Commonly, people don't go out of their way to go to an active spawning pool. It's a stupid way to die and anyone who's not insane knows that pissing off an aberrant mother taking care of her eggs will only result in them becoming baby food.

  With that being said, I'm currently approaching one. Not because I'm insane, but because I want to kill the aberrant on said spawning pool, harvest her babies– and possibly even eggs. – and then sell her meat. If there are eggs that haven't hatched yet? I want them. I hear they're pretty expensive when sold as a pet? I dunno. Nobles are weird for some reason or the other.

  Also, there's a good chance the eggs aren't being turned into pets but as some kind of monster-to-kill for their children after that generation's class ceremony.

  Once the aberrant mother is killed, I'll make a trap for the hatchlings currently swimming in the pool. Since they're already wild, those guys will only be sold as food or better yet, maybe mom can cook them for me?

  I remember eating aberrant hatchlings glazed in butter when I was young and it tasted so good... I'm not sure how my dad got hold of an entire bag of them but apparently it was because of a visiting adventurer that cleaned out a spawning pool or whatever.

  That was also the time I learned that nobles bought aberrant eggs and hatchlings so yeah, that guy probably came here to get the eggs. He most likely made a decent profit from it too.

  And yes, guy. Singular. Seriously, whoever that was? They were a monster who can fight an enraged aberrant mother all by themselves. And since he harvested eggs specifically, it meant that the aberrant mother was still healthy when he fought it.

  One of those things is currently in front of me– not the adventurer but the aberrant, – she's resting on a shallower part of the spawning pool and watching over the entire thing like how a warden would to a group of prisoners. Occasionally, she'd eat one of her own children or a passing fish.

  I already memorized the route that I'll be running through so it should be safe for me to do this...

  I picked up a rock, took a deep breath, and threw it at the giant crayfish.

  The aberrant turned its body and I felt the weight of all four of its eyes bearing down on me. It clacked one of its claws, making me wince from the sound but it wasn't enough to incapacitate me.

  I turned and fled. Behind me, the sound of water being disturbed echoed out but I didn't bother thinking about it, I focused on running away.

  The sounds of trees getting broken down, the ground literally breaking apart from the sheer size of what's chasing me, and the flapping of wings from birds flying away is suddenly everywhere. The forest is panicking. It was overstimulating and my mind could barely keep up with what's happening.

  Luckily, my eyes processed everything just fine and I was able to move without thinking where to go, the route before me still leads back to my trap so I'm safe right as long as I move fast enough...

  I swerved when I noticed the sound of skittering stopped and just in time too, because the tree next to me suddenly split in half. Just as I thought, the aberrant had lunged.

  Now that the distance between us had been cut, I had to take a small detour to avoid being in the same space as the crayfish but before long, I'm on my way back to my trap.

  When I realized that I was no longer being chased, I got pissed. What, did lunging get it so tired that I was no longer worth the effort to hunt? Then why did it lunge?!

  I picked up a rock and turned back, I scanned the forest for the crayfish just in case it was waiting for me in ambush behind a tree or something and when I confirmed that it didn't, I ran after it.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Rocks hit its shell when I finally found it again but it ignored me. I was stubborn though and refused to stop, I kept pelting it with rocks until a lucky shot hit it in the eye.

  That? That got it pissed off and it was back to chasing after me again.

  I ran, noticing that it is definitely slower than it was earlier. It's tired, as expected. It's not that weird for aberrants whose eggs have already hatched to be tired, this one definitely hasn't eaten in weeks and is starving.

  I can even kill it if I tried hard enough, but that would be stupid. I get the same amount of exp whether something dies by my hands or my traps.

  When I finally got the aberrant to my trap, I watched it get tangled up in fishing lines. It flailed and struggled to break free and because of that, it didn't take long for it to get wrapped up in thin wires. When it stopped moving and the trap was at rest, the rock fell and its head got struck, breaking the shell and exposing its brain.

  I grabbed my spear, stabbed it, reaching level 8.

  "Only one level. Seriously? I spent so much time making the trap and I only got a single level out of it?!" I stabbed the crayfish in the head again, burying my spear into its brain because I'm pissed. "What the hell?!"

  And yeah, sure, I probably shouldn't complain given that kids my age wouldn't even get past level 5 but still! I need to be quick with my level ups otherwise I'd be left behind by the goddamn plot, how else am I gonna conquer this swamp's dungeon if I'm weak huh? How am I gonna collect the full [Mender's Set]?

  "Whatever." I growled. It's not the end of the world yet. "It's only day two so I have plenty of time but still, I can't be complacent."

  I don't know how my future self becomes the Queen of Misery Swamp so I can't just sit around pretending like everything is going to be okay.

  Whatever caused the transformation, it's here so I need to find it and fix it otherwise I'd go insane!

  Before I knew it, I'm breathing heavily and clutching my chest. My world was spinning and my vision was blurry. I found my center and stood up on shaky legs. "It happened again."

  I shook my head and walked over to my backpack. I need to get my mind off of the future, working always does that so I'll just free the crayfish from the fishing lines and chop it up. That should keep me stable.

  Using a cleaver is something I'm familiar with. And this is despite my current age. Why? Well, for starters I've been chopping up fish ever since I could use my hands, even with all my experience though, cutting up a giant crayfish is beyond me.

  I actually had to make new traps to do it for me. It's a giant snare that drags things to the sky, the heavier the prey, the more taut the fishing lines become so it can be used to cut big things.

  It isn't meant to be used this way but the fact that the fishing lines are so thin means they're perfect for slicing aberrants, and proof of how effective it is would be the pieces of meat currently sitting atop my cart.

  I started a fire, one heavy enough that smoke filled the local area. Birds are going to be fine, they can swoop down and peck at the meat if they're brave enough to push through the smoke and I don't mind them doing that but bugs? Nah.

  Selling meat full of parasites is not a good idea, especially in Flotol.

  Just to be sure, I made a bunch of bug traps around the dead crayfish. Hopefully the bugs go there instead of my kill.

  That done, I pushed my cart back to Flotol. My first stop was the butcher shop, who bought off most of the meat I was selling and the only reason why he didn't get all of it is because I refused to give him everything.

  Next up was our house, mom was washing clothes outside so she immediately saw me. She got up and came up to me, eyeing my cart in interest. "I'm guessing that's not everything you have?"

  "Nope!" I grinned and pushed the cart her way. "Take everything, there's still a lot of meat I left behind."

  "Okay." Atterson nodded and went inside our house, when she came back she had a large wooden bowl tucked between her arm and chest. "How many pounds of meat are you planning on bringing here? You know if you bring too much it'll lose its value right?"

  "Who cares about that?!" I said loudly, hoping someone will hear me. "I want to kill aberrants because they're a problem for our community! Selling their meat comes second to that!"

  My mother smiled, my words clearly having an effect on her. I'm hoping other people did as well, I'm sure I attracted attention with my cart full of aberrant meat. People should be listening in right now.

  "Fine, you win. You can hunt as many of those things as you want." My mother rubbed my head, smiling. "It's been a while since Flotol experienced a time where there's no aberrants in the water anyway. Who knows, maybe the pier will finally be repaired again? You'd want that right?"

  "Yep!" Well, I wouldn't mind. It'd be great if the pier is functional again since that means I'll be able to reach dry land without having to ride boats. That and Wardcruncha doesn't have to live in such a shitty place anymore.