Chapter 19 The Mark "We must find her again!"...

Benson led Lucas on a long journey, encountering two monster attacks along the way.

However, since the two magical beasts had been starving for a long time and were skin and bones, they were only holding on by sheer willpower. Benson alone was the only one holding them off, while Lucas occasionally distracted the beasts from the side. So, they managed to escape unscathed.

As evening approached and the sun began to set, the two finally arrived at the group's temporary accommodation.

When Lucas first followed Uncle Benson toward a large rock, he didn't realize it was where they lived. It wasn't until Benson raised his hand and rhythmically tapped three spots, causing the haystack beside the rock to stir and a wary head to slowly peek out from behind, that Lucas realized what was happening.

The girl's tense face relaxed slightly when she saw Benson's familiar figure, and her eyes lit up with surprise when her gaze swept over Lucas standing to the side.

She looked around again before moving the haystack a little further and speaking in a low voice, "Come in quickly!"

There was a small door behind that haystack, so small that it could be hidden by some dense haystacks, and so small that someone of Benson's size had to bend over to slowly squeeze in.

Fortunately, the path was only low for a short distance; once you passed that part, the view suddenly opened up. Lucas looked up and surveyed his surroundings, wondering if the inside of the boulder had been hollowed out to create such a large space.

The interior was divided into several sections by stones, serving as a place to store food, store miscellaneous items, sit, and sleep.

Lucas glanced around, noting how many companions he had left before he left, and roughly how many were still left. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Although Benson had told him beforehand, he still needed to see it with his own eyes to be completely at ease.

After leading the two inside, Idisa couldn't help but turn around and give Lucas a big hug.

"I thought I would never see you again!" Her voice was thick with sobs.

The two friends, finally reunited, exchanged pleasantries, making quite a commotion. Hearing the noise, the people inside the boulder slowly gathered around.

Everyone was delighted by Lucas's return, but apart from the two children who were more excited, most of the adults quickly snapped out of their joy at the reunion. After sitting quietly for a short while, they began to talk about the main topic.

"We've been in the Devil's Forest for almost half a month now, but we haven't found a witch, or even something that looks like a human." The man speaking glanced at the thin man beside him. "Little Jim, are you sure you didn't mishear me?"

All eyes in the cave immediately turned to little Jim as the man spoke.

The skinny man sat next to the tall and muscular Benson, making him look like a pitiful little animal in comparison.

Little Jim was clearly not used to being the center of attention, and the sheer number of eyes on him made him so nervous that he started sweating: "I'm sure! I was just a wooden board between us, I heard him perfectly clearly, he said, he said..."

“There’s a witch in the Devil’s Forest. Find her, and she can grant you one wish,” Benson said in a somber tone.

This sentence was what sustained them as they entered the terrifying Devil's Forest. Each of them remembered it perfectly, almost as if it were etched into their minds.

The atmosphere suddenly turned cold. When it comes to matters of life and death, no one can relax.

After an unknown amount of time, a low voice suddenly came from the corner: "Why haven't we seen anything that looks like a human? The sister who rescued Lucas, isn't she one of the other living humans besides us?"

The little girl's voice was so low that only the man sitting next to her could hear it.

"Idisa, what did you say!"

Idisa was startled by the sudden sound.

The man softened his tone and encouraged, "Repeat what you just said." His voice was filled with barely suppressed delight.

Idisa repeated what she had just said, trembling with fear. This time, everyone inside the giant rock heard her.

The two children were sitting in the corner, chattering about their experiences during the days they hadn't seen each other. The adults weren't paying attention and didn't know that Valsa had been saved by Catherine.

Benson knew about this, and when he heard about it, his first reaction wasn't to associate Catherine with a witch. The reason was simple: witches are all-powerful! And Catherine and Lucas met in the snake pit!

Even if we boldly assume that the witch disguised herself as a human to attend the snake's feast for fun, she certainly wouldn't have ended up escaping in such a sorry state with Lucas.

If Catherine is a witch...

How could a witch who can't even save herself possibly save them?

However, the others inside the boulder had clearly fallen into a frenzy of revelry.

The Devil's Forest is not a place suitable for humans! It is home to thousands of beasts far more powerful than humans. Even though they didn't live a good life before entering the Devil's Forest, the almost endless escapes after entering the forest have worn down their nerves.

Two weeks isn't a long time, but it's definitely not short when you have to be on edge every moment.

Catherine was the first human they encountered after entering, which undoubtedly ignited their hope.

No one wanted to think that she might not be a witch.

We must find her again!

-

Somewhere in the Devil's Forest, Catherine, trapped in a spiderweb cage, couldn't help but sneeze.

Upon hearing the sound, Tarasco's paws reached out to support her the moment afterward. Catherine gently patted her through the cage, indicating that she was alright.

It's already early October. While the towns outside might still be sweltering with summer heat, in the Devil's Forest, the coolness of autumn is already gradually becoming apparent.

Catherine sat comfortably in the spiderweb cage, treating Tarasco as her mount.

After walking for a while, a sudden tremor was heard. However, this time Catherine was prepared in advance, so she did not fall like before. Instead, she gripped the cage firmly and remained standing.

Just as she breathed a sigh of relief, intending to sit still and wait for the day's hunt to end, a flash of green suddenly appeared before her eyes.

Catherine's expression changed, her gaze following the color she had just seen, only to discover a green mark on Tarasco's spider's abdomen, the same as the silver python's...

It has to be said, that location was incredibly tricky. If she hadn't been at this angle, and hadn't just happened to look up, that mark might never have been discovered.

But why is it that both of them have such a small mark on their bodies?

Catherine frowned. She didn't believe it was just a coincidence. Even a congenital birthmark couldn't possibly be so similar in shape. But she also couldn't understand why two completely unrelated beasts would have the same green mark.

"Da...da..."

Suddenly a knocking sound rang out, and the spiderweb cage shook.

Catherine looked up and realized that while she was pondering, Tarasco had already finished the battle without her noticing.

This prey was clearly not weak in combat, leaving many deep and shallow wounds on his body, but they all seemed to be slowly healing.

Catherine temporarily put her earlier discovery aside.

Tarasco hoisted the silken cage onto his carapace, then, carrying his freshly killed prey, raced towards his lair. Upon reaching it, he flung the prey to the ground with a thud, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Catherine crawled out of the dissected cage and had barely stood still when an arm was pressed against her, causing her to stumble backward several steps.

She looked closely and saw that the arm in front of her was grayish-white with several fresh bloodstains crisscrossing it, as if it had been injured not long ago. However, after running back, most of the marks had scabbed over, and the remaining few had stopped bleeding.

Catherine looked up in confusion, only to meet Tarasco's gaze.

“Bleeding…bandage,” he said.

Catherine: …………?

There was no more bleeding... but she secretly glanced at the alien spider's expression, which seemed very persistent.

Catherine pursed her lips, and in the end, without saying anything, walked to the corner, took out her few remaining nun's robes, tore off a few strips of fabric, and wrapped them around the wound on Tarasco's arm that looked like it would heal in the next second.

Tarasco smiled with satisfaction as he looked at the strips of cloth with gold thread patterns hanging conspicuously on his arm.

Tarasco cut the food into portions for two, then wrapped the rest in spider webs and hung it at the top of the cave.

After a hearty meal, Catherine felt the temperature slowly rising behind her and knew what was about to happen.

She couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

The energy of wild beasts is almost excessively high compared to that of humans.

Forced desires always carry an unbearable feeling. Catherine frowned uncontrollably. She turned her head to the side. Although her head was already dizzy from the intense heat and her consciousness was becoming scattered, some remaining consciousness stubbornly refused to succumb.

She wanted to grasp something to distract herself, otherwise the intense pleasure building up too quickly was making her want to escape Tarasco's embrace. But the opening was empty, there was nothing there... Hmm? What was that?

Only in the rocks, Tarasco, and her cave, there was a place that flickered like fireflies.

Catherine's attention was successfully drawn to it.

Her mind, which was on the verge of complete collapse, managed to hold on for a while, and she discovered that the thing flashing at a low frequency was actually that green mark.

That... the same green mark that looks exactly like the one on the silver python.

A note from the author:

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