part1 · 018-ep18

Episode 18: The Hunt

Now that he could secure water, Ren's life had gotten a little easier.

But the food problem hadn't changed. Nuts alone weren't enough. Since getting fire, he'd been able to eat monster meat, too.

So Ren thought about it.

"...I need to get food more efficiently."

Until now, whenever Ren found a monster, he'd fought it. Kill the monster he found. Carry the meat home. That was all.

But that meant a dangerous fight, every single time.

Today, instead of killing monsters, Ren decided to observe them.

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He walked for a while. Up ahead, a small monster.

Ren hid in the shadow of the rocks. He didn't move right away. He watched what the monster was doing.

It walked. Stopped. Sniffed the air around it. Then ate a plant lying on the ground.

"...It eats plants, too."

Ren kept watching in silence. After a while, the monster started walking in a fixed direction.

Ren followed, keeping his distance.

And then—

another monster appeared.

The first monster fled. The one chasing it gave up after a while and turned back.

"..."

Ren thought. Monsters each had their own habits of behavior.

They walked the same routes. Ate in the same places. Fled when they sensed danger. And even the pursuers had a distance beyond which they wouldn't chase.

"I'll remember that."

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After a while, the first monster was alone. Ren came out from cover. The monster turned toward him.

Ren didn't charge right in. Until yesterday, if a monster came at him, he'd have met it head-on. Today was different.

He confirmed the direction the monster would try to flee in.

"You're not going that way."

Ren got ahead of it. The monster changed direction. Ren moved, too.

He chased it. When the monster tired and slowed, he thrust the spear out.

One strike.

The monster fell. Ren steadied his breathing.

"...Easier than before."

It wasn't that he'd gotten stronger. It was that he'd come to understand how monsters moved.

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Ren carried the monster back. Cut the meat apart. Started a fire. And roasted the meat.

It sizzled. A savory smell spread.

Ren ate the meat when it was done.

"...Yeah."

He could eat today, too.

Meal finished, Ren looked at the map drawn on the ground. Where he'd found the monster. Where monsters passed. The water source. His bed.

The information was growing, little by little.

"I should mark where the monsters are, too."

Ren added a new mark. And beside it, he drew a small arrow. The direction the monster had been moving.

"With this... it might be easier to find them."

Ren gazed at the map. He wasn't just walking around anymore. He was learning this place. Learning the monsters. Learning the food.

Learning where the water was, too.

Little by little. Ren was mastering the methods it took to live in this dungeon.

And Ren added one more new mark to the map. Tomorrow, he'd try exploring somewhere different from today.

Thinking that, he passed the night quietly before the fire.