“Are you okay?” Hazel asked. After Raven added her to the party, she could feel someone else approaching to the base and realised it could only be Kip. Running out of the cave, she ran into Kip who smiled at her, looking exhausted. Supporting his body, she leads him slowly into the cave, only to run into Raven afterward.

“You’re back!!” Raven asked with a worried expression on her face. Only after checking that no major wound appears on Kip’s body, did she relax a little bit.

“I’m fine, just had a run in with those cyclopes, nothing you should be worry about” Kip told her. However, Raven anxious expression did not change. “Raven, is everything alright with you?” he asked, noticing that she wanted to tell him something urgently but in taking consideration of his current state, was reluctant to ask.

“It’s like this” Raven told her party the story that happened a while ago, how she was attacked and then rescued by Brendan the bus driver. “Let’s go” Kip stated. Letting go of Hazel supports, they ran toward the bus driver direction.

“That’s strange, there’s nothing here. Where did the body disappear too?” Raven said. Looking at the drag mark on the ground, Kip motioned the girls to come over “Based on what you say, the baboon was dead and Brendan size wasn’t small. They were both dragged by around 5 to 6 others monsters. It’s too dangerous to give chase. I don’t think Brendan could possibly survive this”

Raven nodded, a grim expression on her face. She knows Kip was right, with threat lurking everywhere, she could only leave this issue for now. Walking back to the base, Hazel asked “So how did it go? Were there any survivor?”

Kip shakes his head “They died after arriving to the cyclopes den, I could only get rid of about one fourth of the population”. Hazel and Raven gasped, Kip had told them something they could never think of. Killing one or two cyclopes were already hard, but to kill that much in a single day, it was nothing short of a miracle.

Noticing the worshipping expression on both girls’ faces, Kip chuckled “I attacked them while they sleep, my summoned slime did most of the work. By the way, I ran into another group of survivor…” Kip narrated his story while he ate, the girls could only marvelled at how much information me managed to collected and plan everything out in the shortest amount of time.

“I dealt a huge blow to the Uromeck, they won’t be able to let this lie down that easily. We should get rid of them one and for all before they could counter attack” Kip told them. Hazel nodded, she would believe whatever he says after all, why? Is it because he invited her and promise to protect her? Is it because he provided her with shelter and gave her food?

The reason is nothing grand like that, it's quite simple actually. Hazel noticed how tired Kip was when he arrived back to base, but after hearing Raven’s story, without much of a complain, he decided to follow her request straight away. For a person that is so cautious in everything he does and plans, Hazel knows how much he truly valued his companion. And that make her more than just happy.

Raven although similar, was a strong willed girl. She agrees with the idea of fighting the threat before it could grow, but couldn’t imagine how Kip could create a successful plan. Listening to his story, she could imagine how strong the boss monster is if it could deal with the slime, it’s kind nemesis so easily.

“Naturally, I have a plan. But we need more people” Kip told her

“Everyone is scattered out; how do you plan to find them. And not all people are as reliable as you think. Actually, at the buses …” Raven told Kip the story of how she and Hazel were being threatened by a male student. Kip was angry in the inside, he already predicted threats will come from human as well as monster; but he truly didn’t have any choice if his plan is to work.

“Don’t worry about that, leave the plan to me. You guys will next to train the next few days as well. I don’t want to force you to do anything. You can train however you want to; since the method I use is not suitable for both of you” Kip told them. After talking for a while, Kip sense of exhaustion finally came back to him, saying goodnight to the girl. He slowly drips into a deep sleep.

It was late at night; Hazel couldn’t go to sleep no matter how she tries. She was thinking about a lots of thing, but mostly about the life before this all happens.

She would go to school every weekday, albeit a little boring, but she passes the time with ease by reading. Then she would go home, and greeted by her loving family. Her mum would remind her to go outside more often while preparing dinner, and her dad would just be sitting on the couch watching football with a cold beer in hand.

Only when all this is gone she realise how good she has it in her life until now. She does not need to worry about food, about clothes, about being safe…

Hazel wanted to cry, but she knows it wouldn’t change anything. Lying on the makeshift bed from blankets gotten from the camp. Sitting up, she glanced at a distance not so far away. Raven was asleep, facing her back toward her.

She then moved closer to Kip, it makes her feel safe when he’s close to her. His sleeping face was so good looking she couldn’t hold her breath; it was a face that she doesn’t mind waking up to every morning. Hazel was in love; she finally knows this warm feeling in her heart every time she thought of him.

She reached her hand to caress his face. Suddenly, her hand was met with his. She tried to pull it back, but Kip hand wouldn’t let go.

She calmed herself down and look at him, he appears to be having a nightmare. Mouthing the word mother, Kip expression was that of longing and pain. Hazel heart wrenched seeing this. She didn’t know what nightmare he was having, but she wanted to comfort him.

Moving closer, she kissed his forehead. “It’ll be okay, I’m here for you”, she held his hand within both her palms now. Kip seemed to calm down somewhat. A short moment later that seemed to last forever, Kip hand loosened, and Hazel let go, unwillingly. She then moved the blanket up to cover the rest of his body, and moved back to her bed.

Not far away, a pair of eyes was watching…

The next morning, their party wake up early. Raven went out to train while Hazel Followed Kip to the bus stop to prepare for his plan. They didn’t talk much along the way; Hazel was blushing quite severe for some reason. Kip didn’t mind, he was too busy looking at the surrounding cautiously after all.

Raven had given the excuse to train, which seemed like nothing strange to Kip. But Hazel knows otherwise, she could see how much the other girl wanted to see him the last day, all she could talk about was Kip.

“Oh no, did she see what happened yesterday?” Raven thought. “How embarrassing…” She said softly. “What’s embarrassing” Kip asked, looking at Hazel clear blue eyes.

Now she was alone with Kip, and the scene that was playing around in her head of the situation happened yester night did not help a bit. “Nothing really, I’ve just been thinking how to be of help to the team” Hazel bit her lip while she quickly came up with a reply.

“No need to rush just yet, what I’m planning to do is not that hard anyway. The only danger is if something goes wrong, besides. Wait, someone is here!” Kip quickly stopped in his track and command his slime to face toward the direction someone just came out off.

“We mean no harm. Can I have a words with you” A male voice asked

“You are… from that night?” Kip asked the owner of the voice that came out of hiding, along with six other students.

“Yeah, we have been hiding around the buses area. Hoping you would come back somehow...” the boy told him with a shrug

“Me? Why?” Kip asked cautiously. He could see some students holding sharpened wooden spear. Noticing his expression, the boy told his group to put their spear down. “We just wanted to say thank you for last night, you saved our lives after all. We mean no harm; we just want to talk”

“So you want to exchange information, good, I was looking for you guys as well. My name is Kip, are you the leader of the group?” Kip asked. Now it was the boy turn to be surprise. He was afraid Kip would not want to talk to them, why would he after all. A large group was nothing but a burden. He certainly did not expect Kip to look for them.

“Yeah, the name is Mike, temporary leader anyway. Why do you want to look for us?”

“I’ve a plan, let’s find somewhere else to talk. This place is not suitable.” Kip said. Moving to a less obvious area, he asked Mike. “I assumed you manage to survive due to the food you scavenge from the bus, correct?”

Mike was alarmed, he did not expect Kip to even thought that far. Not waiting for his response, Kip added “Don’t worry, I don’t want your food. What I need is nothing that you have anyway. But what I have will help you survive, answer my question, and I’ll do my best to help, is that alright.

Conversing with his group, Mike face Kip and says “Alright. I won’t lie to you, the food on the bus were indeed taken by us. But not everything, we only carried what we could get our hand on”

“So there are other groups, alright, here’s what’s going on” Kip proceed to give them a basic information about character stat and skills. Mike was most interested in this. He then told them about the red mango tree and the stream nearby. As a precaution, he told Mike group that a dangerous monsters live close to the waterfall and told their group to get water far away from that area as possible.

Hearing the mentions of food and water, the group depressing mood was quickly lit up. They were obviously grateful to Kip. Mike knows how important the information Kip had just given to them casually. “I don’t know what to say, if there is anything that you need help with. Don’t worry and come to us to ask” he told Kip.

“Actually, that is why I’m here today. I need your group man power” Kip replied.

“What is it that you have in mind” Mike asked, for some reason he was feeling anxious. He however, did not expect what Kip told his group afterward.

“I want to get rid of the entire cyclopes race for good” he told them casually, as if it was nothing more than going for a walks.