I didn’t leave the Centre immediately, instead I flew in a wide circle, checking out the monsters that were fighting while occasionally dodging rogue projectiles and flying beasts. Not only was I doing this to develop my knowledge of how these high-class monsters fought- their attack patterns, the projectiles they used, any special abilities, their weak points, that sort of thing- but also I wanted a sample of the stone. It was clearly incredibly tough- able to take the constant battering of attacks from all sides, and I’d seen it regrow after being damaged.

  The challenge was to find a place to duck in and grab some without attracting too much attention.

  After an hour of slow circling, during which I had needed to renew my Invisibility several times and the sun had begun to set, its brilliant disc touching the horizon and sending golden light flooding through the mist of mana and dust, I eventually found an opportunity where the swarm had thinned under the stomping legs of a slow but massive radiadially symmetrical octopod.

  I tucked my wings and dove, ducking under its central disk into the clearest space- before even touching the ground I summoned my Mining Drill Mount around myself- a yank on the controls to send it spinning round, lasers flashing out to carve a huge circle- then I was out, a leg of the huge octopod crashing down when I had been.

  Only a few monsters followed me into the air, and the hail of projectiles that poured up towards me from the surrounding monsters tore them to shreds before they had a chance to reach me.

  Now all I had to do was dodge the projectiles… or just flick out the Rod of Harmony and teleport to the horizon.

  My rematerialisation didn’t go completely unnoticed, but only one monster managed to disentangle itself from the melee to chase me; the others had more immediate problems to deal with than chasing an invisible and inoffensive presence.

  I dealt with the huge, leather-winged alligator by landing on its back where it couldn’t reach me with its jaws and firing a Sniper Rifle shot through its skull while shielded from the attention of the other monsters by its body. The single shot didn’t kill it, which, uh, you’ve only got half a brain left, why aren’t you dead? It did stun it long enough for me to turn and put a second round through the base of one of its wings, shattering the bone and dropping it out of the sky. Wounded, it vanished into the press of monsters just as so many of its fellows did with every passing moment.

  After that, I was away, free to head off, back toward where the treeline glowed under the last rays of the setting sun, a promise of relative safety rendered in golden illumination.

  I landed on a branches of the first Giant Tree I came to, a true arboreal behemoth grown strong and tall under the extreme conditions, and turned to look out over the mass of monsters.

  As I did so the twilight dimmed, the sun having finally set, a sudden chill filling the air.

  Immediately I noticed a change in the composition of the swarm, many of the more common monsters I had seen now no longer respawning when they died, new ones instead taking their places. I recognised a few from the God of Reincarnation’s knowledge.

  Great gelatinous masses of milky slime began to ooze from the ground- Bone Eater Slimes, a rare nocturnal slime variant which became stronger as they consumed bone, but these were abnormally huge, rising over the ongoing melee like half-submerged blimps.

  Ethereal tattered robe-like forms of Soul Flayers flitted between the battling monsters- many now rising as zombies. Where the robes fluttered, heart-rending shrieks of pain and anguish followed. Despite their name, the touch of a Soul Flayer burned not the soul but the mind like red hot metal, eventually stripping the victim’s ego and mind entirely. They were too weak individually for their horrific touch to actually kill these powerful monsters, but where two collided they merged, quickly snowballing into a gestalt Soul Flayer; the closest floating over a small region of monsters which writhed in pain even without direct contact with the tattered cloth, tearing into each other with somehow even greater savagery.

  Simply looking at it caused Tin Foul Hatter to activate to protect my mind- a chill went down my spine when it turned and looked directly at me.

  “Absolutely nope nope nope!”

  To my immense regret I couldn’t just leave immediately- I turned my gaze away from the gestalt Soul Flayer and breathed a sigh of relief as it once more ignored me. I didn’t know how much mental protection Tin Foil Hatter actually provided me, and I really did not want to test its limits against a monster like that. Most of the other monsters here would die if they left the centre due to insufficient ambient mana, but Soul Flayers fed off the suffering their touch inflicted; there was a very real chance of one being able to escape. Fortunately they were attracted to places with large numbers of living creatures so this swarm was like a constantly replenishing buffet. I shuddered to think about what would happen if one somehow reached a city…

  It was quickly but with a good deal of care that I retreated, heading straight out from the centre and through the inner forest before changing my loadout back to my usual Solar Flare Armour and checking my map to figure out where exactly I was, manipulating the map with one hand while absentmindedly fidgeting with a Stress Ball in the other.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  It took a moment to orient myself; I quickly realised I had exited the centre at a rather different angle than I had entered, almost 40 degrees further round from the centre. I was just about to leap back into the air but paused. My map had been filled in due to looking down from orbit, but was low resolution for areas I hadn’t visited and thus was lacking a large number of details. Because of this, I had spent some time tagging my map using the sketch from Old Man Brown’s map, and then adding even more tags with Steven’s assistance, marking cities, towns, dungeons, and other notable locations.

  However, both of us were stumped when it came to a greyish smudge- very similar in low resolution appearance to all of the towns and cities we’d just spent a fair bit of time marking out, but neither of us knew of a town inside the Beast Forest.

  It might just be a large rock formation, but I might as well check it out- it wasn’t too much of a detour on the way back given the angle I left the centre at, only a short dogleg out a bit further into the outer forest. While my curiosity had taken me to the centre- a worthwhile visit, if nightmare-inducing -it hadn’t quite managed to kill this cat yet.

  I was flying along under the light of the rising moon, occasionally introducing any monster that came to bother me to the concept of overkill with a flick of my Zenith, no longer having the advantage of stealth from Vortex Armour and my Invisibility Potion having run out a while ago, when something in the distance ahead caught my eye.

  For a moment I was on guard at the humanoid appearance, wondering if the gestalt Soul Flayer from earlier had somehow followed me- but as I rapidly approached, flaring my wings to rapidly slow from cruising speed, I realised my mistake. There was no way I’d confuse a tattered robe with this clearly four-limbed person for longer than the paranoid millisecond it took to take a second look. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t be on guard though- anyone out here had to be dangerous by default, and I hadn’t yet seen anyone else in this world capable of flight other than her; the profile of her body against the sky making it clear that she was indeed a woman.

  She was flying at an angle to me, heading almost completely straight into the Beast Forest, but when she saw me she turned so we’d come together directly, and I got a better look at her.

  Her pure black hair contrasted sharply against her pale skin; under the moonlight it shone with a silver glossiness. The moonlight limned the flowing curves of her body, hinting at a curvaceous form but not bright enough to reveal. In short, her beauty was clear even through the darkness, and her clothes only heightened her appeal; a dark-coloured and skintight corset-styled piece which bared her shoulders and upper breasts. Round her hips was a triangular wrap, long down one thigh, a metal ring over the bare hip linking the thin ends. Her legs and feet- with the exception of the one thigh- were completely bare, the creamy skin almost luminous in how it glowed under the moonlight.

  And as we came closer, the light falling more clearly on her, revealing that her face matched her form in beauty, something else became clear…

  Pointed ears, red lips…

  Pearly fangs, red eyes…

  The somehow still elegant bat wings…

  Clearly a vampire.

  Well, I wouldn’t judge. An old mate of mine always claimed to be a vampire in a way that I could never tell if he was serious or not, and in this world I did have multiple copies of an item that would turn me into a vampire. Plus vampires in this world weren’t all mindless- civilised and feral both drank blood but feral vampires were similar to vampiric ghouls in that they drank to kill not just to feed. Though ‘civilised’ vampires could -and mostly still did due to the intense bloodlust tasting the stuff induced- drain their victims dry.

  Both feral and civilised vampires wear clothes, only ghouls don’t, so couldn’t tell by that. Would be a shame if I had to kill her though. I shuffled a couple bits around in my inventory in preparation, preparing to draw a certain weapon and making sure the Zenith was safely stowed away.

  So… reserving my judgement on the fact that she was a vampire; what I would judge however…

  Debuff: Charm. You have been charmed. Nullified by Title ‘Tin Foil Hatter’.

  Where did I- “ah the nymph! Does that mean that vampires are similar to nymphs?”

  On one hand, this suggested that she was hostile. On the other hand it could be an aura effect or maybe it might even be something which happens involuntary when a woman is sufficiently beautiful- if that was a thing that could happen it would definitely be for this lady.

  Just in case, I started circulating a trace of lifeforce through my armour, currently integrated into my skin and clothes as it was, fully prepared to kick it into higher gear at the first sign of dubious behaviour.

  As we closed to within hailing distance, I pulled down my mask with one finger to give her a cheerful smile and wave. “Hi, I'm Lyte.” Internally I celebrated. I finally remembered to introduce myself to someone first! Well… it might not be worth anything, she might just be a mindless monster. Still, maybe I’ll remember next time!

  I idly wondered if some of the Charm was getting through Tin Foil Hatter, but ‘nullified’ was pretty definitive wording and if I didn’t trust my interface, what could I trust?

  For once I had some self awareness, recognising I was being more optimistic than I normally would be for a potentially hostile encounter, hoping that life wouldn’t present me with the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, only for her to turn out to be a mindless monster.

  Said beautiful woman smiled alluringly at my greeting, sliding forward through the air with a seductive grace until she was merely an arm’s length away, then closer still, slipping into my personal space as though she belonged in it. I carefully kept my eyes up, meeting hers, giving her a slightly questioning smile as she raised one slender arm to lower my hood, her hand brushing against my hair in a way that sent shivers down my spine as it slipped down to cradle the back of my neck. She closed the little distance that still remained between us, pressing herself against me; my arm slid round her waist in a natural movement. Her face fell into shadow as she leaned round as though to whisper into my ear, her breath tickling my skin, a slightly exotic scent of flowers and spice entering my nose as her hair brushed against my face.

  A noise came from her throat, a kind of seductive purr, as her grip tightened to iron on to the back of my neck, bringing her fangs down on my throat.

  They touched my ‘bare skin’ and exploded with little fiery cracks. She yelped and tried to pull back, but ran into an unmoving barrier- my arm around her waist.

  The space between us was suddenly very occupied by the loaded Stake Launcher I had prepared earlier, the protruding wooden point touching her breast over her heart.

  “Well, that’s a disappointment.”

  My finger closed on the trigger.