A stone flew and hit the head of the two meter tall piece of meat standing before him.

"Screw you bastard. Come for me!" Ishiki's voice echoed in the crimson canopy.

The Withering Beast that resembled an ugly mantis constructed entirely from slabs of wet, glistening meat turned its attention from the young girl lying motionless on the forest floor to Ishiki.

It's eyes were burning with anger towards the little human which has been annoying it for quite some time now. The bastard just kind of disappears from time to time and then comes back.

Full of anger the beast surged forward towards the human already running away from it. The mantis increased the speed of its meaty legs and closed the distance.

Ishiki glanced back and flinched. 'Damn... why is it running faster now that i can't use ghost blade anymore.'

The meaty mantis slashed at Ishiki with one of its boney scythes in a full, sweeping arc. Ishiki somehow managed to get down and save himself from the attack.

The scythe however didn't stop and met with the unnatural resistance of the trees that populated the Crimson Canopy.

The impact rang like steel meeting metal. The mantis was stunned for a moment, and Ishiki didn't leave the chance be.

"Gilberd..."

He screamed and then summoned the [Curved Bone] with a mental command. As Ishiki jumped closer to the tall abomination, the pale, bone like blade manifested itself into reality and struck the soft meat skin of the mantis right at the joint of arm that stretched to become the scythe.

Half the creature's arm, bone blade and all, separated cleanly and fell to the ground with wet thump that sprayed golden ichor across leaves.

Just then an arrow pierced straight into the beast's head.

This all happened within mere seconds and the abomination went silent.

However, it wasn't dead yet, just went into shock of loosing its arm and getting its head pierced. It opened its vertical mouth to let out an ugly screech.

But before it could, the whole world spun around... actually the head of the mantis spun and fell from its neck, hitting the ground with a lumpy sound.

The body collapsed backward with impact that shook earth.

A fountain of golden blood erupted from the beasts neck. Ishiki landed just besides the monstrous meat corpse and shrugged as he looked at the notification from the system.

[You have Slain a Rank-2, Infested Gottes]

[You have received 400 Data Fragments]

'Huh, Just a Rank 2... how was it so tough at the starting.'

[You have received a Vestige]

Ishiki's eyes widened.

'Damn, looks like today is a lucky day.'

Soon, the figure of the girl who'd been lying on the ground mere moments ago came into view, brushing golden leaves from her clothing.

Another young man jumped down from a nearby tree with ease—Gilberd, the archer.

A third figure emerged carrying rope with satisfying expression that suggested he'd been waiting for exactly this outcome.

Ishiki looked at the girl and the archer, forcing a smile. "Good work both of you."

'Good work my ass. The bait is also supposed to attack, who told her to just sit there and wait for the beast to eat her? And this damned archer, how could he have missed the eye?'

Of course he didn't say anything out loud, or wait... did he?

He blinked couple times, expression shifting uncomfortably, then looked at Gilberd with weird smile that was half grimace. "Uh... so, did I just say something?"

The archer, known as Gilberd shook his head negatively. Because he couldn't speak. That... was the corruption he had gotten with his skill from his first trial.

Everyone had one.

Corruption was the price paid for power. The system's sick joke that ensured no ability came without cost.

Ishiki himself had lost count of how many times he'd been judged or threatened because he said something profoundly, inappropriate at wrong place, to wrong person and sometimes at worst possible moment.

'Let's not think about that.'

[Phantom Voice] made keeping secrets nearly impossible.

The third person who had appeared with rope was already finished tying up the beast's corpse.

Now came the physical labor portion of their hunt. The part where they dragged two tons of dead meat back to clearing while hoping nothing larger noticed them.

***

Some time later, a group of four could be seen moving through the deadly Crimson Canopy, eyes constantly scanning for threats emerging from golden foliage.

Who knew when another Withering Beast would appear? Or worse—a Demon, those intelligent beings that made beasts look like harmless livestock by comparison.

That would become a problem, as Ishiki was at his limit of using [Ghost Blade] and if something like that were to happen, he wouldn't be able to get out safely.

But... nothing happened.

The four Players, along with the bound corpse of dead Withering Beast, safely reached the Crimson Canopy's edge and crossed into the clearing's protective boundary.

Looking up at the sky, Ishiki scowled.

They were in luck. Though whether that qualified as good or bad fortune remained debatable.

The Silver Night had just ended. The pale moon was transforming back into that burning crimson body, and the trees were coming alive around them.

'That explains why we didn't encounter anything on the way back.'

Every predator with functioning survival instincts was retreating deeper into forest, finding shelter before the trees woke and started their hunt. Nothing wanted to be caught outside during Crimson Night.

On the opposite side of clearing, the Princess had made her way back with another Withering Beast corpse—this one significantly larger, dragged behind her on platform of ice that melted as she moved, leaving wet trail through grass.

Good, now they won't need to go out hunting for at least another week. Sighing, Ishiki moved towards the house he was sharing with another player.

Its been... about two month, from the day the princess and the people saved by her walked into this clearing. Since then, they have been receiving a lot of them.

Not many, the Crimson Canopy killed most people who attempted crossing it.

There were now around thirty-two people living in this six-hundred-meter clearing surrounded by death.

Today, it was Ishiki's turn to go on hunt.

'Damn... I need to train more, I ended up using Ghost Blade maximum times, fighting a rank 2, infested beast.'

The thought carried bitter self-recrimination.

Walking away from the group of people who had come to welcome them or... more like look at today's dinner, he heard a few of them talking.

"Wow! Gilberd, your arrow did make a good work of its head."

"Well, damn! Even the beast's head snapped from its neck."

Ishiki's eyes twitched. 'Bastards, I killed that goddamn beast. I cut off its arm, dodged its scythe and decapitated the thing while they watched from safe distance!'

He didn't say it out loud. Who in their right minds would want to be the center of attention and got sent to hunting every damn time.

The archer, Gilberd stood silently and scratched the back of his head. Not like the poor man could speak anything.

The girl who had played bait during hunt, caught up with Ishiki and walked beside him with bouncing step. Ishiki gave her a quick glance and then asked. "What do you want?"

The girl giggled. "Nothing much, why don't you go and get some praise? Or do you want me to tell them your heroic tale of how you saved me?"

Ishiki scoffed. "Don't... or maybe, go ahead if you want to, not like It matters anyways."

The girl—whose good name was apparently Nina, though Ishiki privately thought of her as "that idiot who keeps volunteering for bait duty"—laughed with amusement. "You're so fun to tease, Big brother Ishiki!"

"Well am I?" Ishiki gave her a tense side eye.

"Ahh... I... look, they're calling me. See you later!"

Just like that, she fled, running toward the group that had gathered around Gilberd, leaving Ishiki alone.

Ishiki opened the door to his house and walked in. Settling inside one of the two rooms inside, he sighed.

He never felt safe inside these ancient houses just for the fact of how they were not effected much by time, but it was better than staying outside.

With a mental command he called the system window.

'Now. Time to check the second Vestige I've received.'

Finally, after two months of nothing, another piece for his growing arsenal.

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