The group didn’t get very far before hearing another person shout for help. “Let’s check it out,” Cody said. “Yeoman, walk in front this time.”

Yeoman wondered if he could take back the decision-making power he had delegated to Cody. Yeoman didn’t expect it to bite him in the ass so soon. With a sigh, he tightened his grip on his metal rods and made his way forward. He didn’t mind stepping on twigs since the scavenger crow would’ve basically announced his presence, but he wanted to maintain his stance. With the proper stance, he could react to a sudden attack by a shadow panther.

“It’s weak! Quickly, finish it off!”

Yeoman frowned. The voice sounded exactly like a person; it was hard to believe a crow could mimic a human so well despite not having vocal cords. Maybe the crows in The Godking’s Legacy had vocal cords—Yeoman didn’t know. Yeoman raised the Dread Callers and clashed them together. He hadn’t done anything to hide his presence. Whatever the scavenger crow was trying to lure him to already knew he was coming. After the metallic ringing ended, there was a rustling sound. A shadow moved from beyond the thick trees. Yeoman couldn’t make out what it was, but it was big. It was very big.

A sound like a thunderclap rang out, and the tree in front of Yeoman snapped in half. Resting on its now-broken trunk, there was a massive brown paw with five sharp claws digging into the wood. A black snout appeared above the paw. It was as large as Yeoman’s torso and only a foot or so away from him. Yeoman didn’t know what spurred him to do it—he suspected it was the repetitive drilling of his katas—but he swung the metal rod in his right hand as hard as he could, striking the tip of the bear’s nose. The bear flinched and reeled back, the trees breaking beneath it sounding like peals of thunder. It roared and clutched its snout with both of its front paws while standing on its hindlegs. The head of the bear could easily be seen since the trees in its path had been broken earlier. The bear’s eyes were wide open, and tears the size of apples were leaking from them. This was Yeoman’s first time seeing a bear, but he found it surprisingly easy to understand. It was asking him, “What the fuck, bro?”

“Don’t just stand there!” Cody shouted and tugged at Yeoman’s jacket. “Run!”

Yeoman sprinted as fast as he could. Screams came from behind him, but he didn’t stop. The screams sounded way too close for comfort; he wasn’t going to turn around to check. As for his commitment to protecting Gordan, Yeoman was sure Gordan would understand. Yeoman’s attack had amounted to what was basically a flick on its nose. There was no chance anyone was killing that bear. No matter how many defensive gears Cody could’ve plundered from mercenaries, there was no way Yeoman was willing to tank one of that bear’s attacks. It would crush him in an instant.

Yeoman only stopped running when the sounds behind him stopped. Unfortunately, that also meant he had outrun every single one of his companions, including Cody and Ella. Everyone had optimized their bodies, but they couldn’t keep up with Yeoman’s speed, not after two layers of additional muscles were added on. Yeoman shook his head. The best thing to do while lost in a forest was wait to be found. Eventually, Ella and Cody would find him if they kept running in the same direction. Yeoman sat down and took a sip of water. Thanks to the optimization, running wasn’t an issue anymore. His sides were perfectly fine, and he wasn’t even out of breath.

“Hey! Anyone alive?”

Yeoman raised his head. That was John’s voice. The boxing coach wasn’t Ella nor Cody, but it wouldn’t hurt to group up with him. Yeoman stood up. “I’m coming. Stay put,” Yeoman shouted, heading towards John. It seemed like John had dashed around the bear, heading more towards the right than Yeoman had. After a minute of walking, Yeoman frowned. “Hello?”

“Over here. I found a burrow.”

Yeoman shook his head and followed the voice. There was a rustling sound. “John?”

There was no response. Even the rustling had stopped. Yeoman swallowed. He had a bad feeling about this. A crashing sound came from his left, and three silver wolves appeared, running right at him. They were the size of horses. Their jaws were open, revealing rows of sharp yellow teeth. Yeoman didn’t need to be a biologist to know what would happen to him if those wolves bit him. He’d certainly die. This time, Yeoman didn’t stand his ground like he had with the bear. He turned to run, but he didn’t even take a single step before he was knocked to the ground. One of the wolves opened its mouth wide, hovering right over Yeoman’s neck. It breathed hot, stinky air into his face. Then, the wolf made a gagging sound. It whimpered and took a few steps back, pawing at its nose with its front legs. The other wolves had similar reactions, scuttling away from Yeoman with aggrieved expressions. Yeoman swore he saw tears in their eyes.

Yeoman was baffled. Did he have a life-saving charm that the wolves were wary of? He looked down at his shirt and realized why the wolves didn’t eat him as soon as the smell of rotting flesh hit him. He stunk. The wolves probably knew they would’ve gotten sick if they ate him. Never had he been more thankful for smelling like shit in his life. Yeoman glanced at the wolves, and they shook their heads at him before slinking away while growling at one another.

As Yeoman watched them leave, a crow flew over his head, landing in a nearby tree. It was around the size of his thigh. “Not dead?” the crow asked in John’s voice. “How come?”

Yeoman picked up a rock, but before he could throw it, the scavenger crow jumped off the branch, escaping behind his line of sight. It seemed like he had been tricked by a bird. Now that he had strayed off of his previous route, it’d be difficult for Ella and Cody to find him. If he shouted, they might think he was a scavenger crow. Also, he didn’t want to lure them in this direction, not with the wolves lingering so close by. Yeoman sighed. How the hell was anyone supposed to make a living in this forest? In The Godking’s Legacy, Lucia was overpowered as heck and killed shadow panthers and fat bears with a single slice of her sword. What in the world was Virlyce thinking?

Yeoman took in a deep breath. Now that he was all alone and wasn’t capable of killing anything, not even the weakest scavenger crow, what was he supposed to do? The original plan had been to find some mercenaries to kill them, but now, it looked like he’d have to go with Sylvia’s plan. It would be best if he could infiltrate a mercenary group and follow them around. He could probably convince them to accept him if he promised not to take a share of their kills. The only problem was locating a group of mercenaries.

Yeoman took a look at the sky. Judging by the position of the sun, he found north. At least, he thought he found north. There was no one to confirm his judgment, so Yeoman didn’t bother questioning himself. In a lot of Virlyce’s novels, the main characters had a problem with their sense of direction. When Yeoman had read the stories, he always thought that was a little silly. It was a good thing he wasn’t a character in a novel, especially not the main character of a Virlyce novel, or he’d be screwed. There was a rustling sound, and a scavenger crow appeared in the tree beside him. “Food here! Food here!”

Yeoman’s expression darkened. The scavenger crows weren’t capable of killing anything themselves, so they stirred conflict between things that could. They were smart, but Yeoman couldn’t bring himself to admire them for their intelligence. Their methods were too underhanded. It almost reminded him of Cody, but at least Cody didn’t eat dead bodies. Now that he thought about it, Yeoman wasn’t sure who was worse. A sigh escaped from his lips as he continued north. The only thing saving him from being eaten was the stench covering him. Eventually, it’d go away. He had to get as close to the outskirts as he could before that happened.

Scavenger crow after scavenger crow flew over Yeoman’s head. There were at least twenty of them following him as he trudged through the forest. Every time he glanced at one of them, they would fly out of his line of sight while laughing. It was really obnoxious. It made him wish he could shoot webs out of his hands like a certain superhero. Hell, it’d even be nice if he could shoot webs out of his ass. He could weave some into a net at least. Yeoman sighed. It was a shame spiders weren’t mammals, or he could easily get that ability at the end of this stage. He reckoned it’d take several thousand points to reach the insect genes, but then he remembered spiders weren’t exactly insects. He had no idea where on the tree of life they were.

There was a crunching sound, and a shadow panther pounced towards Yeoman from behind. As if he had eyes on the back of his head, Yeoman dropped to the ground, barely evading the panther’s sneak attack. Yeoman sprung to his feet and held his metal rods out in front of himself. The panther circled around Yeoman, but he shifted his feet, making sure to keep the panther in his sight at all times. Yeoman felt pretty helpless. The panther could run away at any time, and he couldn’t do anything about it; however, the same couldn’t be said for him. How was a human supposed to fight a panther the size of bear? It was impossible. The aliens were playing a cruel prank on them.

“Breaking Blade!”

The panther split in half from head to tail. Blood splashed onto Yeoman’s body, drenching him. The two halves of the panther fell apart, revealing a girl in a white dress who was holding a sword. She had furry round ears atop her head, and there was a twitching bushy tail rising up behind her. Behind the girl, there was the most beautiful woman Yeoman had ever seen. His heart literally stopped beating for three seconds upon laying eyes on her. She had perky bunny ears, and her arms and legs were covered in a layer of snow-white fur.

“Wow! That’s a lot of scavenger crows!”

Red light flashed from the sword in the bushy-tailed girl’s hand, and all the crows and treetops fell to the ground. Yeoman swallowed as the aftermath of her attack rained down on the forest floor. It seemed like he had met the main character of The Godking’s Legacy, Lucia. She wasn’t a bloodthirsty killer at the moment, judging by her companion, Snow. Snow was really beautiful, just like the story had said, and Yeoman couldn’t believe this bunnykin wasn’t actually a woman. “H-hello.”

“A talking monkey!?” Lucia asked, her eyes widening.

“That’s a person, Lucia,” Snow said and sighed. Even his voice sounded angelic. It was no wonder why Lucia trusted him completely up to the point of his betrayal of her. “He looks poor, not worth robbing.”

“I wasn’t going to rob him even if he were rich!” Lucia said and rolled her eyes. “I’m not a bad person, okay? Don’t try to rub your gang-leader ways on me.” Lucia blinked at Yeoman before circling around him. “That’s odd.”

“What is it?” Snow asked, taking a deeper look at Yeoman.

“I’ve never met someone who smelled worse than poop before,” Lucia said and scratched her head. “I mean, there were a lot of people who got really close, but this guy right here…, whew! Ah! Anyways, who are you? You don’t look like a mercenary, and you’re too poor to be a merchant.”

Yeoman fell deep into thought. If he could attach himself to Lucia, surviving for two weeks would be a breeze. Luckily, Yeoman knew exactly what made Lucia tick. “I’m a slave,” he said and sighed. “I was being transported in a merchant caravan when it was attacked by beasts. I took that chance to escape, and I’ve only survived this long by smearing animal poop and rotting flesh on myself. It keeps most of the beasts away. Please, can you help me? I don’t want to die. I still want to eat my grandmother’s acorn pancakes and drink her delicious acorn stew.”

An audible gulp rang out of Lucia’s mouth. “We have to help him, Snow!”

“What?” Snow frowned. “I was planning on making you a delicious meal tonight; I found these berries that’ll really add a lot of flavor to your stew. Are you sure you want to take him in? You’ll get less stew if you do.”

Yeoman shivered. Was tonight the night of Snow’s betrayal? Lucia’s uncontrolled killing was triggered by Snow poisoning her. If that were the case, he certainly couldn’t let Snow feed her that stew! She’d kill everyone in the forest, and no one would pass the stage. Yeoman had already abandoned his companions while escaping from the bear, so the least he could do was prevent a killing machine from being unleashed. “Don’t worry,” Yeoman said. “I don’t require much. You can feed me grass and worms; I don’t dare to take advantage of your kindness. I just wish to survive.”

“See! It won’t be a problem,” Lucia said and beamed. “Besides, aren’t you tired of doing all the manual labor, Snow?” She slapped the bunnykin’s back, causing him to cry out. “We have a new manual laborer now!” Lucia nodded at Yeoman. “Alright, you can collect the cores from these corpses for us. If you try to pocket one, I’ll chop your penis off and feed it to Snow, got it?”

Snow made a face.

“Understood,” Yeoman said, bobbing his head up and down while ignoring Snow’s expression. It seemed like he was safe for now. He successfully attached himself to Lucia. All he had to do was prevent Snow from poisoning her, and surviving for two weeks wouldn’t be an issue. Yeoman exhaled. It was hard to believe he had gotten this lucky.