My eyes open rapidly, and my sight is sharp at the moment. I gaze up at the clear sky, rejuvenated and my lungs inhale a huge amount of the cold morning breeze.


    What a refreshment.


    “I don’t remember sleeping that tightly in a while,” I whisper to myself. The night felt like a second passed.


    Looking around, I notice the usual activity.


    Mike hops around Astrid and does some morning stretches. She sits on the ground, leaning over the old tree stump, practicing her newfound power.


    The pile of leaves she was sleeping in rises and falls. She tries different gestures, moving the pile around, building it taller and shorter.


    I sit there with my swollen, violet, broken arms, leaning on them behind my back.


    It’s quite a comfortable position, yet, if there was no acid, I would’ve fainted and probably had a heart attack from the pain. Apparently I wasted two green berries for nothing. Now I want to confirm if the old man''s hole in the cheek got smaller or not, but a different activity occupies my sight.


    For a few minutes, I observe how she manipulates dirt and leaves with her bracelet powers.


    I notice a small detail: when she deactivates it and the pile starts to fall apart, then reactivates it again, it seems tighter.


    She is indeed training it and improving, at least I think that''s what is happening before my eyes.


    I’m genuinely happy for her, not everyone is making progress or training openly.


    There are at least two of us with heavy secrets.


    I wish I could use and train my powers as well, but I’m not in the mood for another long nap. Apparently concentrating on all three powers drains my stamina in an instant.


    <hr>


    “Stop it already,” Mike steps in her training, throwing more firewood on the pile.


    He crouches and holds her fist, blocking her from opening and closing it again.


    “Enough for today. I know you don’t feel that exhausted yet, but we can’t afford to stay here all day, sleeping!”


    “No, I can do it...”


    "Yawn."


    As she finishes the sentence, she yawns.


    He gives her that look, and they continue to argue.


    So does she have it the same as me? What about others? Old man has no skill unlocked yet and Mike, he rather keeps everything for himself.


    I don''t even know what happened on his run back from the desert, but he made it suspiciously fast.


    I look away to the opposite side and react to the never-ending panting and loud breathing.


    Harald is pumped like a beast—his veins are visible through his black shirt sleeves.


    He has his bulletproof vest on, all sweaty and smelly, he continues like a Swiss clock.


    “Eighty-nine."


    "Two hundred and ninety. One, two, three, four...”


    “Three hundred!”


    He jumps back on his feet and claps his hands. I notice his body shaking, and he barely stands.


    He looks at me with a wide smile while catching his breath. I look immediately at his cheek hole and it seems a bit smaller again.


    I''ll give it one more day.


    “What?"


    "I’m getting somewhere, I know it.”


    He runs his hand through his gray hair, puts the black cap back on and sits on the ground in a cross-legged position.


    He takes out his plastic box and starts munching on the cooked meat.


    I notice that he blows on the piece of meat before putting it in his mouth.


    “Is it hot?” I ask him.


    “Yes, I was about to tell you my discovery. Gulp."


    *Munching sounds*Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    He takes another bite, and I barely understand his mumbling.


    After a few seconds of chewing, I ask, raising my eyebrows, “And that is?”


    "Welp, we already knew it kinda, but it must be indeed stopping time, not just the rotting process. Now it''s confirmed. Gulp.” He keeps munching, and again I don’t understand what he says next.


    “I warmed the meat yesterday and hid it right away inside; it’s in the exact same state.”


    "Good one!" I nod in appreciation.


    <hr>


    After a short period of time, we gather up and continue toward our goals.


    *Click, click*


    The car is left parked there, and we chuckle a bit as Harald takes the keys and locks the windowless car.


    First, it’s to finally bathe in the river and refill our water again.


    I can’t wait to finally throw myself in the water; then we are going to pay a visit to our fried knight friend and finally get to the settlement which seems to be close to the place where the giant merchant was before it vanished.


    Step by step, we cross the yellow patchy grassy field towards the charred forest.


    <hr>


    “Oh boys. What have you done?”


    Harald comments as we walk cautiously around the charcoal and burnt rotting corpses. We’ve walked this path before multiple times, but not him. I couldn’t imagine how badly it would smell if the forest itself weren’t so cold recently.


    He stops here and there, even crouching to examine the corpses closely. Almost all the long necks are burnt; only the bones are left, including the spine.


    “So these necks—were they like monsters? Human-faced or..?”


    Already sweaty, Mike, while carrying Astrid, starts to explain everything to him. He gasps for breath, carrying her—walking and talking is exhausting, but Astrid helps him and tells the whole story again.


    I focus on my path and think of a use for myself when it comes to combat. Maybe I can somehow strap a dagger and hammer to my limbs?


    I’ll ask Harald about this definitely, but he’s too overwhelmed by the creatures and will be even more so when he finds out about the knight.


    <hr>


    Finally, at the stream, I decide to do the same as before.


    At the deepest part of the stream with the largest amount of water, I jump straight in. My body enters a mild shock as it is submerged in cold water.


    Right at the moment, I release a bit of Focus power to warm myself up.


    I gulp the water straight as I lay in it and roll around like a pig.


    “Careful, Markus,” Harald laughs.


    “Leave some water for us too...”


    Everyone tries to clean as much as possible.


    We need to use the whole day to get as far as possible.


    <hr>


    No hesitation—all clean but also wet and most importantly refreshed—we walk again.


    The poor forest, I still feel attached to, because it was our beginning, is sadly unrecognizable now.


    Full of burnt corpses, ash, and charcoal.


    We completely ignore the fire bowl and continue toward the meadow, where there should be nutrias. At least the old man will have a better image of how they look, not only from my amateurish sketch.


    “Ah, this looks great!"


    "Never seen such open space with this beautiful, long, and saturated green grass here,” notes Harald, taking a deep breath after inhaling the smell of burnt remains.


    It seems we were lucky from the beginning.


    Harald got spawned right in the middle of the desert. That’s stressful from the beginning, unlike us: a cozy, safe forest and a beautiful meadow afterward, easy to kill nutrias.


    I imagine if the acid flatheads were roaming the desert, it would be impossible to even relocate from it. He would probably die there for good.


    “And that pile of smoking mess is the surreal thing you described before. Am I right?”


    He adds, gazing in the distance and blocking the sun with his palm resting on his forehead.


    “Yeah,” Mike nods.


    I’m too excited to try on the armor, but saying no to some free nutria kills is too difficult.


    “Harald, would you mind tying weapons to my arms?”


    He looks at me with a smirk.


    “Well, that’s the spirit Mark! Good sleep does miracles."


    "Let’s have a look."


    If he only knew that his motivational words and getting saved by whatever it was is the engine for my mood.


    *Thud, clank*


    My combat knife and hammer fall on the ground in front of me as I try to take them out.


    He opens his bag immediately and rolls out four rolls of seatbelts.


    “Hey, you two, bloodthirsty." The old man says looking at the couple.


    "How do you plan to fight? Carrying Astrid around? Come here too!” He stops unwinding the belts and calls for them as they casually start to stroll toward the grassfields.


    I place my left arm near the hammer handle on the ground and the only handyman among us starts to wrap.


    "Too tight? They are getting violet, you know." He chuckles and teases me, his wide smile is revealed once more.


    “How do you want the knife?” he asks next.


    “Reversed grip for stabbing.” I answer before he even finishes.


    "Alright."


    He nods and looks away as my fingers crack while he inserts the dagger in.


    "It''s okay." I assure him.


    Wrapping it tightly, my wrist is super stiff finally, not limp like an old rag.


    "Thanks!" I thank him and stand up, trying my new temporary upgrade. It could work very well for the upcoming fights we plan on going to.


    <hr>


    Harald proceeds to upgrade the couple.


    He straps Astrid to Mike’s back in a way that she is basically his backpack now.


    I see he struggles a bit, but it’s still better than holding her in front.


    “Can you shoot?” Mike asks her.


    “Even better.”


    She replies and tries her shield power to see if it interferes with Mike.


    It works pretty well. Weak or not, he doesn’t have to watch his back anymore. It will definitely absorb or slow down enemies.


    Rusty sabers and old cranky bow are more than enough for nutrias.


    Then the hammer, combat knife, and nothing to lose...


    I look at the field with a crazy smile.