Michael took the lead with Bob on his shoulder while Evelyn followed behind.

The cave was dark and as they went deeper, it became even darker.

Evelyn frowned. The darkness was blinding.

I can’t see anything… How can Michael even move? Don’t tell me he memorized the goddamn cave?

Focusing on Michael’s silhouette in front of her, Evelyn notices that despite the darkness, Michael isn’t having a hard time navigating the dark cave.

Yeah… he definitely remembers the place.

Then Michael stops.

~Gasp~

Evelyn lightly gasps when she feels Michael grab her arm in the dark. She stays still. She knew Michael wouldn’t do anything.

A few moments pass but Evelyn feels Michael spread her hand open. He then proceeds to write on her hand.

C-A-N Y-O-U S-E-E M-E-?

Evelyn leans forward and whispers.

“No.”

Michael writes back.

F-O-L-L-O-W M-Y S-I-L-H-O-U-E-T-T-E-. R-E-L-Y O-N Y-O-U-R O-T-H-E-R S-E-N-S-E-S-.

“Okay… lead on.”

Michael continues onward. Bob was silent and Evelyn followed Michael. As they go deeper into the cave, Evelyn finds herself surrounded by the dark even more.

Evelyn starts to feel the cold seep in and she starts to hear something.

It was the sound of a wet slapping noise.

As the three of them got closer, Evelyn realized that she was hearing water drip from the ceiling.

She focused her hearing and then she heard the sound of flowing water.

Is that… a river? Michael said it was a pool of brine… why is there a river? Unless they’re connected?

Michael suddenly stops and so does Evelyn. She notices his silhouette take out something from his pack. She couldn’t see him properly but Michael raises his hand and throws something towards the distance.

~Clack~

Evelyn heard the sound of a solid object hitting the hard stone ground. As she was about to ask Michael what was that, she heard a terrifying sound from the distance.

She heard the sound of two rusty metal surfaces roughly grating on each other but it was less painful to the ears.

Then she heard the sound of flapping.

Evelyn looked around but she saw nothing.

It’s too dark!

Michael moved.

Evelyn followed but she kept her guard up.

~SCREECH!!!~

Evelyn flinches a bit.

How near is that?? God, this place is so fucking dark.

Evelyn was cautious. She thought that the source of the sound was near. It wasn’t but she didn’t know that sound bounced off the cave walls.

With each step going deeper and deeper into the dark, Evelyn started to feel claustrophobic. She felt like she was in a dark closet without any light from the outside but instead of suffocation, she can only feel an empty cold abyss.

For a moment, the darkness reminds her of a repressed memory.

Her death.

It seems that her transition to this world prevented her from remembering her demise, at least not fully.

She saw a child. That’s what she first remembered.

Oh… It was an acci-

Evelyn suddenly feels Michael’s hand grab her wrist which jolts her back to reality.

She felt Michael write in her palm again.

I-T-S O-K-A-Y-. I F-E-L-T T-H-E S-A-M-E T-H-I-N-G B-E-F-O-R-E. T-H-E D-A-R-K-N-E-S-S R-E-M-I-N-D-S M-E O-F M-Y D-E-A-T-H T-O-O.

Evelyn grips Michael’s hand. It felt warm and in the dark abyss, it helped calm her.

She then writes back to Michael.

Thank you. I’m okay. I won’t fall behind.

She can’t see Michael but Evelyn knew that he nodded.

They started moving again.

The sound of rushing water slowly becomes louder.

Wait… what is that?

As they get closer to the water, Evelyn starts to smell a potent scent of salt.

Is the scent powerful or are my senses getting sharper?

With each passing minute that the three of them spend in the dark, Evelyn realizes that her senses are getting sharper.

Her hearing has adjusted which gave her a way to “see” her surroundings. The bouncing sound allows her to almost “see” in a small radius around her. Her sense of smell has also sharpened. She can differentiate the many scents in the cave.

Excluding the overpowering smell of salt, Evelyn could pinpoint the smell of animal droppings. In addition to her enhanced sense of hearing and smell, Evelyn’s skin became more sensitive to feeling. When something moved, her skin could feel slight movements around her.

Wow… I feel… amazing…

Evelyn couldn’t deny the fact that she felt powerful. She knew that what she was feeling now could never be replicated by normal people and if they could, it would take an insane amount of practice and training. It only took her a few minutes.

In the distance, Evelyn and Michael start to see a faint amount of light.

She goes as near as she can to Michael and then she whispers.

“Hey… is that it?”

Michael writes on her hand an obvious NO.

What?

“Wh-why?”

Michael was about to write something on Evelyn’s hand when the light suddenly moves.

What the?

It wasn’t fast. In fact, it moved very sluggishly but as the light got closer to Evelyn and Michael, the light slowly revealed its source.

The bobbing light came from an orb attached to an upward curving appendage that’s connected to a large monstrous head.

Evelyn’s adjusted eyes widen as she sees a bipedal fish-like creature. Its mouth was salivating and its teeth were wet with blood. It recently feasted but like all the creatures in this underground cave, it was still hungry.

While looking at the creature, Evelyn noticed something else moving in the dark. It was illuminated by the faint light. Its body was pale and its skin was taut from malnutrition. Once the fish monster got nearer, its face became clear. It had large ears that ended on a sharp point and a flat face that betrayed its lack of eyes. Like the fish monster, this blind monster was also bipedal.

Looking down, Evelyn saw the creature’s long and gangly arms ending with sharp claws. It was looking for something.

Food… it’s looking for food.

Evelyn looked at the glowing fish monster and the blind pale creature.

Michael grabbed Evelyn’s hand and pulled her so they can follow a different path.

Despite moving away from the monsters, Evelyn continued to watch the two monstrous creatures. The two creatures slowly approached each other through their own hunting methods.

The silence seemed to get deeper as the two got closer to their targets.

Then it started with a snarl. The fish monster struck first. The blind beast felt pain in its shoulder as the beast uses its massive jaw to clamp on the blind creature’s shoulder.

The blind monster started screeching as the two beasts started to blindly maul each other.

Ah, I guess the blind one will be the one to die.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

As Evelyn predicted, the blind beast is overwhelmed by the bigger and stronger fish monster. The blind monster’s body goes limp as the fish monster’s large mouth bites its head, breaking its skull with each crunch.

Yep… that’s how it goes.

As Evelyn and Michael slowly leave the fish monster’s area, they both hear the same sound produced by the blind beast but now, there was more than one.

The light of the eating fish monster reveals dozens if not hundreds of the blind beasts attracted to the smell of blood and the sound of meat and bone being ripped apart.

What the fuck!

The fish monster was too distracted by its meal to notice the horde of blind monsters approaching it. The fish monster looked satisfied with its meal.

The satisfaction didn’t last long.

The horde of blind monsters charged with tooth and claw. The fish monster roared as the blind horde enters its light. It tries to fight back but the tidal wave of claws and teeth quickly renders the fish monster into nothing but guts and gore.

But that wasn’t enough.

Still blind and hungry, the beasts start to attack anything they can grab, namely the other beasts beside them. The oppressive darkness quickly turns into a blind carnage.

Evelyn listened in horror as she heard the sounds of flesh being ripped apart. She could faintly see the silhouettes of guts and gore flying everywhere.

Michael ignored the bloodshed.

She wanted to ask if this was a common occurrence but she was too terrified to speak. Evelyn’s body was strong but could it withstand such ferocity, she didn’t know.

Michael, on the other hand, knew for a fact that if he was caught in such a mob, he would die, so he didn't bother contemplating it.

Bob was hiding inside one of Michael’s bags. He was afraid of the dark but he was more afraid of the noise.

Walking away from the noise, the three of them get closer to the source of the salty smell.

Oof, that smell is so strong. It’s hurting my nose.

Evelyn covers her nose as they continue moving.

Michael holds his bone knife in his right hand.

Evelyn notices that and she removes the hand on her nose and grabs Michael’s hand with the other then she pulls out her knife.

She tries her best to ignore the smell as they get closer to the brine pool.

Then Michael stops.

Evelyn whispers.

“What now?”

Michael goes to Evelyn and grabs her hand and gestures with it so they both point in one direction.

“That way? There’s the brine pool?”

Michael nods.

Evelyn gulps and her throat quickly burn as the salty air fills her lungs.

She feels the temptation to cough but Michael quickly covers her mouth. She feels relief as she smells the scent of a herb. Touching Michael’s hand, she feels the texture of a group of leaves.

She breathes in and the smell of salt becomes weaker. She silently thanks Michael and the trio continues to move forward. Michael gives Bob a small leaf pack to cover his nose and mouth.

Eventually, Evelyn enters the water.

Oh?

Looking down, Evelyn sees a shallow pool of water. It was very murky and Evelyn felt slight burning on her ankles and feet. Michael pulls her out of the shallow pool.

Despite getting out of the pool, she feels some burning itch on her legs.

Michael then pulls out a small torch. Igniting the dried leaves, Michael shines some light on the area.

“Wa-wait, what are you doing??”

Michael signs.

+It’s fine. No creature goes here. The brine pool kills most of the creatures that go here. It leaves no chance to survive. No survival, no evolution.+

Michael points at a distance and Evelyn sees the floating bodies of many unlucky animals.

Evelyn shudders.

“Now what?”

+We gather as much brine as we can, then get out of here.+

“Okay okay… what containers are we going to use?”

+Inside our bags are containers. We can use them.+

Evelyn opens her fur bag and pulls out a tube-shaped leaf-woven container.

It has a small leaf-woven cap on the top.

Michael used dried fiber to tie up the container and lids.

Each leaf tube could hold approximately 1 liter of liquids. Michael and Evelyn start to fill up their containers and lock them with the dried fibers.

Once they fill up the first two tubes, they start to fill up the 3rd and 4th.

They take great care to not submerge any of their exposed body parts.

Michael explained that they could suffer a toxic shock if they were not careful. Falling into the brine pool spelled certain death.

Around the 10th basket tube, Michael starts to tie them together so they’re tightly knit together.

Seeing Michael prepare, Evelyn whispers.

“Hey, is that enough?”

Michael shakes his head.

+According to the log, a gallon of saltwater roughly translates to 3.5 ounces of salt. To be honest, I didn’t know that the log used the imperial system. I much prefer the metric system.+

“You can’t switch it?”

+I did but it was using the imperial system before. Anyway, we have 10 liters of brine which roughly translates to 600 to 1,000 grams of salt? That’s an approximation anyway. With modern tools, I could probably reach 1 kilogram of salt from 10 liters but right now, our methods are very crude. I’d be lucky to get 400 to 500 grams of salt from this.+

“Doesn’t that mean we can just get more so we can get more salt?”

Michael nods.

+Yeah, we can do that. This is why I brought a lot of these tubes.+

He pulls out another leaf-woven tube.

“How many do you have?”

+Here or at home?+

“Ummm… never mind.”

Michael continues to pull out leaf-woven tubes from his fur bag.

“Woah, isn't this enough? We have more than 10 liters already, shouldn’t we go home already? You told me we would last a week or so here. Why’s that?”

+I can’t process the brine at home. There’s a natural rock formation outside that can process the brine.+

“Wait, really?”

+It’s crude but I made a make-shift system there.+

“You can’t make the brine in our home?”

+Not yet, I lack a lot of tools. I don’t fully understand forging yet and making stone structures is far beyond my current ability.+

“So the gathering and creation of salt take a lot of time?”

+Yes.+

Evelyn thinks for a second then she speaks with a sigh.

“Why bother?”

Michael raises his eyebrow. Evelyn continues.

“I mean, there are so many things to do and so many things you need to learn. Don’t you feel overwhelmed? Don’t you feel that all of this is bullshit?”

Michael stops filling the tube he’s handling and he thinks. He then signs.

+Because I need to keep busy.+

“Busy?”

Michael nods.

+Yes. Because what else is there to do? There’s nothing in this world to do but survive.+

“Don’t you get tired?”

+I do but what should I do? Die?+

Michael shakes his head.

+I’m doing all of these so I can at least lessen the burden in the future. It’ll make my life and by proxy, yours easier.+

Evelyn nodded. She understood that much at least. Before she could continue, Michael asks her a question she would not even dare think about.

+Can you imagine living without a bath?+

Evelyn imagines not being able to take a hot bath at the end of each hunt. She shudders imagining going to sleep steeped in blood.

“No… I can’t.”

+I can. I spent a long time only washing with the use of the river.+

Evelyn nods.

“It was really hard huh?”

+Fruits and vegetables. It took me a long time to figure out what was edible and what was not. The log helped but it wasn’t always clear. It only gave effects that were immediate or too important to ignore.+

Michael pulled out a blue fruit. It could be likened to a large blueberry except that its skin was a bit rough, similar to an orange.

Michael throws it to Evelyn who easily catches it.

+I call that a ____.+

“A what?”

+Blue & Orange. Combine the two words.+

“A… a bluerange?”

Michael nods.

“Pfft…”

Evelyn covers her mouth to stop herself from laughing.

“Really? That’s your best name??”

Michael raises his eyebrow.

+Why, what’s wrong with it?+

“Noooo, nothing!”

Evelyn kept a smile as she held her laughter.

Michael frowns but Evelyn continues to chuckle.

“Maybe… next time, let me name the unknown stuff?”

+Why?+

“Just so you know… we have variety? In case other humans come here. After all, you’ve been naming things for 1 whole year, right?”

Michael thinks then he nods.

+That sounds acceptable.+

“It is… Now, can you change this?”

+What do you want to change it to?+

“Caetiaco.”

Michael thinks.

+Yeah, I like that. Caetiaco it is.+

“Heh.”

Evelyn opens the Caetiaco’s skin and starts to eat the many small fruit balls inside it.

It was very sour but it gave her a small boost of energy.

“That feels great.”

+Juicing and concentrating that fruit makes a drug that can keep you awake for hours.+

Evelyn nods.

“I’d like that.”

+I can make you one when we get back home.+

Evelyn chuckles.

“I was kidding. I don’t want a drug that won’t let me sleep.”

Michael shrugs.

“So you only want to make your life easier here?”

Michael stops.

+No. Doing nothing means death and working means I can ignore the fact that I was alone for one year with nothing but constantly evolving monsters that hunt me at every turn in this nightmare world.+

Michael only signed but Evelyn felt that he was somber. He wasn’t showing any sadness. In fact, his face was absent of any emotions but Evelyn felt an abyssal-like deepness in Michael.

“Wasn’t Bob with you?”

Michael shakes his head.

+I got him around the end of the 8th month. He was still an infant then. He wasn’t much for conversation.+

Bob frowns and he signs his disapproval.

Michael smiles at that. Evelyn heaves a sigh of relief as Michael’s levity slowly returns.

This monkey must have been a crutch. Thank you, Bob.

+Let’s go back to work.+

Bob helps by clearing away some of the dirt that goes in the tubes.

Eventually, the trio managed to fill a total of 40 tubes.

“This is a lot of very salty water.”

+Just call it brine.+

“Okay. Brine then. Where is the natural rock formation you told me about?”

+Deeper into the dark.+

“What??”

Evelyn looked past the light of their torch and saw nothing but absolute darkness.

“We’ll be crossing the brine pool?”

Michael shakes his head.

+We’ll be moving around the pool.+

“Will that be dangerous?”

+Not as dangerous as crossing it but yes, it will be. If we’re not careful, we’ll catch the attention of some of the many creatures here.+

“Hmmm, like those blind monsters?”

Michael nods.

+I just call them superbats.+

Evelyn didn’t immediately reply. She stares at him.

+Are you okay?”

“... Like the super reptile?”

Michael nods. Evelyn almost groans but she manages to stifle it.

“Let’s call them night beasts? You know, like vampires. But less cool.”

Michael thinks then he nods.

+That's fine. I’ll update my log.+

“Okay?”

Michael and Evelyn prepare the tubes. Michael carries 25 leaf tubes. He handed 15 leaf tubes to Evelyn.

Once prepared, Michael puts out the torch then they move onward.

Michael moves around the edge of the pool while Evelyn carefully follows his steps. Despite suddenly plunging back into darkness, Evelyn quickly adjusts to the dark. Her vision isn’t perfect but unlike earlier, she could easily tell apart Michael’s silhouette.

Hmmm… Are these the side effects of this world’s rules?

Evelyn still wasn’t sure about evolution but she knew it existed. After all, she still had a few bruises from the berserker ape.

Well… I did go berserk there as well.

As the three go deeper into the dark, Evelyn notices that the floor is slowly changing shape.

More bumps?

After a while, they eventually leave the pool’s general area.

Suddenly, Michael stops.

“What is it?”

Michael didn’t reply. Evelyn took that as a sign to stay quiet.

It was nothing at first which made Evelyn curious as to why they stayed still.

Then she heard footsteps.

Evelyn saw silhouettes move around them. It was a cauldron of night beasts. They were numerous. She couldn’t see them but she could imagine their teeth and claws.

~Snarl!~

Evelyn flinched as she heard one of the night beasts near her.

Bob was hidden while Michael was dead silent.

Evelyn knew that he was practicing the technique he taught her. She closes her eyes to do the same.

Calm yourself. Let go of all your thoughts…

~SNARL!~

Evelyn loses focus and opens her eyes.

Then she finds herself staring face to face with one of the blind night beasts.

It snarls in front of her but Evelyn quickly squeezes her thigh with her hand with all of her strength. The pain manages to silence whatever noise that was going to come out of her throat.

Evelyn watched in terror as the night beast didn’t move on. It started to sniff in front of it. Then its head turns to focus on Evelyn.

No, my scent!

The creature was about to snarl but its open mouth suddenly revealed a knife going through it as Michael quickly stabbed the back of its head. The creature dies in silence.

Evelyn catches the falling body and slowly puts it on the ground.

The two humans look at each other in the dark. They wait for the night beasts to leave.

Once the majority of the horde was gone, they nod at each other.

They look at the stragglers.

Michael made a gesture for Evelyn to pull out her knife.

He goes to the nearest night beast and quickly impales its skull with his bone knife.

Evelyn follows Michael’s act and she approaches a night beast. She stabs its skull but she made a mistake.

Her strength wasn’t on the same level as Michael’s and the knife didn’t fully lodge itself in the brain.

Evelyn was about to panic when she saw the creature’s mouth slowly open to release a scream.

Michael quickly appears behind it and snaps its neck.

The creature dies with its maw hanging open.

Evelyn couldn’t see but she knew Michael had a face that told her that she was going to be scolded.

But now was not the time. Michael and Evelyn started to clean up the stragglers.

Once they wipe out the remaining night beasts, the two of them move forward.

Evelyn approaches Michael. She whispers.

“Thank you… Sorry.”

He writes on her palm.

I-T-’S F-I-N-E. Y-O-U A-R-E-N-’T U-S-E-D T-O T-H-I-S Y-E-T.

“Yeah, thanks.”

Michael nods.

The landscape of the cavern slowly became bigger as they went deeper.

Evelyn wanted to ask Michael where they were but she was afraid that a night beast would suddenly appear.

To remedy this, she went nearer to Michael. They were close enough that they were hugging.

She whispers.

“Are we near?”

Michael flinches a bit.

He nods.

Evelyn smiles and lets him go.

The two continue to move onward in the dark.

Unfortunately for the two of them, one of them was flustered and it wasn’t Bob.