21. The first human

"No, no, no. Please don't." The man was holding the dull scythe, aiming at Hilda. Nothing was making sense to him. He had no idea where this gnoll beast came from. 

These beasts usually move with the tribe or groups of gnolls. Although single beasts weren't uncommon, they were generally weak, old, or dying. Yet, this one is different.

Those eyes could peer into the soul; the claws covered with a violet hue broke through the thick wooden fence like a toothpick. What was more shocking was that the gnoll beast alone was enough to slaughter everyone in the settlement.

It was a small settlement near the border of the desolated land. It was not a very suitable place to live for humans. However, they weren't normal humans.

The church declared them criminals. If someone from the church got their hand on them, they would be crucified. 

Some of them had angered some nobles in the kingdom and would have been hanged to death at the city center if they hadn't escaped.

A few of them had lost everything. Quite a few of them were halflings who weren't welcomed anywhere. And a few actual criminals mixed in the bunch who didn't accept any normal human society. 

Whatever their past, this was the only place they could live without worrying about anyone else. However, this place wasn't the one where people could have peace. 

Even though this region was theoretically still in the realm of light, it was not uncommon for goblin raids or kobold attacks to occur every month or even every other week. Not only that, but human bandits are also common. The occurrence of a gnoll raid, let alone a gnoll beast, is exceptionally unusual.

"Please let me go, please. I am not very tasty. You have the children. That lass from Ino's had just given birth. You can have it."

"That is not for you to decide." It sounded like a growl to the man; however, he failed to notice when the beast appeared beside him and bit off his hand.

"Ahhhh…" The visual sensation came first, and the pain soon followed. However, he didn't get the chance to scream, as Hilda ended his life in a single bite. Alas! The prompt had made her anything but happy.

[Level: 20 (1.29/21)]

The last time she killed those goblins, it pushed her beyond the threshold of level 20. It didn't just give her 10 points in stats but also five free points.

Most importantly, her aura changed. Instead of white, her aura was now violet. Which, according to Knir, is the first true aura. 

The white aura was only good inside her body. It was almost impossible for the white aura to manifest outside one's body. 

Now, she couldn't just manifest aura outside her body; she also used them as her claws and reinforced her defense as armor.

However, leveling up had just produced one small problem. When Hilda was a white aura user, killing a white aura user would have given her one exp. Now that had been reduced to 0.1 exp. An auraless user would give her 0.01; if her guess was correct, only a violet aura user would give her 1 point.

"Now is not the time for me to worry about it." Hilda was sure the other people in the settlement had already realized something had broken into the settlement. 

The movement outside also made her realize that they knew she was inside the house. Looking up, she noticed the hut's roof was on fire.

"Idiot." Hilda's body glowed, and a thin layer of violet aura also covered her body. Someone threw a net at her as soon as she walked out of the door.

There was no place to fish near the settlement. It was evident that it was used for hunting. It should have been tough to get out if one didn't have a human hand; even then, it wouldn't have been an easy task.

[Floral Limb(I)]

A thick vine hand appeared from the ground behind Hilda, and the net was shot down from the air. 

The sudden appearance of the giant hand shocked the onlookers for a moment, but as soon as the first one recovered, he threw a spear at Hilda.

The iron tip hit right at the center of her forehead, or the violet aura protection layer on her body, and she fell.

"A violet aura beast! Does that even make sense?" A keen-eyed one soon noticed the aura protecting her body, but the intelligent one screamed and tried to flee from her.

Alas! A pair of wolves, a kobold warrior, and a deer guarded the two openings in the fence on one side, and wolves were all around the area. The wall that was supposed to protect them soon turned into their prison. 

"Call Hench. He is also a violet aura user."

"He is dead. It killed him.

"Raco!"

No one answered him this time. However, the lack of response from the person in question confirmed that he might have suffered the same fate.

Despite the chaos, quite a few brave ones still dared to point their spear, axe, or scythe at Hilda. The aura was enough for Hilda to take care of all of them. 

Although the number of wolves in her pack had grown from five to eleven, there were too many humans. A few lucky ones fled. 

After Hilda took care of almost all of them, she ordered the rest of the wolves not to let anyone escape. Hilda was sure that before the day broke, they wouldn't be alive. 

[Level: 20 (1.54/21)]

A couple of buildings were on fire. By its position, Hilda was sure the fire wouldn't spread. Even if it did, there was nothing she could do. It was not like she could put out the fire.

Even if it turned into ruins, it wasn't a problem for Hilda or her strange pack. Eleven wolves, a kobold warrior, and three pregnant does. They will just stay here till the meat in this place runs out.

A week had passed since Hilda had returned to the barren wasteland, and it was upon her return to this spot that the most pressing issue had become apparent to her: she still had no notion of the whereabouts of her gnoll tribe.

Hilda could not be guaranteed to locate them, even if she knew their exact location. Although the monster's home is a desolate wasteland, not everything is peachy.

The land is fragmented and divided between different beasts. The outskirts were mainly divided between goblins, kobolds, and other creatures of darkness. This was also the place where the human caravans passed through to save some time.

The gnomes, kobolds, and orcs dwell in the land beyond that. The kobolds and gnomes also moved around the outskirts of the middle area while the orcs stayed in the deeper area.

If Hilda didn't know any better, she would have walked right into this place. However, knowing that there are goblins who might be as strong as the gnoll chief, Hilda couldn't take a chance.

To grow stronger, she started hunting the human settlement near the outskirts. Although this was only her second raid, Hilda had already noticed that her growth had slowed significantly.

"What are you doing?" 

The kobold warrior didn't expect to meet Hilda, as he was dragging a woman. She was alive and was struggling to escape. Tears and snorts had made a mess of her face—the constant dragging had pulled off her lower garments to her ankles.

The kobold warrior was like a thriving raccoon in front of a car's headlight. He had no idea what to do, whether to let the woman go or kill it.

"That's it." Hilda's excited realization sounded like an angry outburst to the gnoll warrior. He was quick to let go of the woman's hair and go on his knees. He put his forehead to the ground and dared not look up.

"What the hell are you doing? Grab her. Don't let her escape."

He looked up to see Hilda's expression before turning to see the woman scrambling to escape. Then he looked at Hilda again as if trying to understand what she was trying to mean.

"Go."

The kobold warrior scrambled. It wasn't hard for him to catch her. He pushed her head down on the ground with her face first and pulled out his bone dagger.

"Stop. What the hell are you doing?" 

"Didn't you ask me to kill her?" It was the question that was written on his Doberman-like face.

"Nah! You fucking idiot. Don't kill her. Breed her. Make a lot of offspring with her." He looked at the woman one time before checking Hilda. "Yes, with her."

What looked like a smile looked anything but reassuring to the woman. She started to scream again. The kobold warrior didn't care and pulled her by the side of the house.

"If the quality doesn't work, we must fill up the quantity." Hilda nodded. "It will still take time, but I can take this time to build up my strength."

While trying to find a way to increase the number quickly, the first thing to remember was assimilating more goblins and kobolds in her pack.

"That won't do. I think I would need to keep these females from the next raid. The goblins could reproduce quickly. Kobolds, too."

Hilda moved around the settlement, littered with dead bodies, before she entered the first house she had broken into.

The room was dark, and as soon as she stepped into the house, an eerie silence filled it. Even in the darkness, Hilda could see a pair of eyes looking at her. 

Just like the somewhat cold body on the floor, those eyes stared at Hilda without a single drop of light.

"The dead guy must be Hench." As soon as Hilda entered the settlement, she found this guy to be the strongest. So, he was the first one to die. The only reason she had left the other person in the room alive was because she was tied to a pole even before Hilda had entered the place.

Hilda was sure that this woman, who was tied to the pole in the middle of the room, naked, was also a resident of the settlement. And many might have known that she was here. Those eyes told her it might not be her first or second day.

"Come on." To Hilda's surprise, her eyes suddenly focused on her. "What are you waiting for? Come here. Kill me. Put me out of my misery."

She was screaming at the top of her voice, hoping to attack her attention. Even if she yearned for death, accepting one was more challenging than she thought.

When she felt the wet breath of the beast on her bare skin, goosebumps spread all over her body. The whiskers dyed in blood tickled her thighs as the beast continued to sniff and moved up her naked legs.

When she was wondering what the beast was doing, she felt it between her thighs. "No." She screamed as she felt the wet tongue slapped against her pussy. 

"No… not there." She tried to close her leg but felt something holding down her ankles. "Don't eat me from there. Kill me first, then eat. Please, I beg you…" 

 Even if she wanted it herself, when she knew her death was coming, she didn't dare to accept it. She closed her eyes, clenched her teeth, and waited for the pain to come. 

"Hmmp…" She looked up, finding the rope that was binding her hands in the air was cut. She looked at the beast, trying to understand what it intended to do.

She moved her legs. The constraint on her legs wasn't there.

"Do you want to let me go?" She knew the beast wouldn't be able to understand her. To her surprise, the beast moved out of the way, giving her a path to walk out the door.

"Do you want me to go?"

The beast didn't respond. The beast just sat and dared to look towards her. She had no idea what was happening to her or why the beast was letting her go. But she couldn't wait to get out of the hell hole.

She scrambled to stand and ran towards the door.

Or, at least, she tried. 

As soon as she put her back towards the beast, it jumped on her body, making her go on all four.