1 A Wretched Encounter

After making their way down the cliff, Zeke and Karry kept their distance and threw several

stones at the demon boar to guarantee it was truly dead. Then with a grin that stretched from ear to ear Karry pulled out a half a meter-long dagger and tried stripping the demon boar of its valuable body parts. After several attempts, she finally gave up. Due to its tough skin, it was

extremely difficult for her to cut into the beast.

She rapidly turned to Zeke and revealed a pleading 1ook "I can't cut it, you try" Zeke grabbed

the dagger and made several attempts but he was met with the same disappointing results."wow you can't do it either, I guess all those muscles are just for show huh" Karry joked.

"it has nothing to do with my muscles, this skin is just too tough. Which makes me wonder,who or what was the demon boar fighting earlier to receive such deep cuts?" As Zeke brought up this point the two began to examine the wounds the demon boar had before they fought it.

Though they didn't want to admit it, the reason they were able to last so long against a c ranked beast with their current strength and equipment had a lot to do with the fact that it was injured beforehand. If they had to face a demon boar at full strength they knew they would be dead ten times over. Finally, Zeke had an idea and suggested "instead of trying to make new cuts we should just widen the old ones and work from there"

"ohh good idea, ok let's try it". with that they spent the next several hours digging into the

already open wounds of the demon boar. It still took a considerable amount of effort but it was much easier than making new cuts. They salvaged as much as they could, its horns, skin,

tendons, magic core, anything they could take was removed and placed inside a small sack

known as a storage sack.

These were magical items which were meant to hold numerous things. The inner space differed in size depending on the type one had. "hmmp if I knew we would run into such a great harvest I would have bought a bigger storage sack." Karry wined "the one I have only has an inner space of two cubic meters, we won't be able to put everything inside."

"let's worry about that later, right now I'm starving" Zeke spoke "how do you think demon boar tastes?" he asked "I'm not sure but it can't be much worse than the rations we brought, let's try some. Oh before we eat I have to remind you, the meat of high ranked savage beats contains strong magical essence which can improve a person's physique so don't eat too much at once or else it

could kill you."

"understood" Zeke replied. The duo then began to set up a fire and cook the remaining pieces of meat they couldn't fit inside the storage pouch. As they ate Zeke began to feel a warm current of energy rushing through his body. He felt his skin and bones toughening up. He lost himself in this great feeling for a long period of time before snapping back to reality. When he regained his senses, the sun was beginning to set so the two decided to wait till the next morning before leaving the bottom of the cliff.

The next morning, they woke up and tied the remaining parts of the demon boar inside regular sacks before climbing the vine and leaving the bottom of the cliff. They walked for several miles and along the way they encountered several f ranked monsters. After surviving a c ranked monster they felt these beasts where much easier to deal with.

After collecting what they could the two continued on their journey until night fall where they

made camp and lit a small fire careful to avoid drawing the attention of any nearby savage beats. During the middle of the night they rested and lost themselves in the profit about to come their way. After some time, they finally embraced the sweet call of sleep.

After waking up they continued their journey towards the exit of the endless forest. After several hours of walking they finally heard sounds of people talking. "finally, we met other humans" Zeke joyfully said and made his way towards the sounds. "wait a minute" said Karry "savage beasts aren't the only dangers in the endless forest. Let's make sure these people don't pose any threat to us before making contact."

After a brief moment of thought Zeke agreed with her point of view. They stealthily made their way towards the sound of laughing and merry making. They kept a distance of nearly fifteen meters and observed the group of rowdy men. There were around forty of them in total. After several moments Karry's eyes landed upon the colorless patch that was on the upper left chest of the group. "this is bad Zeke, we need to leave before they notice us." Karry said her expression one of utter seriousness.

"why?" asked Zeke "what's wrong?"

Karry looked him in the eyes as she spoke "those guys are part of the Lawless"

"Lawless? What's that?"

Karry wore a terrified look on her face as she spoke "a group of mercenaries much worse than

the demon boar we just killed. They're a bunch of despicable adventures. Instead of paving the

path for the human race and exploring the unknown desolate lands like proper pathfinders they work together to rob and kill anyone who manages to find anything valuable. We have to leave before they notice us."

"ok" Zeke rapidly agreed, "let's leave." The two hurriedly turned around and were about to make their way into the distance when their pupils suddenly constricted. What they say in front of them was a man over two meters tall. He wore coarse clothes made of animal hide. He had barely any hair and His arms looked like two large branches and he would seem extremely

frightening if it wasn't for his perfectly round belly. He had an evil grin on his face as he spoke.

"ohhhh, where are you two weasels going? We just ran out of things to play with, why don't you guys stay and keep us company." Sweat poured out of every orifice Karry had. She took a deep breath and managed to calm herself barely producing any sound as she spoke. "thank you, sir, for your well-intentioned proposal but my friend here is truly homesick so we have to get going."

In a regular situation Zeke would have said something along the lines of "don't turn me into a

scape goat you fool" but the current circumstances called for him to act tactfully" he suppressed his distress and spoke "uhh yes sir she's right I truly miss my home and family and want to get back as soon as possible."

The man looked at the two like a wild beast would look at its prey and released a dry laugh "but what if I insist you stay? It's fine to miss home but after a spending a few days with us I

guarantee you won't even remember your name let alone be homesick." His smile got wider as he sized the two up.

As she watched that evil grin Karry couldn't help herself from shuddering a bit. She instantly

realized that if they were to quietly go with the man the chances of them surviving would be

considerably low. She thought about all the rumors she had heard about the lawless and how they disposed of their victims.

The mere thought alone was enough to terrify her. Without a moment's thought she reached for the dagger at her side and lunged at the man. The man swung his left hand and hit Karry's wrist knocking the dagger out of her hand." Hahaha little boy, did you really think that was going to work" the man said.

Karry looked at the man with extreme rage. "I'm a girl you ass" she then sent her knee hurling

towards his privates. "ahhh" the man screamed as he clutched his nearly destroyed scrotum. Karry turned to Zeke and spoke "hurry, we have to run before the others notice."

The duo then sped into the woods without even looking back. "captain! captain!" The man

yelled "fuckkk! I'm going to kill that little bitch" when the other members of lawless arrived

and saw the man clutching his balls they immediately erupted in laughter. One of the men joked "hahaha what's the matter Bryant, did your junk finally stop working from over usage? Maybe you should stay away from women for a while haha."

The members of Lawless continued to laugh when a thin man with a handsome appearance

stepped forward. He had long black hair that fell over his black eyes. This man's name was

notorious throughout the Leyman empire. He was well known for his brutality and his

expressionless face. He had led the Lawless for nearly a dozen years and rarely ever showed

mercy to his targets.

He swept a glance at Bryant who was in extreme pain and with an emotionless face he asked,

"what's wrong, what happened to you?" Bryant revealed a look of awe and respect as he

responded "captain Lanis, there were two intruders who trespassed into our area. I tried to catch them but one of them attacked my groin." The captain, "Lanis" watched Bryant with obvious contempt then he spoke "two intruders? You were unable to capture two intruders, how useless."

Bryant was about to explain himself when he saw those pair of cold dark eyes looking at him.

He instinctively knew that if he didn't choose his next words carefully they could very well be

his last. "I'm sorry captain I failed at my duties, please punish me as you see fit" Lanis looked

Bryant over then directed his gaze towards the other men gathered "spread out, find these two and bring them to me. They need to learn the consequences of attacking members of Lawless"

"yes captain" the men responded immediately and split up in search of Karry and Zeke. About a hundred meters away from the lawless in an area surrounded by lush plants and giant trees Karry and Zeke were running with all the strength their legs could muster. They had decided to discard the sacks full of pieces of skin and tendons from the demon boar and other monsters as it was slowing them down.

"damnit, damnit why do we have such shitty luck? First, we almost die to the demon boar only to run into the lawless, Damnit" along the way Karry kept cursing their bad luck while Zeke

remained silent. They just kept running with no destination in mind, the only thought on their

minds were 'escape, escape, escape' they were running with all they had when out of nowhere

they spotted a man running towards them. He had the insignia of the lawless on his chest. He was obviously here to capture the two. "huhh?" he let out in surprise "I was expecting the two who attacked Bryant to be some impressive fellows but it turns out you're just some kids."

He extended his right arm, stretched out his fingers and began to chant. It was obvious that he

was activating a spell. Runes began to gather in front of his fingers. They began to rotate and

expand then a light so bright that it matched the sun exploded out. This was the solar flare spell, it was meant to obstruct their vision and at the same time inform his teammates that he had found the two.

The light shone with great intensity effectively blinding Zeke and Karry. By the time they

regained their vision the man was less than a meter away. Karry instantly pulled out a round

metal ball and launched it at the man. "Zeke, we have to split up it'll be harder to escape if we

stay together. We'll meet back up at the cliff." " Boom "the metal balls hit the man briefly slowing him down. Without another word, the duo split up and ran in two different directions.

"ahhhh" the man released a roar of fury" "come here you little bastard" he forgot all about Zeke and decided to chase after Karry.

Karry and Zeke's physique had received a great boost from eating the meat of the demon boar. Thanks to that she had increased stamina and was able to maintain her full running speed for a long time. Even so there was a limit to how long she could last.

With that thought in mind she grabbed the storage sack at her side and made plans to hide it in case she was caught. The mere thought of someone else gaining all those gold leys caused her heart to ache with intense pain. Even in the face of death karry still couldn't help thinking about protecting her profit. After making sure the man was a good enough distance away she

came to a brief stop dug a small hole in the ground then stuffed the storage sack inside.

To keep from losing track of where she put it she marked the closest tree with a k and continued to run. Every ten meters she would stop and mark a tree then continue running. She had just stopped to mark another tree when she heard a voice full of extreme anger and hate close to her. "I've got you now you little bitch let's see where you can run to now."

Karry turned to see Bryant making his way over with a face twisted in extreme fury. She turned

to run in the other direction when she noticed several more men heading towards her. They

formed a circle around her, effectively trapping her in the middle, there was no way out for her.