“Nice setup you got here.” Josephine Wong said to the man as she came into the cave.

The inside of the cave was not very spacious, but quite enough to fit two people comfortably. There was a stone incense burner with runes and patterns engraved on it in the center, and there was one crooked, even ugly looking incense stick burning on the stone burner. There was a “bed” made of dried grass and tree branches and several layers of fur from different animals. Right above the bed, was a dangling crystal, tied to a rope that was hung from the ceiling. What surprised and impressed her the most was that the energy fields inside the cave were stable and steady, which meant that either this man found and took over a rare natural spot with this kind of highly valuable properties and guarded it from the other creatures that could have coveted this cave, or the man created some sort of special array and stabilized the energy fields inside the cave.

“You may wanna get on the bed.” the man cast a simple spell at the entrance of the cave and said: “You’re injured, and you’re exhausted. You wouldn’t survive here for long in this state.”

“Thank you.” Josephine Wong looked at the simple “bed” and the dangling crystal, the bed was definitely specifically made, and the crystal was radiating some kind of gentle and soothing aura: “This must have taken weeks to build. How long have you been here?”

“Not a problem, I built it in a week.” the man picked up some broken branches from the ground and started cutting and shaping them using his stone sword, it looked a bit hard for him because his right hand was missing, and he had to use the stone sword with his left hand while holding onto the tree branches with his right armpit: “You could take a minute to meditate and it should help you recover, but don’t get greedy. That crystal is hard to find.”

“May I ask you something?” Josephine Wong sat on the bed and asked.

“Um, okay, sure.” the man finished sharpening one tree branch, then he just stuck it on the ground, and then he picked up a crude stone grinder set and started grinding some materials inside the stone bowl: “Let’s wait for the horde passes, usually they linger for a few hours to half a day. Next time you kill one of those vicious wasps, you would want to cover its scent and use an isolation spell to cover up the energy signature.”

“Ok, noted.” Josephine Wong sat on the “bed” and took a deep breath, the smell from the incense stick, the soothing energy aura from the dangling crystal, and the barely noticeable array somehow engraved in the layers of fur already started to make her feel better: “Did you find this place the way it is? Or did you do something to stabilize the energy fields here?”

“It’s a little bit of both.” the man smiled and said: “This cave had this kind of energy field stabilizing properties when I found it, so I took it and added some of my tricks to it.”

“Oh, is it something in the cave? Or is it just in a unique position?”

“It’s the stones in the wall.” the man pointed at the ceiling and said: “There’s some sort of special mineral in the back that generates this kind of chaos neutralizing aura, I could take you there when the horde is gone. You’re gonna want some when you continue on your way.”

“Okay. Thanks.” Josephine Wong got into her meditation pose and tried to speed up her own recovery: “Can I ask you another question?”

“Sure. And no need to ask before you ask. ” the man smiled while still grinding the material in his stone grinder.

“Well - uh, it’s actually two questions - may I know your name? And why did you help me?”

“Well, my name’s Jianmen, Jianmen Yu.” the man said: “And I helped you because it’s just what a decent man would do. Plus you… well, you kinda look like someone I know.”

--------------------------------------

“Lame!!” Vivian laughed and booed: “Lame! Cringe and lame!”

“Well, the man’s gotta step up his game.” Alexander also laughed: “I mean, even teenagers nowadays know better than to use this kind of pickup line.”

“I am pretty sure Ms. Wong quite enjoyed his game.” Pei shook her head while continuing with her knitting: “He did save her, I wouldn’t mind even if he farted in the cave or he smacks as he eats.”

“This monk thinks Mr. Yu was speaking literally here.” Nameless said: “For though this monk knows not much about the modern conventions of socializing, he does not think that Mr. Yu would utter this kind of unpolished words of flattery.”

“Oh, Nameless, even you could tell this is lame huh?” Blue chuckled: “But I gotta know, Ms. Wong, what’s he doing there? And why was he missing a hand?”

“Well, that seemed quite personal a question to ask, and I didn’t ask him until the third day in the cave.” Josephine Wong smiled and said: “For the first two days I was basically hogging the bed and trying to recover. He just let me do that and he even went out for a hunt and cooked some pretty nice hot meals - it’s nothing fancy or gourmet, but it’s much better than the emergency food I had.”

“Oh my.” Pei laughed gently: “He hunts, he builds, AND he cooks. That’s husband material right there. Hard to find a man like this these days.”

“Hey! I hunt and build.” Alexander said with a joking frown: “I can’t cook for shit, but… that’s two outta three!”

“So how long were you in there with him?” Blue asked: “I’ve never been to Realm Greenrock, but from what I’ve heard, it’d be quite difficult to leave in the state you were in.”

“Indeed. But it was still shorter than I was expecting.”