A couple of hours later.
"Do we really have to sleep outside? The village is so close isn't there a hotel or something? There's got to be someone renting rooms at least..." Jack complains.
Lena doesn't reply.
"W-what if we get attack again?" Jack says worried.
"If you listen we won't" Lena says.
"Right... sorry..." Jack says dejected.
Lena suddenly stops, takes a look around, and then nods to herself.
"Alright here should do." she says sitting down with her back leaning on a tree's trunk.
The boy is taken by surprise at her sudden choice, he didn't get to understand why she even chose this place in particular.
"Then, are you going to sleep tonight or stand watch again?" Lena asks with her arms now crossed.
"I will stand watch..." Jack says.
"I see, then goodnight." Lena says closing her left eyelid.
"Wait! Don't we have to discuss what we are going to do next? Like our next destination, or our goal in general? Cause I'm very confused..."
"We are going to skip the next 3 villages and move onto the 4th immediately." Lena declares.
"W-why? and how long is that going to take?" Jack asks.
"I don't want to leave a trail behind, and I don't know depends on what we run into on the way." Lena said all that with her eyes still closed.
"... and what about me...?" The boy says lowering his head.
Lena slightly raises her left eyelid just barely able to see the boy.
"If we reach my person he will definitely be able to help you." Lena says closing it back.
"..." the boys stays silent for a while after that.
"Oh right you didn't tell me what to not do this time..." The boy says with a hint of panic.
"Just don't stray far, if you want to you can even head to sleep, as long as you're close it should be fine." Lena says.
"O-okay..."
A very long time passed after that without neither the boy nor Lena talking. The boy was convinced Lena had went to sleep.
"*sigh* How did I end up here..." The boy says staring at the ground.
A look of anger and hatred clouds his face as he thinks back through his memories.
"I hate myself..." He says in a quite voice barely louder then a whisper.
"I hate myself, I hate myself, I hate myself, I hate myself..."
"Why... why did I!" the boys says this time slightly raising his voice quietly shouting.
"To think a piece of shit like me would be given a second chance, I hat--" Jack's eyes suddenly widen.
(What if it's not me? What if it's not about being special?! Was I being extremely narcissistic? After all what would be the odd of me being the only one ending up here?! could it be that she too is here?! Somewhere in this fantasy world!) the boy thinks to himself getting excited, hopping up to his feet.
(No, even then... to show myself in front of her would be even worse... I don't deserve her forgiveness...) The boy thinks sitting back down.
"I hate myself..." The boy says once again quietly.
Some time passes.
A heavy sigh can be heard.
"I can't sleep..." the boy says looking around for something fun to do.
"How can she even sleep with that thing on..." The boy says staring at the gauntlet on Lena's right arm.
"Oh right!" the boy says finally remembering the thing that has been in front of him this whole time.
"I've gotten used to them already..." The boy says focusing on the names and the menu named corner circle on the top right.
"Last time all I had to say was menu." and just as the boy had expected the 'menu' had popped up.
(hmmm Let's see... There are many skills but all of them are 'locked'... only available ones are 'fire', 'water', and 'air'. All of which have Lv1 next to them so I guess it's what I start with...) the boy thinks preparing his right arm.
He raises his right arm towards the sky and stretches his fingers exposing his palm.
"water." Just as jack had expected a small amount of water was shot upwards only for it fall back up again.
And not only that but also his 'MP' bar had slightly decreased.
"But having to say it feels a bit inconvenient..." the boy says disappointed.
"Well I haven't tried yet so might as well."
in the same pose as before the boy thinks.
(water!)
To the boys surprise this time water again shots out, but this time even more had shot out. Also consuming more of his MP.
"Holy shit!" The boy says staring at his right palm.
"then what if I combo them!" the boy this time outstretches his arm in front of him.
Again stretching his fingers revealing his palm he thinks.
(Water, air!)
This time the water shots forward with considerable momentum, before losing it and falling.
"Then what if I!" The boy almost shouts
"... Or I probably shouldn't, don't want to end up burning us alive..." The boy says.
He averts his attention to his 'MP bar', it had been considerably depleted.
(I guess I won't be able to use this that much...)
(Let's see now is there anything else here...)
The 'menu' window had a 3 straight dots circle like thing to its bottom right.
"If I remember correctly, it said these are called 'else'" And as he had just said that the skill window completely changed.
This time it was showing his 'talents' or that's what the window was called.
(Hmm... Let's see...)
The window was long just like the skill's window with many 'talents', it even had a scroll bar that he could operate by thinking.
(Swordsmanship... Lv1... *sigh*)
(Archery... Lv1... sneak... Lv1... hunting lv2?) the boy looks confused at the numbers.
(Monster slaying too... its Lv2...) The boy's confusion grows.
(The rest is all Lv1... there is even fishing in here...) Jack sighed deeply disappointed in himself.
(I'm going to sleep the rest can wait for tomorrow.) He thought as he once again tried to force himself to sleep.
Morning.
Lena is already awake and is making her way back to where they were sleeping.
*yawn* She yawns hard enough to make her jaw hurt.
"Ouch..." she says as she rubs her chin with her free right arm still inside the gauntlet.
She is carrying a bag of ingredients in her left arm to make a quick breakfast before they start walking again. The boy was still deeply asleep when she woke up so she thought why not.
As she gets close to her destination she can hear the cries of a boy.
"W-WHY DID SHE LEAVE ME?! EVEN THOUGH I DECIDED TO STAY WITH HER?! H-HOW COULD SHE!" the screams continued with sniffling
"UWAAAAAAAA! IM DOOMED NOW! DOOMED! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LIVE?!" The boy screamed as Lena nonchalantly returned.
"UWAAAAAA--" The boy's screams are suddenly cut.
Lena pays him no mind as she puts down the firewood she had bought.
The boy stares at Lena with a look that begged his own death, his face was slowly turning red enough to be compared to the tomato in Lena's hand.
Once Lena was done preparing the fire wood she looks at the boy. The boy's face is shock still.
She then points towards the firewood with her right arm.
"Use your magic." Lena says with a blank, casual, uncaring look.
This made the boy's embarrassment many times worse, as if Lena had teased him instead they could've at least laughed it off.
"O-O-O-O-O-Of-f-f-f-f-f-c-c-c-c-c-c-o-o-o-o-o-o-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-r-r-r-r-r-r-ss-s-s-s-e-e-e-e!-!-!-!" The boy said his hand trembling.
"Get your shit together I don't want to get burned." Lena gives the boy a more serious look.
"R-Right!" the boy snaps out of it looking at Lena.
Without saying anything a fire appears from the boy's palm and stays there until the firewood is ready to leave alone.
"You've gotten better at this." Lena says taking out a whole new pot.
"Y-yeah..." the boy cant process the compliment as he is still too embarrassed.
Lena then starts throwing all kinds of ingredients in. Jack wasn't much of a cooking expert, so all he did was stare questioning her skills.
"S-so w-where did you go..." The boy asks.
"Went back to the village to get us the ingredients for breakfast." Lena says without diverting her attention.
"You went back there?! Didn't they attack you? And did they really sell you anything after what you had done?" The boy asks surprised.
"I was surprised myself, when I got there was heavily thanked by all the villagers." Lena outrageously claimed.
"What?! Why?!" The boy asks without even thinking.
"I didn't really understand it myself, but apparently that guy I beat up was terrorizing the villagers while exploiting them for cash, he was a gold-circle adventurer so a random villager's got no chance against him, so all they could do was obey. They had secretly requested help before, but apparently all were to no avail, so all they could do was live with it. He would hire random losers and get them to collect 'protection' money. It's just your usual scummy shit really. Anyway, apparently right after he woke up from my beating he disappeared. Without saying a single word he walked out of the village. All I know is he was holding an angered expression as he left according to one of the villagers, so with him out of the way the rest of his 'gang' were really powerless as he was the only one with any considerable strength." Lena says.
"And why did he leave? was it to search for us? Is he gonna start hunting us down?!" The boy says in a panic.
"Relax he won't, after all he didn't ask about us at all. He just got up and walked away. If I had to guess he probably felt shame, he knew about my lower ranking and was quite proud of his 'superior' rank. So losing might have been an extreme shock." Lena says.
"Then how did you beat him?" jack asks curious.
"Simple really, while in ranking he was higher than me, He wasn't in skill, not anymore at least. He had retired adventuring long ago, and has started wasting his time bossing around farmers and old people. Of course he would get rusty... The problem was how rusty he had gotten, If he were to get ranked again he would probably end up back in gold too, barely above silver too. If my body wasn't so considerably weakened fighting him would've been a lot easier." Lena says frowning as she stares at her right arm with her left eye.
"..." The boy just takes it all in without saying anything as he tries to make out the full picture.
(ranks, adventuring, gold, gold-circle, silver.)
He didn't feel like it's too important so he just nodded and took what he had in mind the truth.
after a good while Lena talks.
"Here you go... now eat it slowly it's still hot." Lena says handing a wooden bowl to the boy
"T-this isn't breakfast... this is both lunch and dinner in one..." The boy says looking at the very not light meal.
"Oh shut up and eat, we won't get to eat for a while so just enjoy it." Lena says as she brings her own bowl to her mouth and starts gulping it down.
(wasn't it hot!) the boy thinks as he follows her example.
"Aah!" the boy says sticking his tongue out.
"Hahahahaa! I warned you." Lena laughs while pointing at the boy.
"Sh-shut up! How am I supposed to eat this it's too hot!" The boy complains
"Here." Lena says throwing him something from inside the bag.
A wooden spoon flies into the boy's hand.
"No need to rush." Lena says as she gets herself seconds.
The boy sighs as he scoops up some from the top and slowly gulps it.
"T-this is good! surprisingly good! How did you even make this! It looked like you were just throwing stuff in!" The boy is taken by surprise.
"Ehh... I don't know... It just feels right I guess...?" Lena says confused herself, as she always eats it she doesn't find anything special with it.
"I was too confused to taste anything last time, but this is really good! I'm regretting getting confused now." The boy says as he gulps another spoonful down.
They both enjoy a nice meal.
Once they were done Lena packs the pot, bowls, and spoon into the bag with whatever ingredients were left.
"Ok let's go, Abandoned boy." Lena says.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"