"That body looks pretty valuable. I have one more sack we can put it in. By the way, where are the sacks with the pelts and stuff from those men?" Itai asked as he pulled out a sack, placed the corpse of the crystal monster inside, and looked at Flain.
"I left them at the spot where we landed," Flain replied.
"You did what?! We could have sold that stuff!" Itai said angrily.
"It was just two wolf pelts and some junk. Anyway, we're heading to the valley where I fought the Lizards. I don't plan to go deeper into the cave," Flain said coldly.
The two then made their way outside. Fortunately, Flain remembered the way out—getting lost wouldn't have been ideal. The entire way, Itai kept complaining about being hungry and thirsty.
Eventually, they emerged from the cave and arrived at the same place where Flain had defeated the lizards.
"There's your food and drink," Flain said, pointing at the muddy corpses of the Lizards.
In Flain's previous world, every soldier—including Flain—had been genetically modified. One of these modifications allowed their bodies to produce special enzymes that automatically neutralized any kind of bacteria and served as an antidote to all poisons. This meant that if a soldier got lost or ran out of supplies, they could simply hunt any animal, eat its raw flesh, and drink its blood without consequence. Flain had been so used to this that he forgot eating raw meat and drinking blood could be dangerous.
"Flain, are you joking? If so, that was a terrible joke," Itai laughed.
"I'm not joking," Flain replied.
"I refuse to eat random raw meat from some poisonous, stinking Lizards, and I won't even comment on the idea of drinking their blood," Itai said stubbornly.
Flain thought about it—why was he refusing? Then he remembered that this was a medieval-like world, so genetic engineering obviously didn't exist here. Still, Flain wasn't fully aware of just how dangerous it was. To him, it was still completely normal.
"Better than eating and drinking nothing," Flain finally said.
"It is definitely not better. If I eat that, there's a high chance I'll get poisoned and die. These are Lizards that literally spit acid. But if I don't eat it, we can find civilization and buy food there," Itai countered.
"But I want to keep absorbing souls," Flain argued.
"What are you afraid of? You're a skeleton—you can't die of old age. So we can just come back later. Besides, you're my undeath, so you have to obey me," Itai said.
Flain locked his glowing purple eyes onto Itai's. "As you wish," he said.
Itai averted his gaze. "You're doing it again?! I told you not to do that!" he yelled at Flain.
Without a word, Flain turned away and headed into the valley, with Itai following.
As they continued, the ground was no longer muddy like it had been near the cave entrance. Instead, it was hard-packed soil with pale green grass growing on it. The valley was covered in thick mist, making it impossible for Flain to see where it ended, and there were no trees in sight.
Flain and Itai continued through the valley. The thick mist made it impossible to see where they were going—they could only tell they were moving forward. Along the way, they encountered a skeleton, which, as usual, did not attack Flain, allowing him to take it down easily. This time, he gained 160 EXP, meaning it was stronger than its counterparts in the cave.
They kept moving forward until they came across a large lake with gray water.
"Itai, don't you want to drink this?" Flain asked.
"Definitely not. But it's still better than drinking the blood of some poisonous Lizard," Itai commented.
They continued further, eventually crossing the lake. The farther they went, the smoother the path became.
----
A man clad in iron chainmail, who looked like a warrior, was staring at a wall where two red dots were moving toward him.
He was somewhere in a forest in front of a massive gate surrounded by cave walls. Near the gate, a small camp housed around twenty warriors.
The warrior who had spotted the red dots made his way over to two men who were drinking some kind of alcohol and smoking brown cigarettes.
"Sir, there are two dots approaching straight toward us," he reported.
"Ahh, Lucas, those are probably just some lost, curious Lizards. Leave it be. If they mess with the gate, we'll kill them. Come on, have a smoke," one of the men replied.
"Sorry, sir, but I've never smoked, and I never will. My little sister died from smoking too much," Lucas objected.
"You're still young—enjoy life while you can. You have a promising future ahead. But suit yourself. If those Lizards try anything with the gate, just open it and kill them," the other man said.
"Yes, sir," Lucas responded and walked over to the gate.
----
Meanwhile, Flain was still carrying Itai around his neck. Eventually, they arrived at a massive iron gate.
"Finally, we made it to the end!" Itai cheered.
Flain knocked on the gate. Nothing happened. He knocked again, harder, then even harder. Eventually, the massive iron gate began to open.
A bright light shone before them, and standing in front of the gate was Lucas.
"Hey, who the hell are you two?!" he shouted at them.
"Sorry, but we fell down here from above!" Itai shouted back.
Lucas then allowed them to pass through the gate into the camp.
"Hey, Lucas, who are they? There wasn't supposed to be any expedition," said one of the commanders who had been drinking and smoking earlier.
"Sir, they said they fell from above," Lucas replied.
"Yeah, the ground collapsed beneath us, and we fell in. We barely survived by landing in the mud—otherwise, we would have died. As you can see, I have to carry my friend because he can't walk," Flain explained.
The commanders exchanged glances.
"Hey, you there—take off that hood," one of them ordered, pointing at Flain.
"Sorry, sir, but I have a very ugly disease. You definitely wouldn't want to see it," Flain lied.
"An ugly disease? Then we have to kill you before you spread it to the others," the second commander said.
"It's a genetic disease," Flain countered.
"Look, we don't know what 'genetic' means, but if you have nothing to hide, take off the hood," one of them said.