The air around the ruin path entrance was heavy with the scent of damp stone and soil, the kind that clung to the lungs and made every breath feel weighted. A faint mist curled around the scattered stone pillars, catching the pale morning light. The exploration team was gathered in a loose half-circle — some leaning on weapons, some just shifting their weight restlessly.
Han I-Seul was the first to break the growing silence."Tell me a reason why we're bringing this kid with us?" she said, her tone sharp and bratty, her voice cutting through the air like a thorn on soft fabric. She rolled her eyes so dramatically it was almost a performance, her black hair in a neat butterfly cut swaying with the motion. Her boot tapped impatiently against the cracked flagstones, a rhythm of irritation.
"If he wants to come, then he'll come with us, I-Seul," came Teddy's gentle voice, almost too kind for the mood.
He had a way of speaking that smoothed over edges, but not enough to blunt I-Seul's sharpness.
"Can't you all just shut up!?" Go Taewoo barked, the annoyance in his voice cracking like dry wood. His arms were crossed, shoulders tight, jaw clenched.
"The kid is here, and the captain doesn't have a problem with him. So what's the damn point of arguing?"
Leo, the boy at the center of their squabble, shrank back slightly, hiding behind Zhao Xinglian. Her purple bob framed a face that betrayed nothing — cool, silent, sharp as if carved from still water. She didn't bother joining the bickering; instead, her dark eyes remained fixed on the machete that Wolf had left in her care, her fingers subconsciously tracing its sheath like someone touching a promise they didn't quite understand.
Before the voices could rise again, a quiet shift went through the group like a ripple across still water. Their captain had returned.
Wolf stepped into view with his usual steady, unhurried gait. His eyes didn't even glance at the squabbling group; they were fixed on Zhao Xinglian alone.
She understood instantly. Her shoulders straightened, hands tightened around the weapon's grip, and she stepped forward. When he reached her, he simply opened his palm, silent and expectant. She bowed her head slightly and placed the machete into his hand with both of hers, a small gesture of respect? or is it submission?
"Hm… look up," Wolf said faintly, his tone low but enough to cut through the air like the flick of a blade. Xinglian lifted her head at once, meeting his gaze, before stepping back into line.
Wolf walked past them all to the front, his boots thudding softly on the moss-eaten stone.
"Today's exploration won't be much different from yesterday," he began, his voice calm but carrying a weight that made the group unconsciously straighten their posture. "
We'll go into the ruin path and slow down where the team yesterday stopped."
His gaze slid toward Taewoo, sharp as a hook catching flesh. "Taewoo, you brought that up earlier because you were on the exploration team yesterday, right?"
"Y-yes," Go Taewoo answered quickly, the usual roughness in his voice softened under Wolf's direct stare. His hand subconsciously rubbed the back of his neck.
"I see," Wolf replied with a curt nod. "Then you'll be the one to tell us when to stop before we go any further."
The group's collective expression softened slightly — Wolf's way of assigning roles always gave structure to chaos — but that fragile ease cracked again as his voice came down like a gavel.
"Then we come back and start exploring another path that leads deeper into the forest. That is our goal today. Understand?"
"Yes!" they answered, voices bright and obedient — though their faces twisted with unease.
The kind of forced enthusiasm soldiers give when orders are final and the road ahead is dangerous.
Wolf turned slightly, his eyes narrowing on Han I-Seul.
"Oh, and one last thing. Your name's I-Seul, right?"
"That's me," she answered, chin tilted upward just enough to feign confidence. She was still irritated, but the edge in her tone dulled when meeting his gaze.
"I-Seul will carry this boy," Wolf said flatly, pointing toward Leo with the hand that still loosely held his machete. "Whenever he gets tired. That way, he won't slow us down."
I-Seul's expression twitched. "Wait—" she almost spoke, but the cold sharpness in Wolf's eyes when he turned his head around shut her up before the words could take shape.
"Anyone want to complain?" His gaze swept the team slowly, deliberately. No one met his eyes. No one said a word.
"Good." He took a deep breath, not out of fatigue, but more like a predator measuring the stillness before a hunt. "Then let's go. Before we waste any more time."
He stepped forward, not glancing back, as if he already knew they'd follow. And like shadows bound to a moving flame, the exploration team fell in behind him, their footsteps blending into the low hum of wind threading through the ruin pathway. The mist curled around them like a quiet omen as they crossed into the crumbling archway.
The forest past the ruin pathway was dense enough to swallow sound whole. Each step pressed into soft, loamy earth, damp with last night's mist. Pale shafts of light slanted through the overhead canopy, scattering against drifting motes of dust. Moss clung to the bark of skeletal trees, and somewhere in the distance, a low, rhythmic thunk-thunk echoed faintly.
The group moved in a single file line, Wolf leading with his machete strapped loosely at his side.
Go Taewoo a few paces behind him, acting as their guide. Behind them came Zhao Xinglian with her sharp eyes, Teddy with his quiet alertness, Han I-Seul walking with that half-irritated bounce in her steps, and Leo holding onto the hem of her shirt like a little shadow afraid of being lost.
Taewoo spoke in a low, steady voice as they passed faded symbols carved into tree trunks.
"These are the markings from the last team," he said. "They lead straight to the field." He traced one marking with his fingertip as they passed.
A diagonal slash, then a triangle. Directional, clean and organized.
They pushed deeper in. The air grew colder. The smell — a mix of damp leaves and something faintly wild — grew stronger the further they went. Eventually, they stepped past a patch of trampled undergrowth, and the forest opened into a clearing of sorts: not wide, but silent and wrong. The ground here was torn up, clawed in long streaks. Scattered white feathers lay on the earth, not soft and clean but cracked and brittle, like strips of dried parchment.
"This is it," Taewoo said grimly.
As they entered, Taewoo's voice lowered, almost automatically slipping into a soldier's briefing tone. "We call them White Ravens," he began, eyes scanning the tree line as if expecting movement. "Bird-like creatures with skeleton wings. You can see their rib cages — feathers are all torn and thin like old paper. Long beaks… and needle teeth inside. They're…really fast."
He gestured to a half-buried feather at his feet, then glanced toward the shadows in the trees. "They hunt in flocks. Eight to fifteen. They don't scream. Instead—" He stomped his boot twice against the ground, producing a hollow thunk. "—they drum their beaks like that to mess with your ears. Confuse you. By the time you turn your head… they're already in your face."
His short explanation was more than enough; the silence that followed filled in what he didn't say — how dangerous they were.
Wolf stepped away from the group slightly, narrowing his eyes at a carcass partially hidden near a log. He crouched, fingers brushing away some dirt as his gaze locked on the avian form — skeletal wings folded at odd angles, parchment feathers stained faint red. He silently activated his status check.
Name: raltika
Gender: -
Race: ravelin
Age: 10
Height: ???
Class: --
Title: --
Lv.3
Stats:
STR: 12 | SPD: ???| AGI: 9 | STA: 5 | END: 7 | POW: 1 | LUCK: 10
Mental Stats:
INT: 2 | CHA: 10| FORTITUDE: 15
Alignment: ???
Active Skills: ???
Passive Skills: ???
Wolf's brow twitched. Well..I'll called them ravelin...No goodness or evilness stat? he thought, the question slipping through his mind like water through cupped hands. Why?
He dismissed the thought for now and moved to another corpse — this one smaller, wings half-torn.
Name: Rararaui
Gender: -
Race: ???
Age: 7
Height: ???
Class: —
Title: —
Lv.3
Stats:
STR: 10 | SPD: ???| AGI: 9 | STA: 9 | END: 2 | POW: 7 | LUCK: 10
Mental Stats:
INT: ??? | CHA: 10| FORTITUDE: ???
Alignment: —
Active Skills: ???
Passive Skills: ???
A third check, this time a larger one — beak cracked but still sharp as a blade.
Name: ???
Gender: —
Race: ravelin
Age: 15
Height: 105cm
Class: ???
Title: ???
Lv.3
Stats:
STR: 10 | SPD: 13| AGI: 9 | STA: 9 | END: ??? | POW: 7 | LUCK: ???
Mental Stats:
INT: 6 | CHA: 10| FORTITUDE: ???
Alignment: —
Active Skills: Peck For Us
Passive Skills: Wraith of Ravelin
Hmm… not that strong. But in a group… Wolf tilted his head slightly, piecing it together like stepping stones over a river. "Peck For Us" should be their lunge. "Wraith of Ravelin"… maybe a boost when one dies. Or when they're in flocks...something like that.
He let out a faint breath, sharp through his nose, and straightened.
I'm not here to hunt them anyway. His eyes flicked back toward his underlings. Their expressions were mixed — unease, confusion, irritation — but all quiet. They didn't like how casually he treated these things, but Wolf simply shrugged their silent stares off and gave a small hand gesture to continue moving forward.
"Let's go," he said curtly.
But before they could take another step, Leo tugged gently at I-Seul's shirt. His small voice trembled at the edge of tears. "I-I… can't run sis... sis… I can't run anymore."
His eyes were shining with that soft, wet glimmer kids got right before they broke down. His breaths were short, uneven. I-Seul's sigh was audible even in its quietness — a sigh that was both angry and tired. She turned slightly, lowering her voice so only he could hear. "Get on my back, kiddo."
Leo didn't hesitate. His small arms wrapped around her neck, and she hitched him up without complaint. As she did, Teddy — walking a few paces ahead — glanced back with a warm grin and gave her a quick thumbs-up.
She frowned at him, confused, her expression somewhere between don't make this a big deal and what the hell are you smiling at, before rolling her eyes with a sullen face and looking away.
The group continued deeper into the overgrown forest, their boots crunching softly on broken twigs. They moved quieter now — the field had shaken something loose in their nerves. And then, Taewoo raised his hand sharply. A signal.
Wolf stopped instantly.
"This is it," Taewoo whispered, pointing at a tree beside him. A small cross was carved into its bark, old sap dried around the lines. "This is where we stopped yesterday, Captain."
Wolf's eyes lingered on the marking for a moment before he gave a single nod. "Rest up here," he said plainly.
At once, I-Seul exhaled heavily and lowered Leo off her back. The boy's legs trembled a little when they touched the ground, but he managed to stand. The others quietly spread out around the clearing, shoulders slackening as they took a brief moment to breathe. The forest was quiet — too quiet — save for the faint distant drumming of something far away.
The air hung still around them—dense, weighted with the damp rot of moss and the cool perfume of the untouched forest. Leaves whispered faintly overhead, like breaths held back.
Wolf's boots shifted against the packed earth as he inhaled once, low and steady, before breaking the silence."...Let's move on."
His voice wasn't loud, but it cut clean through the stagnant air. The group, still crouched or half-leaning against roots and broken stone, blinked in collective disbelief. Their thoughts collided in the same word before anyone spoke it aloud:
What?
"You mean... we're getting back?" Go Taewoo blurted, his voice slightly raised, half-hopeful and half-panicked. His hand, still gripping the haft of his spear, twitched against his palm.
"No," Wolf replied without even turning around. His tone was flat, almost tired.
"We're just going to continue forward like this."
The silence cracked as Han I-Seul whipped her head toward him, eyes narrowing, the black ends of her butterfly-cut hair brushing against her cheeks."That—" she snapped, "isn't what you said earlier!" Her hands flared open as she spoke, voice sharp and bratty, like someone who had been holding her complaints in too long. "You said we'd—"
Her words cut short not because she lost them but because Wolf didn't respond. He simply adjusted the cuff of his shirt, his expression unreadable, jaw slightly set.
Teddy stood further back, quiet as usual. He wasn't bothered by the sudden change of plans.
His gaze had already drifted to Leo, the boy, who was fiddling nervously with the hem of his sleeves.
"Stay close," Teddy said softly, leaning down a bit so his warm voice could reach the boy without echoing into the forest.
Zhao Xinglian hadn't spoken a word since Wolf's return. She walked a few steps behind him, her purple bob hair catching faint streaks of light that filtered through the canopy. Her eyes stayed on his back—not out of admiration but focus. She'd noticed the way his posture changed when he made decisions. It was always like this: cold, calculated, without wasting breath.
Meanwhile, Taewoo and I-Seul were visibly bristling. The annoyed tremor in their shoulders was as clear as their voices.
Wolf finally tilted his head slightly toward them—not fully, just enough for the cold sharpness in his eyes to meet theirs.
"Listen," he said, each syllable like a low thud against the air, "and follow what I say."
Taewoo instinctively straightened. I-Seul clenched her jaw but didn't speak.
"At west," Wolf continued, tone leveling into something calm but firm, "which is where we're going to go, has the highest potential of being the path out of this forest. The river path is a dead end—there's a waterfall. I checked that one myself." His fingers brushed faintly against the hilt of his machete as he spoke, more a habit than a threat.
"The east—union territory—has only one path. That one leads straight to a monster field."
He paused a beat, letting the weight of the information settle. A breeze moved through the trees, stirring loose leaves that skittered across their boots.
"Compared to us," he went on, "they have no clear sight. They can only stumble around blind. North looks like a dead end with mountains, but maybe there's a hidden pass there—we don't know yet. South is just forest. Endless forest. And yeah... some of you probably think it's the obvious way out. But do you really trust that?"
The group shifted uneasily. A single bird croaked from somewhere far above.
Wolf exhaled, soft but audible. "Maybe you do but I don't. It's too straight. Too easy and if it really is the way out, then we'll still be wandering without a clue what to do next. But if this west path turns out to be a dead end, at least we'll get something out of it. A clue. A reward. Something. And then the only ones left to explore will be the deeper forest and the south. That's better than gambling blind, don't you agree?"
His voice wasn't a rallying speech. It was steady, heavy with logic, like a blade laid on a table—cold and undeniable.
If there's a trap waiting, I'll go into it first, Wolf thought quietly, not out of pride but habit.
Better to see what lie ahead than sit back in shelter.
He scanned their faces one by one—Taewoo, stiff but attentive; I-Seul, biting her lip and glaring but not opposing anymore; Teddy, calm as a still lake; Xinglian, unreadable; Leo, small and clutching the hem of Xinglian's shirt like it might disappear if he let go.
"Seems like we understand each other," Wolf muttered at last. He turned his eyes forward, shoulders loosening just slightly as he adjusted the machete at his side. "Get up. The faster we move, the faster we get it done and go back."
One by one, boots and soles pushed against the earth. They rose—not cheerfully, but with the weight of people who had no choice but to follow.
The forest swallowed their shapes again as they began moving west. Leaves brushed against their legs. The distant sound of trickling water vanished behind them.
And Wolf, at the front, didn't look back once.