The leaves crunched as the night crept in with sounds of animalistic screeching noises that echoed through the night.
The large beady eyes stared at the temporary party that was formed, hooting every so often.
'Gatsby… Isn't it a shame I can't wear my villain dress. I spent so much time on it but you're making me hug people left or right. They're mistaking me for a creep! Take responsibility for my reputation!'
Muttered Aria as she laid there sprangling from her already formed tent made by her newest clinging buddy, Brooke.
"Well, if it weren't for them. It would have taken you years to build up even a decent foundation. You can't even steal candy from a baby!"
Gatsby flickered his tail and rolled his eyes as he looked at his host desperately trying to look away in shame as she attempted whistling.
How dramatic.
"You can't even whistle and your speciality lies in singing?"
'Okay and I sanged a lot today and yesterday. You know how tiring it was? Whistling and singing are two different things. Singing is a lot harder.
I mean— I remember in my old world, my teacher told me I was breathing wrong. Excuse me? I didn't know there was a technique for breathing.'
Aria remembered her teacher telling her in front of the class how you weren't supposed to suck in the air while you sing as it'll create an unsteady tone.
You were supposed to breathe in as your stomach will expand outwards and that was definitely not how she had breathed before.
Before she could continue in dreamland as Gatsby had already left to rest inside the system, she felt loud crashing noises outside her tent before it suddenly went quiet.
She heard her tent open up in a hurry as Brooke's figure appeared reaching
"Get out! Everybody has already left!"
Groggily, she was pulled outside in a panic as with a sudden revelation.
She heard a loud flump noise hit the ground in a continuous manner getting louder with every second. She saw all around her monsters scurrying past her in a frightened agitated state.
How was she not able to hear all this noise inside her tent?
Frightened into jelly legs, she was in denial that a monster tide was appearing at this exact moment. The last monster tide incident that happened in this city was hundreds of years ago.
What changed?
Brooke pushed forward with Aria, spineless and petrified who kept spewing nervous rackets.
Frowned when she saw that Aria tripped onto a rock.
Briefly stopping them from their tracks as Aria tried to get up from her fall.
Brooke jolted her hand away and without a moment's notice ran away from a different direction to get out of there as fast as she could from the monster tide that was heading straight towards their direction in any minute.
Shocked by her betrayal as she thought that they shared a bond from the days that they both camped. She was too stunned to think as she fell down again from Brooke's swing to let her go.
Clinging onto Brooke's arm for support, the movement Brooke flung her arms and ran away after noticing that she was slowing them down.
Her trust was broken in so many pieces, she mentally couldn't process it now.
As she fell on her butt to the ground and turned to look at the looming monster tide with the sounds getting louder every second a thump was heard.
She stared right into the far distance between the trees and shredded branches and bushes that were annihilated by small leveled and occasionally E-tier monsters that ran past her.
She was not convinced that this was her ending. She got a new life, and she wasn't going to waste it because of a monster tide that could easily crush her under their feet.
Unsteadily, with new conviction in her eyes, she built up the courage to let go of her fear, through unknown adrenaline and straightening her legs.
She bolted away from the tide in an diagonal direction away only seeing a glimpse of boss leveled monsters stampeding along with other boss level monsters.
Whatever made them all agreed to anonymously run away although they were considered the boss level monsters of the Weyvn Forest.
She did not want to be there to find out.
Breaking branches with her hands and stepping on dirt grass with her socks that were not clearly prepared for this.
Through an unknown time that passed by, she felt time had slowed down considerably. It was only when she panted heavily and felt that her legs were giving away.
She dropped down in the open clearing facing the moon that seemed calm and serene.
Different from her reality, as she tried to listen in her ears if she was safe for now.
Paranoid of still being in danger, she listened for a couple of minutes and observed her surroundings that all seemed calm and quiet.
After accessing that she was out of danger, she finally let out a gasp of relief, almost wanting to break out in tears from what happened.
She steeled her heart as she knew that she had better things to do now.
The moment she felt her legs go out, she knew she must've pushed her limits through an uncontrollable adrenaline rush that pushed herself to keep on running til she couldn't because of the attributes that she stole and integrated into her foundation.
She was completely out of stamina.
And she was still in the wilderness.
She crawled herself to a nearby tree without a care for how unpresentable she was.
She looked pessimistically at her situation with a sigh that spoke it all.
She had left the tent with no idea what was going on and ran away with nothing except her battle geared dress and socks she wasn't even able to put on her shoes because she was rushed by that schemy b*tch Brooke that betrayed her.
She left her knowing that she was a weak dismal in distress.
An auxiliary super user that was known to be weak and she was ruthlessly left behind.
And not to mention that tent that screwed her over so bad.
She wasn't able to hear the loud reberating noises of the monster tide. She wanted to complain!
They built it so good, a monster tide wasn't even able to penetrate her tent's soundproof insulation. Bad reviews!
The cold wind blew over her, as she shivered from the lack of warmth. She further examined her surroundings and discovered that this was deeper into the Weyven Forest.
The lake that was meters in front of her looked like one the hotspots of the Weyven Forest of the Corjun's Lake located at the border between the Weyven Forest and the Alferin Forest intersection of a bigger and dangerous main jungle.
A higher level monster from the Hieru Jungle must have frightened the inhabitants of the Weyven Forest to run away from their own homes in a scurry.
Aria prayed that the monsters that strayed away from the main monster tide, don't come near her because she was too weak to confront them or run away.
Completely exhausted with nothing on her to help at least recover some of her strength instantaneously. The wonders this world holds.
She had to slowly regain her energy from much needed rest and sleep. She wanted to sleep or close her eyes for an eternity, but seeing Brooke's face vitialized her will for revenge.
There by a tree, she drowsily lowered her eyes as she vigilantly kept a lookout for her surroundings through the low remaining energy she had.
The wind blew, for some unknown time, Aria jolted from her rest and quickly scanned her surroundings.
She perked her ears when she saw some noises that came to her left.
Then zooming to the left of her side, she saw a group of wolves appeared in the opening snarling at the appearance of the stricken Aria.
The wolf that was leading this pact was in the front with a scar that hung on it's right eye with five that followed it.
They growled as they narrowed down on her, forming an open circle around her.
She didn't want to stand there and die but with how much of an weakened state she was that she could barely run a meter across the field because of her tired legs.
She was hopeless.
She must be a joke as a transmigrator to actually get killed in their second life with a golden finger.
Oh wait! The system— how could she forget that?
She tried to instantly look up the shop with her mind but as she was too preoccupied to think which items would help her under 9 system points.
The cheapest of the cheap goods.
The wolves were instantly upon her.
She saw the fangs daunted upon her and with a smell of awful breath that spread across her face. She looked up from her system panel to see the wolf leader's mouth lunge at her.
She hurriedly closed her eyes in fright and resignation.
Soon, like a million feelings she underwent at once, hatred of all the looming people she disliked was maxed out to the extreme.
Brooke. If there was another chance, she'll make her life a living hell worse than hell.
A dash of darkness swooped in and she felt the warm touches of somebody's embrace as she clinged into it knowing that this was a confrontation to the idea that she was still alive.
She was still alive! She guessed that she really was the protagonist of the show.
She opened her eyes wide and all she saw was a sturdy chest. There she heard a beating heart whether it was hers or the savior.
She instinctively wrapped herself onto their embrace for dear life.
She must cling onto this life saving pole.
She felt her savior wanting to put her down on the grass but she held on.
They decided to save her, and might as well save her until she was assured danger was out of the way. There were still wolves after her!
"Tsk—"
Wait, that sounds a bit familiar.
She gazed up and saw a pair of dark green eyes stare at her coldly with a sharp jawline and smooth olive skin.
Astounded, putting two with two together. The black cloak, the little peaks of hand that showed he was clearly of Mevian descent.
And her savior's clear face on display. He was Druin.
Wha— ahh?! She saw his face? She panicked like she uncovered a huge secret she wasn't supposed to as she accidentally went from his arms into his embrace when she panicked and wanted to go deeper to its source.
She went under the cloak and was in her current predicament.
With words that couldn't speak out, for some unknown reason, Druin sighed and turned his face towards the wolves.
Aria was clueless as she felt something was wrong.
Wouldn't a normal person be annoyed if someone clung onto them?
Well, she didn't know that although she was weak from her overuse of her body, she still amassed considerable strength attributes that strengthen her from Braven.
Druin was hopeless from Aria's strong grip around his body like a koala.
He noticed the very moment when he wasn't able to forcefully push Aria away. His face turned ugly and decided to look at the bigger picture now. He wasn't going to stop for any more time to push Aria away when there were wolves angered at his rescue.
He started to conjure dark vinery that appeared from the ground to wrap themselves onto the wolves. It sprouted from the grass forming heinous dark green particles that were poisonous like slow acting venom that made them feel weaker.
They howled in pain through the sting the vines exerted into them. The wolf leader going red, clawed his way out and pounded towards them.
Furrying his way through the distance, the wolf lunged at them but Druin shot a green spearlike vine. The formation of multiple spouts that appeared from his hand enlarged to frecious thorny vines that cut through the wolf multiple times while digging through his skin from the thorns that inflicted pain.
The wolf yelped through extreme pain, but as with the collision of the vines that pierce through him. The wolf leader fell as his pact also went down with him.
Aria, who was only able to see the last scene, was amazed by how Druin was so powerful.
He trapped them then sniped from afar to make a killing blow making sure he would not be implicated in any way. Those thorny vines were also a great offensive usage of his power.
Though, considering that she had never seen this during their camping trip. Only seeing him threw some weak considered vines then this more dark-variant type.
Something felt a bit wrong here. Why did this remind her of a cliche plot of a protagonist being powerful yet lowkey.
He was exactly like those protagonists she loves to read, a clear heroic young man with his moral lines drawn yet is lowkey and strong.
And not to mention the arms she had wrapped around his neck…
QAQ
Her shame kicking back to reality, she got down and wanted to thank Druin— he quickly bolted away before he threw a sparkly red bottle at her.
Ah, through a moment's time, she saw a blur as the dead wolves disappeared and Druin left.
But she didn't think more of it because she was preoccupied with another thing that caught more of her attention.
The pop up notifications rang through her peripheral vision.
[ Stolen 6+ Wisdom Attributes ]
[ Stolen 4+ Intelligence Attribute ]
[ Stolen 3+ Dexterity Attribute ]
[ Stolen 3+ Strength Attribute ]
What Druin was actually a genius super user?
But then why would he join the party… and be with that b*tch Brooke?
Though, Aria started to second guess herself as she realized that all the past interactions she seemed to realize that Brooke was actually trying to cling onto Druin.
While he showed no reaction or friendliness to her.
So it was all in her head?
Good, at least she wouldn't have mixed feelings towards Druin knowing that he is her savior but was friends with a conniving backstabber.
She stared at the direction Druin left with complicated feelings.
It was towards the inner woods of the Weyvn Forest and across from there was the Heiru Jungle.
He wasn't that self destruction was he?
But considering that this was such a cliche scene where the plot armor would save the said protagonist from the terrors of a C tier ranked field of the Hieru Jungle.
She wished him all well in his journey for heading towards the Hieru Jungle, unsure if he was just making a detour or adventuring out during a monster tide.
She had now, after all, owed him a favor and on top of that the precious red health potion he threw at her.
Which thank the world, she caught because although it was a manufactured common good, it was in the pricer end of goods which with a stingy personality would hurt.
However, feeling a bit sad as to why everybody seemed to want to leave her behind though, Druin being her savior was excused.
She drank the health potion and felt her recovery from her strength and stamina.
Brimming with vitality, she decided that she wanted to go back to her camping site to retrieve her items she left behind. She was unsure if the monster tide went through her camping site but she had to try and look. Her main tool was too expensive for her to leave behind.
It was dumb of her to leave behind that on her tent and not attach it on her dress but she was resting awaiting just like any normal night to go by.
She acknowledged she was a careless fool!
She started tracing back her steps as her socks crunched softly on the broken branches that feel through the remnants of the fight with Druin and the wolves.
She broke through branches and sprinted across the greenery of the shadows the moon high above casted through the looming dark woods.
She had to hurry up.