The Sun rose above the horizon. The illumination of the rising sunrise shed across utz''s eyes. Even that sort of a little bit of stimulus was enough to wake him up. But what greeted him was Selena''s smell. Her scalp being just below his nose made her womanly smell invade his nostrils. His hands were still on her breasts.


    utz didn''t get up before giving her breasts another squeeze.


    "Mhm"


    She murmured in her sleep.


    utz ignored it as he got up. Today, they are going to face thest boss of the newbie zone so he had to prepare himself. Rubbing a stick against a wooden board he created fire as he tossed branches inside.


    *Crackle*


    He poured water from the Aale into a bamboo container and boiled it onto a fire. Finally, he took out monster meat from the inventory and rinsed it with the boiled water. All the while he had a serious expression on his face.


    The events of hisst life shed across his mind. There were ten people alive but out of the ten only four were able to finish thest boss, the rest had all died while weakening the monster.


    "This should do."


    utz didn''t rinse the meat for himself to eat, rather it was meant to be used as monster bait. utz is fairly confident of his strength but if things go south he would lure the beast into the trap.


    utz tied the meat with strong vines and hung it from the junctions of two huge rocks. The rocks had nothing but themselves to support each other. So if the monster chose to feasts on the meat, the rocks would be pulled down falling onto it making itpletely immobile or even killing it under the debris. Such was the trap utz had created.


    It was a simple trap. But that alone took utz all day to make without any tools to his name. The others gazed at him and wondered what he might be doing. Only a few of them were able to figure out the hanging meat''s purpose.


    "I hope the beast is a hungry one" utz whispered as he rubbed his forehead to wiped off the sweat.


    ***


    Verona woke up a bitte than usual. Due to her figure being hidden by the walls of the ruins no one had noticed her presence. She rubbed her eyes as she couldn''t bear the brightness of the sun.


    "Mhm"


    But with her line of sight in the wrong direction, she was greeted by Selena''s naked butt.


    "Kya," she couldn''t help but scream in surprise. Selena had her skirt down and her breezy bottom wouldn''t be noticed by others in the usual scenario but she was just unlucky enough to wake up at the worst possible angle.


    She got up and looked around. Her gaze never settled on one object for too long. Neither the girl in front of her nor the surroundings were known to her. Theck of memories of how she got here made her eyebrows draw together.


    "Where am I?" She asked herself as she bit her lips.


    Then she remembered everything as they came in rushing to her brain. The Trial of Control… the death of her friends… Dant''s betrayal... everything. Finding herself in such desperation made her bite her fingers. Thest thing she remembers was finding herself outside of the trial, after which her memories are all nk. There was nothing that follows after that in her memory. How she reached this ce was out of her imaginations.


    ''This looks like another safe zone.'' She had guessed it urately. She looked around only to find herself surrounded by various strangers.


    The scream from earlier made everyone alert as they came to know of Verona''s presence. With an unknown face amongst them, they couldn''t help but be on their guards.


    "Hey who''s she?"


    "How would I know? I am seeing her for the first time and she seems he suspicious." They whispered amongst themselves.


    To them who had barely got out of their safe zone, they didn''t know of the existence of other safe zones in the forest. Hell, they don''t even know the existence of other humans in the forest.


    All of them were summoned together and they already knew every one of themselves by heart. Their tastes… the weapons they used… their fighting style. The bonds they had formed through shedding blood and sweat together in life and death battles weren''t to be trifled with. Only because they were united were they able to survive. When they had such faith in each other teammates how could they trust an unknown face? They chose to remain in their respective groups.


    "What do you think? Is this some kind of trap to get us killed? She could very much be a monster in human form. Or some kind of shapeshifter." Weird rumours started to spread about Verona like wildfire. The dangerous world that wasid out in front of them made them mistake Verona''s nature. Some rumours were audible enough to enter her ears while others just ended in whispers.


    It is said that a person craves something only when hecks it. When they were first summoned to this world, all of them cravedpanionship, they wanted to be form bonds with others but now? They don''t crave for it anymore so much so that they chose to dub Verona who was just like them to be dubbed as a monster.


    "Guys you people are misunderstanding me. I am not a monster, I am a human like you." She said as tears welled up in her eyes. She dusted herself to get rid of her dishevelled state, "I got lost in the forest and ended up here. I assure you I bear no ill will."


    Bill stepped forward. He nodded.


    "I see"


    ***


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