Chapter 21: Ball

  Following the little creature made of light led me to an area full of towering wide trees whose leaves were big enough to be used as blankets. Somehow, that place didn't give me the creeps like the jungle did, the place put me at ease. I looked around for the ball of light but it was nowhere to be found, so I continued walking through the place.

  Not long after, I found a lake. Finally! Water! I thought. I dived into the lake head first out of excitement just to land on the hard ground with my head. The lake was stupidly shallow considering how far it spread out.

  I lifted my head out of the water, snuffing the water that got into my nose and cursing nature for the things it has done to me so far, knowing that it is pointless and that nature isn't really a conscious entity to begin with.

  Whatever. At least there's water to drink… !?

  I planned on getting some water to drink but then realized that drinking unfiltered lake water might lead to a handful of problems.

  How I wish I had studied my elementary school's science book back in my previous life… I remember seeing the process of water filtration but can't remember a single useful detail about that process other than boiling the water.

  I stood there scratching my head, not knowing what to do next. Then I decided that being ignorant was the better option for now.

  It'll probably be fine to drink after boiling for a while. As for what to do now, a cold water bath would be great.

  I took my time with the bath and caught a few fishes before going to find a place to camp as the sun started going down. As for how I caught those fishes without any fishing rod of crafty contraption– I swung my fist at places where fishes gathered until I thoroughly beat the heck out of whichever unfortunate fish happened to run into my fist. Not to mention, I drank some of that lake water without boiling– I needed an outlet to vent my anger and frustration, so it can't be blamed. Of course I plan on putting the blame on some lifeless thing if the lake water starts troubling me from the inside.

  I headed back to the woods after filling my wooden gourd with more lake water which I definitely didn't purify yet. It wasn't difficult to find a good camping spot in the woods as there was ample space between each tree. The leaves of these trees were unusually large and slightly stiff, so I found a small spot with four trees surrounding it in a rectangular formation and used the leaves as walls to make a small room with four leaf walls. I also made a small window-like rectangular hole on each leaf wall to help me see what's going outside. It only took about two or three leaves to make one wall. As for the shelter, I left it open because I felt a strange urge to gaze at the sky after what happened at the abandoned village.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  I laid down on my back, facing the sky with my hands behind my head. Then I felt something touching the right side of my rib cage. It was the creature that looked like a small ball of light. It looked smaller than usual, almost half the size of when I saw it at the village.

  When did you get in, little one? It's time I give it a proper name, it should be a fantasy name.

  "...Fine. From now on, I'll call you 'Zorin'."

  Zorin– the little ball of light– jumped on to my abdomen and jumped a few times. I must have been out of my mind to think something so cute and harmless was a magic tracker or something I thought. When I turned to my left side to sleep, through my 'window', I saw something big moving right behind the curtain/wall of leaves. Alarmed by this, I got on my foot and readied my dagger. The sound of footsteps shifted from one wall to another. I could see what it was from the cut out windows I had made through the leaf curtains. Whatever it was, it was, it moved fast and it looked big– could it be a boar? Maybe a bear? Or worse?

  Even a cow could topple the leaf walls that I had built, so I decided that moving away from this place a distance and getting a visual on whatever was outside was the best choice. I turned away from the direction of the noise to escape by tearing through the leaf curtain. When I approached the curtain of leaves, suddenly, a crude iron blade tore through it.

  I barely avoided it, and stepped back from it immediately. The iron blade then tore down the leaf curtain to create an opening, and from it came a rugged male human who was about two heads taller than me. He wore small pieces of leather armor over his worn out clothes, tools, weapons and pouches hung from his belt unorganized.

  The man scanned me from top to bottom and whistled. "Would you look at that? We hit the jackpot, boys~" he said in a language I couldn't understand.

  I understood that this guy was up to no good, without a doubt he was a bandit. I took a few steps back to increase the distance between me and the bandit. When I was about to turn back to run, another bandit came from the leaf curtain behind me, tearing it down with his bare hands. Following him, another leaf curtain crumbled down, three bandits surrounded me.

  Just how many are they!? I thought I could fight but there's no way I can fight three armed adults at once!

  I did not know how strong an average human would be in this world, but I could say for sure that I was stronger than average. However, fighting three armed bandits with nothing but a dagger was too much even for a maniac like me, to top it all off, I was in no condition to fight.

  "You were right, boss!" the bandit behind me said. "This one is definitely the real deal!"

  "Whoah! I can't believe it!" the third of them said. "I can't believe that we're going to catch a barbarian! Our names are going to be written down in history!"

  "Now, now, calm down, boys." their boss said. "These things are violent, so do your best not to damage the merchandise."

  Ahh, shit! Shit, shit, shit! Why me!? I groaned as I felt the temperature of my body increase.

  I couldn't understand what the bandits were saying but from the sound and looks of it, they are definitely underestimating me. They made a mistake goofing around now of all times, behaving as if they already caught me. Since they were talking with their guard lowered, I took that as an opportunity to escape. I ran towards the last standing leaf curtain and dove through the window hole that I had cut out, using it as a smoke screen to buy me some time to hide.

  "Ayy! Catch that little shit!" the bandit boss yelled. "If you let him escape, I'll kill both of you!"

  "Yes boss!" they replied in unison

  The bandits effortlessly tore it down the leaf curtain, leaving no time for me to hide. At least, I got out of that guy's blade's reach I thought.

  My chance to hide was gone and I was in no condition to outrun three grown men who looked like they chase people down and tie them up for a living. If I had to survive, I had no choice but to hit and run, pull and push.

  "What are you waiting for!?" their boss shouted. He pointed at me and yelled "Don't let my money get away!"

  I changed my mind– I still plan on doing a hit and run, but I will definitely kill you no matter what!