Jack sighed in relief after he saved the day.

‘Damnit it! SPU! How could you try and kill people just before trying to willingly try to join the church!’

‘But still…’ Jac had discovered something more interest this time. He could switch to an almost enlightened state if he wished to do so, and switch back to being little ol’ Jack. Back when he was descending, he felt like his normal self would not fit the image of a god, and do not only had a created a fake self-image, but also tried to change his method of thinking and speaking, and it somehow worked. Although he could not reach the full enlightenment he had reached in the white space, but it was close.

But I have a feeling I should avoid that state for as much time as possible, and try and remain in my own state.

In an unimaginably distant location, where light and darkness, matter and anti-matter met, and reality itself converged into a single point, an existence looked over at Jack and nodded.

[It seems this one is doing well. He should reach the peak of his plane in a few hundred years. Not bad. I’ll let him grow for a while before coming to check up on him again. Now the, let’s move onto the other ‘Enlightened.’]

This being was none other than ‘That Man’ as Jack called him. An existence above all, a being with no name nor rank.

In the meantime, Mason had finally completed the opening ceremony and now the matched were going to begin.

However, instead of being nervous or excited like the other participants in his age bracket, Mason was depressed.

He had made eye contact with Sir Campbell multiple time through the course of the opening ceremony; however, the quest notification never came up.

Now, all he could do was to win everything for the chance to meet the king and his aides, which included Sir Campbell.

While Mason was crying over the tough 3 days of competition to come, Heron was being chocked by something completely unrelated.

He found trails in the sand! One should know that footsteps do not last more than a few hours in sand, and sometimes can even disappear within minutes! And this could only mean one thing. There were other non-humans nearby!

And looking at the footprints, he could see that they had domesticated some peaceful monsters, and were also wearing some sort of shoes, which meant that they had a civilisation!

Heron spent a minute to carefully examine the footprints and deduced the direction they were moving in, so that he does not walk in the opposite direction to the people who made the footprints.

And then he ran. Not like a human, but like the beastman he was. No all fours. This was not only more efficient when it came to travelling distance, speed, and energy consumed, but it was also more comfortable. Even while fighting the nearly infinite types of monsters within the sand, Heron was more comfortable if he was on all fours. The problem with that was that he would not be able to used his spear, and would have to resort to his teach and claws to inflict damage.

Running at nearly his full speed, Heron finally spotted a group of living beings in the distance.

However, he suddenly stopped as he noticed something. They had a single monster under their control, and a total of 3 people were riding the monster that was double of Heron in terms of size. Around the single beast, 4 other beastman were walking on the ground. However, they had chains around their necks and hands, and their nails had been filed down to nearly nothingness, which would take at least another year or two to grow back.

‘Tch. Slave traders.’ Heron clicked his tongue, but did not act, and just slowly approached the group that was setting up camp to prepare for a lunch break.

As he approached, he recognised that all the people here were all of the Panther tribe, a rather large tribe, which could compete with his own Lion tribe that was at the peak of the Southern continent in terms of military power.

At this point, the two slave traders atop the beast notices a huge creature wrapped in black clothes approaching. It was at least double their won size and was carrying a spear on its back that was nearly triple their height.

One of the slave traders picked up his daggers and prepared for combat while the other pulled out his longsword and jumped off the beast while shouting.

“Who are you! What do you want. Leave now!”

Heron stopped. ‘What kind of questioning was that supposed to be?’

“I need directions.”

“To where? Leave now or else we will attack.”

Heron was starting to get ticked of by the manner of speech, but controlled his nerves and answered.

“Anywhere. I am lost you fool! Can you not see? I have no rations nor any money. There is no point in fighting me, and I will gain nothing in fighting you. Just tell me where the nearest city, town, village, or settlement is. I will manage the rest and leave you guys.”

However, just as he finished speaking, the one with throwing dagger who was still on the beast began to throw his daggers at Heron one by one.

================

Survival Quest Activated- Slave Traders

Description: Fools! These guys are complete fool! Unfathomable fools!

Task: Just kill them

Reward: None

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Just as heron finished dodging the daggers which were only as long as his own finger, he received one notification after another.

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Sigh~ Do not forget to leave one alive, but just enough to speak and nothing else. Make sure to find the path to reach where you want to go through him. SO DO NOT KILL BOTH!

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Jack had to give instructions to Heron like this, since he wasn’t the brightest of beastmen. Although his fighting tactics, hunting skills, and strength were undoubtedly still the highest among his players, he was a little slow for most other things.