The muddy clearing beneath the cliffs barely resembled a hunting ground anymore.
Morning fog drifted slowly through the trees while Traise stepped around dried blood, shattered branches, and partially collapsed pits filled with monster corpses.
Dark stains soaked deep into the dirt around the traps while drag marks carved through the mud where larger creatures had struggled before dying.
Several of his poison-coated spikes still protruded upward at crooked angles, their blackened tips still slick with old venom.
Luna moved quietly beside him while her glowing eyes scanned the surrounding forest.
Her silver-black fur blended naturally with the shadows drifting between the trees, making her seem almost ghostlike whenever the fog shifted around her.
Unlike before, neither of them seemed particularly bothered anymore by the lingering smell of blood hanging through the air.
That realization settled strangely in Traise’s chest as he crouched beside the nearest beast corpse and began inspecting the remaining usable materials.
A few weeks ago, touching something like this would have made him disgusted and horrified.
Now his hands moved automatically while he opened his inventory and began systematically selling corpses and the dropped monster materials one after another.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Thornfang Boar Corpse Sold]
[Roc Python Corpse Sold]
[Thornfang Tusks Sold]
[Roc Python Scales Sold]
[Roc Python Corpse Sold]
[Thornfang Boar Corpse Sold]
….
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The notifications continued appearing while massive carcasses vanished from the clearing in flashes of pale white light, leaving behind only bloodstains, broken terrain, and the lingering scent of death.
The bodies disappeared easily enough, but the blood remained soaked deep into the earth beneath the traps.
That part never changed.
Traise moved steadily from pit to pit over the next couple hours, rebuilding collapsed walls, replacing broken spikes, and reapplying poison along sharpened stakes.
Rain from the previous night had partially exposed several camouflage coverings, forcing him to gather fresh leaves and mud while Luna occasionally wandered ahead through the surrounding trees before returning to brush lightly against his side.
The entire process felt disturbingly routine now.
Resetting traps, maintaining hunting routes, and managing resources all reminded him of farming monsters from his games, except that this world left the evidence behind afterward.
By midday, most of the hunting ground had finally been restored to something functional again.
The area still looked brutal on closer inspection, but the traps were once more hidden beneath dirt, leaves, and scattered foliage.
Only someone actively searching for irregularities in the terrain would notice the concealed pits stretching through the clearing.
Traise wiped sweat from his forehead before opening the Shop again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Dragon Coin Total Updated]
Current Total:
5,842 Dragon Coins
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
His eyes lingered on the number quietly while Luna settled near one of the repaired pits nearby.
The total was much higher than before, but still nowhere near enough.
Some of the stronger skills inside the Shop cost tens of thousands of Dragon Coins, while several rare weapons carried prices so absurd they almost felt insulting.
Even many lower-tier upgrades remained outside his reach for now.
Close enough to feel possible.
Far enough to remain frustrating.
Traise exhaled slowly before closing the window again.
Honestly, the system was cruel for that exact reason.
It constantly dangled progress right in front of him without ever letting him fully reach it.
Luna suddenly stopped near the edge of the clearing before flicking her ears toward the deeper forest.
A low growl escaped her throat while Traise instinctively followed her gaze toward the distant tree line, his hand immediately drifting toward the Silverhorn Bone Dagger at his waist.
Nothing appeared.
But the forest held a more ominous feeling than before.
The hunting grounds near the cliffs had begun to feel like familiar territory over the past several days.
Comfortable, even.
Which probably meant he was slowly getting careless without realizing it.
That thought alone was enough to bring the caution lingering quietly in the back of his mind back to focus, while he looked back across the repaired traps, which stretched throughout the muddy clearing beneath the cliffs.
The route was stable now.
Efficient enough to repeat consistently for the time being, which made the hunting grounds beneath the cliffs feel far less chaotic than they once had.
Survival still felt dangerous, but no longer overwhelming every second of the day.
The traps worked.
The hunting rotation worked.
Even the constant uncertainty surrounding the forest had started becoming something he could plan around instead of simply enduring.
After finishing the final camouflage covering over one of the deeper spike pits, Traise finally sat against a large stone near the cliffside and opened his status window again while Luna hopped lightly onto the rock beside him, her silver-black fur blending naturally into the drifting shadows around the cliff wall.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Attributes]
Strength: 29
Dexterity: 41
Intelligence: 21
Endurance: 27
Willpower: 16
Luck: ???
Free Attribute Points: 5
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Traise stared at the screen for several seconds before letting out an irritated sigh.
“System, can’t you at least show me when I’m near the cap for each stat? Doing the math on this constantly is getting annoying.”
For a brief moment, nothing happened, just as he assumed it would.
But then a familiar voice was heard in his mind.
[Processing Request]
[Updating Attribute Display Format]
A second later, the status window shifted slightly.
The numbers reorganized themselves automatically, separating his natural attributes from bonuses granted through other sources like equipment, skills, and Luna’s companion effects.
[Attributes]
Strength: 24 (+5)
Dexterity: 27 (+14)
Intelligence: 20 (+1)
Endurance: 25 (+2)
Willpower: 14 (+2)
Luck: ???
Free Attribute Points: 5
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Traise’s eyes narrowed slightly while he studied the updated screen more carefully.
Seeing the numbers separated properly immediately made the entire system easier to understand.
Most of his inflated Dexterity came from equipment and passive bonuses, while several other stats were already sitting dangerously close to what appeared to be the natural stat cap.
Except…
His gaze shifted toward Intelligence.
Twenty-seven base?
Traise rubbed his chin slightly while thinking back toward the earlier quest rewards.
The stat increase from the last quest!
Two points to all attributes.
The slow realization hit him almost immediately afterward.
“The quest reward bypassed the limit…”
That explained why Intelligence sat above the apparent cap, despite never naturally reaching that number through level-ups alone.
If the bonus points from quests ignored normal restrictions, then future rewards could potentially push his base attributes far beyond what standard progression allowed.
That changed things considerably.
Suddenly, quests felt even more important than before.
Traise leaned back slightly against the stone while Luna quietly rested beside him, her soft, silver-black tail flicking lazily near the edge of the cliff.
Five points were not enough to drastically change everything, but it was enough to matter.
Strength still felt tempting immediately.
More damage, better survivability, and faster kills all carried obvious value inside a forest where almost everything wanted him dead.
He slowly exhaled while thinking through everything that had happened recently.
None of his most dangerous victories came from directly overpowering enemies.
The traps helped.
Positioning mattered.
Timing often decided whether he lived or died, and several fights would have ended badly already without Observation warning him early enough to react.
And through nearly all of it, Luna had been there beside him.
Raw power alone wouldn’t keep him alive deeper in the forest.
The Solhart and the pressure lurking farther beyond the cliffs had already proven that much.
Traise continued to stare quietly at all of his current stats for several long seconds before finally making his decision.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[5 Attribute Points Allocated]
Intelligence increased: 20 → 25 (+1)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The change hit almost immediately, though not in the dramatic way Traise expected.
His thoughts simply moved more smoothly than before, while the surrounding forest suddenly felt clearer somehow.
Sounds separated naturally instead of blending together into background noise, while his eyes tracked movement more easily between the trees surrounding the clearing.
It didn’t feel like becoming magically smarter overnight.
It felt like his brain processed combat information more efficiently.
Even spatial awareness felt sharper now.
Distances, terrain angles, and movement patterns around the clearing began to organize themselves more naturally in his head, while the subtle delays between thought and reaction seemed slightly shorter than before.
Cleaner reactions, sharper timing, and improved prediction all blended together into something difficult to properly describe.
Traise slowly flexed his fingers before glancing at one of the nearby traps, then at the deeper forest stretching endlessly beyond the clearing.
Strength won fights, but intelligence won survival.
That knowledge settled heavily into his thoughts, while Luna suddenly lifted her head again toward the distant tree line.
This time, Traise noticed it too.
Movement.
Far deeper within the forest, several sets of branches shifted almost simultaneously before going still again.
The silence afterward felt wrong.
Not immediate danger, but close enough to make the hairs along the back of his neck rise.
Traise slowly stood while Luna moved beside him, her silhouette shifting faintly as the shadows drifted around her form.
The repaired hunting grounds suddenly didn’t feel nearly as safe anymore.
He remained standing near the edge of the newly repaired clearing, while his thoughts slowly organized themselves around the numbers now displayed in front of him.
The updated attribute screen made everything easier to process.
Previously, his stats had looked deceptively inflated, with no clear separation between natural growth and his other bonuses.
Now he could finally see exactly where his actual progression stood.
More importantly, he could finally see how heavily his build already depended on synergy.
Equipment bonuses.
Luna’s companion effects.
Passive skill enhancements.
The system layered everything together far more deeply than he originally realized.
That alone made his earlier decision feel even more correct.
A pure Strength-focused build suddenly seemed far less appealing when his strategy, equipment interactions, and bonuses clearly mattered this much.
Traise closed the attribute window while Luna quietly stretched beside him atop the stone.
Her glowing blue eyes were tracking the distant forest automatically while she rested, refusing to fully lower her guard.
Honestly, neither of them really did.
The deeper forest had already made sure of that.
Traise slowly exhaled before glancing back toward the hunting grounds stretching beneath the cliffs.
His farming area was sustainable for now.
And consistency meant planning ahead.
If he continued gaining roughly one level per day while maintaining reliable hunts for Dangerous-rated beasts afterward, then the Chain Quest bonus objective suddenly stopped feeling impossible.
Completing the other quests would provide a nice boost to his XP as well, provided he didn’t rush into anything that was over his head.
And was it difficult?
Absolutely.
Dangerous enough to kill him repeatedly if he became careless.
But impossible?
Not anymore.
That realization settled quietly into his thoughts while he mentally started organizing the most efficient routine possible.
Repair traps during the morning.
Farm Moderate-ranked creatures for reliable experience afterward.
Sell corpses and materials once the inventory space becomes tight.
Then hunt Dangerous creatures before returning to the cliffs before nightfall.
The cycle formed naturally inside his mind almost immediately afterward.
Sustainable XP gain, manageable risk, and gradual progression all blended together into something far more reliable than blindly throwing himself into dangerous fights repeatedly.
Reckless progression would only end up getting him killed.
Efficient grinding was the key.
That mindset felt extremely familiar.
Back on Earth, he would have spent hours optimizing routes, memorizing cooldown timers, farming locations, and improving his own efficiency in games.
Most players rushed directly toward harder content the moment they unlocked it.
The smarter ones learned consistency first.
Now, that exact mentality was keeping him alive.
Traise glanced toward Luna while she hopped lightly down from the stone and began pacing slowly along the edge of the clearing.
Their current setup worked largely because they complemented each other naturally.
Luna’s speed and shadow movement allowed her to reposition targets easily while Traise controlled terrain, traps, and kill routes.
Neither of them needed to overpower stronger creatures directly if they controlled the fight properly from the start.
The forest rewarded preparation far more than pride.
A sudden shift in Luna’s posture interrupted his thoughts almost immediately afterward.
Her ears lifted sharply before her head turned toward the deeper forest again.
Traise noticed the change through the bond a moment later.
They both went on alert as they sensed something off.
It wasn’t his own sense of smell picking anything up.
Instead, fragments of Luna’s instincts bled faintly across the connection between them, allowing him to vaguely understand what had caught her attention.
Something familiar lingered deeper inside the forest.
Something dangerous.
And unmistakably serpent-like.
Luna moved forward without hesitation while tension flowed steadily through the bond between them.
Traise followed carefully behind her while keeping one hand near his dagger.
The terrain gradually shifted the farther they traveled from the hunting grounds.
Dense forest slowly gave way to rougher stone formations and uneven terrain where massive roots twisted through cracked rock surfaces.
The air itself somehow felt warmer here, while a sense of unease grew heavier the deeper they traveled.
Luna eventually stopped beside a jagged section of stone partially hidden beneath hanging vines before lowering her head toward the ground.
Traise crouched beside her carefully.
Serpent trails.
Several of them.
The marks carved faintly through dirt and loose gravel where enormous bodies repeatedly dragged themselves across the terrain.
Nearby, several pale scales rested near the base of the rocks while fragments of old shed skin clung loosely against nearby stone surfaces.
His eyes narrowed slightly while studying the tracks more carefully.
These trails were fresh.
The grooves through the dirt overlapped repeatedly, suggesting the creatures used this route often rather than simply passing through once.
Some paths cut deeper than others, implying much larger bodies moving through the area regularly.
Traise slowly stood again, following the trail farther between the rock formations ahead.
“Looks like they’re coming from somewhere nearby,” he muttered quietly.
Luna’s tail flicked once before she moved forward again.
The farther they followed the serpent trails, the worse the surrounding terrain became.
Dissolved bones littered narrow crevices beneath the cliffs, while partially devoured Thornfang Boar carcasses rested near the edges of several rock walls.
Venom stains scarred portions of the stone itself, leaving dark, melted grooves where what seemed to be an acidic poison had eaten directly into the terrain over time.
Sections of shed snake skin hung from elevated cracks overhead, while the sense of danger flowing through Luna steadily intensified the deeper they traveled.
It reminded him a lot of the snake exhibits he had seen at the zoo when he was little.
The rocky environment gradually narrowed ahead into a series of elevated cliff pathways and enclosed stone passages, where visibility became increasingly limited.
Warm air drifted upward through the gaps, while Luna suddenly slowed near the edge of a higher rock shelf overlooking the lower terrain beyond.
Traise carefully crouched beside her before slowly peering downward.
And immediately understood what the tracks had been leading toward.
Below them, partially concealed between massive stone formations, several enormous serpent bodies coiled through the shadows of the rocky basin beneath the cliffs.
Thick black-green scales reflected faintly beneath the filtered sunlight while fresh movement trails carved through nearly every section of exposed dirt below.
At least three.
Possibly more were hidden, deeper inside the stone passage beyond them.
Traise’s grip tightened around the dagger at his side while Luna’s silver-black fur bristled faintly beside him.
Even from this distance, the pressure coming from the area felt different from their earlier Roc Python encounters.
The overlapping trails, the shed skins, the dissolved bones, and the venom-scarred stone all suddenly fit together into a single ugly realization.
This wasn’t wandering predators passing through the forest.
It was a serpent lair.
One Dangerous-ranked creature was usually enough that it could be handled consistently without mistakes.
Multiple Dangerous beasts occupying the same territory together changed everything.
Positioning would become riskier.
Retreat routes became more unreliable.
One mistake inside terrain like this could easily turn into getting surrounded before he even knew it happened.
And if a lair existed this close to his farming routes, the creatures would eventually spread outward toward the surrounding hunting grounds.