The forest was a dangerous place for someone like me. Any of the undead inside could end my life.
I thought that I could just run and avoid them. Use my human endurance to outrun some skeletons.
Damn it. I was so out of shape that even the skeletons could run faster and longer than me.
I ran through the forest, avoiding the branches on the ground and dodging the trees, until I finally reached the mud road.
Always checking behind my shoulders. For the first ten minutes, nothing was chasing me, but when the skeletons showed up and got closer and closer, I knew things were going badly.
"Fuck, fuck."
If things continued like that, they would reach me, and that would be the end of me. That’s not even counting the other creatures that might show up during the chase.
I had to fight back. My slime wasn’t particularly threatening. Putting it up against the skeletons wasn’t a good idea.
The thought of maybe dying inside that rift crossed my mind. Before, it didn’t matter much, honestly. But now, with the slime by my side, I really wanted to get stronger and get a better life for myself. No more living inside fucking warehouses.
My mind worked at full speed, trying to think of a way not to die. The funny part was that it wasn’t a logical thing that helped me; it was luck.
I spotted a group of hunters. It wasn’t Mike and the others. That was good. A new group was exploring this rift so early in the morning.
"Hey!" I yelled. "Can you help me?"
The group of hunters didn’t look as intimidating as Mike and his group. These were clearly weaker hunters, exploring the rift at a much slower pace.
A woman with short purple hair was the first to talk to me. She wore a blue jacket and a skirt, showing her slender legs. What caught my attention was the bow behind her back, and a type of lute.
"What’s wrong?" she asked, her voice full of concern.
She thought I was strong. It was common for hunters to explore the rift in groups, since it was much safer, but plenty of hunters explored it alone. I honestly wanted to be that type of hunter. Having stupid people like Mike around me was stressful.
Anyway, a hunter, alone, running from skeletons? It didn’t make sense to her. Someone else from her group pulled her arm and whispered something in her ear.
They were probably thinking I was some kind of thief, looking to fight against them, attacking by surprise, and taking their crystals. That wasn’t uncommon inside the rifts. The hunter order tried to keep control of it, but the things that happened inside the dungeon stayed there.
"I mean no harm," I said. "My group and I got separated, and... I’m poisoned. I can’t fight the skeletons, please, help me? I can pay you if you help me reach the exit portal."
Being poisoned was the first excuse I thought of. It made sense. A poisoned hunter could lose their powers and avoid fighting altogether.
I put both of my hands up. "I’ll keep it like this while you fight the skeletons. Does that make you feel better?"
The man, who surprisingly enough looked a lot like the girl with purple hair, didn’t look convinced, but she did.
"Relax," she said to him, smiling, trying to make him feel less nervous. "He doesn’t seem the type."
I kept both hands up, just like I told them. The man came closer, whispering something so the girl wouldn’t hear.
"Don’t move, or I’ll attack you."
He wasn’t trying to be mean, just careful. I didn’t have a grudge against that. It was different from the asshole Mike.
I watched them fight. The purple-haired girl started playing the lute before the skeletons reached us.
There was something in that melody. A fire burned within. I wanted to go and punch those skeletons in the face. It was like the fear vanished completely.
But I didn’t move, obviously. They would laugh at me if I tried to fight.
The man moved away from me. He wanted to stay close, making sure I didn’t do anything funny, but he needed to help in the fight.
He ran toward the skeletons, and he shapeshifted. I had never seen anything like that before.
Fur appeared all over his body, and his spine twisted. I could hear the cracking sounds. It gave me chills.
He turned into a wolf, bigger than any normal wolf. Similar to the wolves you could find inside other dimensional rifts. What kind of power was that?
I watched him pounce and bite the skeletons, hit them with his claws, and even howl, breathing actual ice into the enemies.
I wasn’t an expert on the different powers and their ranks, but from that quick display, I could tell his ability had a decent ranking. Probably B rank, maybe even higher.
Those poor skeletons didn’t last long against the wolf. The girl switched from the lute to her bow and shot the skeletons from far away while the wolf fought them in close range. Quite the duo.
He turned back to human form once all the skeletons were dead, and took all the monster crystals before returning to where I was.
"I honestly thought you’d attack my sister while I was busy fighting," he said. "But you might actually be telling the truth."
"Of course I am. Why would I lie about something like this? Like I said, can you help me back to the exit portal? I can pay you in crystals if you want."
It ached my heart to even offer them crystals. I wanted all of them for myself, for my own leveling.
But leaving the rift with my life intact was more important. So I showed them some of the crystals inside my satchel. Only a few, since the rest were safe inside my pocket dimension, away from their prying eyes.
The man saw the amount of crystals in the satchel and exchanged glances with his sister.
She stepped forward for a better look.
"You can pay us 30 crystals for our services. How does that sound?" she said.
It was generous of them. That amount was maybe 10% of what I had in the satchel, so they were being considerate.
"Deal," I said.
We made our way toward the exit. With their help, fighting off the skeletons and draugrs along the way was easy. No real threat to us.
Once we reached the exit portal, it was time to part ways.
"I’m Selena, and this is my brother Brian. Maybe you’ll hear about us someday."
"Maybe I will, haha. Thanks again." I paused for a second. "Hey, if you see a stone tomb, don’t go inside. It’s dangerous, powerful monsters in there. Just stay away."
I passed through the exit portal, feeling better that I’d warned them about that place. It was my way of repaying their help.
Now things were finally coming together. I couldn’t wait to get home and use all those crystals to get fucking stronger. Selling a few for cash wasn’t a bad idea either.