Traise remained crouched beside Luna near the upper cliff shelf while his eyes carefully tracked the movement patterns below.
The Roc Pythons weren’t wandering randomly through the area.
They moved with familiarity through the terrain, weaving naturally between stone formations and narrow passages as though every inch of the rocky lair already belonged to them.
Which, unfortunately, it probably did.
The realization irritated him more than it should have.
Those creatures were hunting dangerously close to his farming grounds now, and if they kept expanding outward, they would eventually start cutting directly into the Thornfang Boar population surrounding the cliffs.
Less prey meant fewer reliable kills.
Fewer kills would, in turn, mean slower leveling.
And right now, slowing down was not an option.
Traise slowly exhaled while watching one of the larger pythons drag a partially devoured boar carcass into a cave, just beneath the cliffs.
The Chain Quest timer lingered constantly in the back of his mind, whether he wanted it there or not.
Every wasted day mattered.
Every inefficient hunt mattered.
If those snakes wanted to move into his territory, then he would simply kill them first.
The thought settled into place with surprising calmness.
Not rage or recklessness, but more of a territorial feeling.
Traise glanced toward Luna while faint excitement and focus flowed steadily through the bond between them.
She understood his intent almost immediately.
Her glowing blue eyes shifted downward toward the cave while her silver-black fur began to ripple faintly against the surrounding shadows.
Neither of them hesitated after that.
The first Roc Python died less than five minutes later.
Traise waited until one of the outer serpents separated farther from the others before moving into position along a narrow cliff path above the cave.
Luna circled wide through the shadows below while Traise carefully studied the creature’s movement pattern from above.
The difference after increasing Intelligence was already becoming obvious.
Before, combat often felt reactive.
He survived by adapting quickly while relying heavily on instinct, movement, and desperation.
Now his thoughts organized themselves naturally during fights.
Angles.
Movement paths.
Timing windows.
Possible reactions.
Everything processed faster than before, not to a supernatural degree, but enough to feel clearer than he would have been able to process previously.
The Roc Python shifted beneath the cliff while its tongue flicked repeatedly through the air below.
Traise watched the movement quietly while mentally tracking the timing between each turn of its head.
A pattern quickly revealed itself.
The creature paused for several seconds between each shift in movement, repeatedly exposing the same blind spot near the rear portion of its neck.
The moment the serpent turned again, Luna burst from the shadows behind it.
The Roc Python reacted instantly, twisting violently toward her movement while venom sprayed across nearby stone.
Luna vanished sideways through the darkness the moment the serpent lunged, forcing its attention completely away from the cliff path above.
Exactly where Traise wanted it.
Quickstep activated beneath his feet as he dropped from the higher rocks with the Silverhorn Bone Dagger already descending toward the serpent’s neck.
[Critical! You have dealt 28 damage]
The blade slammed between thick scales while the Roc Python thrashed violently beneath him.
Traise released the dagger immediately instead of stubbornly trying to hold position.
The moment his feet touched the ground again, he rolled sideways while Luna darted past the serpent’s head and slashed across one of its eyes.
Traise recovered his dagger while it focused on Luna and attacked again from behind, while she continued redirecting the serpent’s focus away from him.
Neither of them remained stationary for more than a moment at a time.
Luna manipulated positioning while Traise exploited openings, gradually forcing the serpent farther into one of the narrower stone gaps lining the cave wall.
The opening lasted barely a second.
It was enough.
Traise drove the dagger upward beneath the creature’s jaw while Luna simultaneously tore into the exposed side of its neck.
[You have killed a Roc Python]
[You have leveled up]
The serpent collapsed heavily across the rocks.
Traise stepped back while breathing harder than before, but compared to their earlier Roc Python encounters, the difference was impossible to ignore.
The fight had felt controlled this time.
Still dangerous if he made a mistake, but no longer the frantic struggle for survival his first encounter with these beasts had been.
Luna approached beside him while satisfaction drifted steadily across the bond between them.
Their coordination finally felt natural, rather than desperate improvisation.
The hunts continued after that while Traise and Luna slowly worked their way around the outer portions of the serpent lair.
They isolated targets whenever possible while using the rocky environment itself as part of their strategy.
Luna repeatedly manipulated their positioning by forcing Roc Pythons into narrow turns or redirecting them away from escape routes, while Traise followed from the elevated terrain above before swooping in to surprise them.
The cliff wall restricted their movements, while narrow passages limited how effectively the larger serpents could coil and strike.
Several times, Luna deliberately baited Roc Pythons into overextending before Traise attacked from above while the creatures struggled to react in time.
Everything flowed more smoothly than before.
Even his reaction timing felt sharper now.
He noticed shifts in movement earlier, predicted attack angles faster, and processed openings more naturally.
Several times during the fights, he easily avoided venom strikes, almost before he consciously recognized the danger.
His faster thinking was making him more efficient.
And inside a forest like this, efficiency kept people alive.
Another Roc Python collapsed heavily across the ground while Traise pulled the dagger free from its skull.
Venom hissed faintly wherever droplets struck nearby stone, while Luna emerged from the shadows behind him moments later with fresh blood staining portions of her paws.
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[Quest Progress]
True Hunter
Dangerous Beasts Slain: 71 / 100
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This had been quite the workout.
They wouldn’t normally hunt so many Dangerous beasts so quickly in succession.
Traise wiped the sweat from his forehead while briefly opening his status window.
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[The Upgrade System]
User: Traise Axton
Party Members: 1
Grade: Initiate
Level: 9
XP: 25 / 170
Health: 59 / 67
Mana: 8 / 10
Speed: +40%
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Dangerous-ranked hunts might be a challenge, but where there was risk, there was also reward.
Traise closed the window again before glancing toward the deeper portions of the serpent lair ahead.
Excitement stirred faintly in his chest despite himself, though he immediately kept the feeling grounded before it drifted too far.
Confidence would become dangerous if he let it turn into arrogance.
The forest had already taught him that lesson repeatedly whenever curiosity started outweighing caution.
Luna suddenly froze beside him.
The emotional shift flowing through the bond hit Traise instantly.
Alertness.
Tension.
Unease.
His expression darkened while he slowly scanned the entrance of the lair again.
Moments earlier, subtle movement still carried faintly through the hollow.
Scales shifting against stone.
Loose gravel subtly scraping somewhere deeper beyond the cave.
Signs that the remaining pythons were still nearby.
Now there was nothing.
That absence felt wrong.
Traise slowly tightened his grip around the Silverhorn Dagger while Luna lowered herself closer to the ground beside him.
Neither of them moved while an oppressive heaviness settled over the area, as though something deeper inside the lair had suddenly turned its attention toward them.
Then the ground shifted.
Not violently, but enough for loose pebbles to tumble from the surrounding cliffs.
The sound of something scraping the ground echoed from somewhere deeper within the lair as a massive shape slowly emerged from the darkness ahead.
Traise’s heartbeat immediately sped up.
A sense of fear came over him.
The serpent that emerged dwarfed every Roc Python they had killed so far.
Massive white scales streaked with black reflected faintly beneath the light that filtered from the cliffs above, while glowing green venom dripped steadily from two elongated fangs that protruded from the creature’s mouth.
Thick armored plating partially covered sections of its neck, while its crimson slit eyes locked directly onto Traise and Luna.
And unlike the others, this creature felt intelligent.
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[Roc Python Queen]
Threat: Deadly
Observed Traits:
Enhanced senses.
Extreme physical durability.
Enhanced striking speed despite enormous size.
Highly corrosive venom.
Detected Behavior:
Displays intelligence beyond the species’ norm.
A trait that has allowed it to rule over others of its kind.
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Traise felt his grip tighten instinctively around his dagger while the massive serpent continued staring toward them from deeper within the cave.
Even without fully understanding the creature yet, the difference between it and the earlier Roc Pythons was obvious immediately.
This Queen was on a whole other level.
The pressure from the enormous serpent instantly crushed the confidence built during the earlier hunts.
Every instinct inside Traise screamed at him to leave immediately, while Luna’s fur bristled sharply beside him.
The Roc Python Queen made every earlier hunt suddenly feel small by comparison.