A few moments later.
A figure arrived at Paul's location— a black-furred bipedal wolf with a ghastly appearance— to be more precise, it was a wolf-man. The wolf-man was none other than Jason, who had inexplicably transformed into a wolf-like creature, and he was filled with an intensive murderous aura as he coldly stared at the dying Paul.
Paul was only a breath away from death; he had lost too much blood and was barely hanging on just to meet Jason one last time.
"Where is it?"
Jason's deep voice sternly questioned.
Despite his ghastly appearance, Paul recognized him based on his coat. As such, he displayed a look of mockery on his face and triumphantly said in a weak voice: "You're… too late… Hahaha… You crazy son of a—"
Crack!
Jason didn't bother to talk nonsense with him and instantly stomped on his neck, killing him instantly. He then searched Paul's lifeless body, but to his dismay, he couldn't find the golden stone book in Paul's chest pocket.
In disbelief, he stripped Paul and searched his clothes, but he still couldn't find the golden stone book. This caused his expression to turn completely dark and ugly with his face bulging with purple veins uncontrollably.
"You f*cking bastard! Where did you stash my holy treasure?! Where is it?!!"
Jason, who seemed to have lost his mind, suddenly unleashed a frightening black aura from his body in exasperation. Within a few hundred meters, all of the surrounding plants and living beings with weak life forces perished instantly. They all turned black and were scattered by the cold night wind as if they had lost their vitality and rotted away.
The decomposed living beings emitted a pungent rotten smell as though they had been dead for a very long time. The strong pungent smell of rotten flesh was enough to cause anyone, who visit the influenced area, to develop intense aversion and avoid the location.
When he finally calmed down, Jason looked at the corroded body of Paul and continuously stomped him mercilessly while shouting: "Die! Die! You f*cking bastard! How dare a mere human like you cross me!"
The putrid blood of Paul's corpse kept splattering on his face repeatedly from his onslaught, but he didn't care and still continued to stomp Paul's decomposed corpse until there were only bones left, only then did he feel satisfied.
"I will find out who took my holy treasure and mercilessly kill him like I did to you!"
Jason coldly declared loudly, his deep voice shaking the surrounding decayed leaves as they fluttered like dust in the cold night wind.
A few moments ago, when he arrived at Paul's location, he smelled a trace of a new presence in the vicinity. However, he didn't think that Paul would give the golden stone book to the owner of that presence.
Unfortunately, he couldn't track them down in the forest with so many scents intermingled together. It took him a while to find Paul's location because of that reason.
However, once he meets them outside of the forest, he would be able to instantly recognize them from their scent. At that time, he would ruthlessly tear them apart and take back his precious holy treasure.
Despite his rational decision, he still gritted his teeth in frustration and stomped Paul's corpse— his skeletal remains— in hatred one last time before begrudgingly sprinting out of the forest. His destination was unknown.
…
Rewinding time to a couple of minutes ago.
"Where can I find the five-colored root grass that the manager talked about?"
A young boy with a troubled expression walked through a dense green forest, seemingly searching for something without knowing where to even begin. It was currently past midnight, and the morning dew had already made the grasses of many shrubs wet.
As a result of this, as he took a step into the forest, the morning dew caused his body and clothes to become wet. Not only that, but due to the chilly weather, he was constantly being assaulted by the frigid night wind as he walked, causing his body to shiver from time to time.
The young boy had been walking aimlessly for a while since his departure from the orphanage where he lived. He made a trip into the dense forest in search of a type of medicinal grass. He didn't know how much distance he had strayed away from the border of the forest, but he couldn't give up his task given by the orphanage manager.
That was because he was threatened by the manager of the orphanage that he wouldn't get food tomorrow, nor would he get treatment for his chronic skin disease, which made him easily get cuts on his body, making him bleed profusely each time.
He was unfortunately born with a frail and weak constitution, and even the smallest task would always and inevitably cause him to suffer injuries on his body. Aside from eating, he seemed to have no talent to show for himself. Though he couldn't display his talent, even if he did have talents like most of the kids at the orphanage.
Additionally, the injuries that he incurs always took an exceedingly long time to heal for reasons unknown. If he had to guess, it was most likely related to his frail and weak constitution that made him look so languished, as though he hadn't eaten properly his entire life, even though that wasn't the case.
With the intention to gain a healthy body, he had made a habit of eating his full-course meals without even missing vegetables that other kids tend to ignore because they tasted terrible for them. Even then, nothing had changed about his body; he still looked scrawny when compared to the kids his age.
As for his abnormal injuries, the orphanage's only means to heal his injuries were with the help of concocted healing potions that had been made with special medicinal plants that grew near the border of the Edge Forest, where he currently was trudging to find a type of medicinal grass.
The Edge Forest was an overgrown forest in South Stronghold, and it was also close to the orphanage that was located in the countryside area of South Stronghold.
There are other Strongholds of humanity that serve as deterrents and resistance against the threat known as Chaos Monsters, and South Stronghold was merely just one of these Strongholds. Not only that, but it was hailed as the weakest stronghold of them all.
That was because only low-ranking Chaos Monsters appeared within South Stronghold's territory. Regardless, it was still a stronghold of humanity, so many expert combatants still resided within its territorial influence to protect the stronghold from sudden invasions from Chaos Monsters.
The ones who ruled Strongholds and commanded overwhelming military power were given titles known to the general populace as Stronghold Leaders or City Lords of their respective strongholds. To uphold such a title, one had to be the strongest in the stronghold alongside gaining prestige in their respective strongholds.
Alongside the military benefits that came with being a Stronghold Leader, Stronghold Leaders also gain the authority to set up policies to maintain the environments under their influence to ensure a protected space for humans.
Many citizens enjoy protection from the sudden invasions of Chaos Monsters through Spatial Portals or from the Spatial Zones as a result of the integration of expert combatants among normal people.
That was also why orphanages, located on the outskirts of South Stronghold, could still afford to run and not worry about the sudden invasions of Chaos Monsters.