Feeling the warmth of the fire, and the calmness of the surroundings, Lex spat.
He was now reminded of his dead friend, once again.
It'd been a few days since his passing. Lex had rested his body up against a tree, facing where the sun sat at that time.
He didn't have the time or the luxury to bury his former companion. In the end, he died almost a stranger. Now, Lex had taken over his cave, making it his own.
However, one thought had never left his mind.
'This was my fault. I was too weak...too stupid'
He spat again in frustration. The thought had been eating at him ever since Hanz's body fell to the ground.
Slowly, he tilted his head, looking down at the furry armour he was wearing, under a layer of blood of course. It was the Alpha Hide, Hanz's armour.
He barely knew Hanz...so why did he feel so guilty? He used to pride himself on being emotionless, yet here he sat moaning about the death of someone he'd known for a few hours at most.
Sure, they'd done a lot in that time. For example: they killed a fucking fright. However, they were still strangers really. They didn't know much about each other at all.
Ah, well. The past was the past. Lex would get over it, eventually. By tomorrow morning, he'd forget the moron. Or at least, that's what he told himself.
Looking at the remaining supplies he had left, he sighed.
He had a day's worth of food at best. Perhaps only enough for breakfast tomorrow morning.
Soon, he stomped out the fire. Not many creatures seemed to lurk around here, but the one's that did were anything but friendly.
With that, he called it a night.
"Ahhhh" he yawned carelessly.
Another day. How fun.
To be honest, he didn't mind his life at the moment, it was pretty lax with just killing and eating and sleeping.
Every couple days, he'd go out a few kilometres to hunt, then he'd gather some food and head back. His normal route was North, though he sometimes went East and never West. The only thing to the West was the dark forest, and he'd promised himself to never go there ever again.
His sanity was at stake after all. Last time, he lost a chunk of his arm. Next time, what would it be? A bit of his leg?
Reminded, he looked at his wounded arm, it was much less deformed now, thanks to Alpha Hide's ability.
It seemed the armour had the ability to repair a the user's body to a great extent, it could even regrow limbs, however that would take a long time. Plus, it required a lot of energy to heal things like that. His current wound wasn't too bad, only a bite out of his arm, just over a little nibble. Before, it went about an inch into his arm. Now, it was about a centimetre; it was coming along nicely.
He'd also began using the dagger a little, to cut up the meat more precisely, after cooking of course. It seemed even after the Hanz's passing, the boost on his items remained.
The same went for Lex's Dao.
'Thank you, friend'
Anyways, he had to get the fire started again.
As he walked over, he paused, staring at the pool of dried blood that lay right next to all his fire wood.
After losing all that blood, he seemed fine; perfect even. It was as though it had all been replaced.
Additionally, he felt the flow of his blood had more vigour now. Whatever the befouled heart did, it was good. Especially considering Lex's abilities.
Soon, with some patience and a lot of friction, Lex managed to get a fire started. Looking out to the sky, he thanked all those online videos he'd watched on survival.
Then he thought of all the smoke that entered his lungs due to the close proximity of the cave walls to the fire. Most of the smoke left out through the entrance but some went straight to Lex's mouth.
He wasn't bothered though, it was better here than outside for any lurking monsters to see. At least here, he was safer. He feared the monsters much more than a bit of smoke in his lungs.
Not that either was ideal.
After gobbling up his breakfast, he headed out North, following his usual path.
After an hour and a bit, he'd gotten pretty far out, yet he'd seen no signs of a potential meal.
Thinking of how he'd become the hunter now, he scoffed.
How cocky had he become? It was only thanks to the Walker's Eye that he had any chance of killing these things. And he could only take them alone. That's why he treaded carefully, ready to run if any danger arose.
Still, he wasn't exactly safe. It was impossible in a place like this after all. But he still aimed to be as careful as possible, to increase his chances of survival.
Hopefully a rift would show up sometime soon. Likely not but still. They only ever appeared every month or so, and in the strangest of places.
It normally took a dreamer around four months to get back to the real world, and that's when they'd been able to find an obelisk.
Lex wasn't so lucky. He didn't have the help of countless other dreamers to search for a rift.
'What luck'
Continuing his path, now the furthest out he'd ever been, he tried his best to conceal his presence while still progressing at a decent pace. There were some trees he'd hide behind to check the area, and his affinity with blood allowed him to sense any monsters, so long as they were either bleeding or had another monster's blood in their gob.
Whilst scouting out the area ahead, about three kilometres out from his normal path, he spotted a something large in the distance, situated right out in the open.
A cathedral sat tall, no monsters nearby that he could see. Yet, he could sense something in the vicinity...
Blood.