Kael watched in disbelief as the dust settled. The ambush had worked perfectly. The beast had appeared to panic, frantically searching for a way to escape. But then everything went wrong. It baited the heavy warriors, only to hit them with a powerful mana wave. Later in the fight, after throwing the light warriors aside, it went berserk, repeatedly using its stomping skill until the dust clouded everyone's view. And now, as the dust cleared, the beast was gone. How was this possible?

"Hey, did you see it run away?" Kael shouted to the two healers on the other side.

"No, nothing," Sophia replied.

"That was no ordinary beast," Sylas, the young mage, said as he stepped into the middle of the battlefield.

"Of course it was! You’re just fucking useless!" Thorwald yelled, his face red with anger, as he stepped back into the clearing.

"No, it wasn’t. It anticipated our movements," Sylas insisted in a calm voice.

Thorwald punched him in the stomach, causing Sylas to double over, blood spilling from his mouth.

"You think you know better than me?" Thorwald screamed, grabbing Sylas by the throat. "I fought in the military, protecting useless civilians like you, and now you talk to me like that?"

"Let him go, Thorwald," Kael said, his voice steely.

Thorwald squeezed Sylas's throat one last time before releasing him. "Don’t ever doubt me again, or I won’t be so benevolent. And remember, Kael won’t always be here to save you."

With that, he walked back to their camp with the last two surviving members of his original party, leaving the other two parties standing in the clearing.

Sophia hurried over and started healing Sylas. The rest began gathering the corpses, placing them in their spatial rings to bury later.

"We need to get back to camp and prepare for tonight. The orcs will definitely attack us again," Kael said.

"Just keep me away from that guy," Sylas muttered as he stood up. The remaining nine survivors began their walk back to camp. "That guy is crazy."

Thalion watched the scene unfold from his perch in the tree, puzzled. Perhaps he had been wrong to attack them. The archer and the mage seemed like decent people. Reflecting on it, he wondered if his aggressive reaction stemmed from the fact that he had always been on the run, never attacking anyone, and suddenly they had nothing better to do than set up an ambush to kill him. What happened had happened, he couldn’t go back in time and change his actions, nor could he let doubt take hold of him. The only reason he was this strong in his beast form was that the system shop hadn't opened yet.

The biggest difference between beasts and humans was that beasts couldn’t wear armor or wield weapons as far as he knew. Instead, they had higher base stats. Without access to the system shop, humans had to rely on their starting gear. Maybe some had chosen a builder class at their level 5 evolution, which could explain where the heavy warrior got his axe. Speaking of the heavy warrior, Thalion noticed him returning to the clearing, his face red as a tomato. Watching the heavy warrior attack his teammate, Thalion frowned. That guy really had a few screws loose.

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His ears perked up when he heard them talking about an orc attack. "Just how many survivors are in that camp?" he wondered. Intrigued, he decided to follow them, keeping a safe distance of about 20 meters up in the trees, blending in with the background. After a half-hour of silent tracking, he started hearing noises in the distance as they approached the camp. The sight was grim.

In the clearing, a small group of makeshift tents was surrounded by a flimsy wooden wall, which he doubted could even slow down an orc, especially not the ones they had seen on their first night. There were so many survivors, at least a hundred, though he didn’t dare identify them to avoid exposing himself. Safe to say, they didn’t look strong, most were probably around level 6 or 7. It made sense why they were attacked, with the system shop opening tomorrow, it was crucial to gather as many credits as possible. Even if you didn’t gain much experience from killing lower-level individuals, you still gained all their accumulated credits.

He discovered this after checking his status screen, killing the three heavy warriors had boosted his credits to a solid 2,540. He could only hope that the orcs hadn’t banded together like the humans here, because if they had, the attacks over the last two nights were likely just to test the defenders' strength. The realization hit him hard, whether he was right or not, many orcs would likely try to slaughter the humans tonight.

The trees around the camp had been cut down, at least preventing an attack from above. From his hiding spot, Thalion watched as the small wooden gate opened and five people greeted the returning group of hunters. All showed great respect for the archer and the healer who had tended to the mage earlier, probably their leaders. Thalion got a sinking feeling. That archer better had a second bow.

He didn’t want these people to die, they probably had families. Not everyone was a social outlier like him, so he decided to join this ragged group of survivors. He was still wounded from the fight, his health at 70%. He could only recover fully in his beast form, but until now, he hadn’t had the opportunity to do so. Maybe the healer would help him if his plan worked. So, he jumped down from the tree, transformed into his human form, removed his mask, and ran toward the wooden gate just as it was closing.

"Hey, wait for me! You’re from Earth too, right?" Thalion yelled as most of the people passed through the gate.

They all turned around, and the archer stepped forward. "Who are you, and where’s your party?"

"We got separated by an orc attack three days ago. Do you know Mike, a Blade Dancer? Or James and Lukas, both Bulwark Berserkers?" Thalion asked hopefully.

He kind of knew they probably weren’t in the camp, his former comrades had to cross the river to get here, and he doubted they would take such a risk. They were too smart for a mistake like that.

Thalion noticed a lot of nods from the direction of the camp. Were they all identifying him? As he answered, he kept walking and was now standing only four meters away from the archer.

"I'm also in need of a healer. I'm injured and out of healing potions," Thalion added.

"I don’t know anyone who fits your description, I’m sorry," the healer said.

"This is a camp of refugees, after all, so yes, you are welcome. What class are you?" Kael asked.

"I’m a mage," Thalion lied, noticing the young mage before looking at him with interest.

"A mage, that’s great! But I must inform you, we’re likely to be attacked by orcs tonight. If you want healing, we’ll need your help," Kael said.

"Of course, I’d like to get revenge on those orcs," Thalion replied. "But I should mention I’m also out of mana potions, and my mana pool is quite low. I might not be much help."

"That’s not a problem. We have an alchemist who can make mana potions; we can stock you up easily," the healer said. "I’m Sophia, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too. I haven’t encountered another human in so long," Thalion answered.

"I’m Kael, the leader of this camp, and this is Sylas," Kael introduced himself and the mage next to him.

"Another mage, that’s great! You’re the first mage I’ve met," Thalion said.

"We need to get inside," Kael interjected. "Sophia, please heal him, and Sylas can show Thalion around afterward. We need to prepare for tonight, the sun is already sinking."

After a quick healing session, Sylas gave Thalion a little tour of the camp.