Arthur Olvasen POV:

"TAKE A SLOW BREATH, YOU DUMB FUCK! YOU'RE NOT A DAMN PANTING DOG!"

"I AM TRYING! DON'T SCREAM AT ME!!"

"THEN WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING AT ME, YOU MUDBLOOD?"

"BECAUSE I CAN'T STAND YOUR SCREAMING ALL THE TIME, MUDFACE!"

"THE HELL DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!"

The loud banter between Michael and Astrid caused me to stir and shift in my place as I pulled the hood of my hoodie over my head and pulled it down until it covered my eyes.

The bluish light of the moon permeated through the small gap as I tried to snap my eyes shut and get at least one or two hours of sleep. Or at least until the condition developed further.

The gravelly ground beneath me was broomed once, removing the small pointy stones, but it was still a bit uncomfortable to sleep on.

I turned around and faced the other way, trying to let go of all of my heightened senses and somehow just drift to sleep.

There was a certain chill in the air as I wrapped my hands around my body and tried to warm myself.

Since deserts tend to be quite cold in the nights, this one was no different. I had to rub my arms every now and then to keep hold of the fleeting warmth. To not let it escape me.

Albeit insignificant, hot jolts of pain coursed through my limbs as my body burned with fever.

It wasn't really accurate to call it a fever, but that was the closest term I could come up with to describe the current state that my body was in.

Any immediate danger to my life was already mitigated, thanks to Astrid. However, the natural healing process of my body was quite sluggish.

Or perhaps it was just the looming threat that made the progress seem to move forward at a snail's pace.

Contrary to Mudbloods' imagination and folklore, magic is not as convenient as it is described to be. I had never thought about its implications but now that we were in a life-and-death scenario, I could understand it.

One might think that if Astrid could remove such a dangerous symbiote that was infesting my spine and slowly burning my nerves, why can't she get rid of the fever and other little complications in my body?

The short answer is simple and straightforward. And that is, 'Magic isn't convenient.'

While healing people is a rare Arcane Art—even though Astrid's healing is a byproduct of the actual thing—it has its own set of involutions.

A simple example would be how some bodybuilders — when they need to grow muscles beyond the natural potential of a human — inject testosterones into their bodies. While doing so makes them look big, strong, and powerful, their body loses the ability to produce it naturally. Resulting in long lasting complications.

It was the same for healing.

Repeated usage could result in a slowed immune system and eventually, total failure of it. It's possible that if one exploited the power of healing too much, their body would end up so weak, internally, that no wound would heal without external aid.

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This is what Adam — and before him, the Gods — referred to as Equivalent Exchange.

To gain something, one had to lose something of equal value. Equal worth.

Sometimes more.

Exceeding one's physical or magical limit required these strict stipulations.

On the other hand, unlike me, Astrid could use her own healing at herself without worrying about the ramifications. Since it's a direct derivative of an 'application' of her Arcane Arts, it won't have side-effects on her.

"JUST GRAB A HOLD OF AMBIENT ARCANUM, SHOVE IT IN YOUR PRIMARY NODE, AND BOOM. IT'S DONE. HOW STUPID ARE YOU?!!!"

"WHAT ON UNHOLY EARTH IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN, HUH!?"

I shifted in place again and heard Astrid let out a yelp as she heard the faint rustle of the blanket I had made from leaves and a few branches.

"You're going to wake him up."

"It's your fault for being dumb! Why the fuck am I even teaching you anything? Die. Kill yourself."

For some reason, the whispering conversation between Astrid and Michael was even more disturbing than their screams.

After we had spotted the Wujin army charging in our direction, we decided to relocate to a higher place. But for some reason, they started to march back. It seems like they will attack again once they think we have dropped our guard.

When they fell back, Astrid started to bleed from her ears.

It was Arcanum overload.

Due to her body entering a biome that had an unusual amount of Arcanum, contrary to the one where she had spent all her life, it couldn't handle it and induced internal bleeding. It was the same aspect as people having their hearts exploding upon awakening.

However, since she could do basic augmentation, she pulled through.

Due to my body's poor state, Michael — surprisingly — decided to tutor her about how to control the influx and outflux of Arcanum without having her heart explode.

And while I don't doubt Michael's talent in Arcanum manipulation, his methods of teaching are…well, I don't think I need to explain.

He has an intrinsic sense for it. Since he expects everyone to know this, he has cursed at Astrid more than he has taught. After a few hours, she snapped and the two of them turned into two animals, growling at each other and scratching each other's faces at every provided chance.

Metaphorically, might I add. Of course.

I wasn't exactly against it since Astrid had been sheltered until now — at least for the past 2 years — this kind of exposure might be good. Even Astrid knows that being a mean nincompoop is what Michael's personality is, hence I don't think the cursing would bring any bad memories.

The problem is that this "alleged" tongue-in-cheek persiflage was rendering me unable to get even a second's worth of sleep. They started slow, but as Astrid struggled to understand Michael's 'Boom, bam, woomp' explanation, the verbal insults kept getting more and more severe.

Throwing the makeshift blanket away and removing the hood from my head, I sat up.

"Oh, hey Arthur. Good morning." Astrid looked in my direction, the frown dissipating as she beamed at me. Clasping her hands together in front of her, she tilted her head and rested her cheek on them, smiling. "I hope you had a good few hours of sleep."

As I stretched my neck to the side, it let out a crack.

"Totally." I replied without looking at them as they still sat at the edge of the platform like place.

"Don't be a burden." Michael chimed in, his voice causing my head to ache.

"Yeah." I merely agreed. I was in no mood to argue with someone as persistent and so obtusely doltish as him. Not when the headache was making it feel like I have a hole in the side of my cranium.

The darkness of the night was pierced by the blue light of the moon as my gaze swept over the potential battlefield. There was no sight of the Wujins. For now, at the very least.

For the first time since coming to Eden, we were finally exploring the place where we had landed and spent the most time in.

Behind the platform we were on was the 40 metres tall remaining part of the mountain. The peak was jagged and the tip was cut off, broken in a zig-zag line.

Be it right or left; everywhere we saw behind us was just a series of mountains. These mountains formed a natural wall. If someone were to attack this place from somewhere beyond here, they would have no visual or idea of what's on the other side.

Each mountain was around 20,000 feet tall on average. Most of them were barren ones, however, a few of them – located in the near distance underneath a thick, dense congregation of clouds – had some greenery over them.

Astrid stood up from her place and dusted her back, getting rid of dust. Walking over in my direction, she slightly pulled at my shirt.

"How's your fever?"