Chapter 261: Begin the Hunt

The predator peeked out from the darkness.

The giants were finally gone.

In the middle of the day, it had holed up in a nook that was dry and warm. A perfect place to spend the day before heading back out in its nightly battle to secure prey.

Alarmingly, the entire cave it had been hiding in began moving, shaking and rumbling with a voice that shook it to its very being.

The Predator didn’t have a name, or the concept of gods, it only followed its instinct to curl up tightly and hold on as its whole world shifted drastically.

There was a brief flash of yellow-orange, and the air was suddenly warm and…wrong. The calming proto-curses that suffused the air that the predator liked to weave into its nets were absent, replaced with a cloying sweetness, absent any kind of flavor.

Wrong. It was all wrong.

The predator left the nook overnight and tried to make another net to catch food, but without the tasty miasmatic proto-curses floating through the air…it just wasn’t the same.

Defeated, the predator retreated back to the nook, already forgetting the scare it had gotten the day before.

Yesterday was a long time ago.

Again, the earth shook and wind blasted the cavern, and the predator hung on for dear life, curled as small and tight as it could without letting go of the strange bark it was clinging to.

After a time, things settled down again, and the predator retreated from the unreliable nook. The harsh light of sun prompted it to find another hiding place. Instinct told it that the world wanted to consume it and only darkness provided a refuge.

In the darkness between two pieces of rough bark, the predator found a beetle. It caught the tasty food and drained its essence, but even after that meal it was a bit parched.

For a third time, the world shook, but the hiding place itself didn’t move this time. The predator peered out to survey this new world it had found itself in.

There was a steady roar of water falling endlessly, and tiny droplets of water floated through the air, making an environment as humid as the home it had just come from, albeit warmer and lacking those tasty proto-curses that the predator liked to weave with.

One drop of water landed on the predator’s head, and it gratefully scooped the water up and moved the droplet to its mouth.

Tasty.

There was something in the water that felt right.

***William Oh***

“Here’s the hunting spot Mother wanted me to show you,” Mirabelle said, gesturing to the riot of nature in front of them.

They were perched on the edge of a cliff that overlooked a river bustling with life. pig-unicorns swarmed the edges of the murky water, drinking from the massive river by the hundreds. Snakes and birds flew overhead, predating on each other while the land-bound creatures watched on enviously.

Why are the snakes flying? Will thought, spotting a glimmer of miasma around them and resolving to study one.

In the distance, Will saw a mouth shoot out of the water and drag a massive unicorn-pig thrashing into the water. It didn’t come back up.

Hmm. Yep. Looks like a good place to level.

“Before you go, can you leave Aguilion with us?” Will asked.

Aguilion’s eyes widened, and the green dragon pointed a single claw at himself.

“You’re not going to hunt him are you?” Maribelle asked, eyes narrowed.

“I want to ask him for a favor that might be a little uncouth to speak of around his sister,” Will said. “I promise that I’ll keep him safe as long as he’s with us.”

Maribelle gave Will a side-glance, but shrugged.

“Very well. Mother wishes you to leave the Floor before we get caught up in your story. Don’t linger, William Oh.”

Will nodded in agreement, and Maribelle leapt into the air, miasma forming under her wings, allowing her enormous body to catch enough air to fly from a standstill.

They were still assaulted by a blast of wind, and when the dust cleared, Maribelle, was already shrinking into the distance.

“What did you want me for?” Aguilion asked.

“Do dragons have their own written language?” Will asked, looking up at the green dragon. “And can you read it?”

“Of course.”

“Would you teach me?”

The dragon scratched his chin. “What would I get out of it?”

“You know that dragons can grow as big as they want to, provided they have enough food?” Will asked.

“Of course I know that. Why do you think I’m so small? I hunt for shit, and even if I catch something, it usually gets stolen by Mirabelle or some other bastard.”

“Do you know what a resource node is?” Will asked.

“A node…with resources?” Aguilion asked.

“A Lord can select everything nonliving in a certain radius and for a large sum of Influence, convert that area into a ‘resource node’, causing it to grow back if any piece of it is removed. The salt miners on the 2^nd Floor and Lord Zodiac use this to mass produce valuable minerals. Do you see what I’m getting at?”

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Aguilion’s eyes narrowed. “You’ll use this Ability on a suitably large corpse and trade the node to me for teaching you how to read draconic. Infinite food.”

“That’s the gist of it.” Will replied.

“Is this possible?” Aguilion asked.

“I’m gonna be honest. I don’t know. It’s a very expensive procedure, and the difficulty of acquiring a mountain of preserved meat to make it worth the Influence cost could be enough of a barrier to prevent people from trying it themselves.

“I doubt nobody’s ever thought of it. It’s just really hard to do.” Will mused. “So it’s possible that everyone simply looked at the cost and balked, rather than it being impossible.”

“What makes you think you can do it, then?”

“Cuz I’m William Oh.” Will said, thumbing his chest.

“…Who?” Aguilion asked.

“Nevermind. We can draft up a contract that involves giving you a minimum amount of food in exchange for…a dictionary. Even if we don’t make a resource node, we should be able to compensate you.”

“A dictionary?” Loth perked up from where she’d been setting up her hunting blind. “What’s this about a dictionary.”

“I’m going to hire Aguilion to make one.” Will said.

“…Why so interested in learning draconic?” Loth asked.

“Mother let me see her observations on Miasma.” Will said. “It got me curious about what else I might stumble across out there. I’d be interested in being actually able to read it if there’s ever a next time.” Will gave a half-truth. Better than a straight-out lie.