Chapter 37 Escape

Howl...

Rose heard the sound of wolves howling and immediately dashed towards the Spruce forest. As an elf, she had a sharp sense of hearing and picked up the sound of a human's cry.

Although Rose wasn't naive enough to help every stranger, she wasn't so heartless to ignore a human being attacked by monsters.

Her parents had raised her to be calm, calculative, and instilled her with solid values, to be kind, but also wary.

Crunch...

As she neared the forest, a strong smell of iron entered her nostrils.

"Blood..." Rose whispered to herself.

She couldn't discern if the blood was from a human or not, but she picked up her pace, leaving clouds of snow particles in her trail.

Howl...

Rose could already hear the sound of Winter Wolves wincing in pain, and she instantly summoned her blade.

"Cryokinesis: Icy Blade!"

Suddenly, the vicinity went quiet, making Rose even more wary of her surroundings. She slowed down her pace to a walk and carefully approached the location from which she had heard the wolves.

Rose came to a complete halt as the only object obstructing her vision was a lone spruce tree.

Huff...

She took in a deep breath and slowly circulated her Mana throughout her body. Then, she stepped out of cover.

"..."

Rose's cold expression slightly wavered as she instantly noticed dozens of corpses lying in the crimson red snow.

It was a literal aftermath of a carnage.

Crunch...

Rose's eyes were drawn to a figure standing in the middle of the corpses. Her azure eyes met his golden ones, and she felt a strange sense of danger ringing in her head.

The human's face was completely covered in blood, and his golden eyes seemed almost monster-like. Rose noticed various cuts all across his black coat, which was also tainted with blood, indicating that he was the one responsible for decimating the pack of wolves.

"..."

Silence descended on the area as Rose and the bloody human stood facing each other. Rose started recognizing the figure and soon identified him as Aiden.

She slowly evaluated his appearance and disbanded her Icy Blade, seeing that he was holding his Katana in a fighting stance.

"Are you okay?"

Although Rose felt slightly perplexed that her paths always seemed to cross with Aiden's, her goal to help someone being attacked by monsters didn't change.

It did pique her interest, though. As far as she knew, Aiden was one of the weakest people in the entire academy - at least he was when he enrolled.

Was he hiding his strength?

An entire wolf pack was lying under his feet and even though he seemed to have had a rough time, he survived and killed around 30 G-Rank monsters.

It was no easy achievement and probably only a handful of people within the first year students could do that.

Swish...

Aiden lowered his katana and sheathed it. He shifted his eyes from Rose to the corpses lying in the snow.

"I'm alright..."

***

"Why is she even here?!"

I cursed under my breath, attempting to keep my expression composed.

Dealing with protagonists was something I preferred to avoid at all costs - I would rather face a pack of wolves again, but fate seemed determined to test me.

All I desired was to keep a low profile, strengthen myself, and remain in the shadows. However, Rose had unexpectedly appeared before me.

"I'm alright..."

In the end, I sighed in defeat and sheathed my Katana, approaching the nearest Winter wolf corpse and taking its core.

I glanced at Rose to see if the sight was too gruesome for her, but to my surprise, her expression remained calm.

It appears that the Elven princess was raised well...

Every time I start a new game of Leclentia, the protagonist's character and background tend to vary slightly. Sometimes Tess can be easily provoked, Drake struggles with dyslexia, Rose is obsessive, and Kai has a short temper.

It's entirely random, and for the past few weeks I watched them from the sidelines and I have to admit... I am satisfied with their characters!

They appeared to be... how should I put it... suitable to save the world?

I continued moving from corpse to corpse, gathering the G-Rank cores as Rose remained silent, closely observing my every move.

Although I considered myself a professional at ignoring things that might cause me trouble, Rose's gaze felt like it was drilling a hole in my back.

Rose's presence made the process of collecting the cores from the Winter Wolves a lot easier and once the last sphere was thrown into my Inventory, I stood up.

"The Dungeon Boss has escaped."

Rose finally spoke, causing me to stumble as I turned to meet her gaze.

"What?"

I asked, feeling a chill run down my spine. I unconsciously tightened my grip on the scabbard of my Katana.

The monster inhabiting this dungeon was no joke, and if Rose wasn't joking, the avalanche I heard was probably the roar of the wyvern.

I looked at Rose, hoping to detect some sign that she was joking, but her expression remained stoic and serene.

"We have to go..."

I said hastily, warily glancing at the sky.

Wyverns were known to be voracious hunters, and humans were not excluded from their diet. In fact, humans were one of their favorite meals, as consuming us would provide them with a greater portion of our strength compared to that of a typical monster.

If I stayed in this location, the Wyvern would definitely come after me...

It was frightening, wasn't it?

"The nearest portal is a few hours away, so we must hurry..."

Rose said as she produced a hologram of a map with a marker indicating one of the portals that could lead us to the dungeon's exit.

She was already getting ready to leave when I smiled and stepped back.

"I'm sorry, you can go ahead... I still have some things to do."

Rose paused for a moment, staring at me as if I were foolish. She then pointed to the sky.

"You know what Wyvern is, right?"

"..."

We held each other's gaze for a few moments, and then she sighed in resignation. Although she probably wanted to help me, we were at most strangers and it'd be weird for a princess to force someone to evacuate, it might even create some weird rumors.

"Wyverns usually stay in the sky..."

She said, giving me a final look before vanishing behind one of the trees.