A small familiar creature with two wings was resting on a random branch in some trees. Soon other of its group also started to flock around and join them. The tree branch started to sway a little as the number of things it needed to support added up.

From there, their eyes were focused on something as they looked down below from where they were resting. From their reflections, in the corner of their eyes was a silhouette of a girl lying on the ground.

The birds weren't doing as they only watched the girl for almost an hour. From their perspective, seeing something like this was normal for them as it was common. The Black Forest is a vast forest filled with tall trees whose height is at least thirty meters tall.

It was home to terrifying beasts who lived the rule for the survival of the fittest. Every beast who lives here has their way of surviving in this harsh and terrible environment filled with violence all day.

With the number of strong and ferocious beasts in the forest, not many people dared to come here only if they were looking for a place to die.

One of the things that you also need to consider is that the environment works differently inside the forest.

At night, the temperature in the forest drops down fast to an abnormal level and becomes very cold. The forest at night also became quiet to the point that the only things you could hear were the sounds of the insects as every being was on alert to each other for the possibility of danger around them.

Then why was it common for the birds to see the scene before them? It was because, despite the forest's danger, many people can't resist the rewards they can find inside.

There are not a lot of people who wanted to go to the forest in the past because of the danger it possesses.

Over time, rare herbs used as an ingredient with a high value in the market started to grow here. Some caves that cover the forest also have valuable gems and ore that can be used to forge high-quality armor and weapons.

And as time continued, more people started to explore the Black Forest for a profit with the risk of getting killed. In other terms, high risk, high rewards. Though getting gambling with your life for some prizes sounds ridiculous to some, for others, the rewards were enough for them to risk their lives.

Of course, it is unavoidable that so many accidents happen inside the forest as it poses a great danger. Many of these people who tried to challenge the terror of the forest died and never came back to tell the tale. Only people blessed and spared by the God of luck and some veterans on the frontline for their whole life were the only ones lucky enough to return and live enough to tell the tales of the forest.

But not everyone who managed to escape from the nightmare of the forest was lucky enough. Even though some of them managed to come back alive, they either became disabled from losing some functional parts in their body, or those people who came back fully intact but didn't manage to find anything treasure inside the forest.

And so, violence in the forest became the norm as seeing dead bodies of people or beast living inside were an expected outcome.

And right now, the girl lying on the ground was not unordinary for the birds watching above in the trees. These birds were seen countless times of this thing here in the forest. Dead bodies bathing in their blood while lying on the ground were normal here, yet this one seems a little different from what they always see.

No blood can be seen from the girl, not even a bruise or wound on her body, which is unusual. As if the girl was sleeping, not injured or dead.

The girl has lustrous silver hair that reaches her waist and a pointed ear, which tells her she is not human. The girl wore an elegant dress that covered the upper part with white color and the lower part with black.

And as if the time started to run again, the girl began to move her hands as she regained consciousness.

The girl lying on the ground slowly opened her scarlet eyes for the first time.

Ugh. Where am I?... Who I am?… Ouch, my head hurts!

She felt a slight pain in her head when she tried to remember something. She started to get up slowly, putting her left hand on the ground as support while her other hand was on her head as she had a headache and her memory was hazy.

It took time for her to organize her thoughts about what was happening, and the first thing that caught her attention was her surroundings. The tall trees where her eyes could see as far as her eyes could reach and the wind that slightly touched her skin was alive as if it was real. It was no doubt that she was inside the forest.

She was confused and scared at the same time as she slowly stood up and touched the trees near her. The sensation she felt from the trunk of the trees when she touched was felt so real.

She wondered why it was too quiet and started to stroll and survey her surroundings. While walking, her memories began to return little by little as if she had forgotten everything.

Shimizu Arisu. Twenty years old. That's right, that's me. I remember back then; I was still in the ICU. Did I die? Then what is this place… I doubt this is heaven, though?" But when Arisu just managed to remember everything, suddenly she encounters a two meters tall beast.

The beastly slowly took its time and moved in front of Arisu. It was covered in bluish-gray fur while its canine teeth were showing, and its saliva was drooling from there as it was hungry.

In its paw was its claw looking sharp enough to hack any being in its vicinity, while its foot was big enough to smash a child.

From how it looked, Arisu understood that it was a predator from where she was.