May your soul be pure, may the Lord be merciful.

The sky was spewing thunderous waves across the horizon, white rays flashing every 30 minutes, echoing off the horizon.

Torrential rain intensified, unleashing a hail of drops upon the guys. Well, men were used to it, they sat under huge trees. The flame extinguished under such a deluge of water streams.

— What the hell, the weather is so shitty? 

Bruz said irritably, covering his head with his hands, scanning for a place to hide.

—And hide it, — added Bruz, smacking his wet lips.

Roy stood up from the log, he lifted the girl with all his might, gripping her elbow. He began to lead her, covering his head with his other hand to shield himself from the rain.

The man stopped, turning to the girl, she muttered something under her breath.

— Are you cursing us? —  he asked.

— No, praying… —  the girl replied.

— What? 

 Roy was dumbfounded, he removed the hood from her head, watching as the girl's lips indeed repeated some prayer.

— What are you freezing for over there? Come here! —  Ticch yelled, standing near Bruz, they hid under a huge tree that didn't let such a heavy rain through.

— Why are you praying? —  Roy asked.

— The earth is trembling… — the girl said calmly, piercing the man with her purple haze. She looked through him, devoid of emotions, yet she feared something.

— And what does that mean?

Still, the girl knew something, she was an elf, attuned to the sounds of nature, she could easily discern something amiss.

This quiet girl with empty eyes had given up hope on her life, she had already resigned herself to everything, looking through the man.

— Something is watching around us, assessing.

— Where? Around?

Roy just chuckled, taking it as a simple childish lie. He understood that any girl in her place would have run away if she had even the slightest chance.

The girl was just warning, indicating her territory. Somewhere in the darkness of the rain, the earth continued to tremble, tossing stones upwards.

The men stood under the trees, waiting for the couple, and laughed, watching him try again to squeeze a few words out of the girl's cute mouth.

— Alright. If you want to run away from us, just say so, yeah? Why lie then… — His frightened gaze looked towards the guys.

— TROLL!!!

The wild cry of the man drowned out the rain itself. The flash of lightning passed behind the guys, and they slowly turned around, trembling with fear. The guys swallowed several lumps of saliva.

Behind the guys stood a huge figure, three times their size. The creature's smile stretched to its ears, and its red eyes glowed in the darkness like huge lanterns.

Huge horns, sharp ears, a long tongue, and huge hands holding a large axe. The men lost the gift of speech, they couldn't even move, staring at the face of this creature.

— What are you standing there for, run!

Roy shouted, tightly squeezing the girl's hand, pointing his sword forward. He apparently decided to protect the girl, hiding her behind him.

Bruz came to his senses and pushed Tich away. Then he stabbed the troll's hand with his dagger to distract the monster. Bruz smiled, watching the troll contort its face in pain.

— Ha! Like that?

 The troll looked at Bruz and slowly pulled out the dagger with its teeth, smiling even wider. It seemed like it didn't even feel the sharp weapon in its hand.

Bruz stepped back, his smile replaced by a face of horror. He didn't even have time to retreat when the troll simply swatted the man away with its hand, throwing him into the nearest tree.

— Arrgh!

Somewhere there was the sound of bones crunching. Tich and Roy, without turning around, slowly backed away to escape from here together with the girl.

There were only three people here, not counting the already dead one, bleeding under Bruz's tree. The troll approached Bruz and effortlessly lifted him up, presenting the man's head to the pestle.

— No! Don't you dare!

Roy raised his sword, trying to approach the troll, but he was interrupted by another alien breath. He turned around to see what was happening. Giant trolls surrounded people from all sides.

One of them tore the sword out of the man's hands, breaking it in two.

Then the troll grabbed Roy by the hand, breaking all his bones, and then pierced the man's head, stuffing two pieces of the sword from different sides.

— Aargh... Run away...

Roy said his last words, falling to his knees. Blood began to flow all over the ground, and one of the trolls picked up the body, tearing off one limb after another.

Elmerian slowly tried to walk through the huge trolls, whose attention was focused on devouring people.

Then one of the trolls threw the girl to the ground with a powerful shove of its palm. Her chest in the white dress barely moved, peeking out from under the rusty cloak.

— No... no...

The girl said, feeling the monster's stone claw run down her back.

He tore the cloak off her with one claw, even slicing through Elmerian's white dress. One of the trolls stood near the tree, mutilating Bruz's headless body.

He simply defiled the corpse, tearing it in two. Tich didn't stand idly by; he proved to be more cunning, simply fleeing, trying to disappear into the forest.

His enormous belly swayed with every movement, and his breath caught with every kilometer.

— I'm sorry... I'm so... sorry...

Through heavy breaths, Tich muttered as he ran through the huge trees as far as possible. A massive troll grabbed the girl by the waist, pressing her to the ground.

She writhed in silence, trying to escape. The pressure of the huge hand stifled her own breath.

— Ahg!!!

The girl screamed, blood dripping from her mouth as one of the trolls began violating her, tearing her apart.

He threw her to the ground like a rag doll, grabbing her by the hands and casually breaking bones. At that moment, her vacant eyes began to tremble in rhythm with her entire body. She was already half-dead when he didn't even attempt to stop.

Slap! Crack! Crack!

That was a rookie mistake in this forest. Alien blood fell to the ground, triggering a chain of the most brutal actions in this dark hell.

Tich, running away, was pierced by a flying spear from one of them. The spear tore a huge hole in the man's body, scattering organs all around. Two trolls approached the huge catch.

With a rumble of thunder, they fell to their knees, slowly devouring the man's limbs. One of them took the man's head, engaging in more direct activities until a huge hole burst in the skull, scattering brains all around.

And that's how the story of simple bandits ended. Perhaps this chain of actions could provide new information about the cruel world or involve someone in the future.

No one knows what might happen next. It's a cruel world with no mercy.

§

"Oh, so that's how it works?"

 I inspected the next signs for my characteristics. Now I understood what I needed to prioritize first.

"Where are these monsters when they're so needed?" I enjoyed killing; I wanted more blood to gather as many points as possible.

I continued not to think; it distracted me. I just acted, trying to find any victim for my torment.

During this time, I killed two small bugs and earned two experience points. I frowned. 

Especially since I still needed to improve my skills, and it was a challenging task. Most weak monsters couldn't give me anything; practically nothing fell from them.

After the battle with the ants, more than two days passed; I wandered in search of new places where I could satisfy my thirst for killing. I also learned that these runes could be spent not only on skills but also on other things.

The next skills cost 50 runes; it was expensive. For me, it was too expensive, as it was very difficult to obtain them.

"Clearly, scrooges..." —  I thought, looking at the blocked skill shop.

I could also quickly improve my skills with runes. I needed 10 runes to increase at least one ability.

This deal seemed profitable to me. I didn't even have 10 runes! What a heaviness in my chest; I just felt so unpleasant. Even monsters lower than me were weaker than ever.

My time passed when I encountered level 5 monsters. These battles were weak, but I managed to earn a decent amount of points:

- Two ash ants [Level 5, 4 experience points]

- Three boar leeches [Level 3, 3 experience points]

- One earthworm [Level 6, 2 experience points]

- Huge ash ant [Level 7, 4 experience points, 1 white rune]

Result: 15 experience points and one white rune. And that was just for one day; it was woefully insufficient. 

I became greedy for these things; my thirst for killing touched almost everything.

They were all weak, except for the last one, of course. That one was tougher, but while that freak tried to strike me with its jaw, I blocked it with my skill.

After that, [Tough Skin] leveled up to 2. I had 15 points on hand.

After learning what these characteristics give, I immediately invested 10 points in agility without hesitation. I put the remaining five into strength for convenience.

Then I got this bonus because I raised my agility:

Strength: 15, Intelligence: 12, Defense: 17, Agility: 31, Stamina: 9, Wisdom: 5.

Until the next agility bonus, I needed to accumulate 20 points to raise my agility by +20 again. 

However, now I began to notice changes in speed; my body moved very quickly. I tried to apply a beak strike and a wing strike. 

My beak was unusual; I heard faint sounds of a sword, as if training with iron weapons. My wings could be very sharp during the use of agility. I just needed to find the next victim, testing myself.

"Where could I test my wings?" I pondered, surveying the surroundings. Of course! Trees.

The best thing was to use my skills on trees. I quickly found myself near a tree, running my wing along its surface.

I heard a faint sound, like a small dagger going up the tree.

"Ouch!"

A thin, slanted line formed on the tree. It looked like an invisible cut. Nevertheless, for human skin, it could end very sadly.

 The wound wouldn't open immediately, but as soon as the person started moving, the cut would open, spilling blood around.

"I've become like a monster!" 

I exclaimed approvingly in my head, wiggling my butt. I danced samba, approaching the tree. Yes, I didn't have to learn to dance; I already moved quite well even in a crow's body.

You should have seen this sight. A crow in the middle of the forest dancing with its buttocks, holding onto the tree with its wings, while dancing the real mambo.

"Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Who's cool?" "I'm cool!"

I rejoiced until it started raining. I took shelter under a large tree, waiting for it to stop. 

But it didn't stop! With each passing moment, it only grew stronger, and then, as luck would have it, lightning began to strike with thunder in the sky.

It lasted the whole day, and I probably fell asleep for the night because the next day the clouds simply disappeared somewhere amidst the gray sky.

My stomach grumbled because it was time to look for food. This is what it means to be mortal; I hadn't felt this way in over 300 years.

My body demanded food, and I couldn't feed on myself; I wasn't tasty. Pecking at my beak with feathers wasn't the best option either.

I saw a level 3 ant coming, and I wanted to kill it. As soon as I approached, the ant shriveled up at the sight of me and burrowed into the ground. This had never happened before, either. I had become so frightened. But nothing had changed in me.

[Crowling]

 [Level: 8/10]

 My goal was finally to elevate myself to level 10 and see what lay beyond. Was my maximum level? I certainly didn't want to remain like this forever.

My maximum level? Or something else? I was always curious about this question because I had almost reached the limit allowed.

"Phew! I want more points!" 

This thought continued to hit me on the back of my head, and over time, I noticed two monsters coming towards me.

[Little Golem] 

[Level 11] 

There were only two of them, these gray creatures were made of stone. Instead of eyes, there were red rubies; surely they would fetch a lot of money.

"I need those little rocks!" 

As we know, crows are no different from birds that love to steal. I just wanted to kill them. Their level was several times higher than mine.

If I could kill them, it meant I could get more interesting things. Levels, points, and even a few runes capable of finally increasing my skills. It's a whole fortune!

It took me two days to increase my speed. I licked my beak; the next tough battle awaited me, sending shivers down my body.