Chapter 37 – Before the Boss Raid (1)

Following D’vina suggestion, Aleen carried Ana five hundred meters away and the group rested for a moment to recover from the fight.

Actually, D’vina’s ‘Calamity Sword’ did not kill all the monsters that ambushed the group. A few monsters were far enough to survive the wave of sword intent, but fortunately, the death of a level four and hundreds of level two and level three scared them away.

It gave the group enough time to rest, but D’vina knew that more monsters would come after them before long, so the best they could do was recover the most they can before the next attack.

Ana regained her consciousness five minutes later.

Looking around, she saw D’vina seated away, crosslegged and with her eyes closed while Aleen cleaned her (Ana) wounds using a piece of cloth he took from his t-shirt.

With her head groggy, she tried to sit up. Aleen saw it and helped her carefully.

Ana smiled slightly before looking to her wounded hand that lacked two fingers.

“… So it was not a dream huh…”

“Nothing we can do about it.”

Ana smiled self deprecatorily and shook her head hearing it. “I thought I wasn't going to survive back then.”

“… I’m sorry.”

“Anyone else survived?”

“…”

“I see.” She sighed while looking downwards. Her mind brought back the images of the others dying, torn apart by the beasts’ claws. She felt afraid, afraid that the monsters would come back to kill her, but more than anything, she felt disgusted.

She felt disgusted with herself to the point of almost throwing up.

Tears welled in her eyes, and her expression distorted; clenching her hands with strength, she began to cry.

Aleen sighed seeing it and simply patted her back. He could understand a bit how she was feeling now.

“What did I do to deserve it?” She asked between sobs. “Tell me Aleen, why did they bring me here!?”

“…”

“I don’t want to be in this place, I want to see my parents! Tell me, why did it happen to me!?”

“…”

Seeing that Aleen did not reply, she used her hands to clean her tears and continued looking to the ground while speaking softly.

“I killed her… When the monsters attacked, I threw her towards the monsters so I could live…”

“…” Aleen did not know what to say hearing her words.

“How ironic, right? I said that it was wrong to leave her behind but I didn’t hesitate to sacrifice her to save my life… I'm truly disgusting…”

Aleen didn't witness what happened when the monsters attacked the other humans, but hearing Ana, he could imagine it.

He could imagine how when the monsters were attacking, Ana sacrificed the woman she was carrying to save herself.

To be honest, for a moment Aleen felt repulsed when he heard it; but he was unable to criticize her actions.

After all, in this damn game, he could not be sure that he will never do the same.

If one day, he has to sacrifice someone to save Claire or his own life, will he hesitate?

Aleen knew that perhaps he would do it without hesitation.

He shook his head and steeled his heart. Then, patting Ana's head like he often did to Claire, he tried to console her.

“… I can’t say that what you did was alright, but at least you are still alive, right?”

Ana did not reply.

“You see, this game is fucked up, but we must do our best to survive. Though I don’t agree with your actions, I don’t think that it makes you evil. So, if you feel guilty about it, survive first and then find a method to atone for it.”

Holding her hand, Aleen looked to her eyes firmly. “At least, I’m glad that you are alive.”

Ana bit her lips and before bursting in tears and hugging Aleen strongly.

“Wahhhhhh!”

Aleen simply continued holding her without saying anything.

After a minute, she finally calmed down.

“Thanks.” Ana said softly while releasing the hug. Standing up, she cleaned her tears and blushed slightly before turning around. Apparently, she did not want to let Aleen continue seeing her like that.

Aleen smiled briefly and shook his head, then he walked towards D’vina.

D’vina was still resting with her eyes closed, but when she heard Aleen coming she opened her eyes and a rare smile appeared on her ice-cold face.

“I didn’t know that you were such a lady killer, boy.”

Aleen blushed slightly and shook his head. “Don’t tease me, please. I simply have experience consoling my sister when she is sad. Though it was more effective than I thought.”

“Is it so? But that girl probably is smitten for you now, boy. Well, that is not my problem.”

Grabbing her greatsword, D’vina stood up and returned to her serious expression.

“It’s time to go or more monsters will come following the smell of blood. Tell the girl that we must continue.”

Aleen nodded.

At another place in the forest, a level five wolfkin was observing a hill with a serious expression. Behind him, six other level one wolfkins stood nervously while looking to the surroundings.

“So this is the nest huh.” Wulf, the level five wolfkin, said while observing the nest and the monsters going in and out of it.

‘It’s bigger than I thought’

Furrowing his brows, Wulf estimated the population of the nest and could not help but put a concerned expression.

“This mission looks harder than expected…”

Shaking his head, the wolfkin gazed to the remaining members of his race and sighed deeply.

‘Most of them probably will not survive…’

He could not help but feel sad while thinking about it. After all, wolfkins were a rare race, and their numbers were small through the many dimensions.

But in the end, it was an unavoidable sacrifice.

‘Everything is to reach level six...’

Making his mind, he sent a message through the COM.

“Come to my location, I found the nest.”

Yes, everything was to become level six.