Somewhere in the forest. The night sky is lit by countless stars and the bright moon in the sky.
"Huff.. huff…"
A boy with dark hair runs with wounds all over his body. His left arm is missing and he is holding his shoulder tightly with his right hand to stop bleeding.
But the wound is too deep and blood is still flowing. Due to blood loss, his vision starts to darken.
He grits his teeth and complains.
"I am finally chosen by the tree to be a pioneer. Why do I have to run into that monster? And why can't we just team up? That bastard killed everyone."
Swoosh!
Suddenly his steps come to a halt as he looks at his chest. In the place of his heart now a hole has been pierced through.
Drip.. drip…!
"Noooo…"
He screams in despair a final time and his eyes lose all light. As his body falls on the ground.
On the lifeless body of the pioneer, a shadow falls as someone walks past him and pulls the spear from the ground.
This is the same spear that has destroyed the heart of an aspiring pioneer.
As the moonlight falls his figure is revealed. He has a highly toned and muscular build. Particularly in the shoulders, chest, and core. His red hair is short, spiky, and swept upward.
His brown eyes are sharp and narrow and he has a slight smirk on his face. He is also wearing small hoop earrings. A large, dark, swirling tattoo covers his right shoulder and upper arm.
He is shirtless, though he wears a thin cord necklace. He also wears form-fitting, dark tactical pants with sleek armoured boots.
He puts the sharp side of his black spear over his right shoulder and says.
"With this now my kill count is 40." He looks at the body in disdain, "Dumbasses forming a large group of weaklings just to make it easier for the strong to prey on them."
As he is rejoicing he clenches his spear tightly and swings it down on his shadow.
Ting!
A sharp sound of two metal rings in the air as the man jumps back. But contrary to this his shadow remains in the same spot.
"Come out and stop hiding."
The shadow wriggles and rises up from the ground and takes the form of a slender girl.
She is wearing a black sleeveless turtleneck bodysuit with a high-cut hip. Over the bodysuit, she wears low-rise black cargo pants featuring large pockets on the thighs. The pants are held up by a simple black belt. She sports chunky white platform sneakers.
A silver body chain drapes from her waist. She wears black fingerless tactical gloves.
She has sharp, slightly narrow eyes with vibrant red irises. She has an athletic yet curvaceous hourglass figure.
Her most defining trait is her long split-colored hair—white on her right side and black on her left.
Her right hand is on her hip and on her left hand she has a short dagger.
She looks at her trembling left hand. The impact from the spear was too strong; her left hand is numb.
"I had erased my presence and hidden myself completely but you still found me. What sharp senses you have"
She says as she puts away her dagger.
"Who are you?"
The man says cautiously. The stealth of the girl in front of him is extremely advanced and paired with her ability to blend in shadows it is a terrifying killer move.
He had lived in an environment where you have to stay on guard even in sleep. That's why his senses have sharpened to an extreme degree but he almost lost his life just now.
"Don't need to be on guard. You seem strong and you don't have a teammate. How about both of us team up? Your strength and my stealth would be a good match."
The girl says seductively. But the boy becomes more alert and points his spear at her.
Just then the right hand that was on her hip moves and something flies in the direction of the boy.
Ting.. ting.. ting..!
He swings his spear and deflects it. Few needles lodge in the ground and trees.
Tsss!
The needle carries a lethal poison as the trees and the ground are visibly corroded. Looking at this the boy's anger flares up as he holds his spear in a throwing position.
But in the little time when his eyes left her, she disappeared.
Since he lost his target he puts his spear down but at that moment he senses something and jumps away.
Puk.. puk.. puk..!
The ground where he was standing is corroded by the poison needles.
"You bitch come out and face me." He screams in anger.
But there is no reply to his screams but he still has not let his guard down.
'A troublesome enemy has appeared.' He thinks as he goes on full alert mode.
Tens of meters away from the boy behind a tree in its shadow. The girl peeks at him.
"Too bad I failed, that guy has such a sharp sense that none of my attacks is working. To think there would be someone this troublesome in this test."
She looks away from him and her body begins to dissolve in the shadow of the tree.
"I have to make a perfect plan to hunt him. My prey, do your best to survive, I will definitely kill you."
With these words, she completely disappears into the shadows.
The moon disappears and the sun illuminates everything with its light. With this sunrise, the twenty-four hours of the test have passed.
Which means one third of the test has concluded. Now with the death of 234 pioneers now only 766 pioneers remain.
"Screech!"
A sword pierces through the heart of a goblin cutting his breath as Rona breathes heavily.
"Huff… huff.. all done this was the last goblin."
Clap! clap! clap!
"Congretulations now this is your first successful hunt," I say as I look at the half a dozen goblin corpses.
Rona looks at the perfect state of Elite then her miserable and tired self. For hours she has devised a strategy on how to encircle the goblins and kill them.
Other than giving a little assistance he has not done anything.
"Hey, Elite."
"What?"
"Don't you want credits? Why are you not doing anything?" She wipes the blood from her sword and asks.
I look at her and with a smile, I say "The thing is I don't need credits."
"Huh! Why?"
I say while shrugging my shoulders in a very casual way "Because I am rich. For me, it doesn't matter whether I kill monsters or not."
Technically the former king is rich. Since I have taken his body and resonator all his assets and money are now mine.
Simply, I am one of the richest people in the entire tree.
"Must be good to have a great background."
She pursed her lips and said.
I nod, "That's right."
On this, she pouts and turns her head to the other side.
"Hahaha!"
After killing the goblins we cook breakfast for ourselves and start looking for our next prey.
On my way, I sensed many other pioneers but I just ignored them and made a detour before we could even bump into each other.
The sun is about to reach the centre of the sky which means soon it will be afternoon. I turn my gaze from the sun to Rona who is currently hunting monsters.
"I have to say the rate of her growth is astonishing. She has a really good talent for strategies. In a small time, she found many effective ways to kill monsters."
Well, most of it is because of me. I have made sure that we only find groups of weak monsters with small numbers and if there are strong monsters I take care of them.
And there is another annoying thing here. The invisible drone in the sky. That is following us everywhere.
"It is likely for the supervision of the pioneers to look at how all of us are doing in the test."
I decide not to think about it and focus on how Rona is doing. Suddenly I am sensing a stronger monster rushing in our direction.
"No, I can also feel the presence of humans and they are not weak." I began to think
"They were probably hunting that monster down but he ran away… But it also does not feel right with their strength. They can easily kill it but who let it run?"
I jump down from the tree and pick a few pebbles from the ground. I look at Rona's side as she is fighting four goblins.
"To think she would be able to reach this level in just a single day." I look at her with amazement.
Then I look at the bracelet I gave her. The reason she can fight so well is because of it. The bracelet is an armament that enhances human reflexes and forms a transparent barrier around them.
"I have to say the former king surely has great treasures. Well, he was the king after all."
I point the pebbles at the goblins and flick them.
Pah… pah… pah… pah..!
Each pebble shoots with terrifying speed blasting head of goblins away.