We’d been fighting for six hours.

I had cuts and bruises all over my body. Instead of quickly killing the snakes, I had to wrestle them while Aelin tried to stab it in the heart or the head. We were killing them much slower, but we were doing it. I sat down in the middle of the trail and started waving to try to get Justia or Ether’s attention. Aelin was busy counting crystals.

“Forty-three!” she declared as she put the last crystal in the bag.

“Let’s see how many they got.” I motioned to where Jutia and Ether were coming down the trail. It would have been faster to cut through the grass, but they almost certainly would have attracted snakes. Considering we were taking a break, that wouldn’t have been ideal.

“How’d it go?” Ether asked once she reached us. She took one look at me. "Atlas! You look horrible!”

“I’ll heal.” I couldn’t stop from flinching as she started running her hand over the bruises that speckled my snow-white skin.

“Sorry.” The white-haired Tank pulled her hand back. "Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I can’t kill them fast enough.” Aelin looked like she was about to cry.

“It’s okay, Aelin.” Justia gave the blonde woman a hug. "He’s right, he’ll heal.” She looked at me. "How many did you get?”

I nodded at Aelin.

“Forty-Three!” Enthusiasm replaced her somber attitude. "What about you?”

“Twenty-Four.” Ether began digging in her pockets so she could transfer them over.

Aelin opened up the sling bag so that Ether could deposit the crystals. “Is that going to be enough?”

I started doing math in my head, but Ether beat me to it.

“That puts us at over fifty experience.” The red-eyed woman shook her head. "It’s still not enough, especially considering that we have to fight the boss in two days, not just hit level two.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“We still have some time.” I nodded up the trail. "Once we eat and get back, then we’ll have about five more hours of light.”

“We really should bring the food with us." Aelin grumbled.

“We don’t have anything to carry water." I reminded her. "That’s going to be one of the first things I buy when we get back.”

We started walking up the trail. My comment triggered Aelin to start a game.

“So what is everyone else going to buy when they get back?” The blonde twirled in the road. "I think I’m going to buy a weapon, probably a crossbow, as well as some armor.” She turned to Justia. "What about you?”

“If I don’t learn a healing spell at level two, then I’ll get one of those.” The Healer balanced the ax in her hands. "I need to get some armor too."

“What about you Ether?” Aelin bounced close to her,

“I need armor and a weapon.” The white-haired woman motioned at the weapon in Aelin’s hand. "I need to be able to do more than just grapple with the monsters.”

“What about our fearless leader?” Aelin giggled. "What are you getting?”

I thought for a moment. "I’ll have to see what spell I learn, but it couldn’t hurt to get another one.” I pointed to the bag. "And it wouldn’t hurt to get a water bottle to put in there.”

“We should probably all get one of these.” Aelin patted the bag. "We can’t make Atlas do all the heavy lifting.”

I shrugged. "When it was just a few monsters a day, it wasn’t bad." I motioned at the bag. "But that thing is starting to fill up.”

There were 251 crystals in the bag and that had filled both side pockets, and the front pocket wasn’t going to hold many more. We could start putting them in the back pocket, but that was going to limit our ability to use the bag to transport other items like fruit.

“Once we hit level ten, we’ll be able to get a crystal band.” I reminded them. "It can hold a few items.”

“Don’t those cost like a thousand All, just for the little ones?” Aelin shook her head. "That seems like a steep price to pay, for such a small thing.”

“It can hold more stuff than you could cramp into my jumpsuit.” That reminded me that I needed to put it on when we reached camp. While I was faster running around in my shorts, the extra defense would make up for the slight drop in speed.

“We’ll have to see what Trent offers us.” I was hopeful that he’d cut us some slack after we finished this. "Maybe we can request some stuff if he doesn’t have it. Like he said, he could wipe out monsters forty levels deeper with a snap of his fingers. It shouldn’t be hard for him to get some stuff.”

“Oh! I’m going to have to make a list!” Aelin danced as we walked.

I couldn’t help but smile. And despite the deadline looming over us, I was glad someone was finding something to be happy about.

We continued walking down the trail, listening to all the things that Aelin was going to buy.