The heart of the Shadowed Forest was shrouded in thick, curling mist. Branches tangled overhead, and the damp, cold air reeked faintly of blood.
Here, level 5 beasts prowled in abundance. Alex carved his way forward, leaving a trail of mangled corpses in his wake, his experience bar surging upward—so quickly that, in the blink of an eye, he was already closing in on his next level.
"This efficiency… in my past life…" Alex sighed inwardly. "I wouldn't have even dared to dream of it."
Once more, he unleashed his newly acquired skill—Bone Shatter—his kick caving in the steel-plated chest of a massive Iron-Mane Lion, smashing it into the rock face. The system prompts rolled in, but his gaze had already shifted toward a pool of black water ahead, dark as spilled ink.
A natural domain of magic.
"The Blood Crocodile King's lair…" he murmured.
The cold pool marked the territory of the Blood Crocodile King—an LV.8 boss-class beast, clad in iron-hard scales, exuding oppressive demonic aura, and capable of commanding swarms of lesser monsters. Alex remembered it vividly from his previous life—hardly anyone dared to step into this domain alone.
Within this novice secret realm, the ranks of magical beasts rose in order: Common → Elite → Boss → Lord → King → Supreme → Demon God. And the Blood Crocodile King was the only boss here besides the ultimate ruler of the forest—the Demon-Eyed Lizard Emperor.
The cold pool before him was a line between life and death.
Alex rolled his shoulders, his knuckles cracking softly. His gaze was calm and glacial as he weighed the choice: challenge this perilous ground alone, or turn away.
If he could win, the battle would push him to level 5 and restore him to peak condition. If not… it might compromise the rest of his exploration.
Just as he was about to step forward, a ripple of wrongness brushed against his instincts.
He moved without thinking—body flashing several meters to the side.
When he landed, his eyes locked on the spot where he had been standing a moment ago.
A girl was there, standing lazily as if she had been waiting for him all along.
The black hood shifted faintly in the wind, twin black ponytails swaying gently. A pink lollipop dangled from her lips, but her eyes were calm and indifferent—utterly unmoved, as if nothing in the world could stir her emotions.
"…Lois?"
Alex spoke her name softly.
Of course he recognized her. Even if they'd had little interaction in his previous life, he still remembered this girl—an S-rank talent who had caused a storm during the graduation trials, shrouded in mystery.
What unsettled him even more—
She had appeared behind him without so much as a whisper of warning.
"Want candy?"
Lois, expressionless, pulled a handful of lollipops from her pocket and tossed them toward Alex without ceremony.
He caught one, baffled. "…?"
It was strawberry-flavored. He frowned, but still popped it into his mouth—only to grimace immediately. "Sweet. Disgusting."
"Party up. Hunt the Crocodile King," Lois said curtly. "You take most of the EXP, you get first pick of the loot. Deal?"
"Huh?" Alex still hadn't recovered from the sheer social whiplash of her opening line.
"Cut the chatter. Just nod." Lois sucked on her candy, her dead-fish eyes locked on him, clearly annoyed at his hesitation.
Alex hesitated for a moment, then asked, "I'm just a D-rank talent. You sure you want to team with me?"
Lois let out a light chuckle, licking her candy before tilting her chin up. "D-rank? You think I'd believe that?"
"You're at least SS—maybe even SSS. I'm not that easy to fool. My awakened talent is Shadow, and sensing danger is second nature to me."
She lifted her chin proudly, as if to say See? I'm sharp as a whip.
The effect was somewhat ruined by the fact that she barely topped one-sixty in height—meaning that even while craning her neck, she couldn't actually see Alex's face.
Alex stayed silent, his gaze on her layered with unspoken thoughts.
He didn't deny it.
In his previous life, their paths had rarely crossed, but he knew this much—Lois had later been admitted into an Imperial-level academy of magic, one shrouded in mystery and unrivaled power. Her background was unfathomable, her combat prowess among the very best of her generation.
"We can team up," Alex said at last. "But I want to clear the entire secret realm."
One of Lois's brows arched. "Big goal."
"The clear reward's much richer. Leaving it unfinished is a waste."
At that, Lois's hand paused mid-lick, then she grinned. "Then let's take it down together."
In a secret realm, only by defeating the final boss could one trigger the true clear rewards. And Alex knew full well—the final boss of the Shadowed Forest was the LV.10 Demon-Eyed Lizard Emperor.
A lord-class monster with terrifying magic resistance, attended by dozens of LV.9 elite guards. The stuff of nightmares.
With his current strength, a solo attempt carried real risk of failure.
Even with four core attributes far above human limits, and dual SSS-ranked talents, he was still unequipped, fragile to magic, and low in level.