"What!" Rudra exclaimed loudly, caught off guard by the revelation.

"Shh! Do you want to wake her up?"

Rudra mouthed a sorry and gently placed Milin's head on the ground before following Eren silently to a distance safe enough to speak.

"Did that thing have a mind confusion spell or something? Try some of my Gunk..."

"I am fine, better than ever...look at me." Eren hurriedly cut off Rudra's frantic and worried rant, the moment the idea of consuming Gunk was proposed. He would choose death any day over the cursed drug.

"It's a different reason. Don't you think all of this is strange?" Eren swung his arm around to emphasize 'all of this'.

"I don't get it. The world's huge Eren, how much do you think you have seen and this place doesn't look bad anyway."

"Yes, the world's definitely huge, but there are some things which are always constant. Those constants define our world, but here they don't exist."

"Eren, we bled, we felt pain, we killed someone, how many constants do you want?"

"I am not saying none of that happened, but all of us were healed to the tee and even my stamina got restored."

"Maybe, its a strong healing spell."

"What about our clothes? Have you ever heard of a healing spell that restores inanimate objects, along with living beings?" not waiting for Rudra's reply, he continued, "and how do you explain our Aether coming back?"

"But..."

"I agree with Eren, nothing, since the fight ended, has been natural."

The two turned to look at Milin who was walking towards them at a leisurely pace, brushing her clothes.

"How long have you been awake?" Rudra asked with a tinge of worry in his voice.

"Long enough to know what you two are squabbling about," Milin answered in a fake irritated tone as she glanced at Eren.

"After the fight, what happened to your Aether reserves?"

"Increased," both replied in unison.

"Mine did too, even though I didn't kill anyone."

Eren and Rudra exchanged incredulous looks. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. I might have just woken up, but there's no mistaking."

"Then what's the intention behind recovering us? Are they trying to incentivize killing other players?" Eren voiced out his doubts.

"Let's just say that's the case, then what about all the stuff we found until now. It simply defeats the purpose of their existence," Milin countered.

Eren's eyes widened as he reached out for his back and found air. His face displayed surprise but was instantly replaced by horror.

"Wait a minute," Eren said as he brushed past his friends towards the spot he was initially resting. Unfortunately, nothing out of ordinary, except partially smushed moss. For the first time, Eren longed for the familiar weight of his rucksack on his back.

"It's not here," Eren said as he stomped the ground in frustration.

"What's not here?" Rudra asked, still oblivious.

"His rucksack," Milin answered, "Eren, maybe you dropped it somewhere, along the way or during the fight."

Eren shook his head, "no, I remember it was definitely with me because I got stuck at the entrance."

"What should we do now?"

"Don't worry, it was not that important anyway, now that I think about it, do any of you feel hungry?"

Milin and Rudra pondered for a minute before answering, "no, not at all."

"Me neither", Rudra added, "I didn't even pee or poop once."

"Ew." Milin crinkled her face with disgust.

Rudra glared at her, he was offended by her reaction and understandably so.

Eren decided to butt in before they could stray from the topic, "the point is, the test is encouraging us to eliminate other teams. How many points did you two get?"

"Hundred," both said as they tapped on their Halos.

"Same here, that means, all of us made equal contributions according to the rules."

"What do you think we should do now? Should we leave this place?" Rudra asked.

"No. You saw what happened to us last time, we need allies until then let's stay safe. There's no sunlight coming in, which means its nighttime outside. They will exhaust themselves, trying to keep watch the entire night."

"And, just in case if we get hungry, we can eat these mushrooms," Milin said.

"Which mushrooms?" Eren asked, surprised, that he had missed something.

"This one," Milin said as she plucked one glowing near her foot.

"Are they safe?" Eren asked tentatively.

"Of course, they are all over the place up in the mountains." As she finished her sentence, Rudra flashed a victorious smile towards Eren.

"By the way Eren, what did you find?",Milin asked before tossing the mushroom into her mouth.

"Oh, you mean this," Eren unclenched his fist to reveal a piece of crumpled paper. He smoothened it out and handed it over to Milin.

She read the content and nodded sagely. Before passing it to Rudra she said, "you keep this with you, but don't read it aloud."