The cold wind surrounded two figures that ran over hill and dale with great difficulty. Rotten leaves rustled with every step that was taken. The dark freezing night raised hairs and only the stars glittering in the black blue sky made the night seem a little bit amiable.

Coldness seeped through the old trees and they creaked under the falling temperature. It crushed the amiable aura created by the stars completely.

This forest was a place where only the bravest men and women would set foot into. Every human with at least 1% of common sense would stay away from this area since the forest was a natural border.

Animals and other beings, which could also be called monsters, called this borderland their home. Sadly, in this world the word "monster" didn't exist. Instead those other beings went by the classification ghost. They were feared and nobody wanted to cross their paths since they also watched over the forest. Ghosts guarded the borderland and were very territorial, but even so two groups set foot onto this dangerous piece of land.

One of those two groups was made up of several very good equipped men and three children. The children followed their older comrades but didn't let themselves be protected. Everyone was slightly armoured and had weapons to defend themselves. Five men carried some basic utensils and potions as well as first aid articles to help their comrades swiftly if emergency treatment should be needed. This group was perfectly prepared and wandered through the woods to fulfil the orders of his majesty the king. They were there to determine dangerous movements of ghosts and to report possible lawbreakers.

In contrast to them the other group – one couldn't even call them 'group' – was slowly losing all strength. Neither did they carry any bags, nor wear intact clothes, forget about any armour or let alone supplies. They had nothing.

Because of this and the strained way they walked; one could easily guess that they weren't voluntarily living through these circumstances.

Rehan was one of those two miserable people who walked through the forest and to be exact the only one. The other person was quite as a stone while Rehan walked on the thin line between life and death. But since it was his mission, he had no choice but to oblige.

He was the link between male and female main character. He was the one who fulfilled fates wish and helped by following the fate of the world. And fate said that those two people must meet in this creepy forest in the middle of the night.

At least if the information Rehan got was correct.

Big round eyes shot from one side to the other. From one ray of starlight that made its way through the leaves to the next. He couldn't fall down, wasn't allowed to stumble since he wouldn't be able to get up again. His drained little body would just lay there, completely exhausted and that was no option. It was extremely important that he made it to that one crucial clearing in this forest. It was the place where the first meeting between two people loved by fate should take place.

At the moment he wasn't even 1 meter in height and carried the sleeping little female lead on his small back. He didn't even want to call it 'carrying'. Since he was more than a head shorter than her, the graceful feet of the little girl were dragged over the dirty ground. But he as a little boy couldn't do anything against the colliding of skin and ground.

Rehans chest heaved up and down, sweat trickled down his forehead. He tried to control his breathing and began to miss his muscles, his original height and every bit of stamina he had gotten through daily training. Rehans little body meanwhile was in such a bad state that he could see white stars flickering before his eyes. The dizziness alone could kill him. A curse wanted to escape his lips but he swallowed it lest he used up more dearly needed strength. Instead he used it to shove the girl on his back a little higher so that she wouldn't fall down. In that moment some more rays of light came through the top of the trees and Rehan realised that the clearing he was searching for opened itself before him. A relived and exhausted sigh left the little boys' mouth.

Till now he had lived in many bodies. Not only human ones but also animals, demons, objects and one time he got to be a creature that was called 'slime'. His life as a slime wasn't really eventful. His only mission was to eat lots of rare crystals and metals and in the end become cannon fodder for the protagonist. Such a mission could not be compared to his current one. This world – that was named Asir – had other rules that weren't as simple as the ones of the world in which he lived as a slime. The slime-world was F grade and so were his rewards for completing his mission. Reason was that Rehans life as a slime was more than easy and chill – at least till he got killed by the protagonist.

Other souls would be outraged in his stead and never chose any missions below E but Rehan loved it simple. He wasn't one who could sit still and do nothing while waiting for reincarnation, but since he didn't have any grand plans for his life after being reborn in his original world, he choose not to risk any missions of higher grade. Each and very time Rehan collected just enough reward energy to make it into the next world and take on a new mission. But these days he just never got enough energy. It didn't matter if he took on F, E, D or even C grade missions. He just used up more soul energy than he got and so his reserves vanished into thin air. Even so he didn't want to choose any missions harder than C and kept on pretending to be okay until his soul was nearly dying. Then the Lord of Souls – who created every world – issued an ultimatum.

Boring wait to be reincarnated or B grade world and higher. |

In other words, Rehan had the choice between staying in the space between worlds, doing nothing more than rotting away, as well as being thrown back into the incarnation wheel of his original world or taking on a B grade mission. Never would he choose choice number one since to be alive and dead at the same time was the worst ending for a soul. So, he had to choose the second one if he wanted to stay active and get soul energy to maintain his self.

Rehan knew that the Lord of Souls planned to let him starve and then choose a higher-grade world. He wasn't exactly old for a dead soul but he had travelled for some hundreds of years between worlds and could even be assigned to worlds between A and SSS grade. But since the missions were based on voluntary work nobody could pressure him into taking any of that grade. Nobody but the Lord of Souls himself. So Rehan wasn't that naive to think that everything was just a big coincidence. It made him angry that the Lord would use such underhanded methods.

But his anger was no excuse to treat the persons on Asir badly. Ultimately, they also had souls, were as alive as he once was and that was how Rehan treated them.

The B grade world Asir was his new start and the begin of a game of hide and seek that he would never be able to forget.