"Fine," I told Saskia, "But if I find that you are lying about this..."

She nodded quickly, sweat forming on her brows as the girl responded, "Of course. If my predictions did not come true, you can do anything you want with me."

"Good," that was acceptable. As I turned to leave again, I remembered something important, ""Also, call me by-"

"Terra. I know," Saskia's smile was snarky as she cut me off, finishing my sentence for me. Annoyance flared up inside me. If she already knew, why did she use my real name? Did she do this so that she could expose me in front of my companions? Did she think she can play with me like that?

I glared at her, "So you knew. Then why didn't you use that name back there?"

I jerked a thumb towards the rough direction of Elias and Kaelen, and gripped Saskia's jacket collar again. As I pulled at her, I readied my tiny-bow with my free hand. I stopped as I was nocking the arrows. I shouldn't be this wary of other people. What was wrong with me?

Nothing was wrong with me. Anyone would react this way, right? I was not so certain anymore.

"If I didn't, you wouldn't have paid attention to me."

Yes, nothing was wrong with me. I growled out, releasing her and spinning her to the side, "Don't do this again. Until I reveal the name to my companions, call me Terra."

Then, with a shove, I dragged her back out of the woods and into the clearing, where Elias and Kaelen were waiting for us.

As we approached, Kaelen ran over, slapping me on the shoulder gently as she grumbled, "I'm not suicidal, but you could have thought of a better way to deal with the unicorn-wolf monster than leading it into a temporary settlement!"

I shrugged, trying to sound apologetic, "Sure. I will lead it away from other humans the next time?"

"Now," I pointed towards Saskia, "Her name is Saskia, and we were... acquintances at school. I guess she'll be joining us."

You have made an Battle Group with Player #KEFA-25291! You will now have boosts when you are within proximity of them. Level up your Battle Group Unity Level to increase your buffs!

'That's a way to introduce someone,' Hydra commented drily, and I sighed.

'Don't be so proud of yourself,' I argued, 'Where were you when we were trying to escape from the monster? You could have helped. I'm sure flying is faster than running.'

'I didn't feel like it,' the dragon laughed, his tone nonchalant as he replied, 'When you created me, I made it clear that I would not listen to you every time.'

There was nothing I could say to counter that, so I just changed the topic to ask something that had been on my mind ever since Saskia's battle with the unicorn-wolf ended and the adrenaline faded, 'Why didn't I get any loot from the wolves I killed?'

Hydra answered easily, 'Because all the essence from the wolves, both horned and normal, that you and your little friends killed were all absorbed into the wolf that was undergoing metamorphosis. None was left, so the person who killed the final beast would receive everything.'

That person was Saskia. However, even I had to admit that she deserved the rewards she reaped from defeating the unicorn-wolf monster. Even now, I could still recall the smooth and powerful strikes she landed on the monster. On the other hand, my shadow essence could not even penetrate its form when it was still at its first stages of metamorphosis. There was a huge gap between us, so she was right about my need for guidance on the mysterious substance.

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With that in mind, I gathered the attention of my battle group members and laid out two things we could do at the moment, "Now that the fence has disappeared, there is no point in staying here, unless you think that we can get more strength through sheer numbers alone."

None of my companions nor Saskia said anything. It was clear that they understood that those who still stayed in this area were far below our level of power. Staying with them would be wasting our time. It might even endanger ourselves if we had to save the others from threats caused by monsters.

"There are two things we can do then," I explained, "I received enough materials to build a permanent base in the form of a tree house, so we can go and construct that somewhere in this forest first."

"How did you even get that?" Elias asked, confused, "We didn't fight any monsters that might drop wood or stone. Have you been picking up rocks and pocketing branches while we were not looking?"

Saskia glanced at me, her eyes telling me that she knew exactly what happened and just chose not to share the information with the other two. That was good. I couldn't have her expose all my secrets just to show the extent of her knowledge. I chose her because I wanted to learn information about the future events and about other people, not to create a weak link in the group.

"I received another gift," I said simply. About that, maybe it was time for me to check the chat to see if there was any replies after i sent the message.

"Another?!" Elias's eyes widened, and he chuckled, "You must be really favored by those aliens."

"It's my second one, so not that much," I shrugged, indifferent. After a short pause, I coughed to clear the awkwardness that was brought by my previous words. As far as I knew, neither of my companions has received any gifts. I was not certain about Saskia, though. Then, I continued, "Either way, we can build the tree house first, or we can continue exploring and find some more monsters to fight. There is a third option, but that would mean we have to split up."

"What do you mean?" Kaelen asked, frowning.

"I need to train my shadow essence," I replied, and when my companions began to complain, throwing some minor insults at Hydra, I raised my voice, talking over them, "With Saskia and Hydra!"

After hearing my clarification, Kaelen and Elias quietened down. After a few seconds of silent contemplation, Kaelen hummed thoughtfully, "While it does sound better than leaving you alone with the dragon, we don't really know Saskia well yet. I think we should stay together. I can heal any injuries that you might have during the training."

Elias nodded along, agreeing, and reorganized the plan, "I have to take Kaelen's side on this, sorry, Terra. What about this? We go and build the tree house somewhere further away from this area, and fight any monsters on the way. We can use the map to find out where we can set up the base. After we build the structure, we'll take the rest of the day to train. I'll practise my corruption skill on Kaelen's force field or something while the two of you train with shadow essence. Tomorrow, we can set off to hunt again."

"I'm fine with that!" Saskia accepted Elias' offer without much hesistation.

To be honest, Elias' idea did not sound too bad, so I nodded, guiding us to the edge of the clearing again, "Let's go, then."

As we walked with Alaric scouting ahead and Hydra flying above us, we discussed the location to set up our base at. I suggested building it about five kilometres from the safe space, but quickly dismissed it myself since it was a little too far at the moment. At our current speed, it would take about an hour without resting. Eventually, after some deliberation, we decided that two kilometres would be suitable for now, allowing us to have a relatively safe spot deep in the forest so that we can hunt better monsters but at the same time close enough so that we would not be overwhelmed by monsters that were too strong for us to handle.

After that, there was little chat among us as we focused on looking out for potential danger that Alaric might have missed. As we walked, I decided to check Nythirra's chat to see if there was any reply. There was.

Nythirra: You're welcome. I have been watching your battles when I can, and they are great. Keep it up!

I smiled slightly. This could mean that I would be able to get more gifts from her if me, my companions and Saskia fought well from now on. I replied quickly, typing on air as discreetly as I could.

Raven: I will! We will be using the materials you gifted us soon. Good luck on your fights too!

I clicked send, hoping that the System would not mess up and translate it into something offensive to the alien. I needed every little bit of support I could get, even if it was from an alien who could see my battles as if it was a live streamed game of survival - which it technically was. When my world became integrated after this Major Event was over, could I watch the feed from other worlds too?

That thought was so weird that I banished it from my head immediately. Watching aliens get chased around by a bunch of monsters? Not yet, thank you very much.

I waited for a few minutes, but there was no reply from my alien benefactor, which should be expected because it was likely that we had different timezones. On that thought, I clicked the chat away and mentally commanded another blue screen to show up. What's better than checking your profile information while walking through a forest full of monsters?