The Place Where Everything Begins - Chapter 173: A Chance (2)

Five minutes later…

The rescue team comprised of Jeremy, Trevor, Kate, and Rachel had finally arrived back at the battlefield with no hiccup or anything unexpected happened.

However…

“Ujin is dead…”

“Kyle, too…”

“William…”

“Lara also…”

Trevor mumbled almost inaudibly to himself as the team of four people marched forward, passing their dead comrades one by one.

Those corpses’ skin looked pale-white as if their blood had been drained out from the bloodstream, leaving nothing but a nutshell or carbons behind.

Even after seeing the paled skin corpses of their ex-companions, the rescue team members didn’t feel surprised by such a phenomenon in the least.

Rachel, Trevor, and Kate, including the disguising Jeremy, had seen their comrades being shot dead by the kenku’s poisonous arrows before.

In fact, Jeremy even knew how the kenkus concocted such a lethal poison within the Tutorial where no poison was sold anywhere.

At this time, Jeremy, who walked some meters away from Trevor, recalled some basic information about the kenku race…

The kenkus were bird-humanoid creatures looking similar to a crow back on Earth but with dark blue feathers instead of black like regular crows. Their height was roughly the same as an average human, but their physical strength was somewhat inferior to most humans.

Albeit the kenkus were the same ‘low’ rank organisms as ‘most’ humans, their overall physical capability was still somewhat inferior to humans.

Diving into the topic further, the kenkus was a subordinated race of a high-ranked race called Tengus, which was a race that stood at the same height and power as Werewolves, Werebears, Centaurs, Minotaurs, Draconians, Leonin, Loxodon, and many other bestial races.

Talking about the high-ranked bestial races…

They were very prideful in their strength and respected status, of which they would only give some decent level of respect to intermediate-ranked beings such as Elves, Orcs, Trolls, Dwarves, and Gnomes.

Other than that, those bestial races always looked down on most low-ranked creatures such as Hobgoblins, Gerudos, Mothmen, Kappas, and even Humans. There was nothing but scorn within most high-ranked bestial races’ eyes when looking at a low-rank creature.

The reason why they looked down upon other beings so much was that the bestial races believed in their ‘bloodline’ to be the noblest thing in the universe; even their own lives could be lost, but their Bloodlines needed to stay alive and well.

Having thought about those lofty beings, Jeremy shook his head slightly before recalling more about the Kenkus…

The Kenkus as a whole was but a subordinate race to a high-ranked bestial race called Tengu. Also, the Kenkus was a bloodline-oriented race just like Gnolls, which was subordinated to the Werewolves.

Looking from another angle, the Gnolls were superior to humans in terms of physical strength, speed, and senses induced from the latent capabilities received from their so-called diluted Bloodline. That meant the weaker-than-humans Kenkus ought to have something to compensate for the loss of their physical capacity.

In the end, the Kenku race was one of the many bloodline-oriented races, the races that looked down on others. They should at least have something to back their confidence, or else they would be just an arrogant race.

After all, there was only a thin line situating between Arrogant and Confidence.

The former, arrogance, was characterized by having an exaggerated sense of importance or abilities without anything to back them up. Meanwhile, the latter, confidence, was a feeling of self-assurance that came from an appreciation of having the abilities or qualities to back them up.

That meant the Kenku race must have something that could be called their ‘forte’, and such forte was none other than the so-called ‘lethal poison’.

Upon digging up some basic information about the Kenkus, Jeremy thought about how they managed to concoct such a lethal poison out of nowhere…

To be honest, the Kenkus shouldn’t have bought any poison from the Crystal as the Kenku’s Crystal should also be the same as the one situated in the middle of the human side.

All that was for the sake of making the battle between the two sides fair and square.

‘They pluck their feathers out, pounded those feathers into powder, and mix the feathered powder with their fresh blue blood. The outcome is something pretty interesting as they will receive a special type of poison substance as a byproduct, which can be used to kill other beings quite easily.’

Pausing briefly to organize his thought, Jeremy continued,

‘If I don’t remember wrong, the stronger a Kenku is, the more potent the concocted poison will be. Furthermore, all Kenkus are immune to the poison originated from the blood of their own fellows.’

‘The prideful bloodline races… They are pretty strong and interesting…’

Unbeknownst to Jeremy, he might even be more prideful than those high-ranked races many folds.

Jeremy finished his thought with a light smile after thinking about the research he had done using the bestial races as experimental specimens in his past life.

At the time, Jeremy was chased after by many renowned warriors from those bloodline-oriented races. Especially the Draconians, after they knew about Jeremy’s feat of killing a particular dragon in its own cave turf, they madly pursued him everywhere, intending to erase a dirty stain on the dragon’s name.

As for other races, they just wanted to take revenge for kidnapping their people for the sake of his experimentation.

Currently, Jeremy’s light smile was in contrast to the expressions of Trevor and Kate as the latters looked pretty downcast after witnessing their comrades’ corpses along the way one by one.

After walking for almost a minute, the four people finally arrived at the very place where they were ambushed by the two Kenkus earlier.

Unsurprisingly, they had found no survivor at all as most people’s bodies appeared pale-white and stiffened, signifying that they were dead all the same.

*Sigh…*

Trevor sighed in melancholy after not seeing anyone alive.

Meanwhile, Kate also shook her head in sorrow as she felt, more or less, the same as Trevor.

“Mylah is dead…” mumbled Rachel as she crouched down beside Mylah’s motionless body lying near a tall tree.

It was to be expected after all…

Having been shot by a poisonous arrow was but a death sentence to most humans. Even those who were scratched by a poisonous arrowhead would fall into a deep coma for two or three days straight before waking up.

After scattering around to find any survivor within the surrounding areas for some minutes, the four people gradually grouped up once again.

From everyone’s dismal expressions, they knew instinctively how the search’s result was, without any need for anyone present to voice out the detail of their searching at all.

Currently, Trevor, Kate, and Jeremy looked at Rachel, awaiting her following order silently. Although they wanted to go back to the camp so badly right now, still, the duty came first, so they had to wait for Rachel’s order.

Meanwhile, after finding no survivor anywhere, Rachel thought their mission was as good as done, so she had finally decided, as she said towards the three awaiting people,

“We will go back to the camp straightaway.”

It was such a tough decision for Rachel. In the end, she hadn’t killed any Kenku, and her KP earning was pretty much zero as of today. To add insult to the injury, her team was almost wiped out from her carelessness and the sudden ambush from just two enemies.

For the person who had thought everything around her was her own responsibility, Rachel felt very depressed and frustrated. She might go crazy if such a situation happened again…

When Trevor and Kate had heard Rachel’s order, they nodded slightly as a response; they knew life must go on.

Meanwhile, Jeremy also nodded his head at Rachel’s words, but within his mind was something else,

‘The cupid is not looking at this place anymore, so this is the only chance I can quietly leave to execute my plan. However, the thing is… should I silence these three people? After all, no one will know anything… Or should I use a spell to make th…’

*Awoooo*

*Aaaawoooo*

The wolves’ howling noises came from a faraway place while Jeremy was in his own thought, interrupting him midway.

‘Well… My good luck kicks in as always…’

Jeremy thought in amusement after finding the situation played out in his favor like always. At this rate, if such a thing continued to happen for some more times, he might genuinely think he was a protagonist in some third-rate story.

Having heard the howl and snarl coming from within the deep forest, the four people’s faces, including Jeremy’s, morphed into ugly ones.

‘The wolves must have smelt the blood stench, so they come here to check…’ thought Rachel as her face looked pretty serious before suddenly opening her mouth,

“Listen, we will move as fast as we can in the direction of the creek. After that, we will swim across the creek as fast as we can.”

It appeared that Rachel had decided to use the same method as Morgan, which was to cross the small river to avoid being confronted directly against the wolf pack.

In the end, Rachel was a sharpshooter who rarely missed her target. If she had a perfect opportunity to snipe the wolves, one by one, from across the river, even with only four of them, the chance of winning would be very high.

“Let’s go!”

Having said the two words, Rachel bolted swiftly in a particular direction, of which she had marked as the direction towards the river.

The three people also sprinted forward as fast as they could, following behind Rachel.

…

Half a minute later…

At the place where many human corpses lay sparsely, a group of more than twenty wolves stood while sniffing around the post-battlefield site incessantly.

*Rustling*

*Rustling*

A two-meter tall creature with a protruding mouth promptly walked into the scene as its footsteps resounded out after brushing and trampling over the green grass.

The creature had brown skin, wore full-body leather armor, and had a long steel spear within its right hand.

With the bulging muscles, great height, and significant weight, the creature, Gnoll, looked nothing but intimidating to the onlookers.

At the moment, the Gnoll was wondering within its mind about its tribal leader’s behavior.

It felt a bit confused at its leader’s command four days ago…

As per its enraged tribal leader’s order, which was to kill every living creature within this forest, most Gnolls within the tribe had to bring out their packs to look out for and kill the bird humanoids and humans.

Having no other choice, the Gnoll had ventured out from the tribe’s den for three days consecutively but still found nothing. At most, it and its pack had only encountered some small and big animals to satiate their hunger.

After all, with the sheer size of this forest, the Gnoll didn’t think today it would encounter anything special.

Today, ever since venturing out of its den, it always felt it might have to return empty-handed, just like any other day.

It knew that its luck was not that good, unlike its fellow Gnolls, who had managed to kill tens of bird-humanoid creatures and humans in those past three days. So, it hadn’t expected much about today’s harvest.

After going back to the den empty-handed again this time, it might even get scolded by the great tribal leader for not finding even a single prey for four consecutive days.

However, who would have thought that as its pack was wandering within the edge of its den’s territory, it would suddenly smell blood stench coming from this direction.

Without any delay, it howled aloud, calling forth its pack and sprinting here right after…

At this time, the creature had finally come close to a corpse lying beside a tall deciduous tree, which appeared to be Mylah’s cold body.

*Sniff*

*Sniff*

Having sniffed for a few seconds, the Gnoll promptly raised its head in a particular direction.

That particular direction was none other than the path Rachel had chosen to go earlier.

Then the Gnoll opened its mouth,

“Graaa… Gawoo!”

The voice was deep and resonant, echoing within the quiet green forest.

Subsequently, after having heard the growl and howl from its pack leader, all wolves stopped sniffing around the site and gathered together in a few seconds.

Having seen its subordinates being ready for another departure, the Gnoll’s legs muscles bulged up noticeably before it snarled,

“Grahh!”

Afterward, the Gnoll bolted forward in the direction where Jeremy and the others went into at a breakneck speed.

It appeared that the Gnoll’s velocity should be somewhere around two times the four humans’ sprinting speed.

Simultaneously, the wolves also rushed out as fast as possible, trying to catch up with their pack leader.

Not long after, the silhouettes of more than twenty wolves plus one Gnoll disappeared into the deep forest.