I don't know what's waiting for me when I wake up but it's inevitable. I re-create a will and leave it near the patch of dirt. I do talk to it for a while and hammer out the details of our plan. I have two main objectives:

1) Complete the Quest.

2) Escape from the Knights.

A lot of it is going to have to be improvised and it's dependent on me getting a decent skill. Right now, I have a plan based on unverified information. I'll have to conduct some tests with will before we proceed.

"Can you communicate with me when I'm awake?"

It shrugs. "I don't know. You gotta go out and try."

"Well, I'll try to not die."

I charge upon my mana until I'm pulled out. This was a weird experience.

I don't make any sudden movements but I can still feel the bindings. I draw in a sharp breath and open my eyes. My first thought is, Can you hear me?

Yes! This is going to be mad!

I can feel an intense enthusiasm flowing through my body. The skill is a complete game-changer. We have a plan and double the brainpower. I guess the brain power's still the same since another version of me doesn't mean I'm somehow smarter.

I'm sitting in a chair right now. That Jake guy is sitting in a chair in front of me. "Did you think we didn't enchant those chains? What an idiot." He laughed at his own words as if they were the funniest things to grace this planet.

I keep calm. "I wasn't trying to escape." I don't say anything more. This feels like an interrogation. The very idea of being in the same situation again suffocates me. I can feel my chest squeezing in on itself.

I'm looking down sideways now, he just punched me. I stare at the ground in a tremendous fury but don't raise my head. I want to kill him, an intense blazing fury is coursing through my veins. How the hell do I get myself in the same situation across 2 fucking lifetimes!?

You need to calm down. This isn't the time. Don't ruin everything.

My own words provide me with some clarity but it doesn't take away the anger. Jake proceeds to beat the hell out of me for the next twenty minutes. A constant flurry of punches, kicks, elbows, and scars. Somewhere around the fifteen-minute mark, he'd gotten a knife.

The only reason he stopped is because of another soldier. "Yo, Jake! Are you insane or something? Don't kill him yet!"

The other soldier had to grab him by the shoulder and pull him away. Jake's eyes were bloodshot and filled with madness. The frenzy disappeared and he turned to the soldier.

"I was just making an example out of him. Obviously, I'm not going to kill him."

"Still, what if they throw their hands up in protest or something! Right now we need whatever enchantment they have on themselves. Don't fuck this up!"

I hear her words and let them pass. Her kindness is to further her own means. I don't feel good.

"I know, I know." Jake shrugs his shoulders and moves away. It's obvious that he doesn't care.

The other soldier groans and unties me. She grabs me by the arm and takes me back to my companions. It's late and the soldiers have pitched their tents. They ride with a furious frenzy from noon till deep into the night. I don't understand their reasoning.

The soldier drops me off with my companions. They're fuming and surprised. The soldier places me down on the ground and leaves. "I'll go get a healer."

"Why would you try to use mana!?" It's Shera.

"I wasn't trying to use it. I just figured out how to use mana. I cough up a little bit. I feel a buzzing headache in the back of my head. Jake didn't hit me in the head, it's from that warden. The chest wounds were getting better because of Shera's skill but they weren't healed.

The soldier comes back with a healer. He isn't dressed in some white robe or anything. Instead, the thing that sets him apart as a healer is his logo. It's a man clasping onto a broken leg with the sun shining down on him. What a bizarre logo.

He places his hands on his chest and casts his spell. [Stop Bleed].

The majority of the blood flowing out of my wounds stops. [Stop Bleed].

He takes out some rough coarse cloth and a vial. He places the cloth on the vial's mouth and turns it upside down. Next, he wipes every single wound on my body. My arms and hands are the worse with the nicks and bruises.

"I need to conserve my mana so, I'll wrap these up." By the end of it, my arms and legs are covered with bandages. The bandages are coarse and rough. They feel itchy. "I shouldn't use so many of these on you but, ..."

That soldier who brought me here starts staring daggers at his head and he shrugs. "Relax, Kats."

Kats, is that her name? What a weird name.

They leave and I take a deep breath in. It's time for the next step of our plan. "You still there, buddy?" I call out to my will.

"Waiting on you."

"I got this."

I pull up the map and the two red dots are on us. I can't tell their exact locations but they're in the general vicinity. If one of them has a sniping skill or something, it'll be bad.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah." I turn my eyes to Shera and ask her a question. "Can you teach me that ribbon skill?"

"Do you mean [Blood Absorption]?" She rubs her eyes. I can tell she's tired. The deadline is fast approaching.

"Yes."

"You should know the basics since, you heard us talking about how to create this enhancement. All you need is something to perform this skill on."

"What did you practice on?"

Her expression plunges into a blank stare. I've never seen her like this before.