Chapter 37: CH. 37 | Back from the Brink

With Avara leading the way, Theo followed her, pushing through the dense, shadowy forest and thick vegetation. He even had to draw his sword just to hack through the tall bushes blocking his path.

Theo paused for a moment, driving his sword into the ground, hands on his hips, "Does she actually know the way, or not?"

He watched Avara continuing to fly ahead in her crow form, nearly leaving him behind. It would be a nightmare if he ended up losing her.

"Yosh!"

"At least she hasn’t led me straight into a swarm of monsters!"

At first, Theo figured that much was true, since he hadn’t run into a single monster the whole way.

But right as he hacked through some bushes to clear a path, he was startled to find himself in an area completely overrun with monsters.

Not lizards this time, but green frogs coated in slime along their backs. They weren’t especially large, but not small either. The green frogs were roughly the size of forest foxes, there were nine of them in total.

His steps froze for a moment, his eyes going wide as he took them in.

Frog... monsters?

Noticing Theo’s presence, several of the frogs leapt forward fast, attacking him with bursts of green venom orbs.

Theo took cover for a moment, dodging their attacks and trying to avoid getting hit by the venom orbs or even a stray drop of their green slime.

One frog leapt straight at Theo. He gripped his sword with both hands and swung it forward. The blade cleaved clean through the Green Slime Frog in a single strike.

[Congratulations! You have successfully killed a monster]

[Type: Green Poison Frog (F-Rank)]

[Reward: +10exp]

[EXP: 350/400] [+10exp]

Is this actually good luck? Running into them, nine frogs, that’s ninety exp.

If I can take them all down, I’ll level up.

"Avara!" Theo shouted, calling out to the girl.

Theo dodged another attack, then leapt to the side and drove his blade through another frog, killing it outright.

From another direction, Avara flew back toward Theo. He watched her clearly.

"Wait a second!"

"I need to kill all of them to level up."

Avara didn’t react much at all, choosing instead to perch on a nearby tree branch, as if watching Theo’s fight unfold from above.

Theo felt certain Avara held the same kind of power as her father. Still, he was glad she wasn’t stepping in to help, since that could end up stealing the monster kill rewards away from him, and Theo really needed those rewards to level up.

Not stopping there, Theo pushed forward, swinging his sword sideways. He managed to kill a few more, more than before.

But exhaustion started chipping away at his focus, he ended up with blistering burns on his hand and leg from the frogs’ acidic venom.

Theo leapt back several steps, wincing in pain as he clutched his right hand. His skin felt like it was burning and blistering, turning a sickly green from the frog’s venomous slime.

"Ugh."

Six down... three left.

He looked ahead and saw the remaining three frogs charging and leaping straight at him. Theo flinched, hurriedly raising his sword to strike them down.

But something stopped him before he could, all three frogs charging at him were suddenly killed by a mysterious attack.

Theo had to leap back to avoid getting hit by their bodily fluids again. His eyes caught dozens of sharp black feathers striking down all three frogs, even before the monsters had gotten a chance to attack him.

He turned to the side and realized Avara had shifted back into her human form some time ago. Her hand swung forward in an attack motion similar to the one her father had used earlier.

"That took way too long, they were just F-Rank monsters."

Theo pushed himself back to his feet, driving his sword into the ground and looking over at Avara, "Do you have a problem with that? Compared to you, I’m classless. My Authority’s power can only see into the future for now, it can’t kill them outright."

"Ugh!"

He fell back to his knees, realizing his burns were getting worse. Theo pulled out the salve bottle and applied it to the parts of his body hit by the green venomous slime.

"There’s a river ahead past this spot. You can wash your wounds there," Avara said, pointing forward.

Theo didn’t respond, choosing instead to keep walking while enduring the pain wracking his body.

That night, he’d already experienced every kind of pain imaginable, from being punched, stabbed, burned, all the way to being poisoned.

He had no idea how much longer it would take to reach Tulu Village, but he could only hope he wouldn’t run into any more monsters along the way.

[Congratulations! You have successfully killed a monster]

[Type: Green Poison Frog (F-Rank)]

[Count: 5]

[Reward: +50exp]

[EXP: 0/550] [+50exp]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up]

[Name: Theo]

[Class: -]

[Level: 4] [↑1]

[EXP: 0/550]

[Attribute Points: 10] [+10]

As he walked along following Avara, a notification panel appeared, displaying Theo’s personal status. He’d successfully leveled up, from level 3 to level 4 that night, thanks to those Green Poison Frogs.

Even so, he never got the chance to activate his extraction skill. Beyond the exhaustion, he also had to fight through the pain. So his focus had been split too thin to bother.

But Theo didn’t mind. At least the fight had left him with exp that pushed him up a level.

He looked ahead and noticed Avara’s flying pace had slowed down compared to before. But what really caught his attention was the appearance of an Authority Quest panel.

[4th Authority Quest:]

[Objective: Use the Foresight Skill to predict an arrow attack (0/3)]

[Reward: 50exp || 100 authexp]

[Status: Incomplete!]

"An arrow attack... I could ask Aya to help me with that," Theo said.

He caught the scent of water carried from ahead, along with the sound of a gently flowing stream. Given how quiet everything was, he could hear it clearly enough.

After passing through a stretch of trees, he finally reached the edge of a river, its current calm and its water crystal clear.

Theo set his sword down and cupped his hands to scoop up the water, drinking to soothe his parched throat.

He lifted his head once he’d had enough to drink. He turned to Avara and asked about their location. The girl said nothing at all, not even shifting back into her human form.

He couldn’t read any expression from her in crow form, but he chose to trust that they’d be out of Nador Hill soon enough.

Their journey continued. Avara kept leading the way, flying between the trees. Theo stayed alert, making sure he didn’t run into any more monsters.

Right after walking nonstop for three hours, his eyes finally caught the twinkling glow of oil lamps down at the base of the hill.

Theo smiled with relief, collapsing to his knees on the ground, overwhelmed with the sheer relief of finally making his way out of this hill.

Finally... I can go back.

The oil lamp lights clearly belonged to Tulu Village. Without a second thought, Theo pushed himself up and ran, enduring the pain wracking his body, desperate to reach the village.

At last, the dangerous midnight journey through the forests of Nador Hill came to an end. His feet touched the dirt road, he broke into a sprint, gripping his sword as he ran down the hill.

He followed the road until he reached the village square, then turned in another direction, following his memory toward Tuvei’s house. In under ten minutes, Theo arrived at Tuvei’s front door.

"Tuvei...?"

"Thalia...?"

No response came. Theo worked up the courage to open the fence gate, and Avara stopped flying, landing on Theo’s right shoulder.

This was the first time Avara had ever encountered humans in a village below Nador Hill. Theo watched her closely, relieved she wasn’t reacting too dramatically.

He raised his hand and knocked softly on Tuvei’s door, then harder, trying to wake whoever was inside.

"Who’s there?" a man’s voice called out, Tuvei’s.

"Theo..."

The door swung open immediately, and Tuvei looked utterly stunned to see Theo had made it back safely.

He helped Theo inside and let him rest on a chair, then hurried off to Thalia’s room to let them know Theo had returned.

Thalia jolted awake instantly and rushed into the living room. Her eyes went wide with panic.

"T-Theo...?" Thalia said, stunned, "What happened to you?"