The Hunt.

It was something all criminals of Tlopia feared. One of the more gruesome deaths that one could face in this country.

It involved being eaten alive by wild monsters after all.

Preparations for the hunt were simple in fact.

The person who got this sentence was not merely thrown into a pit filled with monsters. Either due to some twisted form of sympathy or to worsen the experience for the prisoners, the hunted was simply thrown into the jungle.

Normally this wouldn’t be too bad a fate, since many adventurers frequently entered the jungle to kill monsters, but the prisoners would be thrown into the jungles without their skills.

Meaning that they had to survive fighting against all the monsters in the jungle and get through the jungle if they wanted to live. But the wardens left the handcuffs on each prisoner for good measure so this was nothing more than an impossible game that would merely give the prisoners some hope before snatching it away just as fast.

Now considering the fact that I was a kid, they didn’t put stat suppression cuffs on me along with the skill suppression ones. They were expensive after all and it wouldn’t do to waste such materials. Even if I was a noble.

The entire process actually ended faster than I anticipated since there was not much else they had to do to me before I was ready to face my sentence.

So, before I knew it, I was standing on top of the wall, with a rope-pulled elevator in front of me and guardsmen surrounding me.

There were a few nobles who stood a bit further away, looking on with distaste, and below the wall, I could even see a large group of the common people who had come to see what was going on.

I took in a deep breath to calm myself but felt it hitch in my throat as I suddenly remembered the crime I had been accused of and the person who had died.

“Sir Baron, you can’t- “

“Get out of my way,” a cold voice replied to the guard who abruptly stopped speaking.

I suddenly spun. I recognized that voice.

Standing in front of me was Baron Kirin Brighton. One of the richest and some would say most influential person in the kingdom below the Dukes.

He was also Layla’s father.

He stared coldly into my face and I felt it hard to breathe. I had known Baron Brighton from early childhood. I used to always play around with Layla in their estate after all. But compared with the kindhearted and cheery man of the past, the current Baron Brighton looked downright terrifying.

He had a cold glare that he fixed on me. It felt like he was trying to kill me with his eyes alone and that scared me.

“Why… Why did you do it.”

It took me a moment to respond. I was just too scared. I had known about the death sentence and had thus been able to prepare myself for it mentally, but I had never expected to be looked at like this by one of the people whom I had once considered my second father at times.

“I- I- I didn’t.”

The Baron seemed to grow angrier and he shouted, “DON’T LIE TO ME. THE KING HIMSELF CONFIRMED IT AND YOU DARE LIE TO ME?!”

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I flinched and everything seemed to be falling around me as I saw the tears in his eyes. But another thing I realized at that moment was one fact.

None of them would believe me.

So, I didn’t say anything more. I couldn’t really.

The pain, anger, and frustration at being framed and not believed were leaking through me. I knew I should have defended myself more. I knew I should have said something, anything to help my case. But I didn’t.

I had a feeling I would come to regret this choice later on.

The Baron seemed to realize that I wouldn’t say anything more, so he left me with a few parting words that I had heard countless times from others but still hurt me to hear, “I hope you die.”

I couldn’t say anything as the guards escorted me towards the elevator.

The elevator itself was a mere wooden platform, it didn’t even have any railings so if any of the pulleys that were lowering the platform down failed and caused the platform to wobble, then I would most likely topple off.

The wall was about fifty meters high. A huge height to fall from, and for someone like me who was afraid of heights. I could only do my best to not look down and pray that I didn’t die before even seeing the grass again.

After what felt like agonizing hours but were probably only minutes, the platform reached the ground and I opened my eyes.

It was beautiful.

Lush green trees that seemed to reach heights of almost thirty meters sprouted from the ground almost in all directions. There didn’t seem to be an end in sight and the only color besides the vibrant greens and browns of the various tall trees were the fruits that hung on the trees. The air felt cleaner just from being in near proximity of the forest and it seemed as though the trees went on endlessly forever.

I had never seen the forests outside Tlopia before, only heard of the terrifying monsters that roamed here, and if I had been the son of any other regular noble, I may never have had to see it either.

But there was nothing to do about it now. Any chance I had of convincing people that I was innocent ended the moment the platform reached the ground. They wouldn’t care about the wailings of a designated ‘hunted’ now.

It didn’t disappoint me as much as I thought it would. Maybe it was the fact that after the king declared me a criminal my fate had been sealed. Nobody would go against the King’s decisions.

I looked up at the tall wall one last time to see if there were any people looking down at me but I could only make out blurry figures from this distance.

So, taking a deep breath, I ran into the forest.

Now directly running into a forest full of monsters may have seemed like an insane idea, but I had done my research, I knew for a fact that the area just outside the walls was mostly clear of high-ranking monsters and even the most low-ranked monsters avoided coming too close to the area. This was mainly due to the fact that the guards were tasked with regularly clearing the area of monsters to ensure that no monsters came close to the wall.

Even though the monsters would probably never be able to climb up the wall, no one wanted to take any chances.

So, my best option here was to just run into the forest till the people on the walls could no longer see me and then begin the plan that I had made.

Once I had reached a sufficient distance from the walls, I stopped and fell to the forest grass, leaning against a tree as I panted. I was not really athletically fit and I was regretting not having done basic stamina exercises back in the duchy.

When my breathing calmed, I opened my status again and looked at my skills.

One skill in particular.

[Trap Breaking]

I had learned this skill back in the duchy for this very situation. It was a perfect spell since it was one of the few skills that could resist magical suppression. Of the low-tier at least. Higher tiers required higher skills but luckily, I only had a low-tier magical suppression cuff placed on me.

Partly because I was still a kid.

Partly because I was still not awakened.

Focusing on the cuffs I flared my skill and attempted to break the magic inside them…

And failed.

Well, I hadn’t expected to succeed on the first attempt so that was alright. I tried again.

And failed again…

This went on for some time and I even had to wait for my mana to recharge a few times before I could try again, the glaring afternoon sun being blocked by the tall trees was the only reprieve I received.

After about an hour of just sitting in the woods flaring my only available skill’s magic, I was finally able to unlock the cuffs.

I felt my skills returning like a wave of warmth and a sigh escaped my lips.

There were a few notifications I had received while working on removing the cuffs but I had not allowed them to open up because I was worried that they would disrupt my concentration. Now I let them flow freely.

Notification!

[Trap Breaking] has leveled up!

[Trap Breaking] has leveled up!

[Trap Breaking] has leveled up!

Notification!

Status Effect: [Magical Suppression] has been removed.

Well, that was nice. I got three levels out of that. Probably because I was focusing very hard on breaking the cuffs. A lot harder than usual. After all, not succeeding would have made me completely defenseless against monsters in this forest.

Maybe I had cursed myself by even thinking about the god-forsaken monsters or maybe my luck was just that bad. Because a moment after that thought had entered my mind, I felt water hit my skin.

Thick water…

Saliva…

Slowly, trying to make the least amount of noise possible, I looked up.

And found a humongous black panther with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth staring back at me.