Watching Kevin and Liam search their assigned area with amazing teamwork and efficiency,I sighed before turning around.
Since Liam was the protagonist, it was likely that he would find the end condition due to his higher luck stat, so I ordered the crow to keep watch over him before departing.
It was six people versus one...while I had the better strategy, they had more coordination and efficiency.
I couldn''t search the same amount of area their group of six did, but they couldn''t easily recognize the end condition as I could.
My crows couldn''t evene close to keeping up with the speed of a mundane human, especially not six D-rank humans.
Effort didn''t matter in this scenario.
No matter how much effort I put in, considering my luck stat was most like an abysmal G- and myck of manpower, the odds of me finding it were zero.
But then, why was I still searching? Why I hadn''t joined up with the main cast, the group was more statistically and logically inclined to find the end condition.
Why was I being so stubborn about staying alone?
These people weren''t my enemies.
I had said it myself; the author determined these people to be heroes.
They had the same goals as me; they just used different methods.
But, then, who was my enemy?
Who were my teammates, my friends, and my acquaintances?
Entering the next area, I manifested my wings and flew above the trees with my map at my feet.
I knew the answers to these questions, but I chose to ignore them.
The likelihood of us finding the end condition would increase if I joined them, right now, yet despite knowing that, I decided to stall for time.
I knew that finding the end condition alone in three days was close to impossible.
Activating the usage period of the dash, I pped my wing before using a dash, reappearing twenty meters ahead in the air.
"Not there."
Circling around the perimeter of the area, I looked like a drone, staring downwards at the ground while floating.
There were reasons I didn''t want to group up.
Obviously, I would have to disy my abilities, but another reason was ack of familiarity and an excess of animosity between us.
It was like transferring to a new school and asking yourself to join apletely new friend group.
I coudln''t just forcefully include myself in the group; they had to actually ept me, and considering my attitude...I would have to show something amazing to join.
Sighing, mid-dash, I knew that it was no longer a choice.
Three days was the maximum I had given myself.
Stopping mid-thought, I halted in the air and looked downwards at the specific tree, noticing that its structure was different as it was missing a couple of leaves.
It was possible that today''s breeze might have caused some leaves to fly away... but it was possible that this tree was something else.
Slowly descending downwards, Inded atop the tree, alternating gazing at the map and the tree below me to confirm it.
"i-it is different."
Jumping from the top of the tree and onto the ground, I stared at the tree''s trunk before manifesting a corrupted dagger.
Raising the night-ck dagger, I shed the tree, slightly leaving a mark on its otherwise unblemished brown trunk.
Then, I simply left.
pping my wings, I once again appeared ten meters above the forest, took out my map, and continued searching the area.
Finding nothing else different, I then moved on to the next area.
Then, the next.
Then, the next.
As the night descended, plunging the whole world into darkness, my figure became invisible in the sky as my insane speed,bined with my stealth stat, allowed my figure to disappear.
Seeing the half-crescent moon in the sky above me, I descended to the ground and dismissed my wing.
As soon as my two feet touched the cold, hard ground, my entire body copsed out of exhaustion. exclusive-content-MvLeMpYr
"one... abnormality in twelve hours. Well... it''s better than zero."
While, unlike yesterday, my work wasn''t mentally taxing, my physical body was still suffering from the sheer amount of corruption and energy I was using.
You can''t go from using some corruption daily to using ake of corruption in a single-day...yet I had.
And I had no one to me but myself.
During my search, I spotted countless main cast members in the vicinity andpletely ignored them, continuing my solo search.
How much time had been wasted since my crows or I had searched the same areas?
That was something I didn''t want to think about.
Stubbornness was a w that, instead of discarding, I embraced and used.
"i-it''s not like it matters; I''m joining them tomorrow.... unless."
There was a faint hope shining in my heart that just a single dagger mark would remain on a tree in a forest.
Barely keeping my eyes open, I stared upwards at the countless stars shining in the night sky.
Unfortunately, there were no shooting stars this time.
Closing my eyes, I swapped eyesight with my first crow onest time, seeing the waterfall vige, before allowing myself to sleep.
As the sun rose, shining its rays right in my face and forcing me to wake up, I reluctantly stood up from the ground.
Today was going to be a hard day.
Either I would find the end condition and have to solve whatever puzzle or fight whatever monster myself... or I would be a part of what I used to hate the most.
And I do mean "used to."
What did I hate the most now?
Gazing at the floor below me as I made my way to the marked tree, I cleared my face while manifesting my pair of corrupted daggers.
Tilting my head upward as I approached the trees, I picked an apple before handing it to my cat, who had just woken up.
*MEOW*
"yeah, yeah, I know this is second time, this week."