I was racing through the open plains of the fourth layer, making sure to give other monsters a wide berth. I could probably easily dispatch all of them, but I’d learned my lesson about getting cocky. I couldn’t help but glance at my status every once in a while, having trouble believing that I’d gotten this strong.

My new skill shot my strength to the moon, proving that EX skills deserved their rep. I looked forward to buying another one once I reached traveler tier two. If the system even let me buy another one at that point. I just assumed that the options for the shop would be similar to what they were now, but I couldn’t be sure until it was time. There was also the possibility that I would be able to buy another skill, but the cost would be increased drastically.

I already had a hint telling me that might be the case, which was my new skill tree. The magical truth skill tree was about the same in size as the poison skill tree, with the difference that each node in the tree cost a lot more than I was used to. In fact, I’d need a total of two-hundred skill points to buy out the whole tree. Just about triple the price. I couldn’t be sure if the increased price was due to the new tree being of a higher tier, or if skill trees just cost more when you got more of them.

I put the issue of the skill tree aside for now, even though I had enough skill points saved up to buy some stuff already. I wanted to test myself against a hunter first and then take some time to really analyze the new tree before charting a course through it. Since it would take me eight more tiers to get the needed skill points, I needed to plan out how I wanted to go about it.

I activated my hunter radar again to make sure I was still on course. It turned out that I strayed a little, so I adjusted my course a bit. The skill only gave me a vague direction of where the closest hunter was, which meant I had no clue about how far away it was. I had to constantly be on the lookout, lest I turn a corner and suddenly stand in front of the hunter, unprepared.

The scenery flew past me as I entered an almost meditative state of rushing ahead while using the hunter radar once it came off cooldown. It took me almost six hours of running at full tilt until I finally got close enough to the hunter to see it. Truthfully, the first sign that I was getting close had been the emergency quest popping up. I had slowed down significantly at that point and activated my void cloak and snuck closer to get a look.

The hunter this time around looked… weird. It almost reminded me of a dragon with its scaly, lizard-like body. Green scales covered the long tail, staunch body, and muscular legs. Each of its feet was sporting massive claws, and two rows of sharp-looking, boney spikes ran down its back, the end of its tail almost looking like a spiked club. It would have looked like a terrible foe if it wasn’t for its goofy-looking face.

Its face was way too large for the rest of its body. Two small eyes flanked by massive horns. Two long teeth kept its mouth slightly open, reminding me of a sabretooth tiger, making it look like it was constantly smiling. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that it was constantly high, since I’d seen many stoners with that exact smile on their face. Well, their teeth were decidedly less sharp, of course, but still.

Danger! Emergency Quest! Danger!

You have encountered the Hunter of the fourth layer! Defeat it for a sizable reward!

Objective: Defeat the Hunter.

Reward: A C-Rank skill of your choice. Special evolutionary energy.

Failure: Death.

I looked at the quest again, noting that the rewards were exactly the same as they had been on the third layer. A slight disappointment, but I was guessing that the real reward was the evolutionary energy. A free choice of skill was always nice as well, of course. I was a bit miffed that I still wasn’t entirely clear on what the evolutionary energy did, but it would be nice to have anyway, especially since I would be evolving very soon.

The hunter was currently drinking from a river, taking large gulps with its huge mouth. I occasionally saw an unlucky aquatic monster being sucked into its maw together with the water, showing that the hunter on this floor was standing at the apex as well. The apex, if you didn’t factor in the small voidling called Gary. My new skill had put me at the top of the food chain on the fourth floor, and I was sure that not even a hunter would pose a danger to me right now.

I had a feeling that I could probably comfortably cruise to the seventh layer as I was now. Of course, that would be stupid, and a waste of potential. There were quests to be had on every layer, and they would add to my strength. I would diligently go through the layers since I didn’t want to risk arriving at the eighth layer and getting folded by whatever was waiting for me down there.

Even with my presumably assured victory, I decided to observe the hunter for a bit. I had to constantly remind myself to not give in to my desire to rush in and get things over with. It was, after all, the sort of behavior that had landed me in hot water before.

So for the next hour, I followed the hunter around and watched it go about its business. In true hunter fashion, it dispatched every monster that had the misfortune of crossing its path. Unlike the hunter of the third layer, though, this one was extremely slow and calm. It lumbered about the place, casually ripping apart monsters with a lazy swing of a clawed foot, or simply chomping them whole. Compared to the bundle of aggression the hunter on the third floor had been, this one almost seemed like a saint.

Unfortunately for me, this meant that it wasn’t showing off any of its skills. I did see it use something like a vacuum that sucked a monster into its gullet from hella far away. It would pay to stay behind hit so that skill couldn’t get me. Aside from that it was simple swings and bite attacks, all of which were being executed with a confident slowness. So slow in fact, that I was of the opinion that they shouldn’t hit most of the time. Was there some kind of skill at play that slowed down its opponents?

Deciding that I’d seen enough, I decided to go on the attack. I started to conjure up an array of void javelins, which had increased from six to fifteen. My increased intelligence score not only increased the damage my spells did but also increased my concentration, which allowed me to ready up a higher amount of spells. To start things off properly, I cast a giant spike.

The hunter didn’t react to the spell's telltale glow below it, and I wasn’t sure if it was because it just didn’t notice or if it was physically too slow to do anything about it. The spike slammed into its gut, lifting it a bit off the ground, and fifteen void javelins slammed into it immediately after. I took a moment to appreciate my increased firepower before going all in on the offensive.

I sent out two poison assassinations and kept the void javelins coming. My new skill, coupled with my increased attributes, allowed me to spam them out at a hitherto unseen rate. I almost couldn’t see the hunter through all the dust I was kicking up, but the occasional use of hunter radar revealed that it was still there. I was starting to wonder if I would just end the poor sap this way when a huge form shot out of the dust at me.

I barely managed to dodge, having trouble recognizing what it was. My assault paused for a moment while I tried to figure out what was happening. There were huge gashes in the ground where the thing passed through. I kept watching the thing roll around until it started to turn and rolled at me again. I dodged once more, realizing that it was the hunter! It had rolled itself into a ball, sonic style, and the spines on its back made it like a sawblade out of control.

But it wasn’t out of control, not at all, it came at me with pinpoint precision again and again. It was kind of fun to watch, in an odd sense, but I didn’t come here to marvel at the hunter, I came here to kill it. With my curiosity satisfied, I opened fire once again. It was harder to hit the fast-moving target now, even with my agility score as high as it was. But I kept at it, after all, I could afford to miss with a LOT of spells now.

I was starting to get disappointed by the lack of attack diversity from the hunter when it unfurled and came to a sliding stop. Its goofy face looked straight at me, the persistent grin wider than ever. It spat a tiny flame into one of the many grooves it had ripped into the ground, which caused some sort of chain reaction causing explosions everywhere it had passed through.

My eyes widened at the new threat and I used my new casting speed to snap a void portal into place and jumped through, emerging high above the scene. The world below me was on fire, the hunter looking satisfied at its work. When I snapped open my wings, I had trouble controlling my flight due to all the hot air causing massive turbulence.

I did my best to glide out of the danger zone, the hunter still hadn’t realized I was above it and decided that it was time to spam a spell I never could afford to spam before. Giant spike after giant spike slammed into the hunter from below, doing a nasty amount of damage. It was slowly getting lifted off the ground by the force repeatedly trying to spear through it, and the poor sap couldn’t do anything to make it stop. I kept the pressure up, relenting only when the system took pity on the hunter and confirmed the kill. The hodag, as it was apparently called, flopped to the ground, defeated.

I slowly glided downwards, landing on the hodag's body in triumph. I’d done it. I had completely decimated a hunter, which used to be a crazy hard challenge! I graciously accepted my quest rewards, saving the skill choice for after I’d evolved. The hodag’s massive body was stored in my inventory, and I started construction on a bunker.

It was time to evolve!