3 Missing Meat

After the hunt the night before, Michael awoke late in the morning. Being one of the weakest people so he only qualifies to learn basic lessons. Only farming and other non-combat jobs are covered in his class. He, therefore, didn't give a damn about it.

His ambition is to be the Apex hunter! He admires the people that can bring down big monsters. So he wants to take down big monsters! even if his body is physically weak he could offset it with hard work and creativity!

last night he prove this theory by killing the Alma lizard. even if it's rocky in the end, success is success. Micheal bought out the meat and the lizard scale that he just carves out.

"um..uncle.." Michael calls out meekly.

"What?"

"Um... I have hunted this" He placed a bag on the table that contained a large chunk of Alma meat. Gurara examines the material. Surprisingly, Gurara gives Michael a friendly gaze in return. Micheal is happy with Gurara's reaction.

Because of his objectives, he has the courage to hunt the monster, but in Gurara's case, Michael simply doesn't want to let him down. His interactions with the old man become increasingly stiff and frightened as a result.

"Good job kid." Gurara praises him and gets into the kitchen. During this time Layla has already gone out to school. So only he and Gurara's at home. The old man disappears into the kitchen and comes back a while later with a meat stew.

Micheal eats in silence while Gurara gets back at his work. While eating Micheal could confirm that the "Your own hunt taste better" statement is true. The meat stew that he's eating tastes similar to yesterday's meal but, Somehow It felt better when eating your own hunt.

He finishes the meal and visits Gurara in his workshop. At this time Gurara could be seen in his workshop repairing hunters' equipment. Despite having only one hand he masterfully repair a light armor that had just been sent in.

Noticing that someone has entered the workshop Gurara glace back. Upon seeing that It's just Michael he continues on with his work. Michael fiddle with his finger and nervously asks.

"What are you doing uncle?"

without looking back Gurara wipes off the sweat on his face and answers.

"I'm repairing our tribe armor. Some of them have been sent to war in a foreign land." He said while bringing a massive sword that has been heated by the smelter onto an anvil.

tink!

The molten greatsword is struck with a hammer, which causes the blade to bend back into its original position. Gurara submerges it in the water while generating a sizzling sound once it is all in. The sword is then placed on a dark whetstone, and sharpening work is begun.

Michael sits down quietly watching the whole process. He doesn't want to interrupt the process. Thinking that The old man would get mad if he messes up because of him.

"What do you want kid."

After finishing his work Gurara asks Michael with a confused tone. Usually, the kid wouldn't have watched him work.

"Well..." Truthfully he's more scared of people than monsters.

"Are you trying to skip training?"

"No! no no... The meat that I gave you to make a meal.... there's actually a corpse in the forest... I want you to help me bring it back."

"You kill it by yourself?" He assumes that Micheal Gurara hunts with other kids So he's surprised by the sudden revelation. However, upon thinking back Gurara realized that people like Michael weren't popular in his class.

"Yes..."

"um... let me prepare the wagon." Gurara agreed

- 4 hours later -

Gurara and Michael pass a huge mangrove in the forest with one tolling a wooden wagon. They are going to the spot where the Alma lizard died. Micheal can't recall where the lizard actually perished, though. It was late at night and he was in an unfamiliar area. Gurara makes the decision to find it from the trap.

The Boniha island is not big compared to its neighbor. With A diameter of 1240km and circular in shape, the Boniha island could be explored within a week. At the center of the island is a sole mountain. It reaches about 1km in height, towering over the Boniha island making it a natural landmark.

The mountain also acts as a reference for danger levels because of the Apex predator that resides in it. At the rim of the island, they called that general area the 'safe area'. The deeper you go the more dangerous it will be.

Normal people usually reside in a safe area. However, there are some that build a camp in the deeper zone. These are called the wild hunter team. Their job is to act as a scout and also the hunting teams.

"You're quite deep into level 2 kid," Gurara warns him with the information. Level clarification is another way to calculate how dangerous the area is. It ranges from level 1 to 3 with one being the safest.

In his opinion, this way of categorizing the danger level is the easiest but only Gurara and a small number of people use it.

At that moment they arrive at the trap that Michael set up. Gurara look around the place to find a clue. Luckily the lizard leaves quite a large trail when it's chasing Michael so Gurara could easily follow it.

The two continue on the trail as it makes strange loops and turns deeper into the woodland. Gurara traces the body's blood trail as the primary lead. The blood did not, however, take him all the way to the lizard. So Gurara needs to locate a remnant from the damaged tree or the footprint of the lizard.

After following the trail for a while The duo finally finds the lizard. Except it is only a trace of the monster, not the whole body. The leave that Michael cover it with has been scattered around the place.

Someone stole the Lizard!

"U..Uncle..." Micheal panicked upon seeing that the lizard is not there. He fears that Gurara will think that he's a liar.

"I know" Gurara gives him a knowing look. He can see that there used to be a body there with the amount of blood on the floor and he saw the trap that Michael made, So he has no doubt that Michael didn't lie. The old man drops the wagon and crouches down to find a trace of what happened.

From the blood, the lizard has suffered huge injuries and from its trail, he can deduce that Michael has been chased by it deeper into the forest. But what he didn't understand is that in the later part of the trail, the lizard seem to be chased out by something.

This does confuse Gurara quite a bit because where the lizard corpse is only in the middle of the Level 2 forest. Usually, at this level, nothing could be very threatening to the lizard for it to have been fighting so badly.

Gurara knows that the alma lizard despite being the most common small monster is very persistent. This omnivore creature usually hunts small animals or eats Alma fruit. Their strength lies in their stamina and can chase most small monsters until they catch them.

There are not many monsters that can scare the lizard from chasing their prey. In these forests, the only real threat to the lizard was Ruala wet spider and Houeye pike fish. The two of them were very territorial and wouldn't leave their place.

Ruala spiders only sit in their own web that's usually built between trees and the Houeye swam in the forest pond and usually hunts when it rains. Neither of them has the habit of chasing Alma lizard in the middle of the forest. And as far as Gurara knows this isn't their territory.

The only possible thing that can scare them is a monster from Level 3 near the mountain. This is unlikely as most of the predators in level 3 also don't want to leave their territories.

'This is...'

Gurara pause for a moment after he notices a trace of an unexpected meat thief. "We are going back"

"Okay..." Michael seeing that he won't get to eat more alma lizard sigh in disappointment.