stopped short but being frustrated that its foe had escaped.

Rory seemed to fall for what seemed forever and just before he hit what seemed to be a solid black barrier, a notification appeared before his vision.

Ding – hidden dungeon, Murky Cavern discovered!

Party size too large, the four lowest levelled participants placed into temporary suspended animation and will be released on the first successful completion.

As a reward for first discovery, potential rewards will be increased accordingly.

Rory hit the barrier and everything went white.