A Strange Scene

The Gray Rock Forest was a labyrinth of towering stone pillars, their bulk and irregular spacing carving the land into broken, complex terrain.

In one corner of the forest, a four-person squad had just finished off a cluster of Gray Rock Beetles. Their leader — a handsome elf in yellow leather armor — glanced at the four Spirit Crystals gleaming in his palm, gave a polished little cough, and slipped them into his pouch.

"I'll hold onto these for now. We'll split everything up at the end."

The other three members — a tall, slender elf, a gnoll, and an ordinary-looking human male — exchanged glances. The gnoll, A Huang, scratched the back of his head.

"Boss, how many Spirit Crystals do we have so far?"

The elf leader thought for a moment. "I've been keeping track. Forty-six total. Good haul."

The tall elf stared at him. "A Huang, you miscounted! It's clearly forty-seven!"

A Huang tilted his head in genuine confusion.

The human male frowned at the elf leader. "Boss... why are you saying fewer than we counted? You're not... skimming, are you?"

The elf leader's expression didn't so much as flicker. "How could I? You know how long we've known each other. You know what kind of person I am. Why would I ever skim? And don't you dare question my arithmetic — I scored first in class."

The human male paused, then cleared his throat. "I can vouch for that. I was his classmate."

The tall elf narrowed her eyes. "...Really? That's true?"

The human male blinked. "Is... is that right?"

The four of them went quiet.

"You're all imagining things," the elf leader said firmly. "It's forty-four."

"It's forty-seven!" the tall elf snapped.

All four: *"..."*

Just then, a commotion broke out somewhere deeper in the forest. Everyone turned.

A moment later, Lu Yuan came sprinting past.

The elf leader's eyes widened slightly.

"...What is he doing here?"

A Huang scratched his head. "Boss, do you actually recognize him? Personally, I can't tell humans, elves, and cat-kin apart. You all look like monkeys without fur to me."

The human male shot him an affronted look.

"Of course I recognize him," the elf leader said. "Handsome humans like that are rare. If his ears were shaped differently, I'd think he was an elf."

The tall elf looked curious. "Who is he?"

"That human..." The elf leader hesitated. "Isn't he the one we didn't manage to... *cough*... didn't quite get to *invite* last time?"

Then two gnolls sprinted past in Lu Yuan's wake, snarling and cursing, blades already drawn.

"What is that human up to?" the tall elf asked.

"No idea. He's a slippery one," someone muttered.

Then they saw what Lu Yuan was actually doing, and every last one of them went wide-eyed.

The pillars stretched in every direction. Lu Yuan ran hard through the gaps between them, expression flat despite the urgency churning beneath it.

*First time in the Land of Origin. Can't die here.* The thought sat cold and steady at the back of his mind. *If I get killed on my first visit, all my preparation goes up in smoke. And dying here damages the spirit — I won't be able to re-enter until I've recovered. That's an unacceptable waste of time.*

He was already running; he couldn't afford to dwell. He scanned his surroundings instead, mind turning over possibilities.

The two gnolls on his heels clearly had higher gene refinement than he did — stronger bodies, faster legs. He'd managed to open a gap, but it wouldn't hold. He was already being chased, and on top of that, every cluster of beetles he passed forced him to slow and dodge. Each evasion bled off speed.

*Being chased and dodging beetles at the same time. I slow down to avoid them, the gnolls close the gap. If I don't—*

He had no good answer. Not yet.

The beetles themselves were manageable, at least. Their attack patterns were simple; after a morning of hunting, dodging them had become almost reflexive. When two Gray Rock Beetles reared up from a stone pillar directly ahead, their mandibles wide, Lu Yuan barely changed his expression — a quick cross-step, a shift of weight, and he flowed through the gap between them and kept going.

The beetles shrieked behind him, furious at the indignity of a miss, and gave chase.

Their speed was no threat. They'd never catch him.

He ran. He thought.

*Gray Rock Beetles attack anyone who enters their range. Anyone — it doesn't matter who they are.*

He glanced back at the gnolls.

His eyes lit up.

*If that's how it works...*

He reached down without breaking stride and scooped up a handful of gravel.

Watching from behind, the two gnolls frowned at each other. "What's that human doing?"

The next moment, they had their answer.

Lu Yuan ran straight through a cluster of three Gray Rock Beetles contentedly gnawing at a pillar. The instant he cleared them, he turned and snapped a stone at the nearest one.

*Crack.* Square on the head.

The beetle stopped dead.

A beat of silence. Then it let out a grating *screee*, and its two companions tilted their heads at the sound and erupted into their own shrieking chorus. All three dropped their meal and charged — not at Lu Yuan, now well ahead of them, but straight at the two gnolls closing in from behind.

The gray-furred gnoll's expression darkened. Two dark blade-flashes cut through the air, sending two of the beetles tumbling. The brown gnoll booted the third hard into a pillar; it hit back-first, all eight stubby legs kicking uselessly as it struggled to right itself.

By the time the beetles flipped over and looked around, their enemy had vanished. Their antennae touched briefly. They seemed to lose the thread entirely, and trundled unhurriedly back to their meal.

But Lu Yuan had used every second of that exchange. The gap between them was now nearly fifty meters — wider than when the chase began.

Both gnolls roared and pushed harder.

The gray gnoll snarled under his breath. "Annoying damn bugs."

*Working great,* Lu Yuan noted to himself, not slowing for a moment.

Lu Yuan kept moving. As he ran, he scanned ahead. In certain parts of the Gray Rock Forest, the space between pillars stretched thirty or forty meters wide — broad enough to pass through without disturbing any beetles at all, since the creatures generally fed only on the pillar surfaces. He threaded those gaps when he could.

But the gnolls were gaining again.

He spotted another cluster of beetles — four this time, lazily picking at a nearby pillar. He waited until he was past them, then flung a stone without looking.

Silence. Then an eruption of outraged shrieks.

Four more beetles abandoned their meal and joined the procession. Combined with the earlier stragglers: seven total, a respectable horde.

Behind him, the gnolls had just closed back to thirty meters when the wave of beetles hit them. Even they couldn't help but grimace slightly at facing seven at once. Their blades moved in a furious blur — slashing, kicking, sending beetle after beetle spinning into the pillars. The creatures flailed on their backs. Righted themselves. Wandered, perplexed, back to their stones.

When the gnolls looked up from the carnage, Lu Yuan had opened the gap to fifty meters again.

The gray-furred gnoll went very still. He stared at Lu Yuan's retreating back.

The pieces clicked together.

"Damn it," he said quietly. "I know what he's doing. He's using the beetles as a wall."

The brown gnoll's eyes went wide, then blazed hot. "That filthy — using a trick like this?! If you've got a problem, face us like a man!"

"Coward! Despicable human!"

The gray gnoll raised a hand. His voice stayed cold and even.

"Don't rush in. Too many beetles — every engagement costs us ground, and he's counting on that. So we don't play that game." He paused. "We slow down. Follow from behind. A good hunter knows patience. We wait until he's run himself empty. Then we move."

"He thinks he's clever!" The brown gnoll fumed, but fell into a grudging lope beside his partner. "His endurance has to be worse than ours. He just Awakened — there's no way he can keep this up."

"Of course it is."

Two gnolls with cold, vicious grins settled into an easy pace behind the growing horde.

Not long after, when the two gnolls had closed back to thirty meters, there were now ten Gray Rock Beetles running between them and their quarry, shrieking and scrambling in that mindless, single-minded way they had.

The gnolls followed. Patient. Unhurried. Waiting.

"Hahaha!" the brown gnoll bellowed. "One Alloy Weapon on you, and that's *it*? I've never seen a Gene Warrior this broke in my life! Why don't you just lie down and save us the trouble?!"

The watching party — the elf leader, the tall elf, A Huang, and the ordinary human male — stood with their mouths slightly open, staring at the bizarre procession moving through the forest.

A handsome young man from the Human Race, sprinting full tilt at the front.

Behind him, a shrieking, clattering horde of Gray Rock Beetles.

And behind the beetles, two gnolls ambling along with the easy smiles of men who were absolutely certain they'd already won.

The tall elf looked at the elf leader. The elf leader looked at the tall elf.

"...He's collecting them," A Huang said finally. "He's actually collecting them."

All four fell silent again.

Then they watched the two gnolls follow, still cursing, still grinning — and shook their heads.

Lu Yuan glanced back at the gnolls. He saw the fury behind those wide grins, the patient cruelty of hunters who believed time was on their side.

He looked at the stone still resting in his palm.

He tossed it once. Caught it.

A thin smile settled across his face.

He had an idea.

A bold one.