The downwards scroll came to an end. Poller swallowed the moment he saw the results.

[Igrad Neill, six hundred and fifty-five points, one.]

[Atheline Sunblade, six hundred points, two]

[Sandy Glaris, four hundred and ten points, three]

[Simion Vilkorian, four hundred and one points, four]

Poller didn’t even know how to respond to all of that, how were they even doing it? The amount of points all of them had amassed in under three hours was ridiculous.

He felt like quitting there and then, how was he going to defeat or even stay in the top hundred when the rankings don’t stay constant?

He could already see points increasing each passing second from those below him.

"Shit..." he cursed softly, running his hand roughly through his hair. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

His knife plunged into the beast’s body taking out the bloodied monster core. He lifted his hand, staring at the red core.

The beast had been a fire bear, their fights had extinguished its flame.

Thud.

His body tensed at the sound. The second thud came forcing him to his feet. His already quickened heart thudding against his ribs harder.

He kept turning his head, hoping to identify the threat in the forest darkness.

’What’s happening, isn’t this still the outskirts?’

He was truly scared of what his mind had started to conjure. Only large monsters could make such noises but this was the outskirts and monsters of that size are rarely found.

It was probably a high-grade monster or a higher-level monster.

’Did I stray too far’

He glanced around him in panic, fear, and anxiety taking over as the footsteps approached him. He had been limiting himself from going too far, his hopes for the competition had been to kill as many mid-grade monsters as he could to rack up the numbers in accordance with quantity instead of quality.

It was a general rule that the more powerful the monsters are the bigger they are. Not all monsters had this rule apply to them but they were the minority.

It didn’t take long to find the source of the noise when the leaves and trees were forcefully parted falling to the side as though they weren’t five times his size.

His breath stopped. He couldn’t move and his body trembled just from the aura radiating from the monster.

Its ugly features were what caught his eye first. Two large bulbous black eyes glared down at him, and a large tongue lolled down almost past its neck. Saliva dripped down in copious amounts and the smell that accompanied it was horrid.

Its face was a sort of disproportionate mangled human face mixed with a frog’s face to form a chimera face of some sort. Its body was huge, it was as though it had overeaten but its weight still held its body up depicting its strength.

The creature wandered its gazing eyes around until it found the still stunned man looking up at it.

"A greedmire..." he murmured.

A shiver ran down his body when the monster’s eyes widened and its large serrated teeth became visible after it smiled down at him.

Greedmire were high-grade monsters that resided near the centre of the forest. They are known to be social monsters but the one in front of him seemed to have wandered from its group.

He shook his head, taking a slow step back. The thought of it being followed by the others just seemed impossible.

Greedmire were known for their carnivorous tendencies and were highly feared by most hunters. Poller wasn’t an exception from that.

He had watched a whole community decimate a whole village in minutes after a breakout. They hadn’t been able to save anyone since they moved in groups of thirty.

’It might have been lured by the blood’

With the hunt still ongoing, deaths were going to increase. The forest was eventually going to be shrouded with the scent of blood attracting higher-level monsters from the centre.

"Shit..."

He disappeared, teleporting a few trees down. He couldn’t teleport too long a distance. He wanted to confuse the monster’s vision and hopefully escape before it noticed him.

’I should probably do it continuously.’

He did it again when he noticed the monster in action but the second teleportation seemed to have spooked it. Its massive head tilted slightly to the side, the eyes narrowing slightly in an uncomfortable mixture of curiosity and anger.

Blood mixed saliva dripped down endlessly from its open mouth. Poller could even see a few bones stuck between its teeth.

It didn’t take long before the greedmire started running towards him like a crazy lunatic, the ground shaking with each step chasing after its escaping lunch.

Alerted by the sudden movement, Poller teleported a few meters ahead. He did this again and again but the monsters seemed to be gaining distance despite his futile attempts.

With heavy breaths, he maneuvered through the forest blindly. Although his aether wasn’t draining too soon, it didn’t mean he could fight such a monstrosity he would only be serving himself on a silver platter if he even tried.

The ground kept shaking as though an earthquake was happening. He ducked just as a large tree came barreling above him narrowly missing him.

He didn’t have time to appreciate it. More trees came barring his way but he expertly avoided them. Despite it, the distance was narrowing more and more.

The greedmires’ trick seemed to have worked. Sometimes the thrown trees would interrupt his teleportation or slow him down.

He bit his lip, cursing inwardly as he looked for a more sensible path but he couldn’t find it. Nothing, the forest seemed to have millions of routes and he couldn’t choose one.

"Please goddess...." he mummbled to himself, his gaze lifting slightly

His mind was starting to get hazy and his vision was blurring with each teleportation. It was getting more and more difficult to teleport with each advancement, given how dark it was.

The trees weren’t helping either, they were too squeezed together. Despite all this, he remained focused.

In his haze, an unfamiliar scent came to him, cooked meat. He didn’t hesitate, any sort of normalcy in the forest meant there might be a person somewhere. He hurriedly teleported in that direction.

But the greedmire was getting closer too.

"Foooooood."

Its screams reached him, which caused him to briefly turn his head in surprise, but that was enough to destroy his momentum for a second.

That one second of lost focus was enough to throw him off his pedestal.

Fear swept over him now when he saw that the greedmire’s tongue was stretching further out, reaching for him.