Ryan stayed put in his leafy hiding spot, feeling a bit like a nature documentary cameraman waiting for the interesting animals to leave so he could inspect their leftovers.
Scarlett "Red" Viper and her two surviving teammates were now cautiously examining the dead Alpha Grove Stalker.
They were clearly tired, and the one who'd been hit hardest by the sonic pulses was still looking a bit green around the gills.
"Okay team," Scarlett said, her voice low but clear enough for Ryan's enhanced hearing. "Let's see what this thing dropped. And we need to find where it dragged off Alex."
Alex. That must have been the teammate Ryan had seen go down earlier, clutching his head. So, the Stalker had managed to grab one of them. Ryan felt a little knot of guilt.
He'd been watching, analyzing, but he hadn't helped. Then again, jumping into a fight against a Level 3 Alpha with an A-Tier and her team might have just made him another casualty.
His SSS-Tier power was amazing, but it didn't make him invincible, especially when he was still technically Level 0.
Scarlett's team didn't find much on the Stalker. A few chipped quills, some tough hide they didn't seem equipped to skin properly. No sign of that super-rare Sonic Emitter Core, much to Ryan's non-surprise.
After a few minutes of poking, they seemed to give up on looting it.
"The drag marks lead that way," Scarlett said, pointing in the direction Ryan had originally come from towards the Whispering Grove where he'd fought the first Grove Stalker.
"That must be its lair. Alex could still be alive."
Her two teammates nodded, looking grim but determined. They clearly weren't going to leave a man behind, even if he'd been monster-napped. Ryan respected that.
As they started to move off, carefully picking their way through the undergrowth, something unexpected happened.
One of Scarlett's teammates, the nimble-looking woman who had recovered quickly from the sonic attacks, suddenly stopped.
Ryan recognized her from the CommNet, Emma "Sage" Thorne, the B-Tier "Tactical Insight" user. The one who had led the group that found Liam's body.
Emma frowned, her head tilted as if listening to something only she could hear, or maybe seeing something only she could see. Her gaze swept across the jungle, then, to Ryan's alarm, it locked directly onto his hiding spot.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Hold on," Emma said to Scarlett. "There's someone there."
Ryan mentally swore. Busted! His "Environmental Camouflage" was good, but apparently not good enough to fool a B-Tier Tactical Insight specialist.
He probably looked like a slightly blurry, person-shaped bush to her. A very suspicious, slightly blurry, person-shaped bush.
He had a choice: stay hidden and hope they decided he was just a weird plant, or reveal himself. Staying hidden felt a bit cowardly, and potentially more suspicious.
He sighed internally, then slowly stood up, pushing aside the vines. "Uh, hi?" he said, trying for a friendly, non-threatening wave. "Fancy meeting you here. Nice weather we're having, if you ignore the man-eating monsters."
Scarlett and her other teammate immediately tensed, their hands going to their knives. Scarlett's eyes, a striking shade of green, were sharp and assessing. Emma, however, looked more curious than hostile.
"I know you," Emma said, her eyes narrowing slightly more, but this time in recognition. "Ryan Stone, from the Outpost CommNet. Your profile picture… it's a cat wearing a tiny wizard hat, isn't it?"
Ryan winced internally. Of all the things to be remembered for. "Guilty," he admitted. "In my defense, it was a very distinguished-looking cat."
He'd chosen it because he thought it was funny, never imagining it would be his identifier in a life-or-death interdimensional struggle.
Scarlett relaxed slightly, but her gaze remained wary. "What are you doing out here alone, Ryan Stone? And how did you manage to stay hidden from us?"
"Just exploring," Ryan said vaguely. "And I guess I'm just naturally good at not being seen? Lucky, maybe." He wasn't about to advertise his D-Tier camouflage skill, let alone his SSS-Tier primary power.
Emma, however, was looking at him with a thoughtful expression that made Ryan feel like she was mentally dissecting his excuses.
Her "Tactical Insight" was probably buzzing away. "You were very quiet," she observed. "And you weren't affected by the Stalker's sonic attacks from this distance. Interesting."
Ryan just shrugged, trying to look innocent. "Thick vines? Good earplugs?"
Scarlett stepped forward. "We're tracking the Stalker that took our teammate, Alex. We think its lair is back the way you came. Did you see anything?"
Ryan hesitated. He had seen a Stalker lair. He'd killed the Stalker in that lair. And Alex… well, Alex was almost certainly the contents of that Stalker's very full stomach. He'd even found the remnants of Alex's gear inside it. This was awkward.
"I encountered a Grove Stalker in a clearing filled with glowing mushrooms a little while back," he said carefully, choosing his words. "There were signs that it had recently fed." He didn't mention he was the one who made it stop feeding permanently.
Scarlett's expression tightened. "Alex," she whispered, her voice barely audible.
Emma placed a comforting hand on her arm. "We still need to check, Scarlett. There's always a chance."
Scarlett nodded, her jaw set. She looked back at Ryan. "You seem capable, Ryan Stone. You survived out here alone, and you clearly have some skill in stealth. We could use another pair of eyes, another knife. Will you join us?"
Ryan considered it. Teaming up with an A-Tier and a B-Tier, it sounded like a good way to stay alive. They were clearly competent.
But his "Ultimate Infinite Extraction System" had whispered a little mental nudge or maybe it was just his own gut feeling that operating solo, at least for now, offered the best chances for him to use his power freely and discover its limits without prying eyes.
Sharing loot was one thing, but explaining why he was intensely "studying" every dead monster and weird plant might be tricky.
"That's a generous offer," Ryan said politely. "And I appreciate it. But I have my own path I'm following right now, some things I need to investigate on my own. Good luck with finding Alex. I hope he's okay."
Scarlett looked a little disappointed, but she nodded. "Understandable. Stay safe out here, Ryan Stone. This place isn't kind to loners."
"You too," Ryan replied.
With a final, appraising look from Emma, the three of them moved off, heading towards the Whispering Grove.
Once they were out of sight, Ryan let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. That was close. He felt a little bad for not telling them the full truth about Alex, but what good would it have done? It would only have caused more pain, and they were going to find out soon enough anyway.
He waited a few minutes, then, true to his plan, he snuck back to where Scarlett's team had killed the Alpha Grove Stalker. The body was still there, undisturbed.
"Alright, big guy," Ryan said to the corpse. "Let's see what an Alpha tastes like to my system, anyway."
He placed his hand on its hide and activated his extraction.
Target: Grove Stalker Corpse [Alpha Variant, Level 3]
Initiating Extraction Protocol
Extraction Complete!
Acquired:
Spirit Essence [Alpha Stalker Variant]: +2 Permanent Spirit!
[ Note: You have already acquired a similar tier talent fragment 'Environmental Camouflage' from a standard Grove Stalker. Extracting again from an Alpha variant of the same creature type provides no additional talent gain for this specific ability at your current level of understanding. You just get more of the same, but less potent.]
His Spirit stat was now 14. Not bad. The note about the camouflage talent was interesting so there were limits to stacking the same abilities from similar creatures. Good to know.
He finished up quickly, then decided to head in a different direction from Scarlett's team, deeper into the Wilds.
A short while later, he heard distant shouts from the direction of the Whispering Grove, followed by a woman's cry of anguish.
He winced.
Scarlett and her team had found what was left of Alex. And they'd probably also found the first Grove Stalker that he had killed.
He imagined them putting two and two together. The dead Stalker he'd vaguely mentioned, the signs of another skilled individual having been there they'd probably figure out it was him.
He hoped they wouldn't be too angry that he hadn't told them everything. He was just trying to survive, same as them. And his methods were a little unique.
He picked up his pace. This uneasy, unspoken half-alliance wasn't going to last forever. But for now, he was still on his own. And there was a whole jungle of things waiting to be extracted.