"Over 8 dozen aberrant hatchlings. You sure you aren't planning on wiping them out Rontress?" Igant, one of Flotol's many butchers said with a light laugh. "Can't believe you caught this much already!"

  "I killed an aberrant mother while she's in a spawning pool and that was the main dish, I think I consider these guys the side dish or something." And what is this man talking about? Flotol losing the aberrants wouldn't be a bad thing, not that it's possible given the leyline exists but you know...

  "Side dish? They're pretty good on their own, my brother likes eating these you know? You fry em in butter, add a few vegetables alongside em, maybe onions? And you got yourself a satisfied Jagal." Jagal being Igant's brother, and also Flotol's one of two executioners. "Anyhow, you should have come to me first if you were sellin' aberrant hatchlings! I would have bought them all off of you!"

  "I'll remember that next time." My smile was genuine because I didn't have to haggle with Igant while all the other butchers forced me to lower my price from what I wanted. He'll get his hatchlings when I catch some again.

  The coins in Igant's hands clinked. My father has already gotten all the money I owed him for buying me my traps so these silver coins are actually my hard earned money and I can spend them however I want. Problem is, though, I didn't get 100% of what I should have. I could have gotten more.

  I only sold 28 or so hatchlings to Igant and he paid me more than all the other butchers combined, which I think is just unfair.

  "I'll come back here later if my traps catch more hatchlings." Hopefully I do catch more, I know that the spawning pool isn't empty yet since most aberrants lay around 200 eggs individually. Discounting the hatchlings I gave to my mother, I only got what? A hundred or so? There's still a decent number of hatchlings in that pool.

  "I hope so!" Igant laughed, he handed me the last of the coins once the final hatchling was weighed and I left his shop with a heavy wallet. Or pouch. Same thing.

  I knew that hunting aberrants was lucrative since there isn't a market for them in Flotol to begin with but this much for a bunch of hatchlings?! It makes me feel tempted to only hunt mothers to constantly earn a profit.

  Really, it's too bad they also give a lot of exp. The adults, that is. Younger aberrants are not worth that much so I'm not gonna bother killing them for the sole purpose of leveling up and it's better if I harvest their meat to barter with other villagers for things that I'll need. Overall, it's more efficient to kill larger, healthier aberrants.

  After storing my money, I went back to the forest to check my rat traps but they're empty so I had to go back home. I gave mom two young aberrants so there should be more than enough meat for all of us. I'm gonna take some for myself and give it to Wardcruncha as thanks.

  He was building something alongside two teenagers when I found him, it wasn't one of their houses like I expected but something else. I don't care what it is though so I didn't bother to ask him about it.

  "Here." The plate I was holding went forward, an offering and a gesture all at once. My face said I wasn't taking no for an answer. "There's enough meat here for everyone in the pier."

  "Rontress." Wardcruncha sighed. "I told you I'm more than fine eating rats. Everyone agrees with me too." The two boys working with him nodded at that. "You can save the aberrant meat for yourself, light knows how hard it is to get those."

  "I really don't care if it's hard to get." Again, I pushed the plate forward. "I promised you meat so here, take it."

  "... Fine." Wardcruncha took the plate, his face resigned. "Thank you, I know that trading a bunch of Anlaks for aberrant meat is unfair to you..."

  "I don't care. I killed a mother guarding a spawning pool so I have a lot of meat to spare, I'm pretty sure there will be hatchlings when I check on my traps tomorrow too." And that's not mentioning the rats and the younger aberrants I'll be harvesting or the rest of the meat in the basket I'm holding.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  The forest really is just full of untapped resources huh? Can't believe no one bothered to hunt there all this time.

  "I guess you're right. Thank you." Wardcruncha smiled, he wiped the dust off his hands and patted my head. I pushed his hand away, making him chuckle. "Don't want me to treat you like a little kid?"

  "Nope." I shook my head. "Alright, take care. I'll bring your rats here tomorrow!"

  Leaving the pier now, I took the rest of the wrapped meat and went around the village bartering for the materials I'd need to make more of my traps as well as some tools that I think will be useful in the future.

  I now had a dagger, which I'll use to cut the fishing lines after they've captured an aberrant. Beyond that I also got myself a bronze pot and a copper cup, there's also a sack of charcoal, some kitchen tools, and other things.

  And why would I get cooking materials? It's because I want to go to Ghorise and cook there, you know, build up my reputation with adventurers before the Day of Piling.

  They'll be coming here to celebrate and join the annual cull early and if they all talk about my food, then some mage out there will hear that there's a promising apprentice in Flotol they can take under their wing! I'll pay them for their time even!

  My buzz was visible as I brought all the stuff I got home but no one in my family mentioned it, they just watched me place my new items in the storage shed wordlessly.

  We had dinner after, the day passed, and in the morning I set out to check my traps. I killed the rats and let them bleed out before leaving to begin harvesting the young aberrants from the mud lines, the same went for the hatchlings I caught in the spawning pool.

  All the meat I got is a big haul considering that this is only for the morning.

  After re-arming the traps, I left to give the rats to Wardcruncha and the people in the pier, then I sold the still living aberrant juveniles to the butchers and lastly, the hatchlings and two juveniles went to Igant.

  Today, I'll make sure to reach level 10. And I don't care if I have to leave a trail of dead, non-harvested aberrants behind me to do so.

  Back in Firelight Chronicles, I had to kill several hundred aberrants in order to level up once. And that was when I'm around level 40 or so, the fact that it only took that much to level up was a pretty big deal back in the game because it's known for its torturous grinding.

  Leveling up is so bad that the devs had to add items and passives that increase exp yield.

  In this world, it seems that the same thing is happening. Most of the people in Flotol– assuming they aren't combat classes. – are below level 20 even though they're several decades older than me.

  Me reaching level 10 in my age is a big deal, it's faster than average and is completely ground breaking. But even then, I know it's not enough to do what I need to do.

  Dungeons, like the one in Misery Swamp, are deadly. They kill a lot of players and need a lot of preparation in order to get cleared, on average you would need around 20 extra levels in order to solo a dungeon.

  And the one in Misery Swamp is level 65. Making me need to reach level 85 before I turn 17.

  It's only natural that I'm rushing because every second I waste? It gets me closer to becoming the Queen of Misery Swamp, I'd be forced to massacre my entire village and I wouldn't even comprehend that I killed so many people because I would be too insane to fully understand my actions.

  Now, to kill more aberrants.

  Hours were spent making three traps. I had gotten better at doing them so I saved a lot of time, everything was finished around the afternoon, just before dusk. Or two hours before I had to go home.

  Now all that's left to do is for me to take aberrants here and kill them off.

  The first aberrant that I caught was large, somewhere between the bull that I killed the first time and the mother in the spawning pool. It got caught in a web of fishing lines, unable to escape.

  I killed it and got no level up prompt. So I went and searched for another, this time I made sure it was larger than most other aberrants. I watched the still waters of the lifeless pool, inspecting the size of the aberrants that breached the surface for air.

  When I saw one that's big enough, I threw a rock at it to grab its attention and started running. Repeating the process. When I finally killed it, I got the level up I have been waiting for.

  By the third time, I came back to their territory and noticed five aberrants sitting on the shores of the lifeless pool, they were clearly looking for me.

  Out of all of them, I picked the largest crayfish and dragged it to my last trap. When it got caught, I waited for the shell on its head to crack open and then shoved a spear through its brain.

  As life drained out of the crustacean's body and I started feeling scared that I might just need to hunt another aberrant, a pop up came and I smiled.

  I finally reached level 10.