It was morning, and light had shown on Shu's face.
He started waking up and felt something heavy on top of him. He couldn't remember ever experiencing something like this, but it felt familiar.
["I...I'm Mary Mob."]
He heard that voice again. And that name... Who's Mary?
His curiosity grew, and he opened his eyes. He had woken up to a peculiar situation.
Do you know that feeling when you wake up and see a tiny girl sleeping soundly on top of you?
"E-excuse me?"
Shu was beet red.
There was no reaction.
After about a minute, the girl opened her eyes and looked at him.
"Good morning."
She said with a yawn.
When looking at him, she had big smile big smile. She had black hair and green eyes, like someone he had recently met...
"Are you the leader?"
Shu asked.
The girl rose from his body and stretched her hands to wake up.
"Yes, but I would rather you called me Mary."
The girl said with a slight bow.
Looking at her now, she was beautiful. Her piercing eyes still scared him but didn't detract from her beauty.
Suddenly her eyes seemed less fierce as she became red.
"Why are you staring at me?"
She asked. Was she too bold? Should she have done what happened the first time they met?
Shu didn't know what she was stressing over, but he saw her hand reaching for her sword.
It didn't seem like she was planning to kill him, but for some reason, he knew he needed to place his hand on the handle of her sword to stop her from drawing it.
"I don't like death."
He said without expanding.
At that moment, his eyes were no less piercing than hers'.
Shu heard a noise from the forest, and Mary noticed his ears twitching.
"That sound you just heard is a pack of monsters. We need to beat them and go to the Mountain Of No Returns."
Mary warned him.
Shu had no clue how she could know that, but he chose to put his trust in her and charged in the direction of the sound.
Soon enough, he stumbled on a horde of demonic lions. They had large teeth, six green eyes, two tails, and black fur. And they were three times the size of normal lions.
One of the lions was not even a meter from a biting distance.
Demonic creatures can sense the life force of beings and, based on that, see their potential. Since strength is usually decided by potential, it is a reasonably reliable method of evaluating your enemy. So it should be no surprise this lion was happy one of its targets was right before him. And not just any target, but the weaker of the two.
He opened his maw widely and reached for Shu's neck. How unfortunate. Of all his possible targets in the world, he stumbled on this young beastman.
Shu grabbed the lion by his teeth and threw it in the air. When the lion came back down, he kicked it with a front kick. The other lions watched this in shock and were even more surprised the lion Shu beat up was still breathing.
"Who's next?"
While Shu didn't like killing, he enjoyed fighting. And he now had an entire horde of fighting mates.
Seeing the fire in his eyes, these lions couldn't have run away faster. They even left their friend behind.
Shu and Mary were left with a wounded lion, not knowing what to do with it.
"So, what do you wanna do with him?"
Shu asked.
"He is your catch."
Mary answered and let Shu ponder for a minute.
"Maybe we should adopt him. He looks so cute."
Shu crouched to stare the lion directly in the eye.
The lion shook in fear.
"You are mine now."
Shu said with a wide smile.
********
On the second day of their journey, it was dusk, and they reached a pleasant, perfectly circular clearing.
The demonic lion, whom Shu dubbed Shuāng Wěi, didn't want to enter the clearing, which made Shu very suspicious.
"You sure it's safe to be here?"
Shu asked Mary. He knew she had more experience in adventuring.
"Well, it's the demon forest. It's not a place known for its safety."
Mary knew the truth. This place was not safe, but she wanted this event to remain as it originally was, so she shrugged Shu's question off.
Shu looked back at the worried lion and shrugged it off to Shuāng Wěi, still not fully trusting them.
He placed down their bags. They didn't have many bags, but they kept the bags they had on them when Antony sent them away, and they were collecting a pile of firewood on the way.
As soon as he placed the bags on the ground, the ground began shaking.
The rocks at the end of the circle rose up above the ground, and the land in the middle sunk. A giant monster was swallowing them.
The moment Shu saw what was happening, he grabbed Mary from her waist in one hand and their luggage in the other hand and started running in Shuāng Wěi's direction.
The ground was getting steeper quickly, and it was getting hard to run. He threw the luggage forward.
"Shuāng Wěi! Catch Mary!"
Shu ordered the lion. He threw Mary ahead as well.
He tried reaching the edge to save himself.
The ground was getting too steep to keep running, and his hand was just out of reach from the edge.
Was this the end?
Is this how he finally dies?
At least Mary is safe.
He reached out his hand but wasn't close enough to grab the edge. He was sure this was when he would die. But then, someone caught his hand.
He pulled himself with the help of the mysterious stranger and was safe.
"Thank you so much."
Shu looked down and exclaimed air.
"No problem, zero-potential guy."
Shu heard these words, and his eyes opened widely. He lifted his head to look at his savior.
"Alexander, what are you doing here?"
"Well, it would be a pity if such a talent would die so soon."
The guy with black hair and blue eyes smirked.
"Is he your friend? Should we ask him to join us?"
Mary knew they weren't friends yet, but she needed to play the fool.
"Do you wanna join us?"
Shu didn't trust Alexander, but another pair of hands would be a great help.
Alexander didn't trust Shu either, but as an escaped convict, it would be nice to have someone to protect him.
"I would love to join you."
Alexander put his hand forward with enthusiasm.
Seeing his enthusiasm, Shu shook his hand but felt like he was making a mistake.
They slept through the night and then resumed walking to the Mountain Of No Returns.
A demonic lion, a beastman, and two humans.