Aria and Kasey exchanged uneasy glances as they watched Riven fall to the ground.
They knew they had to make a choice: take Riven to safety and face the unknown or return to the camp and face judgment.
"I don't think we should just leave him," Aria said, her voice laced with concern.
"But what about Thorne?" Kasey countered. "We can't just abandon him either. I'm sure he can convince the others that we aren't part of what happened"
"Are you seeing those faces? They'll never let us explain ourselves. The only reason they're not attacking is because Thorne's body is still with us now," Aria tried convincing him.
As they hesitated, the sounds of the woods grew louder, and the darkness seemed to press in around them. Suddenly, a faint rustling noise came from a nearby bush.
"Dame? You're the one that attacked Riven? You should know we're not part of anything that's happened," Aria said.
"Yeah, we've been with this group long enough for you to know we couldn't have had any hand in this," Kasey added.
"There you are, Dame. Where did you go?" Brian screamed from across them. "That doesn't even matter. Why are you still conversing with them? Bring Thorne's body to safety let's attack them."
Dame looked back to them; "You guys see? If I try vouching for you then they'd also think I had a hand in this too."
"I trust you both didn't," he continued. "But I already suspected the guy enough when you guys brought him, you've brought this upon yourself. You shouldn't have ever brought a stranger to camp."
"But he saved our lives," Aria argued. "We owed him at least whatever help we gave him."
"And I owe you the help I'm giving you now," Dame interrupted. "I'll take Thorne to them now. You both should take Riven and get away from here, very far away."
"I'll try to stall them enough. This is where we part ways, Aria. That's all the help I can render, if they catch up to you, there's nothing I can do. Till we meet again, good luck."
Dame went towards Thorne, and Aria tried to argue.
"Aria!" Kasey shouted. "He's helped us enough, once he takes Thorne away, we'll be left on our own."
Carrying Riven on his shoulder, he used his free hand to hold Aria's.
"We need to go now... thank you, Dame. Like you said, till we meet again."
He pulled Aria and they dashed into the woods.
"They're escaping, get them!" They heard shouts, then Dame's voice came across.
"Leave them be, Thorne's in a bad state right now. We should take care of him first."
The voices faded as they ran deeper and deeper into the woods, in search of a safe enough space to stop and rest.
"Should we head back to the destroyed camp?" Kasey asked.
"No. If they'd chase after us then they'd suspect us going there, let's head opposite of there." Aria answered.
Running for a long time, they finally arrived in front of a naturally made cave. Kasey wanted to continue running but Aria stopped him.
"We can stop here," she said.
"Here? Aria, can't you see what's just meters begin that cave?" Kasey argued, staring at the structure that illuminated their surroundings, allowing them to see a bit clearer.
"Of course I can see it, but this also means they'd be staying away from here if they're looking for us, they'd never expect us to stay so close to it. We're safe from them here," Aria answered.
"That's plausible. But what if the..."
"We'll be safe, Kasey," she interrupted. "It's not like we're that weak either. Now get in and set him down so I can get to work."
•••
Riven woke up to darkness.
'Huh? Am I dead? No, I couldn't have been killed by that. Or did those people kill me? I should've known those two wouldn't have been useful,' Riven thought.
As his eyes slowly adjusted, he noticed he wasn't in total darkness as there was a strange red hue around.
Sitting up from the cold ground, Riven looked around to see he was in a cave. He saw Aria sleeping soundly a bit away from him and towards the mouth of the cave say Kasey facing outwards.
'So they came through? Even though I did nothing more than save their lives, they actually risked the group they'd been with throughout all this crisis to see me to safety. They kept their word.'
'This is there are still trustworthy people around in this world, different from the others. Maybe the world wouldn't come to an end if there are still people like this around.'
'Nah... maybe it was even a plan to get me to trust them by doing this. It's too dangerous to trust them fully. And I've already made up my mind not to trust anyone in this world.'
While in deep thought, the system interface popped up in front of him with a ding.
[Health has been stabilized rapidly thanks to external interference]
'Huh? What does it mean by external interference?'
[Quest completed]
Absorb an element from a person for the first time
Quest rewards:
+500sp
+5 stat points
'Ah, what a relief,' Riven sighed internally. 'What were the elements I absorbed again?'
[Elements]
Fire-???
Affinity-25/100
Earth-???
Affinity-5/100
???-???
Affinity-???/???
???-???
Affinity-???/???
???
Affinity-???/???
'Hmm... My fire affinity also increased. And I got earth too. This means Thorne had two elements,' Riven figured.
'I should try out the new element, but I think they'll realize I've woken up if I make any disturbance. I should check out my status first. Wasn't there a level up option?'
[Info]
Host name-Riven Gray
Age-16
Level-1 (5600/100 exp)
Strength-7
Agility-6
Endurance-4
Intelligence-11
HP-105/105
MP-110/110
Stat points-14
System points-700
[Do you want to level up?]
Riven pondered a bit before finally choosing to level up.
'Yes.'
Suddenly he felt heat build up from his chest area, spreading to other parts before the feeling went away.
[Level-2 (5500/1000 exp)
+2 stat points
+100 system points
[Do you want to level up?]
'Yes.'
The same thing occurred and the interface changed.
[Level-3 (4500/5000 exp)
+2 stat points
+100 system points
'Need 500 more for the next level up huh... bring up the full info page.'
[Info]
Host name-Riven Gray
Age-16
Level-3 (4500/5000 exp)
Strength-7
Agility-6
Endurance-4
Intelligence-11
HP-105/105
MP-110/110
Stat points-18
System points-900
[Do you want to level up?]
'I have quite a lot of stat points. Should I use them now? Or I should check out what I can get from the...'
"You're awake." Riven's thought process was interrupted.