" Why are you trying so hard, Kiddo?"
" Eh?"
Krapven and the hunting team were on their journey to the new resource-gathering area. Along the way, Krapven chose to keep silent and didn't join the group discussion. So when the older man suddenly asked something like that, he was startled.
" Em, let me rephrase my question. In this world, people are separated into those who have hope and those who lost hope. Typically, people with no innate skill and average stats like you will join the latter group.
They wept their lousy luck every day, and hardly any of them survived. But you are different, even though you had no hope, you tried your best, even some time you gathering result was higher than the target."
" Ah, I'm sorry. But if I could say the reason, maybe I don't want to stay as a side character forever."
Krapven lowered his head and apologized.
*Slap*
" Hahahahaha, who said I was scolding you, kid. It's just you were pretty interesting. I hope you live long, kiddo."
The old man laughed and continued chatting with Krapven. In this world where man struggled to survive, having a friendly chat was a luxury.
" Oh, by the way, kiddo. My name is…."
*Splash*
The old man didn't finish his sentence when his head suddenly separated from his body and rolled on the ground.
" Enemy attack!!!!! I'm repeating Enemy attack!!"
The sudden emergence of the enemies startled the hunting team. They have followed this path before and found no monster nearby, so they were caught in a snare this time.
Roarr!!
Swish!
Along with the voice, a black shadow emerged and bit the head of a hunting team member.
With two hunting team members being dead, the other members couldn't keep their calm anymore. The formation, which has been destroyed by the black shadow, was now full of loopholes.
" Fuck, it is the shadow wolf. Keep your calm everyone, it is just a Shadow wolf."
The hunting team leader tried to calm its member, but the result was too bad. Two members have already lost their lives, and the remaining members didn't want to follow in their footsteps.
Owooooo
In the midst of their panic, a voice appeared out of nowhere, followed by a group of shadow behind it.
[ Shadow wolf ]
[ Lv: 3 ]
[ Hp: 200 ]
.
[ Shadow Wolf Leader ]
[ Elite Monster ]
[ Lv: 8 ]
[ Hp: 500 ]
.
It was a pack of Shadow wolf, and to make it worse, the Shadow wolf leader was also here.
With the arrival of the pack, the group atmosphere plunged into chaos. The hunting team didn't even bother to try engaging the pack in combat and tried their best to run away.
" Fuck, they are leaving us behind."
Looking at the hunting group who ran away with their lives, the resource gathering group quickly followed.
Krapven was no exception. He tried his best to run; his sister currently only has him and his grandma left, so he must do his best to survive to meet his sister later.
Pant!! Pant!!!
Krapven didn't look back and continued to sprint with all his energy. He could hear all the begging and crying sounds from his former team member behind him. Even the sound of the wolf's jaw crushing their bones could be heard from this distance.
" Faster, I must be faster. I must survive."
Unbeknownst to him, the path he took was different from the other member. It was not clear whether he was too focused that he wasn't aware of his surroundings or it was just because of a bad sense of direction, but now he was getting further away from the Human Shelter.
Pant!! Pant!!!
" *Sigh* Finally, I couldn't hear their footsteps anymore."
Krapven desperately ran away so he could avoid getting pounced by the shadow wolves, but when he noticed his surrounding was unfamiliar, he finally realized he was lost.
" Am I.. lost?..
" *Sigh* There's no time to remorse. It is almost dark already; let's search for a place to take shelter first."
Krapven knew he was lost, but now is not the time to weep. If he didn't found a place to take shelter before the darkness came, things would really get ugly.
Pant!! Pant!!! Pant!!!
1 kilometer away, Krapven saw a tree with a hole beneath it. Enough for one adult man to enter.
" This should be enough."
His stamina was almost at his limit, so he didn't have any choice but came closer to the tree.
…..
Pant!!! Pant!!!
Arriving at the Tree's hole, Krapven plopped down on his butt. He panted heavily and watched the sky starting to darken.
" Luckily, I found this place. But now I am stuck here until dawn."
Even though the situation wasn't very promising to him, he was still glad that he could survive. A pack of shadow wolves with a leader in it, even the Rank 1 Sword God wouldn't want to mess with them.
Presently, humanity's strongest Expert, Sword God, is still stuck at Lv. 10. He said that a special mission needs to be done to raise his level further. Therefore, a pack of shadow wolves with an lv 8 leader would still pose harm to him.
" I wonder if the other survived. *Sighed* Forget it. Let's quickly get to sleep and try to go back to the shelter tomorrow."
Krapven knew it was useless to think about the other. In this world, the strong survived while the weak perish. That mindset has been instilled into him since the first month of his arrival in this world.
He didn't bother to think anymore and tried his hardest to sleep.
....
' Kai, remember to always protect your sister.'
' Big brother, why don't we have any parents like them?'
' You are just a side character, go away from my sight.'
' Do you think everyone else is equal? Do you think your life is worth the same as mine?'
" Shit….."
Krapven looked at his surroundings, and noticing it was all just a bad dream, he calmed down a bit.
" Shit, why is it so hard to sleep."
He had tried his best to sleep, but every time he slept, a bad dream always came to haunt him.
" Is it because of this tree? Does it have anything special on it?"
Normally, Krapven was a logical guy and wouldn't believe in things like this. However, after the afternoon experience and now resumed with this, it was a miracle if a normal person could keep himself sane.
He tried to observe every spaced inside the tree, but he had found nothing. Noticing there was nothing on the tree, Krapven focus was now shifted to the ground.
He didn't waste any time and started to dig with his nails. He dug deeper and deeper, and when he finally stumbled upon something, his eyes glowed.
' Is this the source of all this nightmare?'
Krapven used all his power to pull the thing from the ground, and when he took a closer look, he found the thing he dug from the ground was a book.
[ DING!!! Congratulations to Player Krapven in finding the item Book of Evolution.]
[ Do you wish to bind? Y/N]