15 Normal hunting.

Michael woke up in the morning to be greeted by the orange hue of the morning sun. The forest is a bit shrowd but he could feel the warm light. He surveys his surroundings and sees that everything is in place now. He got the trap set up and got the bait ready now the only thing he lacks is the prey.

'He's gone... I hope we meet next time.'

Michael was a little disappointed that Brava had already left. Despite the fact that their situations are quite different, he could really relate to the boy with the long hair.

Michael split half of the alma fruit he found yesterday and ate it as breakfast. since the fruit is so big even a quarter of it can measure up to a whole normal alma fruit. He munches on it like before and prepares his stuff to go search for the alma lizard.

2 hours later

Michael is trotting through the forest in search of an alma lizard. They usually hunt for alma fruit 3 times a day. So he chances upon the footprint easily. Following it into the forest the footprints weave through the root and end up in a tree.

'Not this again.'

He still doesn't have a good memory of trees. The last time he was up there, he almost got eaten! However, if he wants to find this lizard staying on the ground won't help since the claw marks aren't visible from the ground.

He pulls out his tree climber and starts to ascend the tree line. Up in the trees, he looks down and clearly sees the forest below. Suddenly Michael gains a new insight.

'Oh, so that's why.'

With water from the last time and an alma lizard chasing him, Michael didn't realize that the lizard actually use the height of the scout for the alma fruit. This realization made him think about how he walked for 6 hours trying to find the fruit when he could just climb a tree and scout the surrounding. Climbing up here he couldn't see some part of the forest but it still gives him more information than being down below with the roots covering everything.

He noted this tactic in his mind to use later.

Now he just needs to follow the lizard marks. Michael is a lot better at this than before his motions are smoother and faster. Although going from tree to tree is not a difficult notion, he still had room for improvement.

- 3 hours later. -

Following the trail, Michael leaps from tree to tree. but he never found this lizard. Michael is puzzled by how the lizard manages to get away from him. He repeat what he did last time but he found no lizard. However, he did find other claw marks that lead to another tree, splitting the track in two ways.

From it, Michael could roughly guess that the lizard he is chasing is bigger than the other one. Michael still scared of the lizard chose to follow the new track with a little smaller claw marks.

This new lizard that he now tracking was weird. Michael could feel that the lizard is slower. After tracking 2-3 alma lizards he could see that the track that he is following has a lack of experience in climbing unlike the 2 before them.

However, Michael still couldn't find the lizard.

- 4 hours more -

Michael has now realized his mistakes. The lizard stopped for food or to be lured by humans the first two times he was able to locate it. But now he is following one that is actively walking or climbing around the forest on trees. Even if he push himself, father, with his body he couldn't match the speed of a lizard in the trees.

'That why Gurara hunt on foot?'

That's likely part of it, however, Michael could feel that there's more to Gurara's tracking abilities. He hopes to find the old man's secret some time in the future. but Today's not Michael's day. Seeing that he won't be finding the lizard this way Michael descends to the ground.

Walking back to the bait that he left he takes him 4 more hours and by that time the sun is already almost down. With winter around the corner, the sunset came quicker than before on around 5-6 o'clock.

He spent the whole day and get nothing. The more he progressed the more he found nothing it seems. However, Michael still feels quite happy about today's event, It's not uncommon for someone to go a whole day without a successful hunt. They could afford to do so since hunting every day would make the forest go silent.

Since he was a young boy, Michael has been told that if you kill more monsters than you need, Nak the sky dragon will appear and devour every monster on the island. leaving the populace to starve. There is a distinct variation of these stories on Boniha Island, according to which you will meet a horrific end if you kill too many creatures. Because of all these stories, monster hunting has been limited to once or twice every week. However, as the trial day comes closer, the hunter's restrictions are mostly loosened for the custom.

Even so, they are still not free to hunt the Apex monster. They can't truly hunt it while the chief is still away in a different country, not that they are forbidden from doing so. But if they do they would risk personnel loss, and the tribe values every capable hunter.

Michael is now back at the campfire making more spears, reading books, and making sure that his trap will work. From an encounter with Hamarr Michael saw the usefulness of the makeshift wooden spear. So he plans of stocking 4-5 of them to carry around on his body.

He read the book late into the night and fall asleep on his leaf bed.

Next morning

Michael woke up with a yellowish greeting from the sun. This is the last day he got to hunt the alma lizard. He felt a little nervous but, he still won't give up! He still want to hunt this monster!

Feeling a little cramped from the terrible leaf bed that he made Michael get up from it. He grabs his spear and rests it behind his back. He made a total of 5 spears since making more would slow him down and burn more of his limited stamina.

He then rubs the mud of the alma fruit and washes it in the nearby waterway. This time he takes the bait into the jungle!