"Let us camp here." I stopped running and bent to catch my breath.
Evelyn turned around with her brown leather bag swinging across her back. She walked up to me and grabbed my hand.
"Don't be a pussy, we ran for only four hours."
I released my hand from her grasp and sat on the red grasses, gazing at the twilight sky.
"I am at my limit." My mouth opened, taking in air like a fish drinking water.
The faint light of the golden sun highlighted Evelyn's silver hair. She stood tall in front of me, her breath steady.
"I will give you a piggyback ride, we can't afford to spend another day in the first section of the island."
Before I could respond, Evelyn's face exploded with pink blushes, and her long elf ears started shaking like a tail of an excited cat.
She brought her palms and rested them on her chin, her face tilted to the side, while her knees collided, creating the shape of the letter K.
"Oh, this is going to be divine, I can already feel it—your weight pressing down, my muscles screaming in protest, the slow burn in my legs... Ah, what a perfect kind of suffering! Hurry up, climb on! Let me feel every delicious ache as I carry you."
Upon hearing her ramblings, I stood up and dusted my trousers, my hand swinging the leather bag over my shoulder.
"Forget about it, I am going to run on my own."
I walked past Evelyn, my eyes refusing to glance at her.
Evelyn was not one to give up. She stealthily moved from behind, seized my right hand without my consent, and with remarkable ease, hoisted me over her shoulder as though I were nothing more than a sack of rice.
"Don't think you can turn me down when you are responsible for turning me on."
***
The second sector of Devil's Island was nothing like the first sector.
After two hours of continuous running, Evelyn gracefully put me down from her shoulders.
The moonlight cascaded over us, illuminating the towering Kapok trees. Their enormous horizontal branches spread widely from their tall trunks, forming distinctive umbrella-like crowns.
Evelyn and I quietly walked through the forest, instinctively avoiding thick, rope-like vines the color of dried blood. The vines spread across the floor in intricate patterns that resembled the convoluted folds of a gigantic, exposed human brain.
Lying on the floor, the vines pulsed as if they were the veins of a living object. Evelyn grabbed my right hand and pulled me closer to her, our shoulders touching.
"Let's be careful," she whispered. "The vines might belong to a nearby monster."
I nodded in agreement with her, clenching my leather bag tightly.
To me, Evelyn was like a guardian angel sent by the gods. Even in a place that spells doom at every corner I turn, her sweet scent was distracting me.
Our hands were interlocked, making way for the warmth of her body to seep into me. When I look a little closer to my left, her green prison uniform reveals bits of her cleavage.
Holding hands with a hot elf was a dream I never knew I had; the only downside is that I was transmigrated into a blood-thirsty world rather than a farming simulator.
Meters into the second sector, Evelyn crouched, her fingers brushing against a lone fungus nestled among countless others. It clung to a decaying log, its surface pulsing with a faint blue glow.
"Feels almost tender, like the underbelly of a fish." Evelyn looked up at me.
I crouched down and lightly touched the blue fungus with my fingers. "Don't tell me you are considering eating this."
Evelyn looked around, her eyes stopping on a small fungus resembling an oyster mushroom, which emitted a soft, steady yellow light.
She carefully plucked the blue fungus before us, then proceeded to the yellow fungus and plucked it well.
"Relax, I am immune to poison," she said, before turning toward another fungus emitting a pulsing greenish glow.
After getting all three varieties of fungi in our surroundings, she returned and stood before me, her hands extending the fungi toward my face. The air around them carried a faint odor, like old blood mixed with the sweet decay of overripe fruit.
"I will try each option. If I find the unpoisoned one, we can share it."
The strong odor emanating from the fungi made me step back, but in my misstep, my foot accidentally pressed one of the throbbing veins.
The pungent scent emanating from the fungi caused me to step back, but in my misstep, my foot inadvertently pressed one of the throbbing veins.
'Screeee, Screeee.'
Immediately, we heard a scratching sound like the cries of an overgrown baby.
Following the high-pitched cry, a rumbling sound reverberated through the forest, shaking it like an earthquake had struck.
The vines nested on the floor started to move quickly, retreating into the forest.
'Thud, thud, thud."
The rumbling sound grew increasingly closer to our location, resembling the approach of a charging elephant, its steps causing the ground to tremble.
Quickly, I pulled out my katana and two bottles of Stardust healing potion from the bag.
My hands gripped the sword firmly, and I pointed it toward the incoming sound, while the healing potions remained securely tucked in my pockets.
On the other hand, with a single jump, Evelyn climbed a tall branch and sat nonchalantly on it.
"Handle it. I'm busy."
Evenlyn ignored me and focused on the fungi she was holding.
At that moment, the moonlight illuminated a tall creature advancing toward me. One glance sent my heart leaping into my throat, and I almost vomited.
The monster was a scorpion, easily the size of a large cart. Instead of the familiar segmented scorpion legs and pincers, its limbs were made of eight realistic human fingers.
On top of the scorpion's body, where a scorpion's head should have been, was a human head. Not a skull, but a living, breathing human head.
Before I could bear the grotesque appearance of the creature before me, I noticed that the vines we had seen earlier were rapidly retreating into the Underbelly of the scorpion.
'I suppose they truly were its intestines after all."
[Alert: New quest available.]
[Details: Solo the silent sybil.]
[Reward: Unlock your mark of divinity (Ocean Eyes).]
[Note: You did not kill 15 wolves in your first quest; this is your second chance.]