Zachary tilted his head. If so, then why were they just avoiding him?

Aaron just gave him a look, while Ren shook his head. He knew it was something else and he turned to a direction.

"Something's here," he whispered, appearing behind Aaron and Zachary, holding their shoulders down to wordlessly tell them not to move.

All of them raised their guards and weapons but did not move.

As mercenaries, they knew something was up. Why would awakened monsters suddenly leave them behind?

The most likely explanation? Hint: It is not Zachary's body odor.

It was likelier that there was a stronger monster around.

This thought made their hearts palpitate than they already were, with Zachary feeling extra disappointed that it wasn't his BO after all.

Their stats were probably all in the single digits—or close to it— by this time. If a toughened-level monster was roaming around this area, then they were very much dead.

They shivered, but they all held their weapons tightly, backs at each other to watch from all angles. By this time, the goblins had already left the backs of the two, even if they were injured.

Even if they were limping, they were also ready to defend (though with sticks as their weapon). They were also ready to distract the monsters. It was the least they could do for these kind humans.

However, nothing happened even after several moments, and those couple of seconds frankly felt like forever. It was here that they heard some gentle rustling some meters away from them.

They tensely turned their heads in that direction, but because they were also lying low, they could not see anything amidst the forest that also had a lot of shrubs.

Shrubs like these weren't everywhere. Most of the forest was just plain trees with the occasional overgrown roots and a few sparse shrubs, ferns, and fungi. Seeing an area that had such a dense amount of plants was relatively rare.

At least they had hiding places?

That said, they couldn't go to the opposite side of where they heard the rustles—back to where they were from either—because the brindlejaws (now with a few more companions) were roaming there.

The beasts refused to go to their area, but they were hovering around nearby and they could still see them from a short distance.

So now they were trapped between a small mob—one that would definitely tear them apart this time—and an unknown creature those mobs were avoiding.

Would they even have the time to go in other directions? What if either monster dashed towards them?

The group was tense, desperately trying to find a way to survive this somehow. They did not notice how there were no berries and no fruits nearby, nor had they noticed how there were many small holes, left behind by uprooted plants.

Regardless, they could not stay there forever, so Ren slowly stood up, signalling the others to keep themselves down. Ren had the best eyesight among them (self-proclaimed, Aaron would vehemently deny this), so he could at least check the situation.

At first, except for the mob at a distance, he saw nothing moving elsewhere until…

Rustle

He flinched a bit and stared at the source of the sound. Like before, it was out-of-nowhere and fleeting. It was like it would move sideways, then pause for a few minutes, before moving again. This behaviour didn't fit any beast or wild animal patterns he knew of, especially since there were bleeding humans around.

Rustle

This time, it was heading closer and Ren blinked when he started to catch a glimpse of this 'creature'.

…what was he looking at right now?

A basket??

The others, except when they were guarding the other areas, were checking on Ren's expression. At first, he was just staring in a single direction, and this lasted for several moments.

His expression was stoic and unchanging during this time, so they flinched when they saw his expression change.

"What is it?" they asked when they saw his odd expression.

Ren flinched and the voices seemed to alert the rustle, causing it to move a bit more. The basket—which was somewhat stable and had just been wiggling lightly at first—suddenly fidgeted and shot up.

Ren instinctively pointed his weapon in the direction, and the others also reacted along with him, pointing their weapons at the strange creature.

Except… They saw that the target was a bipedal, standing about ten meters away, and wearing a roughly strewn hat on his head and a large basket on his back.

"A person?"

…

It was a handsome redhead in the middle of the forest. He was wearing simple but decent clothing, and a careless smile on his face.

No matter what, it was very unusual, so the trio did not put down their weapons at all.

"Calm down boys," he said, slowly taking his own weapon that was leaning against a tree on the side.

It was a halberd, and it seemed fairly decent-leveled.

They did not stop analyzing the strange man the moment they saw him.

Generally speaking, one could not exactly know how strong a person was. However, one could get a rough idea based on the amount of aura they have combing around their bodies.

It wasn't visible, of course. It was just a feeling that awakened people shared that was difficult to put into words.

Judging from this guy, it seems like… he was only around tier 1 of the awakened rank? Although… the aura around him felt especially smooth, for some reason.

That said, what could a tier 1 be doing in the middle of the danger zone…alone?!

Next thing they knew, he was lifting his arm, took something from the basket. The movement triggered an alarm in their heads, thinking he was taking out a weapon to throw at them.

Except he didn't. Rather, he was trying to hand them some things, instead.

He smiled at them, offering some dried meat in his palm. "Snacks?"

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