Afeus was getting tired dragging the unconscious body through the forest, but he had no choice but to do so. "Wait a minute now that I can move around in the forest I can get the materials I need." Afeus looked at the young man he was dragging around. " He is kinda heavy and if I get the materials this trip might get harder... Screw it, I"m already here and a little bit of exercise is good for the body."
Afeus turned around and headed in a different direction. He went deeper into the forest where he could find the materials he needed. At first, he was still a bit wary of the monsters since he couldn"t understand for what reason they avoided the unconscious young man. It was possible that there might be a trigger of sorts and if something changes the monsters might attack.
Yet after heading into the forest and meeting several monsters that were cla.s.sified as highly dangerous and seeing them fleeing for their lives, Afeus grew bolder. He went deeper and deeper into the forest now trying to find some rare material that he didn"t really need.
...
After a few hours of picking up materials, Afeus noticed that the sun was going down. He quickly moved and started dragging the unconscious body. Yet unlike before he was carrying more which made it difficult for him to move since he was physically weak. Even with the help of a body strengthening spell, it was a tad harder than he expected.
While he was dragging the body around, Afeus could hear various howls and roars by the surrounding monsters. He felt unnerved by those horrid sounds he was hearing and sped up. As he continued walking Afeus finally noticed that the monsters in the area had disappeared. Awhile ago they only fled when he pa.s.ses once he pa.s.sed through the monster would return to their respective areas, yet now he hasn"t seen a single monster. He could only hear them fighting, eating and howling at the distance which was in his opinion worse than actually seeing them.
"Sh*t, if I ever make it out of this place alive, I won"t ever go out and do fieldwork again. I"m just going to be one of those mages that hole themselves inside their towers. Yup, just doing experiments, ordering around apprentices to gather materials for me. Getting whatever I need in the safety of my own room. Oh, that would be the life. Alright then, it"s decided if I get out of here and after I graduate I"m going to be one of those tower mages. Yup nothing wrong with being a tower mage, and devoting myself to research."
Afeus who was daydreaming while pulling the unconscious body stopped moving. He looked ahead of him and was stunned to see a giant bipedal tiger-like monster. It stood around four meters tall, its mouth was wide open showing its razor-sharp fangs. Afeus gulped as he didn"t know what kind of monster was in front of him. Still seeing as it wasn"t avoiding the unconscious young man like the other A rank monsters, would mean one of two things. Either it was so weak that it couldn"t determine the danger the young man posed, or it might be a monster that is so strong that it wasn"t afraid of the unconscious young man.
"In the first place, I don"t really understand why the monsters are afraid of him." Though Afeus was trying his best to remain calm, he was already s.h.i.+vering in fear and had peed in his pants. He wanted to run but couldn"t, he didn"t want to leave the unconscious young man. He might not be the kind of guy that would actively seek out people in trouble and help them, but since he was already involved it would leave a bad aftertaste if he left the young man. Also even if he did run there was no guarantee that he would be able to escape the monster in front of him.
The monster then reached out its large hand towards Afeus. Seeing the hand coming towards him, Afeus gathered all the mana he could muster and created a barrier. Despite his efforts, the large hand of the monster didn"t even flinch as it easily destroyed his barrier.
Afeus closed his eyes as he stood in front of the unconscious body. He didn"t know why he did it as it was already hopeless even if he blocks the initial attack. Yet he moved since he felt that he owed the young man for all the materials he was able to gather today.
"Well, I guess this is it. At least I won"t need to study my b.u.t.t off anymore." Afeus waited for the hand of the monster to squeeze him to death, yet after a few more seconds of waiting nothing happened. Afeus then opened his eyes and saw the monster had moved. The monster had backed a meter away from him. It was now on all fours baring its fangs as if it was trying to show that it wasn"t afraid. It was at that moment he felt a terrifying presence behind him. He might not understand the feeling of bloodl.u.s.t, but Afeus was sure that was what the being behind him was emitting.
If the monster in front of him made him s.h.i.+ver in fright, the one behind him made him feel utter despair as Afeus couldn"t even breathe properly at the moment.
He heard the sound of footsteps from behind. Afeus remained perfectly still, and at the corner of his eyes, he saw who was emitting such a horrifying presence. It was none other than the young man who was unconscious mere seconds ago.
The young man looked a bit annoyed as he scratched his head while looking at the monster at the front. He then looked at Afeus, and asked, "Where am I? Who are you?... Who am I?..." While the young man was confused the monster roared. Seeing as the young man showed his back, the monster thought that this was an indication that the young man was afraid. The monster no longer hesitated and attacked.
"Watch out!" Though afraid of the young man, Afeus shouted at him. The young man didn"t even bother to look at the monster as he raised his right arm and grabbed hold of one of the monster claws. The young man then proceeded to lift the giant monster"s body up into the air and then slammed it onto the ground.
"You"re f*cking noisy!" The young man rushed at the fallen monster and kneed the monster"s face. He then proceeded to pound the monster"s chest with his bare fists. Once he was satisfied the young man grabbed the monster"s head and ripped it off its body.
The monster"s blood sprayed all over the surrounding area but the young man easily dodged the spraying blood. He then looked at Afeus one more time while clutching his head. The young man was about to say something but as he opened his mouth to speak, he once again fainted flat on the ground.
Afeus looked at the young man still overwhelmed by what he saw. During that fight, if you could even call it that. Afeus wasn"t sure which one between the two was the true monster.