The tank had called it a camp, but a tribe was a more accurate term. There were makeshift huts erected all over this area of the jungle and into the distance. I couldn’t even see the other end of their little village. Amazonians were moving about in every direction like ants.

Rushing in among them would be pure suicide, and so my only option was to wait until I could pick off small numbers. There were humanoid guards that constantly moved around the perimeter. Those were my targets.

I found a spot covered by a large bush and crouching down remained completely motionless. Regardless of their experience in tracking and of life in the jungle, they shouldn’t be able to find me without some mistake on my part. After I had waited patiently for about fifteen minutes, I could hear a guard approaching slowly.

The forest debris crunched under his feet as he waded through the underbrush in my direction. From his steady pace, it sounded like he hadn’t discovered me but was simply patrolling. When he was just on the other side of my bush, I stood up and swung out in a full arc.

That was the beauty of this scythe. I didn’t need precision. Swinging at the mob’s midsection was enough to guarantee a connection, and connect I did. The body lopped in half soundlessly and I quickly used Harvest Soul before moving to a new location.

I managed to dispatch six guards just like that before a body was discovered. The entire village went into frenzy as battle was prepared. The amount of humaniods looking for me was astounding. I had stirred the ants’ nest.

My original plan of picking off individuals and small groups would not work at all now that hundreds of them had assembled, and so I had to move away and quickly too. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that their tracking ability was impeccable, and almost immediately after I fled, despite frequent changes in direction, I could hear some of them were after me.

I could hear their frenzied charge behind me. Despite their small size they were not slow at all, and were in fact gaining on me. I glanced back to count their numbers. It was a group of five on my tail.

No doubt soon enough there would be even more to back them up, and so I made a decision. I turned around and rushed directly towards them. It was completely against their expectations and while three of them prepared to fight, the other two were rattled by my action and turned to flee.

I shackled the two attempting to flee and then met the remaining three head on. There was a pain in my leg as one stabbed me. In exchange for that wound I cut one of his companions in half.

The humanoid that stabbed me was surprised to see that I didn’t baulk at being hit, and in that moment of hesitation my scythe came down on him as well. There was only one free Amazonian remaining, and his decision was clear: to flee.

He started to run like the wind, but I had no intention of letting him escape me. A Glacial Spike jutted from beneath his scurrying feet and dug deep into his body. His legs were mangled into a mess and he bled out in moments.

The two shackled humanoids were staring on in utter horror. They could only watch helplessly as I reaped their lives. Fortunately for me, Harvest Soul was instant cast. Else the other chasing Amazonians I saw in the distance would catch me.

I disappeared into the dense forest and didn’t look back. The method was working, and so I adopted a hit and run tactic. Whenever I felt that I was clear, I carefully came back to the tribe and pulled some more, precipitating a chase. I could only fight them if they came to me. The damage I received mounted with each raid, but so did the gains.

I managed to kill around sixty of the humanoids over the course of several hours.

Current EXP: 45500/101000 LEVEL: 31 Soul Harvester Formidable

HP: 1141/1688 MP: 135/624

STR: 27

AGI: 23

DEX: 35 +5

VIT: 30 +5

INT: 55 +24

Available: 0

Harvest Soul: 68 HP: 38 MP: 38

The peculiar feeling from before also grew stronger. It was almost as if I could sense the souls of living creatures around me. They did not appear in an exact location, but a general one. Every soul I harvested made that feeling stronger.

Night was fast approaching and my MP was dangerously low. The Amazonians were the perfect mobs for me to fight. It was easy enough for me to dispatch them in a single attack, which always granted 20 MP from Mana Scythe.

I only found it necessary to cast spells in the situations in which they decided to run, which seemed to happen often. They were intelligent enough to recognize a losing fight. When they decided to run, I opted for Shackle or low cost damage spells that would ensure their demise.

Despite my new love for melee combat, the caster in me was still there. On my fourth infiltration I considered casting Meteor Storm. There was no doubt it would kill many of them, but the effect of the spell was bright and would have attracted a lot of attention.

To cast Meteor Storm would require me to remain stationary for five seconds. That was plenty of time for dozens of them to swarm me. I would kill a lot of the humanoids, but it wasn’t worth it at the cost of my own life. My first plan – hit and run – turned out to be the best one.

My campsite for the night was a groove inside a gigantic tree trunk. I positioned my sleeping bag in the hollow and crawled in. It felt like the jungle didn’t sleep at night, but I didn’t have the endurance to respond to every sound. Even though I was alert to possible predators, I fell asleep at some point during the dark night.

I woke the following morning to the sound of shaking underbrush. Something big was moving through the jungle. The life force it emitted was so strong I could clearly feel it. I could feel exactly where it was.

My heart was in my chest. This was surely a monster in the elite class, maybe even unique. I had no chance of fighting it one on one. It continued to walk on past without noticing my presence and I managed to sneak a peek at its backside.

It was a towering creature that walked on all fours, whose appearance was remarkably similar to an elephant. The biggest difference was the skin. The skin seemed like an armor covering every part of its body. There were even spikes coming out from the front of its leg joints.

The creature continued on without a care that I was nearby. Either it didn’t realize, or just didn’t give the slightest about my presence. Regardless, it was moving towards the Amazonian tribe.

I was going to see a possible show. My hands raced to put away my camping gear and I lurked behind the beast. I followed it from a distance for several minutes before I recognized the markings on nearby trees.

The humanoid tribe was just ahead, and it seemed they were alerted to this monster’s arrival. They were formed up in full war mode and their screams and howls echoed through the forest. Now how will you deal with this?

The answer came almost as soon as I had wondered about the impact of this encounter. The elephant-like creature rushed into the Amazonian encampment without fear and started impaling and tossing them like flies. The humanoids stabbed out with their spears but had no way to penetrate its thick armor.

This was a chance for me and I was determined not to miss it. I circled at a distance and started to pick off every Amazonian trying to run away. And there were plenty of them. They were intelligent enough to know a losing battle when they saw one.

I was absolutely blown away at how easy this was for me. The creature in front seemed to focus all of its attention on the Amazonians. Was this a rare situation where it had a taste or hatred for them specifically?

My fingers were itching to cast Inspect on the armored elephant, but I worried that would provoke its ire. It continuously rampaged through their village and started wrecking their huts. So many Amazonians were fleeing right to my blade.

By the time the beast got bored and had eaten its fill, I had managed to kill around Amazonians, probably more than the monster they were fleeing.

Current EXP: 83000/101000 LEVEL: 31 Soul Harvester Formidable

HP: 1713/1713 MP: 649/649

STR: 27

AGI: 23

DEX: 35 +5

VIT: 30 +5

INT: 55 +24

Available: 0

Harvest Soul: 118 HP: 63 MP: 63

This had been a bountiful breakfast for me. Not only did I get close to my level, I gained 25 HP and MP. Add that to the fact the gains had cost me no resources and I was on cloud nine.

The beast had scared the Amazonians so badly none of them were anywhere in sight. It was just me on the outskirts and the empty camp. I worked up the courage to take a peek at the houses.

This was a rare opportunity that wouldn’t come again. There were so many humanoids originally that even a raid of forty people might find themselves overwhelmed before controlling the village.

Every hut and shack was subject to my focused scrutiny. I scavenged through them and picked up everything of value. Mostly, they were filled with random pottery and utensils: tools for killing and surviving.

A few of the huts had statues that seemed to have been hand carved by the Amazonians. I questioned myself as to whether these would have any value at all and in the endleft them. Unfortunately, nothing I’d found seemed worth taking.

It was only when I came upon a particularly large shack that I found anything of note. Its construction was finer than the others, and the inside had colorful fabrics and all sorts of tasteful items. If there was a chief, this would be his home.

I started to flip off lids and open handmade baskets. No matter where I looked I could find nothing of use to me. I was just about to give up when I spotted a box in the corner. Clearly, it wasn’t something crafted by the Amazonians.

The box was made of a smoothly polished dark wood and even had a metal lock on the front. It was tucked away in a safe little location behind some screens. I was walking towards it when I heard a commotion. The humanoids were returning.

I snatched it the chest and then sprinted out of the hut and back into the dense forest. Only when I was sure that nothing was following me did I stop and take a look.

The lock on the front wasn’t closed, most likely a side effect of the Amazonians having no idea what it actually did. The inside of the box was coated with a fine fabric. It was now rugged and slightly worn, but that wasn’t important.

What was important were the gemstones resting inside. There were five colorful gemstones of varying size, the biggest being as large as an apple and the smallest the size of a pearl.

I was not experienced in gems at all, and had no inkling of what they were or worth. Regardless, they were promising and the only potential valuable item in that whole settlement. I took them out of the box and slipped them away gleefully.

As if robbing the humanoids wasn’t enough already, I decided to continue hunting them. Their numbers had dwindled greatly, and it was clear that some of those who had fled had not returned. I was bold enough to show myself openly and even entice them to attack.

It was a game of cat and mouse. Except the mouse was the predator in the end. It got to the point where they no longer wished to chase me, and instead huddled together and stared at me menacingly.

Congratulations! You have reached level 32. As a reward for leveling up, you have been granted three stat points!

The Amazonians were smart enough to know when to quit and stayed close in groups too large for me to pull. There was nothing left for me here and it was time to move on. All the same, the harvest had been plentiful.

Current EXP: 34500/103000 LEVEL: 32 Soul Harvester Formidable

HP: 1748/1748 MP: 674/674

STR: 27

AGI: 23

DEX: 35 +5

VIT: 30 +5

INT: 55 +24

Available: 3

Harvest Soul: 193 HP: 98 MP: 98

I was scaling faster than I had expected. This was no doubt a consequence of the elephantine monster’s rampage. If I had the chance to meet it again I’d say my thank you and hopefully not get smashed to a pulp. The downside was this spot was completely vacant now. It wasn’t worth farming here at present.

My MP was already just 100 below its previous maximum, and while overall I was weaker in terms of stats than before I took this new class. Mana Scythe and Patient Reaper were incredible tools in my arsenal. My biggest downside was my melee ability.

I decided to put a hold on allocating INT. 1 INT was only 6 MP, and that was equivalent to 6 monsters. A full level of allocating INT would only amount to just 18 mob kills; it wasn’t worth it.

There was no lack of damage to be addressed on the melee side of things. If I could strike a monster, I did considerable damage, if not a tremendous amount. My biggest problem was my survivability and maneuverability, and the fastest way to increase both would be to pump AGI.

My best form of mitigation for now was to just not get hit. If I got hit… well hopefully Patient Reaper plus potions would cover the damage. I therefore put all three stat points into AGI, bringing me up to 26. If I saw these stats on a mage in a video game I’d think they were a complete noob. I almost felt embarrassed studying my stats. I couldn’t help it though. There was just something so satisfying about increasing my physical abilities.

In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that I looked at AGI and felt it to be almost completely useless. The miracle fruit really helped in that regard though. If AGI wasn’t already at a relatively high level, I might have continued neglecting it and instead raised INT once more.

I turned my attention to the depths of the forest and began walking. The respect I felt when entering slowly died down as I got in my groove. I was cautious, but welcomed the potential danger. Every encounter was an incredible chance to increase my abilities on all fronts.