Chapter 3: A Castle in the Wilds

Chris crashed into the freezing water. The impact sent pain through his entire body, and for a moment, he couldn’t tell which direction was up. The river immediately dragged him beneath the surface, pulling him away from the cliff with great force.

He fought against the current and tried to swim upward, forcing himself to keep moving because he knew that if he stayed underwater much longer, he would lose consciousness.

His lungs were burning, and his vision was beginning to blur as the current pulled him deeper beneath the surface, but Chris continued struggling to swim up.

Finally, he broke through.

"Cough! Cough! Cough!"

He started coughing wildly.

The river continued carrying him downstream, and he tried to reach the shore, but the current was far too strong. He managed to grab a branch sticking out from the water for a moment, but the force of the river quickly tore him away from it.

He looked back toward the cliff. The giant black bear was still standing at the edge, staring down at him until the river carried him too far away to see it clearly.

Turning his attention back to the river, he had no idea where the current was taking him. He only knew that the forest around him was becoming unfamiliar.

He tried to swim toward the riverbank again, but his body was quickly losing strength. The cold water was making his muscles stiff, and his injured leg was becoming harder to move.

Still, he refused to give up. He had survived the Wilds for years, enduring countless beasts, hunger, injuries, and loneliness.

He wasn’t going to die because of a river.

At least, that was what he kept telling himself as the current dragged him farther into the northern territory.

He clenched his teeth and continued fighting against the water, but then he heard a familiar sound.

’A waterfall!’

He desperately tried to get out of the water, reaching for anything he could grab along the way, but nothing helped. The sound of the waterfall was getting closer and closer until...

*Whoosh!*

His body suddenly began falling downward at great speed. At a moment like this, Chris couldn’t think. He was rapidly falling while surrounded by cold water, unable to breathe as the river carried him over the edge.

*Splash!*

He fell directly into the center of the waterfall.

The water kept pouring down from above, making it almost impossible for him to swim upward. Turning around, he found a large rock beneath him and pushed against it with his legs, trying to escape the falling water.

The river continued pulling him farther away.

He managed to get out of the center of the waterfall, but he was still unable to swim toward the surface.

Then, he saw something in front of him. It looked like a tree.

There was a single tree standing in the river, its base partially rotted from years of being surrounded by water. It was the only thing nearby that could give him a chance to escape.

He opened his arms wide, trying to grab the tree.

"AAGH!"

He slammed into the trunk, the pain coursing through his whole body.

Gritting his teeth, he wrapped both arms around the tree and started pulling himself upward. He didn’t have much oxygen left, so he had to move quickly.

Desperately climbing the tree underwater, he watched as the surface of the river slowly got closer and closer.

Until...

*Splash!*

"Cough! Cough! Cough!"

Chris emerged from the water, coughing wildly and gasping for air.

Just as he managed to calm his breathing, he looked around.

The first thing he noticed was that he had never seen this part of the forest before.

The trees around the river were much thicker and taller than the ones he had passed through earlier, with enormous trunks and branches blocking much of the remaining daylight. Even the ground looked darker, covered in thick roots, moss, and damp soil that seemed to absorb what little light reached it.

He looked toward the sky through the gaps between the branches.

’It’s already getting dark.’

He estimated that he had only one or two hours before night completely covered the forest.

What bothered him was that the forest seemed much darker than it should have been at this time of day.

He looked upward at the tree he had climbed.

The trunk continued another twenty or thirty meters above him, leaning slightly toward the riverbank. One of its enormous branches extended far beyond the water, reaching toward the ground.

’That should work.’

Pulling himself higher, he climbed toward the branch. His injured body protested with every movement, but he ignored the pain and continued upward until he finally reached it.

He carefully stood on the thick branch and balanced himself before slowly walking toward the end.

The branch was several meters above the ground, perhaps three or four. A drop like that wouldn’t have been much of a problem for him normally, but with his injuries and exhaustion, landing directly on the ground could cause serious pain or even worsen them.

He lowered himself until he was hanging from the branch.

He let his legs swing slightly before releasing his grip.

*Thud!*

He dropped to the ground and immediately rolled forward to reduce the impact.

"Ugh..."

Pain spread through his injured side and leg, but he remained on the ground for several seconds before slowly pushing himself upright.

Taking a moment to steady his breathing. he grabbed the tree beside him and used it to pull himself to his feet.

"My luck is really wild. I can’t even remember how many times I’ve risked my life in the recent months."

He looked around the unfamiliar forest again. He had no idea where he was.

The only thing he knew was that the river had been flowing north when he jumped from the cliff, which meant that as long as he followed it, he should continue moving deeper into the northern territory.

He didn’t have a better option.

Adjusting his backpack, he started walking along the river.

His clothes were soaked, his body was exhausted, and his injured leg hurt with every step, but the river gave him something he desperately needed after being thrown into an unfamiliar part of the Wilds - a direction.

He continued following it for some time, keeping close enough to hear the rushing water while watching the surrounding forest.

The trees eventually began thinning.

Chris stopped when he noticed the darkness ahead disappearing.

’What’s this?’

He took a few more steps before finally leaving the forest.

A large clearing stretched out in front of him. There were no trees growing across it, allowing him to see much farther than he had been able to inside the forest.

But what caught his attention wasn’t the clearing. It was the enormous structure standing on the other side.

Chris stared at it in silence.

’A castle?’

At least, it looked like one.

The ancient structure was massive, with high stone walls surrounding what appeared to have once been several towers and large buildings. However, most of the walls had collapsed, and many of the towers were little more than piles of broken stone.

Whatever this place had once been, it had been abandoned for a very long time.

He couldn’t see any signs of life around it.

’At least I found somewhere to spend the night.’

He had been preparing himself to spend another night beneath a tree, so finding an abandoned castle was better than he could have hoped for.

He crossed the clearing and approached the ruins. There was a large opening in one section of the wall where several stones had fallen away, creating an entrance wide enough for him to pass through.

He entered through it and immediately found himself inside what appeared to be a small tower connected to the outer wall.

Looking around, he quickly realized what it probably had been.

’A watchtower.’

From here, someone standing inside the tower would have been able to see much of the surrounding forest and the clearing outside the castle.

Chris noticed a narrow staircase leading upward along the wall.

He climbed the stairs carefully, using the stone wall for support whenever his injured leg became too painful.

After reaching the top, he found himself in a large room.

The room had no furniture left inside, and parts of the ceiling had collapsed, but the walls were still mostly intact. More importantly, the room was hidden from most of the outside and protected from the wind.

’This will do.’

Looking around once more, he decided that it was safe to light a fire.

He went back downstairs and searched through the ruins, eventually finding several pieces of old wooden furniture that had once decorated the room. Most of it was already broken or rotten, but some of the wood was still dry enough to burn.

Gathering what he could carry, he brought the pieces upstairs and arranged them in the middle of the room.

He then used his remaining supplies to start a small fire. The flames slowly grew, filling the abandoned room with a faint orange glow.

He sat beside it and finally removed his soaked clothes.

They were already close to falling apart after years of surviving in the Wilds. Several sections were torn, and there were stains and small holes covering the fabric. Still, they were better than nothing.

He placed them near the fire and spread them out so they could dry while he rested.

His body felt heavier than it had in a long time.

Chris took out the deer hide he had collected earlier that day and spread it across the stone floor a short distance from the fire.

Before lying down, he took out some of the deer meat he had collected earlier. He decided to grill a small piece before going to sleep, but as he searched through his backpack, his hand suddenly touched something soft.

Chris paused, and pulled out a small handkerchief.

For a moment, he simply stared at it before slowly clenching it in his fist.

"Becca..."

A cold look appeared on his face.

The handkerchief belonged to her.

Before everything changed, Becca had been one of the first people to approach him after his class awakening.

When Chris was declared a genius for awakening a Mythic rank class, Beast Tamer - Mythic, many people wanted to get close to him. Among them was a beautiful brown-haired girl named Becca.

Unlike most others, she hadn’t seemed interested in his status or potential.

At least, that’s what Chris had believed.

She had been friendly toward him from the beginning, always treating him kindly and taking care of the little things he needed. Before long, the two of them became a couple, and Chris genuinely believed that she cared about him.

She had given him the handkerchief during that time.

But everything changed after his contract attempts began failing.

The higher-ups eventually declared that something was wrong with his class, and the genius everyone had praised suddenly became a defective Beast Tamer who couldn’t even contract a single beast.

Becca’s attitude changed soon after. The warmth she once showed him disappeared, replaced by disdain.

She told him never to approach her again and soon began dating an S-rank Warrior.

The man was extremely possessive, and Becca did everything she could to appease him, eventually going as far as paying assassins to kill Chris

Chris had barely escaped with his life, and that night had been the reason he finally abandoned everything and headed into the Wilds.

His grip tightened around the handkerchief. The soft fabric was almost crushed inside his fist as his eyes became colder.

’One day... I will have my revenge.’

Chris remained silent for a few moments before finally loosening his grip.

He folded the handkerchief and placed it back inside his backpack. There was no reason to think about Becca any longer tonight.

He still had a long way to go before he could return to the outside world, and until then, he needed to become stronger.

He turned his attention back to the fire and placed the piece of deer meat over the flames.

The smell of grilled meat soon filled the abandoned room.

Once it was cooked, he took it off the fire and ate it slowly, enjoying the warmth spreading through his stomach after everything he had endured that day.

When he finished, he put out most of the fire and lay down on the deer hide. He pulled the hide closer around himself and closed his eyes.

Tomorrow, he would explore the castle.

It didn’t take long before Chris fell asleep.