Chapter 1176: 163. Rescue

“Muen Campbell, oh Muen Campbell, why does that mouth of yours have to be so damn cheap?”

The forest at night was eerie and silent. As Muen carefully made his way through the thickets filled with vines and brambles, he could not help slapping himself hard across the mouth.

Three tons...

A whole three tons...

A quota of three tons of wild game...

Where the hell was he supposed to find three tons of wild game?

Heaven have mercy. His original idea had been that, out here in the middle of nowhere, he could casually catch two rabbits and make do with them for a meal. If that did not work, there were still some private rations in his storage space. He had given all the meat, fruit, and such to Marcie’s side, but he could still make do with the two remaining pieces of black bread.

And now look what had happened. Just because he had said two extra sentences, the expected task had gone directly from two rabbits to a full three tons of wild game!

Oh... my God, if the task is going to be this difficult, you might as well have Miss Dragon use those long, white, firm legs of hers to kick me hard in the ass and kill me outright!

Muen let out a melancholy sigh in his heart.

He had originally thought that Ariel, who could eat five bowls of stew, ten steaks, twenty little cakes, and all kinds of snacks in a single meal, was already the king of bottomless pits. But unexpectedly, before Miss Dragon at this moment, Ariel’s appetite was practically on the level of a little kitten!

Miss Dragon was worth at least a hundred Ariels!

“But then again, if I think about it carefully, this amount actually isn’t that exaggerated...”

She was a dragon, after all...

Judging by the size of the dragon form Miss Dragon had displayed, eating three tons of food in a single meal... actually felt quite restrained.

It was only because she spent most of her time wandering around before him in human form that he had somehow overlooked this point.

Sigh... This was why appearances misled people... especially the appearance of a beautiful woman. It absolutely could not be trusted.

“In any case, I’ll have to work hard. Miss Dragon isn’t that easy to fool...”

Muen sighed mournfully.

For the journey ahead, he still had to cling tightly to the other party’s thigh. He did not dare be negligent in this regard, so he immediately began searching the forest carefully.

In truth, if this had been an ordinary primeval forest outside, three tons of food would not have been such a difficult goal to achieve. At the very least, many of the larger demonic beasts Muen knew of weighed far more than three tons.

Catching one or two demonic beasts casually would not be difficult for the current Muen.

The problem was whether there were any demonic beasts of that size in this place at all. Annabawei, where the land had been so barren that most people had been forced to eat dirt, had left far too deep an impression on him. Therefore, Muen found it difficult to hold much hope for this land, which, like Annabawei, had also survived a disaster.

The only good news was that Miss Dragon had not destroyed this place outright. That meant there was no Pollution here.

This truly was an extremely pure “oasis.”

“Hmm?”

While thinking about all sorts of irrelevant things, Muen suddenly stopped. He had seen something, so he slowly crouched down.

“Footprints?”

Upon the damp, muddy ground covered in dead leaves, there were obvious traces left by some creature stepping there. Judging by the water accumulated inside them, the creature had passed through not long ago.

Most importantly... Muen held his own hand over one for comparison...

They were huge!

And deep!

Judging by their shape, they probably belonged to some kind of wild beast.

“I don’t know whether it weighs three tons, but at least it shouldn’t be too bad.”

Muen’s eyes lit up. Not daring to waste even a moment, he rapidly spread out his perception.

According to his estimate, that creature should not have gone very far.

“Huh?”

Sure enough, Muen quickly found his target.

However, what surprised him was...

It seemed he had found more than just his target.

......

......

“Huff... huff...”

A little girl only around ten years old fled miserably through the forest. From time to time, she relied on her small body to squeeze through narrow thorny thickets or cracks between rocks overgrown with vines.

She was very fast, far surpassing the level expected for her age. As her body moved, faint traces of battle aura vaguely escaped from her. Being able to use battle aura at such a young age would probably have been enough for her to be called a “genius girl” in the outside world.

But that talent did not bring the little girl the slightest sense of security.

Her expression was filled with terror. As she fled, she kept looking back from time to time...

“Ugh!”

The moment she failed to pay attention, she fell to the ground.

Ignoring the pain of a stone cutting open her palm, she struggled to rise. Fear urged her to move faster, even faster...

But in the end, she was still too slow.

“Roar...”

A terrifying low growl sounded from only a short distance away. The foul wind slowly blowing toward her nearly made her vomit.

She raised her head in terror and saw a huge bear-shaped demonic beast, as massive as a small mountain, already standing only a few meters away from her.

Its scarlet eyes stared fixedly at her, revealing a few traces of humanlike amusement. It was as though, from the very beginning, it had not been chasing prey at all.

It had merely been playing.

Drool flowed from between its sharp teeth and dripped onto the ground. Claws as long as the girl’s forearm scraped across the earth.

For a demonic beast of this level, being treated as a toy might be an even more pitiful fate than being treated as food.

The demonic beast drew closer and closer.

The girl casually picked up a stone and threw it at the demonic beast, while also letting out a loud shout in an attempt to frighten it away...

Naturally, it had no effect whatsoever.

Instead, it only enraged the demonic beast.

The bear-shaped demonic beast instantly became ferocious. No longer maintaining its playful posture, it suddenly pounced forward, carrying a foul wind with it.

“Ah!”

Amid indescribable terror, the little girl desperately covered her head...

“Pfft...”

A sharp weapon sliced through flesh.

A gentle breeze brushed across her cheeks.

The smell of blood rushed into her nose, but...

Death did not arrive.

The little girl raised her head in confusion.

“Are you all right?”

The blond man held a pure-white blade without the slightest trace of blood upon it. His entire body was so clean that he looked as though he had stepped down from the sun.

For a moment, his handsome face left the girl staring blankly.

“Do you need my help?”

He gently extended his hand and revealed an extremely approachable smile.

The girl stared at him blankly. Her little heart seemed to have been struck by a meteor descending from the sky. A faint blush gradually rose across the face that had only just turned pale with fear.

She was just about to extend her hand as well...

“Pfft!”

Hot, foul-smelling blood suddenly sprayed from the severed end of the bear’s corpse.

The force was so violent and the scene so horrific that it was like a manure-filled carriage suddenly exploding in the middle of the street.

“Damn it! I forgot it would spray blood!”

Muen frantically moved the bear’s corpse away.

He had never cared about this sort of thing before. After all, the blood could not get onto him.

But now...

The little girl stood frozen in place.

She looked at Muen, who wore an awkward smile but was still very handsome.

Then she looked at the headless bear corpse beside him.

Finally, she looked at herself, her entire body covered in blood as though she had just been fished out of some indescribable place...

At that moment, it was as though something resembling a young maiden’s heart...

Shattered magnificently.

“Ahhh—!”

The scream pierced through the forest.

Before Muen could react, he saw the girl leap to her feet on the spot. Without even taking the time to wipe the blood and gore from her body, she fled on all fours...

She soon disappeared into the depths of the forest.

She seemed to be moving even faster than when the bear had been chasing her.

Muen’s cheek twitched.

He stared at his outstretched hand, feeling incomparably awkward...

If he said he had not done it on purpose, would she believe him?