Drake logged in in the morning and decided to do something different that day. He decided to return to the Black Forest to put his skills to the test, as outside of the territory, the twins did the majority of the fighting. The majority of the monsters there were too powerful for him to fight. He messaged them about his decision and told them they could do whatever they wanted.

He wondered if he would get to see the beast humans inside the forest.

The Black Forest Territory was not completely under the control of the Black Forest Kingdom's King. His ancestors, along with the ancestors of the beast humans in the Black Forest, founded the territory together. The King controlled the kingdom, and the Beast King controlled the forest.

So, while the King owned the territory, many creatures in the forest were powerful enough to challenge him and his strongest subordinates. Both wanted complete control of the territory, so there were many covert skirmishes, but due to their similar strengths, they kept the peace on the surface. This resulted in a delicate balance between the territory's two behemoths.

Drake took a few quests that could be completed in the forest to earn some side cash. After collecting some herbs from the outskirts of the forest, he went deeper inside.

A chicken monster came in front of him. He readied his sword and became as serious as if he was facing the demon lord.

The chicken ran towards him at full speed, its speed was faster than any monster he fought before. He barely dodged to the side while blocking its beak with his sword.

It flew back and landed on the ground after the failed attack. Drake attacked it with his sword but it easily dodged and flew a few feet away and landed on the ground.

It rubbed its foot on the ground and ran towards Drake again. That time it jumped mid-way and attacked Drake’s face with its feet.

He barely blocked its feet with his sword again. If he had failed, the sharp nails on its feet would have left huge gashes over his face.

He didn’t give it time to attack again, and took advantage of the fact that it was in mid-air and couldn’t dodge so he attacked it once again. He directly removed its head from its body.

With that Drake fought and won his fight of the day. Feeling good about defeating such a ferocious monster he proceeded further inside the forest.

After traveling for a few hours and killing many different types of monsters, Drake decided to take a break and eat lunch.

He had cooked the chicken he killed the first on that day. He had kept only its body with him as he decided to have chicken for lunch after killing it.

Among many skills he learned, cooking was one of them. And no arrogance, but he was damn good at it. He cooked many times for his family and family’s friends. It was just that previously the twins cooked for him, and they did it decently, so he let them do it.

Just when he was about to put the juicy piece of chicken meat in his mouth, his lunch was interrupted, once again.

*CRASH*

A wolf monster was chasing a girl. She ran towards a tree without slowing or changing direction, the wolf closely behind her. When she reached the tree, while maintaining her speed, she ran up the tree for more than two meters and then jumped back. The wolf ran into the tree at full speed, crashing heavily into it, which caused it to fall, hence the loud noise.

The wolf was disoriented and suffered a concussion. The girl attacked it with her sword before it had a chance to regain its footing. The girl was weaker than the wolf, but thanks to her slight speed advantage and wisdom, she defeated it. The wolf monster died without knowing how it died.

*CLAP CLAP*

Drake clapped for the girl’s plan. He finally got the chance to observe her clearly and found out she had animal ears and a fluffy tail.

The girl was surprised to hear the clapping sounds. She turned toward the sound’s direction and found Drake clapping for her.

She exclaimed seeing a human and quickly hid behind a tree, secretly peeking at him.

‘What is a human doing here? They normally don’t go so deep inside the forest as they know that the beast human tribes live there. And why did he clap? Was it because of the way I killed the wolf monster?’

Drake was startled seeing her reaction but didn’t pursue it to not startle her more. He thought that she might not be used to seeing humans.

Drake went back to eating his delicious lunch. Beast humans’ senses were as sharp as real beasts. She smelled the scent of the grilled meat and her mouth watered. She gulped a mouthful of saliva.

Drake turned towards her when he felt her staring at him only to find she was staring at the piece of meat in his hand.

“Do you want it?”

She didn’t answer and again hid behind the tree.

He just smiled seeing that. He cut a big piece, placed it on a clean leaf, and put the leaf a small distance away from him. He went back to eating. The chicken was too big for him anyway.

The girl who was watching his actions secretly didn’t move from her position but after a few minutes, she couldn't bear the growling of her stomach. So, she slowly moved towards the leaf. Drake, who was watching all that, didn’t behave any differently to not startle her.

She finally reached the leaf. First, she tore a small piece and tasted it. It captured her taste buds. So, she tore into her share of meat and finished it quickly.

Drake had already cut another piece and put it on another clean leaf. When she was done, he pushed it towards her. The girl was scared again but didn’t leave that time. She might have believed that he had no intention of hurting her, so she didn’t hide again behind the tree.

He passed the leaf to her and said, “Eat slowly. There is more than enough for us. If you want, you can ask for more later.”

“Thank you”

He heard her thanking words but they were said in such a low voice, as if they were not meant to be for him. Drake smiled and didn’t say anything.

“I am Drake. What’s your name?”

When Drake saw that looked comfortable, he decided to engage in small talk with her.

“Aria Wildfang”, she said in a low voice.

Drake checked her status just to make sure. Moreover, he had a rough guess of what beast human she was but wanted to confirm his guess.

 

Name: Aria Wildfang

Race: Foxhuman

Loyalty: 40 (Unreliable)

Level: 0

SAN: 5

Path: None

Skills: None

Mastery: Sword (Beginner, Lv. 6)

The WildFang tribe consists entirely of female foxhumans. Even if they mate with other species, they will only give birth to females from their race. Previously, the WildFang tribe was renowned for their intelligence and wisdom. However, unlike beast humans, who are born strong regardless of gender, the Wildfang tribe, who were much weaker and not much different from humans, were ridiculed for being weak. But their beauty made them wives and concubines in many powerful beast human families, including the royal family.

Then a tragedy occurred, which altered the dynamics of the entire tribe. A few generations ago, the then-king of the beast humans embarked on an expedition beyond the territory. The expedition was for a potion formula that was guarded by numerous powerful beings.

The King was frustrated by his continuous defeat against them. Then his concubine from the Wildfang tribe, who was also the tribe's matriarch, devised a strategy to defeat the guardians. As a result, he defeated the guardians and obtained the formula. Everyone was happy, except him.

He could not accept the fact that his weak concubine was better than him. He, despite his immense strength, was unable to defeat the guardians, but by following her strategy, he did. He believed that this demonstrated that his weak concubine was superior to him and that she did it solely to insult and disgust him, thereby challenging his majesty. If it had been his queen or any of his other concubines, he might not have thought about it in the same way because they were all strong. But his weak fox concubine did it, making him feel as if his strength was inferior to her so-called intelligence.

He publicly executed his concubine. She cried and begged for forgiveness, but he remained unforgiving until the end. But that was not the end. His wrath spread to many other members of the Wildfang tribe, who died in similar unjust circumstances. The matriarch's daughter was only saved by a few tribe members because she was too young and the king was preoccupied with killing the older ones.

He declared that the fox humans no longer had any standing among the beast humans and were reduced to slaves. They no longer had the right to marry any beast human and would be used solely for the pleasure of the beast humans.

For many generations, they were taught that they were nothing more than slaves to the Beast Humans. Following years of indoctrination, all fox humans considered themselves slaves. Even if a few fox humans are strong, they are unable to overcome their fear of the other beast humans and thus cannot attack them.

Aria is a Wildfang slave of the Bull human tribe. She and her mother are, coincidentally, the descendants of the Wildfang matriarch executed by the king.

 

Drake was thinking about a plan after reading her introduction. But with the shackles on her, he was not sure she was up to it. 

He put the plan back in his mind and decided to finish his lunch. Drake and Aria ate the entire chicken.

"Thank you," Aria said, speaking louder.

'He is such a nice person. He didn’t hurt me and even offered me such delicious food.’

 

Name: Aria Wildfang

Loyalty +20, 60 (Reliable)

 

He decided to invite her to join him after noticing her new loyalty. They had similar skills, but she was slightly better.

"I am here for a while to hunt and practice my fighting skills. Do you like to join me?”

"Can I?" She couldn’t believe someone would invite her to travel together.

"Yes, if you want," Drake replied with a smile.

"Yes, I want to," Aria exclaimed excitedly.

They traveled for several hours, laughing and fighting together. They grew close quickly as Aria opened up to him and spoke to him freely.

 

Name: Aria Wildfang

Loyalty +10, 70 (Reliable)

 

When they were deciding where to go next, he suggested heading in the direction of the bull human tribe. He determined their general location by observing her reaction whenever her gaze fell in that direction.

Her eyes were immediately filled with fear. She asked, or rather begged, "Can we go in another direction?" while trying to hide her fear.

"Sure, we can go in another direction," Drake said with a smile.