Orion accessed the Stim Leaf in his inventory again, double-checking that he hadn’t somehow misread the number.
“I have over fifty…”
“Fifty?” Arika made a dismissive noise. “All day in this forest for only fifty? I guess it was worth it for Shadow to get the Cooking profession, but still.”
“… thousand.” Orion looked at his friends in shock. “Fifty-thousand. Fifty-thousand-nine-hundred-and-thirteen, to be exact…”
There was a moment of silence, no one knowing what to say.
“You’re serious?” Honeypot asked.
In response, Orion stepped back into the clearing away from the fire and removed all of them from his inventory. A sea of leaves appeared around him, inundating his body. He had to put them all back into his inventory with an effort of will, or he might have eventually suffocated. Despite Shadow carrying all the heaviest equipment, the leaves alone filled most of his allocated storage.
With the leaves returned to his inventory, his friends were staring at him, expressions somewhere between bewildered and ecstatic.
“Okay, Tallon is either going to cry from happiness or attack you on the spot if he ever finds out you can harvest that many.” Arika let out a soft laugh. “Didn’t he say he only gets one-per-fifty he picks?”
“I’ll let him know about the patch before he sees it,” Orion said. “He might attack me on the spot if he doesn’t know I used Herbalism to trim them back to a healthy state. Come to think of it, I should let them know about professions when we know more about them, too…”
“That seems fair, considering you paid twenty gold for fifty-thousand Stim Leaf in just one trip,” Honeypot said.
Shadow set down bowls of the desert he’d been making for them, a variant of pancake made from local ingredients, and the conversation died as they ate.
In the silence, Orion noted how close and open he felt with his party members. They bounced inside jokes back and forth at each other and took digs at each other in the way only people that enjoyed each other’s company can.
Considering all that they had been through over the last few days, it wasn’t surprising. They were in a strange new world, and they had all latched on to each other, the laughter and companionship a welcome distraction from the unknown before them.
He was so thankful for them, and smiled to himself as he watched Arika and Honeypot immediately throw friendly insults at each other the moment the food was finished. The buff adventurers before him—adorned with slime-tentacled hats and sledging each other’s lineage and general demeanor—was quite a sight to behold.
Orion checked his debuffs—there were only a few hours left before they could safely return to town.
“Do you guys want to head back to town and sleep there tonight after our skulls expire, or should we camp the night here?”
“It’s actually quite nice out here,” Arika responded, staring vacantly into the fire.
Honeypot held a stick into the fire, his gaze fixed on the burning tip.
“As much as it pains me to say, Arika is right. There’s something about sitting around a campfire that’s soothing for the soul.”
Shadow made a noise of agreement as he cleaned in his camp kitchen.
“Walking through the forest at night doesn’t sound very tempting…”
Orion nodded.
He would have brought the potentially dangerous trek up, had they decided to head back to town, but if everyone was as content as he was to stay out, he wouldn’t complain.
“If we’re lucky,” Honeypot said, “something might attack us over the night! That way we can have our relaxing evening, and the thrill of an impromptu life-or-death scenario!”
Arika gave him a flat stare.
“Don’t you dare even joke about that.”
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Thankfully—or not, depending on your point of view—the night passed by without a peep from the forest, each of them taking turns to scout for danger.
Orion emerged from his tent in the morning to find Arika finishing her watch. She was putting more branches on the fire, stoking it in preparation for Shadow.
Arika looked lost in thought as she bent down to put a log in the fire with one hand, the other sweeping a loose strand of hair behind her ear. There was a feminine beauty radiating off of her, despite the tentacle hat adorning her head. She turned and looked up at him, noticing he’d been staring.
His face going a bright red, Orion sat down by the fire and stared into the red embers. Arika sat down beside him, also gazing into the red-hot coals of the fire.
“Orion, I—I wanted to thank you.”
Expecting a snarky comment about getting caught staring, his anxiety receded.
“For what?”
“For this.” Arika gestured at the fire and the surrounding clearing. “For giving me something to work towards. I felt so lost in this world. Even when I was with Felsteg, I think I knew subconsciously something was wrong. That he used me so callously makes me sick to my stomach. I was leveling and fighting for the sake of it. What else could I do? I just felt as though I had to keep moving forward, but I had no goal in mind. There was no enjoyment from killing or leveling. I was just taking one step after another…” She trailed off, staring into the fire.
“There’s nothing wrong with that. One step after another is all we can do sometimes.”
“No.” Arika shook her head, her hair freeing itself from behind her ear once more. “It’s important to have a reason—a purpose. I have that with you guys. Despite all the bullshit, despite a literal cave of disgusting spiders, I’m having fun. Growth is my goal now, and I want to help you guys grow stronger, too. I’m not just moving forward for the sake of it anymore. I’m moving forward for us, and for myself. If you hadn’t been there with me at the temple, and if Honeypot hadn’t saved me from that torture, I don’t know if I would have ever left town again.”
“Sure you would have. I’m glad we were there to help, and I’m more than glad that you are here with us now, but you’re strong. You would have joined another team and found your way, eventually.”
“I don’t think I would have, Orion.” Arika’s eyes locked on the fire as she did her best to hold back the tears trying to spill out. “I try not to think on it, but the people I hurt at Felsteg’s behest… did I cause those people to lose hope? Are they now sitting back in town, unable or unwilling to find another team and grow stronger? If you hadn’t been there, I think I would have given up. There’s lots of people that have, you know? I met them after I spawned in the first time. Like you, I was later than most of the adventurers arriving here, and I met a group of people on the way to the square. They offered to show me where I can stay and get food. Adventurers can get housing and basic necessities in exchange for helping the townsfolk…”
She paused to wipe her eyes with shaky hands.
“The Creator wasn’t lying when he said you can choose to live a peaceful life, and more people than you would think have taken him up on that offer. I may have been one of those people if not for you and Honeypot. Never tell him I said that, though.” She let out a laugh that broke through her tears. “That’s what hurts the most about what I did to all those people. Do they see me as I see Felsteg? Am I the reason they might have given up?”
Her lower lip trembled.
“How can I hope to make that up to them? The thing that I hate the most, though, the thing that really bothers me is how Felsteg controlled me. He used me, took advantage of me, and was going to torture me for fun when I was no longer of use. The idea of being out-of-control fills me with so much fury, but what kind of monster cares more about that than people she has hurt and killed? Why do I care more about myself than others? What’s wrong with me?” Her last few words came out shakily. Tears rolled from her eyes, and her body shook in small convulsions.
He put his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. She leaned closer and rested her head on him, causing a wave of warmth to rush through his body. The smell of her hair was intoxicating, a sweet smell combined with something he couldn’t quite place.
How does she even smell so good after a dungeon dive and a night camping in the forest?
His thoughts were whisked away as part of her arm rested up against his—such an innocuous touch, but along with her scent and the comforting weight of her head on his shoulder, it drew every ounce of his focus. He sat still, worried that if he moved even an inch, she might fly away—like the birds flitting through the trees above.
With an invasive thought, he became aware that he might be using her in just the same manner Felsteg had.
Is it right to feel this way, to enjoy her touch while she’s in such a vulnerable state?
He turned and looked at her, his movement causing their bodies to break contact.
“I know I’ve said it before, and it might not help, but it isn’t your fault, Arika. If you weren’t there, do you think that would have stopped Felsteg from killing them? If anything, you gave them a merciful end. I’d rather be killed instantly by your Explosion than a slow death to his blade. There’s also nothing wrong with feeling angry and hurt at what he did to you. Any betrayal of trust makes me feel sick, and I only experienced a fraction of what you did.”
He wasn’t sure if it was because of his words, or if voicing her concerns had eased some of the guilt and self disdain, but Arika’s sobs slowed.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know it’s not entirely my fault, but I can’t help but feel at least a little responsible…”
“Why don’t we try looking for them? If some of them have ‘given up’, as you say, we should be able to find them in town. I’ll help you track them down.”
“No.” Arika shook her head. “I’m not ready for that yet, but thank you. It’s sweet of you to offer, and I might take you up on it one day.”
They sat there in comfortable silence for a long time afterwards, Arika lost in thoughts of recrimination, and Orion lost in thoughts of her.
They both watched the embers of the fire slowly consume the sticks and branches placed atop them.