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Chapter Text

Jinwoo looked out of his small cave only to hide once more.

How did he ended up here? He was with his party they discovered the double dungeon the double dungeon fucked them up,  his teammates left him to die the statue pierced him with a spear and-

[Would you like to become “The Player?”]

And now he is in the middle of god knows where in the forest full of magic beasts!

What happened? Is he having a dream or is this hell? An underworld for every sin he has ever committed? His hands trembled and the weird feeling appeared in his heart as his thoughts became blank. His heart was beating so hard he could feel it in his throat  and that made him want to puke from that terrible feeling.

He looked at the floating blue screen beside him. It calls itself [system]. As the first message said. And then the second, red one appeared out of thin air, which he wasn’t fast enough to read. And there was also some window he remembers  telling him about him being a player and something else he didn’t actually catched because he was busy at the time.

[You have completed the secret quest “Courage of the weak”]

[You have obtained “System”]

[You have obtained a blessing from Great Mage Kandiaru - Vitality. All curses and poisons are nullified upon reaching you]

The old messages he saw appeared again. He blinked a few times as his heart started to calm down for a bit but instead came a raging cold biting onto his skin wanting to turn him into an icicle..

[You have received a new quest.

Would you like to proceed?]

“Courage of the weak, huh?” Jinwoo says out loud but quickly closes his mouth when hearing somebody's footsteps near his cave in which he hid. There was a big chance he was imagining the sound. And maybe his own mind was too unstable to distinguish the real sound from his own organs making a number on him.

[Quest: “Survival of the fittest.”

Details: survive and adapt in the outskirts of the great Scneebedeckt forest.

Reward: Gate specific skill]

He needs to survive and adapt. He woke up in the snowy forest and was nearly eaten by the pack of “Silver mane Wolfes“ or whatever the red screen above them said now that he has time to thing about what he saw. Which wasn’t really reassuring and he is surprised he even lived. He saw how one of them was trying to corner him by running faster than him. Thankfully Jinwoo’s mind was conscious enough to see it and not fall into the trap which made him instead trip over and fall into this cave through the entrance of which was covered in snow and when Jinwoo fell in it he was just as well covered in it. The magic beasts running didn’t see where exactly he fell and continued running. It must have been thanks to the big trees standing like a wal limiting their vision, that is how close they were to each other. And he isn’t sure himself how he was able to run past all of them. Sheer luck. Which lately he didn’t have.

And now he has to live like a caveman. Cool luck. It was always what his mother imagined his future would be. And… What about Jinah? He is here so what will happen with her? And his mother? Is she going to die because he is no longer there to pay for her hospital bills? Is his sister going to have to drop out of school just to not let their mother die? 

His eyes widened and began hurting. He grabbed his stomach because of how much it started hurting. He growled through teeths.

He needs to get out of here. And if that [Gate specific skill] is going to be able to get him out of here he is going to adapt and survive. He always had to survive. He survived for four years as a hunter. And he knows he should question this. Question all of this. Is this part of his imagination? His brains are so broken he can’t even identify what is real and what is not?

Jinwoo brought his knees to his chest to hide his face. He was pathetic and he was in hell where some deity wanted to laugh at him. A live action comedy. A comedy an hour long. A horror to him but to them a short action film about some loser getting utterly destroyed. People watched it. They watched his misery and laughed.  Just like the old man did when he just came to the gate. How they lowered their voices for him not to hear like it would help. He heard. And kept the mask of a boy who doesn’t know any better. Who doesn’t hear people whispering about him. He thought bullying was only the thing of a school. He quickly found out he was wrong. ‘Did you have fun talking about me? Satisfied about what you have said?’ Jinwoo wanted to be mad. And he is. But he half knows he had a different option. He knows he could have left Juhee behind. But he didn’t. It was his fault he is now here. He was too kind hearted for this world. It was what the old man - his landlord liked to say to him.

He wanted to be angry at Mr. Kim, he really wanted to. And he did. He was mad. He just… couldn’t be mad about the other one, the dead man. The other one in a green jacket. He also had a family. A wife. A kid. And now he is dead after making fun of him.

Jinwoo closes his eyes in frustration as the pain becomes a bit more bearable. He coughs a bit. Rubs his eyes. What is he going to do now? Live like a caveman until the Wolves find him and make out of him a tasty dinner? Or dehydration and cold are going to kill him faster?

[Blessing “Vitality” nullifies poison and curses]

The message that appeared before popped up again. It is like it tells him that he was not going to die out of dehydration. At least he can drink any water and not die within minutes because he poisoned himself. He needs to start moving his brain cells. He felt the cold creeping under his skin and his bare leg was red as blood. And also… his foot? It was there. He grabbed it to soothe down the cold and to feel it. How did he not notice it? That his leg came back? And other injuries… Was he distracted by the wolves too much to even notice that he was fully healed? 

[You have received the new quest “tutorial”

Would you like to start the quest?

Warning! While doing the quest *Tutorial: you are going to be on set mode.

Still wishing to proceed?]

[ Yes / No ]

The new blue screen appeared before him, Jinwoo bit his lower lip. [Tutorial] is like created to make you understand the basics right? But this set mode… What does it mean? 

Jinwoo straightened his back sharply from the cold air that made a herd of ants walk over him. Who cares what is about to happen if he agrees? He is dead either way. He thinks that to himself before subconsciously tapping [yes] as if he knew it would work like that.

[“Tutorial” has now begun. You are in set mode. During that mode no other quest can be accepted.

You have been sent the “survival kit”

The “survival kit” has now been added to your inventory.

You have received “camper’s clothes”.

“set of camper’s clothes” now has been added your inventory

You have received 20 points to all of your base stats

You have received 40 custom points which you can divide between your base stats.]

Jinwoo blinked,  “What?” he said out loud. He squinted his eyes to look closer at it. And… did his vision all of a sudden get better?

[Inventory]

[1x survival kit]

[1x set of camper’s clothes]

Jinwoo looked at the floating screen before him where in the corner he could see the word “inventory” and a little bit lower from there he could see a backpack that resembled that of a camper.  Is that… How can he access that? And now when he calmed down a bit  and his heart didn’t wanted to commit suicide, the absurdity of the situation has only grown on him. Why does this [system] even help him? Should he even trust it? But nevertheless he has no other choice but to trust his fuck-ass mind and this… thing. He needs to believe he is not completely delusional.

For a split moment as he thought to himself something clicked in his mind. He stretched his hand to the screen. It went through it and disappeared there creating blue particles of squares around the place where his hand went through a screen.. As he wanted to take it back the tip of his fingers felt some kind of cloth. He not thinking grabbed it and pulled out a white jacket with a camouflage like pattern on some places. But with it he also pulled out glasses for the snowboarding that were also white but the glass itself was black. It was attached with a thin thread to the hood of the jacket as if it was brand new from a professional shop. Inside the jacket but poiking from below were the  white pants with a black fur inside it to keep the legs warmer. It was attached with a thread to the jacketand now to the pants were attached a pair of really nice kind of long boots. 

Jinwoo’s eyebrows raised but he quickly adjusted to put the clothes on him. It was apparently real and now he made the revelation that he in fact does not have any hallucinations and it is not a dream, which, the biting cold was supposed to prove that but somehow the clothes were more capable of convincing him than them.

He firstly cut the thread of the glasses and pants attached to the jacket and then put the jacket on. It had rather really fluffy black fur attached to its hood which he quickly put on to hide his head and ears. Jinwoo didn’t even care about the bloody shirt underneath. And only now did he notice the gloves that were attached to the end of his sleeves. He also put them on and just as the pants, they had a fur layer underneath them. 

He didn’t pay much attention before putting on his pants but not before stripping the boots away from them. But only when he put them on did he understand how uncomfortable it was having torn pants beneath them. He sighed a bit and saw his hot breath before his eyes reminding him where he was and what cold temperature he was in. He was in a snowy forest in a cold cave. He then removed the warm pants to then throw away his old torn on one leg to shreds pants. He then quickly put the camper’s pants on. He then wanted to put on the boots but then noticed something inside the boots. Those were black silk socks. This system… really must have thought about even socks hm?

He tiredly giggled to himself in a rather exhausted way before taking them out and putting them on. And also where his one socket he had on the other leg disappeared to?

So now he is fully armed. Or at least dressed. So… what is the first thing he should do to survive in the wild?

[Inventory:

1x survival kit]

He looked up to the screen that was still floating in the air. He should probably check out this [survival kit]. Putting aside his old clothes and glasses he stretched his arm to the screen once more to take out a really heavy backpack that quickly fell to the ground making a loud noise. He hissed. He wasn’t expecting such a loud echo and it to be so heavy. If he knew, he would have used both of his hands and at least got up.

He crawled a bit closer to the backpack to take a closer look. He carefully ran his finger over the backpack as if afraid it would bared its teeth and bite him. It was now directly toward him and he saw how full it was. What is even in there?

On the side of it was attached a small pan. Now looking,  it had a LOT of pockets. Which he now has to inspect and open all. 

And there he was. Sitting on his knees disassembling the full backpack. 

He started first to take out a small pan. It had a long candle to it which was good. Then he took a look behind the pan closer to the back where he saw an axe. A little but still fearsome axe.

He took it out of its case to inspect it. The handle was black but the blade was silver and at sharp corners it was red to signify where the sharpness began. The blue screen appeared above it, startling korean a bit. 

[Field axe.

Rank: C]

He blinked one or two times and then put the axe aside. He is going to discover later on what “rank” meant. Was it the same as with human magical armour? He then glared at the twisted hard fabric that hung at the bottom of the backpack and he just assumed it was the tent. Surely such a big piece of fabric was supposed to be a tent if his cartoon logic doesn’t fail him.

Taking a look at the other side of the backpack, the little hunter`s knife was hanging from it. He placed it beside the axe and now the most interesting.

The cold wind blew to the cave the second time but now it wasn`t as biting as before.  But the howl that was heard from a distance made Jinwoo shiver   and try to come closer to the rocky wall, bringing at the same time the backpack closer. 

He made a bold decision to look out of the cave. But he couldn't look far because of the blizzard that came when he was not looking. And  from how dark it has become he can guess that it was the night.  And because it was getting rather darker in his cave too, logically. That was bad. He isn't sure why but his senses that kept him alive to this point were telling him that he wasn’t going to be a dinner for the magic beasts. Not today anyway as they lessened and the senses became dull.

He swallowed his fears and went to look at what was in the front biggest pocket of the backpack. He felt something that was thicker than plastik and had the form of a stick. He took it out and upon closer inspection he managed to press a button that  blinded him. Alright, that was a flashlight. After some seconds of eyes adjusting to the blinding light he held the small flashlight in his mouth before looking further into the pocket.  He tilted his head to look into the pocket. There was something that resembled a notebook with a pen attached to it.  He took it out and it really was a small notebook with somewhat yellow but thick paper, with a really nice pen attached to it. Even if he is not an expert he can say that all of the things he had been given  looked rather expensive and professional… this system isn`t going to charge him for that, right?

He put it aside and then decided that it would be better to put all the things on some kind of fabric so as not to damage them against a rocky surface. He looked at his torn pants and decided that they were already gone and teardead into one rag that was hardly ever a pants and put all the things he had on it. 

He then saw something resembling a gun but not exactly. He took it out. There was a trigger so if anything he should leave it alone for now. But before he could even put it down a screen appeared above it.

[Small but reliable butane torch

Rank: D

Condition: 100%]

So it was a butane torch. So now at least he doesn`t need to worry on how to lit up the fire. He already worried that he was going to do that like a caveman but lady luck (and apparently the system) was on his side.

There were also two pots. One small and one bigger. Really useful things.

And apparently it was everything in the front… he saw something at the very bottom of the pocket. He took it out (after a bit of struggle) and it was apparently a pocket watch.

A silver pocket watch that had a chain attached to it. He opened the lid and it showed him that it was 23:45.

Damn. Jinwoo doesn’t know how reliable it is but the time might be right if he looked outside. He wonders how long he has been here now but decided not to think about it any longer and instead of putting it with the other items he put it in his jacket pocket.

The front pocket was now fully empty so Jinwoo went to look into the smaller ones but all of them were empty. And now to look what is inside the backpack

And inside it was…

A book. A really, really big book. He needed to put some strength to get it out of there and finally when he was able to place it down to look at a massive book. He took the flashlight out of his mouth to make it easier to guide it to see the words written on the cover of the book.

How to survive in the wildness of the harsh otherworldly climate?

(this book encyclopaedia of all magic beasts, plants, world and everything related to it.)

Written by: Kandiaru the great Mage

“Damn”  was the only thing he could muster when he took a look again on how truly enormous the book was. Whoever the Author is, he just wants to stay away from such a freak and wait a minute…

[Obtained blessings:

Blessing of the great mage Kandiaru - “Vitality”

Grade:Legendary

Usage Condition: none

Makes you immune to poison, deceives and curse related debuffs]

So they were the ones who gave him the blessing.  Cool, yeah. Why the actual f-

He looked at the backpack and other things he laid down around him. He then buried his face into the black fur on the hood and closed his eyes only now feeling how fast his heart was racing and how much the static sound in his ears became louder.

He needed to feel it. Needed to understand it. Needed to know that Kandiaru

What happened? It was the normal day of his day-to-day survival in the dungeons when his raid team encountered a passageway that led to the big throne room with statues.

One of the statues held the chart with rules which dictated on how to “behave” in the Cartenon temple.

His teammates were dying but somehow some of them survived and-

What happened then?

What happened then!

What happened then.

He was left. Left to die. Cool, yeah. Shit. What now?

What is going to become of his sister? And his mother? What is going to happen to them? He was supposed to be there to provide for them! To protect them! What to do? What now? No wait, his sister is…

His line of overthinking got interrupted when he felt the metallic aftertaste in his mouth when he finally stopped.

He looked at the already flashlight that got dropped on the floor and onto the small notebook. 

His eyes briefly open and his gaze being unreadable he slowly reached with his hand to the notebook to then slowly open it and look at the first page.

He slightly closed the book before going into his pocket to look at time on the pocket watch before quickly hiding it away again and writing something down on the first page.

Day - 2

Time - 02:06

Place - great  Scneebedeckt forest (?)

He looked at the thing he wrote. Before continuing he finally blinked, getting out of the trance. He shook his head before his facial features became more serious and more determined. 

I am here. In the cave. I ran from the pack of magic beasts. I have some kind of Kandiaru on my side and a system which gave me some kind of tutorial and a quest and other things. A backpack and clothes. It is not as cold now .

He waited for a bit before deciding to write one more thing.

My name is Sung Jinwoo from South Korea. I am an E-rank hunter.

He then scrambled away one word. 

My name is Sung Jinwoo from South Korea. I am ## ###### hunter. I have a younger sister named Jinah. My main objective is to get back to her no matter what.

He gulped before closing the book holding back tears. He then proceeded to massage the centre of his chest to ease up the vibration in it.

He took a deep breath grimacing from the cold air hit in his nose and proceeded to look if there was anything besides the big book.

He took a flashlight now holding it in his hand and towering over the backpack he found something that slightly reflected light.

He took it out only to find that it was a survival blanket.

He looked at it. Those things were quite useful for many things, for example collecting the raindrops and making glasses for harsh blizzards. And the strings were useful for something else he can’t remember.

Those things were essential. He then decided to finally unwrap the big thing hanging onto the backpack.

He carefully figured out how to not break the mechanisms holding it up and finally. There it was. A material for making a tent and… a sleeping bag. How did those things become so small?

He shook his head deciding it was not worth thinking about it and in the end he will figure it out himself (if he was going to be able that is) (which he highly doubts)) 

But at least… he should make himself at least somewhat comfortable because as far as he can think… This is his new life. Whether he likes it or not. He looked at the tent and then at the high of the cave. The tent was… too high to set in this cave so… he might as well use the fabric to close the entrance to the cave. Is it actually going to help? Jinwoo is going to wish. So now armed with a flashlight in his mouth, a few nails and a fabric from a tent and for the grand finale he has an axe. Why? Well with which other thing can he knock nails into the ground?

Jinwoo slowly crawled to the small entrance before finding an angle on a cloth before knocking the nail. He did it with the utmost caution, carefully knocking with a blunt side of an axe a nail. It was surprisingly easier to do despite needing to knock it not into the ground but rather into a more solid ground with a ton of docks in it. But as he put the final nail completely blocking the cold window his eyes became sloppy and watery. He was getting sleepy. The exhaustion from all the events made him want to pass out.

He picked up all the power he had left to set up as quickly as possible a sleeping bag before getting in it. He turned off the flashlight and there he was. Listening to the wind and somebody stepping on snow. His mind full of doubts, his heart beginning to race again, his ears ringing and the neusous slowly becoming an issue 

He went to sleep rather quickly despite the gloomy atmosphere and the uncomfortable feelings that were borderline pain. He never was the one to have any problems with sleeping. And with that. His mind darkened and went to rest.

…

Jinwoo slowly got up from his sleeping bag looking around. He could already see a slight bit  of sunlight through the fabric and the small cave was already lighter than at night. He looked around himself. A mess. All the things he found in the bag were scattered across the cave. He should probably put them back.

As he started to organise the items he got and put them back into his backpack, he started to think on what to do next. The logical thing would be to go outside to find food and water while managing to not get eaten by a monster. And well, maybe he can spend some time afterwards crying about his current situation while reading the big ass book that the system gave him. He sighed. There is no use in pitying himself. He should go out there and survive. Like he always had done. He was and is a cockroach that no matter how many times stepped on will still be alive. Not well but alive and maybe even able to fly.

But he thinks too much of himself. His priority is to survive and to survive only. He can think about flying next. 

In the meantime he takes out of his pocket a pocket watch to look at the time. 09:38. He slept longer than he expected. Actually he didn’t think he would be able to sleep at all and neither was he expecting to wake up. That brings the question, how is his sister? Did she knows that Jinwoo is supposedly *dead*? Did the association say something to her? And what about his teammates? The least he can do is wish that they are alright despite the… initial accident. 

He takes a longer look at the axe. He then takes the axe in his hands holding onto it tightly. He carefully steps closer to the entrance of his little cave before stopping and looking at a bag he left behind. He wonders if he is going to return to this cave or instead be killed by a magic beast. Jinwoo opens up the tent he put up to close the gap to then step onto the snow making a crisp squeaky sound. His face twisted but he looked straight forward. His cave was located below a really small cliff, if you can even count it like that. It was mostly covered in snow and even the tent had rather a massive layer of white  powder on it. 

His cave as the cliff was surrounded by the trees but without any of them being too close so the sun was shining onto the cliff.

The first thing he noticed was a strange blue like flower nearby one of the trees that was giving out a faint light in the shadow the three was casting upon it. He looked around one last time trying to feel or see any presence but there was no such thing around. He breathed out not realising he held his breath to this time. He took a second step towards the strange flower-like plant to give it a closer look.  As he slowly approached it he couldn’t recognize it from anything he had ever seen, nor in real life nor on hunter’s wiki nor in dungeons from his real experience. It was a singular bud with really long leaves spreading on the ground. The tip of the petals had a white undertone on them and if you looked a bit closer and tried to open the bud you could see the bright orange in it. 

[Fire tiger flower]

[To gain a further description please read it in the “ How to survive in the wildness of the harsh otherworldly climate?”]

He took a last long look at the flower before leaving it alone. He doesn’t want to find out what is going to happen if he takes the flower out. Would it perchance attack him? He doesn’t know. But before continuing he looked like he remembered something and rushed back to the cave. He left with a pair of safety goggles on him. Seeing as little white particles were falling down on him he didn’t want to somehow damage his vision or limit it. Although the goggles were a bit uncomfortable to him as they were pressing on him a bit too hard on his ears he just thought of it as a temporary setback and something he would eventually be used to. Looking deeper into the forest he couldn’t see much because of how many cedar trees were there. He looked down on the ground to see some plants growing from the snow and some cones spread around the trees and some still hanging on them. He thought for a bit. Could he… in theory eat them? He remembers that if he cooked them right it would be possible but… aren't they a specific breed of cones? ‘Who cares?’ he thought to himself remembering the [vitality] thing he has and decided to test it. Maybe something is going to come out of it.

He picks up the nearby cone and looks at it from different sides. It looked mostly normal aside from how big it was. Like the palm of his hand. Were they supposed to  be this big or is it just the gimmick of this particular species? 

He took three more cones that were no smaller than the first one and maybe even a bit bigger. Underneath the shell he could see a bit of blueness but not so eye catching. He didn’t step too far away from the cave so he went back to the cave with his new findings and placed them beside the exit. He then repeated the thing picking up the nearby cones that weren’t as far away as some. There was quite a big pile of them by the exit. So the food was almost secured. He needs to go pick some sticks from the ground to make a campfire that would not only not let him die out of hypothermia but so he could also cook the cones to make them a little more edible. 

‘Couldn’t I also make water out of heating the snow?’ It was probably the safest bet he could make as he didn’t see any nearby water sources. Although the snow is mostly bad for your organism he needs to have faith in the system. He looked around but there were no wooden branches on the ground. \of course because there were only cedar trees around him. Plan B. Use the axe for what it was intended to  be used for. Cut down some trees.  He came to one of the trees and only now when  he was close to one of  them he saw the faint mana emanating from them. He looked a bit sharper as he saw the mana flying almost everywhere. There was mana in the air, on the trees, on the ground. Everywhere. This whole place was almost like built out of mana. He looks down on his axe. If his axe wasn’t rank C gear, would he even be able to make even a single scratch on a tree? 

He placed his hand on a really big tree. Thankfully the branches were only starting a little above his head that just proved to him how big the trees here were. He took a deep breath before taking a step back and calculating something. What if he makes the tree fall right outside his entrance and would be able to hide it even for a little bit? He could try, nothing is going to make his situation worse or make his heart beat even faster.

He looks back to see the trees. In theory if he cuts down these three it could fall back onto the other trees not completely blocking the entrance. 

Jinwoo debated a bit in his mind, biting his lip before starting to determine where he should start hitting the tree for it to fall in the right direction

He  starts hitting the tree at a certain angle. Not before long he has already seemingly made a sharp cut just from four hits of an axe. The smile appears on his face before he hears the rustling sound above him. As he looks up he sees a cone failing onto his face making him fall on his back with a bit of a scream. The tears from pain started forming but he chased them away rubbing his nose to see if nothing happened to it. Thankfully, no blood. 

He looked up again to make sure there were no other cones that would fall on him. He then was more careful than the first time, he began to hit the tree again making a pause after every hit and listening. Listen to the wind, to the rustling sound above him and the most important – if there were no magic beasts nearby.

He already noticed how much stronger his hits felt. How steady his legs were on the ground despite being buried in the snow. How he could hear every little sound of the wind. His senses become sharper and so is his body.

He vividly remembers that the [system] gave him some kind points. How many was it again? And for what they were? As he struck one last time he could hear the breaking of the tree and how slowly it started to fall at the ground. He took a few steps back to not get caught on the branches so he wouldn’t get injured by accident or just damage his clothes that till this time was keeping him warm. He took out his pocket watch to look at the time. 15:02.  It seems he took his time on handling the essentials. 

Now looking at the fallen tree he is supposed to make a wooden stick out of  them, right? Before that he needs to get rid of all the branches on it so they wouldn’t get in his way. But before then he sensed something. Not seen, not heard. He felt. 

In a single slash of a second he was not thinking clearly and acted on pure reflexes. 

Behind.

He quickly jumped away despite not understanding why. His now newly kin senses were warning him about an enemy he could not comprehend. He quickly took a look around. Not enough time to ran back to the cave. He was just not fast enough.

He could already hear the low growl coming from somewhere. He could feel but not identify properly. The only answer was to climb. On a nearby tree. 

Was it stupid? Probably. Did the thorns damage his clothes while he tried to climb? Maybe, he couldn’t feel it at the moment.  Is there a possibility that whoever was here could notice the fallen snow from a tree as he climbed and clutched onto it? He needs to pray that they were just mindless beasts with no intellect that could make such a conclusion or whatever. 

He quickly jumped from one branch to another, his was as fast as ever and his jumpers seemingly also more powerful, why?  But looking at the brighter side thankfully his hands were protected every  time he grabbed onto the sharp leaves of the tree to climb higher. In no time he was almost at the top of the tree hiding behind some branches below the peak so that in case he would not be seen, somebody would look up or that was his own line of thinking. He didn’t look down. It was pretty high and normally he wouldn’t be able to climb so high up. It was like he was on a roof of a 5 floored building. He wasn’t normally scared of heights and even now he was more scared of the magic beasts that possible could be down there near his cave sniffing his things that didn’t smelled normally like mud and-

He stopped breathing his heart racing on at an incredible speed but the only thing he could hear was a low growl and faint steps cracking the snow below them. Jinwoo doesn’t know how but he hears how some of them sniff the air, their noses making squeaky noises. He hears how the steps became more chaotic. They were walking around cracking the snow underneath them trying to find something, or more likely someone. He could feel how his body wanted to give up and pass out from the sheer weight of all the emotions and panic he had but with the tree that was slightly tilting every time the cold wind flew by strong enough to shake him off the tree. He hang up. With his teeth, legs, and arms he held onto the tree with all his might to just not die. Not die from the claws of the magic beast below who had an absurd amount of mana, higher than that of a boss of a D rank dungeon and way more powerful than his own. 

All of a sudden a strong wave of mana comes at him but not directly, not intentionally. He trembles and with him the tree leans away from the sudden and strong wave of mana and impact wanting to crack the tree. The magic beasts below screamed and whining. Jinwoo himself was ready to burst into tears from how much mana came at him all of a sudden. He could feel that the mana alone was enough to kill him if he came in direct contact with it. The mana had a deadly frost behind it that could freeze anybody who would come in contact with it, making out of the victim an ice statue.

There was a sound of breaking and a buzz. He felt it to his core how an already cold temperature turned even more colder making a whole herd of ants start running on him. He felt the metal taste in his mouth from accidentally biting his tongue, he just closed his eyes and hugged the tree tighter. He was used to the near death situation but it didn’t mean they were any less scary.

‘I need to survive, cmon Jinwoo you survived Cartenon temple please do this one thing-’ His mind was racing, having a thousand and one thoughts at the time but every one of them was blank, white. As if they weren’t thought of at all. He didn’t want to die from just a mana. He didn’t wanted his heart to burst from the amount of mana he was exposed to. He doesn’t want to experience the thing some weaker hunters experienced on the Kamish raid. Where mana was so devastating their hearts couldn't circulate it and just bursted.  Dying in a horrific way.

His head leaned closer to the tree as a loud howl made him almost give up and lose his consciousness and his mind along with it if that was even possible. He felt how his nose started bleeding as his body couldn't even comprehend the strong mana that came right through him. The heart was much like the same trying to protect itself. It felt like countless needles poking at him at an incredible speed but never actually making him bleed, just making him  feel and experience the pain. He felt how his teeths became colder and they hurt too.

All of a sudden a  powerful strike could be heard and an even more bloodier scream from before. He heard, he felt, he saw more magical beasts running to his cave or nearby it but with that he felt as some moved away, their  mana now being just a distant reminder and not long before every reminder of them had disappeared along with all the movements below. The mana finally settled down, not posing any thread to him anymore.

He didn’t look down. His goggles rubbed against the tree, his clothes completely dirty but not a single scratch on them.

He couldn’t hear a single tiny miny sound aside from the wind and trees. Despite that he still didn’t wish to come down. He was in trance. His eyes were blank. His axe god knows where it was. He was overwhelmed by the mana that wasn’t even directed at him but just was simple nearby, just how amusing was that?

And how pathetic he was.

[Player’s stats:

Level : 0

HP: 100 (+20)

Physical Defence: 6 (+20)

Magical Defence: 3 (+20)

Physical Attack: 9 (+20)

Magical Attack:2 (+20)

 Agility:12 (+20)

 Intelligence: 5 (+20)

Perception:11 (+20)

 Resistance:0 (+20)

Stamina:100 (+20)]

¬

[Player’s stats:

Level : 0

[new 40 points that could be adjusted]

HP: 120 [+]

Pjysical Defence: 26 [+]

Magical Defence: 23 [+]

Physical Attack: 29 [+] 

Magical Attack: 22 [+]

 Agility: 32 [+]

 Intelligence: 25 [+]

Perception: 31 [+]

 Resistance: 20 [+]

Stamina:120 ]

[Job class: - ]

[Titles: - ]

[Blessings: Vitality (…)]

[ Passive Skills: - ]

[Active Skills: - ]

The blue window was illuminating a faint light as Jinwoo’s eyes lazily read the text that the system wrote to him. He doesn’t know how many times he read it before it was already dark and his mind finally came out of the trance. He blinked a few times feeling as if he was going to cry- not because he was emotionally distressed or something, he just didn’t blank in some time and his eyes became dry.

Finally he looked down to see how high up he was and then back at the system window as he looked at his stats. [perception] must have been the thing that let him to feel the presence of the magic beasts so much better and more precisely. So maybe he can give some point to it like, to make it sharper if that is how it worked. He actually isn’t sure. He isn’t sure about anything .

His weak hands finally let go of the tree branch as he stretched it to the system window at the plus near the [perception].

+1 appeared near it as the number changed to 32. When he looked up to the available point it also decreased on one.  He tapped two more times before stopping as he noticed his hands. Dirty. Even despite his inner gloves being black you could still see the dirt and the shards of the outside tree core. Suddenly the memory flew into his mind. A distant but yet so cherished memory of how when he and Jinah were kids in the park tearing down the external tree as they tried making a boat despite not having any pool of water nearby. He remembers how his hands ached when they came back home and how his mother scolded him about not being careful. 

He put two points into defence but looking down through the darkness he noticed the big chunk of ice below him illuminating light. It was not there before which would mean that the strong mana wave he felt was probably from that thing, it was an ice based attack from looking at how much mana it was giving off.. 

He grinned his teeth and put 4 points into magical defence. He still doesn’t think that he would survive such an attack but better than nothing he thinks. A thing he always said when leaving the dungeons with lesser mana cores than usual. Better than nothing.

He took a closer look at his other stats. His Physical attack was unusually high but he isn’t sure how good it is in the grand scheme of things. What counts as a physical attack? The strength of his body? Like- he gets that he can punch harder but aside from that, would he be like - would he be able to jump higher due to the strength of his body or is it solely for the offensive side and no more? And what about magical attacks? Does it increase his mana too? He decided that in the current scheme he doesn’t need not attack nor magical one.

Agility. That is simple. His speed. And the speed their stat [stamina] answers his only question to the agility. He quickly tapped 11 times on the agility. It would be his best bet. Hit and run or just run. That goes too. He hanged on the tree and the other window popped up. 

[Stamina: 120/43]

So, stamina is just how much exhausted he is… if the number drops down to 0 will he die? 

Deciding to think about something else, he looked at the other stat. Intelligence…. Somehow he thinks that is about the mana pool and his overall intelligence. If he is going to put all 20 points that are left would he became like a professor kind of smart? Or was it strategic kind of smart? He decides to skip it for the time being.

Resistance. Resistance… to what? Is it like a different kind of defence? Maybe resistance against cold or heat? Or against curses and poison? He puts 5 points to it and almost immediately feels how a before icy cold that was piercing him became just a simple cold. He was still cold but not to the extent that was before. At least he figured that out.

And stamina… it was set. He couldn’t add any points to it which was a shame. That leaves him with 15 more points to go and… 4 points to physical attack. And 10 points to his health and then one point to intelligence.

[Player’s stats:

Level : 0

HP: 120 

Physical Defence: 28 

Magical Defence: 27 

Physical Attack: 33 

Magical Attack: 22

 Agility: 43

 Intelligence: 26 

Perception: 34 

 Resistance: 20 

Stamina:120 ]

He proudly looks at the status window. He tried his best with the amount of information he currently has. He may not be the most sharp when it comes to most things besides… well, surviving. But still. His stats were directly about his survival. And he is going to try his best not to fuck this up.

He then slowly looked down again. ‘Shit’ he didn’t bring with him a flashlight and it was hella dark . The only light he has is now from two moons in the sky, the system window and the ice below him that was slowly losing its light. He slowly tried to step on the lower branch but it was too unstable. How in the whole world did he got up so high?

He took a deep breath before starting to slowly get down holding onto the branches for them to support him. He felt a sharp pain as the thorns were biting him. He kept his keep but with determination he continued. Throughout the pain and tears that were slowly forming because of pain, he was half way down. He still was close to the stem hugging it and that allowed at least some stability.  Slowly but steadily he saw how a white snow was closer and closer to him. Thankfully there wasn’t a blizzard unlike the previous night so the snow has not appeared on the leaves.

And finally. Being only two branches away from the ground but still rather higher because of how high the branches started he jumped from them. He landed more smoothly than expected and his legs now weren’t making such a big hole in the snow every time he stepped on it. Was it due to the [agility] or some other stat? 

He smiled to himself thinking that it was a great investment. He should continue adding points to agility. And only now does he notice how light his body is. And also the sharp noise he heard from the snow below him and the cracking he made. His hearing became way better. It was… unusual. He should be careful about perception if that was what made him like this.

He looked at the big chunk of ice near his cave. He wants to believe it will scare any unpleasant guests or at least hide his cave. Looking at the ice he saw his axe being halfway frozen by a crystal. Thankfully only the handle got caught in. 

Before coming closer Jinwoo looked around to make sure nobody was near him. And then at the big crystal that was emanating tons of mana. Not quite like mana crystals he was used to despite it having mana. Maybe he will find a use for it. For example… What about melt it and drinking it?  Like, ice is purer than the snow right? He vividly remembers the article that the mana created ice is pure like a rain. Not completely but pure. 

He comes closer to it to grab his axe to yank it out of the snow with ease. But now looking down on his axe he decides that before returning to his cave he may as well drink something. His throat felt like a dessert and he notices it only now. He wasn’t so oblivious to his body so why now he doesn’t notice basic things? He holds the axe with his two hands before adjusting the angle before hitting the ice. Jinwoo jumped from the amount of power he put in but quickly pulled himself together when he saw some pieces of ice now on the snow. He looked up to see how numerous cracks were all over the ice just from his one hit. And then he notices himself.

His open and scared eyes. The now dry strains of tears. His bags under the eyes. Maybe also how his lip was bleeding. And how skinny and small  he looked.

He just took the small chunks of ice before going back to the cave making a jump over the fallen tree to go to the entrance. And there it was. His sleeping bag. His backpack and a book beside it.

He walked over to his backpack to grab a pot to put the ice in. He then looked at the surface behind the backpack to see moss.

It could work. He thought before putting the pod nearby and quickly going outside to yank some beaches of the fallen tree clearing them out of leaves before returning.

He made a little construct that could hold a pot of ice  above the non existent fire. There were some rocks nearby to put them in circle. He then yanked the moss out of the wall to put it under the pot before going back to his backpack to get out a butane torch.

He tried using it like a gun and it worked. A blue fire came out of it. Maybe it is not the safest plan to leave it in his backpack….

He brings the fire closer to the moss and holds his breath. At the beginning it didn’t want to burn but in the end it took the fire lifting the cave a bit .

His face gained a tired smile as he watched how a big chunk of moss slowly started to burn. He watched as the fire was slightly touching the pot but thankfully not the wood it was hanging into. 

He already saw how ice started to slowly melt and how much warmer it became. But it would take some time before he could drink the melted ice so… 

‘What about reading the book a little?’ He grabbed the book with his two hands. And put it on his knees before opening it.

All of a sudden a system window appeared.

[Every time you read the information recorded in the book the system will automatically record your knowledge]

[recommended page for you to read: 297]

Jinwoo blinked a few times before accepting it and opening the page. And to his surprise. He saw the flower that was nearby his cane looking suspiciously.

Fire tiger flower.

Found in the cold regions. It blooms at the coldest of nights during the blizzard emanating warmth. The bloomed fire tiger flower is used mostly in making the bombs, alchemy, poison making  and is easily fired up. The unbloomed version is edible but loses its many side effects. 

Jinwoo read it quickly. There were two pages delicates to the flower. There was written about bomb making, how to cook the unbloomed version. How to make potions out of it. And wait. Potions? Weren’t those like the overpriced shit some companies liked to advertise that didn't worked? Like the mana drinks, heal drinks… and some were just naming them potions.

Do they have an effect? He himself doesn’t know (because they were hella expensive and he has no money for such silly things)  but heard how many people criticize it. But if this book tells the truth….

Fire tiger flowers can be made into potions. The potion has a warm effect that nullifies any cold for a long time. It’s efficient depends on how you make the potion and your proficiency in alchemy.

The recipe…

Oh well. There is a small chance he is actually going to make a potion. But now a recipe about how to cook it… From his thoughts he was pulled by the sound of the boiling water and the smoke.

He quickly took the pot away from and with that the stick that was holding the construction. He looked at the water deciding it would be best to put it aside for the time being for it to cool off as he does not want to burn his mouth with it. 

He looked at the fire and at the moss. It was burning down so as an experiment he can put some wood in it despite it not being a dried wood. 

He took a branch that was not used in the construction to put it on fire. It took time but eventually started burning. He was relieved that it was working and returned to reading the book. Turning it to the next page there was another flower but now a blue one with bigger petals. There were multiple different images of a flower and unknown to Jinwoo he read it with a childlike excitement and curiosity.

Looking at the flower it somewhat reminded him of a flower his sister drew when she was in kindergarten and gifted it to him. In return Jinwoo bought her a real flower. Of course it was not as radiant at the drawn one and was somewhat damaged but she still loved it. He knows that it is dried out in one of her old books which she probably forgot even existed. How does he know? He is the one cleaning her room, duh.

And with that he made a few trips to the outside to grab more wood to put on fire and drank the water that cooled off. And it was… surprisingly alright? It tastes… weird. And not tasty because it was warm but other than that, it was fine.

[harmful substances have entered your body]

[Detoxification of harmful substances…]

[Detoxification was successful!]

It was almost fine . But at least he knows how the blessing works.

And as he almost forgot he pulled out a notebook to write about what the hell of a day it was…

Day 2

I woke up to the mess and cleaned it up. And then I went outside to get some food water and just to see what is outside. I started to chop down a tree when some magic beasts came to me. I was on a tree and when I got down there was a big chunk of ice here.

Jinwoo put back the pen and the notebook to his backpack before looking down on himself. He was covered in mud after hugging the tree for so long and he really doesn’t want to go to sleep with… it.

He got his flashlight and went outside to yank the leaves from the fire tiger flower to then clean himself with it. He would need to clean it in water anyway before cooking. And actually… they are edible in raw form, right? 

[Fire Tiger Flower is edible in any form]

So, why not try, first eat it raw and then cook it? It may work…

…

He woke up exhausted and the day hadn't even fully begun. 08:45 he woke up earlier than yesterday which was… maybe probably not good, he wanted to rest. But…

He got up stretching a bit. He got closer to the now almost empty pot and took off his gloves before cleaning his face with cold water. The hygiene is going to be a tough task for sure….  But for now he goes outside to start chopping down trees. The fire in his cave was still burning which was surprising. After all he did not expect the wood to burn for so long but it was a nice bonus nevertheless. 

He decided that he should first clean the stem from all the branches and only then start chopping it down into smaller pieces which he can then make in firewood. He then went into his pocket to feel a few things. There was the hunter's knife and a flashlight.  

He started from the bottom and started to tear the branches up. As the stem became naked and there was a pile of branches with spiky leaves. He sighs looking at the pile of wood. He hit a stump with his axe to put it in standing position before grimacing from the sound and two mana clashing together. And, yes. He (surprisingly) was able to somehow decide his mana with the mana imbued axe. And when the mana clashed with his new perception… well it hurts and he is not sure how to get used to it. He wasn’t what that feeling was. Not exactly pain but not something he could bear easily and shook off.

He took out of his pocket a knife before going over to the pile of branches. He sat on the stem and picked one branch before starting to clear it off the leaves before tossing it aside and picking the new one.

He made a quick break to go and eat the acorn he cooked. It was hard but not critical that he couldn’t eat it. It was… normal enough for him to eat it. And well. The pot was full of water but he needed something other than just one little pot. 

And he needs to start practicing on how to do woodcraft, after all, he doesn’t think the system is going to keep on helping him. Even if everything happened because of the system.

He shakes his head in an attempt to stop thinking and continue clearing the branches.  His eyes locked on the knife watching as his hands coordinatively cut the leaves off before being done with it and tossing the finished product aside. He did it until the end of the day. Jinwoo transported the now small pieces of wood to his cave to toss it into fire.

He sat there watching the fire while reading the book with almost one eye closed due to how tired he was. His whole body ached and screamed but he just ignored the pain despite how unbearable it felt. Especially the pain in his fingers…

He already started to go to sleep when the new system window appeared.

[You have completed the first stage of quest “tutorial”

Obtained water 1/1

Obtained food 1/1

Found the place to sleep 1/1

Obtained wood 1/1]

[You have received awards for completing the first stage]

[You have received: “Medical kit” ]

Jinwoo startled as in his book a white box fell on it with a red bright plus on it. He carefully but his book away opening the kit. It was rather big. Bigger than his own back at his home. He carefully inspected it to see how it was opened when he found two locks. He carefully clicked on them and the cover opened. He looked inside and there was…. A lot. From bandages to iodine, from pain killers to even those medicines he has never heard of. 

[The second stage of tutorial has began

[Hunt down a magic beast 1/0]

Jinwoo blinked a few times looking at the window and then remembering the big chunk of ice outside his cave that was clearly a magic attack. And the system wants him to hunt something like that?

His laughter was terrified, sweat forming at the back of his head. And then he looked down on a fire. A first gift that began the history of humanity. It was… in its own way a technology, right? In a way.

There might be a chance he could hunt down a magic beast… maybe .

And that wrapped the end of the day 3 as he slowly put the [tutorial] in the darkest corners of his mind to then go to sleep but not before writing in his notebook when he remembered already half asleep that he needs to write something in there.

Day 3

I mostly worked on the wood so I would not…

…

He almost didnʼt get any sleep from how much his fingers hurt and the sounds outside created by the snowstorm that came. That time he woke up at 06:32. The earliest  he has woken up yet. He felt drained but despite that he didn’t try to continue sleeping and got up.

Medical kit beside his sleeping bag, a pot of already cold water behind the backpack and a fire that was about to go out. 

He took several small branches he cleaned the previous day and threw them into the fire. Thankfully they were already dried and were burning better than the fresh ones.

Jinwoo took one of the pines hidden under the cloth (that were previously his pants) and put it into the pot. The pot then was hung over the fire so the corn would cook itself. He watched as the fire was touching the pot and his eyes watered and his heart became heavy. He clutched his jacket where his heart was and looked down on it. He blinked a few times trying to make the tears go away as he felt how above his stomach he felt as he trembled but not in a normal sense. Something rose up his throat and the need to spit it out arose. He closed his eyes trying to stay calm as the vomit was coming close to him despite him thinking he had nothing to vomit. 

There was some time before he calmed down from the sudden outburst of stress from the previous day. On the back of his head he felt sweat slowly stream down right down on his back. He took a few deep breaths that in fact did not help and he doesn’t know why everybody says it does but he got up from the cold floor of the cave to try to find his goggles.

He found them with his eyes but before picking it up Jinwoo decided to stretch a bit and the pain from yesterday dropped on him like a piano when he just tried to do sit-ups. He exclaimed in pain and bit his lip not to make any more sound. He felt that there were no magic beasts nearby but caution hadn't killed anybody. And somehow he feels it is not the first time he is going to need to stay silent while injured. After all, he is now completely alone in this one. And finally he went and put his goggles on.

He took a short break just standing and then a slow stretching. It hurt but not enough to make him scream.  He took his axe and a small knife to go out. A big stern naked tree trunk was in front of his cave. Just as well as the big icicle. Looking back at the stump he decided that today he was going to explore a bit as he already saw a few plants hanging from the trees.

He came closer to a brown mushroom on a tree. The system’s window appeared before him showing his name but he just moved the screen away without closing it. As it didn't had any information about the mushroom but did have the information about what page to read about it.

He looked at the white snow on the ground a bit too attentively and saw something dark poking out of it. He dig the snow away to see another plant and a new system window. It was a bright orange outline around the edges and if the documentary on him teaches him anything than orange color is dangerous. 

Jinwoo looked around before picking the clean stick and poking it into the snow close to the plant so he would see it when coming back to it. And then an interesting thought came to him.

He quickly got up and ran to the nearest tree putting his palm on it. Nothing happened. His face grew with agitation but it quickly disappeared as he saw a system window pop up.

[Schneekrieger]

[For further detail read about that the on page 352]

“So that is how you work?” He said more to the system. So the system isn’t going to react or interact with any things if he doesn’t want it to interact. Or it was more like a question answer thing and he isn’t sure why but the system is… lagging? A bit tad slow to say. .

His attention was quickly drawn to other plants nearby. It was on a rock. A blue like moss that was different from the one he had in his cave. He came to it and saw a few bugs around it. Jinwoo quickly jolted away from it, deciding it was not worth it until the system window appeared above. Then another one and a few more that were luminescent also [Heaven Beetle]

[To gain a further description please read it in a book.

[recommended page for you to read: 187]

He was able to read one singular screen and then he just went in the opposite direction from the bugs and the rock. As he was far away from the rock he took out his watch to look at the time. 08:45. He decides to still go look for more plants as a few system windows he did not close were still hanging behind him levitating. 

He looked around and went on a fast -paced walk to see if there was anything else beside trees and snow. Jinwoo stopped when the new window appeared.

[Your stamina went up by 1 point]

[Stamina: 121]

‘So that is how you do it’ he thought to himself with a neutral expression. Not happy nor excited. His walking slowed down a bit from running. He felt how his knees wanted to bend down but he did not allow it. He looked at the side of his cave and debated. From one side his legs are ready to give up on him despite it still being early in the morning so it means he needs to go and lay down. The other reason to lay down is because he wants to puke and has a warm-weird uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. It felt like something tied his stomach and twisted it without any pain, discomfort.

And then he needs to go look around so he could survive. Find food and know his surroundings. Everything like that.

He decides that his health at the moment was the priority so he slowly walks to his cave. He stood outside and his eyes were caught at the stump that was cut down, not so clean. If he wants to later on make a proper firewood he is going to need to cut down the stern and he needs to do it somewhere so…. In Jinwoo’s mind his body isn't half not functioning so picking up his axe he goes to make the stump flat. He inspected it from all the sides before deciding that he will cut it down a little lower so it would be easier later on to make firewood. 

He slowly brought the axe to the side he wanted to cut down  measuring before moving it away and with one clean hit cut a bit of it. Jinwoo squeaked from the loud sound but didn't stopped continuing. He felt his palms hurting but payed them no acknowledgement as he just continued.

With his senses he was trying to feel any presence. The only presence he could were the surroundings that emanated mana and the *heaven beetles. But even then he noticed solely because he saw them previously. Normally he wouldn't feel such a small amount of mana. Even smaller than the trees.

When he finished  it more or less he took out his small knife to remove any surface irregularities. He got down on one knee to look closer. He felt how the snow started clinging onto his pants and got irritated but did not get up.

It was 10:48 when he finished what he intended to do. His knees hurt just as well as hands and not only his legs but the whole body was ready to send death threats to him for how much he overworked it. 

He fell to the ground from exhaustion he put himself through.

He crawled back to his cave as the feeling inside his stomach became worse. He dropped himself on top of his sleeping bag not even bothering to get it as he hugged his legs. He felt how his breath trembled but he hid his face in knees. He clenched his fist and his teeth grind against each other. He cried. He sobbed and he cried silently. He doesn’t know how long he cried. How long he thought about his family. How long he just wanted to disappear to die. Not to feel that pressure anymore. To maybe have somebody who would cuddle him and reassure that everything is going to be alright. His eyes burned as he cried. He bit his lip to not let any pathetic sound escape from his mouth. He cried and cried. He remembered his mother’s voice. How she cuddled him way back when he was an insolent child. He remembers how he cuddles Jinah because their father was no longer around. He remembers how he and his father went out to spend some father-son time and the gate was there. In the amusement park.  He remembers how his father said “I will come back, wait for me” but he never did. He went into that portal carrying one to two people at the same time. Jinwoo watched from afar holding the ice cream his father bought him. His glassy eyes watching how people were gasping and helping the injured hunters his father carried out. His breath held every time when his father went inside the blue gate and disappeared. How he sighed with relief every time he saw his father rushing from the gate thinking ‘is it done?’ only for his father to go back into the dungeon once again. Jinwoo clutched the fists the same way he did right now waiting. And waiting. And the gate trembled and started shrinking in size. Jinwoo screamed. He doesn’t remember what he said. He remembers that he was held down from running towards the gate. How they pinned him down against a rock tile. They held him harsh leaving the bruises on his hands and scratches on his knees. He screamed and tried to fight back, stretching his hand to the now almost closed gate. When they finally let go of him he ran towards the now a slight light levitating above the air. He tried to catch it but to his disappointment it evaporated into the air as he dropped on the ground. He was a mess. His knees were bloody from how harsh he was pinned down against concrete and his hands hurt on how hard they held him. People talked around him. Everybody seemed to question why he was crying. Screaming. Being all pathetic like. He sat there until dawn. People avoided touching the clearly upset child choosing to ignore, to believe somebody else may help him.

Nobody ever did. 

Nobody.

He remembers how he coughed. His father’s last words. How he got up from the floor only to look up at the night sky. He screamed. A bloody like scream with sobbing. He lifted his body to try and go home. He was a mess. He wanted his father. He wants his dad. For him to hug him for him to tell him everything is going to be alright. That he is alright. That there was no need to cry and if he wanted to cry he could. It was the last time Jinwoo cried. After ten years all he needed to start crying again was being isolated for four days. He remembers how he came home. He stood in the doorway and his mother looked at him. She understood what happened without the explanation. He crushed on the floor of their house and his mom looked terrified. She looked around not knowing what to do when her son was crushed. Her whole world crushed. She left. She went onto the kitchen to try to calm down herself before calming down her son. He left before he could return. Jinwoo literally crawled down the stairwell to hide away from his mother. He was ashamed. Ashamed and full of guilt. Just like right now. For what reason is he even trying to survive right now? To return to the world where his sister abandoned school, all her dreams to not her mother die while mourning her brother? To the world that didn’t even bothered to check up on the child laying on the middle of the street? To the world where his life was insignificant even those of civilians? Why is he bothering right now? This is the end isn’t it? After all he is just going to be eaten by some magic beast or just die out of cold. Why is system even bothers?  Why is nobody cared for him? Why did his teachers closed their eyes when Jinwoo tried to balance his work abd school? He got expelled. And his mother fell into coma. 

Despair. He was feeling desperate. For what is he fighting right now? His family? Jinah is going to be a wreck and probably hates him too. He hates his father for leaving. And now he did exactly the same. He left. He died on the day of the D rank dungeon raid. He died when they ran. When they left him on the altar as a sacrifice.

He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. He is dead. 

…

day 5

He woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. He quickly got up looking around. He was alive. He was here. And the nightmare is yet to be over. The campfire beside him was long gone and he quickly took some sticks to throw it there before getting a butane torch out of his backpack to make fire. It was done in merely seconds. He didn’t look at the time before taking the book to open it. He looked behind himself and lo and behold there were few system windows about the pages. He closed them. He smirked looking at the book.

He was determined to survive no matter the hell he was going to be put through. He opened the book at the first page. Blank. Normally it was telling about the author but not this book. He paid it no further attention when he opened the page with actual information on it.

How to make a simple trap for small prey…

“Perfect,” he said out loud. His smile grew wider and wider. Maybe he should have gone to sleep or even tried to clean his face from tears. He did none of that. He read. And read
The realisation wasn’t as hard for him to accept as the absolute truth just for his own sanity. He stopped crying. Stopped biting his lip. Stopped worrying. Because the dead have no worries. The dead have no way of knowing what is happening to the living. And that is all that matters. He can’t know. So he should stop thinking about it and try his best to escape this place. And if he truly wants to do that, he needs to accept the [system] and play by its rulers. And if it wants him to hunt a magic beast. He shall do it. 

His hands held onto the axe as he started to chip the wood into firewood on a stump. He had an unreadable expression and his heart, despite still beating rather fast, was not ringing in his years. His breath, although a bit unstable, was alright as he had enough air. He chopped wood into smaller pieces. Calculated. Not completely precise due to his lack of skill with this kind of job but determined nonetheless. 

One by one. The fallen three in front of his house slowly disappeared as the firewood was left to dry out in the cave near the fire. The space in an already small cave became only smaller. His previous ‘door’ was finally let go and instead he did some kind of a door from wood after sticking it together with branches that were able to bend over but not break. He smiled at his creation.

Day 5

I made a ton of firewood which means i don’t have to think about it for a week maybe. I also managed to make a door to my little cave. Not much but it  is honest work. My next step - make a shovel. And then make wooden spears. And then - final step, an ultimate hole trap. Maybe not exactly  ‘hunting’ the system wants him to perform.

Jinwoo went deeper into the forest. Watching out for anything unusual. He went to the [Heaven Beetles] he discovered earlier. But now any fear he previously had disappeared. He watched them. They could in theory work as a lightsource. Or meat. He grabbed one of them and squished. Blood didn’t sink into his glove as he had expected but slid down on a white snow. He looked up expecting a system window but no such thing appeared. So that kind of thing wasn’t enough. He rubbed his hand against a nearby wood to wipe off blood and a dead body of a bug instead of getting a bit of mud and wood on his palm. He clicked his tongue in irritation but decided that he needed to clean his gloves anyway. He fixed his goggles on his head with his other hand and went deeper into the forest ignoring the beatles.

As he went no sound other than his steps were heard. He looked at how dark it became. The trees standing so close together they could not let the sun shine in. He took his flashlight out of his pocket and went deeper. As he flashed on one of the trees he saw a mushroom. He placed his axe nearby to take out a hunter’s knife to then chop down the mushroom.  And he saw another one. And then one more and more and more…

[White Snow Mushrooms

Are widely used in cooking and have a detoxifying effect. Are commonly found in cold regions.]

Jinwoo looked up at the pop up window but then closed it. He read about the mushroom in his book in the morning. He actually did a whole speedrun on the book. Well. As he could. And the system had the part in it from time to time recommending him a few pages to read.

 It was 17:45 when he finally stopped picking up the mushrooms and with full pockets returned to his cave where he fried the mushrooms on a fire. And as they were cooking he took off his gloves and put them in the pot to try to wash them. It wasn’t as good if he had used any product for washing but still a good result. The dirty water was thrown out in the snow. Jinwoo stopped to look at the big ice that was still hanging around and reflecting on the moon that came out rather… beautiful. He smiled and went back into his cave, closing his newly acquired door.  The mushrooms that were near the fire were taken out as they were already getting burned. He put them nearby as his gaze was captured by his backpack that served as a storage.

He contemplated for a bit before deciding to take everything out of it so later on he could bring much more stuff from his little expeditions. As he took everything out the cave became so small it actually made him uncomfortable and claustrophobic. He experimentally tried to wear it but decided not to as his hair was hovering above the fire in the pose he tried to take while putting the backpack on. He gave up and sat back down. He rubbed his eyes out of exhaustion but he was weirdly proud of how productive he was today. He gave himself a little smile as he took the mushroom on a branch and breathed on it to cool it more off. 

Day 5

I made a ton of firewood which means i don’t have to think about it for a week maybe. I also managed to make a door to my little cave. Not much but it  is honest work. My next step - make a shovel. And then make wooden spears. And then - final step, an ultimate hole trap. Maybe not exactly  ‘hunting’ the system wants me to perform but a hunting of a sort anyway. Even if it couldn't complete the quest nutrition is still important. And about food. I picked up quite a lot of mushrooms today and now I know more of my surroundings….

…

The memory of his mother lying dead on the hospital bed came to his mind as he fell asleep. He closed his eyes and he felt as if her voice was there to reassure him. But was it really her voice or did he forget how she sounds?

…

Jinwoo woke up feeling nausea and he was sure he got bruises under eyes. He feels like they will become only worse as he gets up. Took his now refreshed gloves. But his boots on and the googles. After throwing on some firewood to keep the now weakened flame he opened the door to go outside but not before getting his backpack with him and putting it on as he was outside. He buttoned up  the belt around his waist a bit higher than his stomach and experimentally shot it on his back before adjusting the other belts around his arms. The axe was hanging out from the side of the backpack as it was easier to access if something came to it but it wouldn’t drop if he ran. The knife was put into the front pocket of the backpack and with him he also took a notebook and a few fried mushrooms from yesterday if he got hungry. 

He now confidently but slightly off went deeper into the forest to pick up everything he wanted and could. No long he found another Fire Tiger flower and as he carefully cut it with the small knife he noticed some other plant poking from the snow. And he went on and on to the next plant as he saw an interesting mushroom and then a weird tree and then…

Footprints. Or rather really bug paw prints. He looked at the place that had a lot of it, by his rough calculations he can guess there were probably up to three magic beasts roaming here. With his senses he reached as far as he could but no sound was detected. Only a slight glimpse of mana of magic beasts that were once here floating in the air. He breathed through his nose and slowly baked away from the side where pawprints led. He then looked around more to see if there was anything around. With his end he felt something above flying at him. He looked up as he felt his knees shaking and ready to run at full speed at any moment. With how tall the trees were they were blocking most of the sky but he could still see the black glimpse of feathers piloting around the forest to not bump into any of them. He gulped but as the mana came closer to him he… was scared. Hella was scared but at the same time the magic beast flying at him wasn’t exactly…

The crow-like bird landed on one of the branches and looked down on him with its golden-like eyes. Four eyes looking into Jinwoo’s two as if testing him. Inspecting. 

Jinwoo froze like an ice statue not even blinking. The crow-like monster not only had two more eyes than the earth one it seemingly was bigger than the ordinary too. But the amount of mana it possess… somehow appeared too weak. As an e rank he could feel mana to some extent but not extremely sensitive to it. But as he had observed the battlefield from the sidelines most of the time… the magic beast above him was maybe E rank, D rank at best but not any higher. ‘in theory… if it attacks me i could defend myself’ it was wishful thinking but miracles also happened to him. 

His hand slowly went back to grab the handle of his axe in case it would launch at him. But the bird only looked at him. Not blinking, not anything. The only thing that suggested it wasn’t undead was its pupils moving and its chest rising in slow breathing.

Hunter bit his lower lip but fortunately or unfortunately the crow let out a “CAR” and flung it up into the sky hiding behind tall trees and Jinwoo felt it disappearing from his senses. It was… weird to say the least as he decided to return back to his house.

unbeknown to him a little creature sniffed the air in the same exact spot he was standing but as it heard some howl it quickly jumped into the snow with its head.

It was 14:08 and the rest of the day he spent organising the plants he found and sharpening the wood to make it into spears with the rock he found while digging into the snow trying to find more plants..

Day 6 was (to my complete sadness) also full of events I hate with my whole heart and mind. The thing is…

…

He didn’t have much for 7 day. Constructing, reading, eating. Watching his reflection in the big ice that was still standing proud near his cave. From a tutorial from his blood he was able to make some simple, smaller traps and before the sun completely came down he rushed to quickly put them as far as he could go  near his cave to maybe catch some small prey with berries he found on day 6.  Then he also cut down another tree, now way faster as he was more confident in his own power (and well, he was stronger than before due to points he added to his strength) in short, day seven was dedicated to him and technology discovery and reading the book and listening to the rather really powerful snowstorm that was outside. And oh, he washed his socks too. What an incredible feat. Ha-ha, with so much things going on, he completely forgot that maybe washing his clothes is needed to conceal his smell. But in his defence he was smelling like plants and mud. Which is probably good for him. 

His mind (thanks to his brains) was completely bland, with no thought behind every decision he did that day. Not when he ate the wrong Flower and the intoxicating effect worked. Not when he bent one stick it slipped through his fingers and slapped him into his face. Not when he was falling asleep. He didn’t even think about his family. Not about how Jinah must be grieving, not about his comatose mother. No, the mind was as bland as it was blank. No thinking in his head. 

And after 8 days he slept it over. Or that what he assumes as he was waking up at different times and falling asleep back. His body gave up on him and demanded a deserved rest. 

On the 9th day his  whole body was hurting. His muscles were ripping and his head was like a bluebell with its constant ringing. Anyway that day he was so sloppy he didn’t bother putting his goggles on and left his backpack in the cave to go and clean the tree he cut down the other day to make out of it more firewood. The more the better. But halfway he remembered the traps he put. Unbelievable, he forgot about the traps he should have burned down he put around the area. He took his axe and gripped onto it tightly. He didn’t exactly expect for any magic beast to fall into the most simplest of all traps but a little hope was there. A trap near the heaven beetles was not activated but the berries were eaten. Probably by the beetles flying around. He shushed them as they tried climbing onto him. The trap he put around the place he found the mushrooms was also empty. What had he expected? But the second trap as he looked at it was seemingly better that the one near the heaven beetles. It was untouched as even the edible flowers a lot of creatures (as a book said) ate was here and not a single petal eaten. There was a third one he put on one of the trees. And really how the hell in his tired mind did he put the trap so high up? But even so. It was empty. 

He didn't expect much from the last one. He placed the fourth one where he saw the crow and the pawprints that were long gone, covered by snow. He walked in a rather relaxed manner until he saw numerous small, like, really small paw prints coming from below one of the trees where he assumes was hole and lead all the way to his trap. Because of the trees and the light snow he couldn't exactly see what it was but he felt no mana coming from it. He sharpened his hearing and… a small meowing and queking could be heard reminding him somewhat of a newborn kitten. But he felt no mana whatsoever. Just humming and weak meowing. There were two options: one ran as fast as he could. And the second ran like a really famous hedgehog. He already turned around to go away but something stopped him. The sound coming out was pitiful, as if the creature was in pain. Dying. Its meowing was desperate but at some point as he stood frozen contemplating his choices the sound disappeared. He instead turned around and took one step to the side where the sound was previously coming from. His hands were shaking violently and his breath was unregular. His eyes were becoming increasingly hotter as he didn’t close them and in ears he could hear the ringing. He could also feel how nervous his fac became redder. He didn’t know why he did  that. Maybe the system requirements were the thing that pushed him. Or his unstable mind and mood. He doesn’t know why he held onto his axe ready to strike somebody with it. The only sound he could hear was ringing in his ears as he stepped on the prints on the snow. He felt how his vision became increasingly blurry as the snow that was increasing and his eyes wanting to cry from how long he didn’t blink. 

And there it was. Around the simple wooden trap that if the target eats something heavy on the mechanism the cover will drop on it trapping the victim inside. And as he looked around his trap there was a lot of blood. Blood that couldn’t be done by the trap. And inside the trap, the small white fur covered in blood. The creature lifted its head for Jinwoo to notice how its one eye was closed due to the blood. It looked at him with its one functioning  blue eye and … it brought its tale closer to its small body. The creature is probably the size of a newborn kitty- no, even smaller than that. As he quickly looked at it its hind paw was the thing that was bleeding. There was no saving the poor creature. Without hesitation Jinwoo lifted his axe up into the air and stood in pose ready to give relief to the poor creature. Its mana was so weak it was almost non-existent. The body was so skinny it looked like a skeleton with bones, a sad picture for such a small creature that looked like a baby. 

Its closed its eyes and meowned painfully trying to get as far as it could from Jinwoo.

There it was, Jinwoo was ready to destroy the whole trap with one slash cutting through it destroying the cage and killing the magic beast. He hesitated for a moment. 

It was injured, couldn't properly try to defend itself, injured, weak. It was just like him. Weak and pathetic. Crawled out of its  hole to find food to survive. Was it why he hesitated to drop the axe down? Why for the second time in his life was he hesitant to kill the beast?

“Why did you have to remind me so much?” Jinwoo said and with one last breath he-

Chapter Text

“Fuck it…” the axe hit the trap only touching a little fur from the poor creature making it fly away. In the process the hit destroyed the cave making a loud sound. Jinwoo's eyes widened and his lips trembled. His pupils were shaking looking around and his hands felt like cotton. As unstable and weak they currently were he pulled the axe out of the ground which proved to be quite a challenge from the strength he put behind the hit the weapon was really deep in the ground. As he was able to take it off he looked at the creature that was trembling. 

[Lesser demonic ice fox]

Screen that appeared above said its name in a white text. Jinwoo paid it a little notice before he looked at the smaller text under it. [Lv. 0] . Just like him. So little. So weak. Yet weaker  than him. The cursed feeling of being superior made him jolt. He wasn’t sure what made him want to vomit so he closed his mouth in an attempt to stop it. Was it because he felt himself starting to behave like the people around him whom he despised the moment he got a little bit of power, or how much he enjoyed the authority to have somebody's life in his hands. To decide whenever it lived or died . He wanted to kill, murder the poor creature for his disgusting pleasure and a way to release the anxiety and hatred he had towards the people he wronged. But what if the system wants him to do it? Killing magic beasts was as natural to him as anything else so it ain’t completely his fault right? “FUCK IT” He screamed as tears were rapidly gathering in the cone nest of his eyes. He turned around to run away from the confused fox who watched the figure hide behind the tall thick wall of woods. It watched him for a few seconds before coming back to its senses and deciding to lick its injury on its back leg which was still bloody and faced the wrong way seemingly broken. It squinted from pain as a result of trying to get up. The open injury was getting worse and the chances of survival of the demonic fox became even more slimmer.

..

Jinwoo ran. He wasn't sure where he was headed. He wanted to get back to this one place where he wasn’t sure he even felt safe. He blocked his eyes with his arm to not let any snow get into them while wiping away his tears that were quickly making him into a crying mess. He felt his nose starting to burn and his  sleeve getting dirty from him trying to wipe himself. He tripped a few times from fallen branches and rocks hidden in snow. His movements felt a lot more studier and moving through the thick layer of snow, despite being a layer in the snow he was not slowing down by much. But the lack of knowing his surroundings didn’t do him any good as he gulped for air and lost his balance, due to it he went down like some ball from a clif. A clif he had fallen down from wasn’t big so he wasn’t rolling for long before a second later his face hit something really cold and hard making the nose bleed from the injury. He fell back on his ass as he touched his nose groaning from pain. He looked at the bright red colour on his fingers when he tried to wipe the blood and greened his teeth. His eyes were half closed when he vividly looked at the thing he just hit. It was an ice really similar to the one that was standing close to his cave which could mean it was the one. He looked around noticing the stump he used to cut wood into firewood and crawled to it to then look for the entrance to his little cave. As he noticed it he looked down on the snow below him. Messed up and now having blood on the white surface he just stood up feeling the metal taste in his mouth from the blood gulping down to his lips. Not only fingers but his chest were having sheds of his own bright blood. He licked his lip to try and clean himself from the habit. He felt the pain in his nose and blood now with a snot from crying. It was hurting. But he has felt worse. 

He walked two steps to his cave before collapsing, maybe from the mental exhaustion or something. He didn’t know. He wasn’t exactly registering anything as he didn’t even bother to get up and just crawled to his cave. As he came to it he was met with a still burning fire, the now almost empty pot of water, his sleeping bag that was put away and held by a string originally attached to it. He just let go of his axe that made a harsh sound against a rocky surface and the door he previously made just dropped down on the fire from how carelessly he opened it. He quickly tried to take it away and blew on the fire that was forming on the door to make it go away. He succeeded and instead of closing the entrance to his cave he just put it aside on the nearby wall. He himself went and sat beside the wall looking up at the cave’s ceiling that was not high but not short either.  It was weird. ‘Why am I doing this?’ he asked himself, unable to answer. Was it because it was the first time he was left to his thoughts alone? He doesn’t want to hear his voice so loud. He wants to hear other voices. Voices of those who despised him, watched him suffer calling him “the weakest hunter of all mankind”. He wants to hear them as he once did already. Why are they not coming back? They were so loud before so what changed now?  Was it so hard to start talking trash about him again? 

Why did he spared the life of a magic beast? They are violent creatures who want to kill, kill, kill just for the fun of it. Most of them don't even eat humans, they just kill them. They come on earth to bring destruction, some otherworldly concurers or the apostles to bring punishment for their sins from God, for all he cared. They were not animals that could feel attached or loved. They are heartless monsters and here Jinwoo was sparing one of them like it was the right thing to do. When it wasn’t. Who knows maybe that magic beast will kill somebody. Maybe a weak hunter like him? Has he doomed somebody for death?

Whom is he kidding? If somebody as weak as him decides to work as a hunter it is a death wish no less. In the end they will die. It’s is a destiny for such weaklings as him,

So why save the darn thing? He should have killed it . It was suffering already so he should have released it from its suffering. And what if it comes back to kill him? Is he going to blame his own kindness? He needs to return and finish the damn job. It was right. It was what the system wanted from him. The system wanted him to survive. And to survive he needs to kill, “Survival of the fittest, isn't it?”

“Woof…” Jinwoo’s head rose sharply, lifting his whole body up as he looked at where the sound came from. Two eyes looked at him covered in its own blood standing at the entrance to his cave. Outside he could see blood showing the way the magic beast took to come to him. Is it here to kill him? But looking at its weakened state and what seemed like a broken back leg it shouldn’t have been able to come all the way here to him. Has it smelled where he was? Or followed his foot prints? Could it be that intelligent? 

He shook his head and quickly picked up the axe nearby and stood up ready to attack it. The fox looking creature only lifted its gaye up to look at his eyes and that was when Jinwoo noticed something in its mouth. A branch that held a few berries so small Jinwoo wouldn’t even consider picking it up if he ever finds it. Or even notice. The creature placed it on the floor and layed down, almost falling from its injury squeaking a bit. As it was able to lay down it bowed its head. Was it… showing gratitude? For what? Extending its misery? For allowing it to suffer more? ‘Why? Why aren’t you attacking? Why aren’t you trying to kill me? Please…’

It brought its own long and curly blue tale to support its head when it laid down. It closed its eyes with lashes as curly as the blue fur. The main body was pure white and the fox had a lion like mane but it was curling around the edges making it look like a cloud from those  paintings. It’s long ears with black blue tips were close to its head as it breath heavy. Was he just witnessing death? He saw so many magic beats be killed with no second though but why now was he second guessing? Magic beast had no feelings they were just mindless beasts with some kind of programming behind them. So why is that little anomaly doesnt attack him? Why did it came to him while being so close to death? ‘Why’ at that point he was just begging the creature to act normal. As normal as it can. Why doesn’t it act like it’s is supposed to? The only thing he is asking it is to just have one normal thing here. Normal behaviour.

“Please….” By the looks of it the creature wasn't able to even hear Jinwoo’s words as the breathing slowly weakened. Jinwoo dropped his axe making the fox slightly flinch. “Fuck it.” He says with terrified eyes bringing his trembling hand to cover his mouth in  pure horror. “Fuck you” He said taking a few steps back, in the end he hit the wall and leaned on it feeling how his legs grew weaker with every passing second. He looked around himself to try and calm down but his gaze always came back to the creature laying dead in the entrance. Behind it a path of bright blood on a pure white snow that was slowly getting covered up by the new snow that was falling down with the new blizzard coming up. The sky behind the tall trees was now gray showcasing a storm is about to happen. “Fuck all of this” Korean hunter exclaimed bringing his other hand to his face covering his eyes trying not to look at the scene he was now witnessing. He wanted it to stop. He wanted the creature to try to bite him. Why wasn’t it trying to kill him? It doesn’t make sense. Maybe a system could explain it? [Lesser demonic ice fox] [Lvl. 0] Not it. Anything. Just anything other than that. An explanation. Please…..

The hot blood touched his lip again reminding him of his nose which brought him back from his sheer panic. The magic beasts didn’t try to harm him. It was showing gratitude. So maybe it is intelligent and.. not even a magic beast to begin with? Or some different species of magic beasts that were good and not violent? Yes, it was the only explanation why even the crow-like beast with four eyes didn’t attack him. They were a different species of  magic beasts. Or not them at all. Which means that this isn’t even a red gate he was in…

He slapped himself in the face and rushed to his Backpack. Something he left inside it in the case of emergencies when venturing out in the wild. It was dangerous to bring it with him in case of losing the backpack but it would be better to at least have it by his side. A reward for finishing the first part of the tutorial. A medical kit. “Hang in there bud.” He said as he carefully took a fox from the hard floor and placed it slowly on tent cloth. He then rushed to his backpack to take out the medical kit. He opened and took a bunch of  sterile gauze and a bottle of salin. There were a few packs of medical gloves and he on the spot threw somewhere his warm gloves to wear a medical one. With those he came to the dying creature and unwrapped its tail around the body to look at the back broken leg. Met with no resistance, the hunter proceeded. He poured a bit of salinon it to clear the wound. The fox violently jerked but With his other head he held out by the neck so it wouldn’t bite him. His hand was shaking but nevertheless he cleared the wound and went to take a gauze to then put direct  pressure around the edges of the injury  to stop the bleeding. The fox started to be more active but still weak so he had no problem restraining it with just one hand. The tent’s cloth beneath it was now covered in blood but it did not matter. It was painfully a long time before the blood stopped pouring like a fantane and the weak cries the fox was making didn’t make Jinwoo feel any better. He looked around to see some firewood and thin sticks that he threw in there because they were no longer needed. He took one of them and placed it beside the fox before letting go of the fox’s neck to try and get the thing he forgot to take out of the medical kit. Thankfully it wasn’t far away and he brought it closer to him. He looked inside it and the hand returned to the fox’s neck to keep it in place now that it was trying to get away moving its body. He then took out antibiotic ointment and applied it covering it then even more with gauze. Then he took the stick and a bandage to wrap the broken leg to support it. It was even more important that he wouldn’t put too much pressure while tying it around the leg to not stop the blood flow. Meanwhile the fox was crying weakly from the pain Jinwoo caused by touching the wound. And as the job was done he wrapped the fox in the cloth so it would stop moving so much and potentially make the injury worse. Why did he did that? Who cares? The fox let out one last weak squeak before falling asleep from all the exhaustion and pain it felt. JInwoo let out a heavy sigh and fell down on his back. But there is no time. He needs to go and heat ice if the fox becomes thirsty . He threw the used medical gloves and found his own warm ones to wear. The glasses were also nearby  so he put them on before going outside and grabbing his axe. It was rather dark outside from all the clouds blocking the sun and the tall trees didn't help. But the darkness didn’t restrict him now that he noticed how much better he sees in darkness. ‘Could it be perception?’ He thought to himself. ‘And oh, how do I view the thing I saw back at the tree…’ ‘stats?’ he said to himself remembering how Jinah was playing this one game and telling him about her “stats” and “build” whatever it was. It was the first thing that came to his mind and before his eyes the system window appeared.

[Player:Sung Jinwoo

Level : 0

Stats:

HP: 120 

Physical Defence: 28 

Magical Defence: 27 

Physical Attack: 33 

Magical Attack: 22 

 Agility: 43 

 Intelligence: 26 

Perception: 34 

 Resistance: 20 

Stamina:121 

Titles: -

Job: - 

Active Skills: -

Passive Skills: - 

Blessings: Blessing of the great mage Kandiaru

Equipped armour: - 

Current quest: Tutorial (Warning! You are in set mode so no other quest (s) can be accepted until “Tutorial” is complete)]

He looked over the window in a bit of confusion before sighing. He would then go on to look at the scenery around him. The snow rain was getting more and more intense as he just let out a breath seeing his own warm air flying as it slowly disappeared before him into the cold air. He chuckled remembering how when he was a child he and Jinah during winter liked to pretend that they were smoking while  holding a sweet stick in their mouth as they brought two fingers to simulate a cigarette and breathed out to let the hot air show as a constants to the cold wind of winter. He remembers how his father chuckled at their antics as they walked in the park watching how others were building snowmans. As Jinah watched she begged their father to go and build a one together. In the end they failed and the snowman collapsed but at least they spent a great time together.  He wonders how Jinah is doing now that none of her family members are with her. She must be lonely. And desperate.  She isn’t going to be able to pay for their mother’s hospital bill alone and there's nobody who could help them. Maybe the money the  Association will give to her compensation for his death wouldn't be enough to support her but he isn’t sure how much they pay for the deceased.  His heart aches as he is unable to do anything but try to finish the quest. ‘What even is this? “Survive this forest”? It is not like a trial… wait could it?’ His mind went back to the Cartenon Temple and the commandments.

1. Thou shall worship God. 2. Thou shall praise God. 3. Thou shall prove thy faith. 4. Those who fail to obey these commandments shall not be spared. 

And now thinking about it, he technically… followed them all. He bowed before the statue of god, he made the statues sing and… he stayed in the temple. “Thou shall prove thy faith” maybe the system is some kind of reward for completing the commandments? And maybe Cartenon temple was the first stage of some kind of grand trial? Then this, “Survive” is the second stage of the trial?

He looked around to notice a crow standing on a high branch watching him. He still trembled as it appeared but now as he was more calm (and half sure the crow wasn’t aggressive and a different species) (not that he heard of) (and he knew about all magic beasts ever registered) he tried to sharpen his mana detection and as his senses reached to the crow he felt it wasn’t as strong. It had a little bit more mana than an E rank goblin. Not that even those were easy for him to defeat. And now he shouldn’t be too cocky just because the system is backing him up. It may help him but the last word is up to him. The decisions and whenever he lives or dies is also fully (maybe) in his hands. 

And well, right now all he can do is look at the crow but not in its eyes. Who knows maybe it will decide to attack him because he challenged it. It would be better not to try fate. 

The crow eventually let out a scream and flew away leaving behind a feather that flew at quite a speed but quickly slowed down as it started falling down. He wonders why the system did not identify the being. Could it be that it did not know it or… it was simply too far away? Is there some kind of minimal distance he needs to be able to see it? ‘Interesting’ he thought to himself. And to test his hypothesis he looked at the furthest tree. He wasn’t sure what requirements were exactly, but he would try to figure it out. As expected no window appeared. He slowly took one step closer to the tree but nothing happened. Two more steps and nothing still. Jinwoo stood there measuring how far he was from the tree and how dumb he was probably looking. He signed and just walked to the tree. As he almost approached it the window finally appeared.

[Schneekrieger]

[A sturdy tree used for making weapons with unbreakable handles. Used widely in building houses.]

He smiled. His theory was correct. To view the information about something you have to be at least two steps away from it. A rather inconvenient thing but he isn’t going to complain. Good to know about that. ‘Thanks mysterious crow’ he thought with sarcasm. 

The snow was falling down way harder and was sticking to the fur on his hood. The sky was even greyer and the snow was increasingly much faster than it was before. Maybe it would be better to go pick some cones and maybe some berries if he finds any and return back to his cave. But before he was ready to go he noticed a black feather in the snow and the crow with four eyes dropped. He with no second though picked it up and the system window materialized

[A feather of a Schwarze Schnee Crow]

‘No additional information?’ He chucked to himself expecting to see a page he could read about it but no such thing appeared. Was it kind of like a unique item or just so insignificant there wasn’t a page he could read about it. And if he thinks about that he probably needs to stop reading about plants and start reading about monsters here. He made a mental note and decided to go take care of the tree he wanted to make a firewood out of before going out or check on traps. He did the same as with the first tree. Cut away all the leaves with the hunter’s knife. Then Cut the branches away. Then cut the stern into smaller pieces. He took a big piece and placed it on a stump to cut it into now presentable firewood. Same stuff as before. Just now it was way faster because he already knew about how to proceed. Nothing too difficult. Well his hands hurt and as he cut down the last piece a system window appeared

[You have gained a new skill:

Axe  proficiency Lvl 1: a passive skill that increases your mastery over axes. +5% to attack. Applied only when equipped with an at least one Axe]

He looked at it with genuine surprise as he smiled to himself. All he did was cut down some wood and the system gave him a skill? It was as unbelievable as it sounded. Usually the set of skills you were awakened with were the skills you would end up with for the rest of your life, and the only way to get a new skill was through runestones that were dropping from powerful A rank or S rang magic beasts that were usually super rare. Even the most basic of skills encrypted within rune stones were worth millions or billions of money. They were costly and only a handful of them registered officially due to propel usually hiding them for themselves only. Nature of humans what could he say? But now he does want to test this [Axe proficiency] would it like, make just his hits harder with the attack bonus? Or would it give him some type of knowledge about how to fight with an axe? He could only try.

He looked at the nearest tree and as if by reflex he hit it without even needing to stand at the stance or calculate how to properly chop the tree down, hit slash was clean and went through half way proving  two things: his hits became more precise, his hits now being way harder hitting than before. The difference was a technique and how fast he was able to calculate the best way to slash. His smile grew wider and with that he went back, took the new firewood and placed them near his cave as it was so much firewood they just simply didn’t fit inside the cave anymore. He placed them as a small wall made out of the firewood and went inside as it was getting seemingly darker. He didn’t bother to check his watch for the time and decided to go straight to his book. The fox was sleeping soundly even snoring a bit and now a really important thing Jinwoo forgot ‘what if its parents come looking for it?’ In a moment of it he  had goosebumps but the next, if the parents weren’t present anywhere near the fox, which is clearly a little baby or is just a small creature they must have abandoned it or died. But he leans onto the second option that the fox was just small as an adult. He doesn’t know its species, and now thinking about it, it was a demon, do demons even age? 

He was torn away from his deep thinking by a quiet cry he was able to hear only due to his now enchanted hearing. He looked at the curled up fox which seemed to be crying in its sleep. Is it crying from pain or because it has nightmares?

And now, what if it is a magic beast? He wasn’t sure at first due to the weird behaviour but maybe magic beasts in this place are just more calmer or… not as aggressive. Even when the fox was trying to bite him during the procedure it was more like it was treating but not actually intending to bite. The creature was intelligent enough to understand that Jinwoo spared its life and even brought a thank you gift to him. Magic beasts are known to be violent creature knowing no mercy for humans. They liked torturing them and killing for fun, there wasn’t any instances recorded of them ever giving mercy to anybody, or not attacking at sights. But this one? Jinwoo did not felt any of his senses go off telling him to ran away as far as he could. Fight or flight didn't go off immediately as he saw the creature. And Jinwoo wants to trust himself. 

He has doubts. Maybe he should just end the creature. He  doesn’t want to be a good person. Him being a good person and trying to save lifes caused him to… end up in this place. He was weak and that caused many to doubt him. If he wasn’t weak they would have listened to him and just being a good person is t enough. He could have stopped Kim from threatening Ms. Song. Kim would have never pointed his sword at him if he didn’t have his arm cut off. Jinwoo recalls how Kim became more violent every passing second. 

He sacrificed everybody else to save himself. Jinwoo sacrificed himself to save at least two people. It was stupid. He even considered leaving Juhee behind but how could he when she was the reason he didn’t need to spend weeks in hospitals? He knows she was attending raids where he was just to keep him safe. He wouldn't be able to live with himself knowing that he left her to die. She was in a state where she couldn’t move because of him. 

“I have to believe you went to that cafe you always talked about…” he said out loud and decided to sit close to the fox and pet it lightly. He is sure Juhee wouldn't be able to get back to raiding. He always believed it wasn’t ever her thing. He remembers how they say after the raid watching the clear night sky and she told him the reason why she was trembling around magic beasts. She was visiting her  younger cousin in the small village. She went on walk by herself when saw a dungeon break. There weren't any magic beasts around her but when Juhee returned she saw her  cousin injured. And that was the moment   She  awakened as a hunter. And despite being a B rank she wasn’t able to save her cousins. “I am afraid there is going to be a moment when I am not going to be able to save somebody else. Maybe that is the reason why I  raid only low rank dungeons. Too afraid.” She cried and let Jinwoo take a look into her inner world, showing him her vulnerability. Jinwoo could never allow himself to be exposed. He shut the door so tight he couldn’t himself leave it.

“meow….” A fox moved around in its sleep bringing its head closer to Jinwoo’s touch making him smile and relax. It was dumb to allow a magical beast to be near him. But something told him it wasn’t going to be bad having company around him even for a little while. 

“Thank you… for your sacrifice.” “I have a family… waiting for me….” “I am… I am sorry.” Korean’s face darkened as his thoughts came back to the people who left him. A woman who came from America to study in Korea and made a little pokey money by raiding. A man whose name he hasn't quite remembered but knew was an asshole with how he liked to push Jinwoo around. And then there was Kim Sangshik. He was the one person whom he hated the most. He thanked him , he killed him and made it seem like Jinwoo was a nobody. Just a weakest weapon of all mankind with no story behind him. Like he had no name. No life. No feelings. He was a nobody to Kim. And the only reason the man was alive was because of Jinwoo. Would it be better to leave them all to die? No. But Jinwoo would have wished he himself was more selfish. Even now he wants to be a ruthless person. A killing machine. But maybe he never could. Not with how he was raised. Not with his father always at the back of his mind.

He signed and took a book and placed it on his legs while throwing some wood to support the fire. Now he was just mindlessly scrolling pages trying to find the right section. “Plants”, “Terraria”, “Minerals”, “Cooking”, “Weapons”, “Tools”, “Dimensions”… ‘sure, because… why not?’ Jinwoo mindlessly scrolled pages of this seemingly endless book until he found something .

Denizens of the world of Snow         Alternative name - Snow folks.                Snow folks are as cold as the name suggests, the harsh temperatures  enhance their body to be able to withstand the coldness of the most ruthless winters. With it came also their proficiency with ice type magic. For a long time they were ruled by a…

ʼBla-bla-bla, not interested.’ He scrolled then a few pages that described their history, not something he was particularly interested in but maybe would look later on when not in such a dire situation. Right now he needs a catalogue of creatures that live here.

Silver maned wolf. 

They usually live in big packs, rather a young species created no earlier than 300 years ago by the Monarch of Frost, King of Snow Folk. They were created due to the lack of predators that could in packs rival Ice Bears who overtook the Schneebedect forest.

So there are ice bears somewhere, about whom he read on hunter’s wiki and are at least B rank beasts. Cool. Did he write a will? This was some rare type of misfortune. Ice bears travel in packs and are the size of a military tank. They are also known to be very aggressive . The strongest - alpha is bigger than any of the other bears and has these purple crystals on its chest signaling that he was a leader. But it wasn’t just for show. It indicates their connection to ice based attacks, feeling their strength and ability to thrive in cold areas, and with that those alpha’s could also unleash powerful ice attacks. They are also intelligent enough to have a strategy. Fuck his life genuinely. He may as well give up if those creatures are the one she needs to go against.

Jinwoo turned on the next page ignoring any further information about the Wolves.

Yetis

A violent race knows to have a constant war against ice elves. Their thick skin and muscles are enough to be a solid armour. They are less intelligent and strategic as ice elves but instead rely more on brutal and straightforward fights. But some of them showed quite the talent for ice magic that could far surpass that of an ice elf.

They are hunters at their hearts and elf’s usually sneaking up on enemies is like a mockery of hunting. Hunting them is always about an art of chasing an enemy, not sneaking up on it.  They live in Eisberge forest where they thrive and fight against ice elves.

Well, at least he is thankful that they are not in his forest. Which could be problematic. They would rather die than let a human run away. But he never knew they had a whole war against ice elves. Was it that bad? Who knew magic beasts had something more behind them.

“Meow…..” a creature beside him meowed and changed its sleeping position. He actually needs to go to sleep too. Looking at his watch it was 21:34 and it would be best for him to go to sleep. But not before writing about it in his notebook. Who knows, maybe after his death some Korean hunter would find it? Ha-ha.

9th day

It was a day filled with a whole load of bullshit…

…

He felt his face getting licked and he grimaced, bringing his hand up to protect his face. As he opened his eyes he saw a fox he rescued yesterday looking down on him. Its back leg was seemingly almost all better but as it moved he could see it limp. He quickly got up as he understood what was licking him and crawled away from it. The fox tilted its head and then laid back up. 

Jinwoo breathed hurriedly but slowly calmed down. He thought he would be dead by tomorrow but tomorrow came and he is still alive and well with no injuries whatsoever.

“So you haven’t killed me?” The fox didn't react and just continued staring at him. It then yawned and placed its head on its tape to then continue to sleep. He looked at his pocket watch to see the time and… exactly 08:00. Did the fox calculate when he should wake him up or is it some kind of natural thing? And why would it wake him up anyway?

[The second stage of tutorial 

Hunt down a magic beast 1/0]

The system window appeared before his face as if hinting to kill the vulnerable creature who has trusted Jinwoo enough to sleep while he was awake. 

“Fuck you” Jinwoo had some decency in him. The fox didn't hurt him and neither would he. He knows that it MAY backfire on him later on for not listening to the system but who knows. Maybe not. And maybe year and then he would be the  world’s biggest most delusional naive person. But in the meantime he threw a firewood that was beside him at the system window. Maybe he woke up from the wrong foot today…

Jinwoo jerked away as the firewood was absorbed into the system window disappearing into the void of pixel particles flying around where it hit the screen. In a moment the system window changed itself and became slightly bigger with numerous icons on it showing the logo of the firewood he threw with x1 in the angle of the icon where it was. On the centre above it he could see [Inventory] which… he completely forgot about. 

He experimentally decided to throw another firewood at it and it disappeared just as the first one, changing the number x1 to x2. So… spatial storage. ‘Shit it, my life could have been so much easier if I knew about this…’ he cursed but the next moment he was overwhelmed with happiness. If he could store firewood could he store anything else? He took a book and instead of throwing carefully got up to push it in for it to dissolve in particles. ‘…cool’ he was like a little child with his eyes lighting up at something new and exciting. The new logo appeared showing his book with x1 on it. He smiled but then froze. How … exactly could he take it out? He panicked before remembering something. The system tracked his mind, right? So if he imagined that he stretched out his hand to grab his book would it work? He closed his eyes and relaxed thinking about the book and stretched his hand for it to go into the screen and feel the hardcover of the book. He clutched it and took it out for it to appear from the thin air. It worked! The icon of the book disappeared (which was reasonable) but then he decided to put the book back into his “inventory. He then looked around to remember the firewood he left outside and quickly ran out to put it all into his inventory. Now that it was done he was going to go back to maybe eat something but then he saw how the fox lazily exited the cave to look at him. He opened his eyes like a reindeer caught in the car's light . He then stepped away from the fox and it followed him. He took the step to the right and followed him. Two steps to the left and it followed him while limping. He looked at the creature and signed before coming close to it and standing on one knee opening his arms. The creature clearly wasn’t going to leave his side any time soon while feeling pain as it tried keeping up with him. They looked at each other and his face grew redder and redder like a tomato. The fox’s ears twitched as it tilted its head. It then me owned and sat while wiggling its but before making a jump not into his arms but on his shoulders. It adjusted and surrounded its neck while poking its wet nose at his cheek. He laughed a bit before carefully lifting himself up, surprised at how light the fox was. But now the next problem came. If the fox wanted to stay with him it needed meat. And as far as he knows he doesn’t think he encountered anybody aside from the fox and the bird. Anyway, fox’s also eat berries… right? Back at earth that is. He would need to find information about the little thing. But right now he remembered there was one thing he needed to check. His traps. And this time no mercy to any catched prey.

A quick trip to them and absolutely nothing. 

Yeah, he was… a bit screwed now that he didn’t have any idea of how to get food for the little guy and… it didn’t drink! The poor creature must be dehydrated!

A quick trip back to his cave and letting it drink some water sealed the deal.

Now… maybe travelling a bit further into the forest wouldn't be bad. He equipped his axe and then a Quick Look at his inventory. Some food. A pan with water and a thing he tried to ignore.

A sword of a person he hated the most right now. He would have taken it out instead of his axe but his new skill [Axe  proficiency] was applied solely for axes so it would be better to use it for a while longer. The sword is reserved for when the thing brakes. 

He brought his hand to rub his chin contemplating his options when the fox meowned and stretched its whole body and neck to look somewhere.

“What? You want me to go there?” He joked but the fox was serious. He squinted his eyes at the fox but then turned his head to the side the fox was looking at and slowly started going there not looking back at the creature. His heart told him to trust it and that's what he did. The last time he trusted his brains was the time he went into the double dungeon. So now his heart will lead the way. Well, the fox. 

As they went further he started hearing some noise. Not that of an animal no. Way stronger but calmer at the same time. Repetitive. A sound of….

“A lake...” He was rather startled as the sound was more clear as they progressed. They were now far away from the cave but he has not detected any mana of any creature . And even if the fox led him to nowhere he was able to pick up a lot of herbs that made him grin like an idiot. It was a success either way and he memorised the way while placing cuts at the trees for reassurance.

And there they were. At the surprisingly unfrozen lake that if he tried he could see fish in there. Wait. Fish?

[Hunt down a magic beast 1/0]

Would a fish count as one? He came closer and a system worked its magic.

[Icy red Carp]

At the closest one text appeared above it showing white letters. He jumped on a rock showing from the water at the distance he couldn’t jump back on earth and grabbed on carp on its tale to lift it up from water and jump back at the snow. He looked around before finding a snowy rock flat enough for what he was about to do. He swooped the snow away by his other hand holding onto the axe and placed the fish on the rock. He slightly threw the axe to grab it not by the handle but closer to the blade and held the fish that was violently trying to move hit a little bit more above its head. One time. Two times. Three times and the fish stopped moving. The most ethical way to kill a fish. He then proceeded to place it into his inventory as a fox happily meowned at the possibility of eating a fish it itself could hunt as it was way bigger than the fox. Actually the fox was probably the size of a kitten if he remembers the sizes and the carp was… well nog enough to reach from his hand to his elbow. He remembered carps being smaller when fishing with his father… the time when Jinah was still not around and their father spend all his tree time with him. Fishing, hiked trips, playing video games. He remembered that time with a smile. Also the time they spend while fishing his father through him so many tricks about fish. How to cook them, how to gut them, how to kill them in ethical way. And also how to create a fishing rod with basic material. Yeah his father was… loving in his own way. A really weird fatherly one where he brought his whole firefighters team to their fishing trip and all of them were fussing over him. Even as a adult he had letters with money in them from father’s old teammates form over ten years ago. They never forget about his friend.  Jinwoo wished he had the same friends

The fox exclaimed in excitement as Jinwoo started walking back to his cave but not before killing one more fish and storing it in his inventory. He wanted to test one theory he had in mind.

“Looks like we are eating fish today, all thanks to you” He rubbed his hand against the furry cheek and the fox just rubbed her whole body against him. It was kind of pathetic how the fox trusted him so easily when he himself couldn’t trust a person who saved him on numerous occasions. He wishes her the best now that she is probably not a hunter. 

He watched how the fox was changing its position to lay on his neck better and out of the corner of his eyes watching the trees he marketed to not get lost.

[Hunt down a magic beast 1/2]

[You have completed the second part of the quest.

You gain access to the “Shop”

Shop - a store provided by the system where you can buy various things through gold.

Gold - a currency used all over the worlds of chaos. Could he obtained by selling your items to the system]

He stopped in his way reading the text. He noticed it only now but… the system was… lagging? Like he killed the carp some time ago but it reacted only now. He wishes it isn’t going to bring him any more trouble and… ‘Shop?’

A new window appeared showing him carrions items and sections. [Armour], [Weapons], [Artifacts], [Potions],  [Clothing], [Tools], [Human stuff], wait. What? He tapped on [Human stuff] to see the numerous hygiene products, various spices, gadgets. Everything you could normally see in a house. There was also a thing [Sell] and when he clicked on it the list of the things he had in his inventory appeared showing their prices.

1 gold for each firewood. 10 gold for a fish. 35 gold for his backpack and 560 for his medical kit. Unbelievable. 

The fox moved its face away from Jinwoo who was seemingly happy like a madman.

His 10th day was certainly full of pleasing surprises.

…

He made a simple cutting board, washed his hands and looked at the fish on it. He should first gut it. He knocked on his head to try to refresh his memory of how his father did it and then with a deep breath he turned the fish upside down and then secured it by placing his thumb in the mouth while grasping the gills. With his other hand he took the hunting knife and started taking some scales off just behind the gills. In the cleared area he sliced down until felt something solid. Surprisingly the fish’s skin and meat was way harder to slice, well, as he found out it was a magical beast.

Next he angled the tip of the blade flat and began cutting along the spine to its tail areas where he stabbed the knife further to continue slicing, freeing up the meat from the tail. He then cut the whole meat away and sliced the skin away from the meat. He repeated the same thing with the other side. He then proceeded to clean the meat a bit from all the undesirable meat. He took his time with it as a fox tried to steal one bite. He looked at it and then sliced a little piece of it and threw it aside for the fox to eat and for it to leave him alone.

He put some wild herbs he found on the way to the lake and some berries to enrich the flavour before putting it on fire and letting it cook.

As he finished it and cleaned his hands with water a system window appeared.

[The third stage of the quest “Tutorial” began.

Build a house 1/0]

Jinwoo blinked a few times before throwing a nearby wood at the system window which automatically sent the wood to the inventory and decided to ignore it for the time being.

But now thinking about it it wasn’t as impossible as he thought it to be. After he had a [Shop] now so maybe it would help him somehow achieve the goal the system gave him. And wasn’t there somewhere a blueprint in the shop of the house?

‘Shop’ he said to himself and it showed him the categories he saw before. ‘Tools’ a set of various tools appeared showing him a saw, chisels, tape measure, drill - basically everything you would need to build a house. Even the materials were also here. He was feeling a bit too lucky. The system couldn’t possibly be so generous just because. It wanted something from him. But what?

“Mawk!” The fox poked its nose at him to gain attention.

“Oh, yes, the fish. Thank you little bud.” He said lightly petting the fox. He wonders how it was so intelligent. Were magic beasts always so intelligent? Because as far a he understood they were after all a magical beasts if the system counted killing the fish as a magic beast. But could he actually trust system’s judgment when it was lagging so much? With such thoughts he bit off a piece of a fish carefully chewing to not eat any bones. An oh he almost forgot how fish tasted like. What was the last time he ate it? As an E rank he couldn’t really afford any luxury food and when he could afford the bare minimum it was all given to Jinah. He believed that if his starvation would made Jinah’s life better it was worth it. Just as well as all other sacrifices  he made for Jinah.

The fox settled down leaning onto Jinwoo’s crossed legs and was beginning to fall asleep as it heard a mumbling coming from above. It lifted its head only to see how the Korean hunter covered his face with his hands. The fox watched the scene before deciding to change its position and instead sit on Jinwoo’s legs as if trying to comfort him. 

With that, the 10th day came to an end.

…

11th day began similarly to 10th with Jinwoo getting his face licked. But now he reacted more calmly than the last time. He just shrugged it off. He stood up. Cleaned his face. Made new water for both of them to drink. Then decided to take off the fish he killed the other day. He wanted to test if the fish would spoil and enough time was spent that when a normal fish spent at least 4 hours in room temperature it would spoil. 

As he carefully took it out he inspected the corpse. Surprisingly. It was as if he just killed it. So, any food he puts there wouldn't spoil. That’s great to know.

He then proceeded to come out of the cave to look around. If he wants to build a house he needs to first clean the area around. Especially he needs wood now. To sell, and to build a house. 

“Nyaow!” A fox exclaimed as it followed him outside.

“I see you are completely healed?” He smiled but then his smile slowly faded away and was replaced instead by a grin. He came to the fox and picked it up in his hands. He then turned around and went deeper into the forest. 

The fox comfortably laid in his hands as Jinwoo simultaneously carried it somewhere. It was weirdly quiet and his expression was blunt, not showing any emotion aside from indifference. His eyes looked like that of a fish making the fox look straight, not at him. Its instincts told it that there was no danger but a still terrifying aura flew around making it uncomfortable change its position now and then. It recognized the surroundings they were in as a place it lived before. It just watched not having the intellect to predict what the human was going to do. 

He abruptly stopped and lowered himself to place a fox that was automatically ready to stand on a white snow. Jinwoo gave it only a slight glance before turning around and leaving. The fox sniffed the air. A familiar scent of the place it spent some time in. It looked behind to see how a human being was gradually disappearing amidst the tall trees that enveloped the area blocking any sunlight from coming but even despite that it wasn’t all that dark.

And then it finally noticed something. A problem wooden trap already half underneath the snow. It shifted its gaze back to the person who had already disappeared without saying a word. It stood there dumbfounded but after a minute of silence it regained its comprosure and ran to the bushes nearby to hide.

..

Jinwoo stopped in his tracks to fight off the urge to look back. He clenched his fist but took a deep breath. He blinked a few times and continued walking back to his cave while mumbling something to himself. He opened his inventory and took an Axe as he came to his own little area and looked around to understand if there was anyone beside him before flinching violently and almost collapsing from the sheer mana he felt. He took a few steps away from where the mana emanated. It was close. Close enough but unmoving as if not alive. He gulped his saliva as his whole body trembled.  His poor heart was racing at a crazy speed and he knew if such a powerful magical beast felt him, there was no escape. 

But as time passed nothing happened. The ominous still mana was unmoving and nothing gave off as if it was alive. He tried to feel somebody else but nothing came out. He took his axe in both of his arms meanwhile his legs shook so much he was ready to collapse from any moment. It wasn’t due to the mana simply overpowering his very being no. It wasn’t as strong as the one he faced on the tree. It was mediocre to it but far above his own league. Nevertheless. Nothing happened. His eyes were rapidly scanning around the area while he took a careful step toward the mana. Nothing happened. The mana didn't wave a single bit. One more step. Nothing. His breath was cracking. Two more steps. He was able to see among the trees a reddish almost black aura. Three steps. He  saw how snow became black. Four confident steps. And he saw it.

A root looking thing coming out of the ground. There was one big root which looked way more like the beginning of a tree but without any small branches coming out of it. Around it smaller roots coming and going back into the ground. The trees and plants around it were as if… dead. Without any life. Drenched out. The snow wasn’t any better. Black with hints of burgundy. The biggest root was also as dark as the abyss. On it there were red veins like lines that were breathing .

[Corrupted root of a World Tree]

[Lvl, 6]

He was only able to see abrupt red before his eyes widened from the sudden pain he felt in his stomach. He then flew and hit a tree as a painful scream came out of him. He didn't have time to fully realise what happened when he needed to step on his legs and avoid an attack he didn’t see coming just from pure reflexes he developed from the time as a hunter. He briefly was able to see what was attacking him before dodging another attack. 

"A freaking root is attacking me" he thought before dodging a root coming at him from the ground and instead of hitting and splitting his head in half, it instead completely decimated the tree behind him. ‘Shit’ he blocked the attack with the base of his axe, and despite blocking it still consumed the hit and kicked him back. As he had a distance between him and the thing he tried to run away but before he was able to do that the corrupted root pulled him by his leg back making him lose balance and fall on his stomach. He looked back at the big root that was slowly bringing him closer and tried with all of his might to chop the thing that grabbed him away by his axe but it did minimal damage. Not enough to stop it.

As if a feral cat he tried violently to free himself but to no avail. He wasn’t sure if the root was going to eat him or just kill. Everything happened too fast. He was too reckless, he needed to-

All of a sudden he felt a similar surge of mana coming. Almost the same one that he felt as he was in a tree and the same flow as the ice crystal close to his cave. Suddenly the root that held him was halfway frozen and he used that opening to free himself before making a few jumps away from it.

Who…

SKETCHES FOR THE FOX

Chapter Text

“ARGH!” He screamed in pain as the hit sent him flying to the nearest tree which cracked upon collison. He didn’t have time to think before needing to be on his legs again to dodge the second hit. 

“SHGHHHHHH” he was writhing with pain as he felt his side starting to literally decay.

He looked down at the eighth side of his stomach to see how a jacket now had a big hole in it having those black out corners. ‘My skin?’ It was black. His skin became ash black and it had cracks. 

He blocked the next attack with the blade of his axe but still got knocked away significantly again hitting the tree. This forest and its famed trees were like walls…. He looked at his blade in disbelief as the part where he blocked the hit with the blade not only darkness but the metal started to melt away and the steam poured out of the force collision. His eyes trembled but thankfully his body picked up if his mind was somewhere else and dodged the next attack by rolling away from it. The veins on the big root rose up and quickly returned to their normal state to only rise again. Jinwoo quickly assessed the situation. The ground around the big root literally evaporated out of existence not leaving anything behind and even now it was quickly disappearing in ashes and steam. Jinwoo gulped already regretful about his every life choices as another tree was destroyed in his attempt to block the attack.

The thing was fast, but thankfully had just one active root that was attacking him. Every other was still buried deep underground, not moving. 

“HIiicK!” He blocked a direct hit again with his blade but now at a different side and now both of the sides were damaged. He needs to either run or fight. And he is way more reluctant  to run. As another hit came he didn’t get enough time to run so he blocked it with his axe and the blade shattered into pieces as he watched the scene unfold his face went pale as his dark circles under his eyes were now highlighted on a white skin from how bad his sleep was. He cursed to himself and now went on full dodging. 

“CAWR!!” Jinwoo blinked in confusion from the voice but as he looked up he met tge gaze of the four eyed raven monster. It looked at how he was actively jumping and let out another “craw”. It sat on the branch of the tree unbothered by the aggressive root and was rather just watching the show ‘Jinwoo don’t die because of a plant’. Jinwoo tilted his head to dodge another attack but suddenly the root changed its pattern and went straight ahead to the completely opposite side of Jinwoo.

‘Huh?’ He watched how the root rapidly cut the distance between it and… the crow? It changed its prey. And now the prey was the stupid bird who sat not noticing the root coming at it just watching Jinwoo instead. “GO AWAY FROM THERE!!!” He screamed but the crow did not react. He slapped his forehead but the decided to take a more aggressive approach of chasing the crow away from danger. He looked down at his now broken axe where the only thing left was a handle. And he threw it not really caring about accuracy. The handle went flying faster than the root was coming at the crow that now quickly flew up to evade being hit with a stick. “KRAW!!!” Now it looked furious at Jinwoo but at the place where it stood the aggressive root already hit it and completely destroyed the place turning it into ash. The root then changed its aggro again at Jinwoo and not before long  he started sprinting away from the root until he saw that he was was out of reach for the thing as he watched the root helplessly trying to stretch to him while hitting trees all around it and destroying them. 

All of a sudden the root quickly get back to the main big veiny root. Jinwoo sighed relieved now thinking he was safe.  He wiped the sweat out of his face as his heart slowly started coming to a normal pace and didn’t want to jump out of his chest while his lungs were destroying themselfs. He slowly stared backing away still watching the side from where the root came now that it was blocked by numerous trees.

“MEEEEEEOWWWWW” Jinwoo jerked as the loud familiar scream came from the side where he just was. Could it be…? A fox he let go of not so long ago? That stupid creature followed him?   His eyes widened in horror as he realized that the creature was probably against the corrupted root now that Jinwoo left. And the reason why the root stopped reaching out to him.

A funny stupid though came to his head.

He slapped himself leaving a red mark of his cheek as he grinned his theeths. He was not going to go out there and risk his life again. He is NOT sacrificing himself again. He refuses. If there was a chance he would be able to walk away from that dungeon he would have done so. He would have left Song Chi-Yul die because- Jinwoo blamed him. 

“MEOW!” As a fox meowned  His face darkened from the thought that the weak creature will die after he saved it. It wasn’t worth going out there risking his life now that he had no weapon. He was going to do what Kim did. Run and leave everybody behind. Like a coward he is. He turned around and started walking away but suddenly he froze and his legs started shaking violently, not letting him go any further.

He wanted to be like Kim. He blamed the man but was Jinwoo any better than him now? Now that he was leaving the fox to die? The same fox that came to him and saved him? The fox was probably the one who launched that weak ice attack that distracted the root when it grabbed him by his leg. And now Jinwoo was the one leaving somebody behind. But how could he not? He has a family- 

Jinwoo bit his lip violently as a blood from his nose started to dip down again from the amount of emotions he was feeling. “MEOW!!!!!!” He quickly turned around and ran to the root. As he came into the little open field he watched how the fox was dodging the attacks by inches. It was close to getting hit. And if it was hit Jinwoo doesn’t think it would survive. It wasn’t as experienced in dodging as Jinwoo was and neither as fast. 

as the fox noticed him it ran towards him. He quickly jumped at it shielding it away from the attack the fox was too distracted by him to notice. “HICK!” He screamed through theeths as he felt his back burning and becoming like a sand, like ash. He grabbed the fox by its neck and started running away with it in his hands. 

“Nyaw !” The fox started moving violently in his hands as if opposing him to leave and tried to free itself by moving its body at rapid speed “SHUT IT!” Jinwoo screamed at it but to no awail. He panicked now that it managed to escape his grasp from his hug as it used him as a surface to jump straight at the root coming at it dedicated to fight until death. “YOU LITTLE BASTARD!!!!!” He screamed at full volume as again he blocked an attack from the root directed at the fox with his hand.

‘YOU LITTLE BITCH’ he thought to himself now that it left him no choice but to fight back. He grabbed it and now put it inside his jacket as he pulled the leash tighter so it wouldn’t slip out again while supporting its weight with one hand.

He circled around the root contemplating his options. ‘Inventory’ a blue screen appeared at the very unfortunate place. Right before his fucking face and his vision at the root was blocked. “FUCK ALL OF YOU” he screamed as he felt his senses sharp as the attack was probably going straight to his face now that he wasn’t able to see it.

[WARNING!

This item cannot be transferred to Inventory!]

A red screen appeared as the root bounced away from Jinwoo upon making contact with the system window. ‘Huh?’ His face was dumbfounded as he just stood watching how a root tried to come at him but the system prevented it.

[WARNING!

This item cannot be transferred to Inventory!]

Jinwoo blinked but not before long he needed to jump away because apparently the root decided to target his legs instead of his head. He began circling around it again but not as fast now that most of the hits were blocked by the inventory so he slowed down to preserve his energy. He may need to see what system hidden features are later on but right now he quickly accessed his inventory.

Well…. Not much. His medical kit, butane torch, firewood and… Kim’s sword. 

Jinwoo shook his head and decided to grab the butane torch instead. He suddenly remembered all the lessons his father taught him about fire safety. How to hadnle gas leaks, explosions, how to prevent them…. a lot of stuff he never thought he would need but apparently now was the time. With one hand he started meddling with the mechanism that connected the gas and spray. He wanted to damage it enough so it would explode upon a hard hit. He felt how a fox looked up at him and licked the blood from his nose that was now slowly dripping down from his chin. His smile grew as he saw little crack appearing in the butane torch. It may not work and he may set the whole forest on fire. But he would do rather that than place a bet at the sword that may just break because of the contact with the root.

He leaped down and threw the bottle at the big root as the attention of the attacking corrupted root has shifted to the nearest thing that was launching at him. In this case damaged butane torch. It destroyed it upon contact and the moment Jinwoo saw the hit he quickly jumped away as the explosion wave hit him throwing away.

“Meow!” The fox meowned meanwhile Jinwoo huh it to shield it with his body from the explosion. Despite the butane torch being just a D rank it was still a magical imbued tool. Which meant… it could affect magic, or whatever that thing was, beast. He hissed from amount of pain he felt from  the parts of his body  that were decaying and probably the burn marks he received at the back after the explosion. It felt rather powerful too. 

He felt how the fox started licking him while breathing heavy and a few system windows appeared letting out a blue light that reflected in the fox’s eyes. His own eyes closed now that he started feeling the amount of pain he had that was before shielded by the adrenaline factor. He changed his position and let go of the fox to hug himself to somehow relieve the pain while his face twisted in agony.

“You… little…” he wanted to say something to the fox now that he slowly started to open his eyes despite the immersive pain to look at the before white fur that was now covered in his blood. His eyes were full of water and were shluggish and as he tried to lift his body it clearly said “fuck you” and completely shut itself down.

“Haaaaaaah…..” he growled at his inability to lift himself up and the amount of pain tge attempted brought with his. He felt how his heart all of a sudden started aching but instead of paying it any attention he rolled to the other side to watch how a root was burning up. The flames caught only the root and the snow with the trees as if pushed away the fire. Did they have a resistance or complete immunity? Wasn’t it supposed to be like fire beats ice?

[You have deafeat a “Corrupted root of a world tree”]

[You have received a loot

1x corrupted branch of a world tree]

[You have gained 300 exp

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

Current lvl: 2]

Jinwoo blinked at the windows not quite catching what they say and reread the to try and register the information but his mind slowly started to drift away from the reality despite him trying his hardest not to black out.

“meow!” The meows form the fox now were as if under water and the only thing he could hear was the white noise in his ears. His vision of the windows and the fox began to part ways and now there were two foxes before him.  His mouth full of metal taste as he started to suffocate on his own blood. His head spun around and he started to see a weird gasoline colour shielding everything else im his eyes, it slowly came closer at closer until his vision got completely covered in it.

What was that?

…

Jinwoo slowly came back to his  senses as he felt his jacket rubbed against his chin as something was lifting up his hood dragging him somewhere. The previous unseeable pain had subdued and there were numerous system windows flying above him while following his body that was dragged away.

“Shush!” He brought his hand up to release his hood from whatever was holding it as he slowly got up groaning from how sluggish his limbs felt. “You!” He exclaimed as he recognised  the being  which was dragging him. “Maw!” It meowed aloud letting go of his jacket and quickly coming to his face to try to “bite” his nose while licking it. “Hey! Cut it off!” He placed his hand in protection to not allow the beast to bite his nose off. Despite it doing in a rather joking manner it didn’t look like Jinwoo was having it. “Meow!” It answered and started bumping it’s whole body against his face. “Really! Enough is enough!” He finally made the fox leave him alone as he shifted his attention up at the numerous system windows flying in the air.

[You have defeat a “Corrupted root of a world tree”]

[You have received a loot

1x corrupted branch of a world tree]

[You have gained 300 exp

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

Current lvl: 2]

[2 points to all of your stats.]

[10 adjustable points]

[You have obtained skill  “Will to recover”

Your recovery is increased when you are asleep]

He blinked at the numerous information he had just gained from exploding an oversized weed. Who knew his idea on a whim would prove to be so effective despite the explosion being way more powerful than expected? And also what with that “level up”? Exp? experience? What is it? Well. It must be good if it added 2 points  to all of his stats… ‘stats’ he said to himself as the fox circled around him happy that he was alive while trying to occasionally lick his face.

[Player:Sung Jinwoo

Level : 2

Stats:

HP: 120 (+2)

Physical Defence: 28 (+2)

Magical Defence: 27 (+2)

Physical Attack: 33 (+2)

Magical Attack: 22 (+2)

 Agility: 43 (+2) 

 Intelligence: 26 (+2)

Perception: 34 (+2) 

 Resistance: 20 (+2)

Stamina:121 (+2) 

Adjustable points: 10

Titles: -

Job: - 

Active Skills: -

Passive Skills: “Will to recover”, “Axe  proficiency Lvl 1” 

Blessings: Blessing of the great mage Kandiaru

Equipped armour: - 

Current quest: Tutorial (Warning! You are in set mode so no other quest (s) can be accepted until “Tutorial” is complete)] 

[Player:Sung Jinwoo

Level : 2

Stats:

HP: 132 

Physical Defence: 30 [+]

Magical Defence: 29 [+]

Physical Attack: 35 [+]

Magical Attack: 24 [+]

 Agility: 45 [+]

 Intelligence: 28[+]

Perception: 36 [+]

 Resistance: 22 [+]

Stamina:123

Adjustable points: 10

He blinked a few times at his stats and closed them, deciding to deal with them later. “Where the hell are we?” He asked but he didn’t need to wonder for long because as he stood up he already saw big icicle that would suggest one thing. His cave. He stared down at the little fox who tried to try and climb up at him with it’s claws. And it actually was already at his stomach but way more unstable treating to fall down. Jinwoo brought his hand up to support its butt to help it climb up onto his shoulder easier “You little brat. Got so bold now that you are comfortable climbing onto me?” Jinwoo smiled at the show the fox put on. The creature was uncomfortably smart, not only it brought the berries as a gratitude but it also followed him and even protected him- wait. It could use magic? “You little sly sucker” he clicked his tongue but he had a smile while just putting a facade of being irritated because he didn’t. It brought a question on why it didn’t attack him on their first encounter but maybe it had mana depletion? He never really saw magic beasts having any of the sort. And the fox wasn't showing any signs of mana insufficiency that were similar to human. Huh? Interesting. He wonders if any scientist figured it out? 

He slowly walked up to the cave with weird sense of being well rested despite not long ago suffering a rather bad battle and well… most of his clothes was now half decayed and torn off. He abruptly stopped at the shiver from the cold wind. He felt how the fox licked his cheek as if to support him in his struggles “You have a warm fur. Give it to me.” He joked but as if understanding the fox opened its mouth and made a click sound with its theeth “Oh, c’mon i am joking.” He said and regained his walk but not before looking back at the signs of battle that were hidden behind trees but still noticeable. There weren’t any fires so it looks like they were too weak to affect anything other than the root. Which…. Make and at the same time didn’t make sense. He tried to wrap his Brian around it but gave up and regained his posture to go back to his cave. He walked near the big icicle when he saw how a fox weirdly tried to come closer to it. Does it enjoy the coldness? Somehow he doesn’t think it was like that…. The fox seemed… too found of it? As if…

He was in cave when he let the fox jump off from his shoulder. “Looks like you are staying with me. Aren’t you?” He said not looking at the fox but instead his gaze was on the system window trying to find something in the system’s shop. Not long ago he sold around 54 firewood pieces and now his balance was at 54 gold. Maybe he will be ably to find clothes? He thought to himself as he sat at the rocky surface. Fox quickly seasing the opportunity curled up at his warm laps. Jinwoo jumped up from the unexpected move and sat uncomfortable not sure where to put his hands, in the end deciding to pet the creature who got way too comfortable around him.

’Why?’ He abruptly stopped the petting because of a question echoing in his mind which made the fox lift its head to look at his face in confusion as to why the petting stopped.

’Why….’ Jinwoo’s face darkned at the question as he looked down to look straight into fox’s eyes. “Why did you come back to me after i left you?” He basically threw the creature into the wild to fight for itself after knowing how weak it was to fend off for itself but it came back. Did it got attached to him? Not possible they weren’t together long enough. And why try to fight for him? It was dumb.  It could have escaped and lived. There was a possibility to it to die so why risk its life for-

“KAWR!” he was drawn from his thoughts by the crow  that was screaming outside as if demanding something. “KAWR KAWR KAWR!” Jinwoo closed his ears from the obnoxious sound and carefully put the fox on his sleeping bag before going outside to look what happened. “What?” He looked up at the bird who sat at the highest branch looking down on him. “KAWR!” it exclaimed again and Jinwoo sighed. Why was this happening with him?

“What? What do you want?” He asked but obviously enough the crow couldn’t answer him in words. “KAWR” crow became louder and louder and more… angrier? Jinwoo scratched his neck before the realisiation hit. ‘Was it upset i threw a stick at it?’ the thought was absurd but looking back at the smart fox it wasn’t as unbelievable or weird.

“Haaaaaaa… sure” he said and opened his inventory to take something our. The leftovers from the fish. “Here, let’s make peace and you will leave me alone.” he stretched his hand for the crow to take the meat and fly away leaving him alone for the time being. 

“Well?” he waited for the crow curiously on what it would do. From the distance the crow watched them but suddenly its gaze fell onto Jinwoo’s pocket where the feather was poking out. His fox companion slowly came out of the cave stretching out. “Cmon i don’t have the whole day. Either take it or fly away” he said with irritated voice. The fox yawned watching from the sidelines the interaction before closing its eyes with seemingly being tired. The crow looked down on the fox and squinted its four eyes before opening its wings and slowly flying closer to Jinwoo to quickly snatch the meat away and sit back at the tree. With mission accomplisnt Jinwoo waved his hand and picked up the fox to hug it and it quickly fell asleep in his arms. He then took out his watch to see the time. 16:56. It would mean he needs to make sometime later make a quick trip to the river and catch more fish. As much as possible so he wouldn’t need to go there any time soon. Maybe he needs to make a fishing net to make the cathing easier. And also…. 

[Inventory

A mana enhanced sword: Rank C, +23 attack]

He bit his lip and swallowed his oh so small pride and took the sword out of the inventory which made him want  to vomit upon the contact with it. The gruesome memories of constant bullying came back to his mind just as well as the betrayal and a pathetic face of the man who made excuses. He needs to make as much gold as he possibly can to buy something else. Even if weaker. The decent weapons came at the whopping price of 1200 gold which… was a lot considering he has just 53 but with time he will gain more but right now it is not a priority.  He needs to firstly acquire the basic day to day things before buying anything else. But he will keep the new weapon in mind because self defence was still important. And also he needs to think about how to build a house…. and raise that little thing in his arms that wouldn’t leave him alone. So he has that to keep in mind. He also needs to keep in mind the really persistent crow that now wouldn’t leave him alone. One he threw a stick at and two he fed it. He just wishes it wasn’t going to bring its friends along for the free food.  But what could he do? It looked like the crow calmed down for once which is certainly a success.  He then hugged himself from the sudden cold wind remembering that his clothes were torn. ‘Shop’ ‘Clothes’ and magically he opened the shop’s window with rather manageable prices.

He looked through the long list of basically any clothing he would ever need. He had 53 gold right now so he could manage buy up to five peaces of clothes, the most expensive one costet 10 gold. Which was manageable. His gaze stopped at a certain item which had effects. Didn’t it belong in a different category? Like armour?  He wanted to laugh but the obnoxiously cheap price for the magical item looked too apilieng to just shrug it off. Could it be a scam? How is system shop even work? Does it literally create an item out of thin air or somebody sells it? If so why wasn’t there a name of the one selling them? How can he know the being is trustworthy? What if he gets scammed a big time? Their no even basic reviews! and he can’t even ask other people what they thin about the product because there are no other people! Unbelievable. That is why he hates online shops.

Despite his initial concerns he still tapped on [buy] the magical cloak.

[You have bought “Enhanced basic Cloak”

The item has been transferred to your inventory]

He took the cloak out of the inventory and suddenly the system window appeared

[Enhanced basic cloak

Type: clothes

Effect: +2% physical defence]

The cloak was deep black with a few metal strenghtheners around the corner which made him uneasy about the weigh slowing him down. But the bonus was rather nice. Having more defense would help him tank more hits. And oh, wasn’t he going to buy clothing?

In the end after spending nearly 40 minutes comparing and thinking about what to buy he bought a shirt, jacket, pants, tights, a few pair of socks for cheap. And he was out of money. He smiled warmly as he changed into new clothes which made him feel refresh. It made him wonder if there are any hygiene products he may find in this shop. 

During that the fox lazily stretched out and it looked like Jinwoo took his time in choosing clothes that the fox now was completely rested and now sat by the open entrance of the cave with the door put on the side watching how snow was falling down while trying to eat it at the same time making clicking sounds while its mouth rapidly closed and opened to catch the snow. Jinwoo consumed in his own thoughts opened his status window to decide what to do with his new points.

Player:Sung Jinwoo

Level : 2

Stats:

HP: 132 

Physical Defence: 30 

Magical Defence: 29 

Physical Attack: 35 

Magical Attack: 24 

 Agility: 45 

 Intelligence: 28

Perception: 36 

 Resistance: 22

Stamina:123 

Adjustable points: 10

Titles: -

Job: - 

Active Skills: -

Passive Skills: “Will to recover”, “Axe  proficiency Lvl 1” 

Blessings: Blessing of the great mage Kandiaru

Equipped armour: - 

Current quest: Tutorial (Warning! You are in set mode so no other quest (s) can be accepted until “Tutorial” is complete)]   

He contemplated before deciding to put some points into his agility, magical and physical defence and his physical attack. 

[Player:Sung Jinwoo

Level : 2

Stats:

HP: 122

Physical Defence: 33 

Magical Defence: 31 

Physical Attack: 38 

Magical Attack: 24 

 Agility: 47 

 Intelligence: 28

Perception: 36 

 Resistance: 22

Stamina:123 

Titles: -

Job: - 

Active Skills: -

Passive Skills: “Will to recover”, “Axe  proficiency Lvl 1” 

Blessings: Blessing of the great mage Kandiaru

Equipped armour: - 

Current quest: Tutorial (Warning! You are in set mode so no other quest (s) can be accepted until “Tutorial” is complete)]   

Now that he had calmed down a bit his thoughts went away to the mysterious root. Corrupted root of the world tree. He wasn’t really into the whole “universes”, “creation” things so he didn’t payed it much mind but from what he knew the world tree was the one holding all the worlds, right? Or was it creating the world? He really needed to pay attention on those Philosophy lesson they had in school… maybe if he did so he wouldn’t be in such a situation. But maybe even if he knew about what the world tree truly is there just wasn’t a way for him to know for sure and that “corrupted” part. It was literally decaying earth around it annihilating it from existence. Was it like the opposite of the world tree? Where the first was creating the last one was destroying? But was it truly destruction if nothing was left behind? So more like complete annihilation? He wonders if something like that is written in his book.

“Ping!“ jinwoo jerked away from the sound in his head. As if a bell was ringed, did he hit his head or his ears were playing a prank on him? Was this hallucination? He had a lot of those lately to be honest…

“Meow!” The fox exclaimed pressing its head against his leg as if wanting to gain his attention. It then proceeded to turn around a few times and then lay down and look at Jinwoo who was seemingly confused but then he realised something.

“You want to sleep.” The fox tilted its head not understanding what Jinwoo meant because it already rested enough but it seemed happy. “We sure do need to go to sleep. It was… a crazy day” all began with him leaving the fox behind proceeded with finding a crazy root and then him being saved by the fox he abandoned earlier. And now he has some beef with a crow. Beatifull.

He is like an Indians Jones with his own adventuress. What next? A tree on legs? Oh wait yeah, no why he has a feeling that he just tempted fate right now?

A shimmer went down his spine making him increasingly more anxious. If he dies here his only regret would be not seeing his mother through the window one last time due to hunters not being allowed near the patiencs suffering from eternal slumber. What was the last time he touched his mother’s hand?  

He shook his head trying to make the thoughts go away but the unparalleled guilt hit him like a tsunami wanting to drown him. He should not falter nor accept his fate. The system helps him and he is going to fight to survive if that is the last thing he will do.

And what about his moral code? Looking down at the fox and remembering the crow he decided to make one, singular rule in his moral code that stood above all. “If they want to kill or harm me they will die” he said out loud and with the strong bloodlust the fox with the surprised jumped on its own place while slightly trembling.

Jinwoo quickly noticing the worried fox quickly went to comfort it while taking out his notebook to write everything that happened. Maybe if he looks back on it he would notice something. 

11th day was crazy, shortly…

…

His morning began with him almost choking because the fox decided to sleep on his face, how cute. His whole face was covered in fur that stuck on it and some even got into his mouth. As he desperately tried to tear of the fur that was now sticking to his fingers the fox lazily turned around on the sleeping bag. And his sleeping bag was now covere ein fur too. How fun.

“You weren’t like this the last time.” It made him uncomfortable how fast the fox trusted him and how spoiled it looked now. Unbelievable. It reminded him of his sister. Also a lazy one. She was even more lazy before their mother as hospitalised. Her grades were lacking and she spend hours on end playing video games. She still plays but not as much as before. Jinah was always smarter than him. She was more capable tha him too. Even when she was just a kid she exceeded his expectations. She was smart and easy going. Where to him the easiest subjects were hard. He was rather quite and shy where Jinah was loud and energetic. He is happy that she was able to live her teenage years without the need to worry on what would happen tomorrow. Where to get money. How to not die. They were all his problems because he was an adult and she is a child. To him she always will be a child. A little sister that doesn’t know any better. A kid whom he needs to come back to and protect. His only mission in life. No matter what. He needs to return to her. Without him he isn’t sure if she would even be able to do her own laundry. He needs to come back alive he needs to-

“Meow!” Jinwoo jumped at his place when the fox lipped into his lap to then massage his legs to make its Stau more comftobable before laying down.

“…” he smiled warmly looking down on the fox before the immidiate thought came to his mind. He quickly picked up the fox to then hold it up in the air and look down on its genitals.

“So you are a girl.” He said and the fox meowned back. He put her back on his lap while slowly petting her while his hand became increasingly more covered in fur. His face when blank when he realised his grave mistake and looked around the cave to just look at rhe fire. He shoudp probably burn the fur… or yet better save it because now he does not have a butane torch or any other easy way of making fire. Fur was really easy to light up right? He saw somewhere in a video about that… or was it something else? Doesn’t matter. He easier saves some or burns it all away.

“I should probably give you a name eh?” The fox looked up at him with a smile-like face with those knowing eyes . Jinwoo was never good with remembering or thinking about names. He never had any creativity or whatsoever. He was a person with no talents or interests. And he was worse than average in most things. But this time it hit him. The name felt natural. He closed his eyes and the image of his sister still as a baby appeared in his mind. Such a distant memory but still…

“Ahjin…. Your name is Ahjin” he slowly exhaled petting the fox before a weird feeling of his mana depleting settled in. Or was it truly mana? He has never felt what mana felt like inside him. There were always faint traces or something inside him but he could never truly pinpoint where they were. But now he could feel it flowing through his veins, blood and how it exited his body to then transfer to the little fox whose fur became electrised but as the fox went to lick it it became as it was. His eyes still closed and not surprisingly another *Ping sound sounded in his ears but now he didn’t react as violently. No system window appeared or anything but it meant something. But it doesn’t matter now. Due time he will know what it is. There is no reason for him to rush. ‘ Patience’ he reminds himself. Patience was a key to surviving. The only way for the weakest man of all mankind to survive and gain some profit. 

“Maw?” Jinwoo finally opened his eyes not realising he stopped petting Ahjin that now was rather irritated by him stopping.

“Sorry.” He quietly whispered and the fox relaxed back and closed its eyes laining back. Jinwoo began again petting the fox and with his free hand he went to his pocket to take out his cloak before remembering it was in a different jacket. ”Could you fetch me my watch? In the jacket’s pocket.” He tapped with pointy finger on the fox and the next moment it lazily stood up stretching and turning around to go to the torn jacket she was supposed to sleep in and not on his face. It went to it passing by a fire which he shoudp probably add some fuel and Ahjin went directly to his jacket and started turning it around trying to find something. With its mouth it finally found a hole and its face his in it before getting out. In her mouth she held  his watch. His eyes wide open as the fox placed the watch in his lap and went again to sleep while changing its position and waiting for Jinwoo to pet it.

The fox was NOT supposed to do that. How the fuck it did that? With the power of friendship bullshit or some shit???? 

“Huh” was his only response. Ahjin was NOT supposed to understand him or his request. Was she that intelligent? Last time he checked magic beasts could NOT understand human language.

His answer came shortly after the fox slightly bite him to pet her again.

[You have given a name to the Demonic ice fox

You have claimed a familiar ]

[Ahjin

Level : 1

Bound Level : 0

Stats:

HP: 20

Physical Defence: 5

Magical Defence: 11

Physical Attack: 1 

Magical Attack: 7

 Agility: 9

 Intelligence: 6

Perception: 20 

 Resistance: 1

Stamina:30 

Mana: 100

Adjustable points: 5

Race: Demon Ice Fox

Genre: Female

Active Skills: Ice breath (…), Icicle (…)

Passive Skills: Icy armour (…)

Blessings: -

Equipped armour: - 

Food : 100/56

Water 100/45

Ascension quest (Warning! You are in set mode so  this quest cannot be accepted until “Tutorial” is complete) (Warning! You have not reached the requirements)]

His face completely dumbfounded at the messages while Ahjin started violently tapping her nose at his hand to start petting her again.

“Huuuuhh?????” his moth open in pure shock as the life is drained out of his face. What does that even mean?! What is a Familiar? What is a [Bound Level]???? What does that vene mean??????? As far as his knowledge goes  familiars were pets of a witch or a sorcerer and last time he checked he was neither a women to be a witch and either a sorcerer!

“WHAT THE - ARGH!!!!!” Jinwoo screamed in pain when the fo bit him in his hand now that its apparent “warnings” didn’t worked on the human. Ahjin held onto Jinwoo as he violently started waving his hand to lose the fox before grabbing it by her face and yanking her away. “FUCK YOU TOO!” He shouts as the fox now seemingly angry starts barking at him. 

“THAT IS IT! TIME OUT!” He screams when he yanks Ahjin by her neck and throws her out of the cave before blocking the hole with the wooden door

There was a silent pause where he stopped breathing. Something felt wrong. His senses were sharpened. Suddenly the feeling of a really strong regret flooded his mind overwhelming his other emotions, and it didn’t feel like his emotion before it subdued. He let out a deep sigh his eyes wide open from the sudden effect. He could literally feel not even sense the fox outside of his cave and it was just frozen in one place before it launched into the door trying to break it, the violent sounds echoed in the small space before Jinwoo was able to understand what was happening and still shook up he just went and blocked the wooden door with his back as to not let the fox inside. It bit him so he needs to educate him…. Was it even appropriate to do it? Could it be considered abuse in a sort?

He listened to scratches the fox was making while meowing really loudly

“What just happened?” He was overwhelmed with numerous events that took place in just one day, on the back of his mind he could feel some sort of connection and a emotions that were bordering near anger, guilt, and something else entirely. It wasn’t as hard as the first wave that hit but it was still hard.

“I need to take a break…” he said while looking at the rocky wall while his back endured endless tackles from the fox.

Chapter Text

Jinwoo slightly crooked his head to look at Ahjin  who was now showing him her butt while standing in the corner of the cave as it was her punishment after what Jinwoo called "being naughty”. Truly, the name “Ahjin” embodied the fox with her high resemblance to his sister by their similar character. Both of them were vassals of chaos and ruin every time he left either of them alone for mere seconds.  Even the way her head was down was done the very same as when Jinah was standing in the corner, punished by their mother for drawing in Jinwoo’s school history books. He himself wasn’t particularly mad, after all, the mustaches she drew to all people were fun to look at, but his mother wasn’t very thrilled about the artistic side of her daughter. Initially, Jinwoo wanted to let it slide but their mother then punished him too for allowing his sister to get off scot free. He can’t really blame his mother, after all, she needed to buy a new book for the school because Jinah drew with markers. 

“Meooow….” A whine came out of the fox but Jinwoo purposely ignored her and made a whole show of not sparing even a glance for her.  He threw some firewood to keep the fire going now that it became even a bigger deal due to inability to recreate fire. It looks  like it was another thing he needs to keep an eye on.

It was early in the morning of the 12th day so he just relaxed a bit. There were no immediate tasks he needed to attend to. He had everything necessary for his survival: food, water, place to sleep, his family. And besides, a harsh blizzard suddenly decided to show up outside the cave with no prior indication of it happening so he was just stuck in the cave waiting it out because, well, he doesn’t want to die while being buried alive by snow. And the snow falling was so thick he could barely see anything two steps from his cave. So going outside was not an option. 

While cleaning his glasses and cooking some mushrooms. The current plan he thought of was to earn as much gold as he could so he could buy the tools he needed to build a house. To earn gold he needs to sell stuff. And he has three options: cut wood and sell it, pick up herbs and sell them, or kill fish and sell it. 

Cutting wood takes time and he has no axe to do it properly. He could try doing it with a sword but… who in their right mind would attempt it? 

Herbs are way too important for his current situation to sell not to mention that they are limited. So the only viable option is… killing fish. Which isn’t bad as an option. It should fetch for a good price. It is just…. he is worried that if he kills too many fishes he could just kill all of them by accident and currently he has no other way to find other small rivers. Sure, it was unlikely he could singlehandedly wipe out the entire population but caution never killed anyone. And besides. Now that Ahjin is with him, killing feels… weird. The fish most probably is also some sort of a magic beast which makes sense. And it is not like Jinwoo kills them for his own twisted satisfaction; he needs it to survive. Caution is the way. He after all, was no vegan so why such thoughts all of a sudden for an ordinary fish with no feelings? 

 There was also a problem that he had no reliable way to light the fire. He needs to stress about checking on it constantly when as before he could leave it unattended and if it goes out then he could make another one, attentiveness is even required here. What a pain.

Not to mention the fact that he now has a responsibility of keeping Ahjin safe and sound now that he officially took her in, and he feels that it will be a struggle. She is a wild beast, not a domesticated little puppy whom you can train. She is an energetic, chaotic fox who can blast ice out of her mouth.

Despite all of that, she is a small little bean and he wants to believe that she will stay like that and not grow into a 7 meters tall magic beast that wants something more than just fish for a snack (Just like Jinah who is on bad days worse than any magic beast… He wonders if it is the teenager’s hormones). And if that happens you better believe that he will not be around when that happens. Who knows, maybe he would do the same thing his father did, disappear into the gate. But in his case it would be a gate back to Earth. 

“Meow.” Ahjin decided to remind Jinwoo about her existence and tapped her nose into Jinwoo’s side leaving her corner.

“What? Are you hungry? You already ate a whole fish and i don't have anything else to offer!” He said and tapped his pointy finger at Ahjin’s forehead. 

“Maw!” She then started aggressively beating his leg with her little paws doing no damage but instead receiving a laugh from Jinwoo.

“You really do look like Jinah! I was onto something when naming you in her honour. You both are feral!” He laughed even more before grabbing Jinah with both of his hands and laying her down on her back on his lap to then start aggressively poking at her.

“Attack from both sides! Raah!” He exclaimed and Ahjin opened her mouth to try and catch his fingers that were quickly retrieving back when she tried to bite him. “What? A great demonic ice fox can’t handle a mere human? Then take this you vile beast!” Ahjin started letting out noises more akin to the normal fox and moving her body unnaturally to try and catch Jinwoo. 

“What are you? A liquid able to move your body like that?” He joked and smiled before grabbing both of Ahjin's front legs to move them apart to then dip his face into her stomach and breathe out air through his mouth. Ahjin, not understanding what was happening, started hysterically screaming and trying to get away while moving her body in a way a cat would.

Finally, Jinwoo let her go and she jolted to the opposite side of the cave jumping through the fire. She then stood in a fighting stance but suddenly her chest touched the ground and her tail stood up with her front legs being far apart. She then let out a weird sound that was akin to that of a dog’s barking and Jinwoo’s smile grew wider.

“You know Jinah loved it when I did that to her. It was her ticklish spot. She would be hysterical and run around the apartment to get away from me while I chased her down. Sad thing she grew up and got angry at me every time I tried doing it again. Teenagers.” He huffed and reminisced about the past before Ahjin let out another bark. Her front legs tapping the floor making a screeching sound of her little claws against solid rock that made Jinwoo’s face distort from the sound that attacked his ears.

“What? What do you want now?” He asks and Ahjin starts to circle him around the fire. She ran to his one side to try and bite him but Jinwoo reacted quickly trying to grab her by her mouth but she then made a circle around the fire to try and bite his other side. 

“Oh, so a game then hm?” He asked and slowly stood up from his place to try and get her. Sadly the ceiling was far too low to allow him to comfortably stay straight and even so he could hit his head pretty hard but he didn’t care. He was about to teach the little fox a lesson.

“Now come here!” He began trying to catch her as she ran circles around the campfire. As he tried to intercept her she changed directions. After some minutes of this they just menacingly stared at each other excitedly awaiting each other's move.

Both of their heads moved at a lightning speed when the howl could be heard in the distance breaking through the harsh blizzard. And suddenly a huge surge of mana started coming right at them at an  incredible speed. Jinwoo quickly drew Kim's sword by summoning the system window and putting his hand into it as it disappeared in the blue pixels returning with a sword. His body  tensed awaiting as the presence came closer and closer to his cave. He tried to make himself as small as possible as his instincts kicked in and his mana suddenly became smaller and less visible. He he mana? He could do it? Since when? 

But it was not the time to think about it as the unpleasant intruder’s presence came closer and closer as Ahjin quickly jumped to Jinwoo’s side to hide behind him as her fur stood still and her whole body tensed up.

The mana flying in the air started coming to Ahjin as if she was consuming it, her own mana and presence becoming stronger. Since when could she do something like that? What in the world is happening? First he is able to draw his own mana and now Ahjin consumes the mana floating in the air. The fuck. Could it have been possible? He never noticed it. Has she done a similar thing before? But his thoughts are intercepted as his legs weaken with the terrifying presence looming over him. 

An overwhelming wave of mana came down on him, his body uncontrollably started shaking and trying to lay down from the severity of the mana wave that was too much for him to handle. He couldn't feel it clearly but there was definitely not one being. The mana in the front reminded him of the time something similar happened when he was forced to climb the tree to evade the magic beasts. 

Numerous enemies but now he was on the ground so the sheer shock from being exposed to it made him buckle. But despite his best attempts his body didn’t listen to him as he tried to move or even simply feel his muscles. Nothing. Was it fear or the mana itself that kept him frozen? Probably both. The presence was so overwhelming he was ready to pass out and probably not wake up. 

Both Jinwoo and Ahjin were on high alert as they nervously awaited the enemy to come barging into their little home. Within a few seconds of wait before he was able to identify for sure that the mana Jinwoo feels in the front  now was identical to the one he faced the earlier days. But now it seems…. Frantic? Weaker? More wild? He was able to feel some more lights of mana from behind it at a considerable distance from the being but this mana he could not identify. He wasn’t sure how to describe it as the chilling coldness of the mana came closer and closer trying to get into his skin threatening to consume him whole. 

And as the magic beast was almost near his cave entrance one in the front jumped over  his hideout as the rest of the beings followed it. 

And as all of them left, so did the paralysis of Jinwoo and Ahjin. She jumped away from Jinwoo as he collapsed on his knees trying to take some frantic breaths as his whole body began shaking uncontrollably. His skin was paler three tones becoming almost white. Not to mention he was already quite pale after months of not eating properly or having a long break. 

“Meow?” Ahjin didn’t attempt to come closer  to him to see what was happening as she herself was trembling violently. Jinwoo tried to calm his heart and take deep but irregular breaths. His eyes watered as he started blinking rapidly. A few tears came down as the panic settled in and the realisation of how close he was to death. It was the same paralysing feeling as when he first faced a goblin. It was the same freezing chill when he faced the statue of god. He needs to breathe. And he does. But somehow it still feels as if he is drowning as the mana of the unknown intruders fades away in the distance leaving just the faintest trails of it behind.  His lungs were full of air but… the chilling coldness of the air made him choke, which didn’t help with the current situation.

Ahjin just watched him before slipping away closer to the door to sit near the entrance to visibly stand on guard while having her back on him. She was still trembling. She was as scared as him. But somehow she wasn't in such a dire situation as him. Or maybe she was. She and he were broken for the time being. Terrified. And no wonder. After being exposed to such intense mana, somebody as weak as Jinwoo could have died. No he would have been dead would it not have been for how fast the mana passed.

He almost died.

His breath became frantic as he grabbed his shirt atop of his heart to somehow calm himself before spiraling out of control. He stared at his cave. At the fire. In his sleeping bag. At Ahjin whose fur was still up. And then everything became a blur. The fire overcame his whole vision making his surroundings red and orange. His head and his eyes hurt but suddenly a glimmer of a deep blue colour and a white trembling ball appeared in the middle of his vision.

He closed his eyes and started to breathe frantically with his mouth making it all worse. He needed to take deep, calm, breaths. But not when he is underwater desperately looking up at the sun looking down on him. He was feeling so much worse. Why was it happening to him? Why was he feeling all those emotions? He has been on a brink of death more than he could count- it was normal. Death was normal to him.

‘But it scared you every time you looked into its eyes, didn’t it?’ The inner voice, his own voice spoke to him in a monotone and such a cold voice- could his voice even sound like that?

He opened his now unblurry eyes and observed the cave as he still kept drowning in air before finally registering Ahjin. She was trembling. Her whole body reduced to a little trembling mess as she hid her face in her tale. She was trying to put on a brave mask before folding.

And that is when it hit.

There was somebody who was smaller and weaker than Jinwoo, and they were scared too.

Jinwoo closed his mouth with his hands to make him stop trying to kill himself over breathing as he forced himself to do the correct method of breathing. Taking it with his nose and exhaling with his mouth. His chest rose and fell as he finally calmed down enough to crawl over to Ahjin and slowly lift her trembling body to put her on his lap. His hand stayed in the air not knowing what to do before he tried testing waters by slowly running his fingers through her fur. He could still hear a blizzard rampaging outside but now, after 12 days, it was a normal thing to hear. Soothing even.

He wonders if the sound of snow falling down from the sky was soothing to Ahjin too. And oh, is it the same way rain calms Jinah down? He likes snow. Jinah likes rain.  

Could Ahjin like the snow too? Did she know anything but snow? She was probably born here and saw the snow falling way more times than he did. She probably didn't find the snow as soothing as he. It was a normal thing for her. Just like the sound of the cars to him. Normal.

This was her land. Not his.

And that is why he must return back to Korea. His home. He does not belong here.

But what about Ahjin? Can he really leave her here? 

But this was her home, was it not? Her normal habitat. It would be selfish for him to take her out of it.

“…” his lips crooked into a faint smile as his heart now beat rhythmically. He will miss the furball. But they spend just so little time together, she would fade into the back of his mind with time. A little, good, soft memory. Maybe the first one he had in a long time. 

“…” he wasn’t probably going to be able to do much this day anyway.  May as well enjoy his time here.

…

In the end Ahjin bit his hand for whatever reason and he wasn’t even able to stay mad about it. He did put her back into her corner to think about her bad behavior when he was trying his best.

The 12th day wasn’t eventful. Aside from making a few better build traps for small prey from the scraps he had and him reading the book about local herbs there wasn’t much to talk about. Well… a loud roar woke him up when he was half asleep in the evening that made him almost piss his pants but there wasn’t even a hint of magic beast’s mana so he quickly shrugged it off. Ahjin also wasn’t really spooked by it and just yawned at his scared face. 

Also he made soup. It was also poisonous and the system reacted to it. Amazing. And here he thought his cooking skills were good. He would really appreciate his mother’s old cooking book… she was able to make the best meals out of grass and it was definitely something worth recognising. Oh how he misses her cooking….

But suspiciously, his poisonous soup came to Ahjin’s taste and she  ate it all while he was not looking and she looked happy afterwards with a full stomach. Maybe his cooking skills aren’t THAT bad. No, his cooking skills are actually great. It is the ingredient’s fault for being trash. And his fault for not being able to properly manage them.

‘Haaaaaargh hard life’ But when was it easy for him?

The 12th day was not as eventful as 11th or any other for such a matter. Aside from the heart attack I got from the…

…

A usual routine followed on the 13th day in the morning. He missed cleaning his teeth, despite finding a toothpaste and a toothbrush in the system shop. For staggering 25 gold. And he had zero gold on his balance. Not like it was very different while he was on earth…. Broke as always.

So right now he would go to the river and hunt fish. Yep, that is the plan. If you want money, work hard. And if you work hard you just might get one penny.

But before that he visited the old traps he put.  Ahjin meanwhile stood a considerable  distance from them. He can’t exactly blame her. After her trauma of getting trapped in there, who wouldn't avoid them if they see the traps?

As expected there were no prey caught on them so he just put the new traps a bit more deeper into the forest feeling much braver than before about wandering off. But now he just completely ignored the place where he found the cursed root. To hell with it. He will avoid this place at all cost. The last thing he wants is to fight it again. 

He also visited the [Heaven Beetles] to see how they were doing. Surprisingly there were none. Have they magically disappeared? Maybe collectively relocated?

“Oh, there is one.” Jinwoo noticed one crawling out of the snow but then immediately getting jumped on and eaten by Ahjin. Could it be that she ate them all while she was not with him? He watched how she munched on it, a wing poking out of her mouth and then falling to the snow below. Yep, she probably ate them considering her appetite and the fact she ate a whole big fish alone and was still asking for more.

“...”   he just closed his eyes in frustration as Ahjin happily looked at him wagging her tail. He could have possibly used them for something…. Really, was she a dog or a fox? The sounds she let out and her body expressions were… not fox-like he would say.

“Were you the one that ate them all?” Ahjin came closer to him and started rubbing her whole body against his legs that made him hum. Little cute thing. 

…

They were at the river as he watched the barely visible fish underwater. 

[Icy red Carp]

[Icy red Carp]

[Icy red Carp]

[Icy red Carp]

[Icy red Carp]

Numerous windows popped up as his face came closer to the water. Were there more than the last time? It seemed that way.

“Ahjin. Don’t” He said not even needing to look at the fox to see that she was already opening her mouth to grab a fish. She hissed at him but backed off after Jinwoo gave her a cold glare. The same glare he gave Jinah when he returned home to see dirty dishes in the sink.

“So, let’s begin the slaughter” and as much as he didn’t like to say it. It was a slaughter. Just like the one he went through twelve days ago. But he needed to do it to survive. And the fish had no feelings anyway. 

Probably.

…

His hands were wet after almost killing every fish in the small distance of the river. Twenty in total with around five still swimming around but incredibly fast as to not get suddenly taken out of the water. He wonders what they might think. Are they scared?

“Now, how much should I sell?” The fish sold for two gold while firewood sold for one. Unfair prices he would say. Clearly the fish costs way more than one tiny piece of firewood. Actually… What if he makes the firewood pieces smaller and then tries to sell them at the same price? Would the system be fooled or not? Would it give him some kind of punishment? Is he turning into the same scammers he despises?

“Probably not.” He is still better than the scammers. And so far he hasn’t seen the system reacting negatively to anything he had done. So it was unlikely it would do something like punishing him for that. … Right?

Ahjin looked at him questionably before deciding that her new master was crazy and had developed schizophrenia. 

‘Poor human’ she thought to herself before her ears suddenly stood up as she became on alert before running off in the direction opposite of Jinwoo.

“Huh? Ahjin!” Jinwoo screamed but the fox was already too far away to hear him.

…

As she ran she followed a faint trail of mana. Similar to her own and similar to the presence she felt in the cave. But so, so much more powerful than hers. But then it was outshined by other sources of mana. 

And she was sure of it. The smell of the mana she felt yesterday was the same as of the predators that ambushed her and her family. But now it will be different. Now she wasn't going to be paralysed with fear because her mommy would be there too!

She feels the mana of her mommy so close. And she feels how the human follows her from behind. She would then introduce the human to her mommy and tell her mommy how the human protected him and she would protect them! She would accept the human into their pack! And mommy would protect them! Her, the human, her siblings-

And she would tell her mommy about her name. She has a name now! She can understand so many things now by having a name. And she knows a lot of things too. They are vivid. But the human gave her the knowledge about words. 

As she ran passing by the big trees that looked gigantic to the small fox she lumped into the darkness of the unknown following carelessly the trail of mana that became more and more visible as she happily sped up to see her mommy. But as she came closer the bigger the stench of rotting blood became vivid. Has her mommy hunted something down? Maybe she hunted the ones that chased them! The beetles and fish were tasty, and the soup too, but mommy’s milk and the meat she brought back were more tasty!

She abruptly stopped before a bloody mess of meat and bones scattered in the snow as if a scene straight out of the horror movie.  She carefully sniffed the corpses and the area around it. The mana coming from the body was the same as her mommy’s but it was clearly not mommy. Mommy had dazzling white fur. Was this her mommy? But why does she look like a meal after she and her sibling took a bite?

“Mommy?” she asked, coming closer to the skull that still had fur and brain sticking out. She sniffed her again and sat not understanding what was happening. She meowed to her mother to receive a reaction but there was nothing.

“Ahjin you little-!” she could hear the human cracking the snow below his feet as he came closer and closer, closing the distance.

His little sparkly light-like mana enveloped in a thick black fog came closer to her before stopping. She turned around to run to him to his legs before starting to meow.

“This is…” His eyes darted from the head that was shaped into the mammal's skull to the six blue curly tails at the end that resembled Ahjin’s own one tail.

“No way.” he said and Ahjin meowed.

“Help! This corpse resembles mommy and has the same mana as mommy, but it is not mommy is it?” She asked but the human didn’t answer, just covered his mouth with his hands as his eyes trembled a bit.

“Is this…. no way. There is no way.” he said before stepping closer to inspect the body standing now on one knee. Ahjin happily wiggled her tail. ‘Maybe he understands something!’ She misunderstood his intentions.

“Is this your mother?” he asked and Ahjin let out a sound, the same as a normal fox lets out.

“...” he still stood on one knee before grabbing Ahjin and hugging her, bringing her as close as he could. He then straightened his back and with his  hand closed Ahjin’s eyes. He petted her fur and started walking away at a quick pace.

“No! Where are you going? Explain what is happening!” Ahjin screamed but Jinwoo didn’t stop, completely ignoring her pleas.

“I am sorry that she died dear, I really am.” He said and Ahjin became quiet for a moment before quietly settling in in his arms hiding her face between his arm and his chest.

‘So mommy was defeated…’ she thought to herself before thinking that her other siblings must have died too. After all, she was the only lucky one to get so close to someone who could visibly protect her. Although he was weak too. But maybe he was young just as she was? 

“…” Suddenly a vivid memory appeared in her mind. They were once a happy family. She, her siblings, their mommy. All together in their little cave sleeping on one another. But then they got attacked….. and then….

“Don’t worry dear, I will not allow any harm to get to you.” the human said, now almost running. She wasn’t sure where they were running. Probably to the cave due to the surrounding mana of nature smelling familiar.  But she was too sad to care about it now.

“Mommy is not with us anymore…” she said before her ears came down to her head.

“So how can you protect me if you are as weak as I am?” She whispered asking but received no answer from the human. How was he planning on protecting both of them? He was just a pup like her.

…

Jinwoo looked down on a sleeping fur ball. She should get rest. If he understood the situation correctly the corpse she led him to was one of her parent’s. And he made some of his own discoveries from it. The coldening mana he felt on the first days that made him climb the tree belonged to Ahjin’s parent. And the ice block outside of his cave also was giving off mana similar to the corpse. Still, at the time there were still different waves of mana if he remembers correctly and his scared mind isn’t playing tricks on him. Of course, there was a chance that the corpse he saw could have been just of the same species as Ahjin, with how similar their mana waves felt. He squeezed his eyes to see them but he was able to do it. Is that what higher ranked hunter say about mana being different depending from whom it comes? The mana of Ahjin was black but with notes of ice and coldness to it with an eerie fiery touch to it. Was it her demonic side? He doesn't know. But the dead bodies of the icy red carps were also emanating the same black colour but now with sea blue colour to it.

[You have gained a new skill:

Mana Detection Lvl 1: a passive skill that allows the user to identify and detect sources of mana at a basic level. ]

[Player:Sung Jinwoo

Level : 2

Stats:

HP: 132

Defence: 33 

Magical Defence: 31

Physical Attack: 48 

Magical Attack: 25 

 Agility: 50

 Intelligence: 31

Perception: 38

 Resistance: 25

Stamina:124

Titles: -

Job: - 

Active Skills: -

Passive Skills: “Will to recover”, “Axe  proficiency Lvl 1” “Mana Detection Lvl 1”

Blessings: Blessing of the great mage Kandiaru

Equipped armour: - 

Current quest: Tutorial (Warning! You are in set mode so no other quest (s) can be accepted until “Tutorial” is complete)]   

Jinwoo blinked at the system window that appeared right before his face. So he was right. Now that the system confirmed it, he really did see one of Ahjin’s parents huh? Poor her. So she really is a little pup hm?

[You have gained 100 Bound exp

Ahjin’s bound leveled up!

1 point to all stats

Ahjin have received a new stat]

[Ahjin

Level : 1

Bound Level : 1

Stats:

HP: 21

Defence: 6

Magical Defence: 12

Physical Attack: 2

Magical Attack: 8

 Agility: 10

 Intelligence: 7

Perception: 21

 Resistance: 2

Stamina:31

Mana:101

Adjustable points: 5

Race: Demon Ice Fox

Genre: Female

Active Skills: Ice breath (…), Icicle (…)

Passive Skills: Icy armour (…)

Blessings: -

Equipped armour: - 

Ascension quest (Warning! You are in set mode so  this quest cannot be accepted until “Tutorial” is complete) (Warning! You have not reached the requirements)

Growth: 9/100]

Jinwoo’s mouth was wide open as he looked over the window. Bound level increased? How did that happen? His mind went blank for a moment before he noticed 5 adjustable stats. Has he not used them yet? Is it okay for him to decide where they should go rather then let Ahjin herself decide where to put it?

‘Okay Jinwoo, lets see, she is your familiar and you are her master, clearly you have the authority to do what you want.’ He looked over the options before landing on the decision. Ahjin was frail and not much of a fighter and definitely not a tank. So…

[Ahjin

Level : 1

Bound Level : 1

Stats:

HP: 21

Defence: 6

Magical Defence: 12

Physical Attack: 2

Magical Attack: 9

 Agility: 12

 Intelligence: 8

Perception: 23

 Resistance: 2

Stamina:31

Mana:101

Race: Demon Ice Fox

Genre: Female

Active Skills: Ice breath (…), Icicle (…)

Passive Skills: Icy armour (…)

Blessings: -

Equipped armour: - 

Ascension quest (Warning! You are in set mode so  this quest cannot be accepted until “Tutorial” is complete) (Warning! You have not reached the requirements)

Growth: 9/100]

One point to her magical attack, one point to her agility, intelligence and two points into perception. Her resistance and defence bothered him but until he has a sure way of acquiring points he will have to wait. How did Jinah call those people who couldn’t take a punch but did a lot of damage? ……. Was it a “glass cannon”?

“Well, congratulations dear, you are now a glass canon. “ he watched how Ahjin turned in her sleep letting out noises that made his heart ache. What was he going to do now with her? He needs to make her stronger. He can’t take her with him. This was her home. But he promised to protect her. What will he do? He wants to be selfish and take her with him to earth where it is safe but what if she reacts violently towards humans? THe safest option would be to leave her be. He will take care of her until then but…

He couldn’t just- just leave her behind that would be… inhumane. But would it? For once, for once in his life he wants to be selfish. He was always giving, not ever taking. He was giving his all to help his mother with chores. He was giving every last bit of food away to his sister so Jinah wouldn’t sleep on an empty stomach on especially hard days. And then he gave his life away. And for what?

“…” he wants to be selfish. He really does. He wants to be a monster that doesn’t care about others. But then, Ahjin was innocent in his miseries. Better yet, she saved him. And now he was thinking about leaving her behind in this dangerous place.

He was not going to do that. He was better than them. He wasn’t going to leave someone behind. Weren’t familiars loyal to their masters? Ahjin would listen to him. He could tell her not to attack other humans. That or she would become strong enough for him not to worry about leaving her behind.

“Maw….” Ahjin moved more aggressively in her sleep. Should he give her space or comfort her? What does he even need to do? She suffered a traumatic even of seeing her parent’s corpse- wait, did she even understand that it was her parent?

“Uhm, there, there little one?” He said something his mother used to say to cats that came to her while she sat at the playground watching Jinwoo. He remembers such small moments rather great, liking more  to watch his mother rather than play with other kids. Or maybe it was due to how cats ran away every time he came closer to pet them. And maybe he remembered it so well because of how his mother liked to laugh at him because animals really didn’t like Jinwoo. That was hurtful.

He moved closer to Ahjin to sit beside her body and put his hand on her back and slowly move it to smoothen her fur.

Should he still go outside? It wasn’t night and the sun just barely started to go down. He still could go and either search for herbs or cut wo- oh yes. He forgot. He doesn’t have an axe anymore. Tragedy.

But should he leave Ahjin alone? What if she wakes up and gets scared that Jinwoo wasn’t with her?

But she will be alone anyway when Jinwoo finds a way on how to escape this place. 

But maybe he can take her with him?

…

Jinah always wanted a pet right? And maybe he will be able to pass Ahjin as just a fox and not a magic beast? But what about the house? She is an active animal and Jinwoo doesn’t have the time to spend her stamina which means she will use it to destroy the apartment and Jinah is just too weak to handle such a force. But what can he do now?  He isn’t even sure he will be able to bring her with him and what if the temperature of Seol would be too high for her?  What if she melts? Or maybe should he sneak her into dungeons? Would that even work? Isn’t he going to be caught pretty fast?

Whatever. He knew the creature not for long anyway. And it grew up here without him (as much as it did with 9 growth. A kid huh.). If she dies she dies. It is just the way life is.

He shouldn’t waste time. The faster he gets back on his feet and finishes the house the faster he will leave this wretched place. Jinah needs him. And he needs her. But maybe Ahjin needs him too?

He stood up careful enough to not disturb the creature that was sleeping and threw in some wood to keep the fire going before exiting the cave covering it with the improvised door as quietly as he could. 

He stepped into the snow as he looked up into the sky that was as always hidden behind gloomy clouds with some snow dropping on his head. He just fixed his glasses making sure they were secured tightly around his head and went deeper into the forest being careful when looking at the snow so as to not miss any potential herbs hidden behind a white blanket.. 

He spent some time walking and picking up anything he saw before he felt someone’s stern gaze on his back and as he turned around to look, he saw now a very familiar raven he already got to know just a little about. The raven let out a squeak as if greeting him. It sat on the branch of a tree watching him closely from the above, the tree not tilting even slightly from its weight. He wonders whenever the tree was just too hard or the raven weighed very little. Was it starving?

”Hi there. How are you, bud?” He asked the raven tilting his own head and it let out another sound.

”What? Are you hungry?” He asked with a smirk and suddenly the crow opened her wings and went straight to the ground making him take a step back. Now seeing so close to himself and being (relatively) sure it wasn't going to harm him Jinwoo was able now to fully grasp the size of the bird and it was enormous to say the least. Its body was reaching half of his waist not to mention its intimidating four eyes that pierced him like needles. He jerked back from the sudden movement the crow made coming closer to him, almost tripping over the snow as the bird opened its wings and held them up high as if trying to intimidate him. Jinwoo looked unamused but a little spooked. But out of curiosity and pity for the raven that (probably) weighed nothing, he took one fish out of his inventory and threw it to the raven for it to catch it midair and eat it just like that. Jinwoo watched it cautiously as it closed its wings before opening them again but now less threatening, deciding to fly back to the place it stood watching him from above.

”Not even a thanks? Geez, you are still holding a grudge?” Jinwoo smiles, his bad mood changing to a more relaxed one as he returns to the task at hand; gathering herbs.

[Fire tiger Flower]

[Fire tiger Flower]

[Schneekrieger]

[Schneekrieger]

[Schneekrieger]

[White lily]

[For further details read about that on the page 353]

‘Just a ‘white lily’? Comicall’ Jinwoo thought to himself plucking out a new flower now not caring if it will do anything to him. After all, he has complete poison immunity. Nothing can harm him. Well, not the plants at least. Oh but wait they can actually hurt him. A sudden cold ran down over his whole body as he remembered his earlier encounter with the world tree whatever that thing was called. Why does he have the feeling he just jinxed himself for saving that plants can’t harm him? After all, he got almost beaten up by a plant…. And now he regrets being so full of himself when picking the lily. He should be more careful from now on. What if another corrupted something launches on him when he is simply picking up flowers like any normal person would? That would be disastrous. Totally disastrous. He doesn’t even want to think about it. It will haunt his nightmares (alongside the statue of a god and Song’s face before he left).

Shaking off his understandable paranoia he keeps on collecting random things until it is completely dark for even his improved vision to see much.

“Have I not noticed how the night came?” Jinwoo asked no one in particular as he blinked a few times. Looks like his vision did get better even if he couldn't see now he could until a few moments ago. With his peripheral vision he could notice the raven still following him just jumping from a branch to a branch to not lose him. 

“I should head out.” He said before stopping in his tracks and understanding he was talking to himself. Not even the crow. When did he start doing that? He has never talked to himself before. Was the loneliness finally getting to him?

“…” Jinwoo internally cringed as he took a step towards the big icicle that towered over him as a thought suddenly came to him.

‘What would I do if my mom actually dies?’ He asked himself and suddenly all the power he had, left him, a mere thought bringing him to his knees as gravity pulled him towards the snow. He gulped on air as he stood on his knees still not losing his grip on himself and put the thought as far back into his head as he could and got back on. 

After all, has he not lost his mom already?

“Mommy….” He closed his eyes painfully calling out to his mother like a little child lost at the playground not able to see one of his parents anywhere. It reminded him of this time when he and his sister were-

No.

He shook it off. There was no way helping it. Just as his father dying, just as his mother falling asleep forever. It was something that happened. And he got over it a long time ago. Life didn't end just because someone close to you left. Life goes on. 

‘But you still mourn them and think about them every day, don't you?’ The inner voice asked Jinwoo and he just laughed it off.

“Do I actually have schizophrenia? Another bill to add I guess.” The raven looked curiously at him as Jinwoo answered not bothering enough with himself. After all, when was it about him? It was always about how to pay the bills, to put food on the table, to look through Jinah’s tests, to know where she is going out. With whom. That is his responsibility as her guardian. As an adult. As her older brother who loves her.

And to be honest he has no other purpose in life. His life belonged to his family. It depended on his family. For he has no other thing to do. To have. His right to be a kid disappeared with his father. His right to study crumbled when his mother fell to the floor. 

He barely has any future. The only future he sees is his sister’s life. Becoming a successful doctor. He would not allow her dreams to be destroyed just as his were. 

…what dreams did he have?

Suddenly a low growl resounded through the dead silence of the snowy forest as Jinwoo quickly grabbed his Kim’s sword out of the inventory to block the sharp teeth that launched directly onto his throat to rip it apart. The only thing blocking it was the blade put between them. But even blocking the attack wasn’t enough as his body was sent flying  into the trees by the strong impact. He felt how his back was scratched by the harsh surface but his cloak still held on bravely not tearing apart. 

He had little time to regain his composure before the unknown enemy launched at him again with the intent of ending his life swiftly. 

This time Jinwoo didn’t try to block the incoming attack but just simply rolled away escaping the bite, suddenly feeling how the contact with the tree shook his organs hard making him want to vomit this instant as the blood boiling inside him. He clutched his teeth together at the brink of breaking them unsure of what exactly caused such a reaction from him. 

The enemy stood still, drooling his gaze at Jinwoo who quickly picked himself up from the ground to jump a few feet away from the enemy to look what he was dealing with.

A red name tag already suggested what it was so Jinwoo just carefully assessed what he could do.

[Silver Maned Wolf]

[Lvl. 5]

[Usually hunt in big groups circling the prey and not allowing them to escape. They are weak by themselves but have great stamina. If you meet a silver maned wolf alone out in the wild it must mean it was cast out of its pack for being weak. Weirdly the older wolves and pups are not cast aside.]

A red name tag appeared above its head with the shortened information of what Jinwoo he read in the book about them

‘Well shit. I am dead.’ despite clearly seeing only one species he was not so sure whenever there were more of them in the back. Probably not. But even as the boom said they were “weak” by themselves it clearly fucking lied to his face. That thing was not weak and there was no way for him to outspend this thing and run. No way to fight. And his only hope is that the wolf leaves.

But with how much of saliva dropped from his mouth to the snow the beast was clearly hungry. And Jinwoo was a perfect prey to fill its stomach. Big, weak, vulnerable, pretty skinny but for a hungry wolf it means nothing. 

But that wasn’t Jinwoo’s first time facing a beast stronger than him. After all, a beast is a beast, not a plant, not a human. 

If Jinwoo wasn’t able to survive something like this, how the hell did he manage to survive at all until now?

The wolf barked as it ran towards Jinwoo who quickly stepped aside as the wolf launched at him, and instead of feeling a fresh warm blood in its mouth it instead stumbled into a tree that was right behind Jinwoo greeting the wolf with open arms.

The wolf immediately attempted to jump at Jinwoo again but instead received a nasty stab to its eye by his sword. Not able to go too deep with the wolf, able to close its eye just in time to protect it with the thin but still a skin of a magic beast, but it was still damaged and bleeding making its vision limited not to mention the hot pain it probably felt in its eye.

Jinwoo survived through many, many trials. And this one? High D rank magic beast at the very least. Probably. And he was not a puny little E rank. He was now a full, E rank which wasn't impressive. But it was something. 

The wolf wide opened its mouth to try and bite Jinwoo who started frantically backing away while contemplating what he should do.

Strangling it to death? Stabbing its eyes? He chose an option of attacking its front leg. But to do that he needs to come closer. And to do that he needs to be careful of the dog’s mouth.

But actually, to hell with it. Didn’t he get this skill about recovery? Exchanging his left hand for unabling the dog’s mouth and winning seem good. This would hurt like hell of course. But a great trade nonetheless.

But could he defeat this one alone with this awful strategy? No, probably not. 

But who said he was alone?

He showed his left hand into the wolf’s open mouth and dove right inside of his throat as he started stabbing its leg with his free hand as the wolf brushed his teeth against Jinwoo’s skin making it bleed but couldn’t completely close his jaws due to the hand in his throat. Upon feeling that its airway was cut off it started trying to close its mouth as a sharp feeling of pain kicked in from Jinwoo driving his sword into it. After making sure that the leg was damaged enough that it would barely be able to walk, Jinwoo decided to go to its throat to try and drive his sword into it, killing it. Ahhhh, Jinwoo really wasn’t that great when it came to one on one battles that didn’t rely on hit and run huh?

It then as if feeling his intention tackled Jinwoo to the ground, finally making the hand go away as it heads straight to his throat. Barely fast enough Jinwoo puts his right arm between them as the wolf bites into it now, the teeth digging directly into his flesh and not just scratching his clothes. Jinwoo hissed as he in answer drove his sword into its throat. Sadly not strong enough to drive it with just one hand he struggled as the wolf towered over him slowly overpowering as he felt the teeth dig into his very bones.

He started kicking the wolf into his stomach but to no avail it was not fazed even with a sword grazing its neck.

But to a surprise of the wolf it feels a weak presence coming straight at him as Ahjin launches at his using her skill [Icicle] to freeze its head blocking its vision completely as she used right after [ice breath] little sharp droplets of snow coming from her mouth as they bite into its skin. Barely doing anything really.

Jinwoo immediately grabs the sword with both of his hands standing up not caring about the brutal pain in his arm. He suffered worse. He suffered his limb getting cut from his body. He watched how the wolf crumbled to the ground with its leg being badly injured as Ahjin jumped away from it to not be crushed by the impact.

The wolf frantically tried to get up as it showed its belly and Jinwoo didn’t lose the opportunity to put his foot to the wolf’s neck before stabbing it into its stomach butchering it open until the beast stopped moving. Until the system lets out its ping letting him know that he has killed it.

[You have defeated a “Silver maned Wolf”]

[You have received a loot

7x pieces of meat

4x sharp teeth

1x heart of a “silver maned wolf”]

[You have gained 400 exp

You have leveled up!

Current lvl: 3

+1 to all stats]

[Player:Sung Jinwoo

Level : 3 

Stats:

HP: 132 (+1)

Physical Defence: 33 (+1)

Magical Defence: 31 (+1)

Physical Attack: 38 (+1)

Magical Attack: 24 (+1)

 Agility: 47 (+1)

 Intelligence: 28(+1)

Perception: 36 (+1)

 Resistance: 22(+1)

Stamina:123 (+1)

Adjustable points: 5

Titles: -

Job: - 

Active Skills: -

Passive Skills: “Will to recover”, “Axe  proficiency Lvl 1”  “Mana Detection Lvl 1”

Blessings: Blessing of the great mage Kandiaru

Equipped armour: - 

Current quest: Tutorial (Warning! You are in set mode so no other quest (s) can be accepted until “Tutorial” is complete)]   

[Based on contribution in battle Ahjin’s experience is calculated…

Ahjin has gained 25 experience!]

Jinwoo blinked as he watched the corpse before him disappear and something be transferred to his inventory leaving behind just bloody organs and the head of the beast. Ahjin slightly tilted her head, surprised at the body disappearing as she decided to try and taste the liver.

“No! Stop! Ew! No! Bad girl!” Jinwoo shushed her away as he regained his composure slowly approaching the body. He carefully lifted the decapitated head by its ear as he transferred it to his inventory. How exactly system decides what to transfer to his inventory? He is grateful for butchering the wolf for him but… why leave every other organ except for the heart? 

Despite his disgust he carefully grabbed all the organs he could POSSIBLY eat and threw them in his inventory and left all others to the raven that was watching the fight not doing anything. As he turned around the fox launched at him as he quickly caught her hugging her and bringing her closer to his chest.

“Shhh shhh, you did good. Great even. Waited for the right moment to strike. Good job dear.” He stroked her fur as she hid her face in the crook of his arm.

“Let’s go home. Today was an exhausting day.” He said with a corner of his eyes, watching the striking four eyes that glared at him hungrily from above, actually not necessarily looking at him but at the organs that bloodied the pure white snow.. 

It could eat them. He doesn’t care. Even better so other magic beasts don’t come crawling here at the smell of blood.

They need to go to sleep.

And despite his injured arm he still held the fox firmly in his hands. 

The arm can recover with due time if the skill works properly.

He didn’t bother writing an entry for the 12th day.

He could do it tomorrow.

…

And the 13th day came. He looked over his stats. 

[Player:Sung Jinwoo

Level : 3 

Stats:

HP: 133

Physical Defence: 34 [+]

Magical Defence: 32 [+]

Physical Attack: 39 [+]

Magical Attack: 25 [+]

 Agility: 48 [+]

 Intelligence: 29 [+]

Perception: 37 [+]

 Resistance: 23 [+]

Stamina:124 

Adjustable points: 5

Titles: -

Job: - 

Active Skills: -

Passive Skills: “Will to recover”, “Axe  proficiency Lvl 1”  “Mana Detection Lvl 1”

Blessings: Blessing of the great mage Kandiaru

Equipped armour: - 

Current quest: Tutorial (Warning! You are in set mode so no other quest (s) can be accepted until “Tutorial” is complete)]   

He sat there and thought for a moment. He probably needed more strength to maximise his  chances of survival. Also agility was useful…. So three points into physical attack and two into agility.

[Player:Sung Jinwoo

Level : 3 

Stats:

HP: 133

Physical Defence: 34 

Magical Defence: 32 

Physical Attack: 42

Magical Attack: 25 

 Agility: 50

 Intelligence: 29 

Perception: 37 

 Resistance: 23 

Stamina:124 

Titles: -

Job: - 

Active Skills: -

Passive Skills: “Will to recover”, “Axe  proficiency Lvl 1”  “Mana Detection Lvl 1”

Blessings: Blessing of the great mage Kandiaru

Equipped armour: - 

Current quest: Tutorial (Warning! You are in set mode so no other quest (s) can be accepted until “Tutorial” is complete)]   

This was done.

And then he took a look at the System shop. Sold all the organs he picked. Realised that the magic beast dropped no crystal. Got sad a little. Cooked wolf’s back leg. Decent taste. Actually, he thinks it was the first decent real meat he ate in ages. So he isn’t sure how it must taste.

And Ahjin peed on him. For whatever reason.

Great.

“Ahjin stop!” Jinwoo screamed as he held down the fox from trying to climb the tree to get to the raven who looked smugly as it watched her pitiful attempts.

“What got into you?” Jinwoo asked as he just hugged the fox that desperately tried to wiggle her way out of his tight grasp.

“I stopped watching you for one second to decide what I want to do today and this is what I see?” Jinwoo scolded the fox who hadn't paid him any mind and just growled looking at the four eyed raven. 

“C’mon, are you mad that I gave it fish? We have enough of it to last us a few days so calm down- and we have another type of meat too now.”  Finally the fox stopped struggling and lifted its head up to look into Jinwoo’s grey eyes where a little bit of light flickered.

“Meow.” She let out the most neutral meow Jinwoo has ever heard and he let go of her as she leaped into the snow gracefully landing on her four legs.

“Nyaw.” She said before she made a show of walking to the forest before looking back at Jinwoi.

“Maw.” She said before jumping into the darkness of the tall trees.

“???” Jinwoo looked bewildered at the audacity of her to just…. Make a tantrum and then leave. And normally he would go after her but… she didn’t look like she was going to cause trouble. And… he was still creeped out by the dead body of one of her parents. And if his theory is correct, and his new mana detection skill wasn’t lying to him her parent was the one to unleash an ice attack that created the big icicle near his cave that allowed him to have water.

He closed his eyes before muttering something of the sorts of: “rest in peace…” before looking up at the raven.

“Kaw!” As if asking him “why are you looking at me?” The raven let out a piercing voice. Jinwoo just blinked before letting a deep sigh out.

“Maybe you will start contributing as well? Ahjin helps me fight, and you are a freeloader. I already apologised for throwing a stick at you. So you should stop demanding food from me.” The raven just turned its head around as if disagreeing with Jinwoo who just rolled his eyes. But suddenly the raven’s gaze focused and it stared in one direction. Jinwoi tilted his head, he sharpened his senses for a moment to check on Ahjin not feeling anything special aside from the now faded mana of Ahjin and the raven before him, but decided to turn his head to where the raven was looking and…

There was nothing. He looked intensely to where the raven was looking but there was really nothing. Was the raven just making fun of him? 

For a split second he was reminded of Kim Sangshi. The coward. He wasn’t sure what exactly made him want to take out Kim’s sword out of the inventory to look at it. He wanted to train Ahjin but… maybe he could try training himself with a sword? He stood in a stance tightly holding the sword and cringed internally feeling really wonky in his position.  

He was no swordsman by any means- Mr Song once suggested trying to try and teach Jinwoo some sword skills but he refused. One he was uncomfortable around the man being just so… so friendly and second he was dead tired every day, and he was pretty much working 24/7 so no breaks either. He would have been a corpse if he needed to come and train too.

Suddenly Jinwoo jerked his head to where the crow was looking and there it was. Two piercing white eyes with no eyeballs staring at him from the darkness.

The being when noticing Jinwoo’s gaze quickly disappeared into the darkness of the forest and even when looking at it Jinwoo couldn’t feel its presence. What was it? By the height of its eyes it was nearly reaching his height and… despite his sharpened senses, mana detection, and the newly acquired ability to see in the dark he couldn’t see the figure clearly as if it literally disappeared and only the striking white eyes left visible.

What was it? Shit- not only does he need to deal with wolves but with some other mysterious beasts that are watching him? The thing knows where he is and god knows for how long it has been watching him. For fucks sake- could he ever catch a break?

But of course, life is a bitch, and it hates him. So of course it would give its toughest battles to the weakest warrior- because of course.

Why him? There are so many strong hunters in the world who could handle this- Choi Jong-In, Baek Yoonho, Cha Haein, Lim Taegyu, the chairman, heck, even that man from America that reminds him of a hairy godzilla- 

All of them could have done it. So why is he stuck here? Has he committed a sin? Sure, he cursed those old ladies in his neighbourhood that made it their life mission of making him work to the bone because of course he is the only not-too-old-not-too-young man in his old neighbourhood. For crying out loud they would be better off forcing the drunkhead to work rather than him- just why him?

Sure, he has helped them in the past when he had time and in return they gave him pastries, but enough was enough. He was a busy man! He had responsibilities more important than trying to catch a cat stuck on a tree.

For that they can call firefighters and he has a good chunk of acquaintances of said firefighters and he has already given the numbers out to the old ladies.

But nooo, why would we need professionals if we have an old plain Jinwoo to do our bidding?

“Kaw!” While flying in the clouds he was brought down to Earth by the raven who now landed on the ground. 

“Kawr!” It exclaimed as Jinwoo watched its head and neck getting stretched and then back into its body.

“What are you doing?” He asked before watching how something sticky with the saliva came out of its mouth as it vomited some green disgustingly smelling mud onto the snow.

“Ew, what was that for?” He watched the raven then proceeded to eat the vomit. He closed his eyes  but then the raven exclaimed for him to look.

“What?” He asked but before long he noticed a little thing that sparkled. He carefully came closer to it with the crow making distance before flying into the sky and leaving him.

“Is this..?”

[ Unidentifiable ring]

‘Did it listen to me? Is it payment?’ Jinwoo thought, looking at the weird, sticky, dirty ring that was covered in rust and some vomit. He wonders what he could do with it.

And why the heck was it carrying this in its mouth, or rather its stomach ?

But right now he has more important things to think about. Like what will he do now that the magic beast is on his tail and he has no way of feeling its presence at all now that he wasted all his points.

…

It was beautiful! She has never seen a human being before!! She asked the elders before and even auntie how humans looked and all of them said that humans looked ugly. But, they themselves have never met a human before so how can they judge it so? 

But now she knows how a human looks and it is not at all how elders described them to her. Not to mention she was probably the first ice elf in her village to ever meet a human! How exciting! 

And oh monarchs above how cute it was! The way it argued with the bird! So cute! And the little demonic fox following it around? Marvellous!

And how much she wants to pinch those cheeks! And the way his blood is probably red! And his cute, cute skin colour! Not red, not pink, not quite white and so so so unique!

She knows she made a mistake when she wandered off this far but- just the fact that she met a human is worth it! She never knew they lived here! They told her that there were no humans living in any of the world of great chaos but there it was! Standing there!

And it is just as they say! When you look at them there is this unbearable need to squish them like an insect that crawled into your house!  

Fascinating! The way his dark fluffy but dirty hair looked was so so SO cute! She never met anyone with a black hair! It is totally like that of a raven’s feathers! 

She wants to tell her friends,  no,  she wants to tell everyone in the village about how cool the human she found is! He is just so cute! But what if they want to kill him? That won’t do. She does wonder what human meat tastes like but then she isn’t going to be able to watch him! No! That human will be her little secret! And maybe if she will be a good girl Auntie allows her to take the human as her pet? 

Hmmm, but now thinking about it, if she wants to continue watching him, she needs to practice the use of [snowy camouflage]. After all, despite her being hidden the bird was able to see her and by that extension the human was too. Hhhmmm Aunt Spruce isn’t going to be happy she still hasn’t mastered that skill. After all, her son was the one that created it and he is a pretty big head in the army! Once he told her about how he got recognised by the king himself!

She just wonders when he will visit them again…. They say that numerous soldiers have mysteriously disappeared during a battle with the celestial warriors but… he would never fall to their tricks!

Her pointy long ears fluttered as she giggled to herself from the very thought of what he could bring her.

But suddenly the little bell that was on her bag let out a jingle as she unequipped it from

The bag and brought it to her ear.

“Yes Auntie?” She asked excitedly as ever.

“Where are you dear? You know grandpa Aeson is worried.” A high and strong voice that screamed influence ringed through her ear despite being calm echoed through the bell as the ice elf laughed to herself.

“But weren't I good those past days? Can I have this as a reward? I promise I will come back until-“ she couldn’t continue her speech as the speaker at the other end interrupted her.

“Snih.” Just hearing her name said by the person made her smile fade away as her ears came down, not wiggling as excitedly as they were some moments before.

“I understand. I shall return at once.” Was all she said before the bell stopped ringing. 

Now a happy childish girl with long white hair turned into a hard, stoic stone who just disappeared into the Snow White mist as she made a high jump up to just be able to reach a tree branch grabbing it by her hand as she lifted herself up to stand on the branch.

She looked into the horizon as her gaze lingered at a certain golden like mana covered by a thick black mist that somewhat reminded her of her own mana but many times weaker than hers that  she was barely able to spot it. Maybe she should be more careful next time when observing the human….

…

Chapter Text

A young girl was hurriedly getting ready putting on her shoes and tying her hair in a high ponytail with a red bow that was seemingly worn out but so beloved by her owner due to who was the one that gifted it to her. It was a gift from her older brother two years ago to congratulate her on being the best in Chemistry in school. This bow in particular was from a rather popular brand. Not the cheapest one and it had a certain plain but a fashionable style to it. She liked it.

The girl carelessly threw on herself an almost transparent rain jacket  that shoved her school uniform underneath it except for the sleeves that weren’t transparent but instead blue. She then proceeded to grab her black school bag, throwing it over the shoulder, not bothering to securely put it on her back as the keychains hanging from the zipper in the front jingled against each other from the sudden movement.   

And as the palm of her hand was already on the door’s handle somebody called out to her as she abruptly stopped to look back at the person calling her.

“Jinah! Your lunchbox and umbrella!” Jinwoo yelled coming out of the kitchen with the said things. Jinah looked at him with her browns furrowed ready to yell annoying “whaaat?” but quickly relaxed as she processed the whole sentence in her head. She took the things from his hands in one swift move, shoving the lunchbox carelessly to her backpack pushing all the books to the back as she tightly held the rather big umbrella she didn't recognise in her other free hand. The umbrella felt weird to the touch and she didn't recognise it from the ones they already had but the thought was quickly shoved to the back of her head as she remembered that she was late to her bus.

“Bye! Have a great day at school! I love you!” Jinwoo said, waving his hand at the girl who was already at the staircase in one jump from their door.

“Bye! Love you too!” She said an echo resounding through the building so now every neighbour who was home could hear that Jinah left for school and her love for her brother. And as she got down the stairs she could hear the clicking of the door which meant Jinwoo locked it.

And one might ask, why was she in such a hurry? And one would explain that like in an old fashioned way of Sung Jinah she was on her phone watching funny videos with cats for far too long and forgot about the time so she was getting late to her bus. Running through the street she felt a light touch of water to her head, looking up she saw a gloomy sky covered in grey clouds as a droplet of water came down to her face falling between her eyes. She shrugged it off already knowing that it was going to rain during morning and in the evening but suddenly, a bus came down the street passing her as she looked at it. It was the same bus she was supposed to get on. She quickly regained her speed and  lunched down the street following the bus to the stop where some other people were already going to the front ready to get on the bus. 

Suddenly the before light rain came crushing down on her in an instant, it was as if a bucket of water was just poured down on her. Worse yet, she already saw how her bus stood at the station waiting until everyone got on. 

She decided not to open her umbrella and just ran with all her might and she did it. She was able to jump into the bus whose doors were already closing by blocking it with her hand before stepping into it.

“Sheesh.” She breathed frantically trying to catch her breath as the old lady gave her a side eye clearly judging her for irresponsibility. And really she would not be able to defend herself. The buses around those parts were especially punctual.

Jinah glared at the old lady who averted her gaze as if she was never looking at her. She made a face before going over to the free seat and sitting down placing her bag and the umbrella on the free seat beside her. Her sneakers were wet but thankfully the long jacket protected her school uniform even though her skirt had a few dark small dots on it. Jinah scoffed at it, her sneakers would probably dry out while sitting in an already heated bus. She looked to the window watching how rain unleashed its ferocity flooding the streets and let out a sigh of relief of not having to be out there. Her brother on the other hand….

‘Hope oppa doesn’t get caught in that rain.’ She hoped. Life was hard enough for him as is. She threw the darker thoughts out of her mind before getting out her phone from the front pocket of her bag with some keychains jiggling as she opened the zipper. With the phone in her hand she could feel a slight crack on the phonecase underneath the palm of her hand. It was from accidentally dropping her phone and the phonecase was too cute with a rabbit for her to part with so she still had it. There was also a phone ring holder at the back shaped like a bunny and it was glued to the case soo….  

She looked on the screen a bit looking at the cute rabbit before opening KakaoTalk to message a certain someone.

You

Yo-

What's up girl-

Where are u-

Bestie

-Dunno

What dunno-

Where is yo ass at?-

-I accidentally got up too early

from the bus and now I don't 

know where I am

Well that sucks-

-Girl

-A question

-Is your older brother a hunter?

That doofus?-

Yeah-

Why are u asking?-

-Can I have his number?

Ew-

Song-Yi-

How could you-

-Ew

-Not in that sense

-I just want to ask him some questions about hunter stuff.

Well-

No-

I said it and I will say it again-

You ain't cut to be a hunter-

-Why

-Is it because I am a girl?

It is because your dumb as fuck-

And hunters job is kinda dangerous-

You can get hurt-

Or worse-

So just get a job in a convenience store-

-So why is your brother a hunter??

He is like a cockroach-

Nothing can kill him-

And he is an experienced cookie-

-BS

Jinah frowned at her best friend who was far too eager to become a hunter for her own good. Her friend lived in that silly fantasy about hunters being such heroes. Sure they go and kill monsters and the pay is great (even for her brother who is an e rank, it is just that the medical bills are taking 70% of his pay) but being a hunter as a job was dangerous. She saw enough of people mourning their beloved who died fighting magic beasts. Heck, her father is dead because for some fucking reason he wanted to play a hero and go into a dungeon he was not supposed to go in. So dungeons were extremely dangerous. That was what her brother told her. And it was even more dangerous for inexperienced freelancers. 

And truth be told - she doesn't think she could view Song-Yi the same if she becomes a hunter.

All this talk about hunters being those superheroes- she hated it. She hated hunters.

She doesn't see them as heroes. Sure they are a reason they are still alive, but frankly, most of those “heroes” were nothing more than just… nobles. You know, nobles in the old times that looked down on common folk like they were dirt underneath their nails. Rich as fuck and doing everything in their power to gain more. If they were truly “heroes”, they could have done more. But right now as it stands, they are nothing but big bullies. Not all of them of course, there were some that were genuinely good. But… as a civilian. It was hard for her to not be prejudging especially after-. Well, after the whole conflict between civilians and hunter that happened worldwide. 

So, currently, she sees them as big bullies, and ants in suits.

“Jinah!” Her oppa’s voice resounded in her head when she said it out loud.

“Please! Not all hunters are bad. It is just that- I just want you to know, that more often than not, hunters are dangerous and I don't want you to be in danger-” She just thinks that hunters could have done more. Association could have done more to prevent lower ranked hunters from getting hurt. Society could have done more to prevent hunters from being nobles. But alas.

She huffed lost in her thoughts as the rain poured down and the sound of it made her relax a bit. Her gaze slowly turned to look at the seat where her stuff was. The umbrella her brother gave her was rather big. You know those umbrellas you usually see in films usually for fashion. She couldn't recognise the umbrella from anywhere so it was a mystery jusy where her brother got it. Around the handle was a little ribbon and a piece of paper glued to it that was a bit wet from the rain. She tore it off harshly to read it.

Congratulations on being the best in Chemistry and Biology in your class! :D’

-Jinwoo

She smiled at the note. Who knew he actually looked through her report card? So a gift huh? Well she did say that her old one was worn out and even had a tiny hole in it but this one was…. interesting to say the least. The corners of it were sharp, reminding her of something specific she couldn't name and the colours of it were soft blue and white and- were those freaking clouds painted inside of it? Goodness is he a grandma or something to give her something like that?

But surprisingly enough, she liked it. And a little bunny painted on top of it was cute too. Not to mention it looked expensive although she knew that it probably wasn't. After all her brother was a stingy person when it came to money so he would rather go with the cheaper thing and he would rather die than buy something expensive.

“The next station is…” a voice of a lady sounded through the bus and Jinah stood up from her seat. Her stop. She took her bag and the umbrella as she jumped out of the bus directly into pouring rain.

She opened her new umbrella that shielded her away from the rain. 

Her gaze fell in the direction of her school as she slowly strode towards it. There was no doubt in her mind that her friend would be late for school so she had no need to speed up her pace.

And with how hard the rain was it seemed like it would be raining all day huh? But maybe not. After all, the weather could change in the matter of seconds. But in the end she decided to trust the TV. It would be sunny during the day. Or so she hoped.

She walked through the doors of the school already feeling herself exhausted. After all, Korean high schools were notorious for how long they were. She did study hard but half the time she usually spoke with her best friend and exchanged notes with her. And you know why she could do it half the time? Because she was a genius. And because she was listening to the teacher with one ear. 

BUT she did not like studying. She hated it like any other person. But if she wanted to become a doctor and sustain herself and her brother she would need to have a full scholarship covering her tuition. And with her grades right now she has a really good chance to obtain what she wanted. Jinah knows that Jinwoo has been saving up for her to go to college. But she really did not want to be a burden for longer if she could prevent it. And she already chose some places she wants to apply to. Everything was turning out great. She planned it out years ahead. She puts in some work in the near 10 years and then she could give her brother the opportunities to choose another job. Or even go retire and live his best life. He deserved it. 

She walked through the gates right to the wide stairs to go into her classroom to wait for her friend and get ready for the Korean grammar class. She didn't like grammar. At all. This was probably the subject she spent the most time drooling over. Ugh. 

She sat at her place hanging her backpack by the table, the keychains jiggling  as she crossed her legs watching her classmates. Before long she got bored of it and just took out her phone.

You

Where are u-

Bestie

-runnin

Loser-

😂😂😂😂🫵🫵🫵🫵-

She waited for the mark that her friend read to appear but after one minute she gave up and just went to look into her social media to see what was new there. She came everyday to school rather early before lesson  so she had plenty of time to check on the world again. Even if she spent a considerable amount of time already doing it at home….

On the back of her mind as she scrolled down the news she remembered the schedule for the cafeteria menu. Not the tastiest thing today and the portions were small too. She was a big eater after all, and due to her big appetite despite having decent lunches, Jinwoo made her additional lunchboxes everyday. And really, his cooking was the best. Better than the food they gave at the cafeteria. His food was especially delicious when he had the right ingredients and not an empty refrigerator to work with. But those times were sadly rather rare. 

Suddenly a message popped up in her phone but not from her friend, instead from her brother.

Oppa

-Heat yourself fried chicken. It is inside the stove.

You

You made chicken??-

What the occasion?-

You dying 😨-

-No

-I just wanted to make you something nice

-And I had some money to spare.

Yoooooo-

Cool-

Are you late today too?-

-Sorry

She tsked with her tongue as some of her classmates gave her the look, probably wondering why she was upset, but thankfully decided not to ask. And good because she would have strangled them. 

But a certain somebody already turned around opening her mouth but right before this certain someone whom Jinah did not like was able to speak they wanted the bell ringed. Her classmate turned back to her table now sitting straight and getting ready for the lesson. And honestly this girl just loved to get on Jinah’s nerves. 

But the saving grace was that soon the hellish teacher will come and everyone will be silent. And oh poor poor Song-Yi, Jinah will watch how the teacher scolds her. 

‘Rest in peace, we will remember you.’ She crossed her fingers wishing the best for her best friend. 

Not long after the teacher walked into the class already mad about something holding her own book of Korean grammar in hands. It was a woman in her mid 40 with some wrinkles with a high ponytail. She wore a skirt with a green pattern on it with a white shirt. She also wore a name tag reading “Yoon Bong” secured tightly on her tie. And yes, she wore a tie. A very fashionable black tie. What what but the woman got a taste. Sorta.

“Good morning class. I wish that you all had great weekends. Lets begin from filling up who is here and who is not…” she started to dictate names and at every name someone exclaimed raising their hand. Jinah also raised her hand when her name was called out her lips trembling.

“Song-Yi?” There was a silence before Jinah raised her own hand.

“Where is your friend, Jinah?” The teacher asked as Jinah uncomfortably shifted in her place biting her lip looking almost guilty despite not doing anything.

“She is late.” The teacher snorted as she continued reading out names. That was until someone knocked on the closed door that led to their classroom.

“Come in!” The teacher said already knowing who it was.

“I am sorry for being late.” Song-Yi came in immediately, going over to her seat, not waiting for the teacher to allow her.

“Might want to tell us why you came late?” The teacher asked, obviously annoyed but the girl just shook her head.

“Have you overslept?” Jinah could hear some of the people behind her laughing as she gritted her teeth. She hated it. She hated the teachers for making Song-Yi into a scapegoat. She hated when they brought her to attention. And it was not like she meant it most of the time! She just… wasn't as good in subjects as everyone else were and the teachers felt it was their duty to point it out in front of the whole class.

“Do better!” They said. “Study more!” They said. And sure, it wasn't addressed to Jinah specifically. But it was said to her friend. And you better believe she let them have a taste of her knuckles!

And oh she still remembers that time when she almost beat up a girl that shamelessly mocked Song-Yi. The look on her face!

But… Jinwoo did give her a scolding and a pretty harsh one at that. He even took her phone away with the words “the phone made you violent. Maybe now you will try conversation first.” Hmp. But he did later pat her on her head, clearly pleased that she stood up for herself. Well, for her friend.

“Not going to answer? Nevermind. I will just take a point away.” The teacher muttered getting back to reading the list of attendees. 

Jinah looked worryingly at her friend, already scrapping a quick note before tilting her whole body to pass it to her. 

Song-Yi looked at her curiously and her grim mood turned a bit better as she smiled reading the note. And Jinah smiled with her. The last thing she would want is for her friend to get so demotivated that she would actually go through with her plan. And you might ask: “what is this plan?” And Jinah would answer: dropping out of school.

And don't get her wrong. She doesn't look down on people who dropped out. Heck. Her brother dropped out (but it was due to their mother deteriorating health and not due to the… poor school life) and she actually really respected those people. It must have been so hard for them to make such a decision. And especially for Jinwoo. 

…

It was after second class ended that they went to the cafeteria to eat. 

“So what is new?” Jinah asked her friend who looked worryingly gloomy again.

“There is this new merch of ‘Forever engraved’ that will be in the game store today. And I have to calculate how fast I need to run to get to that store before it closes after class.” She said seriously as Jinah relaxed and let out a silent sigh. So she wasn't upset because of what happened today or because of her parents. 

“Oi, is it the same store we went to yesterday?” Jinah asked  munching on the food Jinwoo prepared for her because she already ate the one portion they allowed per student in the cafeteria.

“Yep.” 

“Good luck bro good luck haha.” Jinah laughed, receiving a hit to her shoulder by Song-Yi’s fist.

“Hey! Be careful! You are stronger than me! It hurts!” Jinah said dramatically as her friend suddenly backed off looking guilty, her eyes filled with regret in an instant.

“Oh! I am sorry I didn't mean it i just-” Jinah cut her off.

“Calm down, I am just fooling with you.” She laughed as she received a second hit to her shoulder.

“I think I will be going straight home and then to bed. Today is a long day so I doubt I will have energy for anything else.” She told her as they both smiled at each other.

“Really? Want me to buy you the keychains of “Forever engraved”?” Song-Yi asked curiously as she leaned in full of  hope that her friend may just start being interested in her hobby.

“Nah, don't bother. You know I am into this kind of stuff. I am more into idols. And games. But less games actually, I forgot the last time I played a game actually. I watch mostly those stupid reality shows, you know?” Her friend blinked and then silently stared on her plate not answering Jinah.

And Jinah knew when someone did not want to talk so for the rest of this recession they stayed silent.

Even though Jinah hated silence.

…

“Jinah come in to the teachers office after class.” Her math teacher suddenly approached her after the lesson.

“Huh? Why?” Her math teacher shook his head as he turned around leaving both girls confused and some other students that sat nearby overhearing the weird conversation.

“Have you done something?” Jinah asked as she looked at her best friend who frantically shook her head.

At some point the teachers decided that it was useless talking to Song-Yi’s parents so they chose the next best thing. The ever responsible Jinah. Her best friend. And now officially her mother who was supposed to be doing what she did.

“Aside from coming in late today I haven't done anything! I promise!” She muttered as Jinah squinted her eyes on her. Jinah held her big umbrella closer to her as the sweat started forming in her armpits. Has something happened? And Jinah’s super cosmic mega pro salary went off. 

She tried to distract herself from it by looking down on her umbrella. The umbrella’s holder was light blue with ribbons wrapped around it, in the middle having a diamond shaped hole. It was pretty so she wanted to show off to her school so when she sat outside during their long pause she held it tightly in her hands receiving some looks. Some even came up and asked where she got it. For the first time she had to compliment her brother for managing to find such a thing for cheap was quite a challenge and he had a big catch. She wonders if the aunties in their neighbourhood were the ones to show him where to buy it. After all, Jinwoo was their favourite boy that was forced to help them. For once she was grateful for being born a girl as she was not forced into any labour by them. 

“Maybe YOU did something?” Song-Yi suggested and Jinah looked at her friend offended.

“I am not you. I don't get into even one twenty as much trouble as you do. And when I do, it's always your fault.” Song-Yi backed off guilty as the bell rang calling them to one of the last classes today.

…

“Uhm, hello? Excuse me.” Jinah carefully walked into an almost empty office aside from one teacher still sitting at their desk. Their computer was off as she sat with her hands on her lap as if she was waiting for Jinah lifted only by a dim light making her seem almost ghostly. 

“Jinah, dear. Here, take a seat.” The teacher said bringing one seat closer to them so when Jinah sat she would be on the right of her teacher. Weird.

The teacher in question was her class teacher who was responsible for her and her class. She was an older woman with glasses and a short haircut with soft features on her face. But now those soft features were weirdly distorted into nervousness and sadness.

“Ms Kang? Have I done something?” Jinah immediately asked as she took a seat beside the teacher.

“No no, it is nothing like that.” Suddenly Ms Kang let out a deep sigh before she brought her own chair closer to Jinah’s to grab both of her hands.

“I am really, really sorry to tell you that.” The faintly illuminating light made Jinah all the more nervous adding to the atmosphere even more now that she sat so close to it. 

It was already evening and dark outside so she wasn't sure how much time she could spare here until she would need to go home in complete darkness, not to mention the light sound of droplets of water falling on the roof and the ground resounding throughout the building.

“First, where is Song-Yi?” The teacher asked, looking into her eyes still holding her hands that were becoming increasingly wetter.

“She already left. Ms Kang I don't understand what is wrong?” She asked, her heart starting bumping blood way faster as she felt her armpits sweat so much it made her feel dirty and want to jump into the shower as fast as she could.

“...” Ms Kang bit her lip as she slowly closed her eyes.

“Your brother has… passed away.” She said.

“What?” Jinah asked her.

“Your brother is dead, Jinah.” Ms Kim repeated.

“No he isn't. He is probably in some hospital.” She argued.

“I am sorry dear. I really am. An association worker came in today to tell the news.” She opened her eyes as she held Jinah’s hands tightly.

“And they are wrong. They were already wrong five times. He is like a cockroach he can't die-” she argued, bringing her voice higher. If that was any normal circumstance she would have gotten a penalty for talking back to her teacher but not now. Not today. Today she was allowed to yell however much she wanted.

“My dear. My son was the one to come today to tell me about the news. He saw it with his own eyes. I know it is hard to believe but-” and then there was silence. A TV’s white noise sounded in Jinah’s ears as she just watched how Ms Kang’s lips opened and closed as she probably told her something of the sorts “everything will be alright.” “Do you perhaps have any distant relatives?” and so on but Jinah couldn't hear it.

She was in a trance.

And in mere seconds she was somehow outside her school watching the rain fall down clutching the last gift Jinwoo gave her.

Ms Kang suggested to her that she could drive her home but Jinah refused. 

And now she was standing here. Out in the cold. Under the roof watching how the rain came down making the white noise in her ears sound ever so loud. The only thing that existed right now. The noise. The pain. And the umbrella.

She stepped into the rain so hard she would probably be wet immediately but with her water proof jacket they barely were able to touch her shirt. But her sneakers weren't so lucky. Just as her skirt. And just as her head. Well, looks like she finally got the shower she wanted.

She clutched the closed umbrella in her hand as she walked some steps away from the front doors of the school.

She came to the middle of a wide area in front of her school that had nothing but the solid concrete where in some places rain formed little pools of water, before she stopped dead in her tracks.

She closed her eyes from the heavy rain as she crumbled down to her knees not caring that she might scratch them, her head held high as if looking into the grey sky despite her eyes being closed.

Her umbrella slipped out of her hand as she felt her backpack come down to the ground from her back loosening a bit as her keychains jingled. Probably. She couldn't hear them.

It was always the same. Wasn't it? Her brother always putting himself in danger that is.  The first time the Association worker came to her house to tell her that he is dead and he comes back late into the night when she has already cried all of her tears. 

And now she has no left.

She tells herself with her mind that it must have been a mistake. Like the last five times. That KHA was unreliable. That her brother was a cockroach. He couldn't die.

And she believed it. Her heart felt he was alive. Even if her mind told her that he was probably dead. Finally at peace. Finally not needing to stress over finances. Finally with his their father in heaven. She is sure he missed him despite not showing or talking about him. She couldn't care less about his their father. He was a stranger to her. An unfortunate turn of events.

Is that how it felt? Is that how Jinwoo felt when his their father disappeared? 

Now thinking about it. All she remembered from her childhood was Jinwoo. He was always beside her side. Always playing with her. She always followed him around. Their parents' voice somewhere in the bacround of her mind. Because truthfully. She was 7 when their father died. And her mother was too hardworking providing for the family to be able to spend time with her.

But there was Jinwoo. The one that held her hand when she got her first period crumbs. The one that cooked meals for her despite not being the best cook at the time. The one that sat late into the nights making her silly school projects that she forgot about and had to wake him up at 2 am. The one that sat with her instead of spending his time with his friends so she wouldn't feel lonely.

That was her brother.

She never knew her dad. She knew her mom. But she especially knew her brother.

And, really, if anything, Jinwoo was her parent. Even if she loves her mom. 

Even now, he was the one looking through her report cards and making sure she got everything she could need. Made sure to encourage her through little gifts. Even though his suffering was enough encouragement for her.

She is just a tiny bit glad. Maybe. He finally got the rest he deserved. 

Was he scared when dying? Was he alone? Were there dead bodies of other hunters around him? Was his death painless? She hopes so. Even if she doesn't fully believe he is dead.

And suddenly, out of nowhere there was this joke she thought of. 

“He survived five times. And one time he didn't.” She whispered to herself as all of a sudden something happened. 

Her body felt so light, her nose felt so many scents, her eyes opened and she was no longer bothered by the rain and she could see those little details on the clouds and Every. Single. Droplet. Of. Rain.

What was happening? What was wrong? She doesn't understand- everything out of nowhere became so sensitive and everything felt so, so surreal. It was all so detailed too as if she was looking at a 12 k photo of some kind. There were sparks of something somewhere there behind the building as she felt something slipping out of her.

She instinctively tried to take it back but it was as if she was holding a cup full of water that they were almost at the edge of spilling out and she held it in her hands and her hands were so shaky and wobbly and so much has spilled already but the water from the cup she held hasn't decreased no matter how much she spilled-

She choked on her own breath as her head fell back as she arched her back forward, her hands grabbing her stomach as her hair touched the dirty concrete water still pouring down from the heavens themselves on her.

She breathed in and out but it didn't help her.

What was happening.What was happening.

What was happening.What was happening. What was happening.What was happening. What was happening.What was happening. What was happening.What was happening.

What was happening.What was happening.

She felt so confuse- and scared. And confused again. And there were so many thoughts and the rain was falling as if in slow motion and it was so scary-

And then. Then it happened.

The rain stopped pouring down on her as she lifted her head to see because she felt a being right in front of her.

A person, clod in armour from head to toe holding her umbrella. It had no face, no mouth, but somehow the mere shape of its face reminded her of Jinwoo not to mention it had the same fluffy looking hair but it was not black. It was not Jinwoo’s raven black hair she was envious of due to her being more ash. 

Its whole body was, from what it seemed, water and it was as if the wind was what shaped it to look like a person. Not. It was shaping it and keeping it in place.

The thing came down on her level as it stood on one knee still holding her umbrella above her head.

“What…. are you?” She asked with her trembling voice but her eyes went behind the person focusing on her surroundings, finally noticing a crater she was sitting in. The trees that were planted around the school were broken and some weren't where they were supposed to and- was that a tree on top of a building?

“What is happening- what is wrong?” She asked but the person did not answer. Not right away.

She looked down on the concrete and it was in shambles. It had cracks everywhere. It was disturbing as if she was just on the street where a dungeon break occurred.

The thing (?) before her raised its hand to point at Jinah. Was it an answer to her question? Was she the reason for all of this?

She had no more time before the water in the cup she held spilled completely and suddenly a strong wind blew as there was a resounding sound of something happening and she was so scared and the water just spilled and spilled and-

She was so scared.

“Oppa-” she cried out.

…

Cha Haein ran so fast that the floor underneath her feet cracked as she ran down the street, rain pouring down on her wettering her clothes creating dark dots. 

She maneuvered through the crowd to not bump into any people and if there were too many people gathered in one place she just jumped over them. 

Usually running made her feel free. Free from the need to be better. Free from her parents. Free from the world.

But now it was stressful. Stressful because she was running for her life. She was running to make sure her master was alive. To make sure he was alive. To see that he was alive.

She ditched everything and everyone the moment she got a call from one of her dojo classmates that Mr Song was maybe dead and that the Assosiation called them so he could come to see Mr Song but they were out of town so they asked Haein to check on him. She needed no other word before she was already darting out of her office scrambling to not trip and fall.

She couldn't care less about how some hunters on her way to her master fell to their knees because she didn't bother holding onto her mana. She allowed it to spill unbothered by the consequences. She was far too unfocused to care. Or care of what KHA might do when they get to know that she was basically a tsunami of mana on her way to her master suffocating some hunters.

But it didn't matter. Not right now. Not when her only friend might be dead. Not when the most important person’s heart might not be beating anymore. 

Her eyes frantically darted from the street sign to the other sign calculating where she was and when she might need to make a turn. She needed her mind just clear enough to figure out where to run. The other parts of her mind were free to fall into as much panic as her heart desires.

She made an abrupt stop and turned right, breaking the ground below her as she just jumped over the whole street due to the red light blocking her way. A few passer-bys couldn't even see her due to her lightning-like speed that made her invisible to civilians. Just a quick flash of light and some golden feathers falling down on them which they probably couldn’t even see. 

Her speed also rose by the second with the worry and guilt and every bad emotion known to man. Anger, frustration, anxiety, all of them were boiling in her and she was ready to evaporate everyone. The people around them, the Korean Association for allowing this to happen, herself for not being there when her master needed her.

She just mindlessly ran, her head is empty but has so many thoughts swirling inside of her like a tornado she can't stop. It was so weird and so tense she couldn't even describe this feeling of everything and nothing at all. 

But there it was. A faint trail of mana that came from a gate poisoning its surroundings with mana. And the stench it let out-  she wanted to vomit. She wanted- no need to tear her nose apart and her throat so she isn't going to feel it any longer in her body. Why was she cursed with the oversensitivity to mana? Was it the curse her mother put on her for cutting contact? She probably did curse out Haein every day blaming every minor inconvenience on her. She enjoyed doing it.

The stench made her stop in her tracks as she let out a growl she didn't know she could let out as her eyes sparkled with her golden like mana as the feathers fully materialized around her as she shielded herself from the mana of the gate by overriding it with her own mana as she continued running ahead. It was never that intense. Mana. She has never felt such a stench ever in her life. The only time when she was at the coast closest to Jeju island to feel the mana coming from the contaminated area but never this strong. But she did not care to find out the reason right now. It was not important. The gate was not important. Her master was.

The droplets of water were no longer able to touch her soaked wet clothes with the feathers stopping them before they could even get into her vicinity. 

And there it was. At the construction site with numerous ambulances, association cars and a few strong presences including that of a S rank. 

But the only presence she cares about was that of the ever warm person who was the most skilled man with a sword she ever knew.

“MR SONG!” A few heads turned to look at Haein as she screamed the name of her master as she ran towards him, her legs almost giving up before she was able to reach him. She attentively calmed her mana so as not to hurt her master. Almost instinctively. She needed not to focus or have herself in control to make sure she was never the reason for anyone to be hurt again.

“MASTER!” She whined as she fell on him hugging him desperately in an attempt to not let him go. He hugged her as to not let her fall to the floor because her knees were malfunctioning due to the sheer amount of relief she felt that her master was alive and breathing.

“Master….” she said hiding her face in his neck as she began crying, the feathers still flying around them to not let the rain that increased its intensity get to them but not being tense enough to make any hunter around her feel discomfort.

“Shhh, shhh, I am here.” He said his voice was weirdly sad and heavy as he hugged her tighter.

And then Haein smelled it. Not the mana of her master that made her brows furrow, no. It was the stench of blood.

Her legs suddenly gained strength as she pushed him from her to look at what was wrong with him and her eyes widened as her heart was shattered. Her tears still fell down from her eyes as she looked at his left hand. Or the lack of it.

She looked around to see some doctors stay aside as they waited for Haein to step aside.

What had happened? And the answer was right in front of her, she just deepened it unimportant to care. A big blue gate stood before her giving her the most ominous feeling ever. She hasn't noticed the mana behind the veil due to her being enveloped in her own mana but this? This stench- this unbearable, ugly, stench. 

This was the most powerful dungeon she has ever seen. Is that how a S rank dungeon feels like? She only got a glimpse of the Jeju mana while she was this one time at the coast running but this is-

But she shook her head as she looked at Chi-Yul’s left arm that was no longer there. 

And her mind made several clicks.

“Do you need a healer?” She asked as she continued not waiting for an answer from the old man.

“Don't worry I can bring the best healers of the hunter’s guild here this instant- no wait i can go and un-retire this Min Byung-Gue-” She was ready to go into sprinting mode as out of nowhere her master grabbed her by her wrist stopping her from doing anything rush.

“Don't. I already declined healing my arm.” He said his gaze suddenly faltered as his whole body trembled.

“W-why?” She asked, her lips trembling as she still cried, and she didn't think she could cry even harder.

“Because I will not be able to live with myself if I get scoot free. At the very least let me have this.” He said as if she could ever force him to do anything but right now she really wanted to. She wanted to use force. She wanted to force healers to heal his arm. She wanted to force her master to take it. She wanted to show the power the S rank wielded just this once-

“You aren't thinking straight! Are you in your mind? Have you suffered a head injury? Healers, what do you think  you're even doing-!” Haein’s head turned around to yell at the nearby healers who inspected other survivors and they all flinched as if on command from the bloodthrust that was rising in her.

“Don't worry master i will bring more competent healers-” Chi-Yul’s voice broke through her rage calming her down as he yelled, for the first time since she knew him and that made her freeze like a deer in highlights.

“HAEIN STOP THIS! This is my conscious decision. I will not regret it, the healers already attended to me. I will not die, I will just lose my arm. That is the payment I have to pay for so many deaths caused by my incompetence and this is the least I can do to atone for it!” He yelled as Haein had a brief flashback to her father as her legs trembled the same way they trembled every time her father yelled at her and for a moment she felt as if she returned back to her parent’s house. 

Her knees completely gave out as she crumbled to the concrete below her as the golden feather dissipated into the air as her own left hand was held by the wrist by Chi-Yul.

He came down to her level as he let go of her hand that fell to the ground lifelessly. He petted on her head as she brought her own hands to cover her face as she cried and cried and cried and bit her lip to the blood to not let the hiccups she made be heard by anyone because that was how she was thought by her parents. Cry but cry quietly.

“I know, I am sorry. But this is something that I need.” He said, sorrow evident in his voice as he gently pushed her head against his chest.

“After what I have done. I have no right to save my left hand.” He elaborated as Haein sobbed. His gaze for a second shifted to a brunette girl who sat in the ambulance pale as a ghost wrapped in a blanket. Juhee. 

‘She must be feeling guilty too.’ He concluded, bringing Haein closer to him and closing his eyes.

‘Rest in peace, Sung Jinwoo. You poor, innocent soul.’

…

Juhee glass eyes looked over the construction site full of mud due to rain that began as was promised by the lady on the tv she watched in the morning. The sand on the ground was the cause of all of this mud. And she couldn't think of how suitable it was to the current situation she found herself in.

Juhee wondered to herself how much time she had spent in the double dungeon but seeing how dark it was they probably spent quite some time in there. Like in any other dungeon. This one just felt a bit longer than eternity.

“You just have a severe case of mana exhaustion. Bed rest for a month minimum due to how severe it is. Eat well, healthy food, enough vegetables and meat- or, if you are vegan, you can be provided with not toxic magic beast's meat. Please, in the future do not exhaust your mana pool to such an extent. It may cause permanent harm to how well you can replenish your mana or how you can control it. But for now, I don't see anything too severe. You are free to go.” The healer, stronger than she said as the doctor from the ambulance nodded alongside. Juhee looked at the blanket on her shoulders, slightly slipping down as she stared back at them. The blanket was dirty. From what hole has they found it? Not to mention their faces- ugly. 

But maybe she was a bit too critical of everything right now. This reaction shows up when she is anxious. But was she anxious right now? She couldn't tell.

“...” she moved her gaze towards the blue gate that still shimmered as the hunters came out of the dungeon holding numerous big grey bags that probably had dead bodies in them. Or parts of them anyway. Was Jinwoo's body in there? How much damage was it? Could she recognise his face? Or was it too distributing to show it and will it be just cremated as fast as possible? Probably.

Juhee’s gaze lingered on a certain man- Woo Jinchul. A man who was the one to convince her to become a hunter. The man who worked for the association responsible for evaluating and managing gates. Basically the big head that had just fucked up miraculously falsely evaluating a gate and now so many people are dead. Great. Good job association workers! Great as ever. Not only they poorly manage their hunters they are also ass in the most important job they have. Evaluation of the gates. Unbelievable.

Her mind without notice went to reminisce about the day she awakened as a B rank Healer. She remembers that day well. When she suddenly awakened. It happened when she visited her uncle and aunt in a far away village. It was a nice, small village that was quiet, peaceful and undisturbed. She liked to visit her favourite uncle and aunt who also cherished her. The love was mutual.

But the reason she enjoyed visiting them was also due to her cousin, a 12 year old Ha-Rin. Her favourite person in the whole world. It was a summer day when Ha-Rin wanted to go out and take a walk in the forest. To go to the river to draw there. She was truly a talented artist. The paintings she sometimes did were that of a professional artist. The perspective, colour theory, composition  anatomy- everything about her art made Juhee be ashamed to call herself an artist.  And she drew it all from her imagination alone, not using any reference. Unbelievable. She would call her talented if she did not know how much the girl painted and loved to paint.

But this particular day made Juhee nervous. For no reason in particular. But maybe the universe was telling her something that day.

And so she went to check on Ha-Rin.  But there was nobody at the river, just the empty seat and a blue gate that had a big crack in the middle of it as if a glass was shattered.

She ran through the forest. In panic. As if she was running from the wolves. She probably wanted it to be the case thought.

Her run came to a halt when she saw it. She saw her little girl, her friend, her family being in the jaws of that beast. Her neck was pierced with its teeth.  Blood everywhere. Blood on the grass. Blood on Ha-Rin. Blood on the beast that looked at her despite it not having any pupils to look at her. And that when she felt weird. A weird power filling her every corner of her body, it made her feel strong. And she hit the werewolf holding Ha-Rin by the neck. And it did something because the wolf released her girl and stepped back a little. And then she ran through the forest holding her cousin’s limp body as her newly acquired instincts screamed at her to heal. The weird voice in her head teaching her, leading her to how to do it. Knowledge that wasn't hers sipping into her mind 

But it was to no avail. She couldn't make Ha-Rin breathe again, she couldn't stop the blood. She could heal her neck. But she was not breathing. She could do CPR. But there was nothing. No matter how long she did it nothing happened.

And so she held her limp body as she saw men and women alike in suits and armour run over to her concerned.

And the very first face she saw among those people was this man’s.

Woo Jinchul. The one who, despite seeing her drown in misery sitting by her uncle and aunt crying because she felt like she was at fault for not protecting her Ha-Rin, came up to her to ask her to evaluate her rank.

And then he asked her to become a hunter. And she declined. And then a dungeon break happened near her house. He asked again for her to get involved. She declined. And then a gate appeared near her house. She declined. Again.

But somehow, here she was. He was able to convince her to become a hunter. And what has it led her to? 

Hurt again. Again unable to save someone. And there he was. Again. 

Ironic.

“We have notified your parents about the situation, perhaps it would be better to admit you to a hospital to watch your health for a bit. How does that sound?” The paramedic asked her her tone, sounding like it was a normal Monday to her. And didn’t she just nodded to the healer saying that she is free to go? Wait was this a different paramedic with her? Not as ugly as the previous one. But still, his hair made her want to drop a bucket of water on them. 

And the tone the paramedic spoke was also making her want to drop the now empty bucket on his head. They spoke so calmly. While here she was, having had the most traumatising surviving game she has ever experienced. Beautiful.

And over there was Woo Jinchul already asking what had happened to the other survivors.

“Those fucking traitorous-” she growled as she saw three faces in particular that made her want to vomit and be an enraged beast. Her mana would have probably spiked up if she had any in her. She would probably let her bloodlust be felt if not for the exhaustion of her mind.

She felt such raging fury inside her that she wanted nothing but to punch all of those scumbags. But she had no strength to do so. And believe her: despite being a healer, a not combat type, she could punch.

‘They are the reason why Jinwoo is dead.’ She told herself. Because truth be told, she felt no guilt. Just rage for what has happened to her precious friend.

And truth be told, there wasn't much difference between Jinwoo’s and Ha-Rin's deaths, one was the fault of the lazy hunters that didn't bother to go patrol the forest area, the other one was betrayed by scumbags that thought they were better than Jinwoo but in the end they ran like the pussies they are-

Her gaze inevitably fell on Mr Song who was at his knees hugging what seemed like Cha Haein herself. And there was also Baek Yoonho who was running in and out of the gate carrying bags. Or so he was running. Right now all the people, or most, stood dead looking in one particular spot. Was there something?

Juhee closed her eyes from how long she held them open as they burned. Her mind slowly drifting to the dream realm as her sitting body gave up trying to hold a straight posture as her head went straight towards the ground with her whole body following. 

Thankfully someone grabbed her just in time to stop her from kissing ground.

But before completely falling unconscious Juhee felt a strong presence of mana somewhere in the distance but she had no energy or will to try and understand what tornado like mana truly was. Or if the people around her were looking at the tornado or not.

…

Yoonho’s pupils widened as his hair slightly whitened. The other hunters alongside him also tensed up looking in one particular direction.

‘Is that… what I am thinking it is?’ Yoonho wondered as he looked at the whirlwind of water that stood above the tall buildings forming into a rather aggressive tempest of mana and water combined with wind holding it all.

“A… dungeon break?” The chief of the monitoring department winced as he looked up through the buildings at the tense mana that threatened to swoop everything in its path if it had moved. But despite everything, it stayed in one place. 

Of course, someone like Woo Jinchul wouldn't have such sharp senses as Yoonho and so he assumed it was a dungeon break. Jinchul was after all an A rank while he was a S rank who was highly sensitive to mana.

“No.” Yoonho gently put down the bag full of human meat, no better word to describe it, as the rookie of his guild came closer to him.

“What is this? The mana is so… tense. Not to mention it is hard to merely breathe and we are at a considerable distance from it… is this how A rank dungeons feel like?” Park Heejin asked, her eyes slightly unfocused. The white tiger’s Guildmaster shook his head in answer.

“No. This is not a dungeon break.” Association hunters and his own hunters that were called to handle this… weird double dungeon incident looked at him in wonder as Woo Jinchul was already calling somebody listening only with one ear to Yoonho.

“This is the birth of Korea’s tenth S rank.” He elaborated with a slight growl. After two long years, at last, South  Korea now has a new S rank. And that S rank is clearly unsure of what to do with their newly acquired powers with it being out in the wild shivering as a typhoon. 

Poor them, he remembers his time when he had just received his powers. He was in his transformed state for three days locked up in his own house cursing that he became a monster. Thankfully, by the fourth day, he was able to figure out the way to transform back but in that short period he was able to break almost all furniture in his house and his phone. Which led his teammates from the fire squad to go to his house and check on him which also led to them to shit their pants from the shock of hearing a supposed “magic beast” talk in Korean.

“I will go check on them.” He said to the people around him before getting ready to sprint off in the rain to the centre of the place where mana gathered.

It was truly a weird day.  First he watched his cat do a random backflip for no reason and then he got called by association to the supposed “false ranking dungeon” which was described by the survivors as “some kind of test from gods with statues being the ones to judge them!”. And when he came to the scene the only thing he saw were human remains and blood sprayed everywhere in the dark hall. The interesting thing was also the center of an altar that was covered in blood that was splurged not only on the altar itself but also on a major space around the altar with a spear driven into the altar standing proud at a low angle all bloody.

And now this. A newly born S rank. And what luck is this that he will be the first one they will talk to?

He sprinted not waiting for his comrades to gulp the situation before he was already running through the streets. He held his mana tighter to himself the closer he got keeping his hair from turning white even more from the exposure to it before he suddenly needed to dodge a trash can flying his way.

“A wind type hunter huh?” He whispered to himself watching the strong mana infused wind try to push him away. Despite the power of it that was probably able to send a B rank flying, it did not faze the S rank tho that just resumed his running to get to the other young S rank as fast as possible. To talk to them, calm them down, teach them the basics of controlling their mana, and give them his business card if they would consider joining his guild. Perfect plan. He wonders who that person is. A woman? A man? Are they in their early 30's or late 40’s? Older? Maybe mid 20?

And as he ran more and more destruction caused by the new awakened was evident, like the trees that were uprooted flying in the sky and trash cans dancing with them.

There were even some  minor cracks on the concrete. That was the power of a S rank, just their mana alone was able to do all that just from not holding it back. 

His feet dug into the ground at the abrupt stop as he looked at the big wide open space where in the middle was a crater with a ball of water shaped by the wind powered by mana swirling ferociously. His eyes suddenly went up to read the sign at the big cracked building forward. 

‘A school?’ He wondered to himself as he took slow, deliberate steps towards the ball of water as the mana pushed even harder at him, now that it got significantly harder to fight against he allowed his hair to turn completely white, his nails sharpening into claws as his eyes glimmered with gold like mana. And as he came to the ball that was acting like a shield he ripped it open with his claws alone and the thing he saw momentarily stunned him.

A kid, a girl, sat in the rumble of sharp shards of concrete with a… summoned creature? The water-knight held an umbrella above her head while sitting on one knee as it turned its head to Yoonho looking at him with its non-existent eyes as it stood up, letting him come to the girl as if knowing he was not here to hurt her.

He gasped not realising he held his breath as he immediately dropped to his knees to be on the same level as the girl.

How old was she? 14? 15?? 16??? His mind raced as he watched the kid hold desperately onto her two strands of hair in the front as she cried while her mouth was wide open but not seemingly breathing. Her eyes were unfocused as she just looked down on the broken floor beneath her not registering Yoonho that stood before her as she just cried, her tears getting swept away by the strong wind straight away.

Yoonho as gently as he could put his strong arms on her shoulders as his face features softened. His previous objections were thrown out of the window because now he had a terrified, disoriented, child. It was not an adult, it was a kid. And usually it was way more harder to calm a kid down from his experience from his time working as a firefighter. His primary task was to get the kid out of her own nightmare before doing anything else.

“Hey- hey, kid, do you hear me?” He asked and the kid before him jerked as her head suddenly raised to look directly into his eyes not blinking.

“Breath, take deep breaths, c'mon you can do it.” He encouraged as the girl gasped for air as she coughed  her eyes now blinking rapidly as if she just gained consciousness.

“There there, you are doing great, just breath for now, don't try to do anything else.” Yoonho came closer, petting her on her back with her head  low as she coughed, and coughed, and coughed. 

After five minutes that certainly felt like an eternity with the mana around him trying to make him go flying he held on as the girl somewhat calmed down just a bit.

“Now, I know you are scared. But this, this is normal.” He pointed with his hand at the strong winds around them.

“You being able to see clearer is normal, your nose burning is also normal, a headache you probably feel is also normal. It just means your body is adjusting to the mana. It can be painful, but it will go away.” He explained as the girl watched his every moment her eyes darting from different directions at an incredible speed as he continued petting her back.

“It- it is so painful- it hurts- i-i i want my brother i,-” her tears returned as she began crying again as he gently pushed her head against his chest now petting her head. He knew how painful an awakening may be. Especially for S ranks. Their body rejecting their own mana that created such devastating destruction. And this poor, poor kid had to go through it.

Fate was a bitch. Because why did it give powers of such a scale to a child dammit?

He held himself from gritting his teeth as he calmed down the girl.

“Your brother will probably come soon. For now, you just have to deal with the pain, with a little bit of time it will lessen as your body adjusts.” He said as the kid in his arms trembled. Yoonho’s eyes went up to see the water knight who still held that umbrella above their heads even though the rain was not even being able to reach them due to the strong wind already blocking its path. 

“There, see? Does it hurt as much?” He asked, returning his attention to the girl letting go of the girl who now sniffed with her eyes and nose slightly red.

“Yeah…” she said, her eyes now slowly looking around herself.

“Is this…? Did I-?” She looked at him with a face full of terror as he nodded understanding what she meant.

“Yes, all this was caused by you. But, this was not your fault. Happens to all of us - S rank.” He said her eyes suddenly going wide.

“Wait, huh? No, uhm, that is- shit, no way.” She took a double look at him, her mouth going wide open.

“Baek Yoonho?” She asked as he nodded smirking.

“Like, the guildmaster of the White Tiger guild? That Baek Yoonho?” 

“One and only.” He said but his face turned serious once more.

“Now, I know this is a lot to take in. But you will have the time to process it all later. Right now, you have to get a hold of your powers.” Both of his hands gently grabbed the much smaller hands of the girl before him.

“Now- ahm, sorry, what is your name?” He abruptly asked.

“Sung Jinah.” She answered blankly, still trembling and shaky a bit.

“Sung Jinah, got it. Now, Sung Jinah, imagine… imagine a spoon.” He began making Jinah tilt her head.

“And on that spoon you have an egg- close your eyes.” He ordered as she did that in the blink of a second.

“Imagine TWO spoons with an egg each in your hands. And you have to hold your balance with them- wait no probably let's think of another example-” Yoonho was never good at explaining. This is why his best friends always made fun of him but the girl before him wasn't even fazed.

“Imagine holding a cup of water. And there is so much water it reaches the edges and you try desperately to not let slip. And you have to take a deep breath while holding the cup. Shortly, you just have to focus as best as you can.” He said unsure if his explanation helped but looking at the storm around him calming down as the mana started to come back to the girl he smiled, letting out a relieved sigh. See, Byung-Gue? He could explain something!

“Wait- my brother-” suddenly all the meditation they did almost crumbled as Jinah suddenly opened her eyes.

“My brother- i need to go see my brother- he must be freaking out by now-” he tugged on her hands to make her look at him.

“I can call your brother after you will take a hold of your mana. So, let's get back. Close your eyes, take deep breaths, imagine a spoon- i mean a cup of water…”