Butch let go of William soon after. William could only slink back to the ground in fear.

The man’s eyes were like a beast and he stood a full head taller than him with bulging biceps, of course he would be scared.

Timidly he called out the system.

[Name: Rome Nevera

Age: 22

Skill Set:

Basic Swordsmanship (Long Sword)

Basic Wilderness Survival (Forest, Mountain)

Basic Climbing (Trees)

Background: Rome is a young knight. He was sent out by the king with a group of other knights to drop off important war documents.

Out of the group of 53 only two are alive.

Butch and Rome.

Tasks:

Make it back to the Kingdom with Butch. (0/1) Energy:10

Meet Rome's Family. (0/1) Energy:10

Kill and eat 8 wild animals (0/10) Energy: 4

Make a fire (0/5) Energy: 4

Kill a Zilgmoth (0/1) Energy:10]

‘I guess those three didn’t survive.’ He decided to throw them to the back of his mind for now. What was more concerning was this Recomem.

[Recomem- A deity the people of this world worship. They believe she comes when people are sleeping and steals away their memories, she uses these memories to give to the heroes that will save this world.

Other citizens are obligated to help people who’ve been blessed by Recomem.]

‘I guess I should just keep pretending, he’ll be obligated to protect me.’ Williams' gears were turning in his head.

‘Do I have Rome's abilities?’

[No.

You have to complete tasks for energy to purchase them.]

‘It’s better this way for now. It’d be weird if I lost my memories but could still do swordsmanship.’

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Now with a plan William felt less scared. If he could gather energy and purchase the abilities later he’d have nothing to fear and could escape without a second thought.

He decided to act like a newborn chick, he’d earn Butchs sympathy and split when they reached the Kingdom and he had completed most of his tasks.

William even though still a little scared decided to sleep closer to Butch.

He got up as quietly as possible and sat down one meter away from him.

Butch opened one of his eyes and watched him curiously.

William stared back innocently. He didn’t know if it worked or not but Butch didn’t say or do anything else, he simply closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

William closed his eyes too and tried to sleep, he thought it’d be forever till he slept but he went out like a light in minutes.

He snored lightly, and was comfortable on the lush grass.

When the rays of morning sunshine hit him he woke up soundlessly. His head was a whirlpool and the birds chirped sweetly.

He couldn’t help but yawn, he didn’t know how long he slept but his energy was completely replenished. Standing to his feet he brushed his butt off then looked around.

Butch was nowhere to be found.

William panicked.

‘Oh shit, he left me behind!’

He looked behind all the trees but caught no sign of Butch, he even looked at the footprints on the ground but they lead to nowhere.

Following the footprints had led him farther away from the campsite now he was lost.

‘God, I’m an idiot.’ He thought to himself.

He didn’t expect he would be left behind, at the very least he thought Butch would have some sympathy. He was a man with no memory, how could he survive on his own?

Even without memory loss he couldn’t survive in the woods, he was raised most of his life in the city. The best he could do was ride a horse, and maybe skin some small rodents and fish.

He leaned against a tree pitifully. Picking up a stick he decided to try to start a fire at the very least.

He didn’t know where to begin though.

He decided to just pile up a bunch of sticks first then start a fire from there.

When they were piled up to his knees he looked for two rocks and started smacking them together.

It didn’t work.

He tried for at least an hour, he even tried rubbing sticks together but to no avail.

His stomach was also starting to growl from hunger. Looking under rocks he found some bugs, they were disgusting looking.

They had weird jagged backs and bright squiggly lines on their backs, the only normal one looked like a worm.

He picked it up hesitatingly but decided not to eat it. It would’ve been mostly dirt anyway. He peeled off some tree bark and chewed on it instead.

It tasted like shit. He laid out some leaves like a bed when the sun started to set.

No fire, no food, no shelter. It was a disaster from day 1, he was most likely going to die tomorrow.

A twig snapped not too far away from where he laid. He watched as his hopes were shattered when a giant wolf-like creature started coming closer to him.

His hair rose on his arms and he couldn’t even scream, he felt like a lump was in his throat. The creature stood above him menacingly, its drool dripped on William's face.

‘Welp, I’m dead.’ He accepted his fate quickly, there was no getting out of this.

He stayed where he was and watched as the monster's maw opened over his head. Its breath was terrible.