Humans

Day 15

Today was unbelievably boring. I went out with Minerva today to search for my spawns, but we couldn't find them. Sure, we didn't search every nook and cranny, but she used her [Overlord] skill to search for them, but they technically weren't my spores anymore, so the skill wasn't really useful to us.

On the bright side, I acquired the skill [Telepathy]. Apparently I had been building proficiency for the skill by constantly communicating my thoughts to Minerva. At least now I could talk to more people… even though that wasn't different from my regular conversations with Minerva now.

I had been so bored I activated [Slime Body] just because and Minerva was having fun with my jiggly body. It was sort of ticklish, but not really. I had no idea what to use the day for. I should have probably used it to practice my skills, but I was feeling too lazy to do so.

I mean, if there was any trouble, I had Minerva there to help me. Then there was the caulala! Bastard was so scared of Minerva it dared make no noise in her presence so it was quiet as hell. It was really a boring creature, but then I realized that one day it would be as strong as the Caulala Originator Oda and I fought.

That creature was immune to most of my skills and attacks, so much so that the best we could do was steal one of the caulala on its back. That almost failed badly, but then I witnessed something so horrifying that day that I dare not speak of it ever again. I just resolved to get stronger and to do so, lazing about was certainly a detriment to those plans.

Uwaa! I would eventually have to get up and test out skills and possible combinations. Ha! You thought I had just been lazing about? I had been practicing my perception combo this entire time and it kept on giving me a headache, but slowly and surely I was getting used to it.

All in all, it was actually a boring day and at the moment, it was night time. Minerva suddenly stood up and grabbed her club.

'Hey, Minerva. Where are you going?'

"Humans entered the forest."

She responded without even blinking. She was walking towards the cave exist.

'Humans?'

That was something I hadn't been thinking about for a while. I told myself that I'd only bother with that after I found a way to interact with the humans without them killing me or thinking of me as some wild beast.

Still, maybe I could save those humans since Minerva was just going to kill them.

'Hey, Minerva. C-Can I go scare off the humans instead?'

"No. Minerva will do it."

'Come on Minerva. I'll do it in a jiffy and be back. You shouldn't be bothering yourself with something as simple as this.'

I tried using the logic that she was the ruler of this place hence she didn't personally need to attend to such trivial matters. I would simply do that for her. I had no idea how this would mess with me later on.

"So, Tori-kun is Minerva's pet, so Tori-kun will do it?"

'Basically, yes.'

I confirmed this for her. Reluctantly, Minerva permitted me to go handle the situation. I simply asked her to show me where after putting up my holographic map for her. It was surprisingly close to this place so it wouldn't take long for me to get there.

'Alright, I'll be back soon.'

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Panting heavily, the little girl ran like hell with her chains clanking nosily. The irritating sound of metal hitting metal echoed throughout the silent forest night, agitating some of its denizens. The girl was oblivious of this fact though. Or rather, she couldn't be bothered to be thinking about such things due to her current predicament.

"I can hear clanking over there!"

A burly voice came through. This caused her mind to ignore the clanking even more. She ignored the pain her bleeding feet felt. She ignored the hunger she hadn't been able to satiate for the past two days. She ignored the emotional pain of being betrayed by her loved ones. She ignored the pain of the torture she had been put through. She ignored everything just so she could survive in this moment.

Through the cold vicious night with unknown dangers in the world's most dangerous forest, she ran like hell. She couldn't see, but that didn't matter. If she bumped into a tree, she just needed to get up and run past it.

A single tear drop was escaping her eye. She couldn't cry right now. Her feelings were irrelevant to this moment.

She wanted to cry out to her mother. She wanted her father to come wake her up from this nightmare. What had happened? How had all of this just happened out of nowhere? She really wanted to cry, but all of that was truly not important at the moment.

"Eek!"

In the darkness, she could barely see the path before her. She ended up falling off a tiny ledge onto a muddy ground. She could feel something snap, but she couldn't cry. Her leg. She looked at it, and it wasn't in the right position. She tried to stifle her cry, but it wasn't working. She needed to, but she couldn't.

"Sniff… sniff…"

She kept sniffing as she dragged herself through the mud with her hands. She couldn't let herself be caught again. Anything was better than what was going to happen to her. She simply knew that.

"Where did she pass?"

The girl stopped moving when they drew closer. They stopped at the ledge, using their torches to see how far below it was. They didn't dare look any further.

"Hey. I've seen some tracks here."

Another voice called out and all the men drew back. One man though was intent on surveying the ledge. However, he was pulled back. The others were on edge given the time and place.

The girl knew that she had to move. She tried reaching out her hand to move, but her body betrayed her. She passed out on the ground.

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On the way there I came up with a full proof plan to scare off the humans instead of killing them. With my skill [Devil Miasma], I naturally produced a scent that would make people scared of me. It would distort their image of me and they would see me as their worst nightmares, but with some slight modifications or so was the skill's description.

I had arrived on the location. There were five men, all armed. They had pretty rough figures, showing that they had been in quite a few battles. They were conversing amongst themselves carefully, but alas, they had already been seen.

I perched on a tree and gazed at the men, using [Terror] on them. My eyes simply glowed a shade deeper and then the men froze. I activated [Timber Wolf King's Howl] to get them to think there was a powerful presence nearby and they all looked up at me.

"… It can't be… Mom?!"

One of the men screamed.

"Agh! Is that a timber wolf?"

"Eeek! What are you guys saying? That's obviously a mardari!"

'Eh? What the hell is that?'

[You have received 4000 exp]

[You have gone up 2 levels]

[Certain conditions have been achieved]

[You have acquired the skill [Fiery Kick]]

A sudden notification came up, confusing me. How did I just get experience points out of nowhere and level up? This had only happened once before, but that was a while back and it hadn't happened again since then. However, there was a cry that drew my attention towards the source of my sudden level up.

"Matt? Oi! Matt! This isn't the time to be playing dead."

I looked down and saw a man foaming and his friend was over his dead body.

'W-wait… did he just die?'

Before I could react, something flew into my wing, causing a certain amount of manageable pain. I wouldn't really scream over something like that. When I looked, I saw an arrow in my wing, barely missing my chest.

I then saw the source. It was one of the men. He was holding a crossbow and was reloading it. One man was dead, meaning there were four more. Strange enough, they weren't running away. Why? Wasn't it when a friend died that you would run away in fear?

I grabbed the bow with my beak, activated [Slime Body] and easily yanked it out of my body. With [Auto Regeneration] I would be back to normal in no time. With [Hunter] I more or less understood how any creature worked, so why weren't they following the plan? Did they have some other motivation? Or was the fear so much they thought that the only way to survive was to kill me.

Either way, they were all weaker than me. I got the gist of an average human's strength now. I wished to progress with my attempt at scaring them off, but then.

BOOM!

There was a massive dust cloud, followed by a horrifying roar.

"TORI-KUN!"

Minerva had dropped on the scene and she was releasing some intense aura.

[Due to the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired the skill [Aura Resistance]]

[Due to the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired the skill [Murderous Aura Resistance]]

'M-Minerva? W-Why? Why are you here?!'

Without hearing me out, she proceeded to bash a guy's brains out. I was so stunned that I froze in place and just looked at the body for a while. I was slowly zoning out and all I could feel was this sudden coldness overwhelm me. There was an annoying ringing in my ears, but I couldn't do anything.

[Evolver] immediately kicked in and I was back to normal, my mind focusing back on Minerva.

'Please stop! Stop this!'

She continued to kill the men, causing a blood storm. The entrails of her victims spread across the ground and she had a sort of crazy look in her eyes.

'M-Minerva?'

"Don't worry, Tori-kun. No one will take Minerva's friend away again."

I could see a strange excitement in her eyes. Her creepy smile as she pummeled the men. Wait. That was fear. Minerva was scared of something. But… that didn't matter.

'Minerva! Stop it you… you monster!'

I yelled in my brain loudly so Minerva would hear. She held up the neck of the last man and looked at me.

"Tori-kun speaks like Tori-kun isn't a monster."

'W-What? Of course I do! I'm… I'm not a monster!'

Minerva drew closer and I instinctively took a step back. She brought her head close and sniffed me.

"Tori-kun smells like a monster. Tori-kun was scared of Minerva, so Tori-kun is a weak monster."

She stood upright and looked at me like she were some kind of god and I was an ant that wasn't worth her time. I really hated that sort of gaze.

'Y-You're wrong!'

I tried to retort, but then Minerva rose her hand up. On instinct, I jumped back and my body was covered in [White Viper Scales]. "Huh? What is wrong Tori-kun? Is Tori-kun scared of Minerva?"

'I… I…'

I couldn't say anything. I couldn't refute her claim. I was truly scared. Of her? The situation? Everything?

BOOM!

She simply jumped off, not giving me time to say anything. I was simply left on the ground with a massive dust cloud and human corpses. I looked at the bodies and at that moment, I realized that I couldn't care less about them. Tears were rolling down my cheeks.

I leaned against the tree and tried using my wings to wipe the tears. I still hadn't changed from my former self. I was as shallow and useless as I was back then. Was that why I was thrown into this hell? Was this my hell?

I felt like puking, but it definitely wasn't because of the dead humans. I just felt nothing when I gazed at them. My heart was throbbing hard and it felt heavy. I didn't like this feeling. It was similar to when I got rejected, but more intense.

'Wait… did I just get dumped?'