Part Thirty-Four

Monster Attractant: Liquid Variant

Rank: Special

Description: A monster attractant in liquid form. Exposure to oxygen causes it to begin evaporating. A single whiff of the fumes is enough to drive monsters into a frenzy, even inside Dungeons. Its effective range is roughly a hundred and fifty meters.

……..What the hell? What kind of reaction should I even have to this? I mean, I feel pissed as hell right now. Enough so that I’d kill whoever planted this if they revealed themselves. But I have nothing to direct my rage at. Just this damn vial.

It wasn’t a stretch of the imagination to guess how this got in my bag. Someone must’ve snuck into my room, most likely while I was asleep, and planted it inside. Then all they would’ve had to do was wait.

The worst part was that I had no clue who could’ve done it. It could be anyone. Though obviously, I didn’t suspect Cameron or Alicia. But everyone else was a suspect.

The most suspicious is Sampson. The way he made sure we would be on different teams was just too strange. But at the same time, it doesn’t really fit his image. He’s more likely to be upfront about any kind of betrayal. Maybe. That’s just how I think of him, there’s no telling what he’s like beneath that.

As for the others, I just don’t know. There’s too many variables and possibilities to be sure, but I do know one thing. Whoever did this will try again. I’m certain of that.

I couldn’t imagine that this was the result of some accident or prank. Someone had come after me with the intent to kill. While I had no idea what their motive might have been, this was clearly premeditated. And there was still a high possibility that I would still die.

Everyone’s quick reactions had at least insured that we escaped being encircled by the monsters right away, but there was a high likelihood that someone had died by now.

I’m getting distracted. Figuring out the culprit can wait for latter. I need to escape while I’m still alive. Then I can solve this mystery. But how to escape? I’ve only got a little mana left and there’s still monsters nearby. They’ve dispersed a bit since the smoke cleared, but they’re still too close for me to make a break for it. One howl is all it would take for a repeat of my earlier pursuit. I’d like to avoid that.

There were still over fifty wolves sniffing around for me. My chances of dealing with all of them before more monsters showed up were dismal. I probably could’ve done it if I still had mana, but I’d been too liberal with it during the earlier fights. Resource management was always my downfall. I was the type to bust out the strongest skills at the start of a Boss fight and then not have the MP to heal afterwards. Time and time again I’d fallen into the same trap and now I was facing real-life consequences.

It’s not like I’m completely powerless. In all honesty, I probably could outrun those wolves long enough to reach the fort. It’s just that running into other monsters is so likely that I hesitate to do that. Or I would just run in circles until I become exhausted. But I can’t wait here forever either, as those wolves are going to notice me sooner or later.

I’d already deactivated Stealth in favor of letting my mana recover. While it would take some time to get to a point where I could use Beast of the Nightmare once, a few minutes were enough to let me use Sword Aura again. The extra firepower would no doubt come in handy.

In the meantime, the dense foliage of the trees hid me well enough. It was only because I’d climbed so high under the effects of Stealth that I’d escaped notice for now, but my luck wouldn’t hold forever. I needed a plan ASAP.

Actually, these branches are pretty thick. I could probably use them like a jungle gym.

It wasn’t the worst idea I’d ever had. If I did it right, I could probably get enough distance to safely avoid the wolves. Of course, it came with its own set of risks, but so did doing nothing. I wanted to do something. I wouldn’t survive by being passive.

***

Okay, now what?

It had gone well for awhile. While the branches weren’t big enough for me to walk on, they didn’t bend much from my weight. That had let me slowly move from branch to branch and eventually into another tree. It was just lucky that the branches extended into each other. Trying to transfer onto the edges would’ve been impossible as they would’ve never been able to support my weight.

But I inevitably hit a roadblock and a very weird one at that. I’d gotten a fair distance from my starting point, only to discover that there was nowhere to go from here. The branches on the neighboring trees were all much shorter than those I’d been in. After a certain point, all of the trees got much shorter and their branches were less stout.

And as far as I could tell, the change was happening in a straight line. This is unnatural. Even if one part of the forest was older than the other, the trees shouldn’t all be so uniform!

It was that uniformity that made this place so infuriating. I had no way of knowing which way led back to the fort. This change clearly denoted some kind of barrier, but I had no clue what it meant.

I’d gone in the opposite direction that the wolves had chased me in, so this could mean I was heading back. Or it could mean I was just going deeper. I’d been too busy running to pay much attention to the trees earlier.

Well, fuck. I’m out of options and this clearly won’t work anymore, so I guess it’s back to walking for me. I’m thankfully far enough from the wolves to escape their notice for now, but I should be careful. I don’t know when something might pop-up again. At least now I can fight back.

Since I’d had some time to rest, my mana had recovered to a level that would let me fight against groups of monsters safely. I still couldn’t use Beast of the Nightmare, but Sword Aura and [Rot] were well within my capabilities. I definitely need to increase my mana pool. It’s holding me back.

It wasn’t just holding me back, it was throttling me. Most of my combat Skills depended on mana to fuel them, so I couldn’t fight without it. But I didn’t actually know how to do that. I figured that continuing to use the System to grow would help, but it wasn’t efficient enough. I needed actual knowledge and guidance. Or in other words, a User’s manual.

Alright, enough rambling thoughts. It’s time to focus on getting back to the fort. Looks like the coast is clear. No monsters nearby and Survival Instinct is being quiet. Good.

Still, I couldn’t relax yet. I was still deep into the forest and completely alone. And for all I knew, everyone else had gotten killed. Didn’t I already experience this once before? I know the circumstances are different, but this is still the same principle as before. Who the heck’s writing this crap!?

***

That’s blood. Fresh blood.

It wasn’t much, just a few spots on a tree trunk, but it was there. It looked like someone had tried to clean it up, as the blood was streaked. I knew that blood dried fairly quickly, so whoever this was had been here recently. Probably within the last half-hour or so.

This could be monster blood, but I’m doubtful of that. Why would monsters try to clean the blood up? No, someone went through here before me. Hm, I’m not knowledgeable about tracking, but I’ve found a blood trail if I’m not mistaken. But, do I follow? There’s no guarantee that whoever it was is still alive. There might not even be a corpse left to find.

But I think I have to. My intuition is telling me not to ignore this. That, and my constant desire for adventure and combat are pushing me onwards. I can’t just ignore something blatantly obvious like this. I can at least investigate, if for nothing but my own peace of mind.

I’d already said it, but I had no experience or knowledge of tracking. The only thing I could do was to follow the blood spots and hope they led somewhere.

This is bad. There’s more and more blood and a few traces of something being dragged. Even a few gouges in the dirt. Someone was fighting here, but there’s no corpses. Now I’m certain that I’m following a human. An injured monster most likely would’ve died in this fight. Inside of Dungeons, monsters that die disappear a few minutes after death. The blood trail shouldn’t exist if that was the case.

Which means I’m following one of the other mercenaries, who is most likely injured. Guess I should hurry up.

Even though I wanted to, I had to refrain from rushing over. Leading a swarm of monsters to whoever was injured would be putting the cart before the horse. In the worst-case scenario, it could get all of us killed. I kept my head on a swivel, constantly checking for nearby monsters. Which let me avoid the Saber Monkey that dropped from the trees.

“GGREEEEE!”

Oh would you shut up! God these things are a pain in the ass!

Saber Monkeys were the direct Evolution of Claw Monkeys. While the latter were basically your stereotypical chimpanzee, the former were closer to gorillas than monkeys. Except for the foot long retractable blades that sprouted from their wrists. More than enough to cleave a man’s head off.

Add in the fact that their Stealth could fool Survival Instinct and you had one irritating monster. Though I have to question their biology. Where the heck do the blades go? Their arms are thick, but there’s no bulges when the blades are retracted. It’s just weird!

My avoiding its preemptive attack seemed to piss it off, as it bared its teeth and hissed at me. Again, why a gorilla would hiss is beyond me. I really needed to abandon my common sense at some point.

“Rraaaaaa!”

The beast swung both of its arms at me. Its ferocity was both an asset and a liability. That bloodlust allowed it to attack with all of its strength, but that’s all it had going for it. I’d already dealt with over a dozen of these monsters and I knew how to finish them off easily. All you needed to do was dodge until it went for an overhead swing. Then their blades would get stuck in the ground and you could stab them in their unprotected sides.

You did need to be careful though. Their bite strength wasn’t to be underestimated. One had caught a knife I threw at it and bit through the metal. It was obvious what would happen if that was my head.

But in the end, this one was no different. A single slash cut through its stomach, causing its intestines to flop onto the ground. Hm, it could’ve been one of them that attacked whoever I’m following. If this part of the forest happens to be their territory, then that could be an issue.

That wasn’t much of a problem for me, as I could fight them off one-on-one, but anyone injured would have a hell of a time. Take it from me, fighting while injured was brutal. It was even harder when the monster in question could ambush you out of nowhere. It was closing in on an hour since we got split up and that was more than enough time for someone to die in here. If I wasn’t feeling a sense of urgency before, then I sure did now.

Got to move. Where there’s one monster, there’s more. This has become painfully obvious over the last four months. If I’m too slow, then a fate that could’ve been avoided would come to pass.