Chapter 7
Adriel's face paled when he looked the werewolf straight in the eye. He turned around and closed his raincoat, trying to camouflage himself in the darkness created by the trees.
Every so often, he turned around to try to lose him. "Damn thing... knowing how these worlds work, he's probably just sniffing me." As he ran, he grabbed a branch with a sharp tip and some leaves.
Without hesitation, he cut his arm and grabbed some blood with the leaves. Then he dodged the werewolf to put the leaves in its snout, but its claw dug into his back.
"Agggggg" A guttural scream came out of Adriel's mouth as he felt the powerful claws tear off a piece of his flesh.
The pain blinded him, and he began to feel dizzy, but he survived. A stone axe cut through the skin of the enormous beast, and it grabbed Adriel, helping him to walk.
Thanks to the leaves, the werewolf couldn't follow them, as he could only smell the blood on the leaves.
"Turn... left... walk for about 10 minutes... then turn again until you reach the... lake," Adriel began to stammer as the stranger helped him.
...
Adriel opened his eyes, thinking to himself, "Damn, my back feels like it's about to burst into flames, and my arm is burning from the blade." Looking around, he saw everyone standing in a circle. His wounds were covered with "bandages," which were actually Kael and Amara's clothes placed over his terrible injuries.
When he tried to move his hand, the man stopped him. A man around 23-25 years old was standing next to Adriel. "I'm the one who saved you. My name is Steven. Nice to meet you." The man's voice was deep and confident.
"Thank you... How did you get your axe?" Adriel was truly grateful, but his curiosity always got the better of him.
"From a goblin's corpse. I also gave clothes to your friends." Steven's manner of speaking relaxed Adriel, who saw his friend Kael approaching him.
"I told you to run away from something dangerous, didn't I? Anyway..." Kael looked away while Adriel stared at him. "I'd love to tell you that I would have accompanied you, but..."
"It's dangerous and scary, don't worry, we still don't know how growing so much every day works, I could be almost or completely recovered tomorrow, anyway, I don't judge you." Adriel closed his eyes and lay down on the ground while thinking about what had happened.
Adriel turned to look at Steven. "Do you know how to use the coins?"
"No, I still haven't figured out how, but I already have about 10," Steven said thoughtfully.
"I took too many risks today. I really should rest. I need the system to heal the wounds caused by the passage of time as well. Otherwise, it could take up to eight months to heal from this... At least, I think so. It's not like I'm a doctor." Adriel stared at the blue sky as he thought and dissociated.
Adriel continued talking to Steven for quite some time. "How lucky, he's a doctor. The only strange thing is that I understand what he's saying, even though he says he's speaking German. According to him, even I'm speaking German... It's probably the system's doing."
Adriel touched his left arm, which was the one he had injured. "It still hurts, too much." One way Adriel had thought to describe the pain was as if something too cold had been put on it to the point that it hurt, with the disadvantage that he couldn't take it off.
"Hey, why did you take such a risk?" A soft voice tinkled in Adriel's ears. Looking to his right, he saw Amara sitting next to him.
"I... I guess I like it, it's exciting, I didn't feel so much excitement before." Adriel let his first thought on the subject slip out.
"What? Do you really get excited fighting things like goblins? According to you, they're disgusting... there wasn't even a clear reason to say what they do, you know?" Amara didn't take her eyes off Adriel.
"No... I don't know how to explain it, it's like... a feeling of doing justice and seeing, getting things I like. Every time I kill a goblin, I feel like I'm saving people from future beasts, and I also feel dopamine rushing through my system and the e e it gives me." Adriel didn't look at Amara, his eyes fixed on the clouds as he imagined and recreated the feeling he got from killing goblins and getting things from them.
Amara thought about what Adriel had said, looked up at the sky with him, and then her gaze returned to his eyes. "What will you do now that you can't fight?"
"I'll accept everything. I pray that daily growth will heal me, but if it doesn't... I feel like killing myself would be the best option." Adriel's words created tension in his own body. He felt an indescribable fear, but he didn't want to be a dead weight to his friends.
"You're an idiot! Do you really think we would do that?!" Amara jumped when she heard Adriel's harsh words.
"Think about it, a wounded person in this world is useless. I'd rather die than be a walking bag of heavy flesh." Adriel's gaze was lost in his own fear. From his point of view, everything was getting darker, more dangerous.
Out of nowhere, Adriel moved quickly, grabbed his left arm, and removed some of the "bandage" to reveal a scar. The small but significant scratch that a goblin had given him the other day was completely healed; in fact, the scar was barely visible.
A blow from his own palm made his head hurt. "I feel like one of those fools who cry when they fall. How did I not realize this before?!" After hitting himself, Adriel began to laugh. He felt so stupid that he was dying of embarrassment.
"Steven, it seems you heal with the daily change!" Adriel shouted with a mixture of euphoria and embarrassment, then rested his head on the floor.
"They won't have to put me to sleep like a dog anymore." Adriel's tone revealed his desire to hold back the loud laughter that was escaping him.
"God... I'm going to start paying more attention to the things of this world." Amara's face showed her disappointment at having wasted her own words and her sadness.