The group decided to assemble their tents some kilometers away from Spear Forest. They weren't willing to gamble whether the Dreads would search for them out of the forest or not. Because of it, they preferred to stay away from there, but also not going too far away into that mountainous place in order to not find any other threats.
The more you entered a different biome, the greater the chances of you finding another monster to fight against.
The only time when they could afford themselves to rest properly was when they decided to settle down and make a camp. It didn't lessen their chances to get into a fight with Dreads, but it was the part of their day when they less released "Willpower".
When they were in the middle of a trip, they couldn't afford their bodies to get tired or hungry too fast. The basic function of "Willpower" was to make their bodies stronger and more resistant to any kind of harm or disease. It turned into an automatic reaction of their bodies to spread "Willpower" once they were getting exhausted and still doing a lot of physical effort. Sometimes, they couldn't control this impulse even if they wanted.
Dean was yet to have this kind of habit, but the rest of the group, except Paul, did as such. Because of this, after several hours of travel, even if they didn't enter in any kind of fight, they would release a reasonable amount of "Willpower".
It made Dreads track them easily.
However, when relaxing in their tents, such a thing didn't happen.
"Hey, Dean! You are going too slow, scum! You can rest after you are done, but for now, assemble this crap of a tent quickly, so we all can get some sleep! We are losing time here." Hector got near Dean and slapped him hard on his head, making the boy stumble several steps to the side.
Dean didn't argue with him and just nodded his head. He pinched his face, trying to take off the dizziness, then continued to assemble the tent at a faster pace, although it was still too slow for Hector.
The man was nearly opting to make it himself, then punish the boy for this afterward, but slave's job was still slave's job, and he wouldn't low his level to that point just because he wanted some minutes more of rest.
He decided not to pursue the matter for now and turned his back to Dean.
"Hey, Rick. What that idiot is doing, after all? He is way too weak... Did you abuse him too much while inside Spear Forest?"
Rick was sitting on top of his backpack, lazily. He had his usual tired eyes, but two times as tired as before.
His expression darkened for a second while he remembered that that shitty slave was the reason why he was still alive.
"This slave just worked too hard for me. Of course, I would abuse him a lot, that's how it is meant to be. Soon he will recover. After all, slaves learn how to go from zero to one hundred percent of energy in just some hours of sleep. If they don't do so, they will die. These cockroaches have an attachment to life that is kind of annoying, but useful." He spat on the ground, disgusted for having to please such low-level beings.
Clay approached Rick, sitting beside him.
"Well, it was cunning to conserve your energies in the Spear Forest. It won't delay our trip to Refuge Crystal, after all."
"Well, not sure about it, Clay. Kevin got pretty harmed himself. Even though Titanium Armor is a good spell, he still got some bruises on his body. Fight eleven to twelve roots at the same time is too tough, and he even managed to hold some of the Venom Monkeys and Stone Gorillas that appeared on the way of our group to here." Hector explained, looking to one of the tents that Paul assembled, where Kevin was now resting after being treated by him.
"Yeah, but Kevin will recover quickly. He has good regeneration. He always impressed us in this field. Maybe it is because of the nature of his "Willpower". He was raised to be like a mountain, after all." Rick shrugged, not caring about Kevin's state at all.
The leader gave a glance to Dean, who just finished assembling Hector's tent.
Once he finished it, the boy stumbled to the right, then to left. Afterward, he just stood still in the same place, looking into space. He stayed like that for a good while before he finally fell to the ground due to exhaustion.
Rick sighed.
"Well, it had to happen sometime." He muttered.
"Yeah, hahaha! Talking about it, although we made him pass through hellish times, he never passed out or gave up from exhaustion, right? Even the toughest rock will tear apart at some point, just as I thought!" Hector was having fun with that sight.
After all, he had beaten Dean a lot of times and made him do all sorts of heavy and harsh labors, but he never got to faint that boy.
"Well, it seems that one person will need to carry him until Refuge Crystal, but it doesn't matter. He is still a kid and his body lost a lot of weight, it shouldn't be an issue. The problem now is to stay just with Paul to serve us, but he alone was enough for quite a while, some days more won't be that bad." Rick stated, getting up and walking toward the boy.
He let Clay and Hector think that Dean was tired because of those days at the Spear Forest. However, he knew the truth.
'This boy... He is not someone to be underestimated, in the end. After all, even though I let him without food, sleeping just a couple of hours, and taking several fights alone, he dared to train his "Willpower" every day.'
He stared with a serious expression at his wounded and exhausted body laying over the ground.
'Just how much strong are you now? And how did you discover how to train your "Willpower", boy?' He got suspicious about it, but it surely was something that came from Refuge Sarah.