We ignored nightfall while we pressed on back to the clearing. We all were worried for Jack and Maria’s fate.

Thankfully we never saw any Flayguar during the trip. Now though, we reached the clearing, but the both of them are nowhere to be seen. They aren’t even that athletic, even after gaining some stat points with all the activities we undertook; They even have trouble climbing the trees, surely due to their age.

“This is hard…” Sighs Kevin. “We can’t really scream for their names in case they are around here or we might be attacked by a flayguar. And even with people that are now able to fight, we don’t know to which extent they can.”

Indeed, the few times someone actually killed one was with pure luck.

“And we can’t stay on land either,” Celia continues, “Flayguar are bound to come through this part. And if we stay here, we are vulnerable. It’s the night and we should rest, we walked quite a lot today.”

“But…” I start saying.

“I know you want to help them Samuel, but you have to understand, we can’t search them when it’s this dark.” Reasons Jessica.

“Alright…” I unwillingly drop the matter.

The others were already setting up in the trees. It would seem their concern for the two stranded is quite meager.

…

As Celia told us, Flayguars passed around us during the night. However, they weren’t particularly aggressive and just went from one point to the other.

During the night, Jessica practiced her wind blade spell and she’s now confident, after some skill levels, that he will be able to fend off one Flayguar in case it attacks us.

Hence, we resumed our search, now daring to scream the lost’s names.

We started walking back, still following the nearby river, but I fear they didn’t survive the night.

Unrest is starting to build up, I see that apart from Kevin and Jessica, the others are calling out the names lower and lower.

Even Celia has a bleak look on her face. I slow down to her pace.

“What is it? Not feeling well?” I ask her.

“It’s my skill… it looks like it’s not picking up any clues on their whereabouts…”

“Hey, that would mean they didn’t go through here, then, right?” I ask, a bit relieved we won’t have to move further away from our initial goal.

“I’m not really sure, yesterday at least there were tracks until the clearing. But now, the only thing I can see is the path back to where we noticed their absences…”

“Does that…” I hesitate. “Does that mean… they are…?”

I can’t finish my phrase that Celia cuts me. “I’m afraid yes… I think we should start going back and continue exiting this jungle. It’s been wearing us down both mentally and physically, we’ll mourn them when we’ll reach security.”

I am surprised by her cold words. You can’t just postpone something like that… It’s important, we are human beings, we have emotions and we need to grieve. Without that we would be monsters.

Before I can voice all my complaints, Curtis cuts me. “So they are really dead?” He asks loud enough for the rest of the group to hear.

“Really?”

“I told you so!”

“We really shouldn’t have gone back!”

“We lost time for nothing…”

I hear such things. Nauseating words coming from the mouth of people that 1 day ago wanted to brave all dangers in order to save them. They make me sick. Sure we didn’t meet that long ago, but there’s no reason to be this detached from their possible deaths. We lived so much together since the crash.

“Is it true, Celia?” Asks Curtis. “Can we really do nothing?”

“No, my skill doesn’t pick any other path now. I think we won’t even be able to offer them a proper resting place.”

“We should head back then, this is sad indeed!” Speaks up Kevin, “But we need to press on, we have to go through this jungle and prevail to live up to their memory!”

I’m hearing what they say but I feel hollow, their words are, I am, everyone is. I mechanically put one foot before the other.

My vision is blurry and I can’t distinguish the other’s voices anymore.

…

After that, I don’t remember much. We stopped at night to rest on trees then we pressed back on. I think everyone tried to talk to me, but I don’t know what they said. I didn’t want to know.

Days passed by and now I started listening here and there to discussions.

“Really, this Doctor, Samuel, what a drama queen…”

“True that. We didn’t know Jack and Julia much, we haven’t talked much to them. It’s true that Jack really helped us with the herbs that were useful to treat injuries and which berries were useful at first, but after some time, he said he didn’t know much of the vegetation we went through.”

“Yeah, he wasn’t even that useful, but it’s still a bit sad that someone died, but so much more did with the crash.”

“Yeah, we can’t really stay affected by this type of thing if we want to survive still in this hostile environment.”

The discussion digressed to something about the past, but I stopped listening here.

I don’t know what to think of this. It seems like they are trying to hold on by bitching around…

Now that I think about it, what does my status look like?

Health:

50/50 (+4.53/h)

Stamina:

50/50 (+1.66/min)

Mana:

15/91 (+6.52/h)

Identity

Name:

Samuel Lock

Age:

29

Sex:

Male

Class:

Last Hope’s Healer

Lv1

Human

Stats

Strength

6

Agility

5

Perception

8

Intelligence

11

Control

5

Constitution

5

Endurance

5

Dexterity

5

Concentration

9

Aspects

Form

Skills:

Selflessness (U) Lv1; Survivor’s Luck (R) Lv8; Healing Touch (U) Lv13

Paths:

First Aid

Wait what? How is my Healing Touch Lv13 now? And my mana so low? Did I try using it on myself this whole time?

Is that why my Stamina is so high even while walking?

“Guys! I think I’m seeing a camp over there!” Screams Celia, at the head of the group.

Congratulations!

Someone originating from your geographical zone met another species from another role.

Thanks to this, a Khron Pillar has been erected in the middle of the Zone.

This pillar holds many meanings and will help you further your evolution in this System.

“What?” the word escapes my mouth and the two people that were discussing turns to me, surprised.