- The first meeting -

-Turning back time a week ago-

-Ruins of Averunks-

-Near what used to be the beginner forest-

"Shit..."

A fat man with a lot of luggage cursed as he walked.

"Just because we met one class D monster they all ran away, leaving me behind. Curses!"

This man was named Porco.

Ever since the monster outbreak, going inside and outside Averunks was easy.

After all, it’s ruined now. Before, people must walk around the mountain because of their unreasonable taxes.

Now that Averunks is no more, there's no barrier between Nephilim and Booba.

Thanks to that, merchants can travel faster between these two countries.

Of course there were problem like bandit and monster. But at least it's shorter now.

Thinking it’s easy porco, only hired low paid mercenaries and normal horses as his carriage.

The result - well, his carriage ran away with the mercenaries.

"I should've been suspicious when they said "we learnt the techniques from sword saint Iskandar. No monster can defeat us, HAHAHA" I should have realized sword saint was never accepting disciples”

Learning it the hard way, this man spat curses.

"Well, no way around it. I have to walk. it's already near anyway."

His home country, Nephilim border was already within walking distance from his position.

If he hurried, perhaps he arrived before nightfall.

"But, where is this? It seems like a forest but it's quiet."

Interested, he started to take a walk.

"Anyway, it's not like I can go home empty handed. Perhaps I can find some valuable things here. Such a place probably got some precious item or so..."

They say curiosity kills the cat. But clearly this man never heard of it.

After walking deeper -

*Haa.. haa..*

Strange..

Looking at his surrounding, he felt uneasy.

Not only didn't he find berries, he didn't hear even a bird chirping.

No... Perhaps there were no living beings surrounding him.

Even the surrounding trees seemed like they could wither any time.

"Hmm, at this rate I would only waste energy. Perhaps I should move on and hopefully find some border outpost for water and food."

the merchant thought of giving up.

At that moment...

GuruRuRUuRURUu

It was the rumbling of a certain monster

Feeling afraid for his life, he tried to not look back.

He tried not to look back!

But

It's too late. He already turned back.

"Ah..!"

GRRRrrRrRRRRr

A certain bear like monster stood there, with four arms and fangs.

"killer bears"

A B ranked monster only one rank below A.

Usually high level monsters that only the highest level adventurer could defeat.

Even fellow B-ranked adventurer need to form a party with at least 3 C rank to subjugate one.

Of course, the highest rank B class adventurer probably was an exception and could solo it.

But

In this place

With porco alone

Certainly only death awaits

"Ah.."

Porco got stunned just by his presence alone.

It's impossible to run away. A killer bear was clearly faster than a human.

Especially for an untrained merchant like himself.

Shit... come on... come on, when you're small you got called whirlwind by the neighbourhood kids...! Come on, you can move, Porco, go

but it's useless.

Its fang got closer.

Porco remembered his wife and his unborn kid. He thought of what his kid would be like? If it’s a girl, would she become beautiful like her mother? If it’s a boy, would he become like him? He hoped at least he's going to become similar to his handsome grandfather rather than his ugly self.

When closing his eyes and preparing his death, strangely death never came.

Feeling strange, porco opened his eyes.

The bear was looking into a certain direction.

And from that direction

Stands a beautiful silver haired avatar of death

With a bloodied mouth and deformed hand

Like a certain "legend" about a snake monster