The sun dawned on the ruins of Gladeside. Its sole survivor, Lila, was sleeping soundly on the ground next to a fresh grave. Her body was covered in mud and dried blood.

Next to her was a blue crystal, shining brightly with a blue glow. It was floating vigilantly as Lila's defenseless and exhausted body needed a guardian to watch over her while she was recuperating. As it stood guard, Crystal thought about what this young girl had gone through in such a short period of time. Her entire world collapsed in the blink of an eye, suffocating her under the weight of its rubble.

Despite all that, she managed to come back to her senses through great hardship, and with a tiny bit of help from her blue partner, of course.

Still, it was incredible for her to bounce back from that state of mind though. Not everyone would've been able to do what she did. If something was for certain, this girl truly had potential in addition to an immense mental fortitude.

Impressive for someone so young and inexperienced. While Crystal drowned in deep thought, the sun finally rose in the sky, beginning a new day for the duo. Sunlight shone on the gaunt face of Lila, providing much-needed warmth for the malnourished adventurer. Although Crystal wanted to let her sleep a little bit more, it knew that sooner or later others would be coming to the village.

Knowing that she had to wake up, Crystal whispered in Lila's mind, "Wake up sleepy head, there's a long day ahead of us."

Normally, not even a deafening explosion would've been able to wake up the sleep-deprived girl but the link between her and the crystal allowed it to make Lila open her eyes.

Yawning, Lila slowly got up from the spot she slept on. Now sitting on the dirt, she turned left and then right to crack her lower back which was then followed by another yawn along with an eye rub.

"Good morning... Ughhhh, how long have I been sleeping?"

"Since the sunset. Normally I'd let you sleep more but we need to get moving as soon as possible girl."

Lila looked around herself and remembered what happened yesterday. She slowly got up on her feet while patting her rear.

Still yawning and sleepy, "You're right Crystal. First, I need a bath and these clothes need washing. I don't want anyone else to faint at first glance again." She said, clearly still annoyed by the fact that a grown adult fainted after seeing her.

"Oh? You don't like looking like a monster? And here I thought you enjoyed making men faint just by giving them a look," Crystal muttered, making sure Lila tasted the sarcasm in its tone.

Lila lifted her eyebrow and looked at it, seemingly done with Crystal's shenanigans. She decided not to play its game and decided to ignore its snark remark.

Eager to get rid of the putrid smell that took hold of her, "Okay, let's just go to the river and let me clean myself. "

The duo began walking to the river, which ran through the glade. This was Maya's favorite place to collect herbs and medicinal plants before she perished. Lila's dad also preferred to fish around the same area where Maya collected herbs. Apparently, those plants attracted the fish in the river. After Lila arrived at the slow-flowing river, she quickly took off her clothes and her underwear, fully revealing the current state of her body. In addition to her pale skin and gaunt face. Her body was so thin that her ribs were sticking out and her belly looked as if it collapsed in itself.

Lila spread the clothes on the group and splashed water to prepare them for washing. She then opened her backpack to take the tallow soap her mom made from sheep fat. Even though her village was small and no visitors came from outside, they took great care of their hygiene. She was also somewhat of a hypochondriac, so the fact that she let herself get into her current state drove Lila mad. With that, she got into the river.

Crystal watched Lila in surprise since she wasn't disturbed or shy while being completely naked. From Crystal's point of view, she looked like someone who would scream if someone saw a tiny part of her bra.

It chuckled with a highly suggestive tone, "Hohoo, aren't you uncomfortable with me around? Or are you someone who's into that kind of thing?"

Lila was unphased. However, she didn't ignore Crystal's remark this time. She quickly gave it a taste of its medicine,

"I would be if you were, you know, a human. Right now, you are no different than the pebbles currently I'm stepping on,"

After hearing Lila's swift and decisive answer, Crystal was speechless. How dare this human compare it to pebbles in a river?

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"Before you ask, are you capable of doing something lewd Mr. Crystal?" she said. Without giving Crystal a chance to talk back, she continued, "I thought so. Just like those pebbles, you aren't capable of such a thing. Maybe I should start calling you Mr. Pebbles?"

Having said this, she stopped paying attention to the floating crystal. She turned her back on it with a victorious smile on her face. Then, she dipped her entire body into the water, followed by Lila quickly bursting out from the stream, whipping her long hair back.

The soothing water washed away Lila's burdens, just like how it washed away the filth that was stuck on her skin.

It took a while for Lila to clean herself from all the filth and dirt that covered her body but it took her even longer to clean the even filthier clothes.

Normally, she would have thrown them away since they were almost beyond redemption but these clothes were sewn by her mom when Lila first decided to become an adventurer. No force in this world could make her throw away the last thing her mom made.

Lila carefully laid her clothes down on the ground under the afternoon sun. After placing them down, she then came up with an idea,

"So, do you have anything you could do to speed this up?

"Unless you want me to incinerate them, no," Crystal replied.

Lila huffed with disappointment. As she did that, a loud growl could be heard from her collapsed belly. That's right, she was starving. If Crystal hadn't been keeping her alive with its energy, she would have died days ago.

"Hey Crystal, could you do me a favor?" Lila asked.

As this was the first time Lila asked for anything, Crystal was curious, "Go on kid, spill it out."

"Could you grab me a sturdy branch from the woods?" She kindly requested. "I'll go get a spool of thread from my house and some bait,"

Before the duo made their way, Lila remembered to ask Crystal to gather some dried leaves and some dried-up branches for a fire. Seeing how she wanted to do anything in days, Crystal was relieved and happily obliged.

It didn't take them long to come back with what was needed though Lila came back with the addition of a bucket in her hand. Inspecting what Crystal gathered for her, she noticed that the branch for the rod was neatly stripped of its twigs and bark. The fuel for the fire was also plenty and top-notch.

She then took the branch and tied a medium-sized string on the tip.

Continuing, she grabbed the fishing thorn she took from her dad's room along with some bait. After tying the thorn on the end of the threads, she stuck the bait on the thorn. Funny, it was her dad who revolutionized fishing in the village. He mostly spent his days scouting the outskirts of the village and one day, while he was up in the mountains, he found a type of plant with huge thorns around it. It didn't take long for him to realize that this could be used as a fishing hook and it was thanks to him that Lila knew how to fish. In fact, his daughter was the person he showed the hook and how it could be used in fishing.

Sitting down, she grabbed the makeshift fishing pole and swung it into the river.

By the time her clothes dried, Lila caught 2 medium-sized fish. The fish she caught weren't that impressive but they were better than literally nothing. However, she suspected Crystal of doing something about the fish she caught since it would've normally taken much longer to catch them than the time it took her clothes to dry.

After placing the fish in the bucket, Lila gathered some rocks around the river and put them down in a circular shape to start the fire for the fish. Carefully placing the dried branches on top of each other within the circle, she then placed the dried leaves inside the crevices between the branches. To start the fire, she needed a striker, so she opened her backpack to grab the flint she packed.

No luck, they were basically dust at this point. They must've been crushed into tiny pieces when she threw her bag at Crystal. Seeing the disappointed look on Lila's face, Crytal slowly ballooned on top of the pile without saying a word and the dried leaves quickly caught on fire.

Now that they had a small campfire, she took out her brand-new iron knife and carved the fishing pole into a small stake. She then smashed the heads of the fish on the rocks before cleaning them. But, after she was done with everything and was about to stick the fish into the stake, she abruptly froze.

Not understanding the situation, Crystal decided to take a look into Lila's mind and realized that she was seeing her dad's head impaled on a stake.

"HEY!" Crystal barked at Lila, "Get it together kid!"

The loud voice of Crystal snapped Lila out of it. She looked at Crystal with teary eyes.

Seeing this, Crystal once again decided to help her, "Okay let me work some of my magic kiddo," it said to which Lila nodded in approval,

It didn't take long for Crystal to have the fish float on top of the campfire and cook them for Lila. The smell they gave off suddenly awoke the poor girl's hunger.

Lila couldn't wait any longer "Come on, come on! Let me have them!" she said, with a ravenous hunger in her eyes.

After basically yelling she was starving, the fish floated towards Lila, but they didn't stay up in the air for long since she grabbed both and started to rip each one to shreds with her teeth.

Her dad used to catch fish for dinner and her mom spent a great amount of time seasoning them properly but these ones, even without any of that, were tastier than anything she ever had before. Feeling satisfied, life started to flow back into Lila's cheeks. They were still gaunt, but at least they weren't that pale compared to their previous state.

While she was still enjoying the meal she had, they both knew it was time to get moving. She put out the campfire with water and quickly got dressed. She took her backpack and placed the iron knife back in its sheath on the belt, she was now ready to go. After taking one last look at her village, she turned her gaze to the mountains up ahead.

This was the beginning of a new life for the young adventurer.