'Is that a mana stone?'

There was something rock-shaped inside the corpse, Yaru could barely see it from this angle. Yaru hesitatingly reached for the open wound and pulled the flesh aside to get a better look.

Mana stones can be beneficial in all sorts of ways - they were tools that both mages and cultivators could use to better access the mana around them.

Let's say that a cultivator sat to meditate with a mana stone on his lap. This cultivator would, in theory, get three times the mana!

A mage, on the other hand, would be able to control the range of his spells ten times better! It was such a lucky find!

Yaru kept digging until he finally found it. There really was a stone inside the beast's body, and he could see it now.

One of his fingers touched the gem lightly, making the boy smile at his good fortune. He cut the mana stone out with minimal difficulty and scrutinized it.

It was blood-red and shaped like a tear. It looks like it formed not too long ago, which explained how Yaru was able to, well, not die.

Yaru frowned. Considering how rare and powerful a beast with mana stone was, Yaru shouldn't have survived anyway. He isn't some powerful warrior, and this mega-chicken's skin should have been tough to cut.

(That probably wasn't even that thing's name, but at this point, Yaru couldn't care less.)

It made Yaru frown. He didn't think of it before, but this knife he found turned out to be a top-grade item. When he first saw it, the boy believed it was just an ordinary knife, but a regular knife wouldn't be able to cut a beast with a mana stone.

This knife… who's the insane bastard that would willingly part with such a treasure?! If it had been Yaru, then he would never let go of this kind of item. 

'Well, you know what they say. Finders keepers.'

Shaking the thoughts away, the boy pocketed the mana stone and planned to move on when he noticed a trail of blood not far away from where he stood.

It was probably nothing. Just another animal passing by, but Yaru had a feeling that it wasn't. 'I should move on, but...'

The blood-trail led to the bushes, just a few steps away from where he was standing. Checking it out wouldn't take long.

'I should move on. Whatever happened here, it's none of my business.'

Yaru stood there and kept thinking of reasons not to move closer, but in the end, his curiosity won out.

Whatever this thing's supposed to be, it was injured. It shouldn't pose a danger to Yaru if he gave it enough space.

Plus, there's always a chance that it was dead, and after a little bit of looking, he'll find another mana stone.

Yaru wanted a second mana stone. Because it was cool, and because a second mana stone could and probably would save his life.

The boy's hands twitched, and like an invisible force, something beckoned him closer. Yaru moved towards the bushes and parted the vegetation. He took a peek at whatever was on the other side and gasped in surprise.

A young-looking man with pitch-black hair, pale skin, and pure-white clothing was lying on the ground, bleeding out from a nasty looking cut near his ribs.

Yaru rushed towards the nameless man and kneeled near.

The wound looked fresh and untreated. The edges were cut too cleanly for it to be a beast's work, so that left only one option. Another human-being injured this man.

'I don't recognize his clothes,' Yaru thought hesitatingly. 'He's obviously from outside the temple, so how did he end up like this…?'

Something strange was going on, and Yaru had a feeling it had something to do with the temple master.

It made a strange kind of sense. The temple master wouldn't want others to dig into the temple's business, and the man showed no hesitation to kill others before. What to stop such a person from killing an outsider?

Practically nothing.

Yaru looked at the bleeding man and cursed. Here he thought his luck turned good only to be proven wrong.

There is a strong possibility that the dying man at his feet has information that Yaru needs to know about. 'I have to take care of him until he wakes up, and something tells me this one's going to be trouble.'

First, Yaru had to do something about the bleeding. Everything else can wait. He wasn't a doctor, and the only medical knowledge he has comes from treating his own wounds.

'That won't be enough to heal the stranger.'

Another problem was that there was nothing around here to wrap the injury with. Plus, there wasn't any alcohol to clean it. 'Not important.'

If Yaru won't do anything right this moment, this man was going to die. He can worry about infection and other *fun* symptoms later.

Yaru tore his sleeves and used the cloth as makeshift bandages - They were damaged from the beast's attempt of chowing him like a squeaky toy, so it's not like it was a great sacrifice.

The wound stopped bleeding after a while, but the man didn't look like he was going to wake up anytime soon.

In the meantime, this place smelled like blood.

'It won't be long before predators start showing up.'

Yaru needed to get both of them away and to erase the man's scent... probably not in that order.