The silent weeping continued for several minutes. Ray didn't say anything to Tessa and just tried to distract himself somehow.

Right now, he finished counting the souls he had, which were a little more than one and a half hundred. In fact, he spent almost three dozen souls of beasts from the forest during the battle. There was one very unpleasant reason for this, which was especially acute in the form of the Sun Eater - fatigue. If in the body of a snake it was not felt so strongly, then when returning to the form of a forest one, it could even make him lose consciousness. Ray revealed this feature back in the forest. Then everything ended well thanks to Cess, but he was not going to repeat the mistakes.

In fact, the principle was quite simple. The Sun Eater's body was too large and was actively expending its own energy during intense combat. As long as he remained in the body of a snake, this fatigue did not bother him too much, but when Rei changed form to a smaller and less durable one, the body simply could not withstand the load that had fallen on him. Therefore, one had to gradually feed oneself with souls while in the form of a snake. The guy still didn't understand why he couldn't absorb the surrounding souls in the form of animals, but as long as he had a supply, it didn't bother him too much. It was good that he could interact with those souls that were inside him.

There was another way that allowed saving souls. All he needed to do was rest in snake form, but it was rather slow, and the only way he knew how to speed things up was food. That's just enough energy-intensive food in the camp were only the bodies of mercenaries and horses. The latter were too large and would take a long time to digest, even despite the acid in the saliva, which means that he could not change the form to a less voluminous one until the food was processed. He was not ready to eat the bodies of people. And it is unlikely that it will ever be ready.

The most baffling thing about this principle was that fatigue did not adjust to the size and strength of the body like wounds. Rey didn't understand why it happened this way, but he was genuinely glad that the ability was designed in such a way, because a slight cut for the Sun Eater's body could turn into almost a fatal wound for anyone else. In addition, he could also heal them with higher efficiency, just by doing it in the smallest of the forms. True, the body of the snake was so strong that the guy could not yet imagine with what weapon it was possible to pierce the scales of this monster. He himself was sure that he could hardly scratch it, and this with the use of skills. Although he could not check the real result, so it was all more of an assumption.

The Sun Eater's form was also strange in that it consumed a lot more souls to power up. If the soul of a person to become green absorbed one or two hundred souls, then the snake required about ten times more. And although Ray could not give exact numbers, because each soul had a different amount of energy, the guy was sure that he rather underestimated the scale of the gluttony of the snake, because most likely they were much larger.

Another problem was that from the moment when the soul of the Sun Eater turned green, gray souls practically ceased to be useful for its development. To obtain a visible result, it was necessary to pour at least several hundred such souls into the soul of a serpent. Or he needed strong white souls, and he rarely met such souls in the forest, so it turned out that the snake stopped growing, although Rey continuously “fed” him.

But it also brought some benefits, because it was only thanks to the Sun Eater that Rey once again confirmed that the green form of the soul was not the final one. Albeit extremely slowly, but the snake continued to grow, which means that the human soul could also be made stronger. But its growth could not be confirmed in any way, because there were no visible changes with the human body.

The boy was contemplating whether to feed some of the souls to the Sun Eater right now, or whether it would be better to wait when he felt the girl grab his hands. At first it seemed to him that she was trying to unclench them, because Rei still held her in the saddle, clutching the reins in his hands, but after a couple of seconds he realized that he was mistaken.

Tessa just held his hands.

- I am not afraid of you. Forgive me for crying. - the girl tried to give confidence to the words, but it turned out frankly badly for her, because she stopped crying only a minute ago.

- That's how? Why? I killed so many of your former comrades. And if I hadn't shown up, maybe they wouldn't have attacked you.

The girl thought for a minute. Ray heard her heartbeat quicken, and the hand holding his own tightened even more.

- How can I consider as comrades people who have done this? If it wasn't for you...they would...

- Don't make me a hero. I had my own reasons for killing them, besides helping you. And, most likely, they broke only because you spent the night with me. It is unlikely that you would have been touched if you had not done this for such a long time.

Tessa fell silent again, considering his words. Ray, after waiting a bit, asked the most important question:

"You need to decide if you want to follow me?" If not, then I will take you to the nearest city or just return the food and things right here. Think till morning.

The girl remained silent. An hour went by, then another...

“If she accuses me of killing people, it will be easier to just not take her with me. And while it probably will…”

- I'll go with you. Tessa suddenly spoke up. But an even bigger surprise was that her voice returned to normal. And when she turned to face him, Rey couldn't see a shred of doubt in her emerald eyes.

“Somehow she recovered too quickly after what happened ...” - even though Rei thought so, he decided not to stir up this topic.

- Why did you decide so?

Slightly straightening up in the saddle, the girl continued in her more self-satisfied tone, which was more characteristic of her:

"You're going to go to the capital, right?" But you have no idea how to get there. I will guide you.

- And then?

- Then ... - the voice was a little strange, but the guy did not pay attention to it, - I will also go with you.

- I'm going to travel and not always my route will be safe. You can die... Think again.

"Do you think being a mercenary I'm not used to danger?" My decision will remain the same.

But you must have a reason. What is it?

The guy noticed how Tessa had already opened her mouth to say something, but in the end she only turned away, lowering her head slightly. At that moment, Rei heard the girl's heart beat faster again.

Understanding the possible reason, he ignored the inappropriateness of his words and directly asked the question:

- ...fell in love?

Surprisingly, Tessa, usually sharply reacting to any trifles, only lowered her head more when she heard him.

Thinking for a moment, Rei realized that there was nothing strange about that. The body and appearance of the players were designed to fully meet the concept of "beauty". In the form of the forest, the external features practically did not change, except that the skin tone changed slightly, and the claws became sharper. Besides, like any girl, Tessa instinctively reached out to the one who was stronger, especially after he protected her.

The guy sighed and muttered something, released one of his hands and grabbed a bag of things, sending it to Inventory. The girl, of course, noticed this, but Rey was ahead of her by an unvoiced question:

- I need to tell you something...