Strange Fox

As Lake ran off he saw a group of red dots quickly approaching the location where he killed the black boars. "It would've been bad had I stayed there, it's unfortunate that I couldn't get the materials from the boars though, that hide especially was good stuff."

When Lake got to what he thought was far enough he climbed onto a branch to take a rest, despite how easy it seemed to kill the boars their hides were tougher then he expected.

He had exert all of his strength to kill them. Along with his inexperience with fighting beasts he was more fatigued than normal.

After the short rest Lake began his journey once more, staying out of range of the red dots to avoid the evo beasts they represented.

Soon he had reached the area indicated by the mission. As Lake looked around he saw a mass of trees that were knocked down and destroyed.

On the ground was a large pit that had been created from some sort of impact, there were large claw marks on the trees that still stood as well.

"What could've caused this kind of destruction? So class 2 beasts could cause this kind of damage, I need to be more cautious then."

Lake looked at the minimap to see if there were any beasts nearby and saw nothing, no longer hesitating he approached the destroyed area to look for the necklace.

The mission details described it as a silver chain with a rose like pendant attached to the end.

As Lake searched he made sure to check the minimap from time to time in case a beast came nearby.

Quickly he found the necklace on the ground next to a fallen tree, Lake went to grab it but a shadow had suddenly flashed past while the necklace had also vanished.

Turning towards the shadow that went past he saw a small silver fox holding a silver chain in it's mouth, it looked at Lake with a glint in it's eyes.

It looked like a normal fox but it's eyes carried an intelligence that didn't seem like the eyes of a mindless beast.

'This must be the class 2 beast that attacked the hunter's group.' Despite it's small stature Lake had no intentions of underestimating it. It had after all moved so fast that he didn't notice it on his minimap.

As Lake watched the fox play with the necklace he try to formulate a plan to retrieve it back from the fox.

Though no matter what he thought he couldn't think of a way to move faster than it even with his immense strength he'd have no way to take it down if he couldn't hit it.

"This thing moves too fast, I couldn't even see it properly when it took the necklace." While he was thinking the fox began moving towards him.

It only slowly walked towards Lake while it's eyes were staring at him with a curious light in them.

Lake held his breath as he stood there waiting for the fox to approach, unsure of what the fox wanted. Though Lake was puzzled, he had thought that all evo beasts just rushed at humans immediately, yet this one seemed more curious than bloodthirsty.

When the fox reached Lake's legs it walked around him while looking him up and down in a curious manner, inwardly Lake had the feeling that the fox was most likely a child.

Suddenly the fox had leapt at him with blinding speed, all that could be seen was a small silver shadow flashing past.

Lake could barely see it but his instincts kicked in and he hurriedly dodged to the side with a roll before getting back on his feet. But he couldn't relax for long as he felt his hair standing on end and he quickly leapt back to see the fox standing at the spot he just leapt away from.

Before he could even land the fox moved again, rushing straight towards Lake he realized he wouldn't be able to dodge it this time.

'Too fast!'

He activated shelled armor to endure the attack, the impact of the fox made him collide into a tree causing a large dent to appear in it.

Lake could feel his organs rumbling inside him and he felt like puking but he was relatively fine otherwise. As he struggled to get up from the ground he was shocked to see the fox had landed in front of him and stared at him.

Lake crossed his arms to brace for the impact but nothing came, rather he saw the fox was jumping around making yip sounds with a happy looking face.

'What's happening? Wasn't it attacking me?' The fox then looked at Lake suddenly and jumped at him.

Before Lake could react he felt a weight on his head and he saw the fox was sitting there looking extremely happy. The fox was rather small so it could sit quite easily.

Without moving a hundred thoughts ran through his head before he remembered his previous conjecture that this fox was most likely just a child.

'Could it be that it was just playing with me? What kind of fox is this?' Lake came to the conclusion that the fox was just trying to play with him without realizing how powerful it was.

It must've unintentionally harmed because it wanted to play or that the hunters foolishly attacked it because it seemed weak, either way they were too unfortunate to face a monster like this one.

While Lake was thinking the silver fox had already jumped off his head and ran towards where it had dropped the necklace before picking it up and dropping it in front of Lake.

Lake had no idea what the little fox was thinking, he had never heard of such a strange evo beast like this one. Throughout his knowledge he hadn't heard of a silver fox evo beast, he didn't know how to react when the fox suddenly dropped the necklace in front of him.

"Are you giving this to me?" To Lake's shock the fox had nodded to his question.

Evo beasts were widely known to be mindless beasts that had no other motive besides attacking and devouring humans. But the little fox in front of him was doing no such thing, rather it was intelligent and could even understand human words.

"What in the world are you?" While asking he reached out and picked up the necklace before putting it in his inventory.

The little fox seemed to be glad that Lake accepted it as it began jumping and yipping around again.

Lake felt that the fox wouldn't attack him anymore and decided to try to leave, he had already retrieved the necklace, there was no more reason to stay.

And though the little fox was strange, it was in the end an evo beast. He didn't know whether it would suddenly change it's mind and kill for the fun of it. Lake didn't want to spend any more time next to this unknown beast.