The slope to the top wasn’t that steep and I soon found myself on the other side of the cove. Looking down from above I couldn’t help but be impressed with my ability to take such a long fall. It was no wonder hitting the water had felt like concrete, though.

I followed the cliff back towards the sound of the waterfall, until I waded through an ankle-high stream that ran over the lip of the rock. The water was much less majestic looking than I had anticipated, given how powerful it had sounded last night. Fortunately for me this landmark provided a direction for a journey to where I’d last seen my group. I started to retrace my steps.

I had fled in the dark of night, but as far as I could tell I hadn’t taken any significant turns once I had broken off from the group. If I tried to guess where they might be, based on half a day of travel from the attack, I could easily miss them unless I was following pretty close to their route. So I decided first to try to get a fix on our old camp and I took the diagonal between where I thought it might be, the point where I’d turned sharply away from the others and where I was now. If fortune would have it, I’d wander upon the camp.

Fortune was indeed with me, and after twenty minutes of walking I came across our previous camp. The fires had gone out naturally, a sign that no one had returned last night. The trees in the immediate vicinity were a mess.

Dried blood caked the nearby bushes and plant life. I found two beast corpses just several dozen feet from our original camp. Things were looking up, however. There were no bodies, well, human bodies.

I crouched down and tried my best to think. Which way would they go? Logically, they would stay in the area, but how big was the area? I didn’t have a map, and hadn’t seen a map even once during our trip. I now realized I had been following along without sufficient care and had trusted too much in my keepers.

There was nothing left to do but start walking, and so walk I did in the direction I believed my group had run in. By now I had a decent idea of how their souls ‘felt’. If I could only get in range of the others, I should be able to catch back up.

Unfortunately, I walked and walked for several hours without any sense of people in the distance, only monsters. And worse, I discovered I had ended up right where I started. The smashed-up trees were familiar as was the ash on the ground where the camp fire had burned last night. There wasn’t the slightest sign or indication that anyone else had been here during my walk.

At first, I was disheartened by my having gotten lost in the forest. But then my spirits rose as I thought about my options. My ability to sense the creatures around me could prove extremely handy in this situation. Those monsters which were too strong for me felt like a blazing torch in the distance and I could sense their blatant disregard for me. They had other plans, and as long as I didn’t intrude, they wouldn’t take note of me.

Thinking about my walk through the forest, avoiding dangerous encounters, I realized the potential of the situation. The beasts traveling east had a mission, and as long as they didn’t encounter humans they continued onward.

I could choose my targets, choose my battles: train myself in the wilderness, while avoiding danger. There was no one to say this was disobeying orders either. I was fulfilling my mission in every sense of the word.

I resolved to stay in the area, close to the camp. First, it was possible the groups would return at some point, and that was my best bet of rejoining them. Second, the forest provided great cover and also plentiful targets, so many, I just needed to wait to feel the approach of something suitable for my abilities.

After some time, I sensed a pack of monsters of about my level moving through the forest. They were dispersed, allowing me a choice of target. I didn’t pick the weakest, but took one in the mid-range of the pack.

It was moving through the underbrush about a hundred feet away. I had yet to even see what it looked like before I rushed towards the monster.

Demon Crocolisk* LEVEL: 34 BEAST NEUTRAL

HP: 15519 MP: 25

STR: 50

AGI: 20

DEX: 5

VIT: 45

INT: 5

A beast with the body of a demon and the head of a crocodile.

The Demon Crocoliskwas a waist-high creature trudging through the underbrush on four stubby legs. The body was animal-like up until the neck. At the neck it turned scaly and had a reptilian head. It was an elite, but I knew that from its soul signature before I even approached it.

I wasn’t the same person as before my new class. I hadn’t the slightest lack of confidence in my own ability to dispatch the demon in front of me. Mana Scythe surged through my rod before extending into that beautiful, blue blade.

A hiss escaped the demon’s mouth and it rushed in my direction. The body shape was awkward for land travel and it seemed only to hobble in my direction. Perhaps its natural element was water? Regardless, I didn’t even need to use Phase Step to side step the vicious jaws.

Mana Scythe glided across the side of its body and left a deep gash that dripped blood. But the defense it then displayed was impressive to say the least. I didn’t have time to admire my own work before I needed to use Phase Step to cope with a vicious counter-attack.

The tail of the beast whipped out like lightning and the air crackled from the ferocity of the motion. There was no doubt in my mind my leg would have snapped like a twig from the impact. Fortunately, my senses in battle had grown to such an extent I could cope.

The demon’s attack was fast enough that had I been limited to my eyes, I would have been left with almost no time to react. In truth, I reacted without even seeing the tail move. I stepped the instant I felt a sinister, tingly feeling, almost like a premonition.

“If that’s all you have, you won’t last long.” I looked at the Demon Crocolisk. It couldn’t understand me of course, but I suddenly wanted to vent my frustration at these past few days. Lucas had thoroughly terrorized me. This was my outlet.

My entire body leaned forward and I rushed directly at the demon. It looked as if I was heading directly into the beast’s jaws, and I was. Just as its mouth opened and started to bite I used Phase Step.

The instant it raised its head, I lashed my scythe directly into the demon’s chest from underneath. It went halfway in and I managed to pull the blade for about a foot before it wouldn’t budge anymore.

This was a scary prospect, because the beast hadn’t died immediately. I was connected to it by my rod, and unless I was willing to sacrifice the MP spent to summon another Mana Scythe I would have to deal with its next attack.

The monster’s mouth opened in a desperate attempt at mutual destruction. I managed to kick it away and taking my right hand off the scythe I summoned a fireball. This time it was coming with jaws opened wide in an attempt to take half my body with one bite.

I tossed the fireball directly into its mouth and watched it instinctively close. The demon struggled in extreme pain for a moment before it could no longer contain the fire from burning it from the inside. The entire body of the croc collapsed and my scythe was dragged even lower to the ground.

Shit, you’re heavy!I had to use the rod as a lever and kick with one foot to roll the corpse over just so I could pull my scythe out. Despite the close call, I had come out unscathed against an elite higher level than me.

I cast Harvest Soul immediately and finally felt a bit more of that progress I had been longing for.

Current EXP: 90350/103000 LEVEL: 32 Soul Harvester Eternal

HP: 1895/1895 MP: 288/711

STR: 27

AGI: 26+3

DEX: 35 +5

VIT: 30 +5

INT: 55 +24

Available: 0

Harvest Soul: 196 HP: 123 MP: 123

This was a kill worth 7,000 EXP and 5 HP and MP from the harvesting. I also remembered that Phase Step had leveled recently and I checked on the changes.

Phase Step LV. 2

Cast time: Instant

MP Cost: 30

The cost of using Phase Step had gone down by 5 MP. This looked small but would definitely add up in the battles to come. It was my trump card for evading any attacks outside of my ability range currently.

My MP was already at a low level, but that was after using Mana Scythe at 50%. It would slowly recuperate throughout the day. I would also try to be a bit more restrained in my use of Phase Step.

I stayed in the immediate vicinity of the camp for an entire day and night without so much as a single person coming into range of my senses. By the second day soloing, I had convinced myself that the others wouldn’t be coming back to this area at all.

Untroubled by being on my own, I had focused on grinding and had gained level 33 early in the morning after dispatching another elite. Thus far, I had avoided anything stronger than 1 star.

I had put the stat gain into AGI again, bringing it to 29+8 as I wanted to increase my movement speed in battle as much as possible. Up until now, I had yet to encounter a single monster that had an ability like Arcane Missiles: one that could lock onto the target and hit no matter what.

I had also finally received an upgrade to my chest slot armor. This wasn’t meant for casters, but it suited my current fighting style more than a pure caster robe would.

Cicada Skin*: AGI +5 STR +2 VIT -1

Armor made from the skin of a Cicada. It is incredibly light and almost see-through.

Compared to my previous chest item, my HP took a hit and so did my MP, but not enough to worry about. I just needed to kill more monsters and harvest them to regain the loss. On replacing my old one, I did, however, feel a desire to enchant my current chest slot.

I had failed due to an interruption before, but there was nothing stopping me now. I holed up in the canopy of a tree and began making attempts. It took me three tries before that see-through armor had a slightly green hue. I looked at the stats again.

Cicada Skin*: AGI +8* STR +2 VIT -1

Armor made from the skin of a Cicada. It is incredibly light and almost see-through.

It was interesting that the additional AGI was tacked onto its previous stat. There was no real way to tell that the armor originally had 5 AGI or that the enchantment gave 3 extra.

In a matter of a few days my AGI stat had increased considerably and it was currently 29+ 11. I felt light on my feet. In fact, I felt such a difference that I could actually stay in the tree tops and maneuver from branch to branch like a monkey. I preferred to hunt that way, and so that’s what I did.

There was no particular reason to stay, though. Convinced my other group members weren’t coming back, and since I could hunt in any area of the forest I wished, I started to head north with the thought of finding company.

Every time I encountered a one-star elite I would stop to dispatch it. Most battles went without a hitch, and even when I had to adapt, there was never any physical ability on my part that was lacking. Sometimes I lacked experience in the creature’s special attacks or tactics.

My rapid increase in strength had given me an ego and I had become complacent. It was foolish to take this world for granted and think that I had mastered it, something I had told myself time and time again, over the entire course of my journey.

This was brought home to me by a fuzzy-looking elite. The monster was a giant porcupine type of creature. It had a tail with sharp spikes all over it like a club.

The fight looked like it was going to be straightforward: don’t get hit by the tail, don’t touch its body. That’s what I did, and I did it well. Eventually, I had chopped the front legs off the monster and slashed out an eye. It was in its dying throes and I had walked forward to put it out of its misery.

My over-confidence was foolish. The porcupine’s tail rose like every other time and I expected it to try and swing on me. From experience, I could tell it wasn’t in range to hit me and so I didn’t move. That was my first mistake.

A single inconspicuous spike in the tail launched out faster than I could react: faster than my body could even detect. I only felt a piercing sensation in my shoulder. There was a quill there that went from one side to the other.

You are affected by bleeding.

You have been poisoned.

There were two simultaneous status effects. There was no pain, only a growing numbness from the wound. My first reaction was to eat a panacea, and so I did. I thought I would be fine. It was anything but fine.

The panacea removed the numbness from the wound, but I became poisoned again almost immediately. Evidently, I would have to remove the quill from the wound, and so I started to pull. The numbness was coming back, but not fast enough. I couldn’t bear the pain at all.

Eventually the numbness spread over the wound once again and I was able to pull the quill out in one piece. I was bleeding badly at this point and there was no one to heal me. I took another panacea and managed to finally cure the poison.

My hands fuddled for a white potion and I gulped it down, yet my blood would not stop spurting from the wound. Whatever was on the quill had some sort of anti-coagulating effect.

The blood would not stop coming out and unless I did something drastic, I was going to bleed out. There was only one solution I could think of. I braced myself and picked up a dirty stick from the ground before putting it in my mouth.

I used fireball to start a fire and clenching my teeth, pressed the smoldering tip of the stick into the wound. The pain made my head spin and I nearly passed out. Having heightened senses was a curse at this point.

Even more difficult was having to do the exit wound. I ended up burning all over my back before the bleeding stopped. By then I was a sweaty mess that was barely conscious. I drank one more white potion and then retreated into the tree tops.

When I woke up from my short nap I inspected my chest. The quill had entered incredibly close to my heart. Thinking about this with a clear head made me realize just how close to death I actually had been.

Even if the quill striking near the heart didn’t kill at once – which I believe it would have – numbing effect would have stopped my beating heart regardless. A monster’s special ability wasn’t always obvious. My sense of danger wasn’t omnipotent either.

It was just a half-day after that encounter that I recognized the soul signature of people. I felt a burst of excitement followed by disappointment. I could tell from a glance it wasn’t my own group.

How? Because there were at least fifteen people there. Regardless, I was incredibly curious and made my way through the tree tops. I felt like an assassin silently stalking my prey.

Eventually, I came upon a relatively high tree and secured myself on its branch. From there I could see the group huddled together in a miniature camp. It took a moment for me to identify who it was.

Their clothing had a specific emblem. It was a clenched fist pointing towards the sky: the guild emblem of Power.