A drag

While it may not seem like it, that last attack took a bit from her.

She stared at the beast's body for a few seconds, almost as if she was waiting for something to happen.

However, the beast's body only remained motionless on the ground, with blood oozing out of it, yet, nothing out of the ordinary took place.

Seeing this, the golden haired girl sighed in annoyance.

'I couldn't even get a decent treasure... What a useless beast.' She thought, her gaze returning to the black-haired boy who remained sprawled on the ground, clearly unconscious.

There were a few patches and stains of dark green blood around his clothes, something which were from the zombies.

She slowly walked forwards while staring at the number of dead zombies laying on the ground around him with charred black head and bodies, something which seemed to be from an explosion.

A slight frown appeared on her face, breaking her former indifferent expression.

'Ten… fifteen, eighteen…' She mentally counted the amount of dead zombies on the ground, stopping when she counted to eighteen.

She turned her head to the side, and her mouth widened slightly when she saw that the trail of dead zombies continued all the way to the side.

"He killed all of this zombies… himself?" She mumbled. 'Seems like he's quite strong.'

While she acknowledged the boy's power—or rather, the power of whatever skill he used to do this, it wasn't that she found it impossible.

She was sure that killing this large number of zombies wouldn't be too difficult for her also, though it was definitely be stressful and annoying.

However, seeing as the black haired boy was now laying on the ground unconscious, it was obvious that he had exhausted himself fighting the zombies, and was unlucky enough to come across a mana beast.

'Maybe I should just leave him…?' She thought, feeling like there was no need to put an extra baggage on herself.

For something like this to happen, it was clear that he was a careless and reckless person, and she wasn't sure she wanted to deal with someone like that.

Apart from that, saving him could be dangerous as she didn't know who he was or the exact reason why he was in this position—all she was doing was guessing.

Contrary to one's expectations, her reasons for coming here or killing the beast wasn't because she knew someone was in danger.

What attracted her was the loud noises and sounds coming from this area, and she had trailed where the noises were coming from to see what was going on.

However, looking the dead monsters around, it was clear that if she had those noises, other beast's also heard them and might be coming here soon.

'It's best I leave.' She thought, before turning around to walk away.

"Hey! Aria." As she was walking, a deep loud voice suddenly sounded some distance away from her, drawing her attention.

She exhaled and then turned to face the one who called her name.

It was a tall man, with sleek black hair, black eyes along with a light soul patch black beard that extended to the sides of his face.

From his appearance, he seemed to be in his mid-twenties.

He had a buff and muscular physique and he was putting on a large black shirt that still did nothing to hide the muscles underneath.

Despite his tall and muscular physique that gave off an intimidating vibe, the cheerful smile on his face contradicted his appearance.

"Ohh, there you are Aria. Why did you suddenly run off?" He asked, finally getting to her position.

A weird glint flashed through the golden haired girl's eyes, as she sighed. She looked back at the man with an indifferent expression on her face and replied: "I didn't run off. I was just attending to something."

Due to the height difference between them, she had to raise her head to speak to him.

However, her brows furrowed slightly when she noticed the man's attention wasn't even on her.

She traced his eyes and saw that he was staring at the unconscious boy laying on the floor instead.

"Who is that?" The black haired man asked, slowly walking closer to the boy. "Is he dead?"

"I doubt that. Seems like he's just unconscious." Aria replied with an indifferent voice.

"Wow… did he kill all this zombies himself?" The man muttered in shock, as his eyes took in the large number of dead zombies on the ground. "He is quite strong then…."

"I guess." Aria said in a flat tone.

"Why don't we help him, make him join us we could use his strength?" The black haired man said. He didn't seem the least bothered about the blackish green blood that stained the boy's clothes and crouched in front of him.

"He'll only drag us down. He might have a powerful skill, but he certainly doesn't have great survival skills." Aria said, with a slight frown on her face.

By "survival skills" she was referring to how Blake—the boy they were talking about—was able to land himself in a situation whereby he was totally helpless against the beast.

It was clear that he had fought against the zombies relentlessly, until he exhausted himself, which explained the large number of dead zombies around him.

Completely ignoring her words, the black haired man processed to stare at Blake's unconscious figure with a 'pitiful' look in his eyes and started muttering to himself: "Wow… look at him. He looks so young… probably thirteen years. Are we really going to leave him here?"

If Blake was here, he would probably cough out in embarrassment. That was because he wasn't thirteen, but sixteen years.

Due to his appearance and young face, people often mistook him for a thirteen or fourteen year old.

Aria's brows twitched slightly at the edges as she watched the man's dramatical actions.

Not willing to stay in this place any longer, she sighed before saying: "You can bring him with us if you want… just know that you'll be responsible for him."

"We should leave this place." She muttered, before she started walking in the opposite direction.

A light smirk appeared on the black haired man's face. He slowly stood up and picked up the unconscious boy, before hanging him on his shoulder.

"Yeah… there's a chance more beasts might appear." He muttered, however, the golden haired girl was already far ahead of him, so she didn't hear his words.

As he stared at the slender figure of the girl walking ahead of him, a strange glint flashed through his eyes, however, no one noticed it.

***

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