Raian awoke in the vast desert plain of the unknown continent. The rough grains of sand, while softer against his strong skin, provided little comfort beneath him.
Rubbing his eyes and raising both arms upward to stretch, he dusted off the sand stuck near his face. His body ached from the somewhat unique lifestyle, but Raian didn't dislike the ache. Rather, it reminded him.
Pain made him feel alive, while hunger fueled his conviction.
Shifting small piles of sand and getting up, the rays of the white sun felt tiring as usual.
One would think after one full month he would get used to treading through the desert of depression. Aimlessly walking somewhere, hunting for sustenance, fighting for survival, the thrill of battle and the fear of the dark sea chipped away at their mind, Sleeping did clear things up but no matter how much he slept, some fatigue still lingered.
Pulling his hands forward and keeping his knees straight while reaching the ground, Raian did his final routine and woke up fully.
Ruffling his hair and laying it backward, he stepped on broken fragments of rocks, walking forward. Not interested in gazing at the environment, ignoring the depressingly empty world, he quickly finished the journey as he jumped upwards.
Feeling power rapidly course throughout his body, Raian concentrated it towards his legs. Controlling his willpower to flow like a river, coursing through his spine, stifling deep into his quads and delving inside the calves, he imagined the motion of a spring bouncing upwards after being pressed down.
When Raian felt like the aura peaked, the compression exploded, and he soared into the sky.
Feeling weightless momentarily, the sincere enjoyment of the moment was interrupted by sharp pain.
Rolling his eyes, Raian thought, "Again? I swear I'm regressing."
Refusing to fall short of his aim, Raian concentrated forward, his fingers tearing into the hard outer wall of the makeshift broken mountain. Taking a breath and climbing while tearing through the mountain, he eventually reached the summit.
Feeling the unnatural yet familiar pain, he looked down. A slow trickle of blood descended from his calves. Multiple small craters bled across his poor muscles, the blood vessels and muscle tendons couldn't properly handle the amount of power, thus exploding outwards.
Summoning cursed vitality and drinking from it, Raian continued to ponder his progress.
After all, it wasn't his first time feeling his calves explode. Similar injuries had happened a few times before. But he conquered the challenge. Becoming more skillful at using his aspect, the incident nicknamed "Jet Feet" by Liala stopped occurring after profuse amounts of bloodshed.
"But it returned to square one. Why did it return?"
Baffled by the returning injury, the astounding amount of training, meditation, and scuffed sparring felt like a total joke. Locking arms and hips, Raian exhaled a large amount of air. Feeling helpless, there was nothing he felt he could do.
Trying to look on the bright side, he thought, "At least this means I discovered a lethal flaw early, saving me in the future. haha."
From making excuses to blame the humidity, he tried to justify the injury. Attempting to comprehend the root cause, Raian analyzed the events leading to this moment. Processing the difference between the last successful attempt and this one. Not many things matched. Position of the sun, condition of the body, empty stomach. Many reasons existed but all of them were irrelevant.
After some time of pondering, only one reason stood strong against his logical barrage of elimination.
Summoning his runes, Raian immediately checked the progress number.
[128/1000]
"It increased by 8. Is that the reason?" Before, he had made the same jump successfully multiple times, but now, because his willpower increased by merely eight, he couldn't anymore.
Falling to his knees and almost crawling on the ground. "I am a delicate bitch."
Palms and knees supporting his body like stone pillars, he shamefully looked down and lay there for a few moments.
The pain from the cursed vitality finally kicking in refreshed the depression and embarassment out of him, Raian got up with fresh motivation. "Depression time is over."
While the news of his delicate side was quite disappointing, it was a blessing in disguise. The previous placebo feelings of gaining power weren't entirely fake. He was getting stronger. Now, with actual evidence of his growth, Raian still dreaded the future.
Just the thought of his flesh exploding from inside due to a small error in power distribution was terrifying. The [Potion of Cursed Vitality] existed, but it wasn't exactly reliable. Raian didn't want it to become a crutch. In his mind, supporting items were meant to bridge the gap between humans and nightmare creatures. Even then, humans won by using their brains.
Forcing a rock against a rock to see which had the bigger one wasn't efficient, the paper would be infinitely better.
Summoning cursed vitality and looking at it, Raian decided to take his time training. The only thing he truly owned was his body, after all. Why rush it? Especially when his shift was coming up.
Finding his way to the usual rendezvous spot, he saw the girl with autumn-burnt hairlocks.
Liala looked clean, without the need to manage her hair. She looked no different from when he saw her in the academy. Using her aspect to perfectly style her hair whenever she wanted was a power Raian couldn't decide if he should be jealous of or not.
Seeing someone manage through the depressing wasteland much better than him, Raian sighed in self-pity. One looked clean in general, like an everyday working adult, carrying a feel of productivity while the other looked haggard, just haggard. Raian felt like the only difference between him and a homeless beggar in the slums was his body.
No beggar would have six-packs, at least Raian hoped there would be none, or else the difference would become hair-thin.
Stopping beside Liala and plopping on the ground cross-legged, Raian did not initiate a conversation or care about his body. Over a month of travel had affected both of them in different ways, and Raian trusted her more. At least he hoped so. Things like trust couldn't be explained with words.
Well… it could be explained, but the meaning could always be changed. Simple words wouldn't be enough. Sometimes he didn't know whether he trusted Liala genuinely from within or because, in his logical mind, she was the only companion available, and being an unreliable team member was something Raian refused to be.
Living logically was sometimes a nightmare. Emotions were not reliable, but what was?
Knowing Raian wouldn't start a conversation, Liala didn't think much of it as she asked, "So how was the nap? Did you get a sudden enlightenment or something? You're quite late."
Looking back disdainfully, Raian ignored another one of her teases. After he started meditating Liala would tease him for it often, sighing and leaning back, he answered, "It happened again."
Raising an eyebrow, Liala chimed, "Again? Didn't you master that? I saw you jump a few times, you were fine."
Poking his calves and hissing from the pain, Raian answered, "It's not that simple. I think my power fluctuates with my emotions or something. Some days it's effortless, sometimes it's a nightmare." Raian disliked lying but he didn't want Liala to learn the truth either. Maybe after stabilizing himself, but not right now. Not wanting the conversation to stay on his Jet Feet incident, he asked, "So did anything interesting happen? Any demons around?"
Pausing for a moment to think, Liala answered, "No, but there were some lights last night. Maybe someone is camping there." Pointing in the distance, towards the place where the dark sea wouldnt reach but could block the way at any given moment.
Gauging the distance with his eyes, somewhat confused, Raian pointed towards the spot where he thought Liala was pointing. "There?"
Frowning at Raian, she pointed again. "No, there!"
Raian adjusted his finger. "There?"
Liala grabbed Raian's arm and pointed at it. "There."
Donning an "I understand" face, Raian said, "Oh, I understand now. It was right there."
Suspiciously looking at him, Liala's eyes narrowed. "Did you really get where I pointed?"
Smiling, Raian answered, "Nope, you can just lead me there."
"I guess so. So are we going for a new member hunt?" she questioned.
Turning to her Raian softly asked. "Why are you suddenly asking me."
Raising both arms to 'Air quote' Liala answered "Its called communication."
Still trying to find where Liala pointed Raian spoke. "You can decide this kind of stuff in the future, its too much of a drag to think."
Standing up with vigor Liala summoned her memories. "Allright, onwards, we ride right now."
Coughin few times to attract some attention Raian got up beside her and pointed at the sky. Letting the darkening sky speak instead of him, the descending sun made his point perfectly.
Dismissing her claymore and other types of memories Liala calmed down. "Then we ride at dawn."