* Crunch, crunch

Crisp sounds of pure snow being trampled rang in the air.

A brown horse was slowly advancing in the woods. Lorian had his brows furrowed as he firmly sat on the saddle while staring hard at the map in his hands.

The abrupt change of the weather happened too fast. Walnut-sized snowflakes dropped from the sky, shrouding everything like a white blanket.

- Damn it, how am I supposed to find the way around?

Looking around, Lorian sighed and jumped down from the horse. He was taught the basic horsemanship before departure and wasn't too bad at it.

He casually bound the horse to the tree. The brown horse didn't mind and started trampling on snow to find fresh grass underneath.

Lorian himself had prepared dried rations, dagger, map and other things for the journey. His backpack was halfway full. To prepare sufficiently, he exhausted last bit of his fortune, hoping to earn it back by folds from this trip.

Taking out dried rations, he munched on it for a while. These didn't taste good, but they were enough to sustain himself.

The mission he accepted was to gather 40 gray wolf fangs and 3 snow wolf pelts, not an easy task. The time limit was 2 months. The reward was staggering 35 silvers.

Correspondingly, the difficulty of the task was extremely high too. It was too risky and dangerous, but Lorian firmly decided to temper himself. Only by facing life and death situations could he improve further.

Before departure, Lorian asked around many things and was astounded by barracks' workings. The tasks weren't directly issued by the barracks but civilians instead. The difficulty of the task would be determined by the barracks personnel after evaluation and was rated by stars, which represented difficulty. If the initiator didn't offer sufficient reward according to deemed difficulty, the task wouldn't reach the bulletin board.

The same task couldn't be accepted by others if there were no specific requirements and if the soldier couldn't complete the task, they would have to compensate for time lost. If the task was completed 20% of the reward would be cut off as the commission.

Lorian's task was rated as 0,5 stars. It meant the degree of difficulty was fairly high for a newcomer like him, but if he couldn't even handle that much, there would be no meaning to his ambitions...

It's been 4 days since he left the Rosewood city and entered the outer perimeter of the Undying Forest.

Traveling alone in this place was highly dangerous. On the way, he intentionally avoided the traveling merchant carriages. Though they had some adventurers guarding it and seemed safe, who knew which bandit group would pop out for plunder. There'd be no way to get away even as an innocent bystander. Who would he cry to then?

Keeping a low profile he advanced with caution. Brown robes covered his figure as he sat on the low-quality horse. Obviously, this horse was rented and had a high chance of dying, but if he completed his mission, he could afford to compensate for it.

Lorian surveyed the snowy forest. Though it was beautiful, he didn't dare relax as there was a high chance to encounter roaming beasts.

Taking out a bottle, Lorian unfolded the cork and downed the alcohol. His face contorted, flashing red, but recovered soon after. Feeling the warm current gush in his body, the coldness was partially negated.

It was at this moment...

* Growl...

Lorian's expression turned solemn as he gazed at the snow white wolf, which camouflaged itself earlier and easily approached him. It didn't ambush him but boldly appeared in front of him.

Lorian felt shivers as he recalled the information he read about snow wolf in the booklet describing potential beasts roaming in the outer perimeter of the Undying forest.

Snow wolves only appeared in winter and went in long hibernation for the rest of the seasons. Unlike gray wolves, that hunted in small packs of 3 or 5 the snow wolves loved hunting solo, but they couldn't be looked down upon.

The snow wolf was at least half times bigger than gray wolf and could obliterate small pack of gray wolves at ease.

Lorian breathed in the cold air and unsheathed his sword as he stood up.

The snow wolf stared at him in silence, emanating no pressuring presence. Instead, it looked quite picturesque and beautiful, complementing the scenery.

Unfortunately, the danger it possessed was life-threatening. Amidst the dance of falling snowflakes, a silhouette of white beast flickered in the zigzagging pattern, approaching with no sound.

Lorian's body tensed as he focused to react appropriately. The snow wolf appeared nimbly in no time, opened its maw and aimed its fangs at his thigh. Side-stepping, Lorian swept down his sword, but the nimble beast dodged easily, following up with another ruthless attack.

- Agh!

The fangs pierced his thigh as ice cold feeling spread in his veins. Immediately, Lorian hacked down in rage.

Too slow...the snow wolf was too nimble and dodged again.

Feeling icy coldness spreading in his body, Lorian grit his teeth and took out a dagger and bent his back.

- C'mere doggie!

With a savage grin on his face, he tempted the wolf to assault. Facing human's unusual response the beast didn't immediately attack, as if feeling lost.

Lorian knew that if he died, the death that awaited him would be one of the most terrifying ones - being eaten alive, feeling his flesh being torn and blood drank, but he didn't feel instinctive fear. Instead, he felt a strange feeling. Him and the wolf, a human and the beast. Both of them would fight, one would survive, this was the rule of nature. It was how it ought to be in the first place, the society that humans created was a mere escapism from reality.

Religion, kingdom...the clever people created rules to deter and restrict the innate beastly desires of humans to secure their lives, to control and use them. Morale had nothing to do with the current order...

But this feeling was suffocating...facing the snow wolf Lorian felt something broke in his mind, this was freedom, this was the fight for survival, this was the primordial rule leading to the doom of the weak and rise of the strong...and he wanted to be strong. Nobody wanted to be the stepping stone of another.

If he lost, so be it. He was not strong enough and deserved it. He would become a meal for the beast, dying meaninglessly, but if he won he would strive to survive and get stronger because he was the human, an intelligent beast!