8 Avoid Cute Things!???

The sun was already up and it was safe to enter the forest in the daytime. Kim Jae-hoon immediately geared up with all the equipment necessary for his survival and was ready to enter the forest with his soul-mate.

According to Park Sun-jae, the forest was an unsafe area and dangers lurked everywhere in the form of beasts including other bizarre things that he heard from him yesterday. Therefore, he always had a spear in his hand just in case something happens or attack him suddenly out of nowhere.

As soon as he entered the woods, Kim Jae-hoon was in high alert as he walked slowly inside and Park Sun-jae was also looking out for him. At first, he thought of sending the ghost into the forest for scouting purposes. Since he was invisible to the normal eye, he could use him to his advantage. He can even filter out the risky areas for him to travel smoothly on the journey. But for some reason, Park Sun-jae can't go much far away from his body. Only 20 metres of distance was possible max to max. Due to that same reason, he could not fly high enough to the check the area from above as well. Even when they climbed the nearest tree before, he could not reach the top since there were hardly any branches the more they try to go up.

As a result, they decided beforehand that Park Sun-jae would scout out the 20 meter radius area first and then alert Kim Jae-hoon if he spotted any dangers ahead.

On the other hand, the latter was so nervous and sensitive to sound that he could hear his own breathing as he was walking carefully. Then suddenly, he felt a chilling sensation on his shoulders and he trembled in fear. He wanted to turn around to look behind but he was afraid to do so…when… a silent whispering tickled his ears.

"Kim Jae-hoon…"

"AAHHHHHH!" he startled at the sudden voice of someone unknown and eventually backed away from it while shouting out loud in fear.

"Hahaha!" the voice laughed.

Kim Jae-hoon then tilted his head backwards before finally seeing the face that belonged to the voice. Unexpectedly, it was none other than Park Sun-jae who tried to scare him.

"You!" Upon recognizing the familiar face, the young man rushed towards the ghost angrily and waved his hand onto his face in order to slap him. However, his hand passed through him and he wasn't able to vent his anger.

Park Sun-jae sniggered. "Brother, did you forgot that I am a ghost? I am untouchable. In a literal way, haha!"

"You little! Why did you do that? Now, because of my loud voice, every monster will come looking for me. Do you want your body to shred into pieces by these ferocious beasts?"

"Ease up, bro. I was just joking. Anyway, this is level 1 area of the forest. So, most of the beasts around here are small insects and plants which are mostly harmless. Hence, you don't have to worry about anything."

The tensed up Kim Jae-hoon relaxed a bit after hearing that. "Then, why didn't you tell me that earlier? I got nervous for no reason."

"And miss the fun I just witnessed? No way! You should've seen your face. So hilarious."

"Very funny!" he sighed. "Either way, I think it's a good news for us."

"How so?"

"Let's collect food rations for our journey." He smiled.

Park Sun-jae understood his intentions and asked. "Are you trying to collect fruits from the wilderness?"

"Bingo! There must be plants and trees who grows edible fruits here."

"Even if they do, there are lots of poisonous plants present in the wilderness too. If someone made even a small mistake to not recognise them and eat the fruit, it might be fatal to their life."

"Can't you recognise them for me?" Kim Jae-hoon requested.

"I only know a few. Both edible and poisonous. So, I can't guarantee that you will be safe if you touch or eat something unknown." He said.

"No problem. I won't touch anything suspicious."

"Not only suspicious, but avoid cute things as well."

The young man twitched his eyebrows. "What do you mean cute things?"

"You'll come to know eventually." The ghost smirked.

As the duo ventured the forest in the level one area, they found various strange things on the way. Even for Park Sun-jae who was a resident of the city, it was his first time entering the forest and seeing these plants in person that he only heard about or read it in the books.

"This is poisonous. Don't pick it."

"This one's edible but tastes horrible. Pick it if you want to."

"Well… this one looks fancy but its unknown plant to me. So, avoid it."

In addition to experiencing new things with his new comrade, he would also instruct Kim Jae-hoon time to time on what to pick and what not to, since his survival was top priority to him. If the young man ate something unknown or poisonous, it would be problematic for both of them. Therefore, he took caution about it.

As they went deep into the woods, they discovered some strange trees which were small as the fist of a size and a dozen of them were marching on foot as if they were enlisted in a military. They had tiny hands and feet attached to their trunk-like body, and lots of leaves covering their heads as if they were hair to them.

Looking at those cute plants, Kim Jae-hoon wanted to bring one of them with him as a pet. He smiled and tried to pick one of them for fun. Even Park Sun-jae was attracted by their tiny and cute appearance. However, their good impression towards them didn't last long.

As soon as the former tried to touch them, the trees lift their heads up instantly as if they sense danger and started firing small wooden spikes from their mouths continuously to the hand which was trying to grab one of their kind.

Kim Jae-hoon's right hand suddenly got covered with those needle-like spikes and his hand hurt like crazy.

"Aahhh! Ouch! Ouch!"

Upon seeing the unbelievable scene, Park Sun-jae immediately warned his friend. "Kim Jae-hoon, stay away from them! Run!"

Before he could finish his sentence, Kim Jae-hoon instinctively sensed the threat and ran away from them as fast as he can.