He had subconsciously yawned and stretched his body. He was starting to feel sleepy, which was terrible. This meant that he only had a limited time to finish his daily missions, or else the day would be over.
At this rate, he would not be able to get down fast enough to eat ten different kinds of rocks. He had to eat them, or else he would fail his daily missions.
He needed to get stronger, and if he missed the rewards for today's daily missions, he would lose a day's worth of potential strength.
The problem was that he had no way to get down. If he were to free fall, then he would die, and what's left of him would be liquified on the ground.
If the ground was inaccessible, then he had to think of another way to get ten different kinds of rocks. Then, he saw the dead-end right in front of him.
This wall led to a squirrel's burrow, which had a pile of treasure that the squirrel amassed. He had seen that the pile of treasures was not always jewels and golds; it could also be flowers and other stuff.
If a squirrel could gather many types of flowers, couldn't there be a squirrel who gathered rocks as its pile of treasure?
This possibility flared up his psyche, and he forgot the sleepiness in his body. He just needed to find a squirrel that had stored rocks as treasures.
It was easier said than done, but he had to start looking somewhere. Many tunnels led to different squirrel burrows, which Hugh could travel to.
He first looked at the wall in front of him. He busted a hole in it and looked inside. He immediately saw the giant squirrel inside. This squirrel was sitting down and eating some kind of acorn, but it had its back on Hugh, so it did not see Hugh's head.
Hugh looked around and saw a pile of plants and greenery in the corner of the room. This squirrel amassed different leaves and plants that Hugh had no use for, so he left the burrow.
Hugh retraced back his steps until he found a fork in the road. He took a different path, hoping that it would lead to a different burrow.
Hugh continued to maneuver through the tunnels looking for a squirrel's burrow. He would get lucky and happen upon a squirrel's den, but it did not have what he wanted.
When he had explored all the tunnels that he saw, he started to dig down and search for some more tunnels. After digging for a few minutes, his hand burst through an open space, meaning he found another tunnel.
He looked down and saw that the empty space was too big to be a tunnel. He observed the surroundings and saw a sleeping squirrel in the corner of the room.
Hugh was going to dig in a different spot when he spotted something under the squirrel's body. Upon closer inspection, the squirrel was sleeping on a pile of pebbles and rocks of all colors.
Hugh rejoiced as he finally found a squirrel that hid rocks that he could eat to finish his daily missions. The problem was that the squirrel was sleeping directly on top of the pile of rocks.
Hugh did not want to fight the squirrel because this squirrel was a C-rank creature. He could not fight it with just his armor, and his transformation was still on cooldown, so he could not fight the squirrel yet.
Hugh dug horizontally away from the ceiling of the squirrel's burrow and dug down until he was sure that he was at the same level as the bottom of the room.
He then dug into the room and snuck inside without making any noise. The squirrel had its eyes closed, but Hugh was still cautious of any movement from the squirrel.
He tiptoed towards the squirrel and looked at the pile of rocks underneath it. He squatted and looked at the rocks underneath the squirrel.
Most of the rocks were smaller than his fist, so Hugh decided to put some in his pockets. He did not want to crunch on them while close to the squirrel in fear of waking it up.
He gathered as many rocks as his pockets could collect and walked away from the squirrel. Once he was out of range, he started to munch on the rocks as fast as he could.
The powdery texture of the rocks, once his teeth broke it down, was immaculate in taste. Even though he would like to savor this feeling, he had no choice but to eat fast.
'Eat 10 types of rocks (5/10)'
Hugh was slowly completing his mission, and he was getting closer and closer to earning his reward. He just needed to go back to the pile of rocks and bring it back to a safe place and eat it.
Hugh continued this cycle of sneaking around the squirrel and eating rocks until he was only one type of rock away from completing his mission.
'Eat 10 types of rocks (9/10)'
Hugh made sure to bring back unique-looking rocks so that he would eat a different type of rock every time. He was convinced that he had brought back every unique rock from the pile, but he still needed one more type of rock.
There was only one place left to look; he needed to eat the rocks directly underneath the squirrel. He did not know how to do that because he was sure that if he tried to move the squirrel, it would wake up.
The time was ticking, and Hugh needed to be quick. He had no choice but to hope that the squirrel does not wake up when he tips it over.
Hugh walked towards the squirrel and positioned himself on its back. He activated his armor on his arm and started to push the squirrel away from the pile of rocks, making sure to do it slowly or else the squirrel might wake up.
Hugh pushed the squirrel away and saw the pile of rocks underneath it. He could see more unique-looking rocks there, so he was sure that if he ate it, he would be able to finish his mission.
With his one hand still pushing the squirrel away, he bent down and reached for a rock the size of his fist. Just as he was about to reach the rock, he felt a vibration from the squirrel's body.
He could feel the muscles in the squirrel started to spasm, indicating that it was awake. Hugh felt a chill in his neck as his instincts told him to dodge. He had no choice but to roll away from the squirrel.
Just as he rolled away, the squirrel's tail sweeper barely passed by him. If he had been late for even a split second, he would have been hit by the squirrel's tail.
The squirrel opened its eyes and looked around. It ignored Hugh and looked at the pile of rocks underneath it, making sure that it was safe.
It looked at the pile of rocks, confused as to why it was less than before. Then, it smelled something in the air and turned to look at Hugh.
Its confused face suddenly turned into a look of fury as it understood what happened. An intruder stole its precious rocks away from it while it was sleeping.
The squirrel could not forgive this crime, so it charged towards Hugh at full speed.
Hugh saw that the squirrel was running at him with four legs like a bull, so Hugh activated his armor on his leg and burst power to dodge to his left.
Like a speeding train, the squirrel sped past Hugh and continued to ram towards the room's wall.
*BOOM*
The squirrel collided with the wall and created a dent in it. The collision sent reverberations throughout the room, indicating the intensity at which the squirrel bumped into the wall.
If Hugh had not dodged, he would be squashed flat by the squirrel's mad dash towards him. This was a C-rank creature, which was two ranks above him.
Although a mutated animal was weaker than its human counterpart, it was strong enough to beat Hugh in his sleep.
Hugh still had a cooldown on his transformation, so he had to rely on his wits and tactics to defeat the squirrel since it mainly uses instinct to fight.