Ragnar was satisfied with this arrangement.

As he stared her down, he thought about the previous ID he had been given. Firstly, he would be marked as someone with Shift mutation, so him returning back as human might create a lot of trouble for him. Even if he was not scared, he wouldn’t want the whole HCR to be on his tail if he could avoid it. Secondly, he had lost the ID that was given to him by Beth.

He went with the shorter option as he said.

“I lost my ID and I did not like my name on the old one. So, I would like a new one.”

Aura just looked at him weirdly.

“You simply want to add Lord in front of your name, don’t you?”

Ragnar was dumbfounded by her reply.

“How did you know?”

It was Aura’s turn to be dumbfounded as she exclaimed.

“Is that… really it?”

A hearty laughter escaped her lips as she almost fell back from her log. Using one hand to support herself and the other to control her stomach, she tried to compose her emotions again. She could feel Ragnar’s piercing gaze burying into her.

At this moment, Ragnar was distracted by something entering his range of echolocation. It was Aura’s mount. It climbed up the tree with its sharp legs piercing into the bark. Ragnar thought that she had left it behind because it couldn’t climb. Turns out, that wasn’t the case.

Aura also realised that she had received a life-line so she hung to it as she said.

“We should be safe to sleep now. There are only mutants in this region and he should have cleared or scared them away already. So, there’s no need to keep watch.”

‘Not like you were going to keep watch anyways’ She thought to herself after speaking her part.

Ragnar stared at her with a calm look as he thought about his next words.

Aura looked back into his eyes, understanding that this conversation was not over yet. As she stared back, she thought that with his deep vortex like eyes that contrasted perfectly with his olive-skinned chiselled face, he actually looked quite handsome. He was already developing a hint of beard, a testament to the fact that he had been out here for quite long.

She was brought out of her random tangent with his words that again showed off his lack of knowledge.

“You seem to know this Jungle quite well.”

Although it was a statement, Aura could tell what he was asking. She already knew his reason for the lack of knowledge so she didn’t find it weird that he wouldn’t know that.

“Have you seen the map of HCR?”

She inquired like a teacher.

Ragnar thought about it before answering.

“I have seen it before but I don’t remember it.”

She shook her head as she smiled slightly. It should be an achievement to not remember the map of HCR in this day and age. But she still answered calmly.

“There is the RiftDale City in the centre, where the Rift is. Surrounded by the territories of the Seven Factions.”

She was about to continue but Ragnar interrupted her with a curious tone.

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“Then who controls the RiftDale City?”

Aura’s reply came right after as if she was ready for it.

“No one controls it, so to speak. But its functionalities are managed by the World Government.”

Ragnar nodded and did not speak, waiting for her to continue.

“Our Sylvancrest terry is bordered by the Evergrows. So, we have naturally grown accustomed with the ins and outs of this Jungle over time. Passing down the Knowledge through generations.”

Ragnar looked surprised as he asked to confirm.

“You mean this Jungle stretches all the way to HCR. How big is it? And how large does everything get by the end?”

Aura looked at him with a wistful smile.

“If only we knew… No one has ever made it to the end. They eventually get so big that only a slight hint of green can be seen past the clouds in the sky.”

Ragnar took a few seconds to process this new piece of information before he asked again.

“No one?... Not even the Mysteries?”

Hearing his doubt, Aura couldn’t help herself as a loud laughter escaped her lips. She didn’t stop as her laughter sounded like a jingle in the silence of the Jungle.

She eventually started calming down as she asked while still chuckling lightly.

“Did you… mean Mystics?”

Ragnar looked annoyed at her question. Was it really so funny?

“You get the point.”

Aura tried to hold it in as she said in between her chuckles.

“Yes, that i do.”

Aura didn’t know why she found it so funny either. There was just something about seeing this man make such a dumb mistake that she couldn’t stop herself.

She eventually controlled herself and answered his question, lest he flips out again.

“No… even the ‘Mystics’ have not been able to reach the end. The furthest someone has ever reached is around 5000 kilometres deep.”

Ragnar’s curiosity was finally satiated as he thought that this was enough talk for a lifetime. He looked at her with an annoyed expression as he said.

“You can sleep now; I will meet you in the morning.”

After saying this, he stood up and walked towards the trunk of the tree. He was of course, going to sleep inside the Earth.

Aura looked at him as if she had something to add to her previous statement. But she decided not to, since they did not have any real bond between them other than a deal, yet.

Aura was looking at his back as he almost jumped down when he suddenly paused. He looked back and asked with a strange tone.

“You don’t happen to have a bed inside your pouch, do you?”

His question brought another smile to Aura’s face as she was starting to enjoy the process of teaching him basic things.

“No, it can only carry the body of the Queen at best, that too after I remove everything that is inside.”

Ragnar turned around as he left a single word that made her look down as she sulked.

“Useless”

***

Aura lied down in a sleeping bag that she had stored in her pouch. She was about to mention it to that hateful man but he didn’t deserve to sleep in it anymore. He can sleep on the ground for all she cares.

She closed her eyes as a slight smile appeared on her face. Despite all the highs and lows that her heart had gone through during their conversation, she found it akin to a breath of fresh air.

Aura was a girl, a very beautiful one at that, and she knew it perfectly well. But this beauty did not come cheap, in fact, it came at the cost of her not having any true friends even until this point in her life. Since all the girls felt jealous of her, and all the boys came to her with ulterior motives in mind. It was clear to her from their eyes.

She had become very observant of such things at a young age. There might be another significant reason behind her isolation in the faction but that aside.

Whereas when it came to Ragnar, he looked at her like she was just another person. There was no desire in his eyes whatsoever, which was demoralizing at first, but she later started to find it comforting. He also didn’t lie behind any fancy truths and said whatever came to his mind.

She considered the implications of everything he had shared as she concluded that he had been out here ever since the Day of Reckoning. And he also didn’t belong to any faction. Which made it seem like there really might be a chance for her to achieve her goal.

She had completely ignored the fact that he had tried to kill her the first time they actually met. Although she was unable to get him to tell the reason behind his actions, she could at least discern that he did not hold any grudges against her and he also didn’t seem directly hostile towards her. So, the situation was still very much salvageable.

She slept soundly that night with hope for the coming days.

***

Ragnar had left the Queen behind on the branch since he had no plans on sleeping while hugging a corpse.

After he had settled down in a comfortable position, he thought about everything that happened today. He had changed, quite significantly at that. He didn’t have any values of his own when he was a slave, and now the values and morals that had taken shape in his mind might not be something that the rest of humanity was going to like.

He of course, didn’t care about what everyone else thought of him. But he knew that it was only going to get more extreme as he killed more creatures and humans. So, in order to prevent himself from going insane and getting lost in his bloodlust, he needed some baselines.

He felt like his code of conduct was the perfect step in this direction. But it needed to be more robust and needed a few more rules.