The Place Where Everything Begins

Within a particular temperate green forest with various deciduous trees grew sparsely spanning more than one kilometer of distance...

Typically, a temperate forest was home to a diverse wildlife biosystem including various insects, spiders, wolves, foxes, bears, coyotes, bobcats, lions, eagles, rabbits, deer, squirrels, and many more.

Subsequently, predators with their own territories typically ate smaller animals, whereas smaller animals usually ate grass and fruits from vegetation to survive.

Thus, when all the factors combined, they created a perfect ecosystem within a single forest...

At this time, the temperate forest looked to be in the pre-winter season. The temperature was as low as 40 degrees Fahrenheit or 4 degrees Celsius, causing various animals to rarely roam outside alone for fear of being preyed upon by hungry predators.

Furthermore, it appeared that the decrease in temperature and shortened daylight hours had decreased photosynthesis for trees and plants even more. Right now, those trees and plants were shedding their leaves in preparation for budding new ones in the next season when warmer temperatures and longer hours of daylight returned...

However, this place was the second stage of the tutorial, so the next season would never come...

At this moment...

*Rustle*

*Rustle*

The rustling noises generated by many people rushing through short grasses and fallen dried leaves resonated out within the forest-green jungle...

The sprinting people comprised more than twenty humans altogether. All of them were armed to the fullest from head to toe and had various weapons fully prepared for any immediate battle.

However, it seemed like those people intended to do some stealthy operations as most of them only wore leather armors which would not cause any clanging or clattering noise while moving and rushing.

Suddenly, when everyone was moving quickly past various deciduous trees, a middle-aged man in his late 30s running in the forefront raised his left hand, which was an agreed sign prior to the operation, for others to see.

Simultaneously, the other 19 people stopped right in track immediately, not daring to cause any more noise, as they knew what situation they were in right now...

Only one slip, and everyone here might fall into grave danger altogether.

Furthermore, everyone within the group was a veteran who had undergone and passed the first stage of the tutorial not long ago...

So, they knew what they should do and shouldn't do in this kind of situation.

Then the tall, middle-aged man, who had signaled everyone to stop earlier, did four or five hand signs to tell other people what he had found.

When everybody saw his hand signs, their faces grew more solemn all of a sudden...

For a reason, they were a scout team sent by the camp; they had prepared many ways to communicate before commencing this operation.

So, when everyone saw those agreed hand signs, they clearly understood that some footsteps sounds were coming from 11 o'clock direction, and both sides would cross path soon enough.

Regarding the middle-aged man, he obviously had his own credibility to act as the group's eyes and ears like this.

After all, the man used to be a hunter who spent most of his time back on Earth hunting the animals and living in the forests. So, he ought to be the most suitable person out of everyone here to act as the 'eyes and ears'.

Upon seeing the former hunter's hand signs, everyone's eyes suddenly shifted towards a certain bulky man with a bald head as if asking for further instruction from him...

Indeed, they were waiting for a decision from the man as he was operating as the current group's leader.

Right when the tall, muscular baldy saw everyone's attention was now on him, he fell into a brief dilemma...

'In this kind of situation where we don't know the exact amount of enemy, we should retreat quietly to relay the information. Then we will think of a countermeasure later...'

Having thought so, the group's leader, which happened to be the bald-headed Eddie, gave out three hand signals, telling everyone to retreat quietly back to their camp to report about the findings.

Upon seeing their leader's decision to retreat, most people sighed in relief and started going back the same route where they came from...

However...

*Whizz...*

A whizzing sound came out of nowhere, heading directly towards the retreating people...

*Puchi*

"Gak! Aargh..."

With the 'puchi' noise resounding out, someone's painful groaning voice also simultaneously rang out...

Sure enough, someone within the group was just shot by an arrow when they were retreating...

Upon seeing that, Eddie hurriedly looked around their surroundings to find the enemies' traces between the rocks and trees.

Sure enough, Eddie had found quite some of them...

"Enemies have already surrounded us! Prepare for a battle!"

Eddie shouted aloud after realizing many silhouettes behind the trees at tens of meters away from the group.

From his vast experience, Eddie knew it had already been too late to retreat now, so he commanded everyone to prepare for a fight.

Afterward, Eddie brought forth a crossbow from his back with two arrows being nocked readily in the two flight grooves. Then he promptly aimed towards a particular direction in the away distance...

There, Eddie suddenly spotted a tall creature with the head of a bird poking out from behind a tall tree.

Upon seeing an opportunity to attack, Eddie decided to pull the trigger without any hesitation...

*Whizz...*

The arrow bolt whizzed towards the hiding creature swiftly...

Not long after...

*Puchi*

The arrow bolt punctured the bird-like creature's head hazardously as it dropped to the ground dead...

'What a lucky shot... Also, they are not that strong, then...' Eddie thought to himself momentarily before turning his head towards everyone else and shouting aloud...

"We will use a guerrilla warfare tactic! Everyone, disperse!"

After Eddie realized the enemies' strength was roughly the same as theirs, he promptly ordered everyone to fight using one of the agreed battle formations, guerrilla tactic.

For a battle within a forest full of big and tall trees like this one, no other strategy was more suitable than the guerrilla warfare one.

So, Eddie's decision was proven to be correct...

At the same moment...

The groaning man, whom had been shot by the arrow earlier, was carried by two people to take a cover behind a big tree.

However, the injured man could only take three steps before he suddenly dropped to the ground and convulsed incessantly with white foamed bubbles coming out of his mouth continually.

When the two people, who had been carrying the wounded man, saw such a sight, their eyes constantly widened in shock...

Before long, one of them suddenly came out of the stupor and shouted for the other Earthlings to hear,

"Be careful! Their weapons are smeared with lethal poisons!!"

"..."

"..."

The atmosphere became deadly still for a split second as everyone was digesting the man's sudden shout...

Shortly after, most people's faces started hardening even more than before as they knew they were in a real deep shit this time...

'This fight will be tough...'

Eddie thought depressingly while firing an arrow bolt at a bird-humanoid creature rushing towards him from a distance...

...

[A/N: This is how the bird-humanoid creature looks like.]