Chapter 75: Day CCXVIII

When I woke up, Will was already on his feet. Munching on a piece of beef jerky, and observing the tree line, but I bet he wasn't really paying attention to the view. My movement made him turn around.

- Good morning sunshine – he said.

- Morning Will. Morning. If good, we will see.

He didn't say anything to that, so I continued:

- Can't sleep?

- Kinda. Just have been thinking.

- About?

- Past, and stuff.

We all had our demons, smaller or bigger. Things hunting us from the previous life. I felt kinda responsible for those hunting him because I had my part in woking them up.

- Fuck the past. It was terrible. Instead, let's make sure that the future will be better.

I made my attempt to cheer him up. I was not sure how successful it was, but he at least smiled a bit.

- Yeah. Sure.

- Let's start with kicking some orcs butts.

- Would love that, but we need to do some walking first.

He was right. We were nowhere close to the canyon.

- And whose fault is that?

- Stop nagging Peter, and grab the cart. I'll switch you when I'm finished with my breakfast.

- Yes boss.

And I followed his orders. We started to slowly make our way to the next camp. Switching from time to time to kill a bunch of goblins, grab a drink, or munch on some food.

The mood was kinda dull. I figured Will need some time to process stuff that was hindering him, so I kept my silence. I felt like that's the only thing I can do for him. There was no wisdom to share from my side. Just a bunch of empty words, that could do more harm than good. I've never been married or had a child. I had no idea how hard it is to provide for your family. I knew hardships, cause I've been thru those, but it felt like I can only give him some homemade philosophical bullshit, so I kept my mouth shut.

I also felt kinda bad for what I said yesterday. Back then hose kinda slipped from my mouth. It was all true. No lies. But sometimes you should spare your friends from the truth. Words can hit harder

than sticks and stones.

That's how we made our way to the next stop. There was no need to hide, cause we could take turns to watch, so we just found a bit of even space, and parked the cart there. Then sat on the ground, under the trees.

It was a nice place. Few bushes around to the left, but more or less clear to the right. It felt kinda artificial with how everything was growing, and the perfect green grass. No animals, no birds singing, but a bit of sunshine peeking thru the leaves.

- Uh, I'm tired – said Will, finally breaking the silence.

- You good?

- Y-yeah. Just had to think. What you said yesterday… I needed to process that.

- Good. Just don't go too hard on yourself. This place provides enough ass-kicking.

He smiled.

- Yeah. I know. Hey, Peter… I have a stupid question.

- Then ask. Stupid ones are my favorite.

- Do you think we can ever go back? To earth I mean.

- I'm not sure. The device is a strange thing. It could be possible one day. There are many secrets and strange things about this place. It feels so damn artificial.

- I agree. But what do you mean about secrets?

- Gave you ever seen the gate on the opposite side of the city, to the goblin one?

- No.

- There is a mural on it. An island of some kind.

- What do you think does that mean?

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- I can only give you a wild guess, Will. There is a wasteland there. If the island still exists, answers can probably be found there.

- So you think some catastrophe happened, and that's why this place is so damn empty?

- Maybe. Maybe not. We can be part of some kind of experiment. Abducted by aliens. Or maybe one of those isekai stories. You know, when you get transported to a different world. Or maybe we just died, and this is some kind of hell or purgatory.

- Damn. I had no idea. I need to see that gate. How the hell did you discover that?

- I got beaten up a lot, so I had to walk it off.

He smiled and nodded.

- I know the pain. Any other secrets?

- Yeah.

- Share then.

- Nah. You are not ready, young one.

- What the hell does that mean? And I'm the old one.

- I could tell you, but you won't do shit with that knowledge anyway. You are too weak, and I don't want you to do stupid things you are not ready for. It's enough I had to do them. I'll tell you when you will be ready. I'll really do. It's a promise.

- Fine. I'll trust you. But maybe a little sneak peek? A little preview?

I laughed.

- Ok. Let's say there is more to how I beat Mark than just the bullshit I told you before.

- Ok. All right. That sounds spicy.

- Oh, it is spicy, but for now, focus on those damn crystals.

- Tomorrow. I'm too tired today.

- Ok. Then go to sleep. I'll take the first watch.

- Thanks. Remember, you don't have to wake me up.

- Oh, I'll definitely will. Too bad I don't have a bucket with ice-cold water. That would be so damn nice.

Will chuckled a bit and then found himself a spot to lie. I remained watching our surroundings. Trying to focus on what's around, and not think too much.

It was looking so damn artificial. Not a single yellow blade of grass. Not a single snail, fly, or bird. Just the noise of wind moving the leaves above us. I really wanted to know if this whole place was like this. The whole damn planet. Or maybe, just maybe, there was an end to this fakeness.

Time passed slowly, like that snail I mentioned before. But at some point, I decided to wake Will up. It was very dark. Some light coming from the stars made it to us, so one could see the outlines, but nothing more.

Will was not keen to get up, but with a few mumbled curses did, and then I grabbed my few hours of sleep.

We went hunting alongside the sun rising up. I led us to the edge of the canyon.

- Now wait here Will. This part might be dangerous if we go together. I'll clean up, and then we will get the cart down. They have bows, so you need to be quick. I don't want you to get pointlessly injured. After that, we hunt together, ok?

- Ok.

I ran down the pathway and dealt with orcs at the bottom as quickly as possible. Then went pack up to help bring cart down. It was heavy, and if we both didn't possess unnatural strength, it wouldn't be possible.

Then the hunt started and continued for many days. We quickly discovered that the canyon indeed was some kind of labyrinth. Fortunately not too hard to follow. There were two main routes, one led to a big orc camp, which we avoided, and the second led to the left. For a moment there was nothing there, but later we actually encountered another type of monster.

Humanoid birdlike creatures, which I quickly named as harpies. Uncertain of how strong they might be, we didn't engage and instead returned.

Some nights were sleepless, because of orcs patrols. During others, we actually could get some rest. With time we figured the right spots for camps, which made things easier. It was more or less halfway during our little hunting escapade.

The cart was filling up pretty quickly, so we actually had to eat more, to make more space for crystals. There was no need to save the rations when we couldn't get back all of our score.

We also had some time to discuss and observe few things. We made the same conclusion, that orcs are somehow spawning, or appearing out of nowhere around midnight. Unfortunately, we were unable to catch them red-handed, even after few tries.

We made some wild theories, but nothing groundbreaking. Just the same old bullshit about virtual reality, the game world, or some kind of artificial place controlled by 'others'. Aliens, god, reptilians, you name them. It was kinda funny.

But soon time for return came, and for the last time, we camped into the canyon, close to the path on the cliff. In a safe spot between routes used by orcs patrols. Tomorrow a long way awaited us.

Will was visibly tired, and not used to such long escapades. Also with the way his distribution of upgrades worked, there was no way to isolate endurance. He was forced to level up his physical capabilities at the same time. Classes could fix that, but there was no way for him to defeat the goblin boss alone. He needed to earn it, as I did. I was not sure if it was the logic or my own greet talking, but the decision was made.

The last day of our hunt ended with 31 892 points on my account, a single class one, and 5031 crystals on the cart.

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