I was now heading to the area where I had seen the most men. There weren't many landmarks after I left the rocky area and just put the sun to my back at an angle I thought was opposite of the way we had gone. I didn't need to be precise anyway so as long as I was going in the general direction it should be fine. I just needed to not get lost on the way back. I had only brought a flask of water and wouldn't be able to get food if I didn't find my way back.

I was moving a lot faster now that I was by myself. I still had to pace myself, but I found my rhythm.

Despite seeing an increasing number of men, I made good time and made it to an area that had many of the men that just lay there. I figured that something must be here if there were so many of them. They weren't moving so something must have put them here or that something was close.

It turned out that I didn't have to look hard. Many of them were facing the same direction and had drag marks behind them. I followed the marks, fighting off the occasional attacker, and soon found myself at the edge of a shallow crater.

It was dangerous here. The closer I got to it the more I got attacked and at one point had to stop and fend off several attackers at once, even using my poleaxe on one. Fortunately, they stopped coming after a while. I hoped they wouldn't get smart and attack in a large group.

The crater I had fought my way to was like nothing I had seen before. Inside were many men, many of them killing each other, the rest trying to get out or just laying next to it. It was the focal point of the crater. I don't know what it was but before me at the bottom was a large black pit of something. I had seen nothing so black before.

There was also something else extraordinary about it. Men were coming out of the black pool of whatever it was. Some of them were even those that I had just killed. It was the source of the sad creatures of this place.

I got another good piece of information from the scene in front of me. If I killed one of them, they would just come back. This meant Perrinu couldn't give me as hard of a time, though someone I kill probably won't be as willing to be friendly.

Now that I had seen what I had come to find out, I would go back. It might be good training here, but I would have to do that at another time. Even with my great ability to kill these unarmed men, it was still dangerous to be here alone. There was also the fact that many of the men below had spotted me and had stopped fighting each other and were coming at me.

Lucky for me most of the men were in no shape to give chase. The ones that did I would shoot fire behind me and they would back off. One or two made me stop and hack at them with my poleaxe.

Soon there was only one following me. He did not attack me, so I let him be. I wanted to see what he was up to before I did anything. I had seen so many men here and none of them seemed the least bit willing to talk. This one had not tried to talk yet, but it wouldn't mean he would.

I was about to where I didn't want him to follow me anymore and was about to shoot him when he turned away from me. The only reason I could think of his turning away now was that he noticed that I would shoot him. Smart man. This didn't make me feel relieved and set off a warning in my head. This man was saner than the others and I would need to watch out for him.

Instead of continuing on, I sat down. I needed to rest, but I sat down for another reason. The haze limited my visibility to about a five hundred meters. The man had moved out of my visual range so I decided to see if I could hear him. He was probably much too far away for me to hear him but it was very quiet here since there were no animals or even trees to sway in the wind. It was just me, the unchanging and constant breeze, the sand, and any man that was nearby. I heard nothing. I guess it was worth a try. At least I knew no one was close enough to be heard.

With my shot at listening for the man and getting rest at the same time done, I was now ready to leave. I didn't know if the man could see me anymore or not so as soon as I got up I ran. I don't know if it did anything but after running for as long as I could I fell and recovered my breath.

I was now getting close to our campsite. The rocks were more many now, so I knew I had gone in the right direction. It wouldn't be much longer now. I just hope I had led no one here. If one was following me another could have without my notice. I just hope none had followed us earlier and attacked after I had left.

No one had. I got back to camp and found both of them perfectly fine. Perrinu was pacing worriedly by Helnion, who was warming herself by the flame.

“Thank the Deity you are safe,” Perrinu said in relief. Helnion said nothing and merely looked at me before returning to the fire. She looked bored.

“What did you see?” She gave me a look that said she hoped I would answer.

I told her. This was important, so I needed to tell her.

“That is amazing,” she said. “But it is also sad. To die and come back without end. Having no escape from their pain.”

“It's their fault,” I said. “They knew where they would go when they killed themselves.”

“Yes, but I never heard anything about this. About keeping your wounds and suffering from them,” she said sadly.

“It's not my problem,” I sat down, opening my box to look for food or water.

I opened the bottom drawer of my box. There was no food in it yet, but there was another flask of water. I then went from the bottom drawer to the middle drawer before finally opening the top drawer. I hoped there wasn't another letter from Usui. There was one, but that wasn't the only thing in there. There was a book.

I opened the letter from Usui. It said that he thought I might be bored and so he sent the book. Later I found out he had sent one to Perrinu too. Usui had even sent us books that he knew we would like. I knew he was still trying to win us over, but I would still take the book. Helnion didn't get a book. She didn't care much for reading so she didn't care that she didn't get one.

There wasn't much to do for now. I still didn't feel like sleeping but my body was a little tired from the running and fighting.

Perrinu and I had our books, but Helnion had nothing. She got so bored that she eventually picked up her bow and started shooting arrows into a pile of sand she had made while I left.

Unfortunately, I finished my book in no time. Even the break I took for our next meal had helped little. Perrinu seemed to be a slower reader than me and still had a bit to go. I was tempted to trade books with her but when I looked at it it was written in a script I couldn't read.

Helnion and I started moving rocks again.

Strangely, I still did not feel like sleeping. I don't know if it was the fact that the sun hadn't set yet or what, but I found it convenient. Until I got Helnion used to a sword and bow again or even convinced Perrinu to learn how to fight, I was the only one at the moment that could defend us. I thought about letting Helnion regain her magical energy so she could use that to fight, but I wanted a more defensible position, especially while I was still alert and not sleeping.

There was still a lot I wanted to do with our campsite. The wall had been easy as I had chosen a spot where a few large rocks were arranged nicely, and it had only taken a few large rocks to fill in the gaps. The hard part was the roof. I had seen no signs of water so if it rained it wasn't often or much, but I wasn't the only one who could climb rocks and so I wanted to make it so we wouldn't get attacked from above.

Helnion seemed to be more in control of her magic than usual, but she would often swing the rocks too fast in one direction, missing the spot, or she dropped them too fast and they would bounce out of place and in one instance break.

Somehow we got our rock house finished before Helnion tired again. I had made sure the rocks were well placed before we moved inside. I didn't know how well it would hold heat or even if my magic heater was big enough to heat a large space. The inside was big enough to hold five people so it might be possible. I had even tried melting sand between the cracks in the rocks with my feeble magic, but I couldn't get it hot enough to melt it. Helnion couldn't either.

Despite the attempts to melt the sand failing, it had a good side effect. The heat from our flames had heated the inside nicely. It was too hot for my taste.

Our home was now as finished as we could get it. I even had a small boulder by the front door that could be rolled into place. Unless one inhabitant of this place could move rocks they couldn't get in. We could now sleep peacefully. That is if I ever got tired.

I had exhausted Helnion again, so she was now sleeping. Perrinu didn't look tired but had finished her book so wasn't doing anything. I couldn't think of anything to do either. I had sent my book back but hadn't gotten another one. It would also a while until we got our next meal.

Perrinu broke the silence, “Salis, would you mind teaching me magic? I don't want to kill or anything like that, but if I can even just recharge the magic heater…”

It would be nice but there was no way I could teach her anything useful anytime soon. I had been learning for a year and could only use basic elemental manipulation magic and barely levitation. I guess Helnion could teach her the more advanced stuff like illusion, heat transfer, and magic solidification, but Helnion was a horrible teacher and she could only do those on a good day.

“I'll try,” I had gotten used to tutoring during my year at Kein. There was no way Perrinu was as bad as being with that brown noser Caldren and the walking headache machine Dorito.

“Thank you, Salis.”

It was nice having something to do. Teaching someone was something I avoided, but it was better than sitting inside a dimly lit rock house doing nothing, and Perrinu was a teacher's dream. She listened to everything I said and asked. Unfortunately, nothing I did helped.

The easiest way to start was with a light crystal, but I had lost that with the carriage. Instead, I used a wind crystal. It would be harder to tell if she got it to work than a light crystal but after hours of trying nothing happened.

“Thank you for trying to teach me,” Perrinu said to me when we finally gave up, “I think we should rest now. We can try again later.”

She yawned and lay down next to the fire.

I still wasn't tired, so I went outside and climbed on the tallest rock. Here I just played with my levitation magic and shot small stones into the air. At one point I heard Perrinu cry again.