7 How one track a monster

Gurara takes a piece of wood out of the tree and finds a nearby source of water. Then he uses it to clean Michael's face of the excrement on it by splashing him with water. When the kid is clean Gurara walks off and shows him how to track a monster.

Michael is still in awe of Gurara's strength, though. The tree is not only large, but it can also support many kinds of life, even the large monster. One needs the strength of a monster to rip a chunk of wood from a mangrove tree.

"Michael what are you staring at come here!"

"Y..yes!"

"There are three main things that you got to look for when tracking a monster. Their footprint, their wastes, and lastly their food source. This is coming from me so take it with a grain of salt. But so far this works for me when trying to track a monster."

"First, you are familiar with this one, their waste. They come in many different types and forms, some can be easily detected like that one while some could be really hidden." Gurara point at the feces that Michael just wipe himself with.

"There's an equation in the mainland that can calculate how big a monster is by how much waste they produce but, I don't care about it. just know that most of the time big shit equals big monster."

Gurara then turns his head to walk deeper into the forest. Michael follows right behind.

"You could also tell what type of monster they are by the state of their waste. Solid is most likely a reptile liquid is most likely an avian so on and so on. The feces that you just touch is from the Alma lizard."

"So do we hunt it?" Michael asks eagerly.

"Not we, You have to hunt it."

Michael flinches. The last time he tried to hunt the Alma lizard he got chased for around an hour. however, he did manage to kill It even if it's only by sheer luck that he could survive. He is deeply afraid of its sharp maw that is ready to eat him while he is powerless against it.

The only lesson he got from that time is that traps don't work well against them. His three months of work barely work. And Gurara is telling him that within 5 days he could hunt an Alma lizard? It simply doesn't compute in his mind.

"Your face is too easy to read Michael. Yes, you have to track it solo, and Yes, you have only five days left to prepare for the hunt but you forgot one crucial thing that I just gave you."

The book! He forgot everything. His twelve-year-old mind is so preoccupied with crap and the vast amount of work he must finish over the course of five days that he has forgotten that he got the book.

That would have taken him some time to realize it if Gurara hadn't reminded him. Michael opens the book to the chapter referring to the Alma lizard. An easy-to-follow image on the page shows how to best handle the lizard. The bulk of tactics are beyond Michael's abilities, but every creature on Boniha Island has a fatal flaw. They fear the flames.

living in these environments it would take a miracle for the forest to catch fire. if not for humans the monster on this island wouldn't even know the concept of it. For some monsters, fire is their most loved element but not these monsters in boniha island where the forest moister is very high.

'Oh, my Apex!'

When he remembers how he snuck out of the village without any light, he palms himself. He chose not to use a light source since he didn't want to let anyone know he had snuck out, and by the time he was far into the forest, his eyes would have grown accustomed to the darkness.

That's why the pratol team and hunting team that he saw before carried around a torch! If he knew this it would have been safe when hunting these monsters! Maybe he could even kill the Apex predator with this!

"Micheal!'

"Yes!"

"Don't get too cocky and overconfident!"

"Yes!..."

"Michael! I told you before that your face is easy to read." Micheal touch his face which had turned into a huge smile from his fantasy. He had to act calmer and more collected like Gurara.

"Alright, Michael here's what we are going to do. I will track down the Alma lizard using the clue that's left behind and you have to learn from it. I will track it once and you have to copy me so stay focused."

As soon as he was done speaking, Gurara entered tracking mode. He turns to the left after scanning the forest. He lowers down to examine the dirt. Gurara was examining the lizard footprint left by Alma lizard, as Michael could see.

After some while, Gurara stands up and begins to run. The elderly man appears to be sprinting, but in Michael's view, he is simply moving about aimlessly. Michael follows Gurara without question despite not understanding why he is running in this direction.

From Michael's perspective, Gurara might look like he's running in random directions but he's in fact following a trail that Alma lizard left behind. Its footprint claw mark and other clues add together with Gurara's experience make him realize where the Lizard might be at.

2 hours later.

Michael is exhausted from running for so long and is clinging on solely out of sheer willpower. If not for Michael, Gurara could have found the lizard in half an hour but, he has to slow down for Michael. When that happen it also gave more time for the lizard to widen the distance between them.

Monsters typically don't stay in one spot for a very long period if it's not in their nest or when it's time to eat. Gurara has to close the distance while making sure Michael doesn't fall behind. wasting more time.

"Stop"

Gurara made a stop near a river that was running in between the mangrove tree. he motion to Micheal to scoop up the mud in the river and smears it all over his body. This is a way to disguise his scent.

Different monster has different hunting method. Even though it can see its surroundings through its eyes the Alma lizard has poor eyesight, and hunt by smell. Micheal follows the old man's step and smears the mud over his body. but, not before checking if this is another one of Gurara's pranks.

Walking for another 10 minutes. They both came upon a familiar monster. A Dark Green lizard is resting on one of the big branches of the tree. By its sheer size, it's enough to scare most humans as its mouth could swallow them whole. However, the sight of its sleeping felt somewhat majestic with its dark green color and aquamarine stripes.

Michael's eyes are filled with pride. He killed one of these guys before, albeit the size is a little bit smaller.

"This concludes my lesson"

"What!?" Michael screams out in surprise. Who could have blamed him? On the way here Gurara hasn't said anything about how he was able to track this monster. The only piece of advice he gave was at the beginning of their journey.

"Shhhh keep your voice down I don't want to kill anything today. and yes this concludes my lesson. You have seen me track this beast before so I would like you to do the same. Don't come back to the village if you can't find another Alma lizard."

"Wha..."

"Good luck"

With that being said. Gurara vanishes from Michael's sight leaving him in the middle of the forest with one Alma lizard sleeping on the tree nearby.

He had only seen Gurara track a monster once! And he did it so fast that Michael didn't know what Gurara have done!

How could he track another lizard?