Chapter 5

If I can't come up with something fast, falling at this height would be the end. Below was the monster responsible for my potential demise. Slicing the appendage off my waist, I ignored the pained screech from the beast.

My eyes glowed, enhancing my body's strength with [Reinforcement] to find a ledge to grab. I quickly threw the idea into the garbage bin. There wasn't a chance I could pull it off without tearing my arm off, reinforced or not. Then it hit me. I needed to slow down my descent before hitting rock bottom. Looking back to the abyss, my eyes caught something shining. A pond surrounded by giant flora and fauna reflected light from the crystals.

Well, that solves one problem. Now I have to find something to slow me down. Once more, my mind conjured an insane idea, but I squashed the outlandish plan. I heard something buzzing and looked everywhere. The sound came from a giant bee-like insect intending to skewer me with its stinger.

My eyes widen before stabbing the insect right between its eyes before crashing into me. My bones rattled from the impact as we crashed into a tree. I groaned as I slid off the insect's head. Thankfully, the tree was hollow, so my reinforced body just went through it.

I went towards the pond and watched the clown monster fall into the water. It felt harder to breathe, and my organs were burning. To my horror, the water melted everything that got wet with the smell of vinegar. "Crap, acid!" I jumped back to a safer distance.

I ran away from the area, but I heard a roar as something came out of the acid pond. "Oh my god, this thing just won't die!" I yelled as the horror chased after me. However, my worries were for naught as it collapsed and its body melted before my eyes.

"Finally!" I thought as I walked away from the carcass. "With it finally off my back, I can leave this place."

*Crick*

"What was that?"

*Crick*

"Where is that coming from?"

*Hiiiissss*

Realizing it was coming right behind me, I turned and saw where the sounds were coming from the dead demon. Enhancing my eyes to see better, I became confused. It didn't have organs. That can't be right, because I was its intestines hanging out, but the longer I look, it was more like just an accessory.

A foreboding sensation hits me as I run from the spot, my weapons ready for what I hope would be nothing more than just my paranoia playing tricks on me. There was an explosion as something was heading toward me. It was coming in too fast.

Then there was intense pain in my stomach as something forcefully expelled the air from my lungs. Just trying to breathe was like torture, and before I knew it, I was flying in the air with a trail of blood. Crashing to a boulder as the pain finally settled in, I squirmed and writhed. I couldn't even scream due to it.

It hurts, everything inside me hurts! My vision was blurry, but I could tell that whatever hit me was coming for me, so I crawled and hid underneath the bushes. Waiting for the attacker to show up, I looked through my pockets and found one of my healing items. It was tempting to use, but I stopped myself. Using the item would reveal me to the monster.

Still, the attack confirms my suspicion. The monster I had killed was a clone, and the moment it died, it alerted the original. Judging by how fast it found me, I'd say it was more capable than the clone. I prayed to survive this ordeal. I did my best to cover my scent and tracks so the monster won't find me. After ensuring that it won't find me, I relaxed and healed my wounds with a potion.

There was a static noise before hearing Spring's voice. [Karma, are you alright!? Your vitals are spiking.]

"No, I'm not okay. I feel like I just got run over by a car." I groaned. " There's a monster after me. Is there a way for me to tell what level this Grendel is? I've been facing its clone this whole time." This monster was just too abnormal for its usual species. Adding its clone powers is something that a normal Grendel shouldn't have.

[I-I'll check...]

I felt something was watching me, but I couldn't find anything. That's odd, the leaves were moving despite there wasn't any wind.

[Karma, run! You need to run!] Spring's yelling made the dreadful feeling return tenfold. [That Grendel is an Alpha-type.] After Spring said those words, something grabbed my face and yanked me out of my hidden spot.

My skull collided on the ground before something grabbed my leg and smashed my body repeatedly like a toy. Even with [Reinforcement], the pain was too much that all I could do was scream while Spring kept calling out my name.

The world kept spinning, and my body won't move as the beating continued. I must have passed out because the next thing I remember was having my reinforced skull dragged across the wall and slammed into several pillars before being thrown away.

Good news, I'm out of the acid lake. Bad news, I'm in too much pain!

My vision became blurry as everything faded to black as I heard my mother's warning. There were four rankings for each monster.

The Deltas are the runts of the monster species. Betas are the sub-leader of the pack, while the Alphas are the leader of the species. Finally, the most dangerous of them all is Apex.

Each rank gives us seekers a general idea of the threat level. Deltas are easy to beat while the Betas have limited intelligence. The Alphas, while much smarter, still needed manpower to compete with anything. An Apex was different. These monsters have surpassed the limits of their species, unlocking unique skills and abilities capable of wiping out armies or cities. Mother even told me that one monster was so powerful that the entire world banded together to kill it. Apex had the intelligence of a human being but none of its arrogance. It doesn't even behave like its kin, according to my mother.

The memory then vanished as I opened my eyes once more. Getting up was a painful task, but I was able to sit up straight. There was a stain on my ripped-up shirt. It must have been my healing potions. The runes that ensured my chances of surviving this mission were gone as well. Looking around, I found my sword a few feet away from me.

Hearing the monster approaching me, I narrowly avoided its blow. Drawing out my knife, I tried to slash it back, but the monster jumped into the air and made a run for it. Standing still, I waited for it to attack again, and it did.

Are those... Boulders?

My face pales, and I run towards my sword before escaping, running back into the foliage with the monster behind me, screaming in rage. There was a clicking sound, and I narrowly avoided being stabbed by a pitfall trap.

Then another trap sprung up, but I avoided that one too. Then another and another. Soon I was dodging hundreds of traps. Though, I got a few scratches. It wasn't fatal or poisoned. First clones, next were hit-and-run tactics, then long-range attacks, and now luring me to the traps? This was an alpha, but where is its pack?

Suddenly sprinting to the right while another boulder missed me, the monster let out a roar of frustration. This thing was too fast and strong for me to take head-on, hell it will kill me in one shot, but the only thing that was probably stopping it from attacking me head-on was that it knew about my explosives.

I don't even know its weaknesses, so I can't hurt it even if I wanted to. Then I heard it approaching me from behind. So I rolled to the side as it cleaved right through a stone pillar like a sheet of paper.

I'm so learning Advance-rune magic when I get home. Mom's runes made me survive two punches from the monster, and that beat down, too. Running away from this thing was the best option.

Thankfully, it placed too much power on its legs and sent itself flying past me, so I had a few minutes before it found me again. Turning around a corner, I stopped as I witnessed a terrifying scene. There were probably around fifty car-size scorpions eating some of my fellow seekers, but the frightening part was behind them. It was big as a house, and good lord; it had more of the little guys on its back.

"My luck sucks..." I uttered as the horde noticed me.

I was ready to run when the Alpha-Grendel I had been running from went past me and slaughtered the scorpions. Well, that just raised more questions than answers. Either the monster is blind or just taking out its competition from killing me. This was my chance to get away from that thing.

After hours of running, I stopped and made sure nothing was behind me. I placed some basic runes like the radar rune, a healing run, and a protection rune. I told Spring about the Grendel's strange behavior and warned that it was probably entering the last stage of its evolution.

So how am I going to escape this death trap? With that thing after me, I can't run randomly, and Spring is still coming up with a plan for me to escape without getting caught. My mind wanders back to how it found me. That was a problem. If my methods of hiding my scent and presence were useless against it, I'm going to die again.

Goddamnit! What was I thinking!? I'm not a protagonist or some shit. I'm a regular guy that got ran over by a cosmic God because of a bet! Sure, I wasn't using all of my skills, but if this was how my new life was going to turn out, I would have taken the afterlife.

Reap what you sow, they said. I bit off more than I can chew. Relaxing my body, I remembered my breathing exercise: one... two... three... exhale. Alright, time to use what I learned from my encounter with Grendel.

It must have a resilient body or a weaker one since it used a clone. It can create imperfect clones but can relay information to the original through a link. Based on my encounter with the monster, it doesn't know I can't use any of my explosives anymore. So I can take advantage of its paranoia of keeping it away from me. Finally, it attacked the monsters instead of me, so there must be some sort of territory or feud. I can lure it to attack other monsters to escape. However, if it's blind, I need to figure out how acute its other senses are. I can't forget its intelligence either. Setting a trap and luring me into those were almost human ideas. No, it wasn't using human ideas; it was using the methods of a hunter.

So I asked Spring about the locations of the monsters and how many were in each area. Spring commented on my strange request but still complied. Alright, if my only option in escaping this thing was killing it, then so be it.

Hearing something approaching me, I got up and readied my blades and found it was an Orc. The monster roared before charging. My mind had already figured out how to kill this thing fast, but something else happened.

The Alpha Grendel appears out of nowhere and tackles the Orc. Blood, guts, and limbs went everywhere. I can tell that whatever this Alpha Grendel was doing to Orc was enjoying it.

I ran in the opposite direction, ignoring the Orc's screams.

So if it was blind, why can't it tell the difference through our scent? If the sense of smell isn't its method of tracking me, that means it is hearing my movements or feeling them. I blocked an incoming attack from a hobgoblin. "Ew... your breath stinks!" I taunted.

*Splat*

The hobgoblin's head exploded as a claw passed over my head. I recognized its arm and quickly ducked, trying to bisect it, but the Grendel jumped away and was about to attack again. Pretending to use my explosives, the monster jumps back farther.

Heh, sucker~

I smirked and ran away once more, earning a frustrated roar from the beast. The chase was back once more. Every time it tried to attack me, I would dodge before pretending to pick up my nonexistent vial.

The monster backs off again while growling. Call me stupid, but I can't help myself from taunting it. "Oh, what's wrong, tough guy? Ya scared? Wanna go home to mommy?" I grinned when it twitched. So it's smart enough to understand my language.

Soon the tables turned in my favor. I was cornering the beast with each swing and, using every trick I knew, its guard slipped, and I slashed its chest. Damn, it wasn't deep enough.

Finally, the creature ran out of hiding spots, and I could make out its appearance. It was a tall, slender figure with elongated claws and a demented grin on its face. Its eye sockets were empty, and it was wearing a robe of royalty and jester mixed into one.

It turns out I was the one getting cornered. The monster suddenly swung its fist at my sword. Even though its wrist was about to split in half, it kept pushing. I had to use both hands to stop my blade from being pushed back, but all it did was lift me into the air.

This thing had been playing with me the whole time!

My back was against the wall, and my heart skipped a beat as the monster lunged toward me with its fist ready to smash my head, but luckily another monster came and attacked it. It was a giant humanoid frog. Strangely enough, the Grendel didn't know it was there. It was trying to sense the monster, but it was struggling against a weaker foe.

All I did was observe the battle. Every time the Grendel recovers, the frog-human remains still before attacking.

Strange, I remember not moving a few times, but it still found me, so what was the frog doing that I wasn't doing, right?

[Enhancing] my ears to better hear the frog's rhythm, I found out that it wasn't emitting any kind of sound, not even a heartbeat, until it attacked.

The Grendel had pretended to let its guard down, and the frog foolishly attacked. The clown monster suddenly turned and tore the frog's head out of its shoulders.

I made a beeline towards the location of the most populated monster area, the monster's method of detecting me. I finally figured it out. Heartbeats, the Grendel can detect a heartbeat. If my theory is correct, the Grendel won't find me if I surround myself with more people or monsters.

That also explains its inability to find the frog. Some Frogs can stop their heartbeat to fool a predator into thinking it was dead.

I turned around just in time to block the Grendel's fist pushing against a wall. The monster raises its other arm to finish me. I overloaded the ground we were standing on, causing it to collapse. As we lost our foothold, the monster's fist struck the wall instead, creating an enormous hole for us to go through.

I couldn't stop myself from grinning while separating from the monster. Watching the Grendel turning left and right as if confused about something. "What's wrong can't find what you're looking for?" I taunted.

I can hear several clicks around us. My mana changed slowly from what once was a bluish, pleasant color into a purplish, corrosive color. The colors of my eyes had changed. My iris had become yellow while my pupil was red. My pupil transforms into a mixture of a goat and fox, giving it a 'plus' look.

My grin became wider. "Now we're playing my game!" I growled as gigantic bats surrounded us.