"Hey! Come here! I found the way!" A man whispered to his accomplice.
They were both chosen as bounty hunters and so they were searching for a target to kill. The device had shown them the place of some targets a few minutes ago and so they embarked on a journey to find them.
Luckily, they found two of them moving close by, a few hundred meters away from them.
But, as they moved closer and closer to the targets, they found themselves somehow lost in the forest. The GPS that was linked to the device wasn't that detailed when it comes to showing the intricate routes of the forest since it only gives the rough position of individuals. So, getting lost wasn't out of the ordinary.
Fortunately, they were able to find a trace of some humans near their position and they rejoiced since it was a sign that they found what they were looking for.
"Let's follow the traces. Those fuckers must be close." He said as touched the broken brunch that had some human footsteps on it.
Then, slowly and carefully, they moved in the direction of the traces. They kept their senses as awake as they could so as to not miss any small sounds nearby.
*Tick*
Suddenly, they heard a cracking sound a few meters away from them. It was faint but in a silent atmosphere like this, it was easy to hear.
The duo immediately turned around and pulled out their weapons. One of them had a spear and the other had a bow. They teamed up because of the compatibility of their weapons in close and distant fights.
"Who is there?!" One of them shouted as he wiped a droplet of sweat that covered his vision. He was clearly nervous.
Then, the bushes where the ticking sound was heard moved suddenly making them jolt in their places.
They didn't dare to approach it and risk getting attacked sneakily. But, staying in one place is also very dangerous.
The bushes moved again as if they were alive and it made them feel even more threatened. But, luckily for them, the thing that got out of the bushes a few seconds later wasn't a human.
It was a small squirrel that was jumping around with two nuts filling his mouth.
Both of them sighed with relief at the same time.
"We were scared for no-...what's that protruding out of your chest?" The man squinted his eyes as he looked at his friend with wariness.
The other was confused at first so he took a look down. Much to his horror, he found what seemed like a sword blade piercing his chest. Blood was already soaking his clothes before he could even feel the pain.
Then, with a loud thud, he fell down to the ground. His eyes wide open with surprise. He had died without even knowing what happened to him or who was the culprit.
"Dave!! Who did it!! Who the fuck are you?!" The man held his bow with clear fear plastered on his face. He was so scared that he couldn't even hold the bow properly.
Then, he saw her. A small girl held a sword in her hand, as she shook off the blood from the blade, not even bothering to look at the distressed archer.
"A kid?!" He muttered with shocked eyes.
Then, he tried to point his bow at her. But, before he could put the arrow and shoot. He felt a cold sensation around his neck.
"Don't make a noise." He heard a whisper behind him then his eyes blacked out.
The man then fell down to the ground just like his partner, revealing who was standing behind him.
Acht looked at the corpses with indifferent eyes before shifting them to his device. It showed a new message that said ' 1×6 time boost has been acquired'.
"Did you get the boost message?" He asked Tania.
"Mm."
"Good. Is this your first time killing someone?" He asked.
She nodded her head again. He had his suspicions at first but he ended up hitting the bullseye.
But, he was still curious about another thing.
"Doesn't it affect you?" He asked again.
He knew how hard it was to kill for the first time. He remembered that he even threw up for his first time and didn't sleep for a couple of days. It was not easy at all.
But, Tania seemed to be totally fine, she even looked like she wasn't standing next to a dead man she killed a few moments ago.
'Does she have some kind of trauma?' he thought to himself.
She was always this weird person who didn't express many emotions except for some rare occasions. But, he knew deep down that she wasn't a bad person. That's probably why he opened up to her and trusted her to some extent.
'She doesn't seem to hate me either.'
Then, as they both stood there checking out some stuff and eating some food to restore their energy, they sensed an aura approaching them.
Without saying anything, they both vanished from their initial place and hid themselves in some place nearby.
Then, the person with that aura came out. He was a young man who was breathing heavily. His eyes darted around with worry as if he was looking for something.
Then, as he tried to run again. He felt a cold dagger wrap around his neck and a chillingly cold voice shook him to the core.
"Move and you will die," Acht said.
"Y-Y-Yes!!!" The boy answered nervously.
"Please don't kill me! I'm not intending to harm you!"
"Why should I believe that?"
"No! I'm running away from some people! They are trying to catch me!"
The boy kept begging with all his might while taking peeks behind him each time to see if the other people were coming or not. He was already in a big problem and now he was in an even bigger one.
'They will come any time soon!!! I have no other choice!' He gritted his teeth while he made up his mind.
"I-If you spare my life, I will show you something that might pique your interest."
"Hm? And what's that?" Acht pulled the knife a few millimeters away for the boy to breathe properly.
"I-I know the place of a dungeon in the forest. It's full of monsters. You can make thousands of points from it!"
"And what if that was a trap to lure me in?"
"No! No! I swear on my mother's life that I'm the only one who knows the location of that dungeon. Please! I beg you!" He shook his head frantically.
'How did he even reach the second test?' Acht wondered to himself.
This young man was clearly not that powerful and he even seemed like a coward. But, he somehow ended up in this test.
'Sigh, should I believe him? He could be another stupid ploy from Livia.'
All kinds of possibilities came and went through his head as he calculated all possible ideas and solutions. Then, with a small sigh, he released the young man and said.
"Lead me to the dungeon! But, if you do anything funny… I will make you beg for me to kill you." He threatened with the harshest tone he could muster.
"You could show up, Tania. I think we found our small piggy bank for this test." He signaled for his companion to come out.
The young man looked at Tania and his breath got stuck in his throat. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was just mind-blowing.
Without knowing it, he kept gazing at her for 30 seconds non-stop.
Acht saw that and slapped his head roughly.
"Ugh." The boy grabbed his head and groaned in pain.
"Wake up from it. I don't have the whole night to waste."
Then, he lifted the boy up and pushed him in a random direction.
"Off you go. I will be walking behind you."
Then, they left the area walking straight north. It was quite hectic around them since thousands of people were probably fighting to death in every nook and cranny of this forest. But, they evaded them easily with Acht's sharp senses.
"How did you find this dungeon?" Acht asked while keeping a look at his surroundings.
"I-I…I found it by pure coincidence when I was searching for some monsters to kill…it was well hidden so no one would find it."
But, suddenly, Acht approached him and grabbed him by the neck. Then, he said calmly.
"You know…There is a certain type of people that I don't tolerate at all…it's those who lie to me.."
"No! Please! I didn't lie! Ugh!"
"What did you say!" Acht clenched his hand tightly on his neck and made him lose his breath.
"I….knew it…beforehand…" the boy blurted out each word with great difficulty.."
Acht then threw him to the ground and asked.
"Who are you?"
"I'm…the son of the king…"
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