-White Bunny POV-

The wolf set off for the village, the afternoon sun slowly fading above. The bunny trailed a few steps behind, her gaze drifting to the wolf. There was a hard set to his eyes, a slight tremble to his chin. She wasn't sure what had made him hate humans, but...

Sixteen years ago. Burn alive. Finest adventurers. Killed the boss.

She doubted the story was all that pretty.

The two of them reached the outskirts of the village, where houses dotted the landscape every few hundred feet. A rough dirt path had been carved out of the dirt, and the two of them walked along it until another human approached from the distance.

The wolf tensed as the human approached, and-

Nothing happened. The human didn't even glance at them. The wolf exhaled, and his fingers unclenched a little.

The wolf would be fine. Hopefully.

The wolf kept walking. Huge animals chewed on grass at the side of the road. Cows, the bunny recalled from the brief conversations she had heard. Humans raised the animals to eat, ensuring that there would be a steady supply of food, even in winter.

It was clever, truly- the kind of clever that suggested humans had been conscious far longer than she had. Their world was unnatural, foreign in a way that made it dangerous.

"Here, here! Throw it to me!"

The bunny was jolted from her thoughts by the sound of shouting. The wolf tensed again, muscles coiling in preparation to flee-

"No, you just threw it to him! Throw it to me!"

Another shout rang out. The wolf searched for the source of the shouting, and-

Children. The children tossed a bright red ball between themselves. Laughter danced through the air, and the children chased each other around, alternating between trying to catch the ball and trying to hit each other with the ball as hard as possible.

The wolf watched longingly as the red ball soar through the air. The ball would often disappear into the grass for long stretches of time before the children found it again, but it didn't matter. The wolf was transfixed.

"Hey! Isn't that Liam?"

"Liam? Liam! Hurry up! Monkey is no fun without you!"

The children all started shouting and waving at once, when suddenly-

Thwack.

The ball smacked the wolf square in the face.

The wolf stared blankly as the ball bounced away, not comprehending what had just happened. The ball rolled back towards the kid who had thrown the ball, and the wolf still didn't react, just staring and-

"Hurry up!" The kid shouted at the wolf, already running back towards his friends. "What's taking so long, Li-"

The kid paused. He squinted at the wolf.

"Hold on... you aren't Liam!" The kid shouted, pointing at the wolf. The rest of the kids started shouting too. The wolf looked at the kids helplessly, not knowing what to do. Their shrill voices rang through the air, loud enough to heard across the village.

The kid looked up at the wolf expectantly.

"Well? Are you coming or not? We need a monkey."

The wolf froze.

"What?! You can't do that! What if Liam comes?" One of the kids shouted.

"Then we'll have two monkeys, obviously!" The girl in the back said, rolling her eyes. The wolf's eyes flickered over to her, and-

"Come or don't, but let's start already!" The girl shouted. "Ma says I gotta be home early!"

The wolf glanced at the bunny. She huffed.

[White Bunny: Stop acting like a kicked puppy and just go already.]

He hesitated, and then-

[Black Wolf: I'll be back soon!]

He ran after the children, bounding across the earth in huge leaps that made it seem like he was flying. She watched him go, and the warmth in her chest faded too fast.

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There were things she had to do, things the wolf would be better of not knowing.

She slipped into the village, sticking to the shadows dark enough to hide her white fur. No one would care about another stray nibbling on scraps in the back of an alley, but it was better that she wasn't unseen at all.

Her first stop was simple: a weapon.

The bunny crouched low in the darkness, spying on the silver glint a few dozen feet away. The cutting edge was longer than the deadly-tip-branch, making it seem more like a fang. The bunny suspected it would be much the same way- for shoving through flesh and crunching through bone.

[[Sixth Sense] has been activated!]

Her vision grew sharper, allowing her to see the way the light shone across the silver edge, along with-

Knives, read the wood carving beside the not-fangs. There were dozens of similar-looking objects on display- swords, arrows, spears- as if the owner waiting for someone to take them.

Strangely enough, humans did. They would walk right up to the stall, picking up the weapons in broad view of the owner. The humans would even talk to the owner, and after handing over a handful of shiny things, the humans would leave with the weapon.

Some sort of exchange, the bunny thought. She didn't have the shiny things- three silver coins, she caught between their conversation- but it didn't matter. She had planned to steal the knife anyway.

Guards patrolled the streets. They cut imposing figures, shoulders broad and hands always resting on their swords. Their eyes were always narrowed, searching for killers, criminals, thieves- but only the human kind.

The guards didn't notice when she darted between the stalls, capturing a knife between her teeth. Once she was safely hidden in the back of the alley, the bunny let go of the knife.

After sniffing the various parts of the knife, the bunny pressed her paw against the tip. She drew back after a bead of crimson welled up. Perfect. She licked the blood away.

The knife was sharper than the arrows. It didn't seem like it was designed to pierce through the air- instead, the longer edge made it better suited for slashing. If a human wielded the knife, she imagined the knife could also be used for stabbing, but holding the knife between her teeth would make that difficult.

Luckily, the humans had throats which looked easy to slit.

After burying the knife in the dirt, she went back to steal a second. She couldn't hold more than one knife at a time, but it never hurt to have an extra.

The second knife was sharper, thinner, the kind you wouldn't see if the angle was just right. The blade was too fragile to survive a direct blow- but she wouldn't either, so it didn't matter.

It was tempting to take the other weapons as well. The sword glittered in the light, edges sharpened on all sides. It was the perfect weapon for drawing blood, but it was just a fanciful wish. The swords weighed more than her body.

Those curved daggers, though... her eyes lingered on the magnificent blades. The daggers were slightly longer than the knives, and their wicked curve ensured you would always draw blood. She would have to sacrifice a lot of speed to carry those around, but the owner's promise that you could store poison within the blades...

She forced herself to move on. She was fond of greed, but not the kind that got her killed. She could pass for an overly-curious pet, but that didn't mean she wanted to be around when the owner realized his knives were missing.

She had already seen someone get dragged away by the guards. The woman was dressed in dirty rags, screaming incoherently as the guards grabbed her arms- it wasn't pretty.

The bunny wove through the shadows, the smaller of the two knives held between her teeth. She kept to the dirtier, narrower alleys, quickly becoming familiar with the other creatures who lived in the shadows. For the most part, it was just rats- no matter where she looked, they were always there, nibbling on the crumbs and chewing on rot.

Occasionally, she'd run past something other than a rat. Street rats, the humans called them, regarding them with varying levels of disgust and pity. While not the most flattering, the bunny didn't think the description was that far off- the children did bear an uncanny resemblance to rats, always watching the world with the same cold, hungry eyes.

Whenever she brushed past, the orphans stared at her with the same, wary look, having lived in the shadows for long enough to distrust anything white that managed to survive in them, too.

She stayed out of their way, and the orphans were smart enough to stay out of hers, too. The rats, on the other hand-

[[Sixth Sense] has been activated!]

The bunny sensed the rat lying in wait down the alley. Most of the rats had been smart enough to leave her alone, but this one- well, she had no idea. Whether it was arrogance, stupidity, or just hunger, she didn't particularly care.

She summoned [Status Window] far in advance. She had a weapon to test, skills to hone, and a theory about [Time of Death] to verify. The rat had just become her unlucky volunteer.

She drew closer to the corner. It was the perfect set-up, really. Rats were tricky creatures to trap, but if the rat was already pushing her into a corner- well, reversing the situation was what she did best.

The rat lunged forward. His teeth were bared, aiming for her leg-

She jumped over the rat, landing easily on the [Status Window]. The rat scrambled away, realizing it had picked the wrong target- but it had trapped itself in a corner, leaving nowhere to escape.

She leaped forward in a surge of power, the knife firmly clamped between her teeth. Her movements were precisely measured, and with a slash of blood, the bunny severed the muscles of his hind leg, rendering the rat immobile.

It was only what the rat tried to do to her.

The bunny stalked towards the rat, blood dripping from the edge of her knife. She sliced away the muscles of the rat's other leg, and the rat shrieked, entire body convulsing involuntarily.

Come on, she thought at the [System]. She didn't particularly care about the morality of the situation, but that didn't mean she enjoyed causing pain.

[Time of Death] activated "near death," but the description never specified it had to be hers. Pushing the rat to the brink of death was arguably too far for a single theory, but-

I solved your little game. Now give me the skill. She slashed another cut across the rat's side. Happy yet?

[System: And here I was, about to tell you everything about [Devourer]. I guess you'll have to figure the skill for yourself!]

The [System] sang cheerfully, deliberately trying to get under her skin.

[Lvl 1 [Time of Death] is available! Activate?]

You wouldn't have told me regardless, the bunny thought. She killed the rat in a swift spray of blood. The rest of the rats eyed the dead body. She left them to their meal. The [System] laughed brightly in return.

[System: Maybe I would've, maybe I wouldn't have. Even I don't know!]