I push deeper into the forest, running the exact same play on a loop. I wait for a defenseless animal to fail its camouflage, wait for the predator to strike, and then I butcher the predator.
Two for one.
We put down five monsters and bag five prey animals as a bonus. The predators are all the same Coral Wivers. Seeing this many clustered together means one of two things: this is their primary hunting ground, or we are walking right into a nest.
No Echo Fragments from any of them. Five clean kills. Five ordinary monsters and animals.
I tell myself to stop checking. I tell myself it was a one-time anomaly, a glitch in the system, and that the Gatekeeper was an isolated case.
But I don't believe a single word of it.
After the fifth kill, I run the math. Five monsters, five animals.
250 Scales total.
I divide the haul, tossing 40 Scales to each of the other five and pocketing the remaining 50 for myself.
[Scales: 415 -> 465]
