Roy looked at Robb, and with a quick eye signal, the two bolted out of the beast’s encirclement. As the duo ran through the forest the pack of red lynxes followed right behind them. Suddenly, the two young men split in two different directions.
The lynxes were confused for a moment before their pack split into groups of threes. Roy looked behind to count the beasts that were following after him and smiled.
After half a minute had passed, Roy unexpectedly did a 180-degree turn and dashed towards the fastest of the beasts. The lynx who had gotten used to the young man running away froze in fear at the sudden change. In the blink of an eye, Roy slashed open its neck and its head rolled on the grass below.
The two lynxes yowled and growled before charging at Roy with rage-filled eyes. However, the young man was too slippery. He quickly dodged their attacks before jumping back in and plunging his sword into one of the beasts’ left side. He twisted his sword and slashed its belly open.
Just as Roy killed one of the lynxes, the other immediately pounced at him and bit his thigh. With a quick snatch of its head, it tore up a piece of flesh from Roy’s leg.
The young man could only look in shock as the beast ate a piece of his flesh before the pain finally kicked in. It felt as if someone stuck a thousand burning needles in his thigh, before freezing it over with the coldest snow.
Roy bit his lips and charged with no regard for pain or his life at the lynx in front of him. He held his sword in a reverse grip and stabbed it through the beast’s neck. The red lynx gurgled and staggered forward before finally falling over to the side and dying.
Roy limped over to one of the trees and sat down. After he caught his breath, he tore up parts of his pants and used them as makeshift bandages over his large wound. He tightened the knot over and over until there was no more blood dripping down his leg.
With his superhuman regeneration, Roy knew that it wouldn’t take long for wounds like these to mend. Nevertheless, it was still going to make it hard for him to fight until he is healed.
As Roy finished bandaging his wound, Robb walked out from behind the trees and bushes. He frowned when he saw the blood all over Roy’s leg. “What happened? Did they get to you?”
“Yeah, I messed up,” Roy replied with a pained expression. “I should have taken the fight more slowly.”
Robb looked at his young friend with complicated eyes and sat down next to him. “It’s okay. As long as you’re alive, all is good.”
“Thanks, man.”
The two sat down in silence for a couple of minutes before Robb broke it. “You know, it’s okay if you wanna go back to the village to heal. I can look for the vipers on my own, it’s not too hard.”
“No, I’m all good,” Roy shook his head. He then stretched and unstretched his wound leg while looking at Robb with a smile. “See, I’m already good.”
Robb raised his eyebrow and tilted his head in doubt. “Oh really, then what if I do this?”
He then pressed Roy’s wound with his finger, and the latter’s smile crumbled into tears.
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Robb clicked his tongue, “If you wanna stay sure, but at least take a nap. You haven’t slept in two days, and it should help you recover.”
Roy looked at his friend with a vexed expression. “But you haven’t slept either. We’ve been doing the same thing over these two days.”
“Yeah, but I’m older than you, so I can stay awake for longer. Now don’t be a stubborn little bitch and go sleep; I’ll look over you.”
Roy rolled his eyes and sighed with an exasperated expression. “Sure, I’ll do as you want.”
He then laid down on the grass and used the base of the tree like a hard pillow. Even though it wasn’t a comfortable bed or a nice cushion Roy’s mind quickly shut down and he was off to dreamland in seconds.
After an hour had passed, Roy opened his eyes to the sound of battle. A giant boar charged at Robb who calmly sidestepped the beast. Without breaking a sweat, the young man danced around the big boar before stabbing it through the neck.
Robb then looked at Roy before walking toward him. “Oh, you woke up? How are you feeling?”
The pain that was overwhelming Roy’s senses before had dissipated into the background. And when he flexed his leg back and forth, there was no obstruction or pain that shot up.
“Pretty good, actually. This regeneration is completely magical.” Roy stood up and jumped around. “I can fight now with no problems.”
“Good, been boring with just me hunting alone. Let’s go gather those vipers and come back to the village to kill some ogres.”
The two went on and hunted all kinds of monsters in the forest: wolves, Foxes, deers, boars, and lynxes. At the same time, they found three vipers that they killed and collected their corpses.
After two and a half hours had passed, the duo were making their way out of the forest when they heard a weird sound. They quickly hid behind a tree and looked at the monsters walking up a trail.
The monsters stood at half the size of an adult man, and they had fur all over their bodies. Their faces were a mixture between a human and a wolf. As Roy looked at them, he couldn’t help but remember the myths of Kobolds he heard when he was young.
There were six of these Kobolds and each of them held the corpse of a prey in its hand. Some held boars and deer, while others were surprisingly carrying goblin bodies.
“Come. Midday. Soon.” The Kobold that led the group looked at the others and ordered with broken sentences.
Even though the words that the monster used were not from the Vesarian language, Roy was still able to understand them. He looked at Robb and the latter shared his expression of shock. The fact that these monsters were able to speak and behave in such a human manner only added to Roy’s doubts and confusion.
With the kobolds having taken the trail that the two used on their way from the village, they had to make a long detour. Of course, they could simply just kill the monsters and be on their way, but Roy’s intuition told him not to do such rash things. These were the first monsters that showed an ability to communicate with humans, there were still so many things he needed to know before he could confidently hunt them.
After they took the detour, they crossed a small wolf pack of six. As they did with the countless beast before them, Roy and Robb made quick work of the wolves. However, just as they were about to go on their way, they noticed a large cave from the direction the wolves were originally coming from.
“The hell? There was never a cave there, right? Or am I tripping?” Robb looked incredulously at the cave that looked like the mouth of a wolf.
“You think it’s their den?” Roy asked with interest.
“Who knows? But we can always check.”
Robb walked confidently towards the wolf cave, but just as he was about to enter he fell down and massaged his nose. “What the hell? The fuck is this?!”
Roy furrowed his eyebrows at his friend’s strange behavior before he shook his head and followed after him. However, just as his foot was about to enter the cave, it was stopped by an invisible wall.
“Congratulations, you are the first to discover the small-scale dungeon: Wolf Den. You will receive double rewards and a higher chance for extra rewards if you clear it.”
Roy’s confusion only grew as he read the floating words. In the end, he slumped his shoulders and sighed, “This world is just gonna keep fucking with us.”