Not dead yet mud pig

Stone mammoths, snow giants, wind wolves, mud pigs, horned deer, prey, and predators together vacated the northern lands. The migration, which should have taken approximately a week, was about to end in a single night.

Occasional roars and thumping sounds resounded throughout the area. However, even that couldn't wake Aru, who was sleeping soundly in an upright position while hugging the trunk of the pine tree he was on.

Fortunately, Dal was nearby to stop himself from falling. He secured Aru's body to the tree trunk with some ropes from his supply bag.

However, that was the limit of what Dal could do. He didn't dare to climb down the tree or seek someone for help. He knew that would be dangerous and decided to stay close to Aru.

Like that, an hour went by. Unknown to Aru, a lot happened in that hour.

-

Aru, who slept peacefully shook. His body shivered and trembled. 

'F*cking nightmare. I thought I returned to my cubicle in my original world.' He thought as he looked around. 

Luckily, that was not the case. He was still alive and it was just a dream.

Even then, the memory of the deadly cubicle seems to have shaken him to the core. 

"Ah! You scared me." 

Aru was shocked to see a blurry figure nearby. His eyes widened and he almost punched it. But he immediately stopped his fist when he realised that it was Dal. 

"Phew…" He heaved a sigh of relief. 

'It seems like Dal saved me from falling when I lost consciousness.'

"Hey, how long was I out for?"

"..." Instead of an answer, he got a brief silence as a reply. 

"Hey."

"Awwaaa…mommy…aaaa." 

When he tried to ask again, Dal began to cry. As if flood gates were open, a torrent of water began to gush out of his eyes. The accumulated fear and tension combined with the relief that Aru was fine caused a turbulence of emotions inside Dal. The result was the tears sliding down his cheeks. 

The fatty called his mommy and daddy when he cried. Once again reminding Aru that he was dealing with a six-year-old child. A child that was too small to have big schemes or plots. Whatever he may have done in the past was a mistake that he could forgive. 

'Oh sh*t.' 

Knowing that the crying Dal was useless, Aru began to look around. He needed to quickly grasp the situation before doing anything. 

Untying the rope that secured him to the tree. He began to check the condition of his body. 

'Arms are okay. Other than the slight pain from the wrist and shoulders, there is no major problem.'

'No ribs or bones are broken.'

'There are bruises and contusions all across the body. But the pain from that is bearable.' 

'The sleep seems to have improved my condition and recovered my spirit energy. Spicey kappa seems to have done its job perfectly.'

'The condition of the body is not that bad.' 

Then he stopped checking himself and began to look around. The moon seems to have risen to right above their head. In the dim moonlight, he could things that were a couple of meters away. 

'Thank god there is no snowstorm. Or else, it would have made my life even more difficult.' 

Dal was sniffling and wiping away his tears. Aru glanced over his body to make sure that he was not injured before coming up with his next plan. 

'We are halfway down the cliff face, stuck on a ledge with a couple of trees. I can be sure that there will be no predators nearby. So, I should first get down the tree and look around.' Aru decided. 

He flexed his shoulders and stretched a bit to improve his mobility before preparing to climb down. 

"Dal, follow me. We are going to climb down."

"NO." Suddenly, Dal screamed, his face reflecting fear.

Aru was shocked to hear his response, his brows furrowing in confusion.

"Why?"

"We can't leave here." 

"Huh!" Aru couldn't hide his confusion.

'Did something happen while I was asleep?'

"Explain properly. Did something happen?" Aru inquired. He wanted to make sure if it was unwarranted fear of a child or if there was some legitimate reason. 

Dal quickly wiped away the tears and snot on his face seeing Aru's serious face. Then he pointed at a place on the ledge where a lone tree was standing. 

"Look there. Do you see that?" 

In the cover of darkness, Aru saw a somewhat large black object on the ground. When he focused his eyes, he saw a large pool of blood on the ground and in the middle, a pig-like creature. 

"A mud pig?"

"Yes, it fell from the top of the cliff."

"So what? Look at the blood around it. It's already dead. Why are you afraid of the dead rank 1 spirit beast?"

"But it's not dead."

"There is no way…" But before he could finish his sentence, Aru saw something horrifying.

The lifeless body of the mud pig thrashed its legs and trembled for a moment before standing up. Then its body convulsed as if hit by an electric shock before collapsing to the ground.

Aru's brow shot up, unable to conceal his confusion.

'What the F*ck was happening?'

'A walking corpse? A zombie? Does this world have necromancers and death magic?' Aru felt squeamish just thinking about the creature with rotting flesh walking around.

'No. Dal is as shocked as I am. There is no way it's a zombie. It just might not be dead yet.'

Once the mud pig fell, Aru could see the muscles of the creature rippling and expanding. 

Although it's not dead, something strange was certainly happening with its body. 

'Now that I think about it, it fell from the cliff and onto the ledge. But I can't see any wounds on its body. So, where did the blood come from?'

"Dal, did you see it falling?" 

"Yes." 

"Was it alone?"

"Hmm." Dal nodded while recalling the event. 

While Aru was sleeping, he recalled hearing the horrifying squealing of the mud pig. When he turned to look in the direction he heard the scream, he saw something fall from the sky and collide with the rocky ground below. 

Instantly, the creature lost its life and a pool of blood formed around it. After that, occasionally, the mud pig would wake up and walk around before falling as if it were paralysed. 

"Ah!" Suddenly Dal exclaimed. He remembered a detail.

When the mud pig fell, he saw two tails. One large and one short.

Mud pigs have short tails, but what was the other thing? At that moment, Dal couldn't comprehend. But now that he was thinking about it, it was indeed suspicious. 

Maybe the mud pig was not alone when it fell. Quickly, Dal explained what he had seen. And the thing about another creature spooked Aru. 

If there was another creature, it might be nearby. After all, it was nowhere near the mud pig which would mean that it survived the fall. 

'Ahhh… What should I do?'

Aru raised his hand and held his head while he was thinking. 

"Eureka!" Suddenly, he cried out. Cracking his knuckles, he turned to look at the mud pig. 

"Why did I forget about my dear friend, the system." 

Even if he couldn't link with the mud pig, if he used the system, he could immediately identify the rank, status and available spirit energy of the spirit beast. It was the best tool in his arsenal to gauge the strength of his enemy. 

'Should I call myself a genius for coming up with this idea or should I call myself an idiot for not thinking about it earlier.'