"You know, it's really annoying that we live in such a peaceful spot... Pride's territory was bustling with monsters but here we need to search for a couple of hours just to get a lone goblin straggler..."

Zombie sighed to himself, shaking the blood of a long dagger that looked like an appropriately sized one-handed sword in his small hands.

There was still more than an hour until sunrise but with no fog, there were no troubles with visibility whatsoever enabling Zombie to move around without the need for a light source or a night vision skill.

|Not really... even for this particular region, having absolutely no native monsters is unheard of. I mean, even though we are responsible for meticulously destroying their already small population for the past two years – a situation like that should not happen.|

Patience spoke up sounding concerned.

|What do you mean exactly...? Is there anything suspicious in your portion of memories...?|

Zombie instantly closed his mouth and thought furrowing his brows, and clenched his hand on the weapon's handle.

|Nothing is directly stated but... call it a bad feeling. The absence of common spawns in the area can mean one thing... Something stronger came and killed them all.|

Patience sounded way more concerned than Zombie ever expected them to get.

And it wasn't like the little boy had a skill like a rotten brain that would stop his intelligence in any way...

|So you're saying that the worm centipede got a lot stronger.|

He sighed internally.

|Yes. If it really killed the other monsters in the area, it must have got close to a rank-up or gone through a rank-up. We should go check on the chickens. Now.|

There was no longer hesitation in Patience's voice, only urgency.

|On it.|

Zombie nodded and started running immediately after sheathing the long dagger.

Annoyingly enough, he still hadn't received anything like the strong kick or another type of leg-based attack, so he couldn't use the trick that he had figured out in his first playthrough, but with the leg power affinity his running speed could match up to even that of an adult.

/proficiency level reached

hidden affinity unlocked

Beast Master

/proficiency level reached

you receive a skill

leadership (level 1)

|What the hell does that mean?!|

Zombie asked in shock, without losing any speed, careful not to trip on some exposed roots or fallen branches.

|Both of those need the monsters you've trained to actually put your teaching into practice – your feathered friends must be putting up a fight against the centipede!|

Patience explained sounding both shocked and impressed in equal measure.

*booom*

"...!"

But then, even though their village was still a good distance away, a sudden sound of an explosion echoed between the trees, making Zombie tense up and sped up greatly while gritting his teeth.

Even with all that, he wouldn't have made it all the way to the village for more than fifteen minutes.

*RUSTLE*

But the thing was, he didn't even have to...

"SCRUHIIIIIIIIIIIIII! (HUUUUUUUUUUUURT!)"

With the rustle of the leaves and branches, a giant black and red centipede burst through the bushes in Zombie's way, screeching horribly while trampling everything in its way.

With how it was charging, it was as tall as an adult human while at least three times as long – its red carapace and black legs had many wounds and scratches as well as multicolored feathers of slaughtered hens stuck all over.

'…!"

Zombie stopped right in place just as the monster appeared, and similarly, the beast froze as if it didn't expect to see anything in its way,

The monster's beady black eyes focused on the small, merely three-year-old boy, and its mandibles moved around vigorously to get rid of the pieces of colorful feathers of a rooster stuck between them.

Yet somehow, the most disturbing thing in this whole image was a bright red oddly shaped sign burning right in the middle of the centipede's head segment.

|It ranked up right into a demon centipede?! GET AWAY FROM HERE, NOW!|

Patience's shout echoed in the void...

"..."

Zombie didn't even flinch, speechlessly staring at the wounds left on the centipede's carapace by the measly talons of the domesticated chicken monsters he attempted to train just the previous morning...

|Zombie...? Zombie, you can't freeze up like that! You need to run!|

Patience sounded as if they flinched and spoke up in confusion.

|That mark is the sigil of the Eternal! That's what happens when the surplus of power of the primordial god of destruction slips through the seal of the Eternal and pollutes the world! You never encountered something like that in your first playthrough because you were the Eternal all along, but with your two entities being separated, it all returned to how it should have been originally! You saw Caramel's memories about the events! Those sigil monsters show up from time to time and are treated as minibosses!|

Since their initial response had no effect whatsoever Patience tried to explain everything desperately fast just to get the boy away from the monster that was slowly regaining its composure and was already readying itself for a strike.

"..."

Zombie finally moved – but instead of running away, he pulled out his weapon while glaring into the beady black eyes of the centipede.

|Zombie! Listen to me! Even if that thing is still low-level, it is at least as strong as a gray frenzy wolf, maybe even a young white one! And you are level 4! 4!|

Patience shouted inside of Zombies head, but the only response was from the boy was the light of an activated skill suddenly brightening up his eyes and enveloping the blade of the long dagger he was using as a sword.

|Think about your villainess! She will die if you don't push the story on the right track! The secret true ending is only achievable for someone who knows what should be changed and you know full well that Caramel won't lift her finger to help her! You can't die here trying to avenge some chickens!|

Patience resorted to pulling Cranberry into the argument but similarly as before – their argument failed to move the proudest corpse in the body of the three-year-old boy.

"Forsaking one's pride for achieving their goal isn't wrong... But if I did that, could I really look into Cranberry's face with a clear conscience when we finally meet in this playthrough?"

"...scruhiii...? (...human larva, not running, not afraid...?)"

Zombie smirked, taking a stance while the centipede let out a cautious insect screech, confused by the different response than it expected.

|You..! You utter fool! If you don't escape this fight there will be no meeting that girl, ever!|

Patience shouted desperately.

"Then I just need to kill this bug, don't I?"

Zombie's smirk bloomed into a bloodthirsty smile and he launched himself at the monster.