Chapter 8: Survivors

Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Survivors

’Companion? This has to be a trap,’ Victor thought.

There was no way he was going to trust this stranger. Just to be safe, still confused and with one hand near his knife, he helped himself to his feet using his walking stick, leaving Ayax with his hand still extended.

The handsome guy smiled, a little disappointed by Victor’s lack of manners, but pulled his hand back as he said:

"I hope I didn’t scare you too much when I pointed my sword at you. I thought you were another one of those monsters roaming the forest. There were a lot of them when we first started our journey."

Cautiously, Victor frowned and took a step back. Ayax was understanding.

"Oh, okay. I understand how you feel. You don’t have to trust me if you don’t want to, but if you’ve already been here in the forest for a few days, then you know that being alone is extremely dangerous."

"You said it was an orc," Victor finally said, remembering their conversation from earlier.

Somewhat surprised by Victor’s voice, which sounded younger than he expected, Ayax turned his back to him, looking toward the mountaintop as he scratched his head.

"Well, something like that. In my universe, orcs, although brutish, are intelligent and know how to fight very well, but the one lurking in this forest is a stupid orc that eats everything that crosses its path. I lost one of my companions because of it."

Taking another step back while gripping the handle of his knife, Victor said:

"A girl was accompanied by two others. Did you know them?"

Ayax raised his eyebrows, curious.

"Not really. We saw each other from a distance a couple of times, but we never interacted. The last thing I knew about them was when all of us ran from the orc. You simply can’t defeat it by fighting."

Victor took another step back and drew his knife. Ayax, however, did nothing to defend himself. Instead, he sighed while maintaining that friendly smile.

"Dorian and Darius were just as distrustful as you at first. Take your time before approaching our group. We watch each other’s backs. Trust me, it’s better that way."

He turned around and headed back up the mountain. Victor watched him leave with a frown, expecting the handsome guy to do something, like launch a surprise attack, but nothing happened, as Ayax simply walked away with complete confidence.

At the same time, the little monster looked at him with the calmest eyes of them all.

"What are you looking at, runt?"

The creature didn’t seem to understand. After looking at Victor curiously, it headed toward the forest, where it ran until it disappeared into the darkness.

And so, Victor was left pointing his knife at nothing, just as confused as when he had been caught. Ayax had been understanding and even friendly, but there was no way Victor was going to swallow that story.

He had met far too many kind people who turned out to be secretly despicable beings, and he was sure that handsome guy would be no exception. So, still gripping his knife and expecting an attack, he kept backing away.

A couple of seconds later, he ran into the forest with everything he had, fleeing from those guys.

So far, they were all survivors, and Ayax had a point; being alone in this place was dangerous, but Victor believed he knew how to manage on his own.

’I can’t believe this happened. There’s no way the first participants I meet are this "friendly" toward a potential enemy. I can’t wrap my head around such stupidity.’

They were all survivors, and survivors did whatever it took to live. Victor knew this because he himself would have done anything to stay alive. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t understand the actions of that Ayax guy.

While Victor had even considered killing them in their sleep, the first thing that handsome guy did was offer him a hand to help him up. He couldn’t be more hypocritical! Although Victor didn’t know him well enough to actually say that.

He simply stopped thinking about it an hour after he managed to find the perfect tree, far enough away from those adventurers to protect himself from the beasts on the ground.

Tied to the strongest branch, he looked at the flashes from the mountain that could barely be seen through the canopy of trees.

’Ayax...’

Things were happening too quickly for him to process them all at once, but Victor calmed down and made an attempt.

Even if it were true that they were nothing more than kind people who helped others, he couldn’t understand why they had left those other three alone. They were dead now, and that was extremely suspicious.

’Those people... Is it possible that, just like me, they used that girl and her friends as bait to escape?’

Again, there was no way for him to know right away. If he really wanted to find out, he could have gone to Ayax to learn the whole story, but it was obvious that he wasn’t going to do that.

’They were carrying way too many weapons, and they looked ready for combat. If possible, they’ve been here longer than I have. Maybe that’s why no monster has attacked me so far!’

The dried meat he had eaten earlier must have belonged to one of the creatures in this forest, and if he had taken a path close to the one those other people were following, it was possible that, by pure luck, he had been in a safe area.

Not only had he gotten lucky with his gacha system, but by sheer coincidence, nothing had attacked him.

Victor clenched his fist tightly.

’I need to find a different path from those people.’

If they died, it wasn’t his fault, and he could continue being a lone wolf in this survival game, but maybe he was being too arrogant to accept that, without the help of other people, he was nothing more than bait in this forest.

And then, suddenly, he caught the heavy scent of that monster moving through the darkness. His body tensed, and instinctively, he tried to hide himself as much as he could.