Chapter 25 Cruel Reality

The difference between traveling alone and having someone to keep you company was huge.

However, now that he had Selene by his side he realized that it was difficult to pay attention to the surroundings with an angsty girl next to him. Thus, if he wanted to benefit from her Kyle noted that he had to improve Selene's discipline and boost her confidence!

Kyle was only glad that she tried her best to remain silent during the entire time they were traveling, acting as if she didn't exist.

This was something Selene had probably learned while traveling around with the other slaves and merchant Zwark.

It was advantageous for Kyle as he could focus on the surroundings better, but just being quiet wouldn't help them because certain beasts that had a great perception could sense her fear.

As such, he tried to calm her down, while whispering the things she had to pay attention to in a low voice.

He knew that this was clearly not the best decision in the wilderness, but Kyle's perception had increased drastically since soul force had begun to merge with his body.

So he believed that educating her a little on the go wouldn't pose them a great threat as all of his senses were on a high alert.

Furthermore, based on the surrounding noises, smell and what his eyes saw, Kyle could be relatively sure of how safe it was to talk to her.

His low voice that would barely count as a whisper shouldn't make much of a difference!

On their way towards the Aldra race's village, he had planned to kill a few beasts at the Initial Fortification stage with Selene's help, but that seemed more difficult than he had initially thought.

At least, if there was more than one beast he was doubtful if they could pull it off.

It had been hours since they had left the small stream and their feet had begun to ache a little when Kyle spotted the first suitable prey for Selene to hunt.

Seeing the prey washed the tiredness seeping into them as he gently pointed a finger at it.

Wanting to give her a chance to try killing it on her own, Kyle decided that he wouldn't interfere. It was not that he didn't want to help, but he could tell that Selene had never killed a living being before.

She had to learn to survive in the wilderness where the law of the jungle prevailed and the weak were devoured by the strong. As such, she couldn't hide behind Kyle all the time.

Thus, the sooner she learned how to kill without hesitation, the better.

Otherwise, Selene might as well turn into a burden, and unintentionally could either lead to him being severely injured or worse, cause his death.

He had to prevent both at all costs for which training her in some basic self-defense and hunting was crucial!

Selene grew nervous when Kyle told her to kill the forest deer that was grazing the lush, dark-green grass in front of it, oblivious to the two young people who were talking about its death!

"Kill it!" Kyle whispered once again, and any hopes of him joking with her disappeared when she saw the coldness in his eyes; he was utterly serious about it.

Being disobedient was out of the question, so she instinctively followed Kyle's instructions which he had issued after Selene had failed to talk her way out of the situation a moment earlier.

Both she and the young forest deer were at the Pryr Initial Fortification stage, but she was malnourished and had never hunted before.

The only advantage she had was the element of surprise which Selene employed better than Kyle would have expected from someone hunting a beast for the first time.

With slow and steady steps she moved forward with the grace of a hunter, nimble yet focussed. Slowly, Selene approached the grazing forest deer that had yet to notice anything.

After that, she waited patiently for more than three minutes before she found the most suitable stance to rush ahead.

As if on cue, the forest deer turned its head straight in Selene's direction!

Selene frowned a little, afraid that the deer would be able to run away, and that she would disappoint her master.

Thus she threw caution to the wind as she rushed forward ignoring her earlier strategy of taking it slow which was an unpleasant change for Kyle who was observing her.

Unfortunately, it was already too late for him to do anything as Selene utilized the perfect moment to jump through the bushes that hid her presence.

Her speed was fast, and Kyle, who stood more than two dozen meters away from Selene, was unable to see that she was circulating the entire reserve of primordial energy through her body, enhancing her agility tremendously.

Every step taken made her wince in pain because her fragile body was not accustomed to rapid movements that were further enhanced by primordial energy.

Nevertheless, Selene's tolerance to pain had increased through the years she was manhandled and beaten more often than she could count. Thus, she was able to endure a bit more pain without batting an eyelid.

Because of that, Kyle was unable to notice that something was off. He was just astonished that Selene could bolt through the bushes to her prey at such a high speed.

Her astonishing speed allowed her to considerably close the gap between her and the forest deer before its primal instincts alerted the deer of Selene's presence.

When the deer spotted Selene rushing at it with a weapon, the deer turned around to escape and sprint away from her.

It had turned its body halfway, only to look back in desperation, when it saw Selene unsheathe the boar tusk dagger in order to stab its abdomen.

However, before she was able to injure, let alone kill the forest deer, their gazes locked, and Selene's firm grip around the boar tusk dagger loosened.

She saw familiar emotions of desperation, fear, and the fierce desire to live inside the young deer's eyes and her heart sank.

Selene could relate to the wild animal because those were the emotions she had been struggling with until the fateful day Kyle had arrived in her life!

The quarter of a second she had hesitated allowed the young forest deer to flee into the direction it had already turned.

Unfortunately, it meant that the deer would run straight into Kyle who was watching her struggle. As if fate decided to laugh at him, the forest deer advanced at a rapid pace towards Kyle.

It should be on par, if not faster than Selene due to her malnourished physique.

Kyle couldn't even think about killing the Pryr Initial Fortification stage forest deer because he would be trampled before that could happen.

His strength had decreased to someone without a trace of accumulated strength owing to the fact that he had used the Nurture ability to alleviate Selene's pain and solve the issue with her two cultivation veins.

As such, he was glad that he could jump to the side before the forest deer brushed past him.

It narrowly missed him, and Kyle knew that he had escaped death or a serious injury by a hair's breadth!

When Selene saw this, she paled and rushed towards her master, coming up with hundreds of ways to apologize.

'Why am I so dumb?... Please be fine, master!'

If she had not been scared witless when she stood right in front of Kyle, who used his arms to push himself up from the ground, her mind went blank on seeing his arms.

Both of his arms were covered in several scratches that he received by jumping into the thick branches of a nearby tree to avoid getting trampled by the deer!

When Selene rushed forward to help him up, Kyle lifted his head and it was only then that she knew that her master was not someone who accepted blunders if they could be avoided.

His expression was stoic and his eyes were cold as he remarked,

"As you can see, I'm fine… but what would have happened if it had been a stronger beast or I would have been unable to evade it? Would I have sustained a heavy injury, or died? If you continue to hesitate as you did just a moment ago, I cannot allow you to follow me! I value my life more than anything and I don't want to be forced to rely on someone I can't trust!"

This hit Selene harder than he meant to, and she looked at Kyle with guilt and sadness. Tears glistened in her eyes as she began to sob,

"I'm sorry, Master...I'm sorryyyy! B-but please...don't abandon me…"