CHAPTER 34: An end means a new beginning

I moved towards the forest swiftly as the sunrise in the horizon leaving a hint of light as it replaces the darkness. Suyeon is running right behind me and we both try to get as far away as we can from the forest boar town.

When morning hits, they will find his body and by the time they do, we’ll be quite a distance away from that place. I voiced in my mind remembering what we did.I ended up breaking all of his fingers and doing other inhumane things to him that would make one shiver or even sick by just watching.But I didn’t get sick. I didn’t shiver. It’s not like I enjoyed it. But it’s not like I hated it either.I felt nothing.I have killed monsters that I categorized as my enemy. In my mind, I see them as an obstacle towards what I need in this world. They need to die for me to survive. But this is the first I took an initiative to end someone who I have nothing to gain from let alone that being another human. He lost already from the moment I used my skill. But I continued until he stopped breathing. And I didn’t feel anything doing it.

I suddenly stop as I try to catch my breath. I ran non-stop while Suyeon kept up behind me and when I look back; I see her leaning on a tree also panting. Now I know why she pisses me off so much. It’s not because she’s weak and useless. It’s because she chooses to remain weak and useless. It pisses me off. I quickly approach her and with a swift swing, I punched towards her head.

BAM!

I deliberately missed her face and hit the tree she was leaning on destroying a piece of it in the process while scraping my skin off my knuckles. Her knees gave and she fell on her ass looking at me with fear.

There we go, that same look again. I say in my mind.

"Why didn't you fight back? Why didn't you punch him, scratch him? Why?" I asked her and she just looked around averting my gaze. "Always doing as you're told. You, do you just let things happen to you thinking someone will come to save you?"

She never gave me an answer and just hugged her legs.

“Talk!” I shouted so loud it felt like I scratched my throat. Yet I got frustrated even more at her lack of replies.

“I-I-“ She tried saying something but stopped.

“ What?!” I screamed and I see her flinch as my voice resonates through the forest.

“I-I don’t want to get hit anymore.” She tells me.

“Huh?! You don’t fight back because you don’t want to get hit?! Are you fucking stupid?! He was hitting you!!” I shout at her and I see tears coming out of her eyes. She just sat there and cried. Just fucking cried.

This is useless. No matter what I say, she won’t say anything. I whisper as I clenched my fist. I have been angry before or I could say, I'm always angry. But this is the first time I was this furious that my body is shaking.

“Tsk.” I let out a mutter as I started running away from her. She quickly stood up and followed me faintly sobbing as we both ran through the forest in silence. We gained quite a distance. The sun has risen up high in the sky indicated it's probably midday. We reached another stream of water and I decided to rest and wash my bloody hands. After dealing with the governor, I didn’t have time to clean myself and I’m covered in blood making my hands turn crimson red as it dries up on my skin. I dip my hands in the water and I see the blood mix with the stream as it flows with the current. I washed my face and as I look down my clothes, I started to feel irritated.

"Tsk, and I just got these yesterday," I whisper to myself. "In just one night. Just one fucking night, everything went to shits."

I look at the source of the issue and she’s a distance away kneeling near the edge of the stream also washing her hands that’s covered in blood. As far as I know, she’s an accomplice to the murder of the governor. As for the death of the three guards in the stable that raped the two maids, they will probably blame us for that also.

"Shit, I thought I had enough problem on my plate. Now I'm going to become a fugitive." I say removing my shirt and pants that are covered in blood. I took out a new pair of clothes from my bag. Good thing I stockpiled a bunch of shirt and pants thinking that it might be a while till I find the next town or village. I look back at Suyeon and I see she slowly cleaning the blood that got on her hair. I took out another pair of clothes and approached her. The minute she sees me come close, her body went rigid as she started looking everywhere.

Tsk. Always looking so scared. I say in my mind. I dropped the clothes near her and she looked at it and back to me.

“Wear this. The last thing I want is someone seeing me with clean clothes while you’re covered in blood.” I tell her as I inspect the clothes she’s wearing. She was naked when I found her and the new clothes I gave her earlier was covered with bloodstains due to the governor bleeding profusely as I ripped his limbs one by one.

She slowly gave me a nod and I turn away walking towards where I was washing my hands. After cleaning and dumping our bloody clothes, we started following the stream to see if it will lead us to another civilization. Based on my general knowledge, most town or any villages are near a body of water. But then again, that's common sense for the earth. Here, where people can magically call water out of thin air, it might not follow that same common sense. But we kept following it anyways just in case we come across another beaten path that leads to another village. Another village means another source of information. For now, the most important task at hand is to gather information to find out where Luro is.

Speaking of Luro, I haven’t seen that bastard pop up. I say in my mind as I walk following Suyeon after I instructed her to lead the way. We walked non-stop resting for a bit here and there. I was hoping I’ll find another village really quick, but nothing. It seems like the forest is getting thicker and thicker as the trees got taller up to the point that I felt small walking along the stream. We walked until we come across what seems to be a lake where the stream ends up.

"The sun is probably going to go down soon," I say as I look up the sky. The trees tower over the lake surrounding it making it hard to see the horizon. I see Suyeon sit on a log as she stares down at a mushroom. The mushroom looks like death itself. It’s completely black with bright red spots. I see Suyeon’s hand reaching to touch it makes me really want to slap some common sense into her.

“Don't touch it! What the fuck is wrong with you?!” I shouted at her and she quickly pulls back her hand that she fell on the other side of the log as she lost her balance.

She quickly stood up dusting off her ass and looks at me. “I-I’m sorry.”

“What if that shit is poisonous?” I tell her and she just looks down the ground. “Tsk, go be useful and walk around collecting sticks. We’ll need it for the fire.”

She nods and started pickup up a stick and hugging them. I also picked up a stick and started sharpening it into a spear using a dagger I took out from my bag. After eating the braised platter yesterday, I’m craving some fish.

"Dammit, I should have bought raw ingredients when I was still there," I say to myself remembering that there is a section on the forest boar town that has a street market that probably sold raw edible materials. I was supposed to go the next day to walk around the town and my plan went to hell the minute she knocked on my door.

"There was also a library," I whisper to myself.

Sigh.

It’s not like I can waltz back in there and say ‘hey~? I killed your governor but can I buy some dead fish?I whispered in my mind while studying the sharpened stick. It made me remember about Hiroko, which made me chuckle a bit.

"Ah, whatever," I mutter as I walk in the lake. As usual, in this world, everything looks picture perfect. The lake has crystal blue water that’s so clean I can see all the fish swimming in it like an aquarium. I tried spearing some fish but they all managed to get away before the spear stabbed them. “Tsk. These fuckers are fast. I wish I can knock them out the water.”

Wait, will my skill work on fishes?I say in my mind. I quickly threw the spear to the side and swam in the middle of the lake.

“Ok, knockout~” I whisper to myself and I dove down in the water. The lake wasn’t that deep so I reached the bottom floor in no time. I slowly brought my clenched fist onto the bottom floor and a big purple rune appeared at the bed of the lake. I felt the limit of my lungs and ascend back to the surface as fast as I can to catch my breath.

“Puah! Hah! Did it work?” I looked around to see if any fish around me and like a dream come true, they started floating up the surface one by one. “Bwahaha! It works!”

I swim towards the unconscious fishes and collected them. I didn’t need a lot so I let some of them float around until they wake up and sink back down the water to swim away. I took out a cutting board I got from the forest boar item shop and swiftly chopping off their heads instantly killing them.

"Good thing I bought everything I needed," I whisper to myself. I held a cooking knife and started descaling the fish with the knife’s dull end. Once all the scales were removed, I dig around the opening near the side for its gills and yanked it out. I cut an opening near its belly and took out all of the guts. I grabbed a stick from the pile Suyeon have been building up. Using my knife, I scraped off the stick outer layer and dipped it into the lake water to clean it fully. Once it’s cleaned, I stab the fish from one end to the next. I plunge the stick into the ground keeping the fish afloat from the dirt while I build the campfire.

I place stones I collected around into a circular pattern. I grabbed a couple more sticks from the pile and dumped it in the middle and used dried leaves that I crumbled up to help me ignite a fire. Once the fire started and got going, I moved the fish and stabbed it near the fire leaning the fish towards the flame close enough to cook it but not scorch it in an instant.

"Ok, this is going to take a while," I say as I look up the sky and I see the sun is halfway past nearing the tip of the trees. But it wasn't glaring down at us as dark clouds loom over the sky blocking some sunlight. I decided to build an A-frame hut as a shelter just in case it rains but I decided to take it down and started building a box frame instead to make it bigger so both of us don’t have to stay so close inside of it. I used branches with leaves as roofing and scooped up water from the lake to test it out. The water dripped from one leaf to another until it reached the edge of the roof. I see the roof sagging from the middle so I grabbed another stick and placed it as the pillar of the whole frame.

"Perfect," I whisper as I sit inside of it. I built a border of stones around it and using mud from the ground; I plastered it onto the stonewall hoping it would dry quickly. Once it dries up, it should act as a somewhat protection but I got tired halfway through stopped to take a rest.

"I'll just leave it like this. It's only for the night anyway." I whisper to myself. If this was back at earth, this would have been a lot more hassle, but in this world, everything is quite easy to do when you have an enormous strength categorized as something that should be abnormal back home. I sat around under shelter and as I look over the lake, I see Suyeon walking around picking up sticks. I look at the pile she’s been throwing the sticks down at and it’s bigger than the before.

“What the fuck, is she going to collect the whole forest?” I whisper looking at the enormous amount of sticks. I see her walk around the lake and I watched her as she slowly approaches the mound she’s been cultivating. Then in my mind, something tells me to flip the fish to the other side so I did to cook the other end. Once I finish cooking the fish, I called Suyeon over and we both ate in silence. After finishing her food, she stood up to wash her hands in the lake. Then she started walking alongside the lake.

“Where are you going?” I asked and she looked back towards me.

“T-to collect more sticks.” She nervously replied.

“What the fuck, you want to deforest this place? That’s a lot of stick you collected already.” I tell her pointing at the mound.

“O-oh.” She says as she sat back down the log that I moved near the fire pit I made. Then, like an unwanted guest, rain started pouring out of the sky and we both quickly retreat under the shelter I made.

“Ah shit. I should have moved the fire pit in here.” I say looking at the fire as it slowly gets put out by the rain. We sat around under the shelter and waited for the rain to subside without talking to each other. She just sat there and used a stick to play with the mud on the ground.

Arghh! This silence is killing me!I say in my mind as none of us talked.

“You, tell me everything you know about the dungeon. What the hell did you go through in there?” I asked her and I see her flinch.

Tch, she’s really not talking.I say in my mind.

“Look, I’m not going to make fun of you or anything but there might be information for me to understand the situation bette-“

“I-I-I was beaten.” She suddenly spoke hugging her knees.

No shit Sherlock. You looked like beef jerky when I found you. I say in my mind but I remained quiet and let her continue talking.

“I-in the beginning, w-when me and my brother woke up. We met a couple of people. T-then the door opened and that when everything turns for the worst.” She tells me and I just listened while she explained her whole ordeal. She continued to talk about how she and her brother was killed by Luro and how he brought them here. She told me she woke up in the room that she kept running in the beginning when I met her. Which is my room originally when I started. Her brother almost killed her to be saved by a couple of people that woke up in the same dungeon.

“When the door opened, a lot of monsters came rushing at us. But luckily, they couldn’t go inside the safe area.” She explained.

“So what did you guys do?” I asked.

“Well, there wasn’t really much of a choice but to fight them.” She explained. “I was useless so I had to stay in the safe room every time they go out towards the dark hallway. They leveled up while I stayed level one.”

She put her head down on her knees and I can see her body is trembling as she clenches her fist that is wrapped around her legs.

“One of us got injured badly. Even when we had a healer, it wasn’t enough so I was put in charge of taking care of him as he slowly heals. That when-“

She suddenly stopped talking.

“What? When what?” I curiously asked.

“That’ when…that’s when it happened.” She says. “That’s when they used me. That’s when my brother used me. We got split into two groups and we were talking one night….”

=Start of Suyeon’s Memory=

“So, you’re saying you have a skill that can make a brief portal?” Amaguchi asked a person from our group. We’re all in one room huddle together. Mr. Goro sensei is outside as a lookout.

“Y-yeah. It’s on my skill list. But I can only activate the portal for a brief moment and I don’t know where it will lead.” Mamoru says.Ever since the door opened, we were divided into two groups. My brother led one group and Daikichi led the other group. I am part of Daikichi group along with Ms. Miki-sensei, Mr. Goro-sensei, Amaguchi, Lisa, and Kana. The rest of the people joined my brother’s group. Even when our group started out more, one by one they switch to the other room leaving only us and one guy named Mamoru who‘s a warlock and chose to stay with us.

“Then we can get out of here? Daikichi needs treatment quick. His fever is not going down.” Kana says.

“Yeah, it has a cooldown of five hours but the last time I used it was yesterday so I can activate it now if you want." He says.

“Wait, you used it? Where did it bring you?” Lisa whispers.

“I saw on the other side was crazy. It was a ruin. There was a giant tree in the middle from a distance. I saw someone lying down but it was too far to make out whom it was. I didn’t want to scream and wake everyone up so I didn’t call out to him. I did glimpse a blue bird flying around.” He says.

“Why didn’t you enter it?” Lisa asked.

“I wanted to but the portal closed soon after. If I entered it, I would have been stuck there and there’s no guarantee that it will lead me back here if I activated it again. I didn’t want to leave you guys. Especially with that other group.” Mamoru says.

"Thank you," Kana says smiling at him. "We'll figure it out tomorrow. We'll talk to them and probably use the portal to get us all out at once."

“Wait, you want them to come with us?” Lisa asked.

“As much as I hate him for what he did to Suyeon, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing I left a bunch of people here because of that one person," Kana says and even though they don't like my brother, I don't hate them for that. I'm still afraid of him and every time I see him, I keep remembering how he wanted to kill me.

“True. Ah, we’ll figure it out tomorrow. You guys sleep. I’ll be on the lookout with Mr. Goro sensei outside.” Amaguchi says as he slowly stood up and walks off towards the hallway that leads to the statue room outside. Mr. Goro-sensei and Amaguchi have been on a lookout ever since my brother's group stopped communicating with us. They go out when we sleep, while we do the same when they sleep. We hardly meet each other anymore and with Daikichi injured, Ms. Miki-sensei and Mr. Goro-sensei decided it’s safer to have someone guard the entrance.

Everyone was fast asleep due to exhaustion and I started dosing off after an hour or so. Right when I was about to sleep, I hear someone walk in. Thinking it’s Amaguchi, I paid no attention to it.

“Stun~” The voice whispered.

Huh, who’s that?I say in my mind as I open my eyes. I tried to sit up to look but my body somehow became hard to control. All of a sudden I felt something pulling my hair making me scream in pain.

“Ah- mmffhhh!!!” They have muffled my mouth and when I look up, I see some of the boys from the other group surround me.

“H-huh? What. Y-you bastards! Let me go!” Lisa screamed as she was held down by one of the guys and I can see the skill is also affecting her.

“Get off him!” Kana screams as one of the guys is on top Daikichi who is still unconscious and injured from the fight yesterday.

“G-goro sensei! Help!” Ms. Miki-sensei screamed as she’s also pinned down by another student.

“Hahaha! He won't come! He’s currently having nice dreams right beside Amaguchi~” A voice came out of the dark of the hallways and as soon as he steps in, my body froze in place and I couldn’t help shaking in fear. My brother looks at me and started slowly approaching me. The guys part ways like he has become their new leader.

“Y-you bastard!” Lisa screamed and I see the fury in her eyes.

“B-b-brother. P-pleas-“

SLAP!

My head was suddenly forced to the right as he slaps me with force. I felt my ears ring as my cheeks sting everywhere while my eyes become watery.

“Starting today, I’m your leader! I shall lead everyone to form a kingdom!!” My brother shouts as he looks around the room.

“You, you’ve gone crazy!” Lisa shouts towards my brother as she struggles to break free away from the guys on top of her.

“Well then, my question is, will your tiny little group join me? Or will you bear the consequence?” He says looking at Kana.

“W-what the fuck do you want from us?” Kana says as tears pour down her eyes looking at Daikichi who is unconscious on the ground while someone is sitting on top of him. Right on top of his wound.

“I just want a better future where we are one.” He says and the guys who are holding them down started laughing.

“Fuck you! You assholes! Get off me!!” Lisa shouted and all the guys started laughing more.

“Fuck us?! You heard her boys!!” My brother shouted and all of a sudden, the guys picked her up and dragged her out of the hallway closing the door behind them.

“Let me go! Get your hands off me! Let me go!” we can hear Lisa scream non-stop as we hear her struggle in the dark hallway from the other side of the door.

“Stop struggling bitch!” One of the boys shout and I hear a noise similar to a slap within the laughter of the guys. Then I hear fabric being ripped and the boys started whistling.

“Get off me-Mmmfffff!!” Lisa’s voice was muffled preventing her from making any noise. I hear her scream as loud as she can while they kept her mouth muffled.

“Lisa! Lisa!” Ms. Miki-sensei shouts her name non-stop as tears pour out of her eyes. One of the guys is sitting on top of her pinning her head down on the ground.

“Hahaha! Look at him go!” One of the guys from the other side of the door says while laughing and their laughter is getting mixed with Lisa’s muffled cries and screams.

“You fucking animals!!” Kana shouted and my brother slowly approached her.

“Animals? Who said this place has a law? As far as we know, we’re considered gods in here.” My brother whispers as he crouched down towards her. Then he grabbed her by her jaw forcing Kana to look towards him. He slowly brought his face closer to hers until their lips touched. I see Kana try to force herself away but the two guys held her head in place as my brother lickers her around.

“Nghhhh!!” I tried screaming but the guys that’s grabbing my hair is preventing sound from coming out of my mouth.

“Ah~ I have been wanting to do that. Let this be a warning if you all defy me." My brother says as he lets go of her and he slowly stood up while Kana is crying spitting out the saliva he probably imprinted on her. Then all of a sudden, the door opens and one of the guys walks in. I had a glimpse of the hallway and I see the boys surrounding Lisa. Her clothes were ripped apart and one guy held her hand up while another guy held her mouth. A guy is on top and his hips move back and forth.

“Boss, can we do one of these? We can’t wait anymore.” He asked and I can see a bulge in his pants.

“Ha, not these two since they are healers. But that thing you can play around with.” My brother says pointing at me.

No. No. Please no!I shouted in my mind since it’s the only thing I can do. Then the guys who're grabbing my hair drags me towards the hallway and it felt like my scalp will come off. He let go of my mouth to get a better grip and I screamed trying to trash around but my body is still paralyzed from the skill.

“Ahh! Please stop! It hurts!!” I shouted as my body gets dragged towards the dark of the hallway while the guy started closing the door behind him.

“Let her go!” Ms. Miki sensei screamed and I stare her in the eyes as horror filled her expression as the door closed shut.

“Help - Ack!” I shout in pain as I felt a fist in my abdomen making me lose air. Then I was thrown next to Lisa who cried and cried non-stop as the guy on top of her kept going.

“L-lis-mmfhh!” Someone muffles my mouth and one of the guys was quickly on top of my fondling my chest. I closed my eyes thinking that this is all a bad dream that I will wake up, but I didn’t. It wasn’t a dream. It was a reality and a nightmare. I felt a hand grab my only dress and ripped it off my body. I felt more hands fondle my chest while another hand started touching me below the waist. I tried breaking free but I couldn’t move as I feel an enormous weight on top of me.

I was powerless.

“Oho- looks at this one. She’s might be a virgin~” The guy on top of me say and next thing I know I feel something rubbing up and down between my legs. It felt dull and it left liquid as it kept rubbing the section where I release my pee. I felt the skill wear off but my body is too weak to fight against the weight on top of me.

“Ok bitch~ I’m putting it in~” He whispered into my ear and next thing I know, I hear noises coming from where Lisa is.

Amaguchi!I scream in my mind as I see him struggling with one of the guys who were on top of Lisa. Lisa then kicks another person making him stumble to the ground. The guy on top of me stood up and right when he was about to activate his skill, I kicked him between his legs like how Kana and Lisa instructed me to do. He quickly went down grabbing his balls as he let out a gasping sound of pain. I see Mr. Goro-sensei approach Amaguchi and help him deal with the guys on the hallway.

“What the fuck is going on?!” my brother screams as he opens the door. He sees some of the guys on the ground as Mr. Goro sensei quickly overpower them. "Ah, shit! Guys help!" He screams as the remaining guys inside the room quickly exit and ran towards Mr. Goro sensei.

“You damn brats!” Mr. Goro sensei screams as he takes out his shield and ran towards the group. “Shield bash!”His shield glowed and he rammed into the group of boys and they all flew to the wall or back into the room.

“Guys! Go in the room!” he screamed and Amaguchi helps Lisa up and I ran behind them. Mr. Goro-sensei came into the room and grabbed the remaining boys and tossed them out to the hallway.

“Shield wall!” he screamed as he threw the shield near the entrance and his shield emitted a bright light creating a wall blocking the entrance. “Kid, Amaguchi told me could create a portal. I think now’s the best time to activate it.”

"R-right gives me a minute!" Mamoru then took out his book and started chanting words out of it. Then the book lit up as a bright white orb comes out of the pages and expanded showing a picture. But it isn't a picture; it's what on the other side of the portal. It's outside.

“Yes! A forest this time!” Come on! The portal won’t stay long!” Mamoru says as he jumps in.

“Everyone go! The shield wall won’t last long! Kana give me Daikichi! I’ll carry him!” Mr. Goro shouts as he picked him up. I can see the guys on the other side still damaged from Mr. Goro-sensei attack except for my brother who took out his sword getting ready to attack the shield wall. Amaguchi jumped in the portal carrying Lisa and Mr. Goro-sensei jumped in with Daikichi on his shoulder followed by Miki-sensei.

“Hurry up! It’s going to close soon!” Mamoru screams from the other side of the portal. I’m next while Kana is right behind me when all of a sudden the shield wall broke as my brother rams into it with his shield.

“Kana!” My brother shouted her name as he ran closing the distance between them grabbing her from the back muffling her voice.

I see Amaguchi trying to go back in but a force field stopped him.” Fuck it’s one way! Fucker let her go! Le-!”

“Let her go!” I shouted as I felt angry for the first time. I ran towards them ramming my body and all three of us went tumbling down. Kana quickly stood up and kicked my brother between his legs making him cringe in pain.

“Suyeon lets go!” Kana screams and I scramble up and ran. As I was about to go in the portal, I felt something grab my leg causing me to almost trip. I look back and I see my brother on the ground and his hand’s on my ankle.

“Where do you think you’re going, sister!!” He shouted at me with a crazed look on his face.

“Let her go!” Kana kept stomping on my brother’s face but he never let go and all he did was a laugh.

“Hahahahaha!More! More!” My brother screamed as blood comes out of his nose.When I look up, I see one of the boys is getting up and slowly approaching behind him. I turn back around towards the portal I notice the portal behind her started blinking rapidly.For some reason at that moment, everything was muffled and all I can hear is my own breathing.

Hah*

Huah*

Hah*

"Kana. Thank you for taking care of me." I whispered to her and at that moment, I used my remaining strength and pushed her towards the portal and she came tumbling down the other side.

“Suyeon!” Kana shouts as I feel a weight from behind slamming me into the ground causing me to lose air for a brief moment.

“Let her go! You bastards! Let her go! Suyeon! Suyeon!” Kana shouted my name nonstop making me feel happy she wasn’t here with me. I see my brother stand up and walk towards the portal. Right, when he stepped over me, I grabbed his ankle and pulled it as hard as I can, making him lose balance.

“Ack! Let go, bitch!" He shouted as he kicks on my face. Every kick is making me want to sleep but I know if I let go, he will enter the portal where they are so I tried my best to stay awake as long as I can.

“Let her go! Suyeon! Let her go-“ Kana’s voice was suddenly cut off as the portal disappeared and the room was replaced with darkness.

“Fuck! You damn bitch!!” My brother shouted as he lifted up his leg over my arm.

SNAP!

I screamed in pain as before completely blacking out.

=End of Suyeon’s memory=

She suddenly stopped talking and trembled as she cried on her knees. But something she said made me skip a few heartbeats and my breathing became irregular.

“Daikichi, Kana. They’re in this world?” I ask towards myself and I quickly turned towards Suyeon. "H-hey. Did you make a mistake, right? You didn't say Daikichi and Kana right?”

"T-they're the ones t-that saved m-me." She tells me between her sobs.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck!” I shout as frustration mixed with grief mixed with every single emotion making me just want to destroy this whole planet altogether.

The reason Luro told me about the newcomer isn’t because of my school nurse. It’s because of them!

“Luro! Come out!” I shouted but nothing happened. I clenched my fist so hard that I feel my nails dig into my palm causing it to bleed.

That Korean guy. That’s him! Did he try to touch Kana!? I say in my mind as fury fills my core.

“One of the only friend I have. Like a sister. Nobody fucks with my family! You fucking shits!!!!” I shout in frustration as I felt powerless again. I vowed to not feel powerless but again, here I am, not able to do a thing. I want to go look for them but I have no idea where they are or even if we’re in the same area. I punched the mud non-stop till I relieved some of the anger I felt, otherwise, I would go crazy and burn the whole forest to the ground just to look for them.

“Relax Yasu, Relax. They'll survive. I know it. They won't die that easily." I whisper to myself while I slump back down and stare into the lake.

Daikichi, Kana...don't die. I'll come to find both of you so don't die.I say in my mind and we just sat in silence as the sound of the rain drowns Suyeon’s crying.

.

.

After a while, it stopped raining and the rain left a lingering earthy scent even though it's not earth. Suyeon regressed back as a mute and never said a word after. Even I never said a word. Yet, I started to feel remorse for her.

Fucking hell. I curse myself in my mind. So many different things are going on at the same time and I can't think straight.

“Fuck it!!” I shouted as I stood up abruptly. I walked in front of Suyeon who stayed hugging her legs as she looks up to me with fear. I called out my item bag and took out the gauntlets along with the boots and placed it in front of her.

"Hurry up and put these on," I tell her as I stood in front of her.

“W-what are these?” She asked me as she looks up. I can see her eyes have become puffy from all the crying she did.

“These? They’ll help you reach level two.” I say as I held out my hand towards her. "Let’s go."