My Life In A Fantasy, Women-Dominated World

Chapter 165: What’s Cowardly

"Can I deal with those?" Aaron hummed, "You told me to build a campfire for light, didn’t you? This means they have a solid and exploitable weakness."

Not willing to be outdone by the foreigner, Alyssa chimed in.

"Yes and no, sir Aaron." she said politely while shaking her head cutely, "The nightcrawlers cannot enter a place with sufficient light, but that light doesn’t really harm them too much."

"Oh yeah? How do you know?" he asked back.

"I..."

"Yes, we do not know for sure." The stealth elder came to steal the spotlight with her signature mature and knowledgeable tone, "But tell me, are you willing to risk your life based on a whim?"

"I am not." Aaron shook his head firmly.

But before the mushfolk pair could feel happy about his restraint, he smirked.

"But who said I need to risk my life to test their weakness out?"

***

Time bled by faster and now the large moon hung right above their heads, hidden from the view by the thick canopy.

And near the campfire sat a man made out of iron.

His entire body seemed to be covered in clean, reflective iron while thick strips of LED lights were attached to his figure impeccably.

This was the best idea he could come up with.

A reflective suit with a shit ton of lighting appliances around himself, as he had noticed earlier that despite his dream of becoming a steel man seemed far away...

The nanobots did manage to make his machinery jets glow, giving him an idea that he could generate light if he needed to.

He tested it once, nearly getting flashbanged from his own creation as he winced and covered his eyes.

But he wasn’t annoyed by it.

This could only mean one thing,... that his hypothetical plan had worked.

He created a light source that would help him a lot if he dared to fight against the elusive nightcrawlers.

But just to make the plan more foolproof, he relished himself into some designing.

He personally changed the shade of each led strip on his body, even turning some lights into an ultraviolet LED, as who knows which light would actually harm them.

Every light or colour he could think of was on his body as he got to his feet, looking around himself with his night vision.

He couldn’t find a single trace of the creatures these mushfolks were talking about, but he also knew that they had no reason to lie to him about this.

And he himself saw how those ranger tribes ran into their homes, scared out of their shits.

"Sir Aaron, I still advise you to reconsider this. You have a working campfire which will keep you safe from those monsters, and we are nearly done with our heist... there’s no need for you to take risks." Alyssa said with pure intentions.

The stealth elder didn’t bother to add onto anything, but she didn’t oppose Alyssa either, which was enough to say that she was suggesting the same thing.

But what they didn’t know was that he was from another world. Someone who came here just for a trial and the single goal in mind... to get better.

Killing the creatures would give him something known as blood cores, something that he was sure would be useful.

And not only that, he also knew one thing.

There was no way a mythical class would be awarded to a coward who hid behind inside the safe place, not daring to explore or take challenges.

Running when you’re overwhelmed is okay, but when there is a chance...? That’s cowardice.

Thus Aaron didn’t hesitate any longer.

He shot up to his feet, slowly walking out of the campfire after adding some more firewood into it.

Regardless if his plan worked or not, he wanted to keep up the fire just to be safe.

The moment his foot landed into darkness, chills coursed up his spine.

He looked around frantically, but couldn’t find anything.

In the distance he saw some shadows move, but after focusing on them, they appeared to be still, as if whatever he saw was mere projection of his mind.

As they say... when you’re scared, your subconscious tries to scare you even more.

And while Aaron wasn’t scared, he was indeed paranoid about the shadows and the elusive nightcrawlers.

The mushfolks were speaking of them as if they were the most evil beings out there, someone who could give him nightmares for life just by a single look.

But everything changed when Aaron’s second foot left the solace of the campfire as the shadows in the distance began to stir once again.

They seemed to be waiting, patiently waiting for the right opportunity where he cannot run back into the light to hide.

’Haah... it’s fine. I’m strong. I can win.’ Aaron took a deep breath, giving himself a short pep talk before he began to walk.

One step at a time he walked away from the campfire as the shadows stirred even more.

*SKREEE*

Malevolent, scary shrieks filled the air, coming from his backside where the campfire was located.

He was feeling an urge to turn back to look, but he also knew that the moment he did so, he would be in for a hell of a jumpscare.

But suddenly, he felt something tap onto his iron armor.

Aaron took a deep breath once again, holding it as he turned around, jumping away from his spot while doing so.

Luckily, he had designed the armor to be free and light, which didn’t affect his mobility too much.

Behind him, a tall dark creature was standing, its face curled into a creepy, joker-like smile.

He had stick-like thin limbs, standing at nearly the same height as Aaron while his skin was completely a dark, opaque black.

The scariest part wasn’t that however...

From his forehead, a pair of twisting antlers grew like a humanoid moose. On his chest, there was nothing like a skin as his ribs protruded outwards, a beating dark heart pulsing within.

That looked like an obvious weak point, but Aaron instinctively knew it was anything but that...

(A/N: Imagine ’Wendigo’. I’ll add Wendigo’s image in the paragraph comments.)