34 – Hunt

The question of why some regions host high level monsters, while others only support low level populations has been discussed at length in many scholarly works. The answers are numerous, and for the most part complementary.

First, it is worth noting that power breeds power. The mere presence of strong monsters puts pressure on the weaker species to evolve or perish. This phenomenon is well documented, but it doesn’t explain why a strong beast appeared in the first place.

To this, any scholar worth their title would answer by the theory of mana density. But one could wonder why mana density is inconsistent over Laika, and I shall elaborate on that matter too.

Excerpt from Blaise’s Ruminations.

The plains stretched out before Alexandra. She’d left the city early in the morning while Louis was still asleep, recovering from what he did last night. She wondered what kept him so busy, but she didn’t have time to waste.

There were verdant beasts to hunt.

As soon as she passed the last cultivated field near Esmera, and the white city walls faded behind her, she focused her attention on the flowers.

It was always a sight, pastel hues with the morning sun behind her, but she wasn’t concerned about their beauty. She was here to hunt. Training in a vacuum was good, but nothing would replace actual combat experience.

She stared at the cluster. Yellow flowers, long stems, large petals splayed open around pistils that stretched too far from their cores. Maralanes, if Louis’ book was right, and if they were actually flowers at all.

The beast shared the name. Ambush predator. Strong opening attack. She’d flagged it as manageable without Dark Bolt, but only if she didn’t let it land the first hit.

Standing at a respectable distance, Alexandra stared at the flowers. She couldn’t tell if a monster lurked below, but it didn’t change how she would attack.

She picked up a stone, a large, heavy one, and threw it into the cluster.

The ground erupted. A single vine shot upward, thick as her forearm, shedding dirt and petals as it whipped toward where she’d been standing. She was already moving left, sickle drawn, and the vine cut through empty air.

It reoriented fast. The flowers were gone. They’d been its head, she realized, the yellow petals now peeled back to reveal a ringed mouth packed with inward-curving teeth. It swung at her in a wide arc, low to the ground.

She jumped it, came down, and opened a cut along its midsection with the spine of her sickle. The vine recoiled. A thin clear fluid wept from the wound.

It struck again, faster, a straight lunge this time. She sidestepped and let it pass under her arm, then brought the sickle down behind its head in a chopping motion. The blade bit deep but didn’t sever. The Maralane thrashed, yanking her forward. She released the handle, let it thrash, waited.

It slowed.

She grabbed the sickle, pinned the vine under her boot just behind the wound, and drew the blade through the rest. The thrashing stopped. The severed end curled once and went still, leaking into the soil.

Alexandra cleaned the sickle on the grass. The whole thing had taken less than a minute. She looked at the petals scattered around the crater where it had burst from the ground, then back toward the plains stretching ahead.

One down.

She winced.

How could she get rusty this fast? First, she hadn’t used Inflict Weakness. She rolled her eyes. Then, she started the fight with the spine of her sickle. She raised her hand, moving to slap her forehead, but stopped herself at the last moment.

Focus, Alexandra. Focus.

She wasn’t injured. She would see another fight.

Always start with Inflict Weakness, and don’t swing your blade randomly.

She turned her attention to the Maralane’s corpse. The book didn’t detail a use for this beast’s parts. In any case, she couldn’t transport them easily as she planned to spend the whole day hunting.

Looking away, Alexandra summoned her journal. No skill level. She shrugged. Her eyes wandered up the page.

Quest Journal

Daily Reset: 06:00 | Streak: 10 Days | 1% All Stats

Next Milestone: 25 Days

Daily Quests:

• Talk to five people (0/5)

She shook her head. That quest was too easy. She could focus on hunting without worrying about her streak.

She gave the plains another sweep and walked east.

The flower density thinned as the ground rose toward a shallow ridge. Shorter grass up there, rockier soil, and growing along the ridge’s spine in a loose line, a series of wide, flat blooms the color of bruised fruit, deep violet with a dark center that didn’t reflect the morning light the way the petals did. She counted seven of them, evenly spaced, each about a meter apart.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Too even.

She jogged her memory. A Pheart? No, that was a Bloomhydra. She watched the line from forty meters out, looking for movement. Nothing. The dark centers sat still, facing the sun.

She found a stone, threw it at the nearest bloom.

The center split open. A mouth, a cavity, deep black, and from it a cloud of fine spores punched outward in a tight cone. They hung in the air, catching the light like dust.

She hadn’t moved. Good.

The bloom swiveled on its stem, orienting toward her. The others followed, a slow mechanical pivot, all seven tracking her position.

She circled left. All seven rotated to follow. She stopped, reversed, circled right. Same result. They tracked movement. She threw another stone, this time behind the line. The heads didn’t turn. Sound didn’t do it, then. The beast knew she was there.