“By the way, sorry,” Abetra suddenly apologized as we made our way upstream.
“For what?”
“I’ve eaten so much of your jerky, and I haven’t really paid it back.”
He really wasn't lying when he said that. For breakfast, he had eaten pretty much half of the strips in my satchel this morning alone.
“It’s fine,” I shrugged, “We’re only going to be here for a few days, and I can easily last that long even without any food at all.”
“But still,” Abetra shook his head, “It doesn’t sit right with me.”
It was a minute before he finally spoke again.
“How about this? My dad’s a hunter, and even though I’m not nearly as good as him, I know the basics of butchery. If you ever need a corpse dismantled, I’ll do it.”
I nodded, and we continued walking in silence upstream.
Last night, I hadn’t even pondered over the logistical nightmare of sleeping within a place called the dream, but I still wasn’t able to get a single hour of quality sleep.
In fact, the main culprits for my extraordinary exhaustion was the absence of a fire to keep me warm and the fact that immediately at the crack of dawn, Abetra had apparently instinctively woken up, and in his infinite wisdom, decided to shake me awake as well.
Mind still foggy at being forcefully woken up so early, I automatically reached for my crossbow, about to fire a bolt straight through his head I was so confused and disoriented.
Of course, after realizing what Abetra had done, I had to consciously fight back the urge to go through with shooting him.
As we continued to walk, an unbearable thirst suddenly struck my throat, and remembering that I had brought a waterskin, I quickly reached inside my satchel, and pulled it out.
It was empty.
Cursing in my mind, I uncorked the tip, and kneeled down to the stream, the rapidly flowing water swiftly filling the leather container.
Satisfied, I brought it to my mouth, about to refresh my parched throat, when,
“Stop!” Abetra suddenly shouted.
I nearly dropped the waterskin I was so surprised, and I annoyedly turned to him, silently asking him what he wanted.
“It’s not safe without being boiled,” he stated, “It’ll ruin your insides.”
“Do you see any way we could possibly boil this water right now?”
Despite him strongly suggesting that I shouldn’t drink from the river, I found the water to be refreshingly crisp, akin to the feeling I got when scratching an itch that had been bothering me for a prolonged period of time, only condensed into liquid form.
“Give it here,” Abetra finally relented, snatching the water from me, and chugging the remaining contents.
Repeatedly refilling, passing back and forth, and emptying the leather waterskin, we continued walking for a number of hours, until we finally reached the clearing of dirt where the stalks of purifern I harvested grew.
“We go this way,” Abetra pointed into the forest, “I remember just walking forward without turning before I saw you, so we should be able to find hemoroot relatively quickly.”
I nodded, and we immediately began our search.
As time passed and we continued to walk forward, I was once again reminded of just how stupid I was for forgetting to bring a pair of boots, the thought that I was ill-prepared for every situation save for battle digging itself into my mind once again.
Seeing me yelp in pain from a tiny rock getting embedded into my foot for what must have been the thirtieth time in under an hour,
“Do you want one?” Abetra finally offered, beginning to take off his right leather boot.
As I nodded in confirmation, out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly spotted what looked to be red leaves just barely peeking over the thick roots of a tree.
My heart beating faster, I swiftly put on the boot Abetra passed to me, and walked to the red leaves, soon unearthing another hemoroot, though this one was smaller and less intensely colored than the one I harvested yesterday.
“You take this one,” I threw it to Abetra, “Let’s alternatively take the ones we find.”
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Continuing to walk forward, the number of hemoroots the two of us spotted and dug out reached twelve, with the smallest one being about the size of my hand, smooth, and colored a pale red bordering on pink, while the largest was the size of my head and had a deep, unsettling sanguine color, with large, pulsating veins that ran from tip to head.
Though, unfortunately, not only was it Abetra who found it, but it was also his turn to take the next hemoroot.
But I didn’t really mind. Without the knowledge he gave me, I probably wouldn’t have been able to find even a quarter of my share. Plus, with the multiplier I had selected, I would have two times of not just my hemoroots, but also of my purifern and goblin's blood.
Suddenly, Abetra stopped, turning back around and bringing a finger to his lips.
Motioning me to be quiet, he pointed out to the grass clearing in front of him.
A pair of goblins were chasing a boar around the field. As it’s squeals reverberated in the air, the goblins made what I assumed to be cheers of celebration as they stabbed their rudimentary wooden spears at the animal as they dodged it’s charges.
“We’ll be eating pig tonight,” Abetra whispered excitedly, slowly and quietly unsheathing his sword from his waist before he suddenly turned to me, “Can you use goblins for anything?”
“We don’t have a fire to cook the meat,” I calmly answered, “But as for the goblins, I know their blood can be used as a catalyst to draw magic circles, and their other body parts can also be used for potion brewing, but I can’t identify them.”
“That’s fine,” he smiled, “I’ll dismantle them all, and we each get half?”
Seeing me nod, Abetra stepped back, and suddenly broke into a sprint, directly making his way towards the two goblins.
I shook my head, before directly following behind.
With Abetra attracting the attention of both goblins, the boar immediately ran away, bloodied, but still alive.
Swinging his sword down on one of the goblins, his blow was just barely blocked by it’s spear shaft, but making some indistinct noise of celebration, Abetra forcefully kicked it down to the ground, before stabbing it in the throat.
It’s partner bleeding out on the grass, the other goblin cried out, it’s voice filled with sorrow and pain, before attempting to charge at Abetra, but it was too late.
Having snuck up behind it in the chaos, I pointed my crossbow directly at the other goblin, before pulling on the lever, the bolt instantly embedding itself into it’s brain and killing it.
The now dead goblin fell to the ground, green blood and clear cranial fluid leaking out from it’s head, and Abetra whooped in excitement.
“FUCK,” he yelled, beating his chest before he showed me his sword, “LOOK AT THAT! LOOK!”
I chuckled, opening my mouth to ask him a question, when I saw it.
“MY HEART’S FUCKING POUNDING! LET’S G-”
Abetra suddenly stopped, his face visibly distorting in horror as he strained to look at the arrow sticking out from his back.
Stepping out from the forest on the other side of the clearing, there was a humanoid that just from it’s appearance alone, was very obviously a goblin. But from the way it held a more complex weapon, a bow and arrow, to it’s skin, which was smoother with highlights of brown and tan that allowed it to better blend in to the foliage, to the small tusks that grew out from it’s mouth, to even it’s physique, which was noticeably more robust and stronger, it was undoubtedly a goblin, yet not at the very same time.
A hobgoblin. A level 3 monster at the very minimum.
Cursing in my mind, I dug another bolt out from my quiver, and quickly reloaded my crossbow, before shooting out at the hobgoblin, to which it immediately ducked out of the way.
But my goal wasn’t to kill it.
Picking the writhing Abetra off of the ground, I quickly placed one of his arms over my shoulder, before beginning to run out of the clearing.
I could feel my heart pounding against my chest as I looked back.
The hobgoblin had stopped, just sitting there on the field, cradling the goblin Abetra stabbed.
As we re-entered the forest, Abetra bled onto the ground, essentially creating a trail that led directly to us.
His wails were akin to those I heard on the battlefield. Less sounds made by a human, and more animalistic shrieks, the haunting cries of a revenant. Still alive, but filled with a desire for death.
A chill ran down my spine.
Abetra flailed on my shoulders, and I nearly dropped him.
“Just leave me,” he begged in between grunts of pain.
“Nope,” I spat out, “Just deal with it. Shouldn’t even hurt that much.”
“Easy for you to say,” Abetra choked out, “You don’t have an arrow sticking out of you.”
A horrifying thought came over me at his words, and my blood ran cold.
“Earlier,” I began, “When you were still in the preparation room, there should have been five rectangles below the countdown in the floating, bigger rectangle.”
“Yeah?”
“Did you press on one of the options?”
“Yeah,” Abetra shut his eyes and grit his teeth in pain, his head shooting up before he finally answered me, “400%, three x. I thought the bigger the number, the better”
“You’re a fucking idiot,” I exhaled in frustration, “400% pain simulated for three times the rewards.”
“Well, how was I supposed to know that?” he aggrievedly asked.
Continuing to limp through the forest, the thunk of an arrow hitting a tree trunk right next to my head sounded in the air.
I looked back. The hobgoblin had begun to give chase, and was rapidly gaining ground.
“FUCK,” I cursed, before forcefully speeding up.
Abetra groaned from the pain, but I paid him no mind. If he wanted to survive, he would have to tough it out for a bit.
Coming back to the rapid, violent stream, I couldn’t see a way forward.
If we were to go right or left, the hobgoblin would be able to track us from the blood trail Abetra would leave, and I didn't even have the time to staunch his bleeding.
Abetra’s share of hemoroots suddenly appeared on the ground, and he kicked them out to the water.
“What-” I turned to him, about to ask him why he did that, when he suddenly pushed me.
Falling into the river, I struggled to keep my head above the water, his expression one of barely suppressed fear while the hobgoblin silently loomed behind him, before I felt an impact on the back of my head.
And everything went black.