--------- ??? Pov ---------

My name is Laura, I'm a wolfkin that lives in our old family house with my brother Yuu in the slums of the great city of Raefye, today was supposed to be a nice day, I and my brother were finally promoted to rookies with a rank F by the adventure guild. Ever since our mother passed away a few years ago we really had a very hard time. We suffered to find odd jobs, barely having any money, and more than a few times had to search for food in the trash bins to not starve.

Unfortunately, we both got the looks from our deceased mother and even though my brother is a boy, he looks more like a girl than me. Our mother was very kind and caring, but regrettably also very ugly, all of our neighbors gave her disgusted looks, but despite all the hate that she got from others, her personality was very high-spirited and she always taught us to try to look to the bright side of things.

Luckily with a new decree given by the local city Lady to increase the number of adventurers in the town since we are close to the border of the valley of the dammed, despite our appearances, we were able to join the adventurer guild trainee course and after a very hard time training, we were finally promoted, being able to join a party and accept quests.

After a little bit of persuasion, we both were able to temporarily join a rank D party as luggage carriers to do a herb collection quest near the city. Regardless of being a rank E quest, the pay, even after we dived between the party, was more than me and my brother ever were able to amount before, making us very happy, since if everything went to plan, we would finally be able to eat meat today after so long.

The danger of the quest was relatively low since weren't going in the direction of the valley and the location of our targeted herb was roughly a 5 hours walk from the city. The beasts that populated that area were a little scary but our party leader assured us that we didn't have to worry since she and her party already had done the same quest several times before and that we should only worry about carrying the loot.

When we got to the site of the quest, the party started to quickly scatter traps and light up beast repellents incense. I and my brother kneeled down by the hill and started to collect the herbs, that was when we heard a howl.

"Hey everybody, stay alert!" The leader said while the other three members unsheathed their swords.

Her party was known as Sword Haven, composed of two traitless human males that wielded swords and shields, a female elf with a strength-related trait that used a two-handed sword, and the leader a lionkin woman that had a haste effect trait and used a double sword style. Both women of the party were very beautiful, their haired legs paired with their unibrows and very large noses made all the men in the adventure guild turn their heads their way. Their body was also huge, probably 10 times my weight, proof of her very successful party, I and brother barely were able to get any food, even when our mother was still alive, so we never got to be so fat and pretty like them.

As they drew their weapons we saw almost twelve wolves running in our direction. I paled, sweat started dripping from my head, and words got stuck in my throat, there's no way they will be able to fight off a pack of wolves that big, even more since the wolves all look like dire wolves, a stronger and bigger species of wolves that are not supposed to be in this part of the forest.

While we were bracing to face a gruesome fight the wolves continued running, looking almost afraid, and went past us. Just as we were dumbfounded at what the heck was going on the earth started to tremble. We all lifted our heads to look up and froze at the sight that we were seeing, towering over the trees.

It was the infamous Forest Guardian, a giant slime that plagued this forest for generations. It was probably 30 meters high and it devoured anything besides the trees and bushes that it is able to absorb in its enormous body where he passes. This mythical monster usually shows up in this forest once every 20 years and every time it shows up the city stays in lockdown waiting for it to disappear again. I was told that more than 40 years ago the previous city Lady amounted an army of her best 50 guards and more than 100 adventures to try and deal with the beast but they suffered devastating losses and weren't able to barely make a scratch this monster.

While I and my brother are both still on our knees, the leader and the rest of her party shot us an apologetic look and started to run, leaving us behind. Even if both women are very fat they have much more stats than us since we just started to level up and we wouldn't be able to keep with their pace.

"Sis get up we have to run!" My brother, Yuu, got up first and started to help me stand up.

All I could do was nod and we both started to franticly run away from the massive slime. Its movement was slow, but because of the size of its body, it still was slowly gaining on us.

We were running with all we have for more than 30 minutes but the giant monster still was in our tail, that's when after we both stepped through a bush we ended up falling and rolling down a small cliff that was on the other side, and into a clearing.

When I got up to restart running I felt a sharp pain in my knee and fell to the ground again. Yuu looked at me with alarmed eyes panting heavily. I tried to get up but couldn't. That's when I looked at Yuu with tears in my eyes and said.

"Yuu you have to keep going, I'm already done for."

"No way Sis! Please! I can't lose you too!"

That was when the giant monster suddenly jumped from the top of the cliff and bounced right beside me. I was so scared that pee started to leek out. The slime, surprisingly instead of just rolling over me and Yuu just stood there and a small protrusion started to grow from its body and grabbed me by my foot and started to pull me slowly into its body. Yuu rapidly grabbed my arms and tried to pull me but even with all his weight behind he couldn't stop me from being dragged, inch by inch.

"Yuu let go of me! you must escape!" I yelled with tears in my eyes but my brother refused to let go.

All I could do now was pray. I closed my eyes and prayed for a miracle.

'Mother, it seems that I'm going to meet up with you soon'

That was when we heard someone screaming high up in the sky, and like a bolt, a man in a very strange outfit smashed through inside the Forest Guardian.

It was at that moment that mine's and my brother's lives took an unexpected turn, a moment where our destiny forever intertangled with his.