The small, transparent bug made of water continued to follow after the girl as she hunted monster after monster, despite the light from the sun dimming as seconds passed, with the mountains afar hindering its light from reaching the plain.
'It's already dark, and she still insists on going hunting monsters? What are you thinking, girl?'
Different from him, the girl is highly likely not to have the ability to see Mana, so she might not be able to see through the darkness of the night.
If so, she might even have lost the moment the light from the sun is completely gone.
Ronata looked at the figure of the girl as she was wielding two daggers she had found from the campsite the group of humans he had killed left before.
Slithering around her was the same snake Ronata's Water Lycan had one-shot before; the snake tried to use its long body to trap the girl down.
However, the girl hopped off the ground the moment the snake curled its body toward her. The girl twirled her body midair, sliced the snake's body thrice shallowly before she landed 2 meters away from the snake.
The snake glared at her, hissed furiously when it felt the pain from its wounds being transferred into its body.
It lunged at the girl, its snout opened wide, threatening the girl that it would use its venom-covered fangs to bite her.
The girl, however, managed to sidestep its charge, going as far as slicing the snake's neck while doing so.
The wound, once again, was too shallow, so the snake was still alive.
While the girl was still trying to regain her footing, the tail of the snake whipped toward her from behind the cover of the grass formation, completely catching the girl off guard.
Fortunately, the girl could react fast enough. She sliced the tail with her dagger in her right hand before using another dagger in her left hand to thrust the snake's body, twisting it to inflict lethal damage on its body.
That move, however, made both her hands full. Thus, when the snake lunged at her with its snout opened once again, the girl couldn't block or avoid the attack.
It was the first time the girl fought the snake, so she wasn't familiar with its capabilities.
The moment the snake pierced her shoulder with its fangs, the girl immediately sensed that it would be bad if she let the snake finish what it was trying to do.
With an unimaginable reaction speed, she quickly thrust her dagger, which she held with her right hand, into the snake's neck, interrupting the snake's attempt to inject its venom inside her.
The girl then followed her attack using another dagger. She swung her dagger upward, finally cutting the snake's neck clean.
Ronata let out a mental sigh of relief the moment the girl peeled off the head of the snake on her left shoulder.
It was her eleventh prey of the day.
Seeing the dark surrounding, the girl didn't have any choice but to retreat to her campsite for now, her hand clutching the bite wound on her left shoulder to stop the blood from spilling out.
'Such a strong girl. I wonder what's driving her to this level?'
Ronata sighed mentally as she controlled his Water Stink Bug to follow the girl back to her campsite.
Ronata stared ahead with his Mana Eye. With his Mana Eye, he could see everything as clear as day. He confirmed that there aren't any monsters that the girl might find in her way back to her camp.
He looked back at the girl's face, her expression. Her frustration was bare for Ronata to see.
'She looked worse than before... Is it because of the creature?'
Ronata recalled the invisible creature that followed the girl. Maybe the girl, although she couldn't see the creature, had noticed its presence. That's why she became more desperate to level up than before and looked more concerned and restless than ever.
In his past life, Ronata had a daughter.
He later realized that the little girl he had cared for this entire time was not even his child, but that's not the point.
His daughter... She was a cheerful and lovely girl.
She perhaps just reached her fourth year before Ronata died.
She still couldn't even walk on her own when Ronata and her mother divorced.
He still remembers her eyes back then when she cried and reached out for him.
Ronata looked back at the girl as she navigated her way back to her camp.
This girl... Wasn't his daughter. His daughter was thick with her Western blood, but this girl was clearly an Asian girl. But if,
If the little girl who used to be so clingy with him before had lost her cheerful side because of the separation between him and her mother, then—
'Would she also end like this girl?'
Desperate, unrest, worry, reckless...
Ronata admits it. The girl is strong. He wasn't even sure that he could so bravely fight with monsters of this world if he were still in his Human body.
Not only the pain, the fear, the chance of losing life...
The girl shouldered it alone.
She handled all of that with nothing but sheer willpower, and a goal she desperately wanted to reach that Ronata didn't know.
Most of the girls her age wouldn't be able to achieve such a feat. Even adults wouldn't be able to face a monster so fearlessly if they didn't have any experience in battle.
Yet this girl managed to do all of that.
Clumsy and fearful at first, she grew more confident later, then became as skillful as she is now.
All within an instant of four days.
—If the world ever fell to ruin like in a zombie apocalypse movie, what kind of character do you think you would become?
A question from the past, uttered by his old friend that he had long never contacted since he started his job as a Cybersecurity specialist and married.
—Do you think you would become the protagonist, fighting zombies with pistols and a machine gun? Bang! Bang! You know? Haha!
Ronata's answer back then was, if he recalled it clearly, was...
'Of course, I would even handle the mutated variant with ease!'
An ignorant, full-of-spirit young man who had grown confident after the first clearance of his long-played zombie apocalypse game.
Ronata sighed internally, erasing these thoughts from his mind as she returned to reality.
He looked at the clearing ahead where the campsite was located, only to freeze the moment he saw what was waiting for the girl there.
The creature—
It stood there.
Its red eyes locked on the girl.
Yet the girl,
Didn't notice it.
She continued to walk toward her tent, unaware of the existence of the creature.