Skill Hunter -Kill Monsters, Acquire Skills, Ascend to the Highest Rank!

In the end, he left the body behind, inverted and stuck between the rocks. There was no convenient way to free it from the rocks without risking serious injury, and once he did, the likelihood of luring it into another situation where he could invert it—or even getting it to follow him—was almost zero. When he had an entire Abyss to cross, assuming there was a way out, and extremely limited resources, wasting any more time or effort here was a death sentence.

"Unhand me! Filth! Put me down!"

Rosamund's head, on the other hand, was a different matter. Like the body, it had collected dewdrops of lunam inside it and transmuted them to mana. The head had a smaller capacity, and smaller surface area, both of which meant it produced less mana. On the other hand, he could carry it around without risking serious injury. Small, portable, and basically danger-free as long as he was careful about the mouth; it was the perfect mana-conversion bottle.

It sat atop his pack now, inverted, the neck pointed up at the sky so the dark fluid would collect in the head cavity. Ike hummed as he walked, quite pleased with himself. It wasn't a perfect solution to his mana problem, but it was a solution.

He thought back to the body and nodded. If I ever need a big hit of mana, I can always go back. He'd carved out a hollow in the rock below the body before he'd left, to catch the black liquid that dripped out. It wasn't as if he wanted to backtrack, but if he desperately needed a big lump of mana, he could always return. He looked back for a moment, checking on it.

The body flailed. Its free arm struck the rock it was stuck in with a horrible screech. The body jolted and reached for the rock, feeling it out.

And there's the other reason I need to move on. I'm not sure it'll stay stuck there forever. Don't want to live with that thing looming over me.

Leaving the body behind, he walked on.

Time passed. A brook splashed alongside him, and slowly, vegetation sprouted around it. At last, Ike came up upon a sharp dropoff, where the Abyss gave way below him, stairstepping into yet deeper depths. He gazed over the edge for a moment, then shook his head and turned away. He set down his pack by the side of the brook and stretched. Time to take a little break.

Here, the scrubby deadlands gave way to low vegetation. Tangled green bushes and vines twisted together, grabbing at his ankles as he walked. A small burbling brook ran alongside him. The clear water sparkled in the low light. Strange mist floated on the air around him, as if he walked into a cloud. Cold energy swirled in and out of him with every breath. It wasn't just mist, but condensed lunam.

As he'd walked, he'd tried capturing some of the lunam directly. Even if it was dangerous, being able to directly use lunam in a crisis would spare him the steps of collecting and boiling the liquid that came out of Rosamund's head. All his efforts had been for naught, though. The lunam slipped out of his body as easily as it flowed in.

I'm far enough from the city now. Might as well give climbing the Abyss a try.

He walked over to the wall and jumped at it. His feet slipped down the smooth stone, and his hands dragged down it. The fine grain of the rock and its water-smoothed surface made it impossible for him to grip. Ike looked at the rock, considering. He lifted his hand, activating Lightning Grasp. Immediately, he struck the wall, not wanting to waste too much mana here.

His hand bounced off the stone. He backed away, shaking his wrist. "Ow, ow, ow…" Yikes. That stone is hard. I wonder if it has a Rank, too?

As if in response, the stone he'd struck emitted a cool, pale mist. Thicker lunam swirled around him. Ike backed away, wary. The lunam puddled for a minute, coalescing in the air. Slowly, it vanished back into the stone.

He touched the stone. I went to bed early yesterday, since I was exhausted, but maybe I should stay up tonight. If lunam responds to the moon, it might be interesting to see how this lunam-soaked stone reacts to moonlight at night.

Oh—wait! Ike ran over to his pack. He untied Rosamund's head.

"What is it, you little rat? Don't you dare touch—don't touch me!" she snarled.

Numb to her voice by now, Ike ignored her. He turned her neck stump toward the lunam and scooped it up. He peered inside.

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Cool mist swirled inside the hollow head. It slowly drifted toward the top to escape out the neck.

Ike glanced around. Rocks scattered around the edge of the wall, in all shades and colors. He picked one in the same shade of slate as the walls and plugged Rosamund's neck with it. The mist wisped out from the tiny crack he couldn't perfectly seal, but most of it stayed inside. Ike nodded. Let's test this out for a while and see what happ—

Rosamund shook herself vigorously. "Get it out! Get it out!"

The rock jumped where it sat. It flipped around to its edge and tumbled down into her head.

Ike froze. He stared at Rosamund's head. Er. Uh oh.

"What happened? What did you do?" Rosamund demanded.

"I didn't do anything. You knocked a stone into your own skull," Ike informed her.

Rosamund screamed. She shook even harder than before. "You put it in there in the first place! It's all your fault! Get it out!"

"It's…let's call it everyone's fault," Ike compromised. He pinned her head down with his bad hand and raised the good one. "Hold still. I'll get it out."

"Don't you dare touch me!"

"Do you want it out or not?" Ike asked patiently.

Rosamund grimaced. She fell silent. Her shaking stilled.

He reached into her neck and removed the slate. The lunam made the slate cool to the touch, but plenty of the white mist remained. He lodged it back into her neck hole, setting it more firmly this time. "Much better."

"Much better? Who asked you to put it back there?" Rosamund asked, furious.

"No one had to ask me. I'm doing a test, that's all," Ike told her.

She screamed in fury.

Ike leaned back, tipping her head so he could look at her face. "We're in this together. Shouldn't we cooperate?"

"You cut my head off!"

"Well, yes."

Her face reddened, and her lips twisted in disgust.

"How do you do that? Move your face like that. Or turn it red, for that matter. Actually, how do you eat?" Ike asked, curious. Her body was hollow. There's nothing inside. No organs or anything. Did that black fluid dissolve the things she ate?

"I—I—I…" Her voice faded. Her eyes twitched, and her smile turned maddened. "I'm not, I'm not, I'm not her. No one is. No one, no one, no one…"

Ike sighed. He shook his head and strapped her back onto his pack. She's gone again. Only lucid for a few moments at a time. I'll have to ask again next time.

He walked over to the brook and filled up his waterskin. He sat beside it, taking a break for a few moments. From here, the Abyss descended further downward, expanding to the left and right as well. The brook splashed down the stairsteps, growing into a full river by the bottom of the cascading waterfalls. A thick canopy awaited far below, clouded by pale mist.

From the depths of the Abyss, a keening cry echoed across the walls, almost sad. A baying, barking ruckus answered it, a dozen rollicking creatures sounding out all at once.

Down there… that's where the Abyss truly begins. I need to be in top shape before I enter there. He looked at his hand. It was mostly healed. The long, arching, lightning-shaped scar that crawled from hand, to wrist, to back, to his foot remained, but most of his flexibility and strength had returned. On the other hand, his mana wavered low. Most of what he'd recovered from Rosamund had been spent to heal his hand.

Ike thought for a second. He looked over his shoulder, toward Rosamund's body, then at the head at his side. I'd be a fool to head down there this low on mana. I'll camp here for a few days. He had water and wolf meat, and he could forage in this greenery for something else to eat. Tomorrow, he could check the head to see if his experiment worked. If it did, he'd be able to easily farm mana right here. As for the body, it wasn't as if he'd get any more mana by visiting every day. No one else knew how to process that black sludge, assuming anyone jumped into the Abyss in the first place. He could safely leave it for a few days, then return once a significant quantity had accumulated.

He licked his lips, grinning at the forest. All this land, and no one else dared to enter. No one but him, stuck in the Abyss. The unspoiled, monster-rich land before him looked like a treasure chest to him—a treasure chest overflowing with rare monsters and powerful skills.

Reaching into his bag, he drew out Orin's guide. Based on the way the wolves jumped down here, I can safely assume that at least some of the Abyss monsters are descended from monsters that fell or jumped in. Orin's guide should prove invaluable for those monsters.

As for the ones that have lived down here since before Orin started hunting…I'll simply have to stay on my guard.

The Abyss had a reputation for being dangerous, even inescapable. Based on what Ike knew about monsters, rightfully so. The monsters down here had been able to spend thousands of years growing stronger in the depths of the Abyss, far away from humans or any hunters. He couldn't take them lightly. The hunts he was about to embark on, would be the most dangerous he'd undertaken yet.

I'll have to move slowly. Choose my battles carefully. But if I play my cards right, I can come out the other side of this more powerful than any hunter left hunting the sparse grounds near the city.

A howl echoed from nearby, too close for comfort. Ike stiffened. He looked up. Is that the Fulgur-Loup that came down here with me? The silver wolf. It left me alone today, so I thought it was too injured to hunt.

Come to think of it, though, I slept next to Rosamund's body last night. That thing spooked me, let alone a monster as wary as a wolf. He looked over his shoulder, back the way he'd come, then shook his head. No. I'd only be wasting my energy. Instead of locking myself to sleeping near the body, I should deal with the wolf once and for all.

Tonight, it all comes to an end.