Ungrateful Wretch

Near the summit, a flat ledge jutted out from the mountainside. Trees grew thick there, weeds ran wild, and the faint sound of flowing water came from somewhere nearby.

Mo Boshi stopped on a rock and looked toward a patch of grass not far away. That was where the incident had occurred.

The monster had left no scent, but Mo Boshi judged its size from the trees it had crushed.

"Looks like the mission was right. Something huge has been moving around here." Mo Boshi glanced at the barely visible depressions in the ground.

As he went on, he found more and more traces of the enormous creature.

The traces were easy enough to spot. Once a creature grew that large, it was bound to leave signs wherever it went.

Food scraps, footprints, crushed vegetation...

There was ample evidence that it existed. Mo Boshi was ready to call for help the moment he found it.

Nothing yet proved the monster had anything to do with the Looting Emperor, but a monster suddenly appearing behind the Player Camp for no apparent reason? However he looked at it, that smelled like the Looting Emperor's scheme.

What he found next, though, felt wrong.

The traces grew more numerous, as if they were meant to lead him somewhere.

Some were fresh. He suspected the monster was watching him from the shadows, trying to draw him into a trap.

He sent his findings to Maupassant and Shaliena, then decided to follow the trail and see what the creature was up to.

Players did not fear death. Most had died before, some many times over. Those with enough friends would even have someone pay to revive them if they stayed dead too long.

If he could trade one life for valuable intelligence, Mo Boshi did not