Arah's head throbbed. It pulsed like a war drum behind his eyes.
His body rocked gently, swaying with the rhythm of something beneath him. He blinked slowly, trying to focus. The wooden ceiling above him creaked softly, and the faint sound of wheels rolling against dirt filled his ears.
He was moving.
Arah sat up with a jolt, confused. He was in a carriage. A dull blanket was tossed over his legs. Across from him sat Iane, with his legs crossed casually.
"Oh, you're awake!" Iane grinned as he turned toward him.
Arah stared at him. "What... what happened?"
The last thing he remembered was the fight. The Dark Hunter. His spear cutting off its arm. Terent's blade killing it, then, and then—
Nothing.
"Ah, memory loss," Iane said with a small chuckle. "Expected, honestly, but still, you've got quite a resistant body. I thought you'd be out for a couple more hours. It's barely been two."
He gestured casually beside Arah.
Terent lay on the carriage floor, curled on his side. His breathing was shallow and slow. His face was pale, too.
"See? That's how you're supposed to look after that kind of thing. Even a Rank 1 couldn't stay conscious."
Arah looked around.
Tarese and Sofise sat near the front of the carriage, opposite ends. They weren't speaking. Both girls eyed him with caution, Sofise with her jaw clenched tight, and Tarese looking away the moment their eyes met.
There was something different in their stares. It was a mix of suspicion and fear.
"What happened?" he repeated.
"Oh, nothing much. You just got infected by a parasite, that's all," Iane leaned back, waving a hand like it wasn't a big deal.
'A… parasite?'
Arah turned toward him, confused. His body still felt sore, but it moved fine. He checked his arms and his chest and found no wounds.
Iane noticed this and raised an eyebrow. "Relax. You're not dying. It's already gone. Probably."
"That doesn't answer my question," Arah said flatly.
Iane sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.
"It's in the final chapters of that book I gave you. There are beasts out there that don't kill you right away, twisting your body from the inside out. That thing we fought? The Dark Hunter was infected as well."
He glanced out the window, his voice dropping just a little.
"There are different kinds of beasts out there. First, we got the elemental types, which are like 80% of all beasts in the world. In the tower though, it's a little less. Then we got the body type beasts, such as the Dark Hunter you just fought. They make up at least 15% of the beast population around the world. And finally, we've got Corruptors. Parasites. The most annoying kind to deal with."
Arah stared at him.
"You were infected during the fight. Same with Terent. Not your fault. It happened fast, even for me. I believe that this type of parasite travels through the smell of blood or scent."
Arah became silent for a while.
"And what would've happened… if you hadn't stopped it?"
Iane didn't answer right away.
His smile faded.
"Well, you were already halfway gone. Eyes rolled back. Drooling. Laughing while stabbing a corpse. I'd say another minute or two, and you'd have started eating it, and crossed the point of no return."
Arah's blood ran cold.
'How could I be so careless?'
"But hey," Iane continued cheerfully, "you didn't. So there's that. I helped you fight it."
He looked at Arah with a curious glint in his eye, as if trying to see through him.
"You're not normal, you know that? Being able to wake up already after that..."
Arah didn't reply.
Arah's head turned toward Iane. "Wait… you said it was a parasite, but the Dark Hunter acts exactly as expected."
"Yeah," Iane nodded. "And that's the good thing."
Arah raised an eyebrow. "That's… a good thing?"
"It means it was a weak parasite," Iane said, tapping his fingers on the bench. "The stronger ones? They enhance their hosts. Boost strength, speed, senses, and to be a bigger pain in the ass, they even grant abilities. The fact that this one didn't means it was probably still growing, or… testing."
"Testing?" Arah echoed, disturbed.
"Yeah," Iane said, casually. "Parasites aren't just the random stupid beasts. They have some intelligence. This was most likely a scout to find bodies that are well adapted to them."
He leaned forward slightly. "You wanna know how to tell how strong a beast is?"
"Every beast has a soul disc," Iane explained. "A condensed core of their power and essence. The color of the soul disc tells you its rank."
He held up his fingers and began counting.
"Starting from the weakest, Black, Blackish Red, Red, Reddish Orange, Orange, Orangish Yellow, Yellow, Yellowish Silver, Silver, Silverish White, White, Whitish Gold, Gold, Gold-Black, Gold-Red, Gold-Yellow, and finally... Gold-Silver."
He tapped the side of his head.
"Gold-Silver beasts are among the strongest humanity has ever faced. Most cities wouldn't survive one. Heck, it would be catastrophic if one appeared."
He paused for a few seconds, then continued, "If you have a fight with these ranked beasts for a while, it gets easier to tell based on how pure and powerful their soul energy is."
Arah absorbed the information, then asked, "And the parasite that infected the Dark Hunter?"
"Likely Orange-level," Iane said. "It didn't boost its host's power, so that limits how high it could be."
Arah looked out the window, watching trees roll past. "So… where are we going? Back to town?"
Iane shook his head. "Nope. We're heading to a base camp near the Black Zone's outskirts. I used a warning parchment. It alerted all registered hunters in the Red and Black Zones to regroup."
"Regroup?" Arah echoed.
"Yeah. We have to report what happened. But more importantly… we have to find and destroy the Parasite Queen. Before this becomes a real outbreak. Now that's something I don't want to deal with."
Arah nodded grimly. He didn't need to ask what a Parasite Queen was. He could guess what it was. It had to be the original source, and the mother creature creating other parasites to serve it.
He sighed and reached into his bag, pulling out the thick small book Iane had given him.
He flipped through the pages until he reached the final chapters and began to read.
After a few quiet minutes, Arah looked up. "There are two parasite types with matching properties and symptoms, the Bloodfiend and the Airfiend. Which do you think it was?"
Iane hummed to himself, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Then shrugged. "If it were the Airfiend, everyone should've been infected, especially with how windy it was. But only you and Terent were affected. So yeah... it's most likely a Bloodfiend."
Arah gave a quiet nod, but he kept reading, trying to memorize every detail. His grip tightened slightly on the book.
He hated this feeling of being weak. Being helpless.
He'd already learned this world wasn't like his old one. That truth had been carved into his heart. But this… this was the first time that truth reached his instincts. His fighting mind.
If Iane hadn't been there...
He gritted his teeth and flipped to the last line in the chapter.
'To purge a parasite before it takes root, flood your body with a pulse of soul energy. WARNING: Do so before the parasite adapts.'
So that's how Iane saved them. He sent a surge of soul energy through their bodies, burning the parasite out before it could adapt.
A few hours passed.
The road stretched on.
Then, a low groan sounded from the floor.
Terent stirred. His eyes opened sluggishly, then darted around the carriage until they landed on Arah, then Iane.
"What… happened?" he mumbled.
Arah frowned. As Terent spoke, he felt a faint trace of killing intent radiating from him. It was subtle, barely a sliver of it, and not directed at anyone. He probably thought we were still fighting the beast.
He doubted anyone else felt it.
Except maybe Iane.
Iane sighed and calmly began explaining what had happened.
Terent's face shifted between confusion and embarrassment. "O-oh… thank you."
Without another word, he rushed to the corner of the carriage, dug out his bag, and snatched up his worn journal. His hands moved quickly, scribbling furiously.
A few minutes later, the carriage rolled to a stop.
"We've arrived," Iane said.
He stood up, stretching his arms and stepping down from the carriage with a faint grin.
"Good news is, our trip isn't over. Bad news? This part's going to be rougher than a wave of Dark Wolves and a parasite-infected Dark Hunter combined."
He glanced back over his shoulder.
"Who knows? If we survive, you might even collect enough soul discs to rank up."
His tone was light, almost playful, but it didn't match the air outside.
Arah stepped out of the carriage.
The scent of smoke and blood, thick in the wind.
Before him stretched a sprawling encampment. Tents of varying sizes and colors had been pitched in hasty rows across a field of packed earth. Some were reinforced with metal poles, others hastily thrown together from beast hides and canvas. The ground was scarred with wheel ruts and boot prints, pounded into hardened mud.
Hunters moved between the tents in organized chaos. Some unloaded crates from black-armored carriages, others checked their weapons, sharpened blades, or pet restless soul beasts near the perimeter.
Arah's eyes swept the crowd.
At a glance, he counted at least a hundred people, and maybe more, gathered here. All of them were armed, and most of them radiated a dangerous aura, so they were probably Rank 1s, 2s in the mix.
"Let's hope this is over quickly. I am out of grapes," Iane said as he walked into the camp, and they followed.