Seeing the river up ahead Kain dove happily into the water, feeling as though he was falling into his mother's embrace. 'Since binding Bea, being in the water feels like the safest place for me in the world'

He had already placed Bea into this portion of the river earlier to give her ample time to spread out her splits.

Splash Crash Splash Awooo

Once in the water, Kain began to backstroke leisurely as he watched the coyotes chasing him into the water.

"Haha… you're really not great at swimming are you" He laughed while watching them flail about in the water. Kain was still a little worried about outswimming them if they were strong swimmers, but it seemed his worries were for nothing. Kain was already at least 10 meters from shore while they were still splashing about at most 5 meters in.

Kain continued to dodge them leisurely until he started to see the first ones stop chasing him. Some looked to be unconscious, others were whimpering in pain, one appeared to be having a seizure, while two actually turned and started attacking each other, likely trapped in a hallucination.

*Ding. Host has killed one White-grade spiritual beast, obtaining 1 GP*

*Ding. Host has killed one White-grade spiritual beast, obtaining 1 GP*

*Ding. Host has killed one White-grade spiritual beast, obtaining 1 GP*

Kain listened to the sweet sound of his GP going up.

Whimper

After all of the System notifications ended, the only thing Kain heard was the painful whimpers of the pack leader. It was impossible for Bea to kill him completely so he swam over while it was dizzy and distracted by the pain and stabbed his spear deeply into its forehead.

*Ding. Host has killed one Red-grade spiritual beast, obtaining 5 GP*

Phew

He was exhausted, but still couldn't rest. He gathered as many of the floating bodies as he could and dragged them to shore. They were all money after all.

Three had been taken away by the current further down the river, but he was able to collect 12 bodies, plus the leader.

'I need to buy a space ring…' He thought. Getting completely used to the comforts of being able to easily bring back heavy extracted materials. To save space, he only took the claws and teeth of all the coyotes but also took the fur of the leader

'If the fur of a Black-iron, white-grade cougar could get me that much money, a Bronze-quality, red-grade pelt from this leader must be worth a fortune.'

Seeing that the sun was already beginning to set, Kain realized that he's already been in the wilderness for over 12 hours.

'It's not safe to hunt at night without a nocturnal contract. Bea is also not the type of contract I can use as a guard while I rest,' Kain was suddenly struck with worry about the safety of actually camping out here.

He went back to where he set his trap, only to be disappointed that the wire he needed for his tent had in fact broken from the charge of the coyotes.

Sigh

Kain looked around for an idea, before settling on climbing a tree close to the river with branches hanging over the water.

It had branches that looked thick enough to easily support a fully grown man.

'This is probably the safest option for me,' most creatures on land wouldn't try to climb a branch hanging over the river by chance. Also, this branch is high enough that no aquatic creatures should be able to catch me from jumping out the water'

'Also, if I do get attacked in my sleep, I will fall into the river. Which, with Bea, is one of the safest places for me'

Satisfied with this plan, Kain climbed the tree and settled on one of its branches, leaning against its trunk. He then took out a blanket and draped it over himself, not used to sleeping without some coverage.

'I guess I should take a look at my progress,' He thought, before tiredly opening the system.