This night was different. The white hues of fog, tinged with a faint red glow, enveloped everything within the area. Upon closer inspection, one could see a multitude of white monsters, each about a meter tall, with a single large eye and a sewn-up mouth. Their movements were so swift that they were nearly impossible to follow with the naked eye. What made them truly terrifying was their sheer number—thousands, perhaps tens of thousands—circling the village. From above, their sheer numbers and incredible speed made it seem as if the village were the eye of a tornado. It appeared they had discovered life within this place.
Luckily for Raven, he was asleep. If he had opened his eyes, he would have found a monster staring directly at him. The monster raised its hands and placed them over its mouth, then removed the seam, revealing a long tongue that reached the ground. At the end of the tongue was a small, closed eye. The monster's tongue moved and stopped in front of Raven's face. Then, very slowly, the eye opened, looking directly at Raven's face. After that, it moved around his body. A full minute passed as it examined every part of him. When the monster's tongue returned to its mouth, it looked at Raven one last time and then left. With its departure, the fog and all the monsters vanished as if they had never appeared, leaving no trace.
In the morning, Raven felt nothing out of the ordinary. He ate his meal and went out to explore the area. He spent two days like this, moving around the region with a piece of leather on which he had written some new information. He stood on a tree, looking at the piece of leather. There were some scribbles, words, and symbols. This was the map it had drawn of the area, marking the locations of powerful monsters, resource points, distinctive animals, and areas of drinking water. The number of red dots had also increased. The map showed areas that were either inhabited by powerful monsters or were deadly, so he marked these areas to avoid them altogether, or at least not for the time being.
Time passed quickly; he spent a week exploring the area. To his surprise, he found another village three hours away from the first. It had the same layout and also contained skeletons. He decided to settle there and delve deeper into his search. Strangely, he didn't encounter any monsters at all, except for the few zombie wolves that were present, which were almost nonexistent. He managed to explore almost everything around the village, except for one area to the north. But he didn't rush; he stayed in this village for a while because he wanted to find some rest—not physical rest, but mental and emotional rest.
He had faced many monsters, hardships, and situations where he should have died, but he survived. All of this caused him a great deal of stress and anxiety. Now that he had found a safe place, he decided to settle there temporarily to regain his focus and plan for any unexpected eventuality. He stayed like this for several days, going out to search for food and then returning to sleep, until one day he decided to leave because there was no point in staying.
"Well, now there's only the north left." Wherever he looked to the north, the sky was dark and gloomy with black clouds and strong winds. He also sensed danger from that direction, so he didn't venture there. But now, he was confident that if he remained cautious, he would succeed in exploring this area. The presence of these villages and the scarcity of monsters made this a good place to live, so he was certain that if he continued to venture deeper, he would find humans in this world. He wanted to find the nearest human village, so all that remained was to explore this area. This time, he put the map in his bag and headed north.
During his travels, he encountered no creatures other than the disgusting wolves. He avoided fighting them; firstly, the experience points he gained from them weren't worth fighting for, and secondly, they were repulsive. So he continued moving without stopping. As he moved, he noted every distinctive thing he saw, like a small cave containing pink, star-shaped crystals, some strange trees, new grasses, and their growing areas.
It was also strange that the phenomenon of fog at night didn't recur, so Raven was completely unaware of it.
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After seven hours of traveling and searching, he stopped and looked ahead. In the distance, there was a colossal wall, the likes of which he had never seen before. It was several skyscrapers high, seemingly touching the sky. Its immense size had left Raven speechless for several minutes. In his life, he had never seen anything so terrifying. Even the most powerful nations on Earth hadn't built anything of such a monstrous scale. "Oh my God...!"
He raced towards the wall, but it took him a while to reach it. He stood beneath it, looking up. He felt dizzy and lowered his head, looking left and right, but saw no end.
"Amazing! This is incredible! It's gigantic! Is this a human city? Are there humans inside?"
He grew even more excited and raced along the wall, searching for the gate. He continued for a full hour without success. He found no sign of the end of the colossal wall. "Damn it, who built something like this? Do they want to be turtles in this city or what?"
He considered climbing the wall, but quickly abandoned the idea. If he fell from the top, he'd die like a dog. So he continued his search. After a long search, he found a giant crack in the wall leading inside. The wall was very thick, but as he went deeper, it became thinner until he had to crawl. Raven entered through the crack and it took him several minutes of running and crawling to reach the other side.
"Finally, I've found a way in! I hope no one sees me crawling in. It would be embarrassing!" He stood looking around, but what he saw was not what he expected. His eyes widened at the sight before him. The city was enormous, the buildings medieval in style. In the center of the city stood the shadow of a very large and luxurious palace, its size staggering. But what shocked Raven was not the size of the city or the palace, but the destruction.
All the buildings were destroyed, some reduced to rubble, others partially destroyed. Even the palace was half-destroyed. Devastation was everywhere. He walked around, looking around in amazement.
How did this once-great city fall into such ruin? Was it a war between kingdoms, or an invasion of monsters? As he walked, he noticed a colossal, deep fissure in the ground. He rushed towards it, then stopped abruptly. This giant crack cut through the earth smoothly and cleanly from the colossal wall all the way to the palace, its depth almost imperceptible. The distance was several kilometers. "Who the hell did this?!"
It was clear from the smooth cut that someone had sliced it with a sword. "Who in the world owns a sword this big...?" Suddenly, the ground shook with a loud explosion. Smoke was rising from a distant area, and out of curiosity, Raven climbed one of the tall buildings to get a look.
When he looked towards the site of the explosion, he saw a strange creature flying. Its wings resembled a bat's, and it had two heads and a human-like body. It was black and spitting green gas from its mouth in the form of balls. Then, its other head released purple gas. As soon as the two gas balls touched, a terrifying explosion occurred. When Raven saw the extent of the destruction it caused, he was utterly shocked.
"Is this something I have to face to get out of the tower...?" "It's impossible for me to succeed, no matter how strong I am," he thought in despair as a white spear shot out at breakneck speed from the heart of the flames toward the flying monster. The monster barely dodged it. The spear slammed into a building, demolishing it. Its speed and power were terrifying.
Then, a creature emerged from the flames, hurtling toward the flying monster. The creature was a muscular, intensely black body, fully armored in white bone. Six large, curved white spikes protruded from its back. It was also clear that its white armor was part of its body.
The bone-armored monster tried to grab the flying monster, but due to the height, it couldn't and fell to the ground. The flying monster continued firing at it and buried it in explosions. Their struggle lasted for several minutes, but the bone monster remained unharmed by the flames. When the bird realized its fire was ineffective, it decided to retreat, rising into the sky and departing. But the bone monster didn't give up and followed. Only when they were quite far apart did Raven descend from the building.
"This Madness! I must leave this city... or perhaps explore it a little?! But first, I must find a place to sleep tonight. The sun had already set, and the blood-red moon had risen. The sounds of many monsters sniping as they hunted their prey filled the air.
Raven was inside one of the ruined towers. He climbed to the top of the tower's chamber and sealed it tightly with large stones. Then he lay on the floor, thinking about tomorrow. He decided to explore the ruined city, or at least enter the palace. "I'm sure those who lived in this city were a mighty force, but how was it destroyed in such a wretched way? How did a city with such a colossal wall end up in this state?"
He sighed and closed his eyes. "It's dangerous here. I'll search around the city; perhaps I'll find the egg, and then return to the forest. It's safer than this city."