Two travelers ran through the tough terrain of a jungle. Their feet crunched the black glass sand that made up the jungle floor. Nearly twenty feet behind them, eight pairs of clawed feet followed their path.

  Tunirik hunters had been after their prey for weeks and wouldn’t give up until they were dead. Only eight hunters remained of the original thirty. Their prey turned out to be more of a challenge than they originally thought.

  Scal-Tun had been the leader of the hunt, and he had kept his fellow beastkin up the past two days for the opportunity they finally had. He would not rest until his prey was dead.

  Each time they had gotten close, the two humans somehow escaped them by using unbreakable shields and strange magic. To them, any class that wasn’t focused around hunting was a waste. Scal-Tun would make sure they paid for their transgressions.

  Using their four arms as they ran, each Tuniric tapped into their hunting skills to conjure magic bows. Pure mana arrows shot from all eight while they kept up their speed. Their accuracy was perfect, and the arrows soared straight towards their targets only to be deflected at the last second by the unbreakable shields the prey possessed. Of course, this was expected and Scal-Tun himself set up a trap using another of his skills right ahead of now helpless humans.

  A snap rang out through the jungle as a magical bear trap closed around the cloakless human. He grunted but didn’t bother to look back. The Tuniric hunters prepared another volley of arrows when something unexpected happened.

  The human touched his leg and the trap reversed. His wound healed and seconds later they were once again on the run.

  This chase continued for nearly eight more minutes until the humans attempted to lose the warriors by abruptly changing course to run through a tunnel of massive roots, but this was jungle of the Tunirics and they would not be bested in their own home. Each hunter followed the almost ninety-degree turn into the tunnel.

  Scal-Tun was the last to make the sharp turn around the corner and what he found was surprising. The humans hadn’t been trying to run away; they had used the surprise to launch their own offensive. Two of his men were already down while the cloakless human advanced on the third. The other simply stood back and cast the occasion bubble of protection to deflect any attacks from behind.

  Strange magic radiated from the attacker and his hunters seemed to slow down. Ethereal starlit daggers deflected blades before one was stabbed into his best close quarter hunter. A yelp of pain escaped the proud warrior before the human unexpectedly threw the other one past Scal-Tun missing his face by an inch. Suddenly, the wounded hunter disappeared and when he reappeared, he was where the dagger had landed nearly ten yards away.

  That left him, and four of his hunters, facing off again the one human. The one in the white cloak still didn’t engage. Scal-Tun gave the order for all the remaining hunters including himself to attack at the same time to take down the aggressive prey. He didn’t wait for confirmation as he already knew they would follow his orders even if they were to die for him.

  Five four-armed thickly brown furred humanoids with the ears of a cat, the nose of a wolf, and the claws of a bear leapt at the singular human. As soon as they got close, a feeling of the strange magic hit them and their movements through the air slowed to a crawl. A flash of the daggers through his hunters’ throats instantly killed them.

  Scal-tun was furious and bared his fangs while his shortswords connected with the crude leather armor of his prey. His blades bit in and found flesh only for the human to use his magic to heal once more. A smile from the human angered him more, but before he could strike again, his body disintegrated into dust.

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  One hunter remained and he was still recovering from the vicious stab when another dagger landed as his feet. Seconds later the human, his prey, appeared where the dagger had been and ended the proud warrior’s life.

  ***

  Tuniric Hunter lv 18 has been slain!

  Tuniric Hunter lv 19 has been slain!

  Tuniric Hunter lv 19 has been slain!

  …

  Tuniric Huntmaster lv 26 has been slain!

  Tuniric Sword Hunter lv 21 has been slain!

  Spatial Daggers has reached level 23!

  Touch of Time has reached level 26!

  Time Manipulation has reached level 24!

  Time’s End has reached level 21!

  Internal Navigation has reached level 32!

  Instant Translation has reached level 15!

  You have reached level 15!

  Laiko sat in the black glass sand and sighed as the exhaustion left his body.

  “Why does everything on this planet want to kill us?!”

  Minily laughed. “We do not seem to be having any luck. Those guys were persistent.”

  “Their leader kept referring to us as prey and all their classes were hunters like the others.”

  Laiko looked back at Minily when there was no reply. She had a serious look on her face and that worried him.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. I was just contemplating how insulting it would be for you if we got caught and in death you had to watch them make me the main course and you the measly appetizer that everyone eats quickly, so they don’t have to taste it.” She flashed him a smile.

  “Ha! Ha! That’s not even funny.”

  It had been two months since they left that barn and no civilization they had found had been friendly to them yet. Humans seemed to be the outlier on the planet they found themselves on. Each day they continued on foot in the same direction for the same amount of time. By this point, Minily had told Laiko her life story since she couldn’t seem to go ten minutes without speaking. He, however, didn’t share as much. Still, he liked her company.

  His skills and mastery of spacetime mana had greatly improved. Minily didn’t have any offensive skills due to her class being one with a purpose of simply helping others get back to where they needed to be. That made his experience gain accelerate especially in the hostile environments they had constantly found themselves in.

  After the plains of tall grass, there was an unforgiving swamp that swallowed them with every step through the dark water. Then there was an endless rainstorm over grassy hills that held surprises for them over each crest. Now, of course they found themselves in the jungle. They had been wandering through the shards of dark glass and wicked trees for nearly three weeks with no end in sight.

  Every new biome they found had at least one sign of intelligent creatures, but they all instantly attacked when the two tried to approach them in peace. The only hope they got from all the encounters was that they knew what humans were and that meant there were humans somewhere on their planet. If the beastkin wouldn’t help, then fellow humans just might.

  Due to her class, Minily had a general idea of what direction to head which is why they had picked the direction in the first place. She was just hoping that what they sought was closer than it was. For all they knew, they could be walking for the next year without reaching their destination. However, their time wasn’t wasted.

  Laiko levelled up his skills, and his class had always been the end goal, and he was doing that every day. With each new encounter, his strength grew and they were both waiting for the day he had a skill selection or a skill evolution that would allow him to achieve planetary teleportation. If he did that before they reached whatever was pinging Minily’s class, then they wouldn’t even bother making the seemingly endless walk any further.

  After a few minutes, Laiko stood and they started their walk once more with Minily guiding them towards what they hoped would be their salvation or at least somewhere they could get a decent meal.

  Ten steps later, they both stopped again as a notification popped up on both their screens.

  “Welcome to the Progress Nexus!”