The forest is a place where the strong prey on the weak.
The only rules of survival here are to eat or be eaten; the weak will eventually become nutrients for the stronger ones to consume.
To live here.
One must become an absolute powerhouse.
Only by becoming a true overlord can one act as a Predator rather than the prey.
Cruel slaughter takes place here every day.
A Black Curved Snake was crawling on a tree when suddenly an eagle's cry came from above. A Black Eagle dove down, its sharp claws instantly piercing the snake's vitals, then pulling it into the sky. At that moment, a pink Bouncing Rabbit in the grass below leaped up like a fired cannonball, delivering a fierce flying kick to the eagle that had just taken off with its prey.
The eagle crashed to the ground. After the Bouncing Rabbit landed, it immediately pounced and bit off half of the eagle's wing. The eagle flapped its wings in terror, blood-stained feathers scattering everywhere. It attacked with its sharp beak, but the Bouncing Rabbit nimbly dodged. The injured eagle tried to escape, but failed to take off after several jumps. It was pounced upon and bitten by the pursuing Bouncing Rabbit, soon falling to the ground unable to move, and quickly lost its life.
Just as the Bouncing Rabbit went up to enjoy its food, a blue Water Arrow suddenly flew out from the side. The Bouncing Rabbit, which looked like a cute creature but was actually a ferocious carnivorous monster, had no time to react before being hit by the Water Arrow. It was a magic attack. Although the Water Arrow itself was only a low-tier Water Magic with slightly weaker damage, the damage bonus from the mage's own abilities gave the magic great power. With its defense, the Bouncing Rabbit couldn't withstand the magic attack at all; a single hit reduced its body to meat scraps.
A human girl wearing wolf skin with mud smeared on her face walked out, looking at the somewhat deathly silent forest and falling into silence. Because of her recent unrestrained slaughter of monsters in this area, a large number of monsters had left this territory, and the remaining ones had almost all been killed by her. Her actions had clearly destroyed the ecological balance of this part of the forest. If this were the world before she crossed over, it would definitely be a serious crime punishable by imprisonment. Occasionally...
She would still feel a bit of a guilty conscience, but she wouldn't stop nonetheless.
"The skill proficiencies are almost there, and my level has reached 19, just a bit more to reach 20. That White-Eyed Tiger hasn't returned; it seems it has abandoned this territory. Next, I'll head into the depths of the mountain range." Tsukasa looked at her personal attributes. Currently, staying here for a day might not yield even a few monsters; yesterday she had no harvest at all, so she decided to go deep into the Monster Mountain Range.
After returning to the tree hollow to pack some things, Tsukasa resolutely walked into the endless mountain range.
A certain Monster Spider, acting as a 'Guardian', followed behind her. When it left, it carefully cleared away all of Tsukasa's traces of the tree hollow and living, so that even if the Hero's group returned, they would certainly have no chance of finding them again.
As Tsukasa walked through this forest, she saw a building clearly made by humans. After using Appraisal, she learned it was the entrance to a Labyrinth. However, she had no intention of entering the Labyrinth for now, and she found traces of human activity nearby. After seeing the presence of those Labyrinth Guardians, she decided to stay away from this area. Because there should usually be many people here, and according to the news revealed by those heroes earlier, she seemed to have been wanted by that noble. She didn't want to encounter powerful Adventurers like the Hero's group again.
Although that Hero promised to help her retract the Wanted Poster, who knows if he was serious? And even if the Hero was serious, could he really make that noble retract the warrant? Perhaps the noble would agree to retract it in front of the Hero but secretly issue a new one behind his back; such a situation was all too likely.
Therefore, it was better to avoid contact with humans as much as possible. At least according to the information she knew, there were monster-like guys like the Hero among humans. She just didn't know what level the Hero was at, but even so, not everyone outside could be at that level. Judging by those people's attitude toward the Hero's status, their confidence and pride were enough to show they were famous powerhouses in the outside world. So her current goal was to match Hero Julius; she had to at least raise her ability values to the Hero's level before trying to contact human society.
〖As expected, Classmate Si doesn't plan to have contact with humans. Although it's strange for me to say this, Classmate Si is clearly a human Reincarnator, but she seems even more afraid of people than I, a spider.〗
A little girl dressed in animal skins.
And a small pink and white spider secretly following behind her.
One person and one spider thus bypassed the entrance to the Labyrinth and entered the depths of the Monster Mountain Range... Back in the town, the Hero's group immediately found the mansion of that rumored noble. But the incredible thing was that the noble here had already left, and they found some things of the Elf Race in the mansion.
"It seems the noble here was an eye and ear planted by the Elf Race. They knew their actions would be exposed, so they fled before we arrived."
"But isn't this very strange?"
"It is indeed strange. Most of those Elves look down on the Human Race. It's very rare for them to want to buy a Human Race girl as a slave. Moreover, after the transaction failed, they immediately slaughtered that village. Was it necessary to go that far? Or does that girl have something they want? That possibility isn't non-existent."
"Harris, what did you think of?"
"Hmm... maybe it's just my imagination."
Harris looked at his companions.
In the end, he still didn't speak the truth he knew.
"Do you think that girl really has a teacher?"
"Eh?"
"Are you trying to say that the girl possesses a precious Grimoire or a treasure beyond that?"
"Yes, otherwise it's impossible to explain why the Elf Race would do such a thing, and it would also explain why that girl was so wary of us before."
"Oh no, if that's really the case, then the Elf Race Assassins must still be looking for that girl right now!"
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