A woman with sea-green eyes was watching a big screen excitedly. On the screen, a man was checking his gear before departing on a forest exploration.

The woman has kept watching him ever since he arrived in this world. At first, she was interested in him because he was someone her friend chose to send here. But after watching him for a while she was now interested in him for a completely different reason.

He was entertaining.

She has seen enough people come from other worlds. Some became great heroes while others failed miserably. Now she wanted something more exciting, more unpredictable and the man on the screen provided all of that. He took risks and wanted to explore more of the things around him.

The other heroes all had one thing that this man did not have and that was support. A person who was summoned here always had other people teach him how to use magic or how to use the sword. They even told that person about the norm here, so they could settle in comfortably. But the man on the screen was walking blindly in this unknown world. And to make matters worse, he was in a forest that was so dangerous that hearing just its name makes people piss their pants.

He was in a forbidden land all alone without anyone to help him but that did not stop him. He grew powerful on his own in a short amount of time. Sure, luck played a big part in his growth but it was not all luck that made him grow. Suppose a person was in a situation, this man was put in with the lizard. Most people, who came from that world, would have chosen to run away. This man, on the other hand, decided to take a chance and kill the monster and She was simply impressed by this man’s guts and quick thinking.

Now the man will be exploring this forbidden forest and she could not wait for all the things this man will encounter and overcome.

*Woman pov*

"I hope he finds a strong monster to fight, so I can judge his battle sense", I say with a small smile.

The man confirms everything and then decides to move. After walking a little he started to talk with himself, repeating the goals for his exploration.

After saying those three goals, he turns to the left and says. "Now repeat all the things I mentioned I need”.

I was a little confused when he said that since there was no one there. I move the screen to the man’s left and start looking here and there. As I was looking all over the screen, he said something again.

“Yes, you stupid, who else is here but you”.

After I heard that, my eyes were wide open in shock.

There were two reasons why I was so shocked. The first reason being him able to sense me, which should be completely impossible. No magic in this world could let him do that even if he was related to my friend.

The second reason for my shock was being called stupid. Never once in my million years of life has someone called me stupid. Even my mother has never called me that.

Feeling a little angry I look at him with a frown but he was calmly standing in place and waiting. I sigh and start to answer him, ignoring his rudeness from before. My reason for doing this is very simple.

I have not talked to anyone but my mother in about 500 years.

With a casual tone, I start saying, “You're looking for something that glows, wat-”

“Good you remembered everything, now your job is to keep a lookout.”

“If you see anything out of the ordinary just warn me OK?”

I was still in the middle of speaking when he interrupts and gives me a command. After that, not waiting for my reply, he starts walking.

I was dumbfounded.

No one has ever treated me like this.

No one has ordered me to do anything or ignored me like this, ever. It was making me feel strange and my heart was starting to beat faster for reasons unknown to me.

‘Why is he ignoring me, he can sense me right’, I think to myself ignoring my beating heart.

“Maybe he can sense me but can’t hear me, yeah that can only be the reason”

“He can’t ignore me like this for no reason”

“Just by sensing my aura, he should be able to tell that I am special right?”

“So if he can sense that I am special, why is he treating me like this” I continue to think of reasons for this man's strange behavior while the screen follows him.

While the man was gathering herbs, and I was busy with my thoughts, I notice a big black beetle approaching the man.

The beetle was no threat to him considering his strength now, but still, I warn him, “hey a big beetle is coming your way”.

I know he can’t hear me but I just said it anyway.

As I was looking at him, waiting for him to ignore me, he smiles a little and asks me “ “is there something wrong?”

“ You can hear me?” I say in a louder voice than usual.

“If you can hear me why are you ignoring me?” I question him while getting a little closer to the screen with a pounding heart. I completely forgot about his rude behavior before.

As I notice the beetle was getting closer, I say to him “ the beetle is still coming, deal with that so we can talk”

“something is coming towards me?”

he looks left and right and asks “where?”

“Don’t play dumb, you should be able to sense it too”, I say with an annoyed tone.

“it's coming from behind,” he says and looks behind.

He puts on a fake surprised look and says “ You were right! It's the big f*cker who gave me a surprise welcome when I first arrived here.”

“Quick! Tell me something I can use from my bag!” he asks me while panicking.

“Why are you panicking from that small fry, just beat him with your skills,” I say not understanding the reason for his actions.

He ignores me again and shows me his bag. I sigh and just go along with him.

I look inside the bag and notice those sleeping balls he made from that tree.

“You can use those sleeping balls of yours” I suggest to him.

“Your right. I should use that”

“I am?” I say in excitement since this was the first time he listened to me.

He puts his hands inside his bag and pulls some gantlets out of it. Seeing those my excitement despaired and anger appeared.

*bang*

I punch the screen shattering it and say, “You bastard! Those were not in there”

“If your gonna do what you want, why ask me!”, I say while panting.

Then I notice what I did I and I panicked.

“Noooooo!!!, this artifact will take weeks to recover,” I say while on my knees.

With tears in my eyes, I say “That’s it! I am not helping you until my screen recovers”

The present

*Alaric pov*

[Lamia]

A humanoid monster that lives in the south of Loswarier forest. In their village, there are no males and females have full control. Sometimes, Lamia guards roam here and there looking for a potential partner to take back.

Gender: Female

Level: 244

Stats

Vitality: 323 Agility: 334

Stamina: 345 Strength: 383

Intelligence: 256 Dexterity: 315

Charm: 145

Skills:

[Poison Kiss]

[Charm(low)]

[Tail Bind]

-------------------------------

I use appraisal while getting up and spitting the blood in my mouth.

Compared to the lizard, this time I could see a lot of stuff including some skills. As I was looking at her, she was slithering closer to me while hissing. I don’t know how she managed to hurt me while having lower stats, but I needed to be careful. I get into a boxing stance and start to observe her movements when suddenly, she starts slithering faster and comes at me full speed.

This time I was ready and throw a punch with flawless timing that was gonna knock her out, or so I thought.

When she came close to me, she bent her body backward, like in the matrix, to support it on her tail and my punch passes over her. I try and recover my stance but she recovers her faster and grabs me from behind in a swift motion. I try and used all my strength to get my hands out of her bind but I could not.

As I was struggling, I notice that she was wearing some kind of bracelets that glow red whenever I use my strength to try and get out. I don’t know what those were but they were the reason she was able to overpower me.

Confirming that I could not escape, she coils around me like a snake would do its pry and comes close to my face with her eyes glowing a little pink. I knew she was probably going to use charm on me, so I try to close my eyes but she holds my face with one hand and forcefully opens my eyes with the other. She looks straight into my eyes and I feel my body starts to relax when suddenly, all my strength comes back instantly. I was a little confused about why her charm did not work on me but then I remember what the Mental stat does.

Thinking, she had charmed me, she gets close to my face as if going for a kiss, probably to use some kind of poison to keep me from moving much. As she came close enough, I headbutt her nose with all the strength I could gather. She screeches and falls holding her face while continuing to roll on the ground. Those ‘bracelets do provide her strength, but no defense huh’ I think to myself.

I quickly run towards the wailing lamia, hold her by the hair and smash her face on the ground with enough strength to knock her out. She stopped moving with her head buried in the ground and I fall panting. I didn’t want to kill her because she kinda looked human and killing her would leave a bad taste in my mouth.

After resting for a minute, I moved close to her and was about to check just what those bracelets were when I hear a voice “StOP!!!”.

With a swift motion, I grab the unconscious lamia and move behind her to take cover and then, look at the one who told me to stop.

When I laid eyes on that person, my mind went blank.