Neto prayed he would make it in time...

"Inventory, lesser health flask!" He called, preparing the item.

After a three-minute sprint, Neto found the dwarf. He was still alive, but in terrible shape.

This guy was tough. Two of the five wolves lay dead by his feet, one of them decapitated. His trunklike legs wavered in a garnet pool of mud.

"Hey...hah, hah... Over Here!" Neto yelled between breaths, trying to divide the pressure.

One wolf struck immediately, turning and pouncing at him in the same motion.

Neto unsheathed his dagger to fight, but the wolf was faster. He was still sore from fighting those goblins, not to mention that sprint... He braced for a fatal impact.

"Rakshasa!" a familiar voice squealed with anger.

[System]: [Summon {1}]: [Rakshasa]-{has used (Shunpo Lv. 1)}

From a puff of black smoke, the demon appeared in front of Neto.

"What the..."

In its hands, a scythe of shadows absorbed the surrounding light, bisecting the wolf as if it were butter.

[System]: [Summon {1}]: [Rakshasa]-{has gained (24) XP!}

"Shit! Thank you!" Neto yelled.

Rakshasa's overwhelming power scared the last two wolves, who sprinted off into the night. The demon followed them.

[System]: [Summon {1}]: [Rakshasa]-{has gained (24) XP!}

[System]: [Summon {1}]: [Rakshasa]-{has gained (24) XP!}

'Seriously, that thing is terrifying... and cute.'

Neto mustered his strength and bolted towards the dwarf. He immediately forced the man's mouth open and poured in his last HP flask.

Neto couldn't tell where the wounds were. There was too much blood. He couldn't even tell if the NPC was conscious! If the man couldn't swallow, he would die.

"..."

Neto began wiping off blood with his robe.

"...glug...glug...."

He was awake!!!

After drinking the last drop, the dwarf sat up, still in a daze.

His wounds were closing, but Neto knew the potion wouldn't work as well on him. This was surely a battle-hardened veteran, after all.

"T-thank...you...," the dwarf spoke to him between breaths. "Name's Góren... what's yours?..."

Neto couldn't respond. He was breathing even harder! The adrenaline must've worn off...

"Here, take this." Góren passed him a potion. This was a different color than the HP potions. Bright yellow, with faint sparks illuminating the liquid. Neto couldn't guess what it was, but took one sip anyway.

Immediately, rejuvenation spread through his body like wildfire. Neto had become caffeine itself!! Without the anxiousness...

"Holy.." He muttered. This feeling could be addictive....

"That'll last for two hours. When its done, you'll be on your ass faster than a one-copper whore."

Neto waited for Goren to stop laughing at his own joke, then handed him the remaining potion.

"Keep it." Góren insisted, pulling out another bottle and chugging the whole thing.

Neto's eyes widened at first, but he remembered potions become less effective the stronger someone gets.

"Thank you."

[System]: [Store]:[Stamina Potion]:{4/5}-{?} -----[Confimed]

[Inventory]--{4/10 lbs}

"Well then," Goren wiped his mouth with the back of one hand, "Lets not dally, more nocturnals will come."

Goren limped fast for someone with short, brutalized legs. Neto struggled to keep up, even under the potion's effect.

In some strange way, he felt Rakshasa's presence nearby. This would've creeped him out if the demon hadn't saved his neck- literally...

"So, why the hell'd you save me?" Goren asked, striking the ground with the butt of his ax while he hobbled.

Neto hadn't prepared for this question.

"...I didn't really think that through." he answered truthfully.

The decision was certainly emotional. It could've, would've, gone terribly wrong if Rakshasa hadn't saved him.

"I guess..." Neto paused, staring at the yellow-white eye of the night sky.

A harvest moon had risen the evening his life changed forever. Neto remembered that last trip with his family so vividly, right up until their car veered off a sheer drop. The ghost of summer-night's fragrance still haunted him.

What caused that tragedy? Why were their lives destroyed so easily?

Neto fully understood why Peter abandoned him. Peter had his sister, Neto had nothing.

He understood this, but still... every beat if Neto's heart hit a bruise.

In the split second it took Neto to jump off that branch, his subconscious mistook this for reality. Neto was trying to get something back from an uncompromising fate.

"People leave me without warning most of the time. If I just left you there, I-I'd be..." Neto trailed off. His face became molten rock, leaking from the ridges under his eyes.

Goren kept his gaze ahead, silent as a wraith. Twinkles reflected off the surface of his cheeks like falling gemstones.

The two walked in silence for a while.

As a sleepy Sun dipped out of sight, stars became their guiding light.

White-bark trees of the Northern Greatwood turned ghostly blue, along with everything untouched by the shadows.

Entranced by their beauty, Neto lost himself in thought. How could this NPC be fake? How could the late-evening breeze on his cheeks and the smell of rotting wood be fake? This world was pulling Neto into its alluring breast, threatening to claim him as its own.

When the forest thinned to a thicket, cobblestone bricks marked a road on the horizon.

They knew they were close.