Once again, the cohort was walking on another dark and narrow path, except that they were heading upstairs towards the entrance in the upper grounds which led back to the part of the Vyris Deadlands on the other side of the wide chasm instead of going even deeper inside the crypt.
They had encountered a few more undead creatures which they had slain with ease. Thanks to Lloyd's experience and with Klaudia's consistent guidance, they were able to reach the entrance on the top of the stairs with no casualties. There weren't that many enemies inside the crypt so they had no worries in getting swarmed by a group of plaguebearers or other types of undead hellspawns. The accursed wraith was also long gone after being murdered mercilessly by Lloyd's Sanctified Wraithslayer sword.
However, the cohort, which used to have six people, now only had five people left. It wasn't like someone died among them. A conflict broke out within the members which led to someone leaving.
It was Lloyd who left first, but somehow, he found himself travelling with his companions once more minus one person. He had the urge to snicker as he thought that it was ironic when the one who invited him to join the group in the first place was the one missing at this point. However, he didn't have the slightest pity nor did he care that Shane walked out from the group. He also wouldn't mind if he died somewhere inside the crypt. That would work even better for him.
'He deserved it, anyway! Pretentious fool!' He thought.
He became distracted from his thoughts when they stopped in front of a big door. This one looked the same as the one on the entrance of the crypt.
"So, this must probably lead to the other side of the Vyris Deadlands."
Lloyd said to the group. They agreed with him, however, they didn't yet open the door as Luna stopped them from pushing it.
"Hold on. We should check the time first."
"Why?" Ray asked.
"Have you forgotten? If the current time happens to be in between noon to sunset, then the whole Vyris Deadlands must be flooding with magma right now and the endless army of burning dead would come in and eat us all!" Stanley scolded him.
"Oh… Sorry, I wasn't thinking."
Ray scratched his head as he chuckled nervously while Stanley just shook his head. They then took a look at a pocket watch which was included in their preparations. Having a sense of time is very much helpful when venturing through unknown areas.
Of course, there were also situations where bringing a stopwatch couldn't be helpful. For example, an area where time is distorted, slowed down, accelerated, or stopped. No one had truly seen them yet, but there were plenty of evidences found from the discovery of old civilizations that there were areas affected by time manipulating events.
As they have looked through the mundane watch, the screen displayed the time which was 4:33pm. This watch was based on the time on Asteria, and coincidentally, the time here on the Crimson Wasteland trial was the same. There were still 27 minutes left before the magma would seep back to the ground. There was nothing for them to do so they felt bored.
"Hey. Why don't we play a game while waiting?" Ray suddenly asked them.
"What game can we even play in this dark and eerie crypt?" Stanley scoffed at him which made him frown.
"Tsk. You're such a fool. We can play a game just by using our mouths. No need for magical tools or whatever."
"What game do you suggest?"
Luna was intrigued by him. Lloyd could see that there were little sparks of interests in her eyes. She must have been so bored by staying still.
"Oh, our sword princess seemed to be interested. We will play Shiritori. Do you know this game?" A big grin was plastered on Ray's face as he asked them.
"No."
"Let me explain. This was a popular game from a certain place, back when the world didn't have any hellspawns or an apocalyptic illness spreading. As for how it is played, first, the host should decide a random letter and must pick a word that begins with that letter. That would be me, of course."
They all nodded. Then Ray continued with his explanation.
"Next, we will take turns. Lloyd will follow after me, then Stanley, followed by Lady Klaudia, and lastly, you Lady Luna."
Luna nodded in agreement to the rules. However, Lloyd frowned upon hearing it. It's not like he was totally uneducated, but being a poor rat in the outskirts of Asteria, he couldn't receive proper education, unlike those normal families and richer ones who are situated in the inner district. He didn't know that many words to begin with as he had no time to learn words that couldn't even feed his stomach full for the whole day.
"I think I'm going to pass on this one. I should just observe you guys." Lloyd nervously smiled.
"Hey! Don't be a chicken. Come on, Lloyd. It should be fun." Ray complained when he saw him slowly backing out into a corner.
"Who are you calling a chicken?! Fine! I'll join." He retorted angrily.
"Haha! That's the spirit. We haven't decided the punishment yet. How about making the loser treat us with a feast once we get out of this trial?"
"That would be good. It's a deal." Luna said.
"Alright. I'll start with letter A. Accursed." Ray excitingly started the word game.
"Demon."
"Necromancer."
"Rotten. You're up, Luna."
"Nether. Back to you, Ray."
Ray didn't immediately follow as he noticed something in their game. Then he exclaimed a loud shocking voice as he realized something.
"Hey! You're all saying words related to undead. Can't you think of something else?"
"Well, I thought we're having an undead theme."
Lloyd said while the others nodded in agreement. Feeling exasperated, Ray shook his head and just continued the game with another word.
The game lasted for almost 30 minutes and it was Lloyd who gave up upon running out of words to say. He promised he would treat them once they got out of this hellish trial.
The time was already past 5 pm so they had decided to open the door. They pushed hard which made the door budged easily until it opened widely, revealing a sun slowly setting down towards the horizon of the Vyris Deadlands. The ground wasn't flooded with magma anymore. They got out and felt the usual polluted air once again.
They only had noticed that they actually haven't spent a single day inside the crypt. They didn't want to take a rest in a place filled with dead bodies and undead creatures anyway so it made their journey through the ancient burial place. As they had exited the crypt and stepped on the dry, dirty soil once again, they heard a rumbling sound which seemed to have come from Ray.
"I'm so tired. Can we take a rest and eat as well?" Ray said.
"Didn't we just take a rest a few minutes ago?" Stanley Retorted.
"I'm already famished."
"Me too. Maybe we should stop for a little bit. What do you think, Luna?" Klaudia turned to their leader and asked for her decision.
Luna thought for a moment before agreeing to their request. She was also tired from all the walking and fighting they had done the whole day. They took out a cloth and put it in the ground so that they could sit on it and lay their meal on top of it. They didn't bother installing the tents since they would immediately move after resting for a short while. The longer they stayed in these cursed lands, the more their lives would be in danger.
Luna took out the few remaining tree saps she harvested from the sentinels. She frowned and the others also had worried looks on their faces as they realized that their supply won't last for more than one meal. If they couldn't find a food source by tomorrow, then they would have to make do with drinking water only. It could go on for a day, or even more days and weeks, or worst, it would last a month.
Her expression became even grimmer. She turned to Lloyd and asked something which baffled him.
"Can you refine something that could produce food?"
"How do you think my abilities work? I wish it was that easy and I would have done it already if I could."
He sighed as he weakly shook his head. He paused for a while to think until an idea went through his head.
"Maybe I could try. Just pray we'll get lucky."
He then casted his Materia Generator and chose a random material option. Lights flashed and two objects popped out when the light faded away. He picked it up with a confused expression.
"What is this?"
He tried to examine the two objects that were generated from his skill.
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Name: Rotten Flesh
Description: A mangled flesh of a creature that had died for a few days already. It smells horrible and contaminated. Do not touch it for too long or you'll get sick.
Name: Copper Ore
Description: A metallic ore commonly found in mines and used for making common equipment. It is soft and easily corrodes.
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Lloyd's expression darkened as he finished reading its descriptions. He threw the rotten flesh and the copper ore in haste which made the others looked at him with questioning eyes.
"Why did you do that? What have you summoned?" Luna asked.
"A rotten flesh and a common metal. I had to throw the former fast or it might spread a vile disease among us. Who knows? It might be the same kind of flesh from those plaguebearers!" He spat out while his face twisted in exasperation.
"Oh no. You should wash your hands with the purified water of the vase." Klaudia hurriedly took out the vase and poured some in Lloyd's hands, effectively removing any residuals from the rotten flesh that clung to his hands.
"I failed. As I thought, it's not easy to produce something edible. I probably just got lucky in my previous crafts." He sighed again.
"It's fine. Then we should go on without eating after this. You should all be prepared."
Luna ended the conversation with no hint of emotion on her voice. They all knew by now that if she was acting like that, then their situation was already going worse.
They could only eat the remaining tree sap silently, a heavy atmosphere brewing in them which made it painful and hard to swallow. Nevertheless, they had to persevere. They didn't want it to be the end for them. Once their journey starts again, they might encounter something along the way that would provide what they needed.
"Alright. Let's go. We still have lots of ground to cover."
They cleaned up everything, not leaving a single mess and proceeded to leave the area near the crypt in order to continue their journey towards south.
No one had dared to talk. They wanted to conserve their energy and saying a word would only make them get tired faster. They walked for hours and hours, with no intention of stopping. It wasn't that much longer until the sun finally rose up to the sky once more. They thought they would have to continue traversing into the endless barren soil, but finally, they had discovered something from afar.
"Over there! Look!" Lloyd shouted.
They stared at the direction where Lloyd was pointing. A tall wall that looked like it was made by a modern civilization was erected in a circling manner around a few kilometers in diameter. They could also see glowing lights on top of the walls.
"I see it…"
They turned towards the source of the voice. It was Klaudia, tears flowing from her eyes with a smile on her lips, who said it out loud.
"What do you see?"
"I see people. And they're alive."