32:
Sarah’s expression was visibly uneasy as she studied the amber stone that was resting in her cupped palms.
Jack stood next to her, with his heater shield strapped to his left arm, his newly acquired Moonsword sheathed at his side and a cylindrical piece of what was originally a thin branch that he had sliced away from the one he had felled earlier.
“I think I’m as ready as I’m going to be,” Sarah softly declared, her expression tense.
Jack offered her the cylindrical stick, prompting Sarah’s gaze to focus upon it.
“Is that really necessary?” She asked.
“I honestly don’t know how I stopped myself from screaming at the top of my lungs. Maybe the fear of being raided by a contingent of Rift Goblins helped, but it’s not something I want to chance a second time,” Jack explained.
Sarah winced, before slowly nodding as she accepted the cylindrical stick and bit down on it.
“Just once?” She asked, her words coming out muffled and hazy. “Then I get the feat?”
“Yeah,” Jack replied.
Sarah nodded, more to herself than Jack, as her attention returned to the Body Refinement Stone.
A few moments passed in silence, before Sarah unceremoniously dropped to her knees, a muffled whimper that gave way to a sob escaping her as she let go of the Body Refinement Stone, with tears cascading down her cheeks.
The cylindrical stick fell out of her mouth as Sarah shifted her posture to sit down more comfortably.
Then she started sobbing again, her nails digging into her palm as she tried to distract herself from the torrential pain that she had just endured, the phantom pain that still lingered.
Jack watched silently, not interfering in a journey he knew that Sarah had to endure on her own.
Each of them did if they wanted to survive the next two months.
“It's…,” Sarah began, her voice hoarse. “Done,” She declared, before wiping the tears away with her right hand.
Sarah shook her head as she moved to get up. Jack offered her a hand, which she took, to get back onto her feet.
“I got the feat,” She explained, her voice shaky. “I did it,” She stated, her tone quivering with elation and a hint of pride.
“You did,” Jack replied.
“Thank you,” Sarah replied, her tone heavy with gratitude even though it hadn’t fully recovered.
“I showed you the method, that’s all. You were the one who endured the pain for the reward and you should be proud of that.”
Out of all the possible ways Sarah could respond, he hadn’t expected her to step into his personal space. Initially, his mind was led to the worst conclusion, but Sarah’s spear was still leaning against the tree and her movements were too slow and soft to be an attack.
So he didn’t resist as Sarah wrapped her arms around him, her auburn hair dominating his line of sight as her form pressed against his own. He could feel the rhythm of her heartbeat even through the armor, the warmth contained in her every breath.
To say that Jack was stunned would have been an understatement. For years he had made sure to distance himself from other people, from once friends and extended family, because he had come to learn just how dangerous those that had come for his parents were, how vicious they would be if they came to realize that he was investigating the events that had come to pass, the assassination that had forever changed his life.
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Relationships, whether it be a friend, a lover or family, were vulnerabilities Jack couldn’t afford. Not a second time.
“Thank you for everything. Really,” Sarah whispered, her tone as soft as it was gentle, snapping Jack out of his reverie.
Unsure how to respond, Jack gently patted her on the back, his touch so delicate it was as if he feared she would shatter to a harder touch.
Then the moment passed and Sarah quickly pulled away.
“I-uh, sorry I’m not sure what came over me,” She awkwardly explained.
“No, no, it’s fine,” Jack sheepishly replied, his usual composure nowhere to be found. “And thank you too, I’ve learned a lot from you.”
Jack wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but Sarah’s cheeks appeared a touch redder than they usually were as she turned to reach for her spear.
“Should we get going?” Sarah asked, her face still turned away from him as she tugged at her chest armor to adjust it.
“Yeah, uh, just make sure to pick up the stone,” Jack reminded.
“Right,” Sarah muttered under breath before walking over to him, looking a little embarrassed as she picked up both the stone and the stick and tossed them into her inventory.
“Let's go then,” Jack said after Sarah was ready and then they were off.
As Jack had discovered in the last twenty four hours, there was a rhythm to the apocalypse, the end of known civilization and the advent of a new one. It wasn’t necessarily a rhythm he could adapt to, one whose tempo, meter and beat eluded his attempts to decipher, but there was an undeniable pattern to it all.
The forest they were in was full of hunters and they were, or had been, the prey. However, once Jack had stumbled upon the location of the Rift Goblin camp, the main enemies in the vicinity as far as he knew, he could proceed in a way that, theoretically at least, should reduce risk and give him and Sarah time to recuperate.
So far, it had worked. In all honesty, Jack had expected the system to perhaps, betray his location to the rift goblins or lure in some other archetype of enemy, but so far that hadn’t happened.
Of course, they hadn’t gotten around without encountering no enemies at all, but three Rift Goblin Assassins, two of which they had gotten a drop on, hardly proved to be a challenge.
The Qi Points they’d expended proved to be negligible in the grand scheme of things, given that even at the regular regeneration rate, Jack got back 3 Qi Points every hour, meaning that even without any Qi Gathering Pills, he would regenerate a total of 72 Qi Points as long as he didn’t let his Qi Pool fill up.
Jack couldn’t let his Qi Pool fall dangerously low in the event that he encountered a dangerous enemy either, so Jack had decided to maintain a minimum of 6 Qi Points in his Qi Pool at any given time.
The rest was funnelled into his shield and sword artifacts, with the latter being more of a priority. In the end though, Jack had managed to fill both his artifacts to the twenty Qi Point maximum and he could practically feel them pulsing with energy.
“It’s time to make a decision, Sarah,” Jack stated even as he swung his Moonsword to slice away a patch of shrubbery that was in their path before continuing to walk forward.
“How much longer do we have?” Sarah asked, her tone heavy.
“Twenty three hours, forty eight minutes and a few seconds,” Jack replied, reading off the system screen.
Sarah stopped walking.
Jack turned to face her.
“As much as I hate to admit it,” Sarah began, her expression tense and her free hand balled up unto a fist. “We’re falling behind. All the Body Refinement Stones sold out and a whole new tier of items we’re way too far from affording was added. On top of that, more than half of each spear on my list has sold. That’s a hundred and fifty thousand spears out there and each cost five thousand TP.”
Jack nodded, not surprised by Sarah’s revelations. Seven billions out there meant that this was bound to happen, but it was a price Jack had been willing to pay. Now, he had two artifacts that were charged to the brim and both him and Sarah had gotten some valuable time to both get a breather and adapt their psyche to the tasks that were laid out ahead of them if they wished to survive.
“I say we go for it,” Sarah declared, her grip on her spear tightening with her right hand. “We save those people and we get rewarded for our efforts. That’ll make up for lost time and more. The next time I run across someone that’s willing to cross the line, someone like… James, I don’t want to feel that fear and panic. I want to be able to defend myself.”
“Then we go for it,” Jack replied without skipping a beat. He was as ready as he could get, given the circumstances and the anticipation he’d been reigning in for Sarah’s sake made it’s return.
It was time for some real action, Jack thought with a grin.