The breath of Ndiogou Gueye, the Blind Hunter, came in desperate gasps as he stumbled through the thick underbrush, his bare feet crushing vegetation with every step. Although the overgrown plants themselves offered little resistance to his superhuman strength, the uneven terrain cost him precious moments, time that he no longer had. The former businessman didn’t need to tap into the special sense provided by his Special Ability, Seek the Strong, to tell him that his foes were closing in: he could feel the jaws of the trap beginning to close around him. The hunter had become the hunted.
As he ran, desperately seeking terrain that might favor a last stand, his mind split into two portions thanks to his Multitasking skill. One portion handled fleeing in terror, while the other retreated to dispassionately consider the situation. Not that it would help, since he had long ago considered and discarded all the possible options. The few allies he had managed to gather in his search for his remaining family members were dead, their speed and power suddenly drained away one at a time as they fled until only the Blind Hunter was left. Continuing to flee was his only option, even though it would merely delay the inevitable. Ndiogou knew he would never make it as far as Lagos, which was the closest Settlement. He had even calculated his odds of outswimming his foes by heading straight out to sea, but there was no way he was going to be able to stay out of range of whatever Special Ability his pursuers were using to enervate their victims.
A mental sigh accompanied the realization that there was no point in further analysis. He had been living on borrowed time ever since he had refused to commit suicide by rooster. Despite his desperate circumstances, a hint of a smile passed across Ndiogou’s face as he remembered the sight of the enormous chicken flopping around, fighting to contain a power far beyond any that the Blind Hunter could have hoped to summon at the time. The memory soured as he recalled how his four companions had fallen to a single attack. The sheer amount of power that had been contained in the blast had been concentrated enough to instantly sear the men’s flesh, and the flash from the explosion was so intense that it had temporarily overloaded Ndiogou’s Extra Sensory Perception, causing the Skill to level up twice.
After stumbling away from the poultry farm, Ndiogou had fully expected the overgrown bird to give chase and thus was prepared for a short but painful death. It took a few moments to realize that he was not being pursued, and, by that point, his Extra Sensory Perception had recovered, so he immediately embraced his Stealth Skill and snuck away from the area as quickly as he could, more determined than ever to hunt down any of his surviving children and ensure their safety. After all, what he had just seen was a grim reminder of how dangerous the world had become since the arrival of the System.
The Blind Hunter made his way north, napping during the day while covering as much distance as he could at night. As he traveled, he made liberal use of Seek the Strong, avoiding creatures beyond his strength and making short work of those that were not. The first two days he saw no other humans, but on the third, as he was passing through a small town that used to be called Gogounou, the smell of roasting pangolin permeated the area. The hunter moved cautiously toward the smell, having previously been fooled by a pair of chimpanzees that had learned how to cook. He was relieved to see a trio of humans sitting by the cracking fire: an old woman and two children. He called to them in Bariba, asking if he could join them. The woman peered at him through the darkness, narrowing her eyes. Ndiogou, unsure if she was suspicious or just getting a better look, waited patiently without moving. Eventually, the woman called for him to come closer before shooing the children toward the building behind them.
“I bring meat to share,” the Blind Hunter said as he slowly approached the fire, his hands raised in the universal sign that he meant no harm.
“Your hands are empty,” the woman retorted as he came closer. “And you are armed.”
Ndiogou smiled. “We are all armed now, aren’t we? And my pack here is filled with fresh meat: I slew a duiker earlier today. High level, too.”
“Meat’ll be too tough for the kids then,” the woman grumbled, but she appeared mollified by the response. A trio of men approached the fire, having certainly been alerted by the children that a stranger had arrived.
“What is your business, traveler?” one of the men asked, his gray hair showing that he was the eldest of the three.
“I am Ndiogou Gueye, sometimes referred to as the Blind Hunter. I am seeking news of my children, who were at my home in Malanville when the System arrived.”
The hunter shared as many details as he thought would be useful to help identify his children, but the others all shook their heads once he wrapped up his explanation and asked if the family seemed familiar.
“Many such cases,” the old man said with finality. “I can see that you are still young and strong. Stay with us and start a new family.”
“I can only stay for a little while,” Ndiogou answered. “I need to keep moving.”
He took off his pack and pulled out a large lump that had been carefully wrapped in leaves.
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“Here, please take this meat as a token of my esteem for sharing your wisdom and the warmth of your fire. I would appreciate it if you could share any information you may have about what is going on in the north while I prepare and eat my dinner. Then I must depart.”
The elderly woman accepted the meat and unwrapped it. She took a sniff and appeared pleased.
“Good meat. But the night is almost spent. Rest here throughout the day at the very least: your gift has earned you that much.”
“I must travel during the day as well if I am to reach my destination by sunrise the day after next,” the hunter objected.
There was a collective gasp from the other side of the fire.
“You cannot leave here when the sun is up! The Day Demon will surely eat you and then come for us,” the old man hissed, using the Bariba word ‘Kp?li’ to indicate an evil spirit. The other two men tensed up as if preparing for a physical confrontation, while the old woman crossed herself.
“I will depart now if that is your wish. I have no desire to cause you distress, but, before I go, please answer one question. What is the ‘Day Demon’?” Ndiogou responded, attempting to defuse the situation. “I’ve never heard of it.”
“Are you blind?” One of the younger men yelled.
“Yes,” said Ndiogou.
“The Day Demon is a powerful conjured spirit. If it spots anyone outdoors while the sun is up, it will attack them from the air. It flies on wings like a crow, and I heard that it eats the bodies of its victims whole so that it may regurgitate them for its evil master. No one knows who controls it, or why it only attacks during the day, but it is unstoppable. Not even our strongest charms would protect us,” the elderly man answered.
“Thank you for the warning,” the Blind Hunter answered, wondering if the being that had killed his previous companions might have been confused for an evil spirit. “Have you ever seen it?”
“Oh yes,” said the elder. “During the day there is little to do but hide indoors. We cannot tend crops, hunt, or build during the day. Some of us with artisan Classes or Skills keep busy, but I keep watch always, just in case.
“Does it…does it look like a giant rooster with black feathers?” Ndiogou asked.
“Yes!” the old man shouted with fervor.
Ndiogou stayed just long enough to cook and eat a meal before heading out on the road again. He reached Malanville late the next day, which had been largely abandoned. His first stop was his own home, which he found uninhabited and looted of most valuables. Even previously expensive items that were now worthless after the System’s arrival - his electronics, cash, and gold - had been taken, proving that old habits die hard. The former businessman’s pulse quickened every time he entered a new room, half expecting to find the corpse of one of his children, but the only living things he saw were a few large spiders that had taken up residence in one of the guest rooms. He ignored the spiders and they, in turn, ignored him. In his old bedroom he found that not all of his clothes had been taken, so he chose a few outfits and stuffed them into his travel pack. While slipping on a flimsy pair of sandals, he noticed that someone had stolen all of his dress shoes, which sent him into a fit of laughter.
After leaving his former home, the Blind Hunter used his Special Ability to find the strongest person nearby. He stalked the few blocks that separated him from his target and boldly knocked on a thick metal gate set into a tall concrete wall. The top of the wall was studded with shards of broken glass and further protected by strands of what used to be electrified wire. Someone important had lived here, but he couldn’t recall who it had been. Ndiogou waited patiently, trying to dredge up the owner’s name in the long silence that followed his knock. After a few minutes, there was the clank of a bolt being thrown back, and the gate creaked open.
“Ndiogou Gueye, aren’t you?” asked the well-dressed man who opened the gate, speaking French with an accent that marked him as having been educated in Europe rather than in West Africa. Ndiogou recognized the voice as belonging to a member of the Malanville Business Club, but still couldn’t recall the man’s name. All that the Blind Hunter could remember was that the man ran a smuggling operation of some sort.
“Yes, that’s me. I’m looking for my family; do you know where they are?” Ndiogou responded, his heart pounding.
The man’s face fell, and with it, so did the Blind Hunter’s hopes and dreams.
“A band of men attacked your home the day the System arrived. They took everything of value and killed your family. We…we threw all the bodies into the river.”
“Who was it?” he ground out. “Where did these men come from? Where are they now?”
As he raged, his Extra Sensory Perception picked up movement from the second story of one of the buildings within the compound. Two men with javelins crept toward an open window. In the next building over, a man with a bow and quiver full of arrows did the same thing. The Blind Hunter clamped down on his reflexes to prevent himself from giving anything away as his attention once again split. Part of his mind kept watch for the inevitable trap. The other continued the conversation with the man at the gate.
“I don’t know,” the other man stated. “Once they had finished killing and looting, they took a couple of boats and headed west on the river. I heard that they planned to go to Niamey, where a large Settlement had been set up.”
The three men had finished positioning themselves, and the Blind Hunter guessed that they would attack in just a few moments. He only had a few moments to wrap up. Fortunately, he had already learned everything he needed to know.
“You may have noticed that I’ve been blinded,” he said in a conversational tone. “That’s true, but in return I was granted a Skill called ‘Extra Sensory Perception’. It’s a powerful Skill, and it’s the reason that folks have started calling me the Blind Hunter.”
At the mention of his title, a spasm of fear flickered over the other man’s features. Ndiogou pretended not to notice as he continued.
“For instance, I can tell by your increased heart rate, blood pressure, and other physical changes that you are lying to me. But no matter…neither you nor the three men you have ready to snipe me will survive to lie again.”
With those words, Ndiogou the Blind Hunter leapt forward, a sharp knife already glinting wickedly in his hand. The extra damage granted by Seek the Strong allowed him to disembowel the man at the gate in one smooth slice.
The other three men, being much lower leveled than their leader, never stood a chance.
