Chapter 4: Another Day, Another Hunt

(This chapter was uploaded on Saturday 11/November/2023 8:00 PM, timezone GMT+3) 

('1), ('2), ('3), etc. means that there is some explaining for the thing in the notes at the end of the chapter. 

"..." small moment of silence 

"Talking" 

"He-" Someone was interrupted. 

'Thinking' 

[Skills' names, chanting and spells' names] 

Don't shy from commenting on typos and/or inconsistencies. That and/or suggesting a modification to certain things that didn't make sense to you. 

I hope you enjoy reading this chapter. 

(Line Break) 

(Day 2 of Nephelont's arrival. With Bors) 

"Have you found it yet?" Bors said as he descended the stairs. 

"We encountered it. And would you believe it? It is an exact copy of what Nephelont Cranel looked like, according to what Ramon said" Ramon's party leader said. 

"Say what now? That person's dead. Everyone who was here six years ago knows it" Bors was skeptical. "But I owe that Cranel brat a favor. I will send someone to tell them. They should be the ones to confirm or deny the possibility. Where did he go?" Bors asked them. 

"He went back to the deeper parts of the floor. Judging by the direction, he may have gone down to Water City" 

"We will do patrols just in case another irregular appeared. Once we're sure it's safe, we send someone to tell them" Bors gave his verdict. 

(Back to the present with Nephelont) 

Day 3, 10:01 AM. 

'We descended two stairs, and both led me back to the waterfall. They were all connected with one another. I have been tricked' 

'It is okay, physical body. Everyone has those moments' 

'Was that you trying to console me? Because it didn't work' 

'Just step forward. I want to get a taste of some actual food. And if what you saw is anything to go by, we might end up in another forest area with sweet fruits' Gourmet's distorted voice of hunger sounded in his head. 

'Well, here goes nothing' 

Nephelont stepped forward to the last set of stairs down from water city. He stepped foot on the first floor of the dense forest ravine, the 28th floor. It was a safe floor. 

'No movement in sight' 

'There is no sight. Now, start searching for food' 

*grooooowlllll~* Nephelont's empty belly growled at him. 

'You didn't need to tell me that, Gourmet' 

Nephelont made a proposal to his self-aware instincts, and they agreed. The proposal was to call every singular instinct with the word representing them. 

The distorted voice that wanted him to eat delicious food was a mix of (non-sexual) lust and hunger, resulting in the instinct to search for delicious food and beverages. He chose to call this one Gourmet. 

The old man's voice was born of the survival instincts embedded in this body by default. He only appeared when Nephelont was in danger or if he was bothered. He gave himself the name of Marthanóir. (Irish for survivor) 

The middle-aged voice was born of the battle experience that lingered after the previous Nephelont's skill took effect. He was the one who gave assessments on how strong some of the monsters are. He gave himself the name of Arsalan. 

The younger voice was born of this body's hunting instincts as a monster. He preferred to be unknown and hidden. Nephelont called him Hunter. 

'Where should I start first? Should I search the trees?' 

'No. You already know the fruits could be poisonous' Marthanóir said. 

'But I want some sweets and plant fibers to taste!' Gourmet complained. 

'Absolutely never!' Marthanóir adamantly denied Gourmet their request. 

'Thank you, Marthanóir' Marthanóir remained silent after doing his job of keeping Nephelont alive. He also totally brushed Nephelont's sarcastic reply. 

'Should I observe the humans who pass here, then? I could turn invisible and see what fruit they eat and go from there' 

(AN: Sorry to break your immersion, if you were immersed, but this is quite important. You see, there was no mention of what monsters appear in the dense forest ravine. The only things we were told are that the bloodsaurus and other strong dinosaur-type monsters appear in this set of floors. I will add my own things here and there or just refer to a dino that has appeared in some game or movie indirectly) 

Nephelont soared through the skies of this floor, searching for a monster to eat as he searches for humans to observe. While he flew around, he made himself invisible to avoid getting ambushed by flying monsters. 

Day 3, 1:31 PM. 

After a few hours of flying from end to end of this floor, Nephelont understood something. 

'This place is safe to sleep in. I only found one group of adventurers, who were totally relaxed and unguarded. I didn't find that many monsters either' 

This floor was safe. He even dared to reveal his form, but not that many of what little number of monsters that reside here paid him any mind. 

Nephelont found only one fruit that the humans from before ate, and it was not at all pleasant. It was edible but did not taste okay. 

Nephelont finally decided to go down another floor to find more monsters to kill. 

Day 3, 1:56 PM. 

Nephelont found the stairs leading to the next floor. 

What greeted him on the other side was a vast expanse of large trees. In between these trees, there were huge ones that stretched to the ceiling, acting as its supporting pillars. The small trees were spread everywhere and were stacked beside each other in a manner that left little to be seen from afar. 

'Should I go in invisible?' 

'Is that even a question?' Marthanóir asked. 

'A rhetorical one' Nephelont replied as he hid himself and went on searching. 

The first monster Nephelont found was a bipedal red lizard that had short arms that were likely just some decorations. Its head looked like it was its primary attacking method and it travelled in a pack of three in this instance. An individual stood a little shorter than he was on his hind legs. 

'They are mildly annoying. Whittle their numbers before engaging in frontal combat' Arsalan suggested. 

Nephelont noticed the size difference once he stood up. He thought that he could lunge at one's neck and tear its life from its body. That will surprise the other two and give him a chance to have a one-on-one fight. 

'Match the rhythm of their feet' Hunter told him. 

Nephelont snuck up on the one which was the furthest back, where the other two did not look. He was walking while matching their rhythm, so they did not notice him. He got close enough that he was starting to get noticed by the one he was stalking. 

'Now!' Hunter said. 

Nephelont bit down at this lizard's neck as it turned around, revealing the softer parts of it. The restrained lizard tried setting its neck free, but that backfired. Nephelont's teeth sunk further in and tore the muscle tissue that was moving around them to shreds. 

The lizard could not roar after Nephelont punctured its throat with his long, serrated knife-like teeth. The other two did not take long to decide that they needed to kill this thing that attacked them. The other two roared and started running at him, but they were late. Their comrade has been flatlined by Nephelont. 

'It didn't work. But I still got one' 

Now, Nephelont has two monsters to deal with. 

'Is there a power I have and still don't know about?' Nephelont stopped to ask his instincts. He noticed that the time he perceives while talking with them moves slowly. He had the time to talk. 

'You could change the size of your body. The bigger, the higher energy consumption. The purple stones replenish the energy you will be using to perform the size change' The voice that represents all instincts talking at once said. Nephelont decided to call them Allen. Allen's voice sounded devoid of both gender and age, even emotion. But it also seemed to contain all of them at once at the same time. 

'Can you help me this time?' Nephelont asked. 

'As we did with invisibility, your other abilities are things we will help you grasp' Allen replied. 

Allen performed the changes as Nephelont observed him like before. Nephelont grew to be twice his natural size. He immediately started feeling the drain on his energy. 

'How much time do I have in this size?' 

'By our calculation, it should be a single minute. Nothing more, nothing less' Allen replied. 

Nephelont capitalized on this chance. Since he was now more than twice their height, he could just grab them with one of his hands and disembowel them with the other's claws. And that was exactly what he did to one of them. Blood pooled under the writhing body of the dying red lizard. The sight has finally put the last one on its fight-or-flight response. It chose flight, as it saw how helplessly the other two were slaughtered. 

"Like I would allow you to escape!" Nephelont lunged again, but this time biting the legs of the fleeing lizard. He stood up with the lizard hanging from his mouth by the legs. He flailed its suffering form around until it was too dizzy to be able to stand up. He released it from its suffering by ripping its head from its body. 

'That was unnecessarily brutal. You could have saved more energy by killing it more efficiently. Hunting should be efficient, not wasteful and brutal. One of the better methods would be to just cut them then leave time to take care of the rest. Your claws are sharp enough to be a more efficient method in comparison to ripping their extremities using force' Hunter said. 

'Roger that' Nephelont took that advice seriously. 

Nephelont returned to his natural size and roamed around. He did that for only a few minutes and encountered his next prey. These monsters were very long necked. They walked on all four and looked like they could not lift their legs very high. At least, not enough to be able to inflict any meaningful damage on Nephelont. They were tall, such that Nephelont only reached the base of their necks while standing up. Their necks were a bit more than half their height. (Think of sauropods) 

'They are incapable of killing you with the way their bodies are. That is unless you deliberately choose to let yourself be killed by them. You should target their long necks. That looks like a place that will bleed a lot more than other parts of their bodies' Hunter informed him. 

As Nephelont started dashing around at immense speed, he noticed an odd one approaching them from a distance. As the others bled to death, he observed it. It had a shorter neck embedded with massive spikes and was generally the same height as the red lizard from before. It made a loud noise and flailed its neck in Nephelont's direction. The spikes on its neck were launched at him. He evaded them as the now burning spikes exploded upon impacting the tree behind him. 

'That could have been dangerous' 

'Only if any of them hit you. Dodge them and attack at that very moment. That move created an opening' Arsalan pointed out. 

Nephelont did as Arsalan said and succeeded in disabling its only threatening move. To do that, he bit under its neck, where there were no spikes. He went a little further and wrapped his tail around its closest leg to restrict its movement even more. 

Its body was not flexible enough to let its tail hit Nephelont, and it was weak. Its weak muscles made it so that the monster could not escape Nephelont's hold of its neck. Nephelont shredded its neck using his teeth and claws. 

The monster wanted to forcefully free its neck, but all it accomplished was the same as the long-necked monsters before it. Its neck was maimed to the point it would die in seconds. 

After the monster finally stopped breathing, Nephelont carved the corpses for magic stones. 

'The energy they give me is way better compared to what monsters on upper floors gave' 

'These are stronger monsters. Therefore, they should give more energy' A new voice appeared. It was similar to Marthanóir's but had a different accent. 

'And what should I call you?' 

'Lo would suffice' 

'Short for logic?' 

'I hope to live up to that name' Lo politely replied. 

'I look forward to our journey together, Lo' Nephelont welcomed Lo. 

'I will do my best to be of help' Lo replied. 

'Should we deal with these things, then?' Nephelont looked down on the little group of monsters that wanted a bite of him. Their jaws were simply too small. 

They were slightly shorter than humans at the hip and seemed to be able to look a human in the eye if it stood upright, even look down on some of the shorter ones. Their arms were long and big, sufficient as gripping and tearing tools. One of the claws on each of their feet was bigger than the others and hooked in a way that would allow them to use these claws as stabbing tools. 

One of them was smart enough to try and grab the scales on Nephelont's legs and was rewarded with a chomp. Half of its body disappeared into Nephelont's belly, accompanied by its magic stone. Nephelont licked the blood off his lips. 

The remaining few took a step back and were turned to mush. 

'Am I that overwhelmingly strong? I mean, it's most likely that they are weak, but still...' 

Nephelont then looked at the trees. 

'I want to carve one to use as a weapon. A pointy poke-y stick will be good enough' 

'That is called a spear' Lo commented. 

'I know that, Lo. And I want one' 

Nephelont found a tree and stupidly decided to punch it. 

"Ouch!" He was nursing his hurt knuckles. "Wood gets stronger too? That's... That's... That's actually quite good! I can rest assured that whatever I make will be sturdy!" 

Day 3, 2:21 PM. 

Nephelont started yanking the tree. He wanted to get the most out of this tree's trunk. 

'Now that I took it out of the ground, let's test just how capable my claws are' Nephelont started using his claws to remove the bark then shaved the wood little by little to make it the right size. 

Day 3, 4:53 PM. 

'It took me too much time, and it isn't even that good' Nephelont complained as he looked at the finished product. 

The tree's trunk has become a long shaft ending in a pointy end with sharp edges. The problem was that it was not perfectly straight, nor smooth. It had a lot of imperfections. 

'But this should be enough for now' Nonetheless, he was satisfied by his first handmade weapon. 

'By the way, could my claws regrow? Two of them became dull after all this carving' 

'Your claws can regrow over a period of time, physical body' 

'That's fortunate' 

Nephelont tested it on a monster he pinned down. This unfortunate monster tried to spit some weird liquid at Nephelont, which made him feel insulted. 

Nephelont killed all its companions and continued making his 'pointy poke-y stick'. Now that he is done, he will test it. He stabbed the poor thing, and the weapon went through. It met no resistance. 

'I should test my stick on tougher things' 

And so, it began. Nephelont roared for all the monsters in these forests to come attack him. 

(At the entrance to the floor) 

"Did you hear it?" A group of around ten adventurers was just starting their exploration on this floor. 

"Yes, I did. We should wait and see" The second in command suggested. 

"Supporters, set up camp. We will be guarding you until you are done. Everyone, we will wait and observe. This is the first time a roar shook the entire 29th floor. If the situation seems even a bit bleak, we will abandon the camp and flee to the safety of the 28th floor" The leader made his decision. 

(Back with Nephelont) 

Nephelont was seeing monsters from all directions come to him. 

'Since this floor is filled with vegetation, fire wouldn't be a good option. I still feel pain from my own flames' Nephelont had tried spitting some flame on himself to see if he was immune to his own flame. He sadly was not. Although he was resistant, he still felt that he received some damage. 

'We shall begin!' He started with blazing determination. 

Day 3, 8:34 PM. 

'Is it... finally over? This is surprisingly tiring' 

'You were fighting for around 4 hours. It is natural to get tired' Lo said. 

'Fair point. Now though, how should I deal with this many corpses?' Nephelont looked at the genocide-worthy amount of monster carcasses lying around. A lot of them had holes put in them. As for the smaller ones, they turned into a carpet of ash. 

'There is a group of ten adventurers quite a distance away' Allen warned him. 

'Why do I feel like they are approaching us?' 

'They are' Arslan confirmed his worries. 

'I feel three of them coming from around one o' clock. Some other two-to-five people follow them from behind. A separate group stayed behind at a great distance' Nephelont shared his assumption as he turned a little to the right. 

'Correct' Arsalan replied again. 

'I would hold my ground if they came to take my prey!' He felt a sense of possessiveness of what he worked for, especially since it is both his food source and a method to increase his strength. 

He picked up the crude spear he made and got ready. 

(End of Chapter) 

I want to tell you that I was late so I can write a more stable collection of chapters. If I write many chapters simultaneously, I could find discrepancies between them and correct them before uploading for you to read. Chapters up to chapter 7 are ready. I will be releasing them one/day. I will stop at chapter 7 and go back to my other fic to make a chapter or two then come back.

Have a nice day, ladies and gentlemen.