The Hunter and The Hunted.

After hearing the dark ominous voice coming from within the cave I looked at it with confusion.

'I should be feeling scared, right?'

Cornifer told me he was scared shitless of this place. But when I looked at where the voice had come from all I thought was that he seemed nice.

"I guess?" I answered with a shrug

The voice from within the cave let out a deep chuckle before asking.

"Do you feel the urge inside to stalk, to kill, to understand?"

Taking a moment to analyze my actions so far I nodded.

"I have done my fair share of dissecting here and there. And I really want to figure out what is the deal with everything happening around here. As for stalking…" I trailed off at the end.

To be honest, I had mainly gone around the world giving any enemy a good ol' whack in the head with my nail. So I wasn't gonna lie to the person ahead of me, after all, I had a feeling he would be able to see right through it.

The voice simply let out a deep chuckle. The next moment I felt as if I was being analyzed, I could feel his eyes trying to figure out my weaknesses, I felt danger. Just before I prepared to fight or retreat I heard his voice once again as the feeling of danger disappeared.

"Tiny squib…. I see it through your eyes… The shadows of the void embrace you, though you have yet to embrace them back. You kill, you wish to understand, yet you have yet to learn to stalk in the shadows. Interesting…"

I heard his deep resonant laugh before his eyes landed on me once again.

"Take this, my journal. I see the potential in you to become a hunter. The journal will aid you. At first, the text may seem difficult to discern, but a learned hunter will come to understand its words."

I caught a journal that the strange person in the cave threw at me before answering with a confused smile.

"Thanks?"

"Little hunter, I hope you don't disappoint me. There are not many true hunters on these lands. So go out there and hunt! Become strong! And once you have completed the journal, return to me for your reward."

"Are you kicking me out right now or can I stay? I have a few questions." I said as The strange voice finished its small speech.

My words apparently caught the source of the deep voice off guard as the being stayed quiet for a few moments before answering after a sigh.

"...What is it?"

"So, first of all, what is your name? I'm Ghost by the way." I said before putting my hand up and offering a handshake. This dude seemed like he knew his stuff, so if I wanted to learn from him I probably had to create some sort of friendship with him.

"...just call me The Hunter."The Hunter replied with some disappointment in his voice, he had just done a dramatic speech only to end up this way.

"Mr. Hunter what did you mean by-" I tried to ask before I felt something grab my body and throw me out of the room in a fraction of a second.

As I spiraled through the air I was able to orient myself and land on my feet before I felt the vibrations in the air caused by the Hunter's deep voice.

"Little Hunter, you are not qualified to ask me questions. Go out there and become a hunter. Become Strong! Kill those who stand in your way! And once you are ready, return for your reward."

Was this dude trying to act cool again?

"Mr. Hunter I thought you said you would answer-" I tried to change his mind but all I heard was his shout coming from within the room.

"I have spoken."

I was left in a bit of shock before I simply sighed and began marching away. I swear, some people always have to have the last word. It's not my fault he decided to do a dramatic ending before I was ready to leave.

Opening the journal I began to look through the pages, finding hundreds of illustrations with descriptions in a strange runic language. But for some reason, I could read some of the entries of the enemies I had found along my way.

"Thanks for the journal!" I shouted behind me only to be greeted with silence.

— — —

'Dun dun, dun dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun' I was singing in my head the theme of mission impossible as I tried to sneak around bugs and hit them with the ol' sneak attack.

I guess sneaking around "stalking my prey" was kinda fun, but it wasn't really efficient when I could just run up to it and strike it with my nail. They were honestly not that strong, so it was really just for entertainment purposes.

"The shadows of the void embrace you…." I muttered to myself as I continued wandering around the place.

Did the Hunter really have to go around being all cryptic? What the hell was that supposed to mean?

"Hm…?" I focused my ears as I heard some rustling in the grass above me.

There was some movement above me. And just as I focused some soul to launch at the ceiling, the little red riding hood herself dropped down to the floor right in front of me.

"Hey, are you ok?" I asked as I looked at the place she had fallen from.

The girl looked at me for a moment before grabbing her weapon from her back and throwing it ahead of her. The moment that the weapon struck the wall ahead of her she was suddenly launched forward. For a faint moment, I saw something that resembled thread pulling her ahead. And just as if she were spiderman the girl continued to swing from one place to the other rushing ahead.

"Alright then." I said to myself as I simply shrugged my shoulders and continued ahead.

Grabbing my knife I looked down to spot a weird flying bug called Obble, at least according to the journal.

One more sneak attack and then I will continue normally. This is going by too slowly.

Jumping from the vantage point I had I fell directly on top of the Obble and stabbed it directly. Causing it to die instantly after we both fell to the ground and I used my own body weight to crush it.

Looking ahead of me I saw a bunch of the obble's flying around along with some of the strange little bush-looking things that moved across the ground who I found out were named mosscreeps.

Taking out my nail I coated my entire body with aura before beginning my rush ahead. Jumping and hitting the obbles with enough force to send them crashing towards the ground dead. One right after the other, each serving to replenish the soul I had used to coat my body with. And without wasting any more time I rushed at my top speed ahead. Jumping and crushing mosscreeps as if I was Mario and boosting myself faster and faster until I came across a bigger challenge.

My rush through Greenpath had put me right in front of a massive mosscreep. The size of an elephant and resembling a gigantic bush with glowing orange eyes.

A smile appeared on my face as I would finally come across something that would give me some sort of a challenge.

The massive creature began moving towards me at a pretty good speed, yet slower compared to the baldurs I had encountered. Wasting no time of my own I ran towards it too. With my nail in my hand glowing with the white aura I jumped right as the moss creature was right in front of me and I swung my nail down as hard as I could.

Yet instead of encountering resistance my nail passed by without an issue. Dispersing the leaves gathered around the creature.

Falling to the ground I prepared to block or dodge an attack, but after the leaves fell to the ground they revealed a tiny little creature the size of any other mosscreep.

A little creature that just scuttered into the floor and disappeared.

"Oh…" I said in disappointment.

"You win this time little dude…" I said to where it had vanished from

Yet just as I was about to move on I heard a loud rustling behind me and the sound of leaves rushing in my direction.

Swinging my nail directly behind me I saw an explosion of leaves in the air before I felt a small creature crash against my legs weakly. The little guy I had just declared a winner had tried to sneak attack me. And now it was looking extremely panicked as it tried to scutter away. But before it had a proper chance I scooped the creature from the ground and looked at the cute little bug.

"Hey there buddy, how are you doing? Wanna join me? I wouldn't mind having a companion here in Greenpath." I asked as nicely as I could.

But the little guy just kept on wriggling trying to get off my grasp. The poor creature looked extremely panicked. So after giving a short sigh I placed it on the ground and let it scutter away.

"You owe me one little dude." I said to the creature before it dug itself to the ground. Yet after waiting a moment for it to come out again to attack me I was surprised to not see a trace of it.

It had orange eyes in its massive form, so I could only assume that it was infected. This only left me wondering how much self-awareness the creatures here have. After all, the husks in the crossroads would simply charge at me recklessly, yet it seems that the creatures here in Greenpath had at least some sort of awareness to know when to run. Or well, at least the little guy did.