"I am going to kill that bastard!!"
"How dare he hit you..."
A childish voice echoed in the dark room, filled with hatred and righteous indignation.
Two children not older than ten stood facing each other, one with a head full of brown hair while the other with black hair—one with a clear slap mark across his face. The two were dressed in baggy, torn clothes. Although torn, these clothes were enough to hide their bony appearance.
Rubbing the slap mark on his cheek, the brown-haired child muttered in disdain, "Look at you. Just how stupid are you, reacting the same way he wanted you to react?"
Hearing the brown-haired boy respond, the child with black hair didn't know how to respond. His angry expression faltered, but with some stubbornness, he still spoke:
"So what? How can I not feel angry after what he did to you?"
Hearing those words, the smile from the brown-haired kid finally faded, an expression of utter seriousness on his face.
"Zarek, my brother, you are still too young..." The boy stopped for a moment and looked at Zarek deep in his eyes, his gaze sharp as a blade, shaking the heart of young Zarek.
"Remember this: we can't control the situation, but how we react to the situation depends on ourselves."
"I refuse to be hurt and angered by the act of that despicable man. Such a lowly human is not worth my anger..."
Hearing the words of the brown-haired boy, young Zarek looked extremely moved.
...
"Am I dead?"
Zarek muttered in a low voice. His body felt incredibly tired, as if he had not eaten anything for months. The simple act of thinking was incredibly difficult.
He wasn't clear what had happened or how much time had passed, but somehow the darkness was gone, revealing the grim interior of the cave.
The last thing he remembered was red light moving toward him, then incredible pain.
Jagged rock crevices greeted him. Like serpents, they twisted and turned.
"Argh!"
A painful groan escaped his lips as he tried to get up. No matter how much he tried, his body didn't want to listen to him, seemingly content with lying on the cold stone floor.
Before he could struggle further, Zarek's vision started to darken once again—a sign of chronic starvation.
"I need something to eat..." Zarek instinctively knew that if he didn't eat anything this time, he would definitely die for real.
He had long forgotten about the world, the class, or even the dungeon.
There was only one thing on his mind: survival. And the first thing he needed to do was find something to eat.
But how? His body was incredibly weak, and there was no sign of vegetation anywhere.
The situation looked hopeless.
Although there was no sign of those starling lights anywhere now, who knew when they would return? If they returned, Zarek was in no condition to face them now.
Thinking of the scenario, Zarek couldn't stop himself from gritting his teeth.
The world seemed to be hell-bent on trying to break him, to make him feel despair.
All of his life, Zarek had been running away from problems, never facing any situation head-on, always postponing things.
But now that he had the chance, he didn't want to repeat the same mistakes again.
"I have to move..." Zarek clenched his fist and forced himself to get up. His body was creaking like an old wooden bed, only to fall again.
"So what if I can't move? I will crawl."
Slowly but steadily, Zarek crawled across the floor.
After an arduous struggle, he finally was able to grab the dagger lying on the ground.
This short crawl left him incredibly tired. His body screamed at him to stop and take rest.
But Zarek refused to listen. No matter how tired he was, he refused to stop.
"Mere tiredness can't stop me."
Zarek continued his arduous journey like an earthworm, slowly dragging itself across the floor. However, the scenery had barely changed, evidence that he hadn't managed to get too far.
If you were to look at this scene from above, you would notice Zarek had barely moved a few meters away from his original position.
Thankfully, Zarek's vision was blurry, so he couldn't tell how much distance he had covered.
Just then, Zarek's figure stiffened. An incredibly disgusting smell, similar to rotten fish, assaulted his nose.
"What is this disgusting smell?"
He wanted to grab his nose by instinct, but only with his sheer will did he stop himself.
From the corner of his eyes, Zarek noticed a green creature moving toward him. The monster didn't look tall.
Sensing incredible danger, Zarek's grip on the dagger in his hand tightened. Whatever the green creature was, it was incredibly dangerous and coming toward him.
The creature also slowly made its way toward the lifeless human lying on the ground. The goblin was incredibly hungry and fearful. After hiding in its cave for weeks, it had managed to survive that crimson-haired demon. It was only when its hunger reached its peak that it was unable to stop itself and was forced to move out.
And to the goblin's surprise, the crimson-haired demonic human was gone.
Zarek, frozen stiff like a corpse, didn't know the goblin was just as hungry as he was.
Unlike inexperienced Zarek, the goblin was used to living in the dungeon. With every step, it would instinctively scan the surroundings for threats before cautiously making its way toward Zarek.
Zarek watched the green creature move closer to him. However, instead of feeling panic and fear, a strange sense of calm filled his heart. The feeling was so strange that it even made Zarek feel uncomfortable.
He ignored the feeling for now and focused on the zombie moving closer.
Once there was barely a meter's distance between him and the goblin, Zarek even stopped breathing, afraid of alerting the creature.
Zarek knew everything was against him. If he wanted to survive, he would have to control his own reaction to the situation.
As such, he didn't react when the green creature's eyes, filled with incredible hunger, landed on his figure. The gaze made his skin crawl.
Maybe the hunger was too overwhelming, but in the end, the goblin threw caution to the wind and moved toward Zarek's head with his sharp teeth bared, saliva dripping from his mouth.
Zarek's eyes widened in disgust. He could still see the rotten meat of some creature stuck in the gaps between the creature's teeth.
Containing his urge to puke, he waited for the perfect moment.
Suddenly, the goblin's speed increased, and instead of targeting Zarek's head, it aimed at his hand—specifically the hand holding the iron dagger.
Zarek didn't have time to think or wonder why the goblin did what it did.
Maybe it was the goblin's instinctual behavior. Maybe the creature felt threatened by a weapon so close to it.
It didn't matter now. Not anymore.
"Die!!!"
Zarek roared in his heart and burst forth with as much strength as he could muster.
A short light flashed, and the sound of tearing through the air sounded. Even the goblin looked surprised by the human, which it had considered dead, suddenly moving.
Puchi!!
Before it could even finish thinking, the dagger pierced its head and came out the other side.
When pushed to the limit, the human body was capable of remarkable feats. It was just that most of the time, it was the weak-willed individual who gave up first.
The goblin died in an instant and fell to the ground, with red crimson blood flowing onto the ground.
Zarek's hands were still tightly clutching the dagger, but his eyes were closed. After using all of his remaining strength for one final attack, he had fainted.
If he was conscious, Zarek could see multiple windows that had popped up one after the other like a waterfall.
Two figures lay on the ground—one half dead while the other's fate was unknown.
The cave once again fell into silence.