Despite the darkness of the night, the forest did not lose its vitality, the crickets chirped tirelessly, the predators roared announcing their dominance, and from afar came a faint howling sound.

In the ancient human ruins, glowing fireflies danced happily, while the monkeys slept deeply, except for a small few of F-Rank who had taken it upon themselves to stand watch.

All the monsters, whether stupid or intelligent, understood that this forest never sleeps, dangers always lurk, and the simplest negligence leads to death.

High in the sky, a large owl watched the monkeys and patiently waited for the right opportunity to attack. When that moment finally came and it was about to swoop down, it saw something that made it retreat.

In the middle of the small square, and near the three statues, a mysterious figure appeared. A human? It seemed so from their appearance, but it was hard to say for certain, for who knows what other types of creatures exist.

Like a vagrant, this person wore worn and dirty clothes that covered their entire body, and also wore a black covering on their head that concealed their features, the only visible part was their two bare feet.

The mysterious figure stood, alone amid the ruins contemplating the featureless woman’s statue, a sad feeling emanated from them, which caused the nearby fireflies to dim their lights in mourning.

Suddenly, they tilted their head slightly, for they had noticed that the flower crown they had placed a few days ago had disappeared, something that belonged to them had been stolen, they could not bear it, and a terrifying killing intent emanated from them.

The fireflies around them died instantly. The grass withered. The monkeys froze in place, unable to breathe. Even the owl flying overhead dropped from the sky and crashed to the ground.

Without any hesitation, the strange figure examined a large part of the forest with their superior sense, their sense moved accompanied by their killing intent across a great distance, causing hundreds of thousands, no, millions of creatures to wake up in terror.

But despite their search, they did not find their target, the flower crown they had made had disappeared entirely, the feeling of sadness returned to overwhelm them, they looked at the woman’s statue again, and noticed this time the presence of a wilted bouquet of flowers at its feet.

They were surprised, their anger disappeared, and in its place came a strange feeling they had forgotten for a long time, they moved their hand gently, and the flowers flew up, they infused them with their energy, and life returned to them, then in an astonishing way, they separated from their stems, and gathered together forming a beautiful flower crown that settled on the head of the woman’s statue.

After that, the mysterious figure turned and left, their footsteps made no sound, and left no tracks on the ground, and just as they had appeared they suddenly vanished as though they were a ghost, leaving the forest buzzing with chaos.

And so the night passed slowly, morning came, then night again, and with the passing of time, the monsters forgot that terrifying feeling, everything returned to its normal state, or at least that is how it appeared on the surface.

...

On the ninth day after the full moon frenzy,

Arthur woke up full of energy and vitality. He stretched his body with a satisfied expression and left his den. The first thing he did was empty his bladder.

He took out the carcass of a deer he had hunted the previous day, and ate it for breakfast, for he had not abandoned the human habit of organizing time.

Advancing in Rank had greatly increased his appetite, and also increased the capacity of his stomach, his nutritional needs had increased considerably, and because of this, he had to hunt two monsters every day, one for dinner, and another for the following morning’s breakfast.

Normally he would have found this difficult and exhausting, but reaching E-Rank had made things much easier. At his current strength, hunting F-Rank monsters was no longer a dangerous task, but merely a daily routine.

Of course, Arthur was not a lazy person with no ambition, so he did not settle for F-Rank monsters alone, and searched for stronger prey. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

After filling his stomach, Arthur licked his lips in satisfaction, and stored the useless remains of the deer in the Dimensional Storage to dispose of them later, for he was not going to leave his home’s yard dirty, that was not appropriate.

His care for the cleanliness of his surroundings may seem useless given that he is a monster, but such small details were what highlighted his human side, for if he gave them up, that would mean giving up his true self.

’Well then, time for the morning round.’ As usual, he activated his Enhanced Senses and Tracking skill, then began roaming the area.

First he passed by the nearby stream, and cleaned himself well, tracked the movements of the herbivorous monsters, and searched for any tracks indicating the presence of unwelcome intruders, the other predators.

During the past few days, Arthur had worked hard to impose his control over the area, like a true predator, he drove away and killed competing monsters, and marked the place with his scent.

His previous pledge, to tame the forest, was not just empty words born of momentary excitement, but a genuine desire, and the first step toward achieving this mad endeavor was ruling his own territory.

But, there was a very simple problem, for after his senses had grown stronger, he had this faint nagging feeling of unease, at first he did not understand the reason, and when he tracked its source, he found it coming from that terrifying spider’s nest.

The area already had an owner, and this explained why no powerful monsters were present in the place, for the spider’s aura drove them away, on one hand this worked in his favor, and on the other hand, he had been playing with fire.

’Thinking about it, I’m basically a parasitic flea right now. Sooner or later, what I’m doing is going to start annoying that spider.’

He looked at the clear sky, and let out a long sigh. ’Staying here is not an option, I must search for a new home.’

Despite how hard it was, he made his decision, he would leave after a month, and until that time, he would try to make use of every moment to raise his strength.

He had grown very fond of the place, especially the comfortable den, and if he could, he would have taken it with him.

He drifted off for a moment, lost in thought as he stared at the sky. Then, suddenly, his ears twitched — and a familiar sound reached him. Far, far too familiar.

’Is it possible?’ His eyes widened from the intensity of astonishment and terror, and quickly, he looked toward the source of the sound, and at that moment he saw the thing he feared the most, and yearned for at the same time — humans.