Light! Zalanir rubbed his eyes. It is really light!

  He couldn’t even believe what was in front. After reaching level 40, killing the bats seemed to stop giving him any experience, even though he had killed more than a hundred of them after reaching this level. With killing no longer his focus, he had switched his plan to follow the bats around this cave, seeing that they must've gone outside to hunt because he caught one dropping a still splashing fish before. Even though he hadn’t explored every nook and cranny of this cave, he had been to enough places to know that there was no creek, stream, or something similar here.

  Which led him to this place, where he finally saw a yellow dot of light ahead. He mistook it for an illusion at first, but after advancing toward it, the dot did get bigger and transformed into a small circle and eventually several circles and lines.

  His eyes reddened and hurt, so he chose to take his time for them to get used to seeing something other than total darkness. Finally, he could utilize them instead of just his ears to go around. No offense to his ears — they had been doing great — but he missed having a functional pair of eyes.

  Then came another surprise in the form of human voices. There were people in that direction! Zalanir rushed ahead but soon stopped in his tracks. He didn’t plan to eavesdrop, but this might be related to his safety. He had been caught by brigands before, so a little bit of patience wouldn’t hurt.

  “I stumbled upon this cave three days ago. The entrance doesn’t look natural, as you have seen it. I haven’t gone too deep inside, but I have seen tons of bats on the way already. I suspect there is something more to this cave than what is here,” said a rough male voice.

  “Yeah, good work. This can be a good place for the ritual. Just make sure to clean up whatever is unnecessary inside. He won’t tolerate any more failures. We need them to deal with the enforcers.” Another rough voice, but sounded like a female one. Zalanir couldn’t be sure.

  “I’m sorry, but … an isolated and pristine cave like this tended to be … rather dangerous. Can I go back and call others?”

  “Hmm, let’s do it that way. I will check around in advance. Wait! Remember to be secretive. Don’t let Hatillup know.”

  Zalanir didn’t like what he had just heard. Ritual, cleanup, tolerate — all of these three words painted a picture that he wasn’t sure would equal positivity for himself. Sounded like something fishy.

  After debating internally, he decided to take a look at the supposedly woman who remained first. There might be other exits that he would find, but the earlier he could get out, the better. Even though he liked the grind, killing only bats could only go so far, especially when there was no tangible reward to it anymore.

  Moving like his legs had been turned into cat’s paws, Zalanir took little time to sneak behind a protruding rock up high. His steps were just so soft now after all the time using his ears as the benchmark for excellence.

  There were several of the same half-a-human-size rocks overseeing this vacant area. He was surprised to see a small cave brook to the right. He lost its sight at a downward turn, though its width had become really small at that part. So, in contrast to his previous assessment, there existed water inside the cave.

  A woman in a red and black robe was scouring the area near the cut-off point of the brook. The tanned skin gave her a strong-woman vibe. Identify returned her level at 49. Maxed level for a D-grade? Why was the first one he encountered after god-knows-how-long someone this strong? Though for some reason, she walked around barefoot. That lessened her strong vibe a little bit.

  A parabola-shaped entrance twice the size of a door was the main source of light, but they also illuminated the area through the holes left by several twisted vines above and to the side. The woman was standing between his spot and the entrance, so if Zalanir wanted to get out, he would have to show himself — an action that he refrained from doing for the time being.

  He took the time to let his eyes get used to the light again. They hadn’t come back to their normal functionality yet. Looking straight at the light still gave him some dazzle and flicking stars, as if there were a veil of water that stuck to the corner of his eyes.

  About half an hour later — Zalanir was grateful to get his sense of time back, a notion that he had been missing dearly — a group of five entered the cave. Even though the armor and clothes weren’t the same as the woman, the main theme remained red and black. And the lack of shoes as well.

  Their dress code? A religious group? A cult? Zalanir wondered.

  “Let’s regroup here after an hour. Be careful. If any of you encounter something dangerous, run back here and make a ruckus. Anyone who hears it must go back here and check. No need to have any casualties for a simple scouring action like this. This cave looks good, but it isn’t worth the risk of someone dying. You hear me?” The woman seemed to be the leader.

  Zalanir’s mind tried to come up with a story when a man was heading toward his spot. However, halfway through, the man just descended and headed to a nearby open path. The area became empty when the last woman who wore a dress covering up to her knee also followed the same path under Zalanir’s spot.

  After making sure that all of their sounds had gone, Zalanir circled around the area for a final check before getting out. Whatever they planned to do here was none of his concern.

  He emerged on a hillside after going through the vine path, and to his absolute bewilderment, the scene outside was that of a white color. All the green crowns and yellow and brown dirt had, from god-knows-when, put on a snow dress. He extended his hand and caught a drifting snowflake. How long had he been stuck inside the damn cave? And if it was winter, why wasn’t it cold? He only had light leather armor on right now. For sure not enough to block the cold, if there was even any.

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  Looking up from his spot on the ground, if he didn’t just go down from there, he would definitely miss the entrance. Filling his vision were just white rocks, vines, and a tall, straight tree with no leaves perched about ten meters to its left. He had to admit that the hill looked rather picturesque in winter. If he had a camera with him, and if his photography skills were good enough, he believed he could sell pictures of what was lying in front of his eyes to some showrooms.

  Moving on, Zalanir picked the opposite direction from the cave and resumed his exploration of this forest. Though this time, he had a goal in his mind: find the nearest local settlement. He had had enough of bat socialization and forest isolation for now.

  Zalanir held on to the big branch while waiting for the group under him to pass by. This had been the second one besides the group back at the cave that he had crossed paths with already. Just when he was about to drop down, another group entered his detection range from behind. Leading this one was a man shouldering a long flail with a black spiky ball attached at the top. The dense beard and naked top gave him a viking look. The dress code of red and black was shifted to the pants and the pair of bracers on his arms. This group seemed rather worn out, though, and Zalanir soon found the reason thanks to his newly developed eavesdropping ability.

  “Damn these enforcers. We lost another two men. Boss, let’s fight back.”

  The notion was supported by other “uh, oh”.

  “Go ahead if you want to die. Don’t drag me with you,” the naked man snorted. “Go and challenge that damn captain. Do that, and you might become the prophet.”

  The discussion died as fast as it began. But Zalanir could see the anger and resentment from those who trailed behind.

  “Stayed low until we got their help. Now, I heard that Eiselen has been discreet lately. Anyone knows what she’s been up to?”

  “A bunch of dead weights.” Zalanir heard the boss man yell a couple of seconds later. “Keep finding all the hunters and beasts.”

  From what he had gathered so far, seemed like there was a group called enforcers that had been causing problems for this barefoot gang. A territorial conflict? Maybe he should find these enforcers to see what they were about. They might very well be the locals here. The name enforcers did spark a sense of righteousness to it, so maybe they would be like police back on Earth and could help him out?

  Changing to a taller spot after those behind him had gone, Zalanir waited to see other groups. He would rather stay here than move around randomly and risk getting caught. Gaining information while being off danger was such a no-brainer.

  Besides, playing with the snowflakes wasn’t a bad idea either. Vietnam wasn’t really the country one went to find snow, and he had kinda missed this cold, snappy feeling.

  This spot allowed him to see what the normal life of a beast in this forest was like. A red-blue snake curled up inside a bush for nearly an hour before lunging forward at the squirrel that just refused to come near. Its patience was commendable, but its precision was what impressed Zalanir the most. All it took was just a moment that the squirrel landed a tad too close to its spot that the snake stretched out its fangs and finished its prey. Just a single overstep, and the squirrel had to bid farewell to its life.

  But then, the snake’s role in the hunt was swapped when later in the day, a javelin pierced its tail and pinned it down onto the tree. A hunter emerged from behind a tree about fifteen meters away, knocked the snake out with another javelin through its body, and left after he mutilated its head. A predator just a moment ago now found itself dead at the hands of another.

  The same scene played out with two other hunters before Zalanir found two particular people that got his attention. Two people in blue armor — one woman and one man — were cutting through the forest with good pace. They were constantly on the lookout, changing direction rather suddenly and poking their faces into the bushes and behind some trees. Lucky for Zalanir that he picked a good high spot with thick branches and leaves, thus he was confident that he wouldn’t be discovered by those below. Though these two didn’t talk to each other, so Zalanir was reluctant to reveal himself. Better be careful.

  The night passed by peacefully except for two annoying snakes trying to bite his legs. He did kick one to the ground from this height of about eight meters above the ground. He did hear a thud, but wasn’t sure what happened at the end of it. As for the second one, well, the fate of being the first one to scare him was getting squashed by a series of bolts and slams from Energy Barrier. The only trace left of once a snake was a tail stuck to a sprout. In the moonlight, he could see it wavering whenever the wind came by.

  The woman and the man yesterday did return to the area from another direction when the sun was about a quarter of the way to crest the sky. Seeing that there was little risk following them in this daybreak, he waited until they were at a safe distance to descend and go after them. Those two just had different demeanors compared to the barefoot gang and the hunters, so there was a high chance that these were the enforcers that he had been waiting for. If not, then he still made progress contacting some humans, so not like anything was lost for him.

  Are they muted or something? He heard their footsteps alright, so it wasn’t his hearing that somehow got worse suddenly. It was just the fact that these two hadn’t even opened their mouths a single time. Zalanir wanted to just get closer to see what they were up to, but after thinking it over, he resorted to just following them for now. His stubbornness had decided to be the winner in this invisible battle (to him, not them).

  The snow kept on falling, building a ten centimeter soft, fluffy layer of white on the ground. They hugged his ankles whenever he put one down, and also filled the emptiness he left by the time he was an arm span away. How hadn’t this snow reached the top of the tree yet with this productivity? He had no idea.

  Following these two past noon, Zalanir started to lose impatience. Their footsteps stopped now and then, but there was no occasion on which they spoke. He did think about the potential of telepathy, as he had seen a bald superhero who moved in a wheelchair used this power in a movie before, but was his luck that bad? Out of anyone, the two people who he had decided to track just happen to have the perfect counter to his eavesdropping? How could it b—

  Zalanir snapped out of his thought because he had seen that tree before. Wasn’t it the tree he docked on when he kept a close watch on the group with the boss man? Why did he return to this place? This had been the third time they had wandered around here already. Did they look for something here? Or maybe someone …

  A kunai slammed into the tree behind him. It held firm on its target, or maybe, its missed target? The footsteps. They were gunning for his spot. Fast. Zalanir let loose a sound and an earth bolt, turned, and made three steps before another kunai made its presence known on the ground about one meter away from him. The black, smooth, pointed weapon somehow constructed a small crater just by landing there.

  The woman out of the two was the first one to arrive. In her hands spun two similar kunai counterclockwise.

  “You have one sentence to convince me not to kill you. Explain!”

  Zalanir’s mind jumped into celebration immediately. She spoke! Two sentences!