Asherean stared ahead as the monsters moved one after another, their long arms with sharp claws at the end scraping against the soil—into a cave that was slightly protruded. He was covered in mud that was mostly dried while hiding behind a wide tree, diagonal to the cave. The last monster to enter the cave stopped abruptly and turned around, looking both sides of the cave from the entrance. It then moved to the edge of the cave mouth and plopped down onto the ground.


    Didn''t expect a monster to do watch duty.


    These monsters are different from what he has usually dealt with. It seems they migrated recently from the inner regions of the Trygar forest. According to the guild information log that he has acquired, these monsters are called Beraels. Some adventurer who ventured deep into the forest once logged the information into the guild information log. Two-legged. Thick brown furred. Have knife-like black claws with long, thick arms.


    Seems like a gorilla. But brown.


    Not much information other than that, except they are territorial and mark their territory by pissing and shitting around the border. Eww.


    He counted five of them entering the cave, but there may be some inside it as well. They seem pretty strong with their claws and mountain of muscles. Since he’s clearly outnumbered as he''s alone, he has to do it in the hunter''s path. Setting a trap and killing them all, but he needed time to gather information about their movements and their exact numbers.


    The quest time limit is a week. It''s already been two days since he reached this place and found their hideout by following them from a distance covered in the goddamn mud. So, he has five more days. More than enough. And so he waited three more hours until the guarding monster went inside at the barking of another berael and then there was no movement anymore.It took two more hours for another one to emerge.


    This one is slightly shorter but wider and has a mane of brown fur longer than the last one. He did the same as the first one, which is to keep watch. Asherean waited another hour before retreating silently from the way he came. It took a quarter hour to reach his impromptu camp, which is just a big tree called Ironwood Tree—a dense, dark-barked tree with a faint metallic scent. Its leaves produce natural oils that repel most beasts and monsters, similar to how certain plants deter insects. It''s slightly uncomfortable to sleep with the scent, but it''s quite a bargain.


    After making himself comfortable in one of the wide branches, he took out his mattress nearby in a rucksack (which he had kept there before going for scouting) and secured it through the branch so that it wouldn''t fall off while he was asleep.


    He sat on his mattress and searched for the papyrus in the sack. After taking it out from a small wooden box and a thin charcoal, he noted down features of the beraels more clearly and their behaviors—how they killed other monsters cleverly, how they knew how to keep sentry, and so on.


    After completing the description, he neatly folded and secured it into the wooden box, which went into the rucksack.


    After doing all of those, he sat down on his back on the tied-up mattress and looked longingly at the night sky, which he couldn''t describe in words and was so much more different from where he was from. The sky stretched vast, and the unfamiliar stars burned bright, untouched by pollution or haze. Some shone in eerie blues and silvers, while others flickered red like embers. A full moon hung in the sky—its light was cool and steady, casting a faint silver sheen over the land. Its surface, marked with deep scars and ridges, hinted at ancient impacts, yet it glowed softly against the endless dark.


    Ah, I''m getting poetic.


    It isn''t that he couldn''t accept the fact he was somehow reborn in this new world, but the sheer incredulity of it still shivers him. The memories of his previous life that he recollected bit by bit during his early age confused him many times, but it all crashed down when he was about ten years old. At that time, he didn''t come out of his newly built home (through the government scheme of the Agensal Queen) for about two weeks. Even his parents thought he was cursed by someone jealous of his looks and gave him some kind of tonic that really caused some stomachache.


    Anyways, he really likes this new life, but still many aspects of the world are clearly bizarre—apparently this world has the barrier to the north called the Fogwalls, which is this gigantic fog barrier that blocks the whole of the north on the continent of Aztas and Nrela. Even in the seas around the two known continents. He knew this because the Agensal Kingdom lay to the northeast of the continent with Fogwalls to the north of the kingdom.


    Also, the monsters in this place are also very different from his recollection of his previous ones. For instance, many of them are humanoid in shape. During his two years of adventuring, he had hunted down various types of monsters, both two-legged and four-legged—but mostly two-legged ones. Maybe if I could find some kind of history book somewhere, I could figure it out.


    Life here got fairly simple for him. To wake, do some adventures (that is, hunting monsters mostly), collect the evidence of his hunts, and get paid for completion of the quest. He was also somewhat wealthy for a middling adventurer, as he did not waste money on booze or other things—mostly.


    He also needs to visit his parents after this quest. It''s been more than a month; they''d be crying all over for me if I didn''t return. Better go there before that.


    Sleep overcame him gradually, and before he realized it, he was sound asleep.


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    ***


    Asherean woke up at the call of the bird sounds. After checking his surroundings and his rucksack, he drank some water from his leather container and went to do his morning duties near a water stream some distance away.


    Near the stream, he took the moist mud and freshly applied it over the already dried and cracked ones. He then ran towards the cave of beraels and started his long day of information gathering while hiding and following them all day long.


    After reaching the camp, he noted down any further information in the papyrus and stored it inside the wooden box, laid down on the mattress, and wondered about the night sky like every other day.


    Another day passed in a very similar way except he found out the total number of the beraels– Eight big ones, two small ones. They also do not go for a hunt early on the morning and usually do not move far away from their cave, but it''s been mentioned in the information log that they prey upon unsuspecting villagers and merchants traveling through the dirt road connecting Limeborough capital with several villages and towns.


    Since he''s acquired enough information about their movements, behavior, and their numbers, he is confident that he could kill all of them. Slowly a very simple plan started forming in his mind, and he drifted off to sleep with a smile on his face.


    The third day began for the Asherean in a similar manner to the last two days.As usual, he did his morning duties and methodically applied mud over his body.


    After inspecting if his scent is clearly masked by the mud, he rebounded back to his camp, took two crudely made vials filled with yellow-white liquid from the rucksack and confined them in his pocket, tied the rope around his rucksack to secure it tightly against the tree branch, and took off towards a slightly different direction from the cave. He then hunted down three Eryndor Stags—a deer-like animal with four legs. He tied their corpses with the rope he brought and carried them away towards a bush.


    After laying down the animal corpses, he brought his sword from its sheath and hacked at the animal corpses. He then reached for his pockets and took the vials filled with a yellow-white liquid and carefully applied the venom extracted from poisonous snakes all over the corpses. He then spread out all the liquid extract by mixing it with the blood using his sword. He also, for good measure, hacked some more times at the corpses so that more blood would be on their corpses.


    After cleaning the sword using the soil, he carried the corpses and ran towards the direction of the cave. He has very little time until some other animal or even the beraels themselves smell the bloody remains and finds him. After arriving near the cave, he checked the surroundings and left the corpses on the ground and ran towards his previous hiding place—the wide tree.


    He opened his leather container and poured some water out on the soil and started applying the newly made mud over his body to mask the smell again. Next, he has to wait to see if the beraels take the bait or not.


    The venomous snake poison he used is called repeia. It''s usually used by people to paralyze captured monsters by highly diluting it and then adding it to its food. It''s tasteless but has a very faint, almost undetectable smell to human noses. By mixing blood with it, the probability of beraels finding it out is unlikely.


    After more than 20 minutes, the sound of roaring and heavy footsteps could be heard. The last night, the sentry Berael with two others came running towards the Eryndor Stag remains.


    After reaching the corpses, they roared between themselves and started poking at the corpses. The lead berael—that is, the sentry bereal—roared louder than his two peers and pointed at the corpses. The other two understood his intent and put the remains on their shoulders, and with the sentry berael leading them back to the cave, his two peers followed obediently.


    Asherean hiding behind the tree let out his breath he''s been holding for the entire time.


    Even if I''m experienced in this, it still shivers my spine knowing that death is just a single misstep away.


    After taking some deep breaths, Asherean started to wait for the poison to take effect. He also knew that all the beraels eating those Eryndor Stags and then getting poisoned is unlikely and mostly luck if it happens. Unfortunately luck is not his best suit.


    It took more than an hour to see any visible effects from the poisoning. Four beraels barreled down the cave entrance unsteadily, clearly in pain and weakness.


    Asherean readied his sword, adjusted his breathing manually, and waited for an opening. It happened when three of them turned towards the opposite direction, and the last one crouched down, vomiting down the soil.


    Asherean bolted out like an arrow towards them. Before the first one could shout, he pierced his throat and withdrew his sword forcefully. His sword flashed again, this time piercing the eye of the berael standing beside the first one. He quickly dodged a claw strike that would''ve normally been lethal and fast. This time, they were a tad slower. He quickly aimed for the neck or eye of his attacker, but this one seemed to be quite clever as he protected it almost at the same time.


    Asherean tried a few more times, but this one handled it more defensively, prolonging the fight.


    I can guess what it''s thinking. It''s waiting for backup from the ones inside. I can already hear some shouting noises from the cave.


    So I aimed my sword at the crouched one that''s been avoiding the fight up until now.


    Seeing that I''m attacking his peer, the standing berael swung his claws diagonally across his chest. That was a mistake, as I quickly dodged and stabbed my sword through his guts. For good measure, I poked the sword in different directions, and the berael fell to his knees, clutching his open stomach. I finished him off by piercing his neck.


    The last one down on the ground looked at me with eyes that would''ve evoked sympathy if it were me two years ago, but it didn''t do anything to the now me. Thus, he died by my sword mercilessly.


    Without wasting any more time, Asherean dashed towards the cave and came to a sudden halt at the entrance. There were four inside. Three of them were unconscious—two small and one big, clearly from the poison. The last one is crying out painfully, limping towards the other side of the cave. It was not a situation he was expecting.


    So, he did what he usually did by hardening his resolve of survival. He finished the loud one as fast as he could, thus giving a painless death. He did the same for the other three unconscious ones.He could feel his hands shaking—trembling at what he''d just done. Despite his experience, the berael seemed somewhat sentient, eerily similar to humans in their habits, killing the last one, who is clearly a female who''s crying over her unconscious children.


    He gripped tighter at the sword handle. They wouldn''t be kind to me if they attacked me somewhere along the dirt road. They would likely eat me like I''m some kind of exotic food. Other than that, they''ve already killed many people thus far.


    He tried to forget these things by methodically collecting the claws and ears of the monsters.


    He then grouped all the berael bodies into a singular pile and then readied to withdraw to his camp and then to the Limeborough capital but stopped seeing the bodies of the small ones. He watched long and hard.


    Ahhh… I''m an idiot.


    He took a deep breath and searched around the area for some large angular stone. After he found something doable, he started towards the rivulet he found while following the beraels on the second day.


    He then began to dig a somewhat large hole. It took about half an hour for it to be sufficient. After he was satisfied, he retraced back towards the cave. Fortunately, no other animal found the corpses of the beraels—mostly because there are no other predators here other than berael (who killed off any other).


    After securing the ropes of the bodies of the mother and two small beraels, he carried them off to their graves. It took some time, as they are quite heavy—probably not as much as the male ones.


    After carefully laying down the three corpses


    in their graves, he closed their graves and trudged towards his camp without turning back.


    Not even once.