To Hunt or To Be Hunted

Luke would not make the same mistake of going out into the forest in the middle of the night.

He let out a sigh.

'I'll have to bear with the fact that there's a corpse in the same room as me.'

It made him very uncomfortable, but he didn't have a choice.

He walked over to the bed and tried resting.

Although he wasn't confident that he could fall asleep, he had to at least try.

Trying to forget about today and thinking of his past life back on Earth, he slowly drifted asleep after a long time.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Luke squinted his eyes as he woke up. He slowly sat up and stretched as he yawned.

After rubbing his eyes, he was met with a familiar, simple room.

'Of course, it wasn't a dream.'

Luke rose from his bed and touched his chest.

He recalled some information from yesterday.

'The old man said that he had two elementals: the unique elemental, whose name I couldn't comprehend, that entered my body, and also a wind elemental. The pure white ball of light that dispersed was definitely the wind elemental. It would've been great if I could've somehow absorbed that elemental as well, but that's just wishful thinking.'

Luke narrowed his eyes.

'It's about time that I do something about the old man's corpse. I can't bear seeing him any longer. I figure it'll be a bit safer during the day. I really don't want to run into that giant bird creature again.'

Luke thought that it would be better not to think about his death too much, but it had undoubtedly left a mental scar on his consciousness already. Whether he'd like to admit it or not.

Luke's stomach growled. He hadn't had any food or water since appearing in this forest.

'Is my stomach really growling while there's a corpse right in front of me?'

Just the sight of the corpse made Luke instantly lose his appetite as soon as it appeared. And that was without even taking the abhorrent, rotting stench it emitted into consideration.

Either way, Luke stood up and decided to take a look around the house, hoping to find some supplies that would be useful later. He found some dried meat as well as a leather water pouch, both tucked away and wrapped in a piece of cloth under the old man's bed.

'This should last for a while.'

Luke heaved a sigh and drank a gulp of water, as his mouth was very dry.

He sat down on one of the wooden chairs and leaned downward, placing a finger on his forehead.

'If I think about it rationally, the giant bird-like creature is most likely the strongest monster in this forest. It has the ability to control wind, so I'll assume that it possesses a pretty strong wind elemental. The old man didn't explain it to me all that clearly, so I'll need to test a few things out, but after taking into consideration the similarities in appearance between the Gleems and the giant bird-like creature, I have a hunch that ordinary Gleems possess wind elementals themselves, just very weak ones that are practically useless on their own.'

'If this is actually the case, there may be a way to absorb those elementals as my own and combine them into a single stronger elemental. The old man appeared to have had a pretty strong wind elemental himself, so it would've made sense for him to have lived here until he strengthened it even further by killing Gleems. He could've easily absorbed the elementals back when he saved me as well, without me noticing. I mean, I did keep my eyes closed for a few minutes.'

Luke straightened his back and stood up.

He turned his head around to look at the old man's corpse.

"Sorry, old man, but you'll have to stay there for a bit longer."

Luke turned his head back around and opened the door. His eyes narrowed, adapting to the daylight.

The reason for leaving the old man's corpse inside the house was simple.

Luke could either leave him in the house or in front of it. The latter would probably lure Gleems to the only relatively safe place Luke knew of right now, so there was only the former option left to consider.

He didn't want to carry the corpse away from the house as he previously did, because if a Gleem were to ambush or attack him, he wouldn't be able to react properly, and even if he did, he most definitely would've just died in vain because of his current strength.

'The way I see it, there's only one way to kill a Gleem for the current me…'

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Branches cracked under Luke's feet as he slowly kept walking through the bare forest.

'So, if I were to kill a Gleem, there's no way that I'd win in a fair confrontation, especially without a weapon.'

If he couldn't beat a monster with his physical strength, then he'd have to use his head and devise a plan.

The forest Luke was in barely had any resources to speak of, so if he were to make a weapon, it would have to be one made out of wood.

He looked at the ground below him.

'I'll need to find at least a sharp stone or something similar to it first.'

As he walked through the forest, Luke crouched down from time to time so he could get a better look at the ground, and after repeating this process multiple times, he managed to find a stone that was about half the size of his fist, with a slanted edge.

The edge would probably be sharp enough for what Luke had in mind.

The stone by itself couldn't be used as a weapon, but he wasn't planning on using it like that in the first place.

Now he needed wood.

Specifically, Luke was now searching for sticks or loose branches that were somewhat straight and at least as thick as his forearm. After repeating the same process he had used to find a suitable stone, Luke found two sticks that satisfied his requirements.

There was also a branch that would've been better for the job, but even after pulling, twisting, and kicking it, Luke couldn't separate the branch from the tree, even taking into consideration that the branch was loose in the first place.

After all of the materials had been gathered, the real work could begin.

Luke sat under a nearby tree and started sharpening the thinner ends of the two sticks, as those ends would require less effort to sharpen properly.

The sharpening work was dull and boring, and it was also very hurtful to Luke, causing calluses to start appearing on some parts of his hands.

'If someone ever told me that this is what I'd be doing after graduating from college, I'd laugh out loud in their face and call them insane…'

After sharpening up the two sticks, the plan could commence.

Luke carried the two sticks under his armpit and started searching for an open plain.

After a short walk, he spotted an ideal location. He placed the thicker of the two sticks on the ground and stood a few meters away from it.

He did not want to die again, so what he was about to do had to succeed.

He already knew of a tried-and-tested way to make Gleems that were wandering around come to him.

Luke gritted his teeth as his mouth turned into a grin. His legs were shaking.

"HEY!!! YOU BASTARDS! COME AND GET ME!!!"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Sticks broke, and the dry earth cracked under the weight of the talons of a bird-like creature as it walked forward.

It had a big stature, reddish fur, and small wings, with its small marble-like eyes shining in a deep orange color. Its beak was small compared to the overall size of the creature, but it was large enough to bite off a human's head without much issue.

It kept looking around, searching for prey. Even though this forest was desolate, a few foolish people would come into it from time to time in search of treasure.

The creature was hoping to run into one such wanderer.

*Screeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!*

It instinctively screeched loudly, asserting its dominance. They were greedy creatures, and their intelligence was estimated to be on the level of a 2-year-old human child by various monster experts.

Individually, they were easy to handle, but the problem was that they preferred to move in groups. There was also a creature that was able to gather all of the Gleems in the forest at will, so not even the most seasoned elementalists would dare come here unprepared.

But one didn't have to have any experience as an elementalist to be able to express their death wish.

"HEY!!! YOU BASTARDS! COME AND GET ME!!!"

As it heard the shout, the creature's small wings fluttered. Both enraged and excited, the Gleem screeched yet again.

*Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!*

Considering its thick, short legs, it started running surprisingly fast, making its way towards the direction of the shout.

And there it was.

A human.

The Gleem started salivating. It had not had a proper meal in months, and its instincts took over as it leaped towards the appetizing human.

The human jumped to the right and managed to dodge its furious attack by a hair's breadth.

The Gleem burrowed its huge talons into the ground, stopping its charge. It was quite shocked, as it didn't expect the human to dodge its attack, but that feeling disappeared as soon as it appeared, as it felt sharp pain.

A thick stick was sticking out of the Gleem's back. Scarlet-red blood started trickling down to the ground slowly.

*Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!*

The Gleem screeched in pain and grew even more furious, fluttering its wings and thrashing around.

It glared at the human and started charging at it once more, with more vigor and speed than ever before in its life.

The human rolled towards his right, and as if expecting it, the Gleem swiftly changed its direction and opened its beak wide, ready to sever the human's head clean off, thus satiating its appetite.

It would be able to have a whole human just to itself. Gleems usually had to share their prey with other Gleems, as it was unusual for a single Gleem to be able to hunt a human single-handedly.

What the Gleem did not anticipate, though, was that instead of the human's head, what was waiting for it was a thick, sharp stick that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

It completely crushed the joy of the Gleem, along with its left eye.

When it saw the stick, the Gleem tried dodging to the side, but it was too late, as the sharp stick kept penetrating deeper into the Gleem's skull, quickly reaching the creature's brain.

In truth, it wasn't that the stick stabbed into the Gleem's head, but that the Gleem stabbed into the stick with its own momentum instead.

As the stick kept penetrating further into the Gleem's brain, the creature lost all of its strength.

The now-lifeless Gleem kept its speed, and despite the human's best efforts at dodging it, a part of the Gleem's body crashed into the human, smashing him into the hard, dry ground and knocking all of the air out of his lungs.

The Gleem fell over and started rolling on the ground, kicking up a bunch of dust and earth.

The Gleem only stopped rolling once it hit a tree.

As the human struggled to catch his breath and sit up, he could see a light through all of the debris.

There was a tiny white speck of light floating out of the Gleem's corpse.

The human, now stained with blood and dirt, managed to slowly stand up and grin as he limped towards the Gleem's corpse.

Luke's plan played out just as intended.

As he approached the corpse, his heart was still beating wildly because of the leftover adrenaline.

He reached his hand out towards the speck of white light that was floating above the corpse.

Luke felt his chest tighten as the white speck of light started floating towards his hand.

The white speck of light was floating up along his arm and making its way to his chest. It entered his chest, and Luke felt as if his chest was repeatedly being poked open by a dozen or more needles.

As he bore through the pain, he unbuttoned his shirt, and the silver hourglass tattoo was pulsating with a blue hue.

The white speck of light started changing into a tattoo-like symbol as well, much smaller than the silver hourglass. The blue hue subsided, and a new tattoo was revealed right under the silver hourglass.

It was a small, pure white gust of wind. It looked as if it were lifting the silver hourglass up, helping it rise to new heights.

Luke suddenly felt a bit lighter on his feet and felt as if though he could move a bit faster.

He also felt the pain from crashing into the ground disappear and smiled.

'So, my assumption was correct. The Gleems indeed have wind elementals themselves, although they are incomparable in strength to either the old man's wind elemental or the giant bird-creature's one.

Luke stared at his callused hands.

'If I kill enough Gleems and practice hard enough, I might be able to reach their level sooner than I thought.'

At this thought, Luke clenched his fists and raised his head to look into the gray sky.

Luke would not let himself die again.

He closed his eyes, and the scenes from last night flashed by.

Luke shivered but clenched his fists even harder.

He opened his eyes and glared at the Gleem corpse below him.

'This is just the beginning…'