The Place Where Everything Begins

Within a temperate green forest where countless deciduous trees stood sparsely, a bloody battle was taking place here...

The battle occurred between two sides, humans and kenkus, with each side numbered approximately twenty people, making the battlefield have roughly forty combatants.

Some of those forty people fought openly with the opponents. Some hid behind a big tree and fired arrows occasionally while some ran around madly, trying to flank the other side.

Shout, bellow, and screech of commanding and condemning resounded out continuously, causing the supposedly serene forest to become noisy like a playground instead.

Inside the battlefield...

*Phew*

*Puchi*

A feathered arrow pierced through a middle-aged man\'s neck as the latter dropped to the ground dead.

"NOOO! DERRICK!" shouted a middle-aged man after seeing his friend being shot dead by a poison arrow.

"Die!" said the man as fury was written all over his face; the man swung his long sword at the kenku before him.

*Whoosh*

*Splitch*

The sword sliced the kenku\'s entire left arm, causing the cut part to drop to the ground, splattering blue blood over the place.

"Kukia!"

The amputated kenku obviously didn\'t want to be on the losing end as it also pierced its sword towards the unprotected man\'s stomach.

*Puchi*

The poison-coated sword went past the furious man\'s leather armor into his abdomen.

"Aargh! Damn it!"

The man shouted as he furiously swung the sword in his hand towards the kenku\'s neck.

*Splitch*

The kenku\'s neck was cut halfway through as the sword had lost its momentum and stuck there hazardously.

Simultaneously, the kenku\'s lifeless body dropped to the ground limpingly as the wound on its neck oozed out blue blood bucketing, dyeing the green grass with blue color.

At the same time, the wounded man also fell on two knees towards the grass ground. He felt an intolerable pain in his stomach, and his body appeared heavy from the poison\'s effects.

The poisoned man gradually lost all his strength as his body dropped to the ground.

In the end, he foamed out white bubbles from his mouth while his body convulsed continually before he eventually stopped moving.

Just like that, two humans and one kenku were dead as the bloody battle proceeded on.

The scenes like this of humans and kenkus losing their lives were happening simultaneously at many other places.

The battle had just started, after all...

...

Approximately two hundred meters away from the battlefield...

Right now, Jeremy stood on a tall tree\'s branch, overlooking the brawl between humans and kenkus silently.

As Jeremy was pretty far away from where the battle took place, no one realized the presence of a true predator over here at all.

Currently, Jeremy didn\'t activate Third Eye but still saw the battlefield very clearly. He even saw a man foaming and convulsing at two hundred meters away.

\'I don\'t seem to remember anyone from the human side at all. Meanwhile, the two sides should be the scout teams sent by their respective camps to find the opponent\'s camping location, just like in my past life...\'

\'The kenkus have the upper hand as the human side dies out at a faster rate by accurate arrows and lethal poison. Despite the use of poison, if the two sides don\'t call a truce and choose to continue the skirmish, the kenku side will barely win with only a few survivors.\'

Jeremy analyzed the bloody battle below him leisurely before continuing his thought,

\'I\'ve arrived at the second stage roughly three days later than the others. By now, those people should have familiarized themselves with one another to some extent already. If I appear now, out of nowhere, nobody will recognize me.\'

\'As a result, they will become suspicious of me no matter what choice I choose in this kind of situation. Nonetheless, I can reduce the suspicion on me by some degree if I play it out well enough.\'

\'What excuse should I use if I want to blend in with those people...\'

Jeremy furrowed his eyebrows and rubbed his chin slightly.

\'Hmm... Alright, let\'s do that...\'

Having thought about his following actions, Jeremy suddenly jumped down from the twenty-meters tree directly.

*Thump*

The thumping noise rang out as Jeremy\'s feet contacted against the ground, causing game and fowl to scurry away in a startle at the sudden noise.

It was fortunate that two hundred meters of distance were considered quite far, so those battling people didn\'t realize Jeremy\'s presence over here in the least.

If it were before evolving into an intermediate-ranked organism, Jeremy wouldn\'t dare do such a thing as jumping down from a tall tree like that.

\'It doesn\'t hurt at all. What a good feeling...\'

Jeremy thought satisfactorily as he started walking in the direction of the battlefield.

As he only walked leisurely, Jeremy had spent three minutes to cover the two hundred meters of distance and almost five more minutes to detour behind the kenkus.

Shortly after, Jeremy finally arrived at the battlefield\'s peripheral as he hid behind a big tree and waited for the best timing to make his appearance.

\'They should give a signal to retreat soon...\'

Jeremy thought to himself after observing the current situation within the battlefield. Right now, he hid behind a big tree situated in the route where the kenkus was supposed to retreat into.

At this moment, the intense battle from earlier had already gone past the climactic scene as there were only eleven people from the human side and thirteen from the kenku side, so the two sides appeared to be more discrete and infrequent than before.

Regarding why Jeremy thought they would give a signal to retreat was that nobody wanted to lose their lives in such a place.

Consequently, even right now, the two sides appeared ready to retreat at any given time...

Within the battlefield...

*Phew*

*Puck*

An arrow went past a man\'s head dangerously before piercing itself into a tall tree.

"Damn it, those annoying guys. It looks like they still have four archers left..."

The man cursed and shook his head slightly before shouting aloud towards his teammates,

"Prepare for a retreat!"

The man looked to be in his late 20s; he wore leather armor and held an iron shield and a long sword. He appeared to be the human side\'s leader.

After the man had shouted, the rest of the humans acted accordingly as they started distancing themselves away from the opponent.

Meanwhile, a particularly big kenku holding a spear and a shield, standing in the middle of the battlefield, also spoke up with a shrill voice,

"Utumi Opso Nory!"

Upon hearing those words from their group leader, the kenkus also prepared to retreat to their camp as they let the human side distance away from them.

It appeared that the two leaders didn\'t want to waste their people\'s lives away in this battle, so they chose to let the other side go...

\'A chance...\'

Jeremy, who had been on standby behind the kenkus, thought to himself as he activated the Stealth skill while creeping forward slowly.

Not far from his hiding position stood two kenku archers, who were giving their backs openly for the stealthy Jeremy.

It appeared that Jeremy intended to finish the two archers first...

...

[A/N: Please read the author\'s thoughts below.]