Shadow parasite

A simple individual could easily be overwhelmed by the aura that came from the vast wilderness ahead. Extremely beautiful, but deadly at the same time. Gorn's hair fluttered in the gentle wind. He was by no means a simple individual. While being far away from the top of the food chain, he was still no pushover.

"Work smart, not hard, right?"

This was a saying Gorn was quite fond of. His two weeks spent inside the library weren't for nothing. A plan emerged in his head for some time already. He knew exactly what he wanted to do during this trip. With a steady pace, Gorn headed towards a certain direction. In the novels that he read, the main characters usually went to dangerous places to engage in life-or-death situations.

'Fuck that!' thought Gorn. Life-or-death situations were something he wanted to avoid as much as possible. With great care, Gorn advanced mile after mile.

"This is getting annoying!" The speed at which he was advancing was only a small portion of what he was capable of. The cause for that was simple: too much noise and wind resistance. If he went past a certain speed, the noise resulting from the wind resistance was very upsetting; not to speak that it was also very uncomfortable to his body. All of a sudden, Gorn thought of Sara's wind resistance skill.

'That skill is a little too specific. I think some type of stealth skill would be far more productive.'

Fortunately, he knew the perfect choice for that. The blue-spotted deer, a non-violent creature that lived in the proximity of the city. Its meat was considered a delicacy, with a taste and flavor that had no match. The bad part was, however, that because of their culinary worth, the creature was quite scarce. To make it worse, it had a very powerful stealth ability that made it almost impossible to find it through normal means.

While it was hard, it certainly wasn't impossible since its intelligence could not compare to humans. Capturing such a creature was, however, very time-consuming.

'How about I issue a mission at the Mercenary Guild?'

Gorn's idea was very much to his taste. It would cost him a lot of money, but his prowess was much more important than some resources. In a way, it was a kind of investment in the future. The stronger he got the easier it would be to obtain money. This matter was something he would take care of a little later when he returned to the city. In the meantime, Gorn switched to his beloved 'blink' ability.

Using the current level of this skill compared to running at full speed was only around half as fast. The advantage was that it was more inconspicuous. Three hundred meters in a second was by no means a small distance. Of course, he also had to be on guard, so his journey took longer.

'This is so amazing!' thought Gorn. In a short time, he traveled tens of miles. The experience seemed surreal. The changing landscape was, however, a testimony that he was not imagining things. Huge rocks and boulders made their appearance among the towering trees. Green made way for another dominant color. The color of stone. Among the rocks, one could notice a lot of spider webs. Some areas had such a thick layer of them that made it very hard, and even impossible, to see past them.

"This should be the place."

The owners of those thick webs were giant spiders. Their power generally varied from five hundred to a thousand and five hundred. Unlike normal spiders, these lived in small groups. They were the dominant race in a huge area, and they reproduced at a very fast rate. Thankfully, after a certain point, the spiders hunted other spiders for food. This usually happened when their number went past a certain limit or the space became too crowded.

"Let's test out my plan."

Being in the air at a safe distance Gorn created a potent fireball. Without much hesitation, the fireball went straight towards what seemed like a cave infested with spiders. Gorn watched attentively, eager for positive results. In a few moments, his knowledge proved to be correct. The cave turned into a blazing inferno.

Creatures killed: 17/1000

Creatures killed: 18/1000

Creatures killed: 19/1000

Creatures killed: 20/1000

Reading these messages was very satisfying. In but a few short moments, he killed four enemies with the minimum power level required. There were probably more of them, but weaker or stronger. In response to his thoughts, a giant spider emerged from the cave. It was covered in flames, making it look more daunting than it was already. With a few movements, the spider went to a nearby safe place while looking left and right for enemies.

Gorn could not check the power level of the monster since he was too far away. The fire soon died out. It was intense but very short. The nearby rocks made it impossible for the fire to spread in other directions. Seeing such a gigantic spider for the first time was not a pleasant feeling, even though he wasn't technically afraid of them. Gorn had no desire to get closer, that survivor was stronger than him, most definitely.

"This seems like a great idea after all."

And so Gorn started to wreak havoc among the spiders. It was like a small apocalypse descended at that place. After a few days of hunting, he was very pleasantly surprised by the results.

Creatures killed: 107/1000

Gorn sat leisurely on an enormous boulder that was not infected with any monsters. "At this rate, I might finish the mission faster than anticipated."

The spiders didn't know what even hit them. The match-up was unfair from the start. While the web was highly inflammable, Gorn had to at least use a certain amount of power for it to ignite. Strangely or not, that varied a lot, from nest to nest. The bottom line was that he also had to rest and recover his energy, as well as take notes on how to adapt his power to be most efficient; otherwise, he could have completed the mission much faster.

Nonetheless, the efficiency was way better than hunting reapers or other monsters that liked to roam around all over the place. This proved once again that knowledge was power. Sadly, there was a limit to information, and some things had to be found out by personally testing them out. The nights were lonely, and stressful, since he didn't dare to completely fall asleep. It was hard since he wasn't used to it, but not impossible since he wasn't a normal human anymore. Little and bad quality sleep wasn't a problem for the time being.