Chapter 14: Chapter 14

There were hundreds of them.

Elijah had explored further into the cave, in hopes of finding more cat-fox things. And he did- a nests of veritable feast, fangs and claws scratching for whatever piece of flesh they could find. It was akin to a blender, blood sprays and stains everywhere.

Elijah had concluded that it was better to find an alternative then rush in. He backtracked to his previous encounter, to try and find any weaknesses that the beasts might have. He took a corpse and exited the cave.

Outside, the sun had already long set, the time having passed without him noticing. Elijah decided to climb the cliff to camp for the night, as he only realized when he saw the moon his own fatigue.

He had no tent nor fire, no bedding or blanket, so he lay on the stone and used the towel to protect him from the cold night air.

He woke the next morning, with his usual morning phrase as he excitedly climbed down, mulling over his predicament.

He examined the body before his descent; it was strange. It had no visible respiratory system, almost like a construct of some sort, yet was organic.

He deliberated on courses of action. It was either get rid of small groups or one effective attack to wipe then out completely. The methods for the latter were... Lacking, to say the least. Elijah was not prepared for such a plan. So the first plan was more feasible.

He made his way through the tunnels carefully, making sure to be as invisible as possible. He didn't even consider trying to wait for individual 'scouting parties' as it would take an exaggerated amount of time-tone he lacked in, as he had a deadline to return in one year.

Elijah considered his weaponry: dagger, rapier, bow.

He could go to the nest and try to pick some off from range, but he only had twenty arrows. Maybe if he could retrieve then in some way, Elijah thought. Then he remembered- he had a rope!

But it would affect his arrows' flight, he countered. Maybe if he cut the rope along its length, it wouldn't impede as much? But Elijah felt it would be a shame to ruin his rope.

So maybe not an arrow- tie the rope to a different weapon- not a rapier as in may break, so a dagger, and throw it!

But, he countered once again, I have no idea how to wield a dagger like that.

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Aiming is not important, as long as it's thrown into a crowd it's almost bound to his something! and how hard could it really be, it's just like throwing a dagger!

He'll have to find an appropriate perch to sit upon.

So with a plan in mind, Elijah set forth to the cavern filled with beasts.

He passed by the place where he first encountered then, and noted that all the corpses were absent. It meant they had no aversion to cannibalism- and for him, depending on how it played out, it may be a good thing.

The inside of the cavern was as jagged as the cliff, with many protrusions big and sturdy enough to support him, albeit uncomfortably, and he quickly found a perch, then set about his plan.

The first dagger was not tied well enough and he ended up losing it, so the second one he made sure was secured tightly. He was excited at the prospect of gaining experience, and it fueled him to continue the boring, repetitive action of throwing a dagger at a sea of bodies, then pulling it back, checking the knot and doing so again.

At least for the first hour. Then he started doing stunts. He started simple, like throwing the dagger by the string instead of the handle, then jumping on the small ledge that he had and throwing while still in the air, then throwing while climbing, until he got to the point where he was jumping about like a bouncy ball, doing flips and cartwheels and rolls in midair, while swinging the dagger by the rope like a whip. Of course, he nearly fell a few times, and actually fell- and was almost torn to shreds- twice, only surviving by quick thinking, luck, Acrobatics and his new class ability. That didn't deter him much. He stopped thrice to eat, sitting on a ledge with his feet dangling, looking at the shrinking herd while swinging his legs back and forth.

He finished what felt like a few hours later, looking at the mountain of dead bodies and letting loose a contented sigh when he gazed at his experience counter- 1,238/20.

Then when realization struck him, he was horrified. And absolutely terrified.

He did not feel guilty at what he'd done- he had exterminated a threat, as he'd already seen them tearing at a humanoid corpse. What unnerved him was his willingness to spend hours killing methodically for the sake of leveling up. It caused an inner feeling of revulsion and rejection- he felt manipulated on a fundamental level. The feeling of exhilaration that came with the experience count ticking up was a high that one could get addicted to, and it was fresh in his mind. If he continued like this, when would he switch his target from feral to sapient- Elijah felt that should he continue to recklessly go on killing sprees, eventually he'd turn his blade on someone rather than something.

He sat down to consider, forcing his mind to calm.

He remembered that the system had put a stipulation in place, and he recalled what the conditions were.