[Spring, Year 312]
Two child figures walked together toward the darkwood forest "holding" hands. At this point in the season, the snow fully melted, revealing the beauty of the fresh, green grass underneath. Occasionally, there were a mix of sparse oak and pine trees. Coats were no longer needed as the weather slowly got warmer, the sun shining brightly, but not enough to swear. Yuki loved the warm, spring breeze. It felt nice and refreshing, the polar opposite of the harsh winds of winter.
After walking far enough for the married couple to not be able to see them from inside the hut, Yuki spoke up, "Little demon, let go of me. They can't see us anymore." She tried to shake her hand away, unhappy that she had to go along with Xavier's schemes. Surprisingly enough, she had to admit Xavier is indeed very skilled at acting.
"Urgh, don't call me that you leech!" Xavier let go of Yuki's hand, wiping the hand he held Yuki with a handkerchief as he made a face of disgust.
Despite despising every interaction he has with Yuki, Xavier liked to keep up with his clean image of being a good son in front of his parents. His flawless acting never raised any suspicions.
"Walk faster, will you?" Xavier complained, turning back to look at the increasing distance between him and Yuki.
Yuki sighed inwardly, speed walking to catch up to Xavier who had a height advantage, allowing him to easily cover more distance with fewer steps.
— — —
A half hour walk later, a fresh, almost delicate scent of floral filled their nose. An enormous, beautiful plain full of white petals of flowers came into view.
Beyond those flowers is a dense darkwood forest. Compared to the two children, the heights of these trees were awfully frightening, letting barely any sunlight through.
Xavier continued to walk toward the forest, showing no signs of stopping.
"Didn't your parents say it's dangerous over there?" Yuki paused.
She remained in the field of flowers, unwilling to go inside the eerie-looking darkwood forest.
"Who cares? It's fine!" Xavier, despite Yuki's worries, dragged her with him.
Yuki had no time to protest as they entered, their figures disappearing into the darkwood forest.
Not long after entering the forest, the two arrived at a small river. Xavier finally let go of Yuki and...
"Wha—" The last thing Yuki saw was Xavier's mischievous smile. She was pushed into the stream of water and landed on a bunch of wet sand and pebbles with a big splash.
Before either of the two could react, they were startled by a loud, disturbing noise.
HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!
"What was that??" Xavier jumped, his smile wiped off his face in a mere split of a second, eyes widening when he saw the figure of a ten foot dark green viper. Its bloodshot red eyes glowed as its forked tongue flicked in and out, slithering toward the two slowly, like a predator would move, locking its eyes on its prey.
Xavier's plan was to scare Yuki and teach her a lesson by pushing her into the stream of water. He knew the river was not too deep around this area, and he never intended for any life threatening events to occur. Just what was his luck? He's been around this area before, and has never seen a single predator. Deadly, violent creatures only appear deeper inside the forest. How could they encounter the deadliest creature in this big forest, especially a dangerous, enormous one at that? For a creature to be that huge, it must have lived thousands of years.
Looking closer, Xavier noticed a crown shaped scale on the viper's forehead.
"It can't be..." Xavier fell, his legs frozen.
He heard stories from his parents, learning that the crown indicated that this creature is probably one of the strongest, if not the strongest, of this forest. Why would it appear here, now?
Yuki cautiously got up, drenched in water. She looked around, finding a broken branch the size of her arm. Yuki remembered reading about this dark green viper with that distinctive looking crown-shaped scale. Its weak point is its stomach because it is easier to penetrate, unlike its high defense outer scales. She instinctively knew they could not escape if they ran now. She needs to do something, and fast.
Yuki's eyes glowed a golden light. She herself did not realize, but Xavier caught a glimpse of this golden light.
The viper turned, its tail smashing Yuki hard into the tree. She coughed up blood, her eyes closed from the pain.
The viper approached steadily, targeting Xavier. All this happened in seconds. Suspense built up before the viper's tail suddenly attacked, coiling around Xavier's left leg. The creature lifted Xavier like a light toy, causing him to be hanged upside down with ease.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Xavier screamed, almost fainting when he felt the viper's forked tongue lick his cheek.
Getting a front view seat of the viper, Xavier saw its eerie purple venom dripping from its two, sharp fangs.
If he is bitten, it will be the end of him for sure. If not from an instant death from being bitten by those large fangs, he would either bleed to death or die from its deadly poison painfully so.
When Yuki recovered slightly and reopened her eyes, she could see a strange white light gathered at the creature's core, located at the center of its chest, right below its head.
Yuki felt an unstable, golden energy form around her hand. She clenched her fist, the air around her dropping greatly. She tried to apply what she learned from reading Vander A. Ivrent's book, The Basics of How to Use Ivrent, the same book Xavier "lost." Although Yuki secretly practiced hard on using ivrent, she never succeeded in imbuing any items. The feeling Vander A. Ivrent described differed from how she felt when she used ivrent. Yuki realized that instead of imbuing items, she could control some kind of energy, though it was only around her hand.
Right before the fangs bit into Xavier, Yuki sprinted towards the viper, punching its tail, ice forming at that area of contact. The creature slipped onto the ground with a loud thud. Yuki took this chance to release all her energy, blasting the viper, directly at the core.
SCREEEEEEECH!!
The viper screeched in pain, thrashing, letting go of Xavier. Xavier fell to the ground with a thump, shocked by what he was seeing. He couldn't believe this. Is he dreaming?
Yuki made a hole straight through the creature's core. Surrounding the hole were enormous amounts of ice, which spread at a fast pace. The surrounding air turned cold, the freezing energy spreading to the area nearby.
Yuki ran to Xavier, quickly dragging him away from the potential danger. She knew she had no control over what happened after she attacked the viper and released all her energy, so the two watched cautiously at a distance.
A bright light shot high up into the sky, freezing its surroundings. Cold, strong winds blew into Yuki's and Xavier's face for a minute before slowly fading away.
Both Yuki and Xavier shivered from the cold. When the two opened their eyes, they saw a giant pillar of ice, probably around 15 meters high, freezing not only the stream but also the nearby trees, plants, and nature. The dead, frozen viper remained at the center of this chaos.
With a clink, a rhombus shaped red gem dropped from the once deadly, now dead viper. The sunlight reflected on the surface of the gem, causing the red gem to sparkle brightly.
'A gem!' Yuki's eyes widened. She remembered reading a section about gems and is well aware of how valuable gems are because there are only two ways of obtaining a gem. The first—mining. The second way was by killing creatures.
Gems are valuable because they can either be carved into a specific shape and have engravings, which will create strong buffs depending on the quality and precision of the engraving or they can be crushed and eaten to strengthen one's physical condition permanently, though there is a limit to how much a human can consume. The first method was nearly impossible for Yuki, as she knew little to nothing about it.
'That gem will help my body not be as weak anymore.'
Yuki tried to move, but her shoes were frozen in the ground. Both her and Xavier decided to take off their shoes to free themselves. Yuki ran as fast as she could to pick up the gem as Xavier held onto a tree, trying to muster some strength into his weak legs.
After pocketing the gem, Yuki helped Xavier, the two walking home barefoot after a crazy, life-threatening event.