“Be careful!”
Blue peeked out from behind the boy to inspect the corpse.
“Oh…” Micro turned back to the armoured man with a sad expression.
“I wonder if he was also summoned somewhere…”
Blue was distracted by Micro’s remark for a moment, but soon remembered her fear.
“You don’t understand, boy.” She spoke quietly and tiptoed a little closer to the man.
“You never know when the dead might come back to bite you out here.”
“People don’t die permanently here?” He raised an eyebrow in doubt.
“That’s definitely not how it works back home.”
“Of course people die!” She confirmed a little louder than she meant to.
“But a cultivator’s corpse is a rare treat for wandering spirits. He could already be an undead…”
She picked up a small twig and poked the corpse's arm with it, gently at first, then a little rougher. After a few pokes, the armour shifted, making an ugly grinding sound that made the two cringe.
“Ah… He’s properly dead.” Blue sighed.
“With my energy depleted, it’s hard to sense these things for certain.”
“So that’s why you didn’t see that dragon coming.” Micro clapped his hands at the realization.
“Hey, be a little more grateful for the energy your core is made of, boy.” She stuck out her tongue and crossed her arms.
“Whose energy did you think was used to summon you.”
“That’s true…” Micro nodded.
“Thanks.”
“Whatever.” Blue turned around and jumped atop the corpse.
“Hmm, let’s see what we have here. Oh, look at that, that’s interesting. Oh and these.”
Micro watched as she rummaged through the belongings of the deceased cultivator. At one point, her pillaging dislodged his skull, which rolled away into some tall grass. His chest plate was the next thing to fall off with a rusty thud, after which Blue started throwing items through his rib cage to Micro.
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“Check this out.” The little treasure hunter gleamed.
“He had some gold on him, and some of his Core Cards are still intact! Look! A ring!”
She threw four cards into Micro’s lap.
“They’re all water type, and he had two Sapphire cards! That’s the third stage a cultivator reaches after years of training by the way. He had a Tiger Art card and a Moon Art card. Chances are he’s from the Western Water Tiger Moon Sect, but I haven’t heard anything about them in a long time. Last time I checked, they were just a third rate Jade level sect though. They’ve come a long way.”
Blue’s enthusiasm for Core Cards was apparent to Micro, though he still had trouble understanding their significance.
“He also had two Amber cards here.” She pointed enthusiastically at the emblems.
“There’s a Sleepless Trait Card, and a Spirit Vision Skill Card. I wonder what he was going to do with so many...”
“You know a lot about this sort of thing, Blue.” Micro listened happily, though it was hard for him to follow.
“Do you want these cards?”
“Well, I do.” She admitted.
“But I can’t carry them right now, so I’ll let you hold onto them.”
“Okay.” Micro added the four cards to the other two Amber level cards in his hand, and looked behind him, only for his face to suddenly reveal a look of disappointment.
“What’s wrong? What’s back there?” Blue asked the sad looking boy.
“I don’t have a bed to put these in…” He hung his head in shame, letting the cards fall into his lap.
“Oh, well, this guy had pockets.” Blue laughed.
“Wait right there.”
Blue then went about violently dismantling the skeleton of the long deceased cultivator and dragging its weathered clothing over to Micro.
“Here, the armour is gross, but the shirt and pants are fine.... Good material...” She patted the messily stacked clothes with her hand, sending a small plume of dust into the air.
“And they have pockets!”
Micro looked affectionately at Blue as he took in the gift of a dead man’s clothes, but couldn’t hide a look of concern.
“What?” She questioned him with narrowed eyes.
“You too good for second hand clothing?”
Micro smiled warmly and immediately stood up to put the clothes on, with some difficulty. Blue laughed when he put the shirt on his legs, and again when he put his pants on upside down. After the lighthearted ordeal had concluded, he was finally dressed as normal human would be, or so he assumed.
“Well, do you like them?” Blue asked with eyes wet from laughter.
“They’re fine.” He agreed while sliding the cards into his new breast pocket.
“I’ve just never been this rusty before…”
Blue laughed and rejoined him by the fire, where they basked in its warmth for a while before falling asleep on the ground.
Micro had seen the old man fall asleep in the past, several times in his own bed while camping with his son. He longed to revisit those days when the old man was younger.
Such dreams filled the rest of his night.