Boy against the odds (part 1)

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A black-haired child with eyes green like spring meadows that must have been at most three years old was sobbing quietly while hugging his knees with his back against a large tree.

On the child's bare foot, there was a bite mark left by a low-ranked venomous snake-type monster's attack. There was a similar, although singular, right on the vein on his elbow pit too.

But the wounds and the lesser poison coursing through the child's veins weren't the reason for his tears.

The horrible, crushing feeling of loneliness as it wandered the seemingly endless forest was just too much for him to handle.

He didn't know why he was there.

He didn't understand what was even happening.

All that he could remember was that he opened his eyes and found himself in this scary world, all alone with no one to help him.

The child's shoulders stopped shaking as he slowly drifted away into sleep – overcome by the exhaustion of aimlessly wandering in search of someone similar to him.

The child had no idea that when he will open his eyes next time, he will already be in carrying arms of a lumberjack that came to the area intending to cut the very tree under which the child chose as a resting spot.

The child will be taken to a small village and will grow up as the son of the lumberjack and his young wife, that miscarried and lost her will to live.

He will become their beloved child.

He only needs to open his eyes...

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"!!!!"

Zorey flinched, and his eyes opened wide as the feeling of dread washed over him like a bucket of ice-cold water.

"...grrrrr...!"

"Prayer...!"

The black-haired boy stirred himself awake just in time to reactivate the Skill that made his body glow with warm light, as the Iron Fang wolf was already approaching him while baring its fangs.

*Haaaa~*

"GIAUH...!"

At the sight of the light, the monster yelped in panic and jumped away with its tail tucked between its legs, and ran away to the opposite side of the cave.

If any of the Stone Fang dogs it ruled over were there at the moment, the shameful display might have prompted them to leave their wounded leader to its own devices.

"...haaa... that... that was close..."

Zorey breathed out, trying to gulp down his saliva, but his mouth and throat had not tasted moisture in days.

The black-haired boy wasn't sure how much time had already passed. It might have been just a few horribly long hours, or it could have been a month or a year, although he doubted that.

Zorey was aware that a human could last about a week without water, and considering that he was weak but still alive meant that it couldn't be much longer than that.

How was he alive in the first place, even though he was dragged back into the layer by the Stone Fang dogs, though?

He had a theory but could not be completely sure.

The thing was, once he was dragged down and presented to the Iron Fang wolf, the first thing that the rank D monster did, was chase away its rank F underlings.

It seemed odd...

...and as few hours passed without Zorey getting mauled, it made the boy think that the wolf might not want to share the EXP points from the kill with the dogs...

That made him come up with a rather risky idea, but in his current situation, the other option was to give up and die – and as long as there was another choice, the black-haired boy would never give up on survival no matter what.

After confirming that the large monster would not try to attack him if his body glowed as it expected it to be some sort of magic-based Skill, the direction he should take became more clear.

Initially, Zorey wanted to heal himself, but a gut feeling warned him that the Iron Fang wolf pushed into a corner might overcome its trauma towards magic, so the boy decided to put up with his wounds and lay low, reactivating the Prayer skill the moment it ended.

In the time between, Zorey would start using the Gem creation skill.

Magic seemed to be both the mental and physical weakness of that particular Iron Fang wolf if it became such deep trauma for it; therefore, using magic against it appeared to be the best idea.

Also, Iron Fang wolves weren't defense-oriented, and, therefore, the difference between Zorey's MAT and the monster's MDF would not be equal or more than five times, and therefore, the damage would register.

That meant the lesser spark gem's paralysis status effect could proc properly.

Needless to say, the boy began using the Skill with the aim of creating two yellow gems in a row to maximize the chances of that happening.

While that part of the preparation was ongoing, Zorey observed the pattern of behavior of the monsters that captured him.

He found out that the wounded Iron Fang wolf would not leave the cave, and the Stone Fang dogs would venture out from time to time to stock up on food – that being the giant lesser rat corpses.

That could mean the pack leader could recuperate in peace...

...but it wasn't able to due to a disturbing occurrence...

The deep wound in the wolve's head would fester and splurt out black blood and cause the monster to fall down and tremble while yelping as if it was experiencing terrible pain,

The first time it happened, Zorey thought that it was because the wolf moved around a lot because of chasing him, but after a while, the exact same thing happened, and then again...

The injury that took away the bast's eye was flaring up, chipping on its HP and probably preventing any natural healing process from occurring or at least resetting any progress in that regard back to the starting point.

The black-haired boy patiently waited and waited, continuing using his skills without sleeping as at least one monster was staying awake and keeping an eye on him at all times, waiting for the moment when the light would fade and the Iron Fang wolf would have an opportunity to approach and kill him without fear.

During the time that the Iron Fang wolf's wound festered seven times since Zorey's capture, the boy's Prayer and gemstone creation Skills leveled up a couple of times.

There were a few times that Zorey was tempted to attack – like the one when the Stone Fang dogs weren't returning for a surprisingly long time, or when he had three lesser spark gems in hand, or when the dogs were fighting for which one of them would be able to use the dark red staff they dragged in and turned into their chewing toy – but the young priest of death waited them all out as either he was too low on mana, or the Iron fang wolf was too restless and vigilant to allow any surprise attacks.

After all, wounded or not, rank D monster had stats that were equal to or greater than C rank adventurer – and Zorey learned that one of the requirements of being recognized as a C rank was to be level 30 and above.

Zorey was level 14.

Betting on winning in a fair fight against a wounded monster that had an advantage of at least 96 points that were distributed unevenly between its ATK, MAT, DEF, MDF, SPD, and LUC over him – not including the HP - was nothing short of a suicide.

Zorey was getting weaker and weaker with no food, water, or proper sleep being available to him – but he still waited, taking his mind off the hunger, thirst, and exhaustion by practicing gem creation while focusing on finding the right moment to attack without losing hope.

Then, a moment like that happened.

Since the past two cycles of the wolf's wound festering, the Stone Fang dogs weren't bringing back much food and had to venture out more often, sometimes returning with just a lesser dwarf rat and returning to hunt right away.

It happened right after the tired dogs offered their pary to the wolf and were chased back out with an enraged snarl...

*SPLURT*

"IGHIIIIAARGH ...!* *thump*

Black blood spouted out of the Iron Fang wolf's head, and the monster fell to the side with an agonized yelp as its claws scratched against the ground, marking the eighth cycle.

"MEND!" *CRUNCH*

Zorey growled, using the Skill to both get some of his HP back as well as to use the pain it caused to clear his mind from exhaustion.

The black-haired boy jumped right back at his feet and charged at the fallen monster.

*twack* *twack* *twack* *ZAP* *twack*

"GHIAAIH!"

Yellow gems in Zorey's hand reflected the glow of the fluorescent moss as the boy used the Throw skill and had them fly through the air and hit against the wolf's wounded head, and the short yelp followed by the monster's body stiffening up like a stone proved that the paralysis status effect activated!

"G-gemstone creation!"

*ting* *ting*

The boy called out, and one yellow and one red gem appeared in his hands as he ran to the side and picked up his staff.

He immediately put the lesser fire gem in the metal ring at the end of the staff and charged at the downed monster.