I was sure I was going to die back then.

It just seemed inevitable after that fierce fight.

But somehow... I ended up surviving.

I woke up two days after that fight against the boar.

Even though my wounds have been tended to, it still hurt as soon as I tried to move.

I had bruises all over my body and my left leg seemed to be broken.

But I was still alive.

And not only that.

For some reason, my role in the village was going to change after I recovered.

No longer would I need to do monotonous task like sewing and collecting berries.

Instead, I was going to join the adult hunter group.

I wasn't really sure why it was happening, but I felt a little relieved.

I would return to doing what I do the best, after all.

But that wouldn't happen for several weeks, since I needed time to recover.

In the meantime, since I couldn't really use a sword, I practiced magic instead.

I wanted to recreate what I did against the boar, but that proved to be more difficult than I expected.

At the time, I wasn't sure why, but right now, I probably know the reason...

In the spur of the moment, I used the same technique against that boar, that I use nowadays.

That is, skipping the creation of a spell pattern.

It's a little surprising I could do it back then as well...

And also quite disappointing I automatically went back to the old method afterwards.

If I realized it back then, I might have gotten much better at magic faster...

But anyway...

During my recovery period, I had an unexpected visit.

It was the boy I saved from the boar's charge.

The one, who with his now dead companion kept insulting and annoying me.

Surprisingly, he apologized for what he had done and thanked me for saving him.

I didn't think I would ever get to see him like that.

After all, I could only remember him as a nuisance...

But being thanked actually felt a little nice.

After a few weeks, I have fully recovered and it was time for me to join the hunter group.

Unfortunately, just like before, I didn't seem to be very welcome.

Most of them just looked at me with disgust or told me 'just don't get in the way'.

Luckily, uncle Renar was also part of the group, so I didn't feel as isolated.

The first few days of hunting, I really ended up mostly watching the others and learning from them.

I thought it would be a lot easier since I always trained with uncle.

But I soon discovered that hunting and fighting isn't exactly the same.

The prey will often simply run away instead of fighting to the death.

And more often than not, it can run faster than me.

That's why I was forced to learn stealth and patience.

I never got very good at it, so hunting small animals remained pretty much impossible for me.

On the other hand, I could easily stand my ground against the bigger beasts that didn't run.

Unlike the time with that boar, I had a weapon ready, so I wouldn't need to do anything crazy to fight them.

My daily routine became training in the morning and hunting in the afternoon.

Since my close combat skills were less useful for hunting the quick and small targets, I often leaned toward practicing magic.

Naturally, I still tried to recreate what happened with that boar, but no success.

One day, I remembered Will.

It was quite some time ago, but I saw him use magic in a very advanced way.

I kind of wanted to talk to him about it, but I just couldn't bring myself to just go and ask...

We didn't even really know each other after all.

Remembering this now makes me quite angry...

I actually thought really hard about just going and talking to him.

But I never did...

Why didn't I?

Ugh...

Anyway, the days continued.

I kept training and hunting every day.

At some point, I was allowed to go hunting all by myself.

But more than 'allowed', it was more like the others were sick of me constantly scaring off the prey.

It wasn't like I was too opposed to hunting alone, though.

Quite the opposite, it felt liberating to just do everything on my own.

I didn't need to worry about slowing down others, nor did I need to wait for the others to catch up.

The only disadvantage was that I couldn't really carry all of the spoils I could rack up.

...

It would have been nice to have storage back then.

Although, I didn't even know something like that existed at the time.

|One day, chasing after a critter I hunted, I wandered a little further from the village than usual.|

As I dashed after the lizard, I was already preparing a spell to shoot at it.

[Dark strike]

The spell flew over it and landed right where it was running.

However, it reacted quickly and stopped to avoid it.

But that was all part of my plan.

Using the opening, I quickly drew my sword and slashed it in half.

I finally got it.

As I approached it to skin it and collect the meat, I heard something approach from the bushes.

My body reacted to that and jumped into the treetops.

I landed on a thick branch, hid behind some leaves and observed.

In a moment, something... or rather someone emerged from these bushes.

At first, it looked like one of those foxes, except it stood on two legs.

But I soon realized what it was.

One of the members of Nouria foxman tribe.

The people, who we were in war with...

The reason why my parents are dead...

It was one of them right there in front of my eyes.

The anger within me resurfaced as my head started to formulate a strategy to take it down.

...

But putting a hand on my face, I tried to shake off these thoughts.

If I kill this one, the war might reignite.

And I definitely don't want that...

I can't let my emotions control me...

When I regained my focus, I noticed that the person in question was looking this way.

Was I spotted?

I really am bad at stealth, aren't I?

In response to that, I jumped down and took a defensive position with my sword just in case.

When down there, I got a better look at this person.

It was a girl, who looked to be about my age.

She had fox ears and a big fox tail.

Her yellow fur shined as her blue eyes gazed at me.

There was a moment of silence as neither one of us moved.

That silence was then broken by her.

"H-hello..."

...

A greeting.

Instead of running away like foxes would do, she just said hello.

Before I could even formulate an answer, she spoke again.

"Are you from the neighboring tribe?

The back wolfman tribe?"

I unconsciously lowered my sword after she said that.

And then actually answered her.

"...yes."

"Are you... umm...

Are you here to kill me?"

...?

Now that came out of nowhere.

I simply hunted some critters and accidentally ran into her.

Why would she think I want to kill her?

"...no."

"Then... why do you...

Oh..."

Mid-sentence, she noticed the lizard I sliced in half a second ago.

But at the same time, I also noticed something...

"In that case, can yo- gyaaa!"

As she started speaking, I dashed toward her with my sword on hand, which made her fall on her behind in surprise.

However, she wasn't my target.

It was the beast approaching us from behind her.

A bear standing on two legs with long claws on his front paws.

After I jumped over the fox girl, my sword chinked as it reflected the beast's claws.

It seemed to be surprised for a second, and I was able to use that opening to slash at him again.

This time, I managed to make a cut on his forearm.

But that clearly wasn't enough.

The bear got enraged and started rapidly slashing at me, leaving me with only the option to defend.

In order to break from that situation, I jumped backward again.

As soon as I did though, I saw the fox girl was still right in front of the bear.

And my instincts yelled at me to protect her.

[Dark strike]

Without even letting go of the sword, I shot out a spell out of the hand holding the sword.

The spell was able to hit it and make it stagger.

"GET OUT!"

As I shouted at the fox girl, I freed my right hand by holding the sword with the other one.

That allowed me to take a few more shots.

[Dark strike]

[Dark strike]

The girl scurried from the spot where she was lying and ran toward me in a curve.

"C-can you beat it?!"

To my surprise, she hid behind me and timidly asked me.

But I didn't have time to answer.

My foe has already recovered and its eyes full of fury were fixated on me.

I knew that he was going to be a bit harder to defeat than what I usually fight.

But that never discouraged me.

Instead, I took the chance to try something I have been practicing in an actual combat.

[Enchant: Dark wave]

I enchanted my sword.

...or at least tried to.

I created the spell pattern in that sword and started to pump mana into it.

However, while I was doing that, the bear charged at me.

I just swung the sword to deflect his attack, but that made me lose concentration, and the dark mana within the sword gushed out.

Fortunately, I was able to manipulate it and aim it away from me.

The bear was hit by most of it and my sword shattered.

I jumped back and prepared for the worst.

But as the air cleared up, all I could see was the bear's motionless body lying on the ground.

There were several black spots on its fur and pieces of the sword seemed to have stabbed into it as well.

I defeated it.

As I let out a sigh, someone hugged me from behind.

Although it was sudden and unexpected, there was no malice, so I didn't go into battle mode.

"You did it!

That was amazing!"

Of course, the one who hugged me was the fox girl I just saved.

"It was just so incredible!

Aren't you the same age as me?

How did you do all of that?"

She was barraging me with words.

I couldn't keep up with her.

Fortunately, she suddenly stopped hugging me a moment later.

"O-oh I'm sorry!

Are you hurt?

Let me heal you!"

She then approached me again and her hands started to glow.

And with that, the scratches and dark spots I got in that encounter gradually faded away.

This girl knew some interesting magic, which I didn't expect.

It made me look straight into her eyes before she looked away and blushed for some reason.

"U-um...

Wanna be friends?"

And then, yet another random thing flew out of her mouth.

"Friends...?"

"Y-yes...

I don't actually have many friends...

Do you?"

In the first place, I'm not even exactly sure what that word means.

All I know, is that those groups of kids I always see around the village are 'friends'.

But I guess...

"...I don't."

"Then let's be friends!

My name is Kinua!"

A wide smile appeared on her face as she grabbed my hands.

I looked at our hands and then into her eyes again.

"...Reiza."

|At the time, I couldn't even imagine how much my life would change after this incident.|

After the surprise of everyone in the village when they saw me drag the bear's corpse into the village, everything returned back to normal.

Of course, that was except for the fact, that I was now meeting up with Kinua deep in the forest pretty much every day.

I taught her swordsmanship and dark magic while she taught me light magic, the one she used to heal me.

And other than that, we chatted about various things.

In fact, it was thanks to her that I finally learned how to properly talk to others.

I was able to talk about things that always tormented me, which made me feel better.

Eventually, I figured out what 'friends' really meant.

And I didn't regret it one bit.

At this time, I felt something I never felt before...

Happiness.

I could finally say that being alive was a joy.

...

But that wouldn't last very long.

Bonus:

What is divinity?

Divinity is what makes one a god.

It is located in one's soul and protects it from being 'reset' after death.

It can grow and evolve, but it can also wither and die.

Every god has some sort of alignment, which is decided at the moment of their divinity's creation.

There can be gods of knowledge, gods of beauty, gods of freedom, etc.

Pursuing their alignment will make their divinity grow, while neglecting it will cause their divinity to slowly wither away.

In fact, most divinity seeds only last a single reincarnation.

When thrown into a new body in a new world, these individuals often forget what they once valued.

Once the divinity dies, they won't even notice it at the time.

It's after their physical body dies again, when their soul is cleansed off of their memories and also the dead divinity.

After that, they turn back into a regular being without divinity.

...

By the way...

What is your alignment?

"Well...

Isn't it obvious?"

Is it stupidity?

"It's fun!

I'm the god of fun!

Come on, now!"