Excuse

A couple hours passed. Tyr and Hanzo had made their way around the large and steep mountain that Tyr used to live beside.

After getting around and on top of it, the path was smooth sailing.

The hill on the other side slowly inclined down. It was an even thinner forest than the one on the other side--the one Tyr was used to.

The trees and shrubbery became more and more scarce as they finally opened up into what looked like flat plains.

The grass was medium length, the trees rare, and the ground smooth.

Every now and again, you would see packs of Giradeer grazing on the grass.

'So this is their natural habitat...' Tyr mused as he saw all of this, mesmerized. His question of where Giradeer thrived was finally answered.

He also saw large, powerful-looking horses roam about as well, along with slimes, antlered sheep, bunny-eared cows, and a few more creatures that weren't very threatening.

Sometimes, he would see a couple Earth Wolves attack some Giradeer and whatnot. However, Rudra moved too fast to be able to really observe anything too closely.

Tyr was currently looking at Rudra's status menu. 

┏━━━Status━━━┓ 

Name: Rudra 

Bloodline: None 

Age: 45 Years 

Power Level: 130 

Vitality: 55/55 

Strength: 67 

Stamina: 52/52 

Speed: 62 

Aura: 50 

[Stats remaining: 0 

Rank: Apex 

┗━━━━━━━━━┛ 

'Power Level as opposed to just Level huh? I guess it makes sense. I mean, it's not like Rudra can level up like me. Instead, it's an estimated level of strength.' He took a good glance at all of the stats.

'Yeah... he's on another level compared to me. His stats are more than double mine. On top of that, I haven't even leveled up Aura... If I had, my stats would pale in comparison to Rudra's more than they already are.'

Tyr put away this status menu, noticing Hanzo who was riding in front of him.

'Hmm... with my new Scan Sub-spell, I can scan any other being as well right? Let's see just how powerful he is.'

[Error!]

[This subject's power level exceeds 5x of your current strength.]

[Scan is unable to check their status.]

'Huh?' Tyr eyes expanded, dancing slightly with surprise followed by awe.

'The strongest squad captain for a reason I guess. However, that means...' Tyr looked down at the tiger below him.

'He could have slain Rudra without having to put in much effort... why did he let me tame it?' Now that he thought about it, he hadn't really asked Hanzo about that ever since he fell unconscious.

"Hey," Tyr exclaimed, causing Hanzo to reply instantly: "What!"

"How come you let me tame this thing. Wasn't your mission to hunt it before sundown? Even if we got to Drance before then, wouldn't you lose out on your bet?" 

Hanzo paused for a moment before replying, chuckling slightly as he spoke, "Nah... killed, tamed, what's the difference? It won't slaughter any more Hunters and kill a shit ton of good hunting practices around the weak part of Gitran, right? That was the goal from the start. And plus, if I don't have to put in any work, why would I? I'm not particularly fond of being in combat. Unfortunately for me, I'm genetically blessed in the subject." Hanzo spoke in a joking manner.

"I see..." Tyr replied. 'Even though he's naturally gifted at it, he doesn't like to fight?' Tyr couldn't find himself relating to this, 'I don't know what exactly it is... but fighting always excites something deep within me. I find it exhilarating.'

They both didn't say a word for 20 seconds or so and then Hanzo suddenly spoke:

"You know, from what I've seen, you are pretty talented as well. I can see from the way you move and your spear technique that you haven't learned any actual fighting styles before. I'm curious, what were you doing out there in the forest anyway? Did ya' parents drop you off there when you were a baby or something?"

Tyr paused, not knowing how to answer this for a second. He was pretty happy to hear that he had some talent though. 

'Damn it... I really haven't thought of an excuse. I didn't think I'd need to, since I didn't think humans existed on this planet in the first place! What should I tell him? Should I go with his story? No, that will be way too obvious.'

He began to stress slightly, his face showing this emotion for a millisecond.

'I can't just say I wanted to go out there, right?' He was still confused.

Hanzo saw his expression and retorted: "Did you not like the comment I made about your parents? Don't worry, they aren't around in my life either. Not anymore, at least." He smiled.

"Oh! No! That wasn't what I meant." Tyr exclaimed, not even thinking about his parents. He wasn't used to thinking about them. After all, it was hard to miss something you never had...

"If you don't want to tell me," Hanzo turned and faced forward, "You don't have to until you want to. I'm sure you have a good enough reason why. Plus... I don't really care enough to poke at matters that I'm not involved in."

Tyr felt a wave of relief wash over him. He was grateful. 'I've never met a person so chill...' He mused inwardly.

"What about you? What happened between you and your family..." Tyr questioned, feeling as though it was an appropriate thing to ask right now.

"Ahh... nothing too special. I'm not the main character of a novel or anything. Hahaha!" Hanzo burst out into hearty laughter before continuing, "Dad was abusive and left early, and my mom was a prostitute who died because I couldn't get her a cheap ol' medicine. I also had a little brother, but he got kidnapped a long time ago. So far back that I can't even remember what he looked like anymore!" Hanzo was smiling as he said this, as though he didn't take it to heart at all.

Tyr, however, was taken aback: 'Nothing special he says? That's a crazy story If I've ever heard one...' He couldn't help but feel empathetic. 'Even though he tries to hide it, there's no way it doesn't affect him deep inside even a little bit. But, I shouldn't pry much either..'

With that, they began to talk about other things that Tyr was interested in, like how Item Grades and Power Ranking worked, and various other topics like that.

Before he knew it, they arrived at a city gate...

***

Author Note: Yo! I've just started my character creation. So far, Tyr, Hanzo, and Rudra have been added. Make sure to vote for whoever you like the most, or all three (: