After a while, Mike finally caught his breath and cautiously approached the now-silent battlefield.
mother bear had collapsed from exhaustion, while the Skinwalker lay motionless on the ground nearby, its condition uncertain.
“Liam, bro, where are you?
Are you dead?”
Even Mike realized how ridiculous the question sounded, but he had no idea what else to do.
“I’m underneath the Skinwalker.
Give me a hand.”
The Skinwalker was finally dead.
Mike’s nerves, stretched to the breaking point, finally relaxed.
He hurried over, no longer caring how disgusting the corpse was.
Reaching underneath it, he felt around until he found a hand, then grabbed it and pulled Liam out with all his strength.
Finally free, Liam ignored the sticky blood covering his body and immediately rushed to the tree where he had left his camera.
Only after confirming that the equipment hadn’t been damaged during the fight and that all the footage was intact did he let out a long sigh of relief.
With that taken care of, he finally removed his torn shirt and checked his injuries.
Fortunately, aside from the scratches on his arm from earlier, most of the damage consisted of bruises from being crushed under the Skinwalker.
They looked nasty, but nothing was seriously wrong.
Now it was time to collect his Reward.
Liam eagerly opened the Events Logbook.
[Skinwalker]
[Event Level: C]
[Exploration Progress: 90%]
What was going on?
Why wasn’t it at 100%?
He had already killed two Skinwalkers.
Logically, the Event should have been resolved.
Liam quickly went back over everything that had happened and suddenly realized what he had overlooked.
Reaching 100% didn’t simply mean eliminating the obvious threat.
Apparently, he still needed to return to the cave and search for more clues.
With that in mind, Liam went back to mother bear and nudged her a couple of times.
There was no response.
Not good.
He quickly rolled her enormous body over and pulled open her eyelids.
Her pupils were completely dilated.
Then he pressed his ear against her furry chest.
There was no heartbeat.
Liam felt a pang of regret.
mother bear was dead.
It was a shame.
She had been an interesting ally.
He sighed and walked over to the Skinwalker’s corpse.
The strange outer layer resembling a giant bear had already gone limp, turning back into an ordinary hide.
Liam lifted it aside and revealed the bearded man’s corpse underneath.
Every wound the Skinwalker had suffered had been transferred directly to the man’s original body.
Liam thought for a moment, then kept the hide.
It was the only thing on the Skinwalker that might still be valuable.
Once everything was sorted out, Mike finally said,
“I can’t believe something that terrifying was actually living in this forest.”
Liam gave him a puzzled look.
“Of course it was.
Haven’t I been saying that on my show?”
Mike answered sheepishly.
“I thought all that stuff was just something you made up to entertain kids.
Who could’ve expected any of this?”
Liam looked at him seriously.
“Remember, whatever I say is definitely true.”
Mike nodded, beginning to reconsider a few things.
“Now go back to where Goldman left the vehicle.
The forest ranger sabotaged it.
Tell them it’s safe now.”
Wild animals had their own territories.
Now that the Skinwalker was dead, Liam was confident this area wouldn’t pose any immediate danger.
He still needed to finish the Event completely.
When he returned to the cave, the bear cub came trotting over to greet him.
Then it sniffed the air.
It had caught the scent of death.
Its mother’s scent.
“Mm…
Mm…”
The bear cub whimpered sadly, circling Liam’s legs and rubbing against him over and over.
Liam sighed and picked it up.
The cub immediately buried its head beneath his arm and began quietly whimpering.
Liam gave its thick body a comforting pat.
Then something occurred to him.
This mother bear and bear cub seemed far too intelligent.
Liam began thinking back over everything they had done.
Normally, a mother bear protecting her cub was extremely aggressive.
Some particularly cautious mother bears wouldn’t tolerate strangers anywhere within several kilometers.
Yet aside from attacking the Skinwalker, this mother bear had behaved remarkably rationally.
After Liam rescued her, she seemed to understand almost immediately that he meant no harm.
She had even shown restraint when he experimentally picked up the bear cub.
And somehow, she had still been able to tell friend from foe while high.
Liam was fairly certain most humans couldn’t manage that under the same circumstances.
The bear cub was unusually emotional as well.
Wild animals weren’t heartless, but most wouldn’t display grief this openly.
They would usually try to adapt quickly to suddenly being alone.
Liam decided to adopt the bear cub and investigate where its unusually high intelligence came from.
After a while, once he had coaxed the bear cub to sleep, Liam began inspecting everything in the cave.
The cave contained practically every daily necessity one could need.
Even an ordinary person could survive there for a year or more with the supplies inside.
But Liam still couldn’t find what he was looking for.
“That doesn’t make sense.
The Skinwalker ability couldn’t have appeared out of nowhere.
There has to be some kind of medium for performing it, or some method of passing the knowledge down.”
As he thought about it, Liam suddenly noticed the wooden racks.
Then it clicked.
Of course.
The bearded man clearly wasn’t very educated.
It was questionable whether he could even read.
How could there possibly be some written record of the inheritance?
Liam immediately dismantled the racks.
Sure enough, he discovered the secret hidden inside.
The load-bearing wooden beams were hollow.
They had been stuffed with strange objects.
Teeth from unknown beasts, dried herbs, and a sticky lump of some unidentified substance.
At that moment, the Events Logbook finally changed.
[Skinwalker]
[Event Level: C]
[Exploration Progress: 100%]
[Reward: Gluttony (By consuming large amounts of meat, you can slowly increase your strength)]
Finally!
Liam excitedly read the Reward several times.
How many years had it been?
He had spent all that time painstakingly investigating one boring little Event after another.
Now, at last, he had encountered a truly mysterious Event.
Judging by the Reward description, eating meat would gradually make him stronger.
Liam looked around, hoping there might still be some dried meat left in the cave.
Unfortunately, he found only a few scraps.
Apparently, while waiting for him, the bear cub had already dug out and eaten everything edible in the place.
There was nothing else in the cave worth investigating.
Still, it would make a decent place to stay if he ever needed one.
After leaving several markings around the area so he could find the cave again, Liam picked up the bear cub and headed back.
The cub woke once along the way.
Despite the unfamiliar surroundings, it showed no anxiety.
Instead, it wrapped its paws tightly around Liam’s neck and curiously looked around, completely unconcerned with the fact that it weighed well over a hundred pounds.
It seemed to have already accepted being adopted.
Liam was somewhat surprised by how quickly the bear cub had adjusted.
Then he noticed it occasionally sniffing his hair.
Only then did he remember that mother bear had thoroughly covered his head in saliva earlier.
Apparently, the familiar scent was giving the cub a sense of security.
After walking for a while, Liam finally reached the damaged vehicle.
Goldman and the college students were waiting there anxiously.