Rubbing the swirl of dark lines near his elbow, Theo muttered "so we have ten points each." He glanced around.
Mira nodded, pushing stray hair from her eyes. "Ten each for us four: me, you, Elias, Jace… so that's forty total if we pool them."
"Yeah, but that's not enough," Jace added, his expression openly frustrated. "We need fifty just for the cheapest cooking kit."
Elias exhaled, staring down at his own brand with distaste. "We're basically stuck. Unless…" His gaze flicked to Kurai, who stood apart from them, spear in hand. "Unless you have 10 points or more?"
Kurai folded his arms, silent at first. He'd hoped to avoid this conversation, yet he knew that if he wanted to build any kind of trust it was important to give some, they will find out eventually anyway. "I do," he admitted, voice even. "I have… sixty."
A stunned pause fell. Mira exchanged glances with Theo and Jace, who let out a low whistle. "Sixty?" Jace repeated. "That's more than all of us combined."
"How?" Mira asked, baffled. "We just… woke up here. Where'd you get them?"
Kurai's jaw tightened. He disliked the corner he felt forced into, but better to speak plainly than to let suspicion fester. "The monsters I killed," he said flatly. "Each time, the System awarded me points. Ten per kill."
Another silence. The others processed his words, their eyes darting to the spear, to the faint scars on Kurai's arms, to the memory of him dragging those sinewy corpses back to camp.
Jace clenched his fists. "And you didn't mention this earlier?" He sounded more hurt than angry, but the edge in his voice was unmistakable.
Kurai's gaze flicked to the side. "Wasn't sure how you'd react," he said. "Didn't want to stir fear, or… suspicion."
Theo sighed, massaging his temples. "So killing these monsters grants points. That's… consistent with the logic of this twisted place." He looked at Elias and Mira, both wearing resigned expressions.
Mira finally found her voice. "But… we've got to kill a lot of them if we want anything worthwhile."
"Yeah," Elias said, sounding drained. He met Kurai's eyes. "Can't really blame you, we dont know each other.. still it's good to know."
The tension simmered, but at least the air was cleared. Jace cut a look at the others. "Right now, we're stuck at forty. We need fifty for the cooking kit. Might as well forget about weapons or medical kits or anything big. We can't afford them."
Mira chewed her lip. "So… do we wait and try to kill something ourselves? Or—"
"I'll give you ten," Kurai interjected suddenly. He let out a grudging sigh, shifting his grip on the spear. "You can pool your forty, I'll add ten, and that makes fifty. Enough for the kit."
A flicker of surprise passed across their faces. Even Jace blinked, some of his animosity easing. "Are you sure?" he asked, cautious.
Kurai nodded, though he kept his features guarded. "Yes. It benefits us all to have real cooking equipment. I won't be able to hunt if we don't have decent ways to prepare what I bring back."
Theo exhaled slowly, relief mingling with the group's lingering tension. "Thanks," he murmured, voice soft.
The System's interface—its intangible "shop"—provided a means to transfer points. After fumbling through the mental prompts, Theo announced he was now holding fifty total. A moment later, a battered metal pot and a few crude utensils appeared in front of him with a faint shimmer of a strange translucent energy. Aether, Kurai presumed to himself. The sight made Mira jump and Elias' mouth drop open. It was the first time any of them had witnessed the System "deliver" in real-time.
Theo picked up the pot, turning it over. "We can boil water, stew meat properly… this is a game-changer."
"Sure is," Mira agreed, managing a small, genuine smile. "Thank you, Kurai." She looked his way.
Kurai offered a curt nod, tension still clinging to his posture. He was hyperaware of Jace's gaze on him, but at least the man wasn't glowering so fiercely anymore. A quiet acceptance, or truce, settled among them for the moment.
Elias set the utensils aside and gave the pot a testing clang with a piece of stone. "Sturdy enough. Definitely better than propping meat on hot rocks."
A beat passed before Jace cleared his throat. "So, now we know two things: one, the System can spawn real objects for us. Two, we get points from killing creatures."
Mira brushed her fingers over the brand on her wrist. "There's so much else on that menu—medical kits, weapons, and especially that 'Aether Manual' for three hundred points. But we're nowhere near affording it."
"We need to gather points," Elias said simply, the grimaces to that statement varied. Though they all nodded in the end.
The group set about boiling water in their new pot, eager to have something approaching clean drinking water. Theo and Mira worked together, carefully balancing the pot over the fire. Elias and Jace grabbed their makeshift spears to check the perimeter, while Kurai lingered at the campsite's edge.
He stared into the flickering flames, thoughts drifting beyond the cooking gear. Aether Manual, to say Kurai's interested had been peeked was an understatement, the price however, loomed: three hundred points. If each kill netted ten, he would need to fell twenty-four more creatures to get there. At least. And that assumed he survived each encounter. The notion of faster ways—like turning on these four—nudged at his mind, repulsive yet inescapable in such a brutal world. He refused to consider it. For all his wariness, he wasn't a butcher of men. Some code of honor still lingered, despite his lost title.
After a moment, he stepped away from the fire, heading toward the outskirts of camp. Jace's gaze followed him, curiosity plain. Kurai pretended not to notice.
A short while later, Kurai found himself in a small clearing where the remains of a chitinous humanoid creature lay half-buried in leaves. The stench hit him like a wall, but he pressed on, crouching beside the corpse. He pried away pieces of the hardened exoskeleton—cracked plating that had once served as armor for the beast. His makeshift knife scraped against the shell, coaxing it free.
A memory flashed: His old naginata, gleaming steel, a comforting weight in his hands. That weapon was lost to him now, but perhaps these shell fragments could help craft something approximating its reach and power. A real spear—not a flimsy stick with a stone tip, it had done its work for now. But if it wasn't for his mastery of the weapon it would've likely shattered already.
Tucking a sizable chitin plate into his belt pouch, he rose. He would shape these fragments into a lethal spear. One kill at a time, he thought. One point at a time.