She suddenly jerked awake, realizing I was actually here. Her face looked like she hadn’t slept in days, but that was probably all she had done.

“Hey? Are you awake now?”, I asked, not sure if she could actually respond with something coherent. “Need water?”

“Y-yes, thanks”, she said with a soft but exhausted voice.

I reached for my canteen and opened it, handing it over to her. She carefully grabbed it and dank almost all of what was inside. I’ll clean and refill it later.

“Are you sick? How long have you been like this?”, I asked worriedly.

“-round three weeks”. Around three weeks? That’s way too long! “It got worse with time”.

“So that’s why you couldn’t move?”, I asked rhetorically. “I’m, uh, Sanjo. Stupid name isn’t it? Could You tell me yours?”

“-ena”. Ena? That’s a nice name, I wonder if the System also stole hers and gave her a new one. “Rena”, she completed her name. Rena’s nice too, but Ena sounds better.

“Could I call you Ena?”, I asked in a friendly manner.

“-sure”, she replied softly.

“Do you need anything else at all? There’s only five days until something bad happens, I need you to get better before that, ok?” After hearing my offer, she smiled lightly.

…

“Could you make your smile wider?”

“Wha-?”, she replied, confused.

“Just do it for a second”, sure enough, when she revealed her gums, they were bleeding. “Does anything else hurt? Your legs? Any bruises?”

“-uh, yes, my legs hurt and I feel exhausted”, as soon as I heard that, I immediately rushed to where I previously saw the capuchins. “Hey! Wait, don’t go-”

A different monkey was struggling to stay on the deer this time, with his peers cheering and throwing small green fruits. Specifically, cas fruits.

The struggling deer saw me and jolted off, taking the rider with it, making the capuchins notice me too. They started throwing random stuff at me: some half eaten fruits, poop, sticks, etc. But what I was after wasn’t the monkeys, it was their tree, the cas tree.

I ran up to the tree, scaring the critters away, and gave it the strongest kick I could muster, making fruit fall. Although it hurt like hell, the pain in my leg quickly went away with [Instant Heal].

I collected the fallen fruit and returned to where Ena was, while watching the slowly disappearing deer take the monkey on a ride.

“Here, eat those”, I authoritatively said.

“Cas? I can’t stand sour food”.

“I couldn’t care any less about that. Eat them and you’ll feel better in about two days or so”, it was a bit tactless, but it worked.

“Why would I get better just by eating these?”, Ena replied, her face contorting as she bit the fruit.

“You have scurvy, your gums are bleeding. Also, it’s good for you to change your diet every now and then”, she frowned at me, but didn’t actually look mad.

“Scurvy? The vitamin-c thing?”, Ena said, slightly surprised.

“Yeah, I bet you haven’t eaten any fruit in a while”, I said in a mocking tone.

“That’s because of the damn monkeys, they’re in every single tree around here”, she replied in an irritated tone.

“They’re monkeys! Just scare them away or something. They spend their time playing around, they can’t actually harm you”, I exclaimed.

“Bu-”

“No buts”

“Fine”

“Listen, I’ll go get more fruit tomorrow, your only job right now is to eat the ones you already have. That’s the only way you’ll get better”

Just like that, Ena started biting into another cas, making faces as she took each bite.

Current Stats:

[Sanjo, Defender of the Lands]

Age: 15

Classes

Health: 325 (+5)

Endurance: 275 (+5)

[Geologist] I lvl5

Agility: 275 (+10)

[Mason] I lvl10

Intelligence: 275

[Geomancer] I lvl10

Magic: 275

[Spearman] I lvl10

Charisma: 275

[Hunter] I lvl 10

Perks

Personal Perks

Class Perks

[Chosen by Crab] V

[Mineral Kineticism] I

[Earth Child] I (HP+5, EN+5)

[Sixth Sense] I

[Monster Slayer] II (AG+10)

[System Crafting] I

[Food Poisoning Resistance] I

[Mineral Examination] I

[Survival Skills] I

[Further Reinforcement] II

[Instant Heal] II

[Mineral Explosion] II

[Walker] I

[Weightless Spear] II

[Night Vision] I