“Where are you going?” Michael asked behind him.

“Outside,” Kwan replied without looking back at him.

“What for?”

“I just want to go out for a stroll.”

“But Kirk says—”

“I know what he says.”

It had been established that when two people left the camp for whatever reason, the other two needed to stay inside to keep guard over it. Right now, it was Kwan and Michael’s turn to guard their camp while Nina and Kirk were out in the forest. Kwan wasn’t annoyed because he was forced to stay in the camp for the time being. No, the reason for him being angry was altogether different.

When their group needed to split into twos, Nina always paired up with Kirk while Kwan had no choice but to form a pair with Michael. It wasn’t that he disliked Michael, no. He just wanted to spend some time with Nina without other people around. He liked her very much and wanted to get closer to her to try to develop a stronger emotional bond and connection with her. Maybe if she got to know him a little bit better, she would like him more.

However, when he brought up the idea of teaming up with different partners every now and then instead of always pairing up with the same people, none of the three backed his proposal. Nina wanted to always be paired with Kirk while Kirk himself said that they should pair up with those whom they were the most comfortable with. Kwan and Michael had known each other long before they met Nina and Kirk. Due to their longstanding acquaintance and strong rapport, it would be most effective for them to consistently pair up with each other rather than other people.

Nina and Michael agreed with Kirk’s point of view. Kwan, not so much. But Kirk was the leader of their group, and what he said went. Kwan often disagreed with him on various points, but Michael and Nina never backed him up, silently taking Kirk’s side. Nina was in love with him, and Michael just didn’t want to spark any conflicts within their group. He clearly liked being on Kirk’s team and was feeling safe around other people, which was why he wasn’t willing to do anything that might result in him being expatriated.

So Kwan was angry with how things currently stood. After Nina and Kirk went out somewhere, he decided to leave the camp too. He wanted to go kill monsters to let off some steam.

“Close the gate after me, will you?” He said to Michael and without waiting for a reply, opened the gate.

Michael said something behind him, but Kwan didn’t listen. He stepped out of the camp and looked into the tall trees surrounding him. He wondered where Nina and Kirk had gone. They said they wanted to hunt monsters to gain some Essence points and level up a few times. When they returned, it would be Kwan and Michael’s turn to go outside to hunt for some XP. But Kwan had a gut feeling that there was another reason Nina and Kirk had left the camp. He had a feeling they just wanted to enjoy each other’s company without other people around. Such thoughts made him insanely jealous.

Behind him, he heard the thud of the barrel bolt being shoved into place as Michael locked the gate. Kwan touched the grip of the sword sheathed at his hip to make sure he hadn’t forgotten his weapon. He was so engrossed in his thoughts about Nina that he hadn’t taken enough precautions when he was gearing up for the trip outside. After he quickly checked his gear, he realized he’d forgotten to take health potions with him. All the pouches on his belt were empty.

“Ah crap,” he muttered.

For a second, he contemplated returning to the camp but in the end, decided against it. He wasn’t keen on observing the disapproving expression on Michael’s face or arguing with him over Kirk’s rules again. He took a breath and walked into the trees surrounding their camp.

As he wandered through the forest, he warily scanned his surroundings for any threats. For the first time in a long while, he found himself totally alone. He’d grown so used to always being around his teammates that being now completely alone in the forest unnerved him somewhat. He was on edge, and every unfamiliar sound made him reach for the hilt of his sword.

At some point, he reached a small river. The stream could be seen through the foliage up ahead. As Kwan was nearing the small flowing body of water, its soothing murmur grew louder. At some point, he also saw a small waterfall through the foliage.

He suddenly stopped at the edge of the tree line that ran along the bank. There was somebody in the stream, and Kwan immediately dropped to his haunches to avoid being seen. Very carefully, he parted some of the branches in front of him for a better look. What he saw made his heart beat harder.

Nina washed in the stream, the water up to her knees, the small waterfall behind her. Her wet long hair clung to her back. She had already washed them and was currently washing her body. She positioned herself so the spray of the waterfall hit her shoulders and breasts. She soaped her body, arms, legs, breasts, feet, and between her toes. Kwan quickly grew rigid when he saw her wash her vaginal area.

She stood directly under the spray of the waterfall, rivulets of water running down her naked body. Breathing heavily, he studied every inch of her wet body. Water cascaded down the seductive curves of her body, rinsing away the soap, sluicing over her full breasts, droplets clinging to her nipples for a moment before falling down into the stream.

He saw her turn her head to look toward the opposite bank of the stream. Kwan looked that way too and saw Kirk standing on the strip of land on the opposite side of the stream. Unlike him, he wasn’t watching Nina wash. His back was turned to her, and he studied the line of trees before him, making sure nothing burst out of the trees and attacked Nina while she washed. He was taking great care to make sure nothing bad happened to her.

Kwan heard Nina shout to Kirk. He didn’t make out the exact words, but he got the gist of it—Nina was inviting Kirk to join her in the stream. Kwan’s stomach churned with jealousy, but to his surprise and relief, Kirk refused her offer. He half turned his head as he gave her his reply, but he made sure not to look at her, even though it was obvious that Nina wouldn’t mind him seeing her naked—and she would even have allowed him more than just observing her nudity. But Kirk didn’t join her in her washing activity.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

It’d been a few days since they defeated the tree golem. They’d never encountered another such creature since then, but they were now aware that the alien forest was still full of unpleasant surprises. Kirk kept repeating to them that they had to keep their guard up during their forest explorations all the time. Even now as the beautiful young woman invited him to join her in the stream to wash with her, he didn’t take her offer, choosing to stand guard to make sure nothing jumped them instead.

Kwan ground his teeth in frustration. If it was him whom Nina invited to join her, he would’ve accepted her offer without any second thoughts. He imagined getting undressed and joining Nina in the stream. He pictured in his mind kissing her and stroking his hands up and down her wet body. His cheeks heated as his gaze lingered on the light curls of hair between her legs. He imagined cupping her breasts in his hands before lifting one of her legs and sliding inside of her, bringing her to orgasm, and feeling her inner muscles spasm around him. He imagined her moaning in pleasure and her beautiful body trembling in waves of ecstasy as utter bliss consumed her.

Kwan was so engrossed in his wet fantasies he didn’t hear a large mosquito-like creature sneak up on him. He became aware of the monster behind him only when it was almost on top of him. He jumped to his feet, spinning around and drawing his sword. He dealt with the monster in a matter of seconds and then wheeled around to check if he'd been noticed by his friends.

He saw that the commotion had indeed attracted their attention. Both Nina and Kirk were now looking in his general direction, studying the foliage on his side of the stream. But they hadn’t noticed him. At least not yet. Kwan decided to get out of there before they could spot him. He didn’t want to be caught spying on Nina washing in private and be forced to explain himself. He backed up from the stream and when he was sure he was far away from it to be spotted from there by Nina and Kirk, he spun around and ran away.

Kwan had saved her life during the battle with the tree golem. Had it not been for him, she would’ve been dead now. However, her general attitude toward him hadn’t changed at all. Not that he saved her life because he’d hoped she’d fall in love with him. When he saw the tree golem grab her with its thorny vines, he acted automatically without thinking. He could do anything to help her out, and he didn’t need anything in reward. Still, by kissing him on the cheek, she really got his hopes up. He hoped that she might now change her opinion about him if only by a little bit. Yet nothing really changed, and he still was just a friend to her and nothing more than that.

To distract himself from thinking about Nina, Kwan decided to do a quest. There was one available in his current area. Its objective was to kill an undead necromancer residing in some ancient ruins. The location wasn’t too far away from his position. As soon as Kwan made it there, he was attacked by undead warriors. Those zombies weren’t too hard to kill, and Kwan didn’t have much trouble dealing with them.

Finally, he made it to the center of the ruins and engaged the undead necromancer. Kwan was fast and agile, and besides his sword, he also had a few offensive and defensive spells under his belt. The necromancer revived zombies Kwan had already killed, but it wasn’t nearly enough to stop him. He attacked the undead with fierce force and speed, taking his frustration and anger out on them.

Finally, the necromancer was lying on the floor, one final blow and he’d be dead for good. Just as Kwan raised his sword to finish the necromancer off, the undead’s mouth opened, and he began to talk in a strange language that Kwan somehow understood. The necromancer begged him not to kill him. He said that he would give him a powerful sword if he spared his life.

As soon as the necromancer told him that, a system message appeared in Kwan’s vision, asking him to choose from two rewards, an epic crossbow and a sword of the same rarity. The former was the initial reward for completing the quest, and the latter was the offer the necromancer had just made him.

Kwan didn’t think long. He wasn’t really interested in the crossbow to begin with. He’d mostly taken this quest to busy himself with something. So he chose the sword. As soon as he gave his mental reply, the necromancer disappeared in a brief flash of light. A sword materialized where he’d just been lying. It was dull-looking and without any interesting details. Kwan picked the weapon up and brought up its statistics.

He learned that the sword was called Bloodthirsty. The description also told him that the sword was cursed, though it didn’t explain to him what exactly it meant. The sword’s stats weren’t impressive at all, not being any different from that of his current weapon, which was of common rarity. However, Bloodthirsty had its own experience bar. Kwan could level up this sword by killing enemies with it.

After leaving the ruins, he spent the next several hours wandering around the forest and killing monsters with his newly acquired sword. Every time he leveled Bloodthirsty up, it became more powerful. At some point, it got much stronger than his old sword, and Kwan got rid of it since there was no longer the need to keep it.

He returned to the camp when the sun began to set. Michael saw him from a watch tower and immediately climbed down to open the gate for him. As it turned out, the three of his friends had been waiting for him at the gate. They surrounded him as soon as he stepped into their camp.

“Where have you been?” Kirk asked in a louder voice than usual.

“Somewhere,” Kwan replied. He was tired and didn’t feel like talking. He began to walk toward the house he shared with Michael, but Kirk stopped him by putting his hand on his shoulder.

“You can’t leave the camp whenever you feel like it,” he said in a stern voice.

“Why not?”

“You know why.”

“Oh, just leave me alone,” Kwan replied, shrugging Kirk’s hand off his shoulder.

He continued to walk toward the house.

“We were worried about you,” Nina said behind him.

Kwan stopped and glanced at her over his shoulder.

“Really? I thought you two were having too much fun to think about the others.”

A confused look appeared on Nina’s face.

“What do you mean?”

Kwan didn’t bother to reply. He resumed walking toward the house.

“Now wait a minute,” Kirk said. He wanted to go after Kwan, but Michael stopped him.

“I think we should give him some space,” the big guy said. “Let’s leave him alone. He’s just tired, that’s all.”

Kirk turned his head to look at Michael.

“You know him better than us. Have you seen him like this before?”

It was the very first time Michael had seen Kwan in such a bad mood, but he decided not to mention it, choosing to back his friend up instead. A bit of white lie wouldn’t hurt anybody, he thought.

“Yeah,” he replied. “He’ll be back to his normal self after he rests. He’s just tired.”

Kirk watched Michael for a couple of seconds and then shrugged his shoulders.

“Alright then,” he said. “Still, we’ve come up with our rules for a reason. They keep us safe. If somebody had attacked our camp while the three of us were absent, you, Michael, would’ve had to fight the attackers all on your own. So I still need to address his inappropriate behavior later."

“It can wait for tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I got that, Michael.”

After that, the three of them lapsed into silence, watching Kwan walk toward the house and wondering what was going on in his head.