Hiding in the bushes, Tim surveyed the area around the waterfall where the creature was residing.

Tim was on his first solo hunt. He thought there might be a restriction of some sort in place to stop him from doing so, but it turns out that wasn't true.

All he did was simply waltz on through the Fighters Building and ask for a hunt quest. He received one quite quickly, only being cautioned not to take more than he could chew. This led to Tim choosing an E-rank monster for his first solo hunt, the same rank as the Ratatoskr he fought with his team in his first group hunt.

Tim wondered why the monsters were ranked with letters when sapients are ranked by metals. He found out that it had to do with the amount of mana in a creature. All non-magical creatures are F-rank and after F-rank, you can switch to metal rank if you prefer. Tim had trouble understanding this, so one of the personnel from behind the desk gave him some sort of pamphlet.

Monster Power Ranking Guide

S

Adamantite-rank

A

Orichalcum-rank

B

Mithril-rank

C

Gold-rank

D

Silver-rank

E

Copper-rank

F

Normal-rank

Currently, Tim was a normal rank in the process of becoming a copper rank, but his team didn't know that at the time of his first hunt. Mr. Gee had only informed them that one of his new disciples was joining them. His team just assumed that he was already copper rank, thus bringing him along for the E-rank hunt. Of course, a copper rank monster is still quite weak for a monster, meaning that an exceptionally strong normal rank individual or a group of normal ranked individuals can deal with one fairly easily. With Tim having already had two properties unlocked, it wasn't all that much of a risk, especially with a group.

The creature he was hunting now is a Hagedis, a slow-moving lizard that is generally easy to scare. This results in the creature only eating smaller monsters, and occasionally even forgoes eating entirely when forced into an environment with higher-ranked monsters.

Why was a hunt quest registered for this docile creature? Well, when the Hagedis lives in a certain type of environment for an extended period of time, it gains an affinity for that environment. This wouldn't be much of a problem if they didn't become wildly aggressive after doing so.

Another reason for hunting them is because they almost always develop a monster core of their specified affinity. This makes them widely sought out by alchemists and enchanters looking to use their cores for their work, and it also helps those in nearby towns and villages to get rid of them for safety reasons.

The particular Hagedis he was hunting now had acquired an aquatic affinity due to it spending large amounts of time near the waterfall it is currently residing in.

This meant that Tim had to fight on its turf, or find some way to lure it out.

The creature itself was only E-rank, so nothing Tim hadn't faced before. The only difference this time is he's alone. This meant that he wouldn't have a tank taking all the aggro.

Tim decided that his only choice was to lure the creature away from the waterfall so it wouldn't have the environmental advantage. From there, he would simply bully the creature with his superior speed, making sure to kill it before it could flee to safety.

So, starting his plan, Tim found a nearby rock and threw it in the water, hoping to alert the creature enough to get it out in the open, out from behind the waterfall.

This worked wonderfully.

The monster crawled out of the cave quite slowly, but eventually reached the sunlight, revealing its full figure.

It stood on 6 legs and resembled that of a chubby, blue salamander. Its size was akin to a large dog. It had a blue sack below its mouth that looked similar to a rooster's wattle, just much more inflated.

It didn't take long for Tim to understand what it was for, as any good water monster should have the ability to shoot water.

Now out in the open, Tim revealed himself to the creature. It simply stood there for a moment before deciding to attack him. Tim began running, and the chase began.

As he expected, the creature was much slower than him. If the creature behind him was at the speed of a dog, then Tim was a cheetah.

This prompted Tim to slow down so the creature wouldn't completely lose him in the dense forest.

Once he had been running for about three minutes, Tim suddenly turned around and looked the creature right in its eyes.

It had a look of hunger.

Tim gave a blank look before rushing at the creature with his dagger in hand.

The monster tried to dodge, only to fall short and receive a large slash in its side.

Tim, already having slipped past the monster, hid in a tree while it was dazed. It looked around after gaining its senses, only to find nothing. Now hungry and bleeding, the creature slowly started making its way back to its home. It only took four steps before a figure revealed itself in the treeline.

The figure began to chant something the creature didn't understand.

"May your flesh melt and skin fall."

A stream of dark smoke appeared around the creature, startling it. The creature attempted to shoot the smoke with a blast of water, but it simply passed through the smoke, unphased.

After a moment, the smoke began to quickly enter into the creature through its pores, causing a loud whine of pain to erupt from the monster.

After a second, it was over and the creature looked visibly worse. Its skin was flaking off, revealing gooey black flesh underneath. Unfortunately for it, that was not enough to end its life.

Tim slowly walked toward the creature and looked it in the eyes once more.

Its previous look of hunger, replaced with one of desperateness and pain.

"You wanna die now? I can do that for ya," he said, a tinge of empathy escaping his eyes.

The creature merely stood silent, ready for the inevitable.

Tim set his dagger near the creature's throat before making a quick stabbing motion, ending its life.

Tim stayed silent for a moment, gazing into the creature's lifeless eyes before speaking.

"You died for a dumb reason, you know that? If you hadn't fallen for my bait so easily and left your home turf, you would have maybe stood a chance, or even escaped."

Tim took another moment.

"This reminds me of a story my teacher used to tell me in kindergarten..."

***

Walking up to the front desk of the Fighters Building, Tim laid the corpse of the lizard monster on the table without a word.

The woman behind the desk just silently stared for a moment before motioning for a large man to come over.

The large man came over and grabbed the lizard with one hand and set it on a scale. After they looked over the results, the woman turned to Tim.

"Core or no core?" she asked.

Tim just shook his head, not because there was no core, but because he was planning on keeping it to himself.

Core of Aqua (E)

A magical core taken from a monster of the Aqua affinity. This item is often used for enchanting and rituals, the scale of which scales with item rank.

Consume to further evolution progress.

With that, the woman handed Tim six copper coins and five irons ones.

Tim debated selling the cores he found after Mr. Gee told him of their worth, but in the end, he decided that he would just consume them all, seeing as he had no need for extra money right now besides maybe for rent. He just wanted to see what would happen when it reached 100/100.

He continued doing this for each hunt, pocketing a core whenever he could.

Once, he obtained multiple cores at one time when his team went out to fight a group of Boarkin, which were basically just boars with stubby tusks. There were a lot of them, but they were quite weak for E-ranks, and Tim was with his team, so he didn't have much trouble.

Overall, Tim has collected 16 cores, 8 of which had Nature affinity. Aside from the 8 Nature cores, there were 3 Herd, 2 Aqua, 2 Plant, and 1 uncommon one called a Core of Night. The only reason they found that one was because Tim stumbled into a cave, only to be attacked by a bat monster. As Tim was undead and quite used to being thrown around by monsters at this point, he didn't panic much at all.

Tim had developed a morbid strategy before that hunting trip, and it worked beautifully against the bat creature. He allowed the creature to maul him, but in doing so, it allowed him to get close enough to start taking bites of his own. With the newfound health regeneration his passive skill gave him, he wasn't worried about dying. His skill didn't give him nearly enough health to actually offset the damage he was taking, but Tim didn't know that. All he knew was that he was keeping the bat from dodging his team's attacks, which ultimately ended its life.

Suffice to say, his team looked at him differently after that fight. Orym seemed quite happy for some reason, though.

Anyway, with all the cores consumed, his properties panel now had a bit more character.

General Information

Attribute Property

Name Tim Hodgins Vigor Death 1/1 Race N/A (Undead) Agility Flesh 1/1 Rank Normal Convalescence Hunger 1/1 Spirit Dominion 0/1 Progress to (Copper) rank: 75% Evolution Progress: 17/100

Tim wondered why the Core of Night gave him 2 points in his evolution progress, but he didn't complain. He just assumed it was because it was rarer.

***

Tim went straight back to the inn last night, still adhering to Mr. Gee's advice of staying away from the monsters of the night. He had thought of trying to hunt 24/7, considering he has yet to tire since his first awakening ritual, but Mr. Gee's words continued to echo in his mind, eventually swaying him from doing so.

Mr. Gee was really beginning to influence Tim, similar to how a teacher would guide their student to growth.

Actually, that's exactly what Mr. Gee was. A teacher.

Recently, Tim has been practicing a new type of training that Mr. Gee suggested. It involves a form of meditation, but different than what Tim was used to seeing on T.V.

From what he understood from Mr. Gee, he basically just had to stop thinking. This was incredibly hard for Tim to do for some reason. He tried for nights on end but eventually ended up returning to his previous routine of muscle exercises and combat training.

This continued for another week. During the day, Tim would go on a solo hunt, maybe even multiple times a day if he was quick, and consumed the monster cores. During the night, he would train his body and combat skills. And sometimes...

"You sure about this?" Orym asked.

"The surest I've ever been in my life," Tim responded.

Tim had found Orym shopping by himself the previous morning and arranged a sort of spar. Right now, Tim was practicing his ability to dodge attacks. They were in a flat plain with minimal tree coverage outside the village.

Orym was wielding his sword, while Tim was unarmed, neither in armor. It wasn't the safest of plans, but it was the most efficient one he could think of. What better reason to get better at dodging than the risk of dismemberment?

Tim got into a running stance.

"You ready?" Tim asked.

"Yeah, but are you really sure-"

"Go!"

Tim burst from where he previously was and quickly rushed towards Orym, only for the oaf to awkwardly stand in place.

As Tim entered striking distance, Orym hesitated for only a moment before taking a swing at the blurry figure.

Tim quickly dodged, and instead of backing off, made an attack of his own, punching Orym in the chest.

The large man barely made a grunt before staggering back slightly. This in itself was a perfect display of how far Tim has come. Before, Tim was a scrawny short guy who would be easily wrestled to the ground by a dog. Now, Tim only looked like a scrawny short guy who could be wrestled to the ground by a dog. The only difference is that he is now strong enough to cause a large man like Orym to stagger.

Next, Orym attempted to strike Tim again, missing again.

This time, Tim backed off, only to rush at the man again.

Orym quickly realized that he would need to stop hesitating, and gave it his all.

This continued for an hour before Orym tired himself out.

"Can we call for a break? We've been going for an hour and I've barely managed to leave a scratch on you. I get it. You're fast."

Tim looked down at his right arm where Orym managed to hit him when he got too greedy. It was all but healed.

"I don't see a scratch yet. Let's go some more!" Tim replied with enthusiasm.

Orym weakly scrambled to his feet and started concentrating.

"Okay, in that case..." Orym said as an orange light leaked from his body. "How about this!"

Tim began to feel himself being lured to attack Orym. This was undoubtedly his taunt skill. He could probably resist if he tried, but he put up no resistance, quickly rushing towards the tower of a man.

Once he got close, he went for a punch to the side. Orym swung and missed. Greed took root in Tim's mind and he went for another punch. Orym swung his sword again.

Tim zoomed past him and he no longer felt the need to attack Orym. He looked back at the man.

"That was close!" Tim said. "I think that was good for today, though."

Orym only looked on in horror at Tim.

"What? Something on my face?" Tim asked.

As he said this, he noticed a drop of black blood drip from above and onto the floor.

Looking up, Tim saw what the problem was.

Orym's sword was lodged entirely inside Tim's head.

"That's probably going to leave a mark..."