Nemesis

Khan had always thought that he was a fairly calm and level headed person. However, his current situation was like this.

Wonder aimlessly into an endless fog unable to see where he was supposed to go... Die miserably. Falling at the hands of one of the seemingly endless natural obstacles such as cliffs and poisonous plants, he had even fallen into a pool of lava at one point. Then each time after dying he would see it...

The sign.

A seemingly harmless wooden sign had inadvertently become the embodiment of his suffering, conditioning him to hate it even more than he had ever hated anything in his life. The amount he disliked his Useless Mother was chump change when compared to the visceral hate he had for that cursed sign.

Of course, he had tried defacing the sign or uprooting it. whatever wood it was made out of was definitely what they made nuclear bunkers out of he was sure of it.

He opened his eyes after getting caught in a rockslide and the second they met the sign he let out a growl like a cat whose tail had been stepped on and gave it a hearty kick. "Fuck off arggh. I swear once I get out of this fog, with my new and improved hunter skills I will track you down and destroy you." Khan bellowed.

At this point, it would be fair to say he had lost his marbles. But, it wasn't without reason. Khan thought he must have been trapped here in the Fog for at least a month from his estimations. He now knew the terrain changed every time he entered the fog not allowing him to escape through trial and error.

"At the very least my senses have improved greatly thanks to this experience. I can now roughly tell what's going on in my vicinity without using my vision." Khan said to himself after calming down.

Watching Khan enter the fog now, his approach had changed greatly. He kept low to the ground to avoid any overhead obstacles and walked with purpose, which although practical looked almost crab-like.

In this manner, he eventually crawled out of the Fog a day later coming to a stop in front of a forest that looked somewhat similar to the one he was currently in back in Eden. With trees the size of Skyscrapers and teaming with innumerable strange plants and wildlife.

"Who's laughing now stupid sign! I got out and look at you! still stuck in the fog like the plank of wood you are. hahaha." Khan taunted the fog. While he had gained a lot from this trial he had also lost a lot, leaving part of his sanity behind him. sadly nothing could be done, such was life.

After resting for a while Khan got groggily to his feet. "Why haven't I been sent back yet? I completed the trial didn't I?" He asked in trepidation.

[To finish this Basic guide tutorial you must complete half of the trial of the forest. this consists of many parts. the first of which you just completed.] Answered the 'Guide' heartlessly. Dashing his hopes of going home.

[The trial of the forest consists of 4 parts. you only need to complete half. The rest shouldn't be as difficult as the first part, however.] added this 'Guide' helpfully for once.

Hearing this Khan visibly relaxed and then set off towards the forest. He felt an oppressive atmosphere when he entered, almost like everything in his surroundings viewed him as a trespasser. Taking a deep breath and calming himself he quickened his footsteps and followed the newly reappeared path deeper into the undergrowth.

When he reached the end of the path he looked like he'd just been struck by lightning. "Not... not again! Please don't do this." Khan begged to a suddenly quiet forest. In front of him. Proudly stuck into the ground and looming over him was a wooden sign identical to his previous foe. "That bastard must have planned this from the start," Khan muttered. "He lured me into a false sense of security only to send one of his goons after me."

Having reached this conclusion Khan's irrational fear of the signpost had risen exponentially and he could only inwardly praise its craftiness and prepare himself for a tough battle.

"These signposts are truly my nemesis." He realised, before exclaiming "What's one more test to me. I've completed tests I didn't even know I was taking before. this nothing." seemingly trying to reassure himself. then, steeling his heart he read the words on the sign.

Test 2: Tracking, Trapping and Basic weapon usage. Now that your instincts have been honed. Use your smarts along with the various techniques inscribed below to find and catch 10 animals.

"This test is much more straight forward than the last one." Khan lamented before turning his gaze to the table below the sign that had previously been overshadowed due to instinctual fear. On it were 3 thick, leatherbound tombs labelled 'An idiots guide to Tracking', 'Traps, traps and even more Traps' and 'Weapons are my weapons'.

Khan eagerly picked up the books choosing to ignore the stupid titles and started reading it and was quickly enraptured by the various methods described by the text. He realised after some reading that he would be unable to put them into practice without his newly improved senses and instincts and couldn't help complimenting the organisers of the trial.

Like he had first remarked this test was indeed much more straightforward than the previous one. And, after spending a week reading the book and trying out the various techniques inside, he managed to track down his first catch.

Earlier that day he had noticed the trail of a small mammal and followed it to a clearing. In which rested what looked like a Lemur with rather sharp claws and a spike at the end of its tail. it appeared to be sleeping peacefully and Khan had currently approached to an area within 10 meters of it.

"Let's just do this." He said to syke himself up.

Picking up a slingshot he had fashioned with a few sticks and vines. Khan took aim at the only slightly intimidating lemur and with shaking hand sent a rock flying... a few feet wide.

"Shit shit shit! I missed!" Khan groaned as he turned and scrambled to get up and run. Hearing a violent screech he new without looking that hat he was being chased, so he took off into the undergrowth.

Following the path he had well mapped out in his head he could almost feel the lemur breathing down his neck. Whether by the grace of God or dumb luck he managed to stay on his feet and made it to the area his trap had been laid.

Before he could catch his breath the nearby Bushes shook and a furry bolt of lightning burst in rage. and landed right in front of him.

"Come on, come on! just a bit more to the left." Khan silently prayed, watching were the lemur was putting it's feet.

As the lemur took a step forward he nearly wind wild with joy as it's foot got caught in a snare he had prepared and it's foot was wrapped up in brambles before it was strung up.

Almost breathless with excitement, he threw caution to the wind and approached the lemur that looked like it was from one of his nightmares. Shaking from the adrenaline he wondered what to do next.

"I don't really want to hurt the poor thing, but I have to kill it for the test." Khan bemoaned as he walked up while wondering how to kill the lemur as painlessly as possible.

It was at this moment he noticed two things. the first being that the spiky bone tail of the lemur was sticking out of his throat. The second being that said tail wasn't strung up like the rest of the lemur.

Flabbergasted, He breathed his last breath. "Sneaky little critter..."

Waking up at the sign in the forest Khan took off at a full sprint with a grim face "I was tricked by a glorified squirrel argh, for fucks sake!" He groaned as he headed for the trap a fast as his feet could carry him.

A lot less apprehensive about killing it this time. When he arrived at the trap Khan stopped a good distance away from the tied up lemur. Who, when it had seen Khan arrive put on a look of disbelief. 'I thought I killed that idiot.' was the look it seemed to give him.

Thoroughly annoyed by this point Khan smiled coldly and said. "Now that I think about it... I needed some target practice."

A few hours later Khan brought the lemurs bruised corpse to the sign and, after placing it down on the table the body disappeared without a trace.

Khan took off into the forest shortly after to work on his skills and try and find the trail of another suitable animal to kill.

After a few more days and no sign of anything suitable in the area he decided to change his approach. "These animals are playing hard to get so... I'll have to get them to come to me." Khan muttered to himself in frustration.

After searching for half a day Khan found a small watering hole, that had signs of being frequented by the nearby wildlife and set up some traps nearby. In another half a day the watering hole was thoroughly surrounded by various pitfalls and lures that would make any trap enthusiast proud.

"Hmm... something is still missing." Khan mused while looking at the various arrangements. Thinking back on his experiences with medicine he formulated a plan.

The reason He hadn't been eating the various medicinal herbs in the forest, aside from the fact he didn't get hungry in the tutorials, was that nothing in the tutorials could affect his physical body, only his mind. However, now that he turned his attention to the plant life he became assured of his plan.

...

Amongst the forest was a goose, with a beak that seemed to have been filed to a point and wings akin to a bat it looked somewhat similar to a feathered pterodactyl the size of a small motorbike. Following along behind it were a few smaller similar looking creatures that were clearly it's young.

Smelling something sweet the monster goose turned it's beak to the direction the smell was coming from and, almost entranced waddled towards the scent.

Zombie like it approached the seemingly plain watering hole and caught sight of a man hunched over a stone bowl crushing and combining herbs.

Noting that the smell came from the bowl in the man's hands, the monster goose, driven by some inexplicable desire, spun into action and ran towards the man.

...

Hearing a crash from the trees behind him Khan turned around to see a giant goose bearing down on him and let out a yelp. But then, he calmed down and watched intently as the goose passed a certain tree, its foot went through the leaves on the ground and it disappeared into a pit.

"That goose had the most violent reaction yet. None of the 5 other monsters seemed that desperate. Clearly this mixture of herbs is the most potent then." Khan mused.

"only four more to go then." Khan said, before grunting in surprise as he caught sight of the small geese emerging from the treeline.

Putting away the medicine Khan sighed. "I am sorry." He apologized to the befuddled creatures. Khan couldn't find it in him to hurt those defense less little animals and shooed them away.

A few days later, having completed his quota after catching a flying snake with a makeshift poisoned arrow Khan felt a mysterious energy surround him.

[Congratulations on passing the Basic hunter trial. you will be returning to Eden shortly. Happy hunting.] The system sounded in his head.