Barry moved his arm down, walking the fine line between focus and emptiness that was needed to steer his [Direct Manipulation - Light]. His gaze was vacant as he was faintly aware of his arm moving down without breaking [Camouflage]. Next, when he attempted to maintain the invisibility while walking, he managed three entire steps before it collapsed.

Progress was much faster now, partly thanks to his new [Project Image] Ability. With his direct manipulation toggled on, he could feel the workings of the PE Node to create a moving projection of light. That allowed him to better understand how [Camouflage] functioned, as it was, in essence, also a kind of projection Ability, taking the immediate environment around his body and projecting it as if he wasn't there.

When an initial scouting trip had revealed only more empty stretches of rock dotted with pine trees, Barry had decided to get in more direct manipulation training before proceeding further. Better use of [Camouflage] would have really helped him in that last zone, and after that mad, breakneck dash he could use a bit of downtime.

He was training on a clear stretch of grey stone, only a few pine trees and boulders to keep him company. With the sun at its zenith, still burning as strongly as it did in the desert, he'd quickly worked up a sweat. His fancy all-white outfit was already smudged with dirt, but he didn't see the point in changing it yet. He decided to take a break from the practice and consider the notification he'd swiped away earlier.

Quest - Exhibit Worth

Slay twelve creatures of at least Tier 7 without the use of Cardinal Weaponry.

Time limit: N/A

Reward: 1 Cardinal Weaponry Token

He assumed it was Pokka's doing; he'd refused to ask the obvious question of how to get access to weapons that could damage high-tiered creatures, not wanting the AI's tainted advice, but now it seemed he'd gotten the answer regardless. The obvious assumption was that 'Cardinal Weaponry', whatever it was, would be capable of damaging at least Tier 7 creatures.

Once again, he found himself in doubt over the best path forward. If he wanted to reach his family as fast as possible, he should just try to make his way out while using his stealth Abilities. But that one unanswered question still stuck in his mind like a thorn: what would he do when he got there?

He should at least be able to protect them, otherwise what was the point of rushing there through fifty dangerous zones? What a tragic joke it would be, to make that journey only to then die together when the System inevitably threw more dangerous monsters at them, or drafted them into war.

It was clear that strength would be needed in nearly any scenario, so he had to continue training and fighting to gain Value. He would not take unreasonably high risks though. Better to get there as he was, than to die along the way.

That meant exploring this zone to see if he could somehow fulfill that quest. These Tier 7 creatures had to be hiding in here somewhere. Finding them would be the easy part, but once he did, there would be a bigger problem to solve: how would he kill the monsters without a weapon?

***

Barry had already gone through a fifth of the zone, moving slowly, without spotting any sign of life. He'd gone to look inside a crevasse, even squeezing between boulders to investigate what he thought might have been a cave, but again he found nothing.

He was seriously considering turning off his Abilities and screaming from the top of his lungs, when he finally felt something. There was a series of sounds, felt by extending his senses outside of his soundproof bubble. It felt like a faint pattern of spikes, almost like running his fingers over a fine-toothed comb. From his various tests, he'd learned to associate that pattern with higher frequency sounds. These were perhaps even too high for him to pick up with his normal hearing.

The puzzling thing was that he could not see where it originated from. He began to circle around, trying to triangulate the source from the timing of when the sounds hit which feelers. But either he was going crazy, or the source was moving.

He picked up his speed, circling faster, the strength of the soundwaves seeming to increase, until he suddenly came to a stop.

Did that pebble just move by itself?

With his Senses as his second-highest Stat, there was no mistaking what he'd seen, nor could it be explained by an insect or anything else that he could see.

Something occurred to him then. If the Roid-Bull was capable of using Momentum Abilities, and the wolverine controlled magnetism, perhaps other monsters would have access to other parts of the Ability spectrum. Including Light based Abilities like [Camouflage]. That might explain why he hadn't seen anything yet.

He moved to pick up some gravel, tossing it towards the pebble. He flinched back as a large shape was revealed - multiple limbs, twice his height - then it was moving towards him and he felt a rush of air from something passing narrowly over his head. He cursed, ducking as he turned around and sprinted away, ducking behind a tree.

"Okay, so it's invisible monsters in this one. That's… not great," he said to himself, breathing quickly as he peered out from behind the tree. He immediately realized his mistake and switched to putting out his feelers to track the sound instead.

It didn't seem to be pursuing him, or not quickly at least, so he took a minute to calm down and then decided to carefully test a few things out. He mixed some dirt with water and poured it out over the stone ground. First test was to see if it reacted to an image, so he projected an image of himself running back and forth in front of the sludge.

No reaction. That was strange.

For the next test, he mimicked soundsteps by casting small soundwaves into the ground. This time there was an immediate reaction, the high frequency sounds quickly approaching until small distortions appeared in the slurry he'd left out. They were only about the size of his thumb. It must have thin limbs that moved quickly, four or perhaps six of them. Some kind of insect then?

When he could tell from the rapidly increasing low-frequency sounds that it was closing in on him, he moved a good distance back and activated his Energy Shroud.

It didn't take long to puzzle the pieces together. If it was some kind of insect, that could explain why it hadn't reacted to the visible light. All insects he knew were able to see most colors that were visible to humans as well, but he could imagine that this adapted version operated differently. If it used infrared or some other form of vision, his projected images might not be visible to it.

His running theory was that it was using echolocation to track him. It explained the strange soundwaves, the poor eyesight, and why it was able to track him despite his soundproof bubble. The rapid clicks it emitted would bounce back from all objects, but his bubble just negated them. Since it reached below his feet, to this creature's internal sight that would appear as something like a strange, moving hole in the otherwise even ground.

If his theory was correct, he already had some ideas of how to turn that to his favour. The main problem was that the damn thing was invisible, and he didn't yet have a way to damage it.

He settled down, starting to mentally sketch out ways to deal with it. He was going to have to be clever about this.

***

Several hours later, Barry was muttering to himself as he considered the absurdity of prowling this zone in search of a giant, invisible insect.

"Can't believe I'm really doing this."

It wasn't quite as bad as swinging half-naked and bleeding from tree to tree, but it was still up there with things nobody would have ever expected to do. For all their cruel and hideous methods, the aliens did manage to force people out of their comfort zones.

Tracking the sounds of its echolocation, it didn't take long for him to find it and once he did, he began to lead it towards one of the rock formations he'd picked out.

Cold sweat ran down his back as he led it on a chase with fake footsteps, having only the proximity of its clicking sounds to guess at its location. Every time it would speed up in an attempt to catch him, he was forced to keep pace, frantically casting soundwaves as he tried to keep his distance. He still had no idea what it actually looked like, or if he would be able to dodge in time if it were to suddenly find him despite his Abilities.

As they neared the rock formation, he ran ahead, quickly climbing up a large boulder and getting his shoulder underneath a smaller one that was stacked on top of it. From the feeling of its clicking sounds, it was still following the waves he was casting, moving right into an alcove below.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

After drawing up a few convoluted plans, he'd tossed them all out and decided to keep things simple. How did one kill an insect? Simply by crushing it with a big rock. It had taken some time to find a good formation and quite some effort to set things up, but now all he had to do was push.

He had to spend some Value to be able to move a rock this big, first increasing his Strength to 20, then getting an Ability that would help give another push: [Infuse Momentum]. It allowed him to use some of his PE Capacity to add more force. He activated it right as he pushed with all his strength and after a brief grinding sound, the man-sized boulder rolled down and landed in the alcove with a loud crunch.

Barry waited for a moment, tense, but there was no notification. Had it gotten away? As he toggled on [Direct Manipulation - Sound] and put out his feelers again, he immediately noticed the frantic sounds it was making. It was still alive, but did not seem to be moving. Still on top of the tall boulder that bordered the alcove, he took out another canister of water from his MAFT and poured it out around the sides of the boulder below.

Inside of the alcove there was nothing, so he went to stand on the very edge of the taller boulder so that the water would cover the other side of the rock he'd pushed down. As the water poured down, a thrashing shape was revealed. It was closer than he'd thought, nearly making him flinch back.

He could make out a large, triangular head and a long midsection that stretched all the way down to touch the ground. It was half again as tall as him, with two spindly legs on each side as well as two large forelegs, one of which must have been caught under the rock. After throwing some more dirt down to reveal more of the oversized bug, he concluded that it was some kind of giant mantis.

Barry scratched his head as he looked down at it.

"How are you even getting enough air?"

Hundreds of millions of years ago, there had been giant insects, but never as large as this. Insects don't have lungs, depending instead on tiny tubes spread over their body to feed them oxygen. The working theory was that insects had only been able to grow to be that large in the distant past because the oxygen content in the atmosphere was much higher then.

He shook his head, knowing that he wouldn't find the answers here and needed to focus.

"The question I should be asking is, how do I kill you?"

It wasn't likely to work, but still he took out his spear and stabbed down at it. The tip skittered off its carapace, not seeming to leave even a mark. It reacted quickly, a single vicious swipe of its free foreleg cutting the haft clean in half.

He inspected the clean cut oak haft with grudging respect, then looked around for more rocks. The boulder he'd pushed onto it was about the largest size that he could still reliably push. It would be impossible to carry one up here. He'd need to find another way.

"I'm guessing starving you to death wouldn't count? If it's even possible."

The giant mantis did not respond, continuing its jerking motions, trying to get free of the rock. The sounds it was making were beyond normal clicks, feeling erratic and louder.

Barry looked around with a sigh, wiping sweat from his brow and holding up his hand to shield his eyes from the burning sun as he looked around.

Blinking up at the sun, he finally got an idea that just might work. Hadn't he used another way to kill poor little insects as a young child, when he'd given in to his more sadistic tendencies?

Deactivating his Abilities, he took a moment to get into the right state of mind, looking out in front of him without focusing on anything. Then he toggled on [Direct Manipulation - Light] and held out his hands, first making a small circle by touching fingers to thumbs. After a short moment of focus, it displayed a zoomed in picture of the rocks and mantis below.

Then, he widened his hands, spreading them in a larger circle, the lens effect increasing in size. It collapsed during the first few tries, but after a short moment of meditation, the next attempt was more stable.

He then managed to keep it stable while moving his hands away, focusing on making the working wider and thicker, feeling how the rays of sun were bunching together in the middle of it before moving back out. Once he was satisfied with the result, he adjusted the angle so that it was directly between the sun and the mantis.

A thin line of concentrated sunlight touched its carapace and the creatures thrashed even more wildly. He winced, a part of him rebelling at inflicting such agony on a living creature, but he had no other choice.

Slowly, he built on the effect, increasing the size and adjusting the shape to achieve an even more concentrated bundle of light energy.

With his soundproof sphere, he could hear the scratching of its insectile legs against the rock and even the increasingly frantic clicking sounds it emitted. They seemed to have reached a new intensity, sounding to him as a high-pitched keening cry.

The deadly dot of light remained trained on its midsection, building up heat until a thin line of smoke rose up.

The process of burning the creature to death with a giant magnifying glass was slow and cruel, the mantis getting increasingly desperate as time went on. Its carapace must have been highly resilient to heat to hold out this long. He thought he could see a hole finally starting to form, when the mantis suddenly chopped down in a final act of desperation.

His eyes widened with shock as it used three quick, decisive strikes to cut off its trapped foreleg.

"No!"

But then it was free and starting to skitter up his boulder. Barry barely had time to get a running start and leap, easily clearing thirty feet to reach the stone outcropping that formed the other side of the alcove.

Seeing that the mantis hesitated for a moment before moving nearly horizontally across the rock wall, he activated his Abilities and jumped down to the ground. In a split decision, he cast a few sounds to draw it away for another moment, then moved to the boulder he'd pushed down to the ground.

Once again, he put his shoulder to the side and heaved as he activated [Infuse Momentum], managing to roll it further in. He snatched up the severed foreleg which had lost its invisibility effect, then turned around to face the mantis which was now coming straight at him.

He ducked under a slash, tumbling over the hard ground to get out of the confines of the alcove. It came at him relentlessly with jittery, insect-like movements. The mantis was fast and vicious but with only one remaining foreleg, it was off-balanced and predictable, always slashing from the same position. Barry danced out of the way and circled to its disarmed side, forcing it to turn as he hacked at one of its legs.

The claw bounced off its leg and he nearly fumbled it, the greasy ichor making it slick in his palm. He pivoted away and kept circling, quickly tearing off a piece of his shirt to wrap around his gory weapon for a better grip.

It sped up and he ducked underneath another swipe of its claw, trying to remember the exact series of movements for his corkscrew slash. Pokka had not been wrong that it was one thing to practice the fighting choreography, but another to apply it correctly while in the heat of battle.

As he sidestepped yet another attack, he realized that for the first time, he was actually faster than his opponent. Finally, his investments in Speed were paying dividends.

With his next dodge, he pivoted and twisted around, using his first high cut to knock its claw out of position, then built on that momentum in another low spin to slash down at its left leg. This time, he held his weapon in an iron grip and let out a breath as it cut straight through.

The mantis stumbled, tipping to the left and Barry seized the opportunity, continuing his spin to build even more momentum, before leaping up into a final spinning slash. One clean cut and its head went flying with a spray of yellow blood. Its body continued to jerk for a few moments, before it finally went still.

Barry blinked down at the corpse, his heart still pounding in his ears from the adrenaline. Then a smile started to form on his lips, and he let out a breathless laugh.

"I did it," he said, disbelieving. "I actually killed something."

He laughed again, basking in his victory. All that effort spent training, only to have had to run for his life through the last zones. Now, he was finally fighting back.

There was still a wide grin on his face as he went through his notifications.

Nice Kill!

Bonus Value awarded for not using weapons: 100

Total Value awarded: 260

That seemed low to him, after the massive windfall he'd gotten from killing the Roid-Bull. After comparing it to the old notification, he realized that he hadn't gotten any multiplier from this kill, simply because he was considered to be at the same level: Tier 7.

The Value Tier calculation was simply the sum of all Value spent on Abilities and Stats, which for him had recently exceeded the threshold of 4000, bringing him into Tier 7. It was difficult to process. His intuition was still that a medium orange zone was way out his league.

But then again, he had just single handedly killed a Tier 7 creature, and while he had been at risk of dying, the fight had not gone out of control. Perhaps he just had to come to terms with how strong he could be, if he was focused and used what he'd learned from his training.

Quest Update: Exhibit Worth

Progress: 1/12

Would you like to loot your kill?

That last notification was unexpected, and it had a few info boxes he opened. Apparently this was a function enabled by his MAFT. He could choose to loot it for materials, in which case the remaining foreleg and some segments of carapace would automatically appear in his storage. Alternatively, he could 'loot it for energy', which would feed 500KJ of potential energy straight into his PE Capacity.

Happy to just let his PE Capacity recharge from the ambient energy, Barry was soon inspecting two sharp mantis claws. As soon as the creature died, its invisibility expired, revealing a sleek, all-white carapace. These would do nicely until he could get his hands on some high quality scimitars.

He decided on a round of fight training to get used to handling the claws, but before he could move out, he detected another clicking sound nearby. Another one of the mantises. Should he attempt another kill before going back? He didn't have the benefit of a prepared trap this time.

As he was considering that, another source of clicks could be felt from a different direction. Then, as he moved to retreat, there was another. And another. The various sources closed in until, through the chaotic overlap of their echolocation clicks, he was unable to tell them apart.

He cursed, realizing that they must have been drawn to the high-pitched cries the trapped mantis had been letting out. If he didn't find a way out soon, he'd get surrounded.

Barry backed away to an area where he thought the sounds were dimmer, until he realized he was getting too close to one of the mantises. He ran in a different direction, only to run into yet another source of sound.

He brought out a canister of water and quickly pushed some dirt and gravel inside before running in a wide circle as he frantically poured it out.

He stopped suddenly as he spotted movement, then realized it was the mantis corpse. It was being moved back and forth and as he looked closer, he could see a chunk being taken out. Were they eating it?

A chill went down his spine as he noticed a disturbance in the dirty water he'd poured out. He hadn't noticed anything approaching through the cacophony of clicks. He backed away, feeling well and truly blind. His breaths were coming faster, cold sweat running down his back. His head jerked left and right, searching with wide eyes for any signs of movement. Then he started to spin around, weapons raised, as he realized that one of them could be right behind him at any moment. A single swipe of those claws would be enough to end him.

He realized that turning in place would not help him and look for a way out once again, but each frantic attempt at escape resulted in what he thought was another source of clicks closing in on him.

Those feelings of victory and pride of a few minutes ago turned to fear and bitter regret as he realized that he was trapped.

Just like that, the hunter had become the prey.

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