Hinata raised a brow. "Why are you so—" Before he could finish speaking, Goku rushed over, cupped his cheeks, and pulled them.
"Hina, are you one hundred percent sure you saw things in your dream?"
Hinata struggled to speak through the constant cheek pulling. "Yes, I did."
Goku's expression changed for a moment, confusion, or perhaps surprise flashing through it. "Can you tell me exactly what you saw?"
"Nothing much. I saw my classmates, a goddess of love, and the seven continents. If I can remember correctly, it's Aethelgard, Vaeloria, Atlantis, Rivendell, Avalon…" He shut his eyes for a moment and thought hard. "Oh, and there are also Dwarrowdelf and Voidreach."
Goku's eyes widened. He removed his hands from Hinata's cheeks, partly because he noticed his companion was getting annoyed, and partly because of how flabbergasted he was.
"How did he awaken divination already?" he muttered under his breath, though Hinata caught every single word.
"Divination?"
He glanced at Hinata and nodded sparingly. "That's the way the gods use to watch over their people, give them gifts, or look into their future. However, it only activates after they have worshippers, and I doubt you have any of that."
He hovered toward Hinata to drag his cheeks again, but Hinata stopped him, grabbing his tiny form and rubbing his head. "Stop squeezing my cheeks."
"But they're quite soft…" he pouted a little, then cleared his throat. "Anyway, you don't seem to be able to control it, so it was most likely just a protective measure from your divine bloodline."
"Protective measure?"
Goku smirked. "Of course. Your bloodline can't let you die from bleeding just like that, now can it?"
Hinata didn't understand most of the things Goku was saying. One thing he did know was that failure to treat his injury might actually lead to death.
'If a Blight can do this to me, what will the monsters of this world even do?'
Hinata stood to his feet, ready to start moving toward the human settlement he saw in his dream, only for a system notification to appear in front of him.
[Skill: Navigation has been activated]
"I didn't do that."
Goku immediately flew to his side. "Wait, let me see~" He stared at the words written on the screen for a moment. "Maybe the system is trying to help you find a fruitful encounter."
Hinata pulled up his map feature, and just like Goku had said, the system had marked a certain spot with a red dot.
'I guess one more adventure won't hurt.'
Hinata stood to his feet and was about to stretch but stopped himself. 'If I move recklessly, my wound will most likely open, right?' Even if he couldn't feel the pain, that didn't mean overstressing it would not worsen his condition.
In that case, he decided to slouch his back and form the slime into a staff.
After confirming he wasn't still bleeding and hadn't reopened the wound, he started moving deeper into the forest. Dry leaves snapped under his feet.
The air was fresh. From where he stood, he could even see warm lights flickering in the distance. What he thought at that moment wasn't how he was so close to other humans, but rather how the monsters here had never attacked them.
Removing all unnecessary thoughts from his head, he moved closer and closer to his target. Oddly enough, the marker hadn't moved, which meant the thing was a dormant item.
Hinata suddenly came to a halt, which made Goku, who was in front of him, stop too.
"What happened?"
Cold sweat ran down Hinata's spine. It felt like his skin was crawling with a billion ants.
The system notification he could remember said he would be at the right place at the right time. And the other one said he would find the people he was searching for.
None of them said it was going to be an item or anything good.
"Hey, Goku to Hina, you're really creeping me out."
Throughout his way here, he had only been thinking of the good things the system was going to give him. But wasn't it this same system that had allowed him to get surrounded in the first place?
'There are two possibilities…' he thought, scanning his surroundings. One was that there was good, 'dormant' fortune waiting for him. The other…
'Something is waiting there for me.'
And whatever would wait so patiently without a word, even with the sound of his feet crunching against dry leaves and his ragged breathing, was either someone scared of him or someone he should be scared of.
Hinata, however, already knew the answer to this question. Nothing weaker than him would ever be here.
He swallowed hard, changing his posture ever so slightly.
By the time his gaze lifted to glance at the map again, the red dot was no longer in front of him.
It was now…
"Behind you!" Goku yelled at the top of his lungs.
Hinata immediately twisted his body, raising his walking staff to block a flying needle coated with a glowing purple substance.
When the needle fell to the ground, the leaves and grass melted into nothingness.
Hinata's gulp echoed through the forest before a loud, crazed laugh rang out everywhere.
"You actually blocked it!" the clearly feminine voice said. "Looking closer now, you're quite the looker. Shame you'll have to die today."
Hinata clenched his trembling hands and let out a grin too wide for someone who was clearly scared out of his wits.
"Who decided that?"
The forest went completely silent.
Then, a branch by his side shook slightly.
He could already see from the system that was where she was.
However, when the wind whistled faintly, he could barely react as a figure lunged straight at him.
Maybe it was pure instinct, but he was able to raise his staff at the right moment.
In front of him now was a gorgeous young lady with purple hair and hazy purple eyes. She had a grin plastered on her face, and the gun in her hand, which was aimed at him, was pressed right against the center of the staff.
Hinata's knees nearly buckled from the force of her body, which he was supporting with just the staff.
"Wow~ you have really good instincts," the crazed woman said, almost playfully. "Why don't we get married? Me and your corpse, I mean."