My stomach growled for meat, but I had to make due with the fruits I found on my way. I made sure not to eat anything that was unknown to me, which was around half of the things I found. I had no way to start a fire now so even if I did kill something I would have to eat it raw. I knew which animals it was safe to eat raw, but that was still something I didn’t want to do.

I had been able to make good distance in the past few days. I spent two days quickly taking the path of destruction that the Prince and his group had made, but then I veered away so I wasn’t too close to my tribe. I had no idea what all happened there either. The Elders could be furious with me, or the other group that had gone after the knights could have rebelled so they could go after their children.

That reminded me of Pitch. I no longer had the vain hope that he was still alive, after seeing the corpse of Misu I had lost that sort of childish thought. Even if they didn’t kill Pitch when he attacked his wounds were severe enough that he would die on his own.

All of a sudden I saw a thin translucent red thread sprout from my chest. It points behind me at an angle. My blood ran cold. The thread was an identical color to the arrow that the knight captain had hit me with.

I watched the thread for several moments, and ever so slightly, I saw it move. The far end of the thread that disappeared into the Labyrinth wall was slowly crawling to the left.

He was on the hunt for me.

I needed to go faster. I looked up. The walls of the Labyrinth were dangerous in a way that the normal ground wasn’t. If one of the predators in the sky took notice of someone up there they had a very low chance of living, because the things up there were much more powerful than most of the things on the ground, but both environments had predators that vastly outclassed me in power, also the terrain on the ground was much worse for moving about.

I began to climb, using the two Far Away Hands to hold my waist and essentially take most of the weight off I was able to dash up the wall like a monkey.

After that I did a more quick walk than a jog, I didn’t want waste my energy by sprinting, this was going to be a long hunt if I had anything to say about it.

I only got a day into my journey at the top of the wall when I needed to descend again. It wasn’t because a monster had caught sight of me. In actuality I had been careful not to be sighted, anytime I senses something off I would have my Far Away Hands hold onto my and I would scurry a little ways down the wall.

The issue was I needed water. My lips were dry and cracked and my side constantly throbbed in pain. My eye had stopped swelling but now pus had begun to leak out when I moved the muscles in my face too much.

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Infection, at first the thought had made me almost give up and just jump off the edge of the wall so I would die sooner. I had no healing Card that would counteract the infection.

But then I remembered my only Uncommon Card. I had always used Cleanse to clean dirt and grime, but if I thought about it that shouldn’t be enough for it to be considered an Uncommon Card. Could I remove the infection from my own body? Could I cleanse the poison from any food?

When I tried to stop the infection in my eye I felt as though a fire in my stomach got snuffed out and I collapsed onto the ground. When I had been able to get ahold of myself I gingerly pressed against the bandage of my eye. I felt the leaking of fluids and checked for its contents. There was still a bit of dirty yellow substance, but it was significantly reduced from what it was before. Now it was pretty much just blood and some clear fluid that I didn’t know. Maybe tears.

I felt my stomach howl with hunger and thirst and decided to descend now. A smile touched my lips as I thought of the dumbest way to do it. I jumped off the edge.

Two Far Away Hands held me by the arm pits as I fell and slowed my fall significantly. I had to hold back a scream of joy and terror as the walls blurred by me and the ground loomed closer. If not for the wind in my hair it would seem as though the ground was coming towards me instead of the other way around.

When my feet touched the ground I didn’t land elegantly instead I toppled over with my legs feeling like jelly and a headache pounding away in my skull.

My energy was low, constant movement, lack of nutrients and my various wounds made it to where I only continued moving on the primal survival instinct that a life in the Labyrinth had built upon me.

The area in which I landed was a oddly symmetrical area with two rivers hugging the edge of the walls running downhill. I had seen a few hopefully small animals drinking from the water so I would also have a source of food hopefully.

Sadly I did not have the skill or energy to project the Far Away Hands all the way down to scoop the water for me or catch an animal otherwise I would have been able to stay up on top of the wall.

After surveying my area I moved to one of the two rivers. It was clear and sparkling, it almost invited me to drink from it.

Which obviously meant it was some trap of the Labyrinth to kill me.

I poked a stick into the water first, ready to see some monster head leap up and bite the stick.

That didn’t happen. Just in case I waved the stick in the water for another minute. Once I was confident enough to actually touch the water I took a scoop with my two hands, and obviously used Cleanse on the water.

I felt a bit of energy drain away, so maybe that meant that there had been some poison inside the water. Either way I didn’t have the luxury, heh, to be too picky so I drank the hand full of water.

A few times when our tribe traded with others or the people of the city we would get rare spices and drinks. Back then those things opened up a whole new world of flavor to me.

If that food had been amazing, this water was divine.

“Yesssss, I never knew water tasted so fucking good,” I murmured, taking another handful and cleansing it before downing it as well.