After only a brief period of travel, I soon arrived at the Objective spawn marker with over 30 hours to spare. Good, that would give me plenty of time to setup.

  I didn’t sense any other people nearby at the moment, but they would probably start trickling in once only a few hours remained on the spawn timer. Unlike the last time, the Objective was located within the thick of the forest, with hardly any open areas and poor visibility even with a light source.

  I stopped about 200 meters away from where the Objective would be appearing and began my preparations. Taking out the Void dagger, I quickly severed and replaced my hands with the Talpiderys’ large digging claws. The claws were extremely broad and shaped like a scoop, perfect for moving large amounts of soil.

  Powered by the Onisha’s monstrous physique, I began to burrow through the ground at an incredible speed. The Talpiderys’ sharp claws effortlessly cut through with minimal resistance and gave the sensation that I was swimming, rather than digging. I doubt even the most powerful excavating machines could match me right now.

  In mere moments, I dug a pit several meters deep and wide enough to accommodate multiple people.

  Now, to arm the trap.

  I coated the walls of the pit with a slimy green fluid that I’d harvested from one of the Canopy’s creatures. The walls, now incredibly slippery and impossible to gain any traction from, could no longer be climbed. Next, I squeezed out a thick, sticky web from a Deinopi gland onto the bottom of the pit until it was entirely covered.

  I’d already personally tested the web and determined that unless your strength stat was at least in the high 30s, it wasn’t something that could be escaped in a short amount of time. Of course, the web could also be cut with a sufficiently sharp weapon or ability, but that would still take time.

  As the final step, I pulled out a light orb from my large stash and rigged it to explode when something fell into the pit. The first trap was now complete.

  I lightly jumped back up to the surface and began to cover the hole, leaving only an extremely thin layer on top. I also erased any traces of loose soil or broken earth and soon the area looked exactly as it had before.

  Hehehe, better watch where you step little piggies.

  I walked a few paces away and began digging once more, setting up an identical trap. Once finished, I continuously repeated the process over the next 20 or so hours. Eventually, the entire vicinity of the Objective spawn was completely littered with pitfalls left and right. Twice, I even fell into my own traps and had to rearm them.

  I definitely didn’t forget where I’d put them, I was just personally testing my product. Don’t want any bad reviews, right?

  The Objective area had now become a minefield, and it’d be nearly impossible to not run into at least one of the traps unless they possessed advanced detection abilities or flight. Even if they did, I wasn’t overly concerned about having a few escape.

  With less than 10 hours to go, I ceased my efforts and took a break high up in a tree as I reattached the Onisha hands. Even at this height, it was difficult to see anything below with how thick the foliage and underbrush was, but it mattered not. Now, all I had to do was wait for my “volunteers” to appear.

  As I waited, I spent the time spamming Khaelen with stupid jokes through the Message function. While I’d been hunting the last few weeks, we had begun to occasionally send each other messages about what we were up to. Soon, we were conversing daily about anything and everything. As the last survivors of our worlds, I think we were both a bit starved for companionship.

  Well, he seemed to be doing well. He told me that he had recently managed to join up with a friendly group of Tier 5 otherworlders who were in similar situations and were travelling together. It’s a shame he doesn’t seem to appreciate my brilliant humor though.

  As the hour drew near, I felt a change in the wind. Something was definitely here.

  Still, I remained relaxed, unlike the last D-grade objective I’d been to. Even if a Tier 4 race showed up like last time, I figured I had a very good chance of victory. Worst came to worst, I already had an escape route completely mapped out through an underground tunnel I dug nearby.

  By the time only 30 minutes remained until the Objective began, the forest seemed to teem with life as a myriad of foreign scents and sounds permeated my sharp senses. However, none of the traps had gone off; it seemed that everyone was still maintaining a fair bit of distance from the spawn point.

  Judging from the number of scents, it appeared there was a considerable number of groups present; several dozen at the very least. It seemed that everyone was starved for points and rewards at this point, with all the native creatures having been hunted.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Well, the more the merrier.

  Finally, the countdown reached 0 and the Objective activated.

  A giant blob-shaped creature made of shadows began to materialize on the Objective marker, oozing a trail of an unknown substance behind it. Strangely, I wasn’t able to detect any signs of life from it, as if it was an inanimate object. It almost seemed as if it was an echo of something that had once existed.

  As if a floodgate had been released, an avalanche of projectiles, abilities, and elemental attacks began to bombard the shadow slime the moment it appeared. However, most of them simply vanished within the depths of the slime’s body, leaving no traces behind.

  Despite this, none of the groups stepped forward to engage the slime directly, perhaps out of fear of being caught in the crossfire.

  The scenery around the creature gradually began to become visible as the onslaught also destroyed its surroundings. The slime was swelling in size, having nearly doubled its volume as it absorbed more and more attacks. The otherworlders, sensing that something was wrong, began to cease their assault. However, it was too late; the slime had already reached a critical mass.

  A giant mouth suddenly split open in the middle of its body and in a massive storm of light and metal, it regurgitated all that it had consumed.

  BOOM!

  Three groups were instantly obliterated as a wide swathe of trees vanished in a multi-colored explosion.

  Ah, my precious volunteers!

  In the piercing silence that followed, not a single race seemed to dare to move a single inch or a muscle. It was clear they had all been scared witless and were desperately trying to avoid seeking attention on themselves.

  No, this won’t do. If they just keep hiding like this, they’ll never run into the traps.

  I sprung into action and leapt from my vantage point directly at the slime with Storm Caller drawn. As the club began to surge with lightning, I delivered a mighty swing directly into the slime’s center mass.

  I felt almost no resistance as Storm Caller passed through its body, as if I was swinging through air, but it seemed to prove effective. Large chunks of dark tendrils were blown off the shadow slime and it noticeably shrank in size.

  Sensing the imminent threat to its life, the slime sprouted a pair of arms that lunged at me in a frantic attempt to grab me.

  I dodged its sluggish movements with ease and swung once more, causing it to further shrink in size. The slime, now less than half of its original size, appeared to be much more manageable.

  Having achieved my goal, I leapt back up into the high branches to prepare for the harvest.

  Many races were now rushing through the trees with their weapons drawn, having been emboldened by my move and seeing the damage I’d inflicted.

  Almost immediately, one of the traps I set up went off as the rigged light orb exploded, creating a mini flare that alerted me to its location.

  First victi- ahem, donor acquired!

  In all the ensuing chaos and frenzy to destroy the slime, no one noticed as I immediately dashed to the first trap and jumped into the pit.

  Below, I found two lizard-like creatures fiercely struggling as they lied completely entangled within the bed of webbing.

  Upon seeing me however, they completely froze, eyes widening in shock and horror as they gazed upon the Onisha’s colossal body.

  In an attempt to soothe them, I tried to give them a friendly smile and a cheeky wink. This was an ethical farming service, after all.

  For some reason, it only seemed to make matters worse; the pair immediately began to blubber and cry, snot flying everywhere.

  “P-pl-please, spare us great being! I’ll give you anything you want! Anything at all! I’ll even let you eat my tail.... actually, please eat my partner here instead of me! He’s much plumper and tastier than me because of all the extra fat he injected into his butt to attract all the-”

  “Alright alright, just shut up. No one’s going to be getting eaten here. I’m just here to collect some donations, then we’ll all be on our way. First though, tell me what your stats are and any special abilities your race has.”

  After repeatedly assuring the two that I wasn’t going to kill them, I was finally able to learn their stats, which were mostly in the 20s. Their only racial ability was related to their tail, which they were able to voluntarily detach and transform into a copy of themselves to serve as a decoy.

  Their stats were too low to possibly have any of their limbs or organs be an upgrade to mine, and the Onisha body didn’t have a tail “slot” on it.

  Well, might as well just take a random part to get some Law fragments out of it.

  With a sigh, I said, “Okay, leg or arm, you guys choose what you want to lose. Then you’re free to go.”

  The two lizard otherworlders, having barely just calmed down, immediately broke down and began to weep once more.

  “Please milord, I thought you promised you wouldn’t kill us! Please don’t do thi-mgnggmfff!”

  I lost my patience and stuffed a handful of anesthetic plant extract into their mouths. Then, before they could react, I immediately severed an arm each from them with the Void Dagger.

  Splurt!

  As blood sprayed from their bleeding stumps, I pulled out an item that I’d originally thought I had no use for.

  Uncorking a Troll Blood Potion, I force-fed them once more, pouring the entire contents down their throats. Soon, the bleeding began to stop and new flesh sprouted from their shoulders as their arms regrew.

  The pair simply lay there quietly, still in stunned disbelief from having their arms amputated.

  I stowed the 2 arms away in my Inventory for extraction later and pulled the lizard otherworlders free of the sticky webbing.

  Setting them upright, I warmly patted them on their shoulders and said, “As promised, you guys can head out now. I also sent you guys 500 points for your troubles. Stay out of trouble now okay?”

  As the two dumbly nodded, a thought suddenly struck my head.

  “Actually, let me get one of your tails. You guys said they grow back on their own right? Don’t be stingy.”

  Reaching over, I gently grabbed the tail of the lizard with the plump behind and pulled.

  Hmm, whoever did those fat injections did a good job.

  With the still wriggling tail in hand, I grabbed them by the neck and tossed them out of the pit trap.

  Right on cue, I saw two more flares of light appear in the darkness. Better do this fast.

  I opened the recording function in the System and firmly held the tail to my behind, intending to send a meme picture to Khaelen mocking his much smaller tail.

  Let’s see you say I’m not a real beastman now!

  As several seconds passed while I tried to get the camera angle right, something completely unexpected happened.