Biting off the last piece of meat from the bone, Juno let out a satisfied groan and tossed it into the fire. Sunny had always made it seem that monster meat was disgusting or something, but it was actually pretty good. That, or it was Juno's Attribute telling him that partially cooked meat was good.
'Eh, who cares anyway?'
It took some time and planning, but Juno managed to set up a fire inside Bone Ridge. He had decided to make it more permanent since he couldn't be seen from the outside, and it took a long time for Nightmare Creatures to fully wander up the spine highway to get to his position. By all accounts, he was actually quite safe inside.
For now.
Juno leaned back, shoulders resting against the smooth curve of the spine. The fire's glow painted the bone around him in soft orange, fighting with the pale grey daylight that still filtered down in thin bars through the gaps above. Those bars had shifted since he'd first woken up.
He squinted at them.
'Five hours until night?' he guessed. 'More or less.'
Enough time to start working on his second task.
'Or was it third? Gosh, I really have a bad memory, don't I?'
He sighed as he stood up. As much as he didn't want to, he would have to go out right now to scout his area.
After splashing the fire out with the Away from Home, taking a quick sip, and rubbing his face with some water too, Juno was almost ready to head out. The only things he had to do were put on A Snake's Mask and do a little warm-up. God knows what could happen if he didn't stretch before a potential fight!
…
Juno did not miss the feeling of exiting Bon Ridge. He couldn't quite place a finger on why, but every time he was inside the skull of the dead creature, his skin started to crawl, and his mind rattled a bit. He had already thought about it before, but there was something more to this Bone Ridge than met the eye.
'Bone Ridge this, Bone Ridge that. I really have to come up with a better name for it. Hm… I got it! Bongo.'
What the fuck.
'Kill yourself, Bongo is a great name!'
…Sure…
Moving on, Juno forced himself to ignore the creepy sensation and the stupid voices he had and move on. A scouting mission didn't mean to just look out from his front porch and talk with himself; it meant actually walking around the crimson labyrinth to see if any potential Nightmare Creatures might sneak up on him.
Sadly, taking a look around was going to be incredibly painful.
The coral mound Bone Ridge sat on fell away in steep, chaotic ledges of bone and crimson growth. At its base lay the black mud of the labyrinth, glossy in shallow pools where water still lingered. Further out, crimson mounds and blades of "coral" rose like frozen, jagged waves, pressing in on narrow paths.
'Ugh, how can anyone do this shit?' screamed Juno in his head.
To better gauge where there were monsters, Juno focused quickly and spread his senses out. No scraping. No chitin clatter. No wet impacts of heavy bodies moving nearby. Only the distant, scattered noises of the Shore: far‑off screeches, an occasional crash, the dull whisper of wind sliding between coral towers.
He inhaled through his nose.
Salt. Rot. Old blood. The strange, cold mineral scent of the not‑coral.
Nothing close.
"Good enough," he murmured.
He stepped out.
The feeling of being inside the crimson labyrinth was pretty bad, but it was still manageable. He could actually use the terrain to his advantage, no matter how off the coral itself seemed. Sound bounced all around him, letting him hear farther than usual. He would also be able to use the vibrations in the walls to feel where creatures were, like maybe right behind it or through a turn.
'Definitely not real coral,' he thought. 'Definitely creepy, and very much Bongo feeling.'
Not feeling anything around him, Juno put part of his mind to work remembering all the creatures there were in the labyrinth. Sadly, he could remember many.
'Well, the big bads of this area are the Carapace Legion. They were split into both Awakened Beasts and Monsters, operating in groups of up to 6. The problem is, the hunting parties were pretty close together, so if one started to attack and the battle dragged on too long, the others would join in. Ugh, so no leaving Execution inside those things and playing tag.
There are also those iron spiders. They are to the left of Bongo, so currently not a worry. I believe their biggest weapon was the thin strings of metal, but with my sight, I could probably see them more easily. They hunt in large groups, though, so it's better not to encounter any.
The centipedes are actually around where I am. I don't think they'll be much of a problem, so that's great. Like, if they are chasing me, why not… ah fuck. They climb. I forgot about that. Damn it.
Um, there were others, too. Porcupine Monsters, carnivorous worms, flesh-eating flowers, and those blue tentacles! Oh, how lovely this whole place is. I can feel the Memories coming into me! Oh, how they're coming into me!'
Knowing what could kill you was a big benefit, but also such a drag. Such a huge catalog of monsters was going to be a pain to fight.
Soon, Juno found himself in a slightly different-looking part of the labyrinth. This one had firmer mud and darker walls. It was pretty nice, not wading in ankle-high mud all the time, but thinking about the trek back quickly brought Juno's mood down again.
He tested each step, filing the results away. Soft here. Solid there. A hidden dip ahead that would slow him, a raised ridge that might trip someone charging blindly.
Piercing Mind turned it all into a quiet diagram in his head.
He paused near a particularly tall coral blade and placed his palm against it, just barely.
The material was cold and utterly still. But through it, faintly, he could feel the way sound and vibration traveled.
He didn't sense anything close. No near tremors of chitin legs, no sudden peaks of movement. Only the far‑off pulses of a place that was always in motion.
He kept going.
Juno made a slow quarter‑circle around the base of Bongo, never letting the sides of the creature leave his peripheral vision for long. Every few dozen steps, he stopped, listened, and let his nose and ears do a slow sweep. When nothing presented itself, he moved on.
The longer he stayed out here, the more familiar the wrongness became.
Eventually, he decided he'd seen enough for a first pass. The map in his head was still only sketched in, but the outlines were there: a few good approach routes, a couple of promising ambush spots, places to never stand if he wanted to keep his legs attached.
"Good enough for day one," Juno said under his breath. "Back to—"
A faint, irregular scrape cut across his thoughts.
His body froze.
Swiftly, Juno sank down low and passed his weight to the balls of his feet. He reigned in every sense; he had to be focused only on his surrounding area, nothing more.
The scraping came again. A dragging, stuttering sound, punctuated by wet thumps. Mud is being shoved aside. Something heavy was forcing its way through terrain it didn't like.
He knew what it was. A Scavenger. A full, healthy Scavenger was almost right in front of him.
'Ok, don't panic. I just have to slowly shift backward and let it pass. Then, a quick dash and I am pretty much back at camp.'
He began shifting his weight back toward Bone Ridge.
Then it hit him.
That feeling of "what if?". What if he killed the thing and got a Memory? Even if he didn't, he would double his Soul Fragment count, making him stronger. The very thought of walking away from an unsuspecting Beast like the one almost in front of him felt wrong.
Juno swore quietly in his head.
'Of course. Of course, this is how it starts.'
But he didn't fight it. Realistically, why? Why should he deny his Flaw and run away without getting anything? He was Juno, the Sun Chaser, and he would be damned to pass up on an opportunity to strengthen himself. All reward comes with a risk, after all.
He moved toward the sound.
The path curved sharply to the left, squeezing between two mounds of coral that leaned toward one another like collapsed arches. The mud dipped there, forming a shallow basin that would be hell to run through at speed.
It was hell to move through, even limping.
The Carapace Scavenger slogging across it was proof.
It was big — they always were — but smaller than the one he'd fought inside the spine. Its shell was pristine, with no azure blood seeping from it. All its eight legs were placed in normal position, and both pincers gleamed with blood. It had just killed another of its kind.
It hadn't seen him.
It never would, before he was in front of it.
He tightened his grip on Execution, preparing his body for the perfect strike. Whilst he did so, another part of his brain was thinking of something less serious.
'All hunters have a cool name, so I should too. If I'm going to do something this stupid, I should at least sound cool."
Names flicked through his mind as easily as they had once flicked off web pages.
'Legolas? Too noble. Dante? Too cocky. Diana? Too disciplined. Hmm… Ah fuck it,' Juno had run out of time to choose a name for himself, so he would have to do that later. He had identified where the "heart" of the Beast would be, so he had to act.
He moved.
The scavenger twitched almost immediately, some buried instinct finally registering an approaching threat. It's a good pincer rose, already beginning the familiar horizontal sweep.
Juno was too fast for it.
The world stretched itself into heartbeats as he sank fully into the mental part of his Aspect. Each frame of the monster's movement separated — the rise of the pincer, the shift of its weight, the drag of the broken leg. He saw the space under the arm, the line through the mud that would carry him safely past, the exact point in its shell where he would have to stab. It was all too perfect.
The pincer scythed across his body.
It missed him by less than a hand's breadth.
The gust of air and the roar of impact as it slammed into the mud behind him nearly knocked him off his feet.
He didn't let it.
King's Execution punched into the very middle of the Scavenger's chest, piercing it almost instantly. An Awakened Beast could have no hope against an Ascended Memory, especially one that lowered the defense of things.
As its brethren before, the Scavenger let out a loud scream that tore through the crimson labyrinth. Luckily, Juno had learned quickly, so he had completely cut off his senses right before the noise.
'Dumb and dumber,' he thought with glee.
The pincer slammed down where he'd been a moment ago, gouging a deep trench in the mud. The monster lurched, trying to turn, trying to bring its good side to bear on him. Every motion dragged the sword in its flesh, tearing, widening, making the wound worse.
He retreated to the basin's rim, boots squelching once in soft mud before finding better ground. His heart hammered, but his breathing stayed controlled.
This time, he didn't rush.
Juno danced just at the edge of the scavenger's reach, letting it lunge and miss. Every wasted attack sank its broken leg deeper, stole more of its strength. The blood never touched the ground, vanishing into King's Execution as fast as it appeared.
Slowly, inevitably, the monster weakened.
Its shell dulled. The wet sheen around the crack faded as the flesh beneath dried and tightened. The pincer's sweeps turned from vicious to sluggish.
One last, desperate charge carried it two steps closer than Juno liked.
He slipped aside and watched it crash down, momentum ruined.
It didn't get up.
He waited three breaths. Four.
Nothing.
He approached quickly, senses still edged, and grabbed the sword's hilt. The weapon slid free with a wet rasp and no resistance.
It emerged clean.
The Scavenger's carcass looked like a husk someone had forgotten to throw away.
[You have slain an Awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.]
[...Your Desire sharpens.]
Rapidly, a nice feeling rushed through Juno's body, signaling the entrance of Soul Fragments. He let himself stand there for a couple of seconds, basking in his greatness one more time.
Suddenly, he realized his mistake and started to work on cutting the beast open to get its Soul Shards and get the fuck out.
Fumbling around inside the beast, Juno soon found the single shard and grasped it. Then, unceremoniously, he crushed it right where it was. The nice feeling returned, and he felt himself growing stronger.
[...Your Desire sharpens.]
His job was done. He had completed his kill, and it was time to return. He wiped his hand on the scavenger's shell, turned, and didn't waste any more time.
The path back to Bongo was still fresh in his mind. He cut the most direct line to the coral mound, feet automatically seeking the firmer ground. No new sounds rose behind him. No sudden tremors in the coral announced incoming trouble.
The cracked teeth of the skull appeared ahead like a promise.
Juno slipped back under them and didn't slow until the red and black of the labyrinth had been replaced by the pale, curved safety of bone.
Only then did he get the idea.
What other hunter could he call himself, if not for the ultimate hunter? Who else, but the one who symbolized the concept itself? Grinning, Juno stuck out a hand in a mock handshake, as if someone was in front of him.
"Hello there, I am Lumian of the Lee clan. It is a total pleasure to meet you."
Juno, was completely mentally sane.