Ronny had an awful nightmare that night. One where the corpses of his former coworkers were stitched in some of grotesque taxidermy. They were alive, somehow, in that patchwork monster; and they were chasing him, begging him to kill them.

He woke up in sweats. The Well Rested notification didn’t come. It was still dark outside, but he didn’t feel like going back to bed. Before getting up, Ronny examined his leg. Still injured, though it was healing abnormally fast. He had no doubt that System was playing a role in that. It played a role in everything, it seemed. The wound’s severity had already been reduced from a revolting ‘hole’ to a gash—a large gash, but nothing more.

He got up to his feet. It hurt, but not badly enough to keep him from moving around. Enzi was still asleep, so spent the time by looking around the room. Their part of the medical ward was secluded from the rest of the area, so nobody would hear him moving around.

Assuming Alice didn’t show up, they’d be leaving the city that day and he wanted to prepare for however he could. After a quick search, he found and stole a few potions, bandages, and some books. He took more volumes than he probably should have, but their knapsack was large and Enzi was strong, so he didn’t worry about it.

The selection wasn’t great, but even still, the information would prove useful. Ronny ended up grabbing something on the world’s history, an atlas, a guide to medicine, and a basic speller for Enzi. The last one was by far the luckiest find, since Ronny wanted to teach his companion how to read. It would make somewhat easier.

Since he still had some time before Enzi would awaken, Ronny took a seat at a table the doctors were using and cracked open the atlas. Sure enough, there were maps inside. They were crudely drawn and poorly printed, but that was only to be expected. In this world the fact that it had illustrations at all probably meant that it was expensive.

There was a map of Barnock, the archipelago it was a part of, and then the known world as a whole. The cartography seemed questionable. He focused on the map of Barnock because it was the most relevant.

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Most of the details he wanted were lacking, but there were a few interesting takeaways. Namely, the location of the country’s other major settlements. Ignar was particularly interesting, since it was off the main channel that split the island in two and because it was abandoned after the Demon Army plundered.

There was also Kell, which was Barnock’s trade capital. But because it was the furthest from Sundenspur, the population of Demons was lower there than anywhere else. Going there with Enzi could spell trouble.

In his mind, their best bet was to head south to whatever remained of Ignar. It would be safer for Enzi and because it was downstream, getting there would be easier too. It also gave them the option of fleeing to Sundenspur if the need arose. He didn’t think it’d come to that though.

He skimmed the rest of the book but didn’t pay that much attention to the details because he knew that they wouldn’t be able to anywhere outside of Barnock or Sundenspur. Everywhere else, Demons were considered monsters and were hunted accordingly.

Since Enzi still wasn’t up, he started skimming the other books too. The history book was limited in scope, referring mostly to the history of Barnock and neighboring nations, but it was better than nothing. The medicinal guide seemed mostly useless, focusing on herbal remedies for common ailments but again, it was better than nothing. He didn’t bother looking through the speller.

Even after all that, Enzi was still sleeping. He couldn’t be blamed because it was still before sunrise, but even still, Ronny wanted to leave the palace before the clock tower woke everyone up. He decided to let Enzi rest for another hour. They had a long day ahead of them, so it was the least he could do. In the meantime, he practiced using his Freeze spell. He didn’t make any breakthroughs, but just the act of using it helped him get more comfortable with how it worked.

About thirty minutes later, Enzi finally awoke. Seeing that Ronny was already up, he immediately hopped out of bed and started getting ready.

He seemed to be energetic, “Good morning!”

“Right back at you.” Ronny stuffed the knapsack a little more and without any more hesitation, the two left the room and started leaving the palace, “How are your legs doing?”

Enzi reached down and felt the areas where he’d been bitten, “The bites… are gone?” He seemed surprised.

“My wounds are doing a lot better too. Not fully healed like yours though. Maybe the ‘class upgrade’ thing has something to do with it?”

He shrugged, “Maybe. It’s lucky that they’re healed by today though. Given what we’re going to be doing.”

Making use of Ronny’s Life Detection skill, they were able to avoid bumping into anyone on their way out.

Dawn was just starting to peak above the horizon when they got outside. They had a long day ahead of them, and hoped the sunlight would last until they had done everything they need to do.