Siderius returned to the last location he had encountered the Night Panther.
It was the exact place that he had stopped to look at the map with a water stream where Red had drunk from.
Siderius stopped the horse right at the footprint of the panther. He jumped down from Red and examined the footprint closer.
The footprint was slightly distorted and the edge was sared without a defined line. Siderius placed his hand on the footprint.
The front pad of the panther was almost twice the size of Siderius’ palm.
"It is that panther’s footprint alright. Its skin was that dense black oil. Its footprint should be sared like this instead of the usual defined shape."
Siderius grabbed his hunter’s knife and plunged it down the dirt inside the footprint. He dug up the ground to see if the footprint could show more clues to where the panther usually went.
"What is this?"
Siderius grabbed a tiny little pebble that was mixed within the dirt. It was hard and had a gray color.
"Granite... Not the usual listone that is available around here. There is only one place that has granite in these areas."
The rocky hills where Siderius had set his camp up. It was also where Ashe was staying right now.
The rocky hills were a collection of bald dium-height hills that extended for miles. It could be considered a miniature mountain range. The presence of granite did not an that Ashe was in danger.
It only ant that the panther had visited the rocky hills before.
"I wonder why it visited the hills. It is not the habitat a panther preferred. There must be so reason for it to be there."
Siderius kept this little fact in mind then continued following the trails of footprints.
After being set on fire because of the Phosphorus, the beast ran straight to the river. Its traces were still fresh even days later.
Siderius could only notice these traces because the panther did not have the slightest idea of hiding its track. The low-height plants were stomped on with visible black oil soaking onto them.
It led to the shortest route to the river. Within half an hour, Siderius was able to see the familiar river that he had visited many tis before.
The large river that flowed from the Rottin Woods, going straight through Mucktown, and continued on.
The trace stopped at the edge of the river.
"The beast is smart. It knew the only way to save itself was to jump into a body of large water.
The possibility of its survival is... very high."
Siderius grinned from ear to ear. From here, the trace was lost. He could try to go downstream for a chance to see any signs of the panther. But this river went on for the entirety of Eldoria. That was simply not logical.
The only logical way was to set up a trap and ambush it.
Siderius knew that the panther would show up in these roads. It was probably looking for food. For a Chaos Beast like it, an ordinary human was not a threat. They simply were food.
The second location was the rocky hills. It had gone there before so there’s a chance it would go there again.
Between the two, Siderius chose the road where he last saw it. Food was a solid motivation for it to appear.
He chose a wide area that wasn’t far from the original place it had appeared and set up a temporary camp.
Then, Siderius and Lycan the wolverine went on a hunt, hoping to find sothing valuable to fill their stomach. Red was left behind, unleashed so it could run away in case of danger.
Siderius had trained Red well so it would know what to do.
Lycan sat on Siderius’ shoulder. The hunter held the bow in his right hand and five arrows in his left hand, ready to pull the bowstring and fire at any ti. He did have a very slow pace when walking through the woods. He was alerted but remained calm.
"Do you want to learn how to properly fight, Lycan?" Siderius said to the wolverine.
It replied to him in a high-pitched friendly squeak. Siderius might not understand what it’s saying but he could read the positive in its tone.
"So you want to fight. Once we have ti, I will teach you properly."
It was an unlucky day for Siderius to hunt. He couldn’t spot any large ga in the woods. As for small ga, those rabbits and squirrels were present but Siderius’ body needed sothing with a little bit more fat.
Protein is good but fat ensures survival. In the long term, Siderius needed both of them to have a healthy and strong body. But in the short term, fat was a more dense energy source and could guarantee his survival.
Siderius wasn’t exactly in survival mode at the mont. He still had so ration he bought in Scalize and sufficient water. But he liked so fat to regulate his energy.
Siderius left the woods and entered the river instead. He walked upstream in the hope of discovering so fishes.
He discovered sothing much better than that. He saw an area of riffles in one part of the river.
It was a broad area of the river with a very shallow bottom. It was at best a foot deep, around thirty centiters. The bottom was filled with gravel and all kinds of stones.
"Didn’t expect to see riffles on this river."
Siderius approached closer to examine the water. There were countless red salmon swimming in the shallow water. When the huge shadow of Siderius appeared, they dispersed imdiately.
For them, Siderius represented a bear that they needed to get away from.
"Now this is a catch!"
The rocky hills were visible from a far. From this part of the river, Siderius could go straight to the rocky hills and vice versa. The riffles could beco a permanent fish source for Siderius.
But there was sothing waiting for him there. A large grizzly bear was there.
It spotted Siderius and it raised up on its hind legs. The bear growled deeply. Its shoulders had patches of gray while the rest of its front body was a light brown color.
It had given Siderius a warning and told him to back off.
The riffles were a precious location for bears as it was the place where they could gain enough calories to build up fat for winter hibernation. Seeing a grizzly bear in a salmon lake told Siderius that it was almost winter already.
He breathed out a puff of white smoke, showing the cold atmosphere at the mont. "It really has gone much colder recently. I arrived in this world for almost half a year."
Siderius ignored the warning of the bear and placed his arrows onto the bow.
"Salmons are good but you look much better in my eyes, little bear. You have a very nice coat there."
The bear huffed repeatedly to warn Siderius. Replying to the beast was an obsidian arrow aid at its right eye.
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