[Main Mission: Survive for 14 days. 9/14]

Yeoman glanced at his fleshwatch before rolling over. He was exhausted. Even with his optimized body, he couldn’t take much more of Lucia’s hellish schedule. It was no wonder why Lucia thought Durandal was a sadist. His training couldn’t be completed by a normal person. In the past nine days, Yeoman could count the hours of sleep he had gotten on his fingers. The number of meals he had was even less. There was so much food, but he couldn’t have any of it unless Lucia happened to not be hungry. That didn’t happen often.

Despite the hellish conditions, Yeoman had no intention of leaving. The population density of the beasts capable of killing him was too dang high. It made zero sense. Virlyce must not have known anything about biology. A normal ecosystem required herbivores, a prey animal like a rabbit, for the carnivores to feast on. However, Yeoman hadn’t seen any such creature! There were only panthers, wolves, and scavenger crows. The wolves ate shadow panthers, the shadow panthers ate wolves, and the scavenger crows lured the two into fighting each other. Occasionally, the beasts might feast on a mercenary, but the whole concept was unsustainable. How were the plants not overgrown if nothing ate them? How were the panthers and moonlight wolves keeping their populations at a stable level despite the constant killing? Yeoman sighed and sat up. His mind had been drifting a lot recently. It was likely due to the lack of sleep.

“Rise and shine,” Durandal said and poked Lucia. For some reason, he usually woke Yeoman up first.

“Five more minutes….”

“You’ve already slept for fifteen.” Durandal yanked the cloth out from underneath Lucia, causing her to yelp and tumble along the ground.

“Fifteen isn’t enough! I’m still in my growing phase!”

“Yes, yes,” Durandal said. “That’s why you’re getting another fifteen minutes of sleep later.”

“When’s later!? In twenty hours!?”

“I was thinking twenty-five, but twenty works too,” Durandal said and nodded.

Yeoman wiped at his eyes. His blurry vision got slightly less blurry, and he climbed to his feet. He gathered up the blankets and cloths, folding them before stuffing them into a bag. He made sure everything was packed before carrying the bag on his back. Lucia was still grumbling by the time he was done, but she was also swinging her sword. Yeoman couldn’t see anything special about her stance or her swing, but he had to admit, it was very stable. Each stroke was the same; it was like he was watching a video of a single strike on repeat.

“Done?” Lucia glanced at Yeoman before letting out a breath through her nose. “Alright, Snow, you know the drill.”

Lucia and Durandal were directionally challenged, so Snow lead the group around. He was supposed to stay in the regional band of the forest where moonlight wolves and shadow panthers lived, but Yeoman had a feeling the bunnykin was leading the group deeper to the south than necessary. It was hard to tell though; the sun wasn’t up, and the stars weren’t the ones he was familiar with—not that he knew how to navigate by looking at the stars. The bunnykin was probably plotting to kill Lucia by having her mauled by a bear. If she died, Durandal would have no choice but to take Snow as his master instead. Once Lucia died, with Snow’s vicious personality, Yeoman would be next. However, how was Yeoman supposed to stop Snow from leading them to the south?

“Help! Someone, help us!”

“That way!” Lucia said and pointed. Yeoman frowned and followed after the group. It was always difficult to do that at night. He couldn’t see the ground, and it wasn’t uncommon for roots to snag his feet. Recently, he had been thinking of unlocking some bat genes next. Echolocation wouldn’t be a bad ability to have. It’d be ideal if he could collect thirty shadow panther gene portions and unlock their eyes for some night vision, but that didn’t seem like it would happen. There was an excess of over forty scavenger crow gene portions, but there weren’t any shadow panther gene portions. Lucia was still absorbing them.

Yeoman ran forward in the dark, his path illuminated by the faint moonlight. Something white appeared in his vision, and he froze. It was Snow. The bunnykin gestured for Yeoman to be quiet and pointed ahead. Yeoman nodded and crept forward.

“Dibs! Breaking Blade!” Lucia’s voice rang out, and there was a thudding sound. “I called dibs!”

“What the hell?” a gruff male voice asked. Yeoman peeked his head out from behind a tree. There was a group of seven people surrounding a dead shadow panther. Lucia was standing over it, her sword raised in front of her. The leader of the seven people, a big bald man, pointed at her. “It was on its last legs. We weakened it and did most of the work. Now you’re claiming it?”

“I called dibs,” Lucia said, bobbing her head up and down. “Do you know what dibs are? If I say dibs, and I kill a beast, that means the beast counts as my kill. I didn’t hear you guys say dibs.”

“Who do you think you are?” the leader of the group asked, taking a step forward. He spotted Snow and Yeoman. “It looks like you have friends too.” The leader nodded at the people behind him. Four of them approached Snow and Yeoman while the remaining three took positions around Lucia.

Snow glanced at Yeoman. The bunnykin smiled; a moment later, he disappeared, leaving Yeoman to face the four approaching mercenaries by himself. Yeoman swallowed and took a step back. The mercenaries chuckled while advancing. Two of them had spears. One of them had a large axe. The last one held a sword and shield. Yeoman didn’t think Snow was coming back to help him. One against four, if these people were infected, Yeoman wouldn’t have been so afraid of fighting them. However, they weren’t infected, and if he were to be injured, his chance of survival for the last few days would drop greatly. After making a quick risk analysis, Yeoman did the most sensible thing and ran towards Lucia.

Lucia frowned when Yeoman reached her side. The two of them were surrounded by seven people. “What are you guys planning on doing?” she asked, lifting her sword.

“Hand over all your spoils,” the leader of the mercenaries said. “If you do, we might let you off easy.”

Lucia’s eyes widened. “Am I being robbed?” She patted her sword. “Get out here and help!”

“I think you’ll be fine,” Durandal’s voice replied. “Just remember your training.”

Yeoman took in a deep breath, calming his nerves while positioning himself with his back to Lucia. He just had to stay alive. Lucia was strong. She might be a bit inexperienced when it came to fighting people, but all she had to do was swing her sword and bash them away with brute force. Then, she’d have time to save him. Yeoman raised his metal rods and clashed them together. The grating noise caused the mercenaries surrounding them to flinch, and Lucia let out a shout while sweeping her sword sideways, “Flying Qi Blade!”

“Go!”

The man with the sword and shield charged at Yeoman. Seeing that Yeoman only had metal rods as weapons, a smirk appeared on the man’s face. He raised his sword up high, but before he could swing it down, Yeoman launched himself forward while crouching, positioning himself underneath the man’s arm, preventing him from slashing down. Yeoman couldn’t strike the man’s body because the shield was in the way, and the man’s face was too far away for a proper hit. Yeoman’s mind raced, searching for the most optimal attack. His right hand released its grip on the metal rod before lunging forward, seizing the man’s crotch. With his optimized body boosted by chimpanzee and gorilla muscles, Yeoman clenched as hard as he could and yanked his arm down, dragging the man to his knees.

The man let out a silent scream before going limp. It was then that Yeoman realized something. The mercenary was extremely light. Yeoman dropped his remaining Dread Caller and placed his left hand on the man’s shoulder. With a grunt, Yeoman stood up, lifting the mercenary over his head. The man with the axe was drawing his axe back to swing. Yeoman lowered his arms, using the mercenary in his hands as a shield, and blocked the strike.

“You!”

Yeoman jerked his arms to the right, knocking his human shield’s head against his opponent’s. There was a dull cracking sound as the skulls collided. While the axe-wielding man was stunned, Yeoman jerked his arms the other way, smashing the two heads together once more. He was about to do it a third time, but he jumped backwards at the last moment, narrowly avoiding a spear strike aimed at his arm. Without thinking, Yeoman pushed out with his arms, flinging the mercenary’s body at the spear wielder. The axe wielder was clutching his head, and Yeoman rushed forward. His fingers pinched the man’s windpipe, and he clenched his hand, crushing the squishy tube. The man’s eyes widened, and he dropped his axe, his body falling limp.

“Die!” the second spearman shouted while thrusting his spear at Yeoman.

Yeoman tightened his grip on the axe wielder’s throat and dragged him up with one arm, using the man’s body to block the spear. The spearhead poked through the man’s chest, but it lost all momentum before reaching Yeoman. Yeoman tossed the man to the side, the motion wrenching the spear out of the spearman’s grasp. By then, the first spearman had gotten free from the body that was thrown on top of him, but before he could do anything, a red beam of light struck him, cutting him in half. A second beam of light flew through the air, killing the last spearman.

“Whew!” Lucia said and propped her sword up against her shoulder. “I didn’t think trickster monkeys would be armed! They were almost like real people.”

Yeoman couldn’t correct Lucia even if he wanted to, which he didn’t. However, Snow did. “Those were mercenaries,” Snow said, his head popping out of a nearby bush. “They weren’t beasts at all.”“Nonsense!” Lucia said and snorted. “If they were actual people, then why didn’t they respect my dibs?” She slapped Yeoman’s back, causing him to stumble forward. “I didn’t think you’d be good at fighting, Yo-yo! The next time we fight a pack of wolves, I won’t defend you anymore. Mm, go check the monkeys for cores.”

Yeoman stared at his right hand. It was bloody. Stained. However, contrary to his expectations, he didn’t feel anything, not even a mild sense of disgust. His hands had dug through warm and sticky brains before. He had ripped lukewarm organs out of recently slaughtered beasts. He had already killed other humans in cold blood too. Perhaps he was just numb and tired. Yeoman wiped the blood on his pants before crouching next to a dead mercenary, picking up his Dread Callers in the process. He smashed the mercenary’s head open before sticking his hand inside, rummaging around. Of course, he found nothing.

Yeoman repeated the process seven more times while Snow watched. When Yeoman was done, Snow crossed his arms and said, “Told you, Lucia. These were people, not beasts.”

Lucia rolled her eyes. “We can kill twenty scavenger crows and not get a single core. There were way less than twenty trickster monkeys, so it’s obvious we wouldn’t get one.” She was about to say something to Yeoman but saw he was already checking the mercenaries’ pouches. “I wonder if any of their weapons are magic tools.”

“If their weapons were magic tools, they wouldn’t have struggled with killing a shadow panther before it could run,” Snow said. “I’m surprised they decided to fight you despite seeing you kill the panther in one hit.”

“Mm.” Lucia nodded. “Some people aren’t smart. It’s a good thing I’m not one of them.”

Yeoman ignored the two beastkin and collected the loot. Unfortunately, all the equipment of the people who had been fighting Lucia had turned to scrap. Yeoman recovered two armor sets, some weapons, and a few useful items.

[Obtained: Bearded Battle Axe (Common)]

[Bearded Battle Axe (Common): Wow, who knew an axe could have a beard?]

[Obtained: Moonlight Wolf Pelt Armor Top (Common)]

[Moonlight Wolf Pelt Armor Top (Common): Armor made from a moonlight wolf’s pelt. A moonlight wolf’s pelt is quite sturdy but, apparently, not sturdy enough to save the wolf.]

[Obtained: Moonlight Wolf Pelt Armor Bottom (Common)]

[Moonlight Wolf Pelt Armor Bottom (Common): Armor made from a moonlight wolf’s pelt. Pray whatever killed this wolf doesn’t attack you as well.]

[Obtained: Moonlight Wolf Pelt Armor Boots (Common)]

[Moonlight Wolf Pelt Armor Boots (Common): There are moonlight wolf teeth attached to the tips of these boots in case the user wishes to chew with their feet.]

[Obtained: Longspear (Common)]

[Longspear (Common): This spear is about the length of an average spear but longer than a shortspear.]

[Obtained: Water-array Flask (Uncommon)]

[Water-array Flask (Uncommon): This flask draws in moisture from the surrounding air and condenses it into water within the flask. If too much water accumulates, the flask will leak.]

[Obtained: Kite Shield (Common)]

[Kite Shield (Common): If one ties a string to the kite shield and tosses it into the air, the shield will fall, and the user will have learned a lesson about gravity.]

[Obtained: Sword (Common)]

[Sword (Common): This is a sword. Nothing more, nothing less.]

“I’ll be taking this,” Durandal said, taking the sword from Yeoman. “It’s about time we got one of these.”

Yeoman didn’t object. He picked up the lead mercenary’s pouch. Inside of it, there were four beast cores. He passed them to Lucia, and she absorbed them without issue. As for the armor, flask, and remaining weapons, it didn’t seem like Snow or Lucia were interested in them. He donned one set of armor for himself, and folded the other, storing it into the bag that Lucia had him lug around. He placed the flask’s straps around his shoulder, letting it dangle by his waist. He grabbed the axe and replaced his hatchet with it. The handle of the bearded battle axe was longer, but luckily, it didn’t drag against the ground. As for the shield and spear, he held onto them, the spear in his right hand, the shield in his left.

“You’re almost starting to look like me back when I carried things in the army,” Lucia said, raising her eyebrows at Yeoman. “Mm, I’m surprised you can balance that backpack without a tail.” She smacked Snow’s back, causing the bunnykin to yelp. “Aren’t you glad we picked up Yo-yo?”

“Yeah,” Snow said, glaring at Yeoman. “He’s been pretty helpful.”

Lucia snatched Snow, gripping him in a one-armed headlock, and grinded her knuckles against his skull. “He was way more useful than you! You ditched me when those trickster monkeys were about to attack!”

“Ack! Stop!” Snow struggled but couldn’t get free. “I’m sorry! I’m really weak, and I didn’t want to die!”

“Hmph, hmph!” Lucia released Snow and gripped her sword. “Onwards!”

Snow wiped the tears from his eyes and glared at Yeoman again. Yeoman exhaled through his nose. He was definitely being targeted by Snow, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Unless…? If he killed Snow, wouldn’t he obtain Bouncykins, the item spirit? Yeoman shook his head. How did he come up with such a dangerous idea? Ella’s personality must’ve rubbed off on him. If he killed Snow, he’d die to Lucia. Yeoman didn’t want to die even if he could come back to life. He didn’t know if he’d keep his items after death. Cody and Gordan had kept their things, but no one was around to loot their corpses. The aliens definitely wouldn’t allow a glitch in their system that let the abductees duplicate items. He’d just stick to his original plan, follow Lucia, survive. There was no need to take any risks.