Everlearn, though blinded, could hear all of it.
The rattling, the rapid running, the turbid rustling of leaves.
All were signs that bestial creatures were definitely lurking around every inch of this jungle.
The moon wasn’t out, and the night was mostly pitch black.
So though he could hear them, he couldn’t see them, and in a way, that was good.
Only the devil knew how freaked out he would have been at the sight of so many beasts, and that might just have led him to getting noticed.
But after a while, something became... different.
He heard the sound of sniffing.
Something that had happened more than a couple of times now, so he wasn’t too worried.
The beasts may have been able to recognize a strange smell on the ground, probably due to his roughing around trying to find stone and vine, but they usually left, unable to trace it back up to the tree.
Except this time it was different.
He heard the sniffle, and afterward a monstrous growl.
But what was worse was when his body suddenly stiffened, a bizarre tingling running across his spine.
It was like something had locked onto him, his body reacting from fear.
The tree shook heavily, and Everlearn’s heart almost exploded.
He could hear claws trailing across the bark of the tree, which shook more and more.
Finally, a beast had noticed him, and with the continuous sniffling, it was inching closer and closer toward him.
Everlearn peeked out of an opening in the leaves he had used to cover himself, to confirm what the creature was, but afterward his eyes narrowed.
There was... nothing!?
Even the sound of sniffling and the claws scratching on the tree had stopped.
’Did it fall back to the ground? But then, that should have made the leaves rus,’
The growl resounded, and this time, Everlearn’s thoughts froze.
It sounded close...too close.
With sweat droplets rolling down his face, he slowly turned his neck, and there it was:
A creature straight out of his worst nightmare.
All Everlearn saw was a total of five hollow white eyes as bright as lightbulbs staring right at him.
Faint light glinted off the spear’s edge, reflecting onto the creature and revealing its true features.
Even now, crouched on all fours, it was about a meter in height, and dangling up and down behind it was a pitch-black tail that radiated smoke of darkness.
Pitch-black fur with gray lacerations all over, claws as long as five centimeters, digging into the tree branch.
For such a humongous size, it stood as steady as a monkey on a tree, the two holes beneath its eyes taking three extra sniffs of him before
A powerful, ear-deafening roar slammed straight into Everlearn’s face, and the shockwave was so powerful it hurled him off the tree.
The world blurred with insane speed as he was blasted through tree branches.
A colossal ringing threatened to turn his brain to mush, but he forced it down, digging the spear into a tree surface and dangling at its edge.
He had not even taken a breath when a white light shone onto his body, and he watched the creature bouncing up from tree branch to tree branch, heading straight for him.
║That’s some shitty luck you got there, mate! ║
The system panel blinked at the corner of Everlearn’s vision, but he didn’t look at it twice.
With a forceful swing off the spear, he was flung to the side, just as part of the tree bark was torn away, leaving three claw marks gouged ten centimeters deep.
The spear lost its hold on the tree, and Everlearn was sent tumbling down through the branches, but quickly dug the spear into another branch, bringing himself to a stop.
His heart pounded loudly as he quickly looked around him, but once more, like a ghost, the creature had disappeared.
Immediately, Everlearn jumped off the tree branch he was on to another, and he started running, leaping from one branch to the next.
The second he started running, he could immediately hear it.
The snap of breaking branches and the looming shadow of a creature that only got closer and closer.
’Just like I guessed. It was right behind me,’ he thought, swinging here and there.
He felt the whistle of air, the creature’s paws coming close, and his spear stabbed into a tree stem.
With a forceful yank, he spun himself forty-five degrees and landed on another branch.
The creature paused where Everlearn had stood, and it stared at him, who also happened to be staring right back.
"You know your bulb-eyes are too bright, so you shut them to hide your presence. That’s a pretty cheap trick..." Everlearn called out as he stared ahead.
Even though it was pitch black, he could hear the sound of the tree branch twitching up and down, and just as he said, the eyes opened once more.
A total of five bright eyes, casting light across the forest, most of it congregating on himself.
’I know this creature. It’s a Five-eyed Panthercrack.’
Most Mecha Builds sometimes took their forms from bestial creatures, and this had given Everlearn a chance to truly study beast physiology for the sake of learning how to build integrations most similar to them. Follow current novels on 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭⟡𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦⟡𝘯𝘦𝘵
One of these creatures was a Five-eyed Panthercrack.
A Peak Grade E beast known for its unmatched assassination skills in its beastly grade.
It excelled best at stealth, able to climb trees and move without making a single noise.
But one thing exposed it, and that was the five bright eyes of its.
Its only mode of attack was its claws and fangs, and it had a one-use ability that those flickering tails of its could perform.
"And talking of weakness—"
The tree where the Panthercrack stood splintered as Everlearn raised his neck, finding the wide-open claws reaching for his face.
║You should have kept running. ║
The panel flickered, but his lips curved into a confident grin as he lowered his stance, gripping the spear tightly with both hands.
"There’s something about me, System," he muttered, and in the next instant, he sprang from the tree branch, darting toward the beast’s outstretched claws.
"I’m never afraid of something I’ve studied."