Skill-Eater: Prison World Saga-Chapter 143: Trap

Two hours later, the crew was drawing near the final farmstead. This farm was in the northeast corner of the Breadbasket—all the way at the end of the road running through this section of the Ivory Plains.

After another twenty miles of rough terrain, the biome transitioned into a swampy jungle known as the Wetwood Marsh. It was a treacherous land, filled with powerful beasts and monsters, not to mention hazardous terrain and deadly magical weather.

The only thing that kept the marsh’s inhabitants from crossing through the borderlands was the comparably thin layer of magicytes flowing across the Ivory Plains, since higher stage lifeforms needed more magic to sustain their cores. But that wasn’t likely to be the case for much longer.

Looking out over the verdant growth stretching out in all directions, Edge could tell that the great flows of magic banding the planet were shifting in the wake of the anomaly, flooding the plains. There were so many magicytes in the air and soil that they practically vibrated with the raw power they contained. He wasn’t sure when or if the biome’s magic would stop increasing, since the center of the plains were much closer to how they had always been than near the periphery.

But the old boundaries were clearly in flux. This close to the border of the marsh, it was hard to tell that he hadn’t entered a more dangerous biome already. Regardless of the details, more stage-two creatures would be migrating into the area, now that the environment had enough magicytes to fuel their mid-rank skills.

While the prospect of what was coming was frightening, posing a threat to not only Puppet Town, but all the settlements on Ord, he realized that his hands were shaking. Not with fear, but with hunger-tinged excitement.

Once he cycled-up to mid-stage two and ranked-up his collection of skills, this area would become a prime hunting ground. Edge would come back soon to steal skills of a higher rarity. Continue to grow stronger at a pace faster than he had imagined possible just a few short weeks ago.

But that was a matter for another day. Right now, the crew still had to complete their mission and make it back in one piece. Since the sun would be going down before much longer, it looked like they would be camping for the night at the final farmstead. Edge had a hunch that their hunt would be over in another day or two tops, and he was relieved that [Overdrive] was ready in time after all.

His musings ended abruptly when Trapper raised a fist above her head. It was the signal for “caution,” not “imminent danger,” but the crew still raised their weapons and got ready to use their skills. Blue was sniffing at the air with a nervous cast to her features. Whatever the azure dino smelled, she didn’t like it one bit.

Everything became clear a few minutes later, when the hunters passed by a pile of bone-studded shit that topped off at the height of Edge’s waist. “This isn’t from a lizard,” Sasha reported after poking through the mess with a long stick. “There is fur inside that’s far too long to come from small animals, and the smell is wrong for a carnivore. Whatever left this behind is an omnivore that I’m not familiar with. Something big.”

“It must be what broke into those silos we saw earlier,” Trapper added. “Whatever it is, let’s hope that it came strolling out from the jungle for an easy meal before heading back home. Even with the recent changes to the region, this land can’t support anything bigger than the padamas for long. The lizard is already having trouble sustaining itself, which is why it’s ranging over such a wide area.

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“We’re almost to the last farm. Let’s hurry and get there before dark, then see if we can find signs of our quarry. Bright and early, we’ll set a trap, take the padamas down, scout out the borderlands, and get the hell out of here. It isn’t wise to linger in the region for long. One giant beast is already one too many. We can’t afford to run into anything else that catches wind of our presence, especially something with unknown powers.”

With that, the hunters continued down the road at double speed. Although they were ready to run or fight at a moment’s notice, they made it to the end of the line without running into anything nasty. As the sun dipped toward the horizon, the farm came into view.

Something big had cut through the fence to scavenge the remnants of the harvest and devour a handful of animals that the farmers hadn’t been able to bring with them, but at least it wasn’t the site of another massacre.

The turret was gone and the tracks on the ground revealed that the people who had been living here had left in an orderly fashion. One of the silos had been damaged, where something had broken in to eat the grain the farmers had left behind. But two that had been emptied were still intact.

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The padamas’s tracks were everywhere. Looking at them, the hunters deduced that the lizard had forced its way in to hunt the abandoned animals, along with some scavengers that had been feeding on the dregs of the crops. It was likely that the big omnivore was responsible for the ruined silo. Once again, they couldn’t find any of its tracks, although there was another pile of shit in one corner of the yard.

The prints were several days old, which meant there was a good chance that it would be relatively safe to camp here. The big beast had no reason to come back, unless it caught the hunters’ scent on the breeze. But that could happen no matter where they decided to spend the night.

The good news was that most of the fence was still intact, which meant that Trapper didn’t have to blow through too much mana to set alarms along the perimeter. Once the devices were in place, they parked the wagon in the barn and unhitched Blue, so that she could defend herself if needed.

Then the crew climbed up to a platform on top of the tallest silo, where they had a good view of the area for miles in every direction. After scouting to make sure that nothing hostile was nearby, the hunters put their heads together and pulled out their map.

“The presence of the second beast changes things, so we’re going to try something different,” Trapper said. "Instead of following the trail signs back to the padamas’s lair, we’re going to mark down everything we’ve seen so far and see if we can deduce its location. The lizard should stay within a half day of its den, so that it can return each night to a sheltered location. Even for a predator of that size, sleeping out in the open is a bad idea. There aren’t as many options for something that big, which should help to narrow it down.”

Violet and Riller stood next to the crew’s leader, pouring over the map and recording their observations. Meanwhile, Edge and Sasha stood guard, in case anything hungry had noticed their presence and decided to come calling. When the crew was done updating their map and analyzing their findings, Trapper called everyone over to consider what they’d learned.

“Ok people, we’re ready to take this hunt to the next phase—deciding on a plan of attack and preparing the field. We still haven’t found the lizard’s lair. But based on the signs we’ve seen, I believe that it’s somewhere within ten miles of where we’re standing, likely in this direction.” She pointed to a stretch of the Breadbasket to the south of their position.

“We need to kill it tomorrow, then get the hell away from the borderlands before night falls. Before anyone else shares their thoughts, let’s start by getting some input from our newest members.” Trapper turned to look straight at him.

“Edge. You’ve seen this thing up close, and you’ve gotten a taste for what it can do. How do you think that we should go about hunting it, given the information available and the dynamics of our dilemma?”