The boy looked towards his feet, staring at the corpse of a young girl. Her ribcage was clawed open with her organs devoured; Uneaten pieces of organs and broken bones were surrounding her.
The boy looked at the lifeless face of the girl… and smiled.
I might have known her, she may even be a precious part of my life
He wanted to laugh, but he vomited on her instead. She does not matter now, not in his new life.
But… even if Elias Kiefer did not remember her, he felt empathy for her.
She was just a kid.
This world is messed up
Maybe I am even more fucked up… after all I am laughing at it
The world was covered in half-eaten corpses as blood flowed like a river; Elias had long emptied his stomach as he was trying to walk in the appalling remains of his tribe. Elias took a step forward and picked up a big rock; without exerting much strength, he crushed it like chalk.
Elias had vomited, cried, laughed, pitied, suppressed his heart, suppressed his desire of running away; he had acted with himself ruthlessly for his goal, after all he had to survive first.
Tiny insects fed on corpses, and Elias stole from them.
As heartless it may be, crossing the dense forest without supplies is suicide, and if he were to join the empire empty handed, he would be sold off as a slave.
Ahh man, I really hate this… This better help me to become stronger in the future
Even if he did not remember any of these people, he still had empathy for them, not to talk about the disgust he felt; even if he did not want to admit it, he felt somewhat thankful that he survived.
He soon reached the false treasury, with blood covering his feet and his purple hair hair dancing he sighed
I can not open it
Well, he had collected enough resources; he had 25 glass Requim and about 177 Requim crystals — enough for him to form a small tribe, but the false treasury held much more alluring rewards for him.
Sighing, Elias looked north, towards the Red Tiger Empire, his destination.
In the north, Elias saw a bright pair of eyes before the world disappeared, and he went limp.
His vision went dark; neither could he hear anything nor could he feel anything. He felt as if he had suddenly learnt of an infinitely long number or saw something so complex that his brain gave up on everything to understand it – only to fail to grasp it.
Information so vast his brain could not handle it, ending every task to understand it solely.
He could not think nor understand. Time seemed to have frozen — or he had.
***
A yak with thick white fur was running towards a lion-like figure; the yak was shortening the distance at an astonishing rate as it used its four eyes to look around. The yak was not fast; rather; it was literally shortening the space between it and the lion-esc figure. The lion roared and tried to dodge but fell into a pit.
So Flieday walked closer to the pit with an amused reaction; Rien was truly strong, worthy of a rank two creature. The lion-esc figure was bleeding pitifully as it was impaled by special spikes. These spikes were not of mundane rocks; rather, they were grade two material bought from the militarists. The lion-like figure had dark curly mane which covered it like a carapace; it had two long horns instead of eyes and was twice as big as any mundane lion — not that So Flieday would know what a normal lion was for it did not exist in her world.
Hadrien quietly walked over to her and sighed; looking at her with a defeated face
"Do you still want to wander these woods to find survivors?"
Flieday stayed quiet for a moment; she had not tamed a beast and had to gain support of foreign tribe leaders and members. While Hadrien took care of the tribe leader, he could not help her convince other tamers. The jungle they were in was just outside the tribe's settlement and was cleansed of beasts daily; even then it was extremely dangerous to enter.
"Yes, I do"
So Flieday would not be able to sleep peacefully if she did not try to find her tribe members; her decision was not going to change no matter what.
"The tribe leader has two requirements for you to lead such a force."
"What are they?"
"First, you would need to join our tribe by marriage; second, you would need to tame a wild beast"
"..."
"..."
Flieday did not respond as she started to walk towards the tribe; Hadrien tactfully stayed quiet too. The first condition was a must in any tribe; it was a miracle she had not received a single marriage invite. Flieday thought that the tribe did not want her to join the tribe, but reality differed.
That… is suspicious.
The second requirement is the real challenge — an unbeatable one. At least according to tribe elders, in reality it was more of a coin flip,
The elders must have been conflicted
Was it her or she felt… lighter today, while crossing a wooden bridge she felt she was jumping higher? Well, no matter; she had to prepare for taming the beast, marriage could be delayed.
Well, i should prove my worth first and gain a high standing in the tribe first, then i should try to get into an elder's family, it would be best if i can rise in ranks slowly.
…
A blond haired girl was standing in front of a huge opossum; its huge snout was staring at the girl. The blond girl slowly stepped aside, revealing an enormous pile of meat. The opossum stared at the girl and then at the food and brought its snout closer to the girl.
Is it threatening me?
Flieday gave the elders sitting on giant beasts a glance and stepped back, slowly retreating from the opossum. The opossum's grey fur rustled as it walked towards the food; the food was not kept in a huge pile, rather it was in small piles forming a path. So Flieday quickly retreated and rushed to a hot spring.
The spring has some animal skin and leaves which were bound by vines to be worn quickly on its side.
She took off her clothes hurriedly and took out small packets from them, the packets contained feces of the four eyed yak of Hadrien.
Faster, faster, faster, faster!
She jumped into the spring and quickly got out, picking up a bowl filled with blue liquid. Her hands were trembling with the cold, but that was none of her concern at the moment. She poured some of the blue liquid and hurriedly mixed it with her hair.
She spread the liquid on her bare skin and smeared herself with it. She then ran towards the spare set of clothes she had to specially; her expression was grim as she quickly wore the mix of leaves and animal skin
She started running towards the west, her skin still wet and covered in blue dye; she still found herself uncomfortable in fresh dye and uneven clothes even after rehearsing this tens of times.
Her movements were calm and calculated; her expression turned into a grimace as she ran towards a cave wearing improper clothing.
Thumb! Thumb! Thumb!
Her heartbeat sped up as she heard the opossum's loud walking; it's all or nothing now.
Either she wins or dies.
…