"Ready to go?" Ezekiel asked as soon as Claire was fully recovered
"Of course" Claire replied quickly getting up, not realizing that standing up would cause her already tattered clothes to disappear.
Ezekiel just stared, while Claire was frozen standing face to face with Ezekiel completely naked. Her flames may heal her skin, but they burn her clothes as well.
Ezekiel who had bought some extra clothes instantly summoned them, throwing them towards her while turning around.
***
Even after ten minutes of walking Claire's face was still red, she hadn't uttered a word.
She had never been so embarrassed in her entire life, she was an innocent lady and had never once shown a single man what Ezekiel was graced with seeing.
'And he barely showed a reaction' Claire complained to herself not knowing why she was so upset with his lack of reaction
'He even gave me clothes' she continued with her internal rant about Ezekiel's response, or non-response for that matter, while at the same time having a minor internal crisis about the way she looked.
"If we find an Object of War it's mine" Claire suddenly stated leaving no room for objections
"Object of War?" Ezekiel asked, unaware of the value just one of those wonderous tools contained.
Opening her eyes wide Claire uttered "Country bumpkin" just loud enough for Ezekiel to hear
"Shut up and tell me what it is" he replied with a scowl,
"You know about the war a millennium ago, while hundreds of thousands of people and entities died during the war, and along with it many items were lost." she said with a voice filled with greed "So throughout the world, countless treasures are waiting to be found, like your sword for example," Claire said slowly forgetting about the earlier incident
"Got it, so there could be like a piece of armor" Ezekiel commented while studying the clothes he had given to Claire making her face which had just recently regained its natural color go red once again.
"Y-Yes so if you find something please give it to me," Claire said while trying to keep a straight face. She wouldn't allow herself to get swept up in Ezekiel's teasing once again.
"I'll keep an eye out," he said before turning silent
***
'I've figured it out' Ezekiel internally exclaimed, after a couple of hours of work, Ezekiel had finally been able to get a good grasp on his powers.
After killing those 3 blood monkeys in the earlier battle Ezekiel had managed to expand his sea of Darkness. He had just enough darkness to create a set of clothes. The clothes were weak, but he had made them.
After he had made the clothes he began to test other aspects of his powers, remaking the thread and controlling it he found out that he could only control the thread for around one kilometer, but within that kilometer, he could sense a one-meter radius around the thread.
After practicing for a few more hours Ezekiel had created hundreds of threads and spread them in every direction. Effectively sensing everything within a kilometer around him.
But that wasn't feasible, maintaining any form of darkness caused his sea of darkness to deplete slowly. Luckily it also replenished at the same time but the more darkness he used the quicker it depleted
He measured it out and he could only maintain 10 threads unless he wanted his sea of darkness to deplete. But even that small amount allowed him to sense a great deal.
He then tried to create weapons, and realizing the potential of this power he began to test everything, sadly he couldn't form a sword unless he wanted a sword that was as deadly as rubber.
At most, he was able to create 4 needles, which may seem small but each of those needles was able to pierce the weak point of the blood monkey.
After some practice, Ezekiel's strength had increased 10 fold, when taking into account his needles. Although he could only maintain one needle unless he wanted his sea of darkness depleting, he could keep 4 needles for 10 minutes before running out of power.
Even though he wasn't able to create a sword, he was happy with his progress. Now it was time to hunt, Ezekiel and Claire hadn't run into any Blood monkeys for a while. It seemed their display earlier may have scared them away.
After utilizing his thread Ezekiel quickly found a pact of Blood monkeys.
He and Claire slowly made their way towards them.
Ezekiel prepped his needle and efficiently killed the closest Monkey
As those messages once again appeared he felt his strength increase ever so slightly
Dismissing his needle Ezekiel summoned his sword while Claire summoned her spear.
The four Monkeys were sitting ducks unaware their scout had already been handled.
Claire walked right up to the monkeys while Ezekiel circled around, hiding his presence.
Bringing the head of the dead Blood Monkey with her Claire threw it into the middle of the remaining monkeys, causing them to turn their attention towards Claire.
They all prepped to jump at Claire intending to cause her a miserable death.
Just as they were about to attack two of them died,
The remaining monkeys instantly turned around, looking for the culprit who had just murdered their two companions.
As soon as they stopped focusing on Claire they were already dead, both their heads rolling on the ground.
"Well done" The sound of clapping resounded from within the fog as Ezekiel slowly walked within view. A large smile covered his face and a needle floated above him
"Anybody tell you, you give off serial killer vibes," Claire asked as a slight chill ran down her spine.
"Yes, plenty, I belie-"
"It's not a compliment," Claire said before Ezekiel could finish
"Depends on the perspective" he commented before once again walking towards the mountain.
***
Night had descended and Ezekiel began to feel stronger than before. Although Night wasn't exactly pure darkness it was close enough that he still gained some benefits.
Noticing the scent of death that the forest began to give off, Ezekiel and Claire looked for a safe place to sleep. Sadly for them, only trees were around for miles.
The only Landmark was an absurdly large tree situated around two kilometers ahead of them.
After getting within one kilometer, Ezekiel began to scout the enormous tree. The tree was at least a kilometer tall and 100 meters in diameter.
As soon as Ezekiel got within range of the tree, all he could feel was death. All of a sudden he realized why these weak Blood monkeys were able to exist within the leafless forest alone. They were minions.
Within the tree, about 100 meters off the ground a Prime Entity was sleeping. One thread had accidentally come across it, allowing for a sobering experience. Ezekiel had started to believe he was somewhat strong being able to take care of Blood Monkey. But as soon as he witnessed the Prime Entity he knew that he could die as easily as a fly. He wasn't even a speck of dust compared to this Entity.
Ezekiel had almost woken it up with just one thread, all the illusions Ezekiel had made were instantly shattered. A grim look appeared on his face, while he continued to scout.
After a couple of minutes, Ezekiel found a small hole that would fit both him and Claire at the base of the tree. The hole may have been directly below the Prime Entity, but as long as they were quiet it would work out.
Plus no other Entities would bother them because the other Entities would be terrified of what was directly above them it was a foolproof plan, well it was a plan.
"Okay want to hear the Good or bad news first" Ezekiel finally asked as soon as he finished his preliminary scouting.
"Good" Claire answered without hesitation
"I found us a place to stay for the night, where absolutely no entity will come to bother us," Ezekiel said while avoiding eye contact with Claire
"And the bad news," she asked noticing Ezekiel's odd behavior
"A Prime Entity may be sleeping 100 meters above us"
"Funny, but seriously we don't have much time" At that comment Ezekiel went silent, "No, no way we're not sleeping there" Claire finally said after realizing he wasn't joking.
As strong as Ezekiel was a Prime Entity wasn't feasible, they couldn't even use vitality.
"Okay you come up with a better idea then," Ezekiel said forcing Claire to be quiet
As much as she hated the idea of it she wasn't able to think of a better solution and they were running out of time. The scent of blood continued to get stronger as the night got darker.
"Fine, but let's go before it wakes up"
After a few minutes of silent walking, they finally ended up at the hole Ezekiel had found.
"It looked bigger when sensing it" Ezekiel wryly stated while looking inside
In the opening, they would barely be able to sit down without hitting their heads on the trunk of the tree, and they would be forced to lie down side by side leaving no extra space for comfort.
"Just, hurry up let's get this over with" Claire stated in a serious voice, but the tinges of red covering her face gave away her nervousness.
"Ladies first"
Claire and Ezekiel finally managed to get into a somewhat comfortable position with Claire lying on the ground while Ezekiel sat up, they decided to take turns keeping watch. Ezekiel had volunteered for the first watch, and a couple of minutes after laying down Claire fell asleep leaving Ezekiel alone with his thoughts.