4 - Self-reflecting experience

"Convert these monster cores to points"

[Ding! You now have 249 points]

Merlin showed a smile, a rather wide one at that…

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~~~~"

Merlin was riding on Hansel, in front was Gertrel and behind him was a fleet of 7 newly acquired Pumas, all driving in a single file it was quite the sight to behold, the Puma family of Hansel, Gretel which he had acquired the day before, new to the group was Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy and Dopey which were named after 7 dwarfs rode along cruising at around 40 kp/h, it was no wonder that the suspension had gone out on Gertrel the day before with the not entirely flat grasslands, the 9 Pumas soon found a target, a group of yak-like monsters, Merlin yelled

"From the spiral of death!"

The line of Pumas began circling the group of yak-like monsters that had taken defensive positions with the young in the middle of the herd, they would usually scare away predators like this, only this was the first time that they had met Merlin's bloodthirsty cats, that now drove in a circle around the herd of yaks, then came Merlin's signal

"Close hatches!"

Merlin ducked down and closed the hath before he yelled

"Fire up the grinder!"

Then at once, the 9 Pumas fired their MG-42's inwards, a few moments later the yak-like monsters were all turned into a bloody paste Merlin's control over the Pumas were excellent, he had staggered their positions so he mostly avoided friendly fire, all friendly fire they took was a few bullets to Sneezy's hull, which only scratched the paint job a bit, then Merlin gave the stop signal and the 9 Pumas stopped simultaneously before they pointed their turrets outwards, Merlin popped open the hatch and looked for signs of survivors but, understandably, didn't see any movement, then he set the 9 Pumas to auto-kill within their assigned angles before he walked over and began picking up monster cores

"Oh, grade 2 cores, not bad"

Merlin picked up around 40 cores before he heard one of the Pumas open up with its MG-42, he quickly ran the opposite way and entered Puma on the other side of the formation before he drove over and investigated, he saw that on the turret of Happy (the Puma that had opened up with its MG-42) was embedded an arrow, Merlin's smile quickly froze before he looked in the direction Happy's turret was pointing and saw

"...A Centaur?"

It was indeed a Centaur, a very dead Centaur, Merlin panicked and quickly asked the system

"Hey...That's a monster right?"

[Ding! It appears to be the carcass of a grade 3 monster, a Centaur]

"Oh… So it's just a monster…"

Merlin heaved a sigh of relief before he ordered Happy to check for a pulse, after a brief machine-gun salvo Merlin jumped down from the Puma he was riding and walked over with his Bayonet ready to harvest a grade 3 monster core however when he got a little closer he almost puked, the human part of the Centaur appeared… Well very human, especially its wide-open terror-filled eyes made Merlin hesitant to cut open its chest and retrieve its monster core

"Come on Merlin… Pull yourself together…"

Merlin eventually managed to retrieve the monster core, it was grade 3 just like the system said, Merlin sighed before he turned his back and walked back towards the Pumas, that was his mistake, he only saw the turrets of the Pumas turn slightly before Doc opened up with its machine gun, then he felt a sharp pain on his right arm

"Ouch..!"

Merlin grasped his arm and felt something warm leaking out from the cut on his arm, he was bleeding, Doc had only just managed to fire its MG-42 which had caused the Centaur archer to miss his mark, still, the arrow had nicked Merlin's arm

[Ding! Hidden quest completed: Get hurt by a monster 1, Reward: 1 x first aid kit]

The system was saying something but Merlin didn't hear it, he felt nauseous at once and his eyes were spinning as he stumbled back towards the Puma and only just managed to enter the turret before he passed out, the arrow was dipped in a primitive but effective poison Merlin mumbled in his sleep

"Return… To camp…"

Merlin was hunted by ghoulish visions as he sweated for the first day, he wandered in and out of consciousness and puked over himself until he couldn't puke anymore, he was tortured by strong pangs of pain and headache the next 2 days thereafter as he slowly recovered, thankfully the convoy of Puma's returned to camp and on the 3rd day he finally managed to crawl out of Puma in the morning, then in the evening he had reached the shore of the river and managed to drink something so he didn't die of thirst, now rejuvenated by the of the gift of water he puked again before he began sweating once more as the pangs of pain intensified and mixed with the pangs of growing hunger he was feeling from not eating for 3 days… Another 2 days passed as he drank water, puked, and felt pain like he had never before… On the eve of the 6th day the poison seemed to subside

"..."

Merlin tried to speak but found his throat was parched, he slowly rolled over and drank some water before he managed to speak

"Well… That… Sucked…"

Merlin recovered slowly as the 7th day dawned and finally managed to get some food which he rolled for 3 times, getting another grade 1 spare part and a pair of binoculars before a meal finally came out, he slowly ate it, however, he puked it all up again only half an hour later…

On the 8th day Merlin managed to eat some food and not puke, he lay on the shore of the river with tears in his eyes as he felt the warmth of the MRE spread through his body as he was rejuvenated by food, he had never eaten anything more delicious… The finally on the eve of the 8th day he had recovered enough to walk back and enter one of the Pumas that had been faithfully protecting him while he was recovering from being poisoned, it rained that night, though Merlin only noticed this when he stepped out of the Puma that next day and stretched, then he prepped an MRE and quickly ate it before he silently crawled into Hensel before he ordered

"Kitty group one, formation one, forwards 2/4"

Merlin looked through the binoculars as he scanned the horizon for prey, he wasn't out for revenge on the Centaur's he had been careless and paid the price, that was all

'...'

As it turned out being poisoned and nearly starving turned out to be a great self-reflecting experience, he had plenty of time to think of things and reevaluate his position in the universe, as he had figured it 'something' brought him here to kill monsters and granted him this system to do it

'If that's the case I should do as I am told and kill monsters…'

Though his lips raised a little when he thought of exterminating the Centaur's, soon he spotted some prey, as fate would have it, it was a small group of Centaurs, it looked like they were out hunting as they seemed to be stalking something further ahead, Merlin ordered

"Close hatches… Switch formation to formation 2... Then close to 400 meters"

The 9 Pumas switched to an arrowhead formation as they spread out, then once they entered around 400 meters Merlin ordered the lead Puma

"Gretel, full stop, load High-explosive… Fire!"

The 50mm cannon fired once it brought its gun to bear and stuck true hitting in the middle of the group of 5 Centaurs, from there Merlin didn't do anything, he simply ordered the Pumas to stop as he observed the Centaurs that quickly attempted to flee, then he followed after them from a distance, in the afternoon the group of injured Centaurs returned to what looked like a rather large village, Merlin observed it from a distance for a bit before he ordered the Puma's turn around and head back towards the basecamp, Merlin mumbled

"Now I know where your nest is…"

The next few days Merlin hunted towards the north instead of towards the east where the Centaurs village lay, he quickly grew his Puma flock to 20, which included 5 Sd.Kfz. 234/1 which had the same chassis as the other Puma's but was equipped with a 20mm autocannon instead, these Merlin planned to use against the upcoming assault of the Centaur village

"Well, I figured that the 20mm autocannons will do wonders against soft targets… Isn't that right Gretel?"

Merlin stroked the side of the front-guard Puma for tomorrow's operation as a cold light flashed through his eyes, he was going to wipe out the Centaur village, then continue east to find some civilization

"Before I grow mad from speaking to tanks…"