“What are you doing!”

(Resting…)

“Most of the villagers are fighting outside. Why are you here?”

(Saving myself.)

“Why didn’t you go out there and help!”

(Isn’t it obvious, I don’t want to.)

An old guy looked at him with disgust.

“Tsk! You have no hope! You coward!”

(It’s alright to be a coward than die.)

The old man walked away together with his trusted cane.

When the old man was far away someone tugged at my shirt.

“Brother…”

Damian looked at her sister with tired looking eyes.

“Yeah…”

“Are you ok? Brother… people… most villagers are ridiculing you right now.”

Damian waves his hand.

“Yeah I am ok… there are a lot of people who  are fighting outside.”

Damian proudly pointed to himself using his thumb.

“I am the one who is going to protect this village hall.”

“But brother… that is the responsibility of the woman and the old man of the village.”

(Yap, and young men are fated to die early… Sorry I don’t want to do that.)

Damian looks at her concerned sister.

(I wanted to live long, long enough to see you grow up.)

Damian has passed 23 winters and her sister has passed 15 winters.

But this past winter he learned a lot of things.

He knew that the more equipped a person was, the more the village would rely on them, which puts them in more dangerous places…

Just like their father.

Their father died when Amelia was just 2 winters old and for Damian.

He always questions it.

Why did he die? 

Isn’t there someone who is better at hunting than you? 

Why did you go there?

As he grew up he understood that his father just followed the so-called ‘Rules’ of the village.

(I will be different… I will not follow these rules blindly… I will never die and leave Amelia on her own and fend for herself like how father and mother left us because of these rules.)

“It’s ok, one less hand will not affect the fighting outside and in the first place I cannot fight remember.”

Damian gently rubs his hand on her sister's head.

“But brother, you didn’t even try fighting.”

“Hahahaha I have no talent for it… I am good at cooking though and that’s it!”

“Sigh… I bet you didn’t even try to learn how to fight.”

Damian shakes his head.

“Of course not!I’m not just skilled in fighting.”

He smiled at his sister and stood up.

He looks at the window and he notices that the night is approaching.

“Look, this is my time to shine… I need to help out in preparing the food so just stay here alright.”

“What are you talking about? No one is allowed to exit the hall in this kind of situation.”

Damian felt relieved.

“Good then…”

Damian moves towards the kitchen.

The kitchen is busy for quite some time.

When Damian enters, most of the people here, women who specialize in cooking, glances at him.

Usually if another cook walks in here without permission they will be ridiculed and called out by the people inside the kitchen but Damian is an exception.

Of course the people inside the kitchen didn’t like him, simply because he didn't follow the rules of the village.

However, no one called him out.

They just let him do what he did best.

Cooking.

Damian has a gift in cooking.

He can make the most delicious food even with simple ingredients.

And because most of the villagers will be hungry after this monster invasion they know that not only Damian will help them quench their hunger but they know that Damian food will satisfy the villagers.

In addition, Damian was known as… the weakest man in the village.

Rumor started that he is lame and he can’t even use a proper weapon.

They also knew that he always skipped training because he knew that he cannot keep up with other villagers.

To be honest, some veterans are disappointed. 

Damian's father and mother are known hunters, they are known to be geniuses when it comes to hunting.

Unfortunately their son didn’t inherit this ability.

After a while, the village accepted Damian, they knew he didn’t have a talent in fighting and he contributed in a different way.

But they still cannot accept Damian's rebellious attitude of not following the rules of the village.

Damian walked towards an empty kitchen, this place was actually prepared in advance for him but no one in the village said it.

They just left it like ‘no one’ is using it.

Damian looks at the ingredients.

(Meat… Cumber Herb… Salt… Totas…)

He glanced at each table looking for various ingredients.

(Black Rounds, Coli Herb, Water Lime, Orange Berry…)

(Hmmm…)

Damian feels that it is lacking… that he didn’t find the ‘ingredients’ that are perfect in the current scenario.

Feeling disappointed he walks out the kitchen and then he walks towards the village hall entrance.

A man standing there smirking at him.

“Oh! Did you want to join the fight? Did you have a change of heart?”

Damian smiles in return.

“Don’t kid around, I don't even know how to hold a sword.”

Smiling, he waved his hand.

The man is smiling but you can see the disgust on his face.

“I need to go to the back.”

“Tsk! You know no one is allowed to get out the hall right… that includes you.”

“I need to gather ingredients for the food.”

Upon hearing that…

The guard moved to the side.

“Just behind the hall… right… No farther than that.”

Damian nodded.

“Of course you know me, I don’t want to fight… I mean I can’t fight in the first place.”

Knock! Knock!

The man started knocking on the door behind him.

The door slightly opens and a man peek inside.

“Is Clay there?”

Then another one peek out from the door.

“What?”

“Damian is going to get ingredients behind the village hall to go with him.”

Clay eyes widen.

“Oh sure… let’s go.”

Clay's old face suddenly brightened up and it looked like he was excited.

The man opens the door wide and I pass through.

After that Damian began walking slowly towards the back of the village hall near the cliff side.

Clay looks at Damian while following behind.

“So… kid… what are you preparing for dinner.”

“Hmmm… The villagers will be tired and their body will probably sore. Then some of the villagers might be injured and they might have a hard time eating some food.”

…

“So I think I will prepare a soup.”

“Oh! A soup… a warm soup…”

Clay's face looks like he is beginning to drool.

“Yeah, but it should also revitalize them. So a warm soup is perfect for this occasion.”

Clay nodded nonstop.

Damian is walking towards the cliff and kneels down when he sees what is looking for.

Clay has a question mark in his head because he saw what Damian is picking up.

A mushroom, a normal mushroom that can be found anywhere around the village.

“Is that… it.”

Damian looks at Clay with a questionable look.

But after a while he just smiled and nodded.

Damian continues to gather enough ingredients then he looks at Clay once more.

“Let’s get back.”

In Clay’s mind, those are just common mushrooms he has thought that Damian is gathering special ingredients.

Clay feels confused but Damian is extremely satisfied.

Now that he finished gathering the ingredients he prepared the food.

He cut the meat and dressed it up with salt, black rounds and coli herbs.

(This will enhance the taste of the meat and the coli herb will bring out that hidden juice of the meat.)

(In addition, coli herbs have revitalizing qualities. The alchemist group uses the fruits but throws away those leaves. The villagers thought that the herbs improved only the taste but… they didn’t notice that it revitalized the body, though only by a small amount.)

Damian now chop up some Totas and other veggies and put them on the pot with boiling water.

(Totas and the veggies are just there to satisfy them.)

He smiled as he waited until the totas were somewhat soft.

Then he placed the square cut meat inside the pot.

After that he put the blue spotted mushroom that can be found around the forest, into a stick.

It looks like a skewered mushroom and slowly he is grilling it on the nearby fireplace.

When the mushrooms are already scorched, he mixes them into the pot.

(This mushroom has a very strong taste, but it can revitalize the body greatly. So I have to put it on fire, dilute it in water and the herbs will remove the remaining stench and taste of the mushroom.)

“Sighhhed…”

(Good thing I experimented on this mushroom, I can finally use it.)

After a while, the aroma of his food is now scattering all over the village hall.

Someone walk-in and shouted.

“Are you done!? Gulp!”

The man stopped and he looked like he was drooling.

“It's done!”

He proudly shouted.

Then he scoops up two bowls of the soup.

One for him and one for Amelia.

Carrying both of the bowls he exited the kitchen and looked for her sister.

But…

“Where? Where are you?”

He mumbles but then an old woman who has been looking at him for quite some time now speaks up.

“You sister together with the others go back to the east side, they have a lot of guards with them, they need a volunteer to help with injured hunters.”

“What!”

He was shocked… her sister should be staying inside the village hall which is the safest place in the village.

“She helps out… Tsk! What are you doing?”

He put the bowl down on the table and he immediately requested that he will also help out the injured hunter.

He approached the door and told the guard about his decision.

“Ahhhh! About time Damian! About time!”

The guard looked proud for some reason.

(Tsk! I don’t want to go outside… I was just forced to go alright!)

After exiting the hall.

He ran towards the east side immediately.

(Amelia I told you not to go out right? Why?)

After a while Damian reached the tent full of injured villagers.

He looked around in search of her sister.

"Amelia!?"

"Amelia!?"

But Damian couldn't find her so a woman came towards him.

"The little girl went near the encirclement, she volunteered to retrieve the injured."

"Tsk!"

Damian immediately ran towards the encirclement.

(That place is dangerous, you should just leave those dangerous jobs to other people.)

Pang! Ting! Pang!

He can hear the fight from a distance.

Damian felt relieved that he was near but then…

“GGGGRRRROOOOOOOOOO!”

“GGGGRRRROOOOOOOOOO!”

“GGGGRRRROOOOOOOOOO!”

Three large and powerful growls were heard from that place.

“Arrrrhhh!”

“Help!”

“Why are they here!”

“Why!”

“Need help!”

Chaos can be suddenly heard at a distance.

I run towards the commotion.

“What happened? What happened!?”

Just as he is about to approach the encirclement he notices a monster that is neither a Horned Boar, Brown Sickle or Forest Striker.

This monster has the same height as a human with black leather skin.

Their faces have a long snout and they don’t have eyes.

They have four arms and two feets but the most noticeable and most infamous features are the black blood that is pouring out of their skin.

This monster went pass the encirclement and it looks like it targeted weak creature.

“Co…corrupted Spawn.”

His eyes widened.

Then he looks in the direction where the corrupted spawn is standing.

Near the monster is her sister, with a bloodied arm and covered with black blood.

His world stops for a moment.

Bump! Bump! 

Bump! Bump! 

He knew… what will happen to her sister…

“No…”

His world falls apart in just a few seconds.

“No…”

He slowly approaches her sister.

Damian is not even looking at the monster, his eyes are fixed on her sister.

He was looking at the arm and the black blood dripping from her arm.

“No…”

He mumbles.

He finally… finally saw it…

The black blood made contact with the wound.

“No…”

His voice left him.

(Corrupted Spawn blood…Corrupted Spawn blood… is poisonous… the poison will slowly kill its victim.)

Everyone knew about these infamous monsters.

Their blood is poisonous and that is not the worst thing, the victims will feel great pain in the following weeks that they will beg for their deaths.

Da—

Damia—

Damian—-

No words can reach him right now.