Watching the elephant things, they are watching in all directions, that means they don't know where an attack might come from. Whatever spooked them must have some way of hiding its presence, so how did they detect it? No matter what I use, sight, hearing, or smell, I can't find anything that has changed.

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Danger Sense has progressed to level 4!

Danger Sense

Level 4

Wis +4

A feeling that warns you of great danger.

Without thinking about it or hesitating, as soon as I feel the skill's warning I throw myself into a backwards roll. Where I was standing there is now a strange shadow, it is holding a primitive spear that is stuck in the ground. If I hadn't moved that spear would have hit me in the head, this thing dropped down from above me!

It is hard to see, it seems to fade in and out of sight, but as it reclaims the spear and steps towards me I can see it better. It stands upright like a human but its appearance is more like an ape, but instead of fur it is covered by black scales. As I am studying it the thing stabs at me with the spear, leaning to the side I avoid the spear and swipe at it with my claws.

My claws pass through the thing's chest without making contact, it feels like I just swung my hand through the air. I attack it several move times but no matter what I try my claws can't touch this thing. So, I back off and use mage knight blade to make a pair of swords and at the same time I activate Target Weakness.

As the red markers appear I am surprised to find all the weak spots are the same as they would be on a human. I was expecting there to be none at all or some weird weakness due to it being impossible to hit. Trusting in the skill I use one sword to parry the spear and at the same time I strike for its heart with the other sword.

The sword created by mage knight blade actually hits and cuts the thing causing it to scream in pain. Its scream is very high pitched and hurts my ears giving me an instant headache. Despite that I still recognize the warning from my danger sense and jump backwards during the scream.

Four more shadow apes land where I was standing a second ago, they must have been watching from above. If magic weapons are the only thing that can hurt these things then that explains why the ettins stay outside during the 'night'. Before the shadow apes can react to missing me, I dash forward and swing at the two closest to me.

Both my strikes are on target, but then I have to deal with hearing two screams at once. I quickly notice that once they are injured it is a lot easier to see them, the shadows seem to stop hiding them. So, to prevent them from sneaking up behind me I quickly target the two that haven't been injured yet.

During the fight I find out that the shadow apes can now be hit normally. The magic weapon must disrupt the shadows that protect them, at least that's my guess. Either way, without the shadows to protect them it becomes much easier to fight them.

Thankfully, they only scream the first time they are injured, after that they don't make another sound, even as they die. Other than their first sneak attack the shadow apes are fairly easy for me to kill. Their skill with the crude spears isn't even worth paying attention to, even if they manage to hit me it doesn't do much.

Once the fifth one dies I quickly search the treetops all around me, but I don't see any more shadow apes. When I walk back to my original position and take a look into the clearing I find that the elephant things are gone. So I kneel down and cut open the chest of the first shadow ape that I killed.

Inside its chest I find a heart and what I think is a core, except it is pure black and only the size of a marble. No matter how I study it I don't get any option to absorb it, so I eat the heart first.

Devour Activated! Agility +40, Shadow Resist +15!

Then since the little orb isn't identifiable I decide to risk it and toss it in my mouth.

Core Upgrade Progress: 23%

'What?! It directly helped my upgrade process?'

Excited, I quickly cut open the chests of the other four shadow apes and remove the marbles. Then I pop them into my mouth one by one.

Core Upgrade Progress: 28%

Core Upgrade Progress: 33%

Core Upgrade Progress: 38%

Core Upgrade Progress: 43%

'Five percent per marble? I need to hunt another twelve to rank up!'

Getting to my feet I start moving again, continuing my exploration but now I pay more attention to the treetops. Unfortunately, while I see many new animals, I don't find any more shadow apes before the crystals in the ceiling start lighting up. As the darkness retreats a lot more animals come out of hiding and start moving around.

The ettins should be coming down about now, but I am much more interested in exploring right now. As I wander around I see quite a few predators, some of them look really fierce. However, any predator that spots me immediately runs away.

I guess they have learned to fear humanoids because of the ettins hunting them constantly. Despite wandering for over an hour I haven't been able to spot any sign of the shadow apes. Based on the activity of the animals now that it is day I assume the shadow apes hide from the light, the question is where.

As I am searching a lone ettin crosses my path, but as I am killing it I hear another ettin screaming off in the distance. When the ettin I am fighting dies I take off running in the direction the screams are coming from. The screams stop before I can get there, but I continue running towards where the screams came from.