In the break of dawn, Ren stood stretching for the day's agenda.
"Ugh, there's so much to do today!"
"Stop complaining when you decided to help the village instead of running, and what's worse is that you can't even fight properly against the damn monsters. You can't even beat the grotesque bears, so our only option is to trap them and slowly bleed them to death."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I have no real other option with this weak ahh body, damn it!"
"We can fix that problem down the road with a technique I know, but it'll take too long if I teach you now considering your plan of trying to 'save' as many people as possible."
"You don't have to be so brutal!"
"But… I'm not."
"Yeah, but you're a scumbag the majority of the time. Anyways, how long do we have until the monsters reach the village?"
"3 days, that's how long you have until a massacre happens."
Ken grinned as he said that. He knew the deaths of the villagers were inevitable, yet he also knew that Ren would try his hardest to save Rose or at least try to lighten her burden.
"Hurry up before the monsters wake up, you need to plant the trap earlier than we expected due to SOMEONE trying to go see Rose before this. Do you even know what type of butterfly effect that caused? My entire plan had to be largely altered last night."
"I just wanted to see if the village was doing alright."
Ken scoffed as they walked out of the cave. The snow instantly pelted their faces.
'It's going to be a long day.'
The snow obscured their tracks, and no matter where they went or what they did, the snow concealed any sound and sight. A wandering traveler wouldn't even dare to travel through the woods alone, not for it being dangerous… it was, but rather because of how easy it was to lose your sanity. The forest was as endless as it could be, it was as pristine white as the skies, and the trees seemed to be just copies of one another, with no differences no matter how hard you tried to look.
'I already have a bad feeling about this damn forest. If only Rose decided to lea… no, don't think that way, it's not right if you judge others just from small encounters.'
"Is this the spot, Ken?"
"Yeah, so get to digging."
Right beneath him was a clear space of snow where the trees were surrounding it in a circle. The circle's radius wasn't that big, but it wasn't that small either.
'I guess this should be enough to trap a few of them. This is going to take a while to dig.'
And so he dug. Of course, they had been planning this for a while, so they came with a shovel. The only problem was that the only one Ren could afford with whatever he had was a blunt, short shovel.
An hour went by by the time he was almost finished.
"Come on, I read of a man who dug through a mountain with a simple metal shovel. You're useless compared to him… I think his name was Frontera."
"I'm trying my hardest, and I'm almost done."
"You're cutting it near. If you don't hurry up, then the plan will be ruined."
"Done."
"Now we gotta go lure one. Now think, how do you alert one without disturbing the whole pack?"
"Can't I just throw a rock at one of them until he follows the direction?"
"Yes and no. It would only work if they're already separated or are separating. If you alert one of them through throwing a rock, then that has a high chance of causing the entire pack to stop."
"So what, I wait until one goes to the bathroom or something?"
"Yes, you moron, so hurry to the spot. I want you to try and identify one of them as a choice. If they're not, then you're doing double the work tonight. Of course, I'll alert you if it is or not, so don't just throw the rock at random."
"…What if I gues… choose correctly?"
"Then I'll teach you an amazing cooking technique."
"That's it?"
"Want me to force you to run for your life every day?"
Ren's face grew pale as he tried to please Ken.
"Oh great master, please forgive this foolish student."
"I don't like brown-nosing people, especially one who carries my handsome face."
'This guy! I swear if he wasn't a damn ghost or whatever, I would have slapped him by now.'
"Wait, I just realized something. What was that great black river I was in? By chance, does it make incorporeal things corporeal?"
"Would this have to do with you trying to slap me?"
"No…"
They continued to walk and then eventually came to a halt as Ren started crouching as he heard the loud reverberating sounds of growls.
"Well, I can't really say. It's not because I don't know, but rather it would be something that's best you shouldn't learn for now, well at least until you're a Rank 6."
'Remind me of the ranking system again.'
"How do you forget something like that! The strength of people and power can be scaled on what they can do. The scale is made of different ranks and classes, 1–9. Different nations call it either rank or danger class, but the rankings are heavily agreed upon. This doesn't mean that there aren't people who don't scale above the scale. It's that there hasn't been anyone known to rank above it.
Rank 9: You can beat a normal humanRank
8: You can beat a group of 50 normal humans or a weak beastRank
7: You can beat a town of normal humans or a normal beastRank
6: You can beat a group of super humans or a pack of normal beastsRank
5: You can beat a town of super humans or a strong beastRank
4: You can destroy a city (in verse) or a group of strong beastsRank
3: You can destroy a group of cities or a legendary beastRank
2: You can destroy a nation or a group of legendary beastsRank
1: You can destroy a realm or a mythic beast
But overall, the ranking system is flawed. It only determines overall strength through what has been proven through feats and tests, but typical people hide their strength. It could range from acting as a rank below or sometimes even two or three. Of course, this isn't to say that there aren't people who try to act like they're in a higher rank, but the main flaw in the tests is the way they examine. Sure, someone could be a Rank 2 with a punch that can annihilate an entire nation, but that doesn't mean that a Rank 6 assassin can't kill them. Given the right tool, strength really doesn't matter."
Ren lowered himself further into the snow, his breathing slowing as he focused on the movements ahead, carefully observing the pack as they shifted through the forest. His eyes scanned each creature, trying to find a pattern or an opening like Ken had instructed.
Minutes passed as he remained still, his body slowly growing colder, but his mind stayed locked in. Eventually, his gaze settled on one of the bears that had drifted slightly further from the others, its movement slower and more erratic compared to the rest.
"Ken… I think that one might be a good target, it's not too far from the group but it's definitely not staying close either," Ren whispered internally, his confidence shaky but present.
Ken narrowed his eyes slightly, watching the same target with more scrutiny before giving a faint smirk. "Well, I'll be damned, you're not a complete idiot after all, and for once you didn't pick the worst possible option available to you. That one is drifting enough that you might actually pull this off."
Ren carefully picked up a small rock, his fingers tightening around it as he steadied himself. He took a slow breath, preparing to throw, trying to time it so that the bear would notice without alerting the rest.
"Make sure your throw isn't too strong and not too weak either, because if you mess this part up then everything we did earlier is going to be pointless," Ken added, his tone more serious now as he watched closely.
Ren nodded slightly, even though Ken didn't need to see it, and pulled his arm back. As he shifted his weight forward to throw—
His foot slipped.
The snow beneath him gave way unexpectedly, and before he could react, his body lurched forward, completely throwing off his balance.
The rock flew wildly off course, landing far louder than intended.
And worse—
Ren fell straight out of cover.
He hit the ground with a muffled thud, snow scattering around him as his body slid into full view of the pack.
For a brief moment—
Everything went silent.
Then—
Every head turned toward him.
Ren's eyes widened as panic surged through him, his body freezing for just a second too long before instinct finally kicked in. He scrambled to his feet and bolted, his movements clumsy but desperate.
Ken stared in disbelief for half a second before shouting.
"I take everything back, you're the biggest idiot I know, and I genuinely don't understand how you managed to mess this up this badly when all you had to do was throw a rock and stay hidden!"