I woke up with Aki lying next to me. She had one of her arms wrapped around me and I could feel her breath tingle me on the cheek. I turned my head towards her and saw her looking back at me.

‘Hello, sleepyhead,’ she said, and slightly puckered her lips.

I kissed her.

‘Hello,’ I responded, after we parted from each other.

Despite being glad for me to wake up with her next to me, me. I couldn't help but wonder whether this was how she spent her watch. We’ve done the same three hour shift division we did last night below Y-Ram - Caei first, Me second and Aki last.

Nothing ate my head, so the point is academic anyhow.

I did tell them about the Great Game the previous night, and both my companions seemed worried, but ultimately we agreed that there was nothing we could do about it for now. We would deal with the dangers as they came. Aki was happy though I would be seeing Naevud with her though. Caeileera volunteered to come with us too, so it seemed we were all #teamSunthatBurnsNoMore.

What I didn't tell them, however, was that I got a quest update for the Great Game quest before going to sleep last night. I checked it again.

Warning: ??? has sworn vengeance on you and your party

Notice: Unmet Power (b) has taken interest in you

This confirmed the serial killer priest was one of the servants of the statue lady. That did not bode well.

This Unmet power (b)... What is it?

I pulled up the quest description.

Quest: The Great Game

Type: Personal (Epic)

Difficulty: Deadly

Description: Despite your short time on Dwynveia, you have managed to get the attention of the Powers that Be. Some of them view you as an ally, while the others see you as a hindrance to be removed. That means your days as a free agent are limited. As the Old Gods of Dwynveia lack sufficient resources, sooner or later (preferably the former) you will need to align yourself with one of the other powers to get you and your friend some level of protection.

Objectives:

Acquire patronage of one of the Powers

(Optional) Complete the “Daughter of the Abyss” questline

Rewards:

20000 experience points

Access to faction quests

Penalties for failure

(Likely) Death

Notice: This quest cannot be cancelled or declined

Tracker:

Powers currently favourable to you:

The Old Gods of Dwynveia

The Sun that Burns No More

Unmet Power (a)

Unmet Power (b)

Powers hostile to you:

The Blood that Devours

???

Unmet Power

Powers neutral/unmet: 4

Yup. There were now two Unmet Power on my side. What was really scaring the living shit out of me, though, was that apparently an extra power seemed to have joined the game. Previously there were ten of them. Now there were eleven.

Yeah. There is no reason for the girls to know about that but. Maybe the extra power will end up friendly.

‘You okay?’ I heard Aki ask, bringing me back to reality.

Good going, Lilyth. You are cuddling with a girl and all you can think of are Eldritch Abominations.

‘Sorry,’ I said, desperately looking for an excuse.

I had none, so I just kissed Aki again, rolled over towards her and reciprocated her hug. That seemed to have placated the girl.

The sound of Caeileera clearing her throat interrupted us.

‘I don’t want to impose, “lovebirds”, but we are still right next to a dungeon. she said wryly.

That was a good point. We took “a bit” of a risk by staying in the ruins, but they did offer us enough cover and who would suspect we didn't go far? Maybe this Ross guy was her only servant.

So to Aki’s displeasure I started to get up. We ate a breakfast of ration bars, we were running low on those so getting supplies was high on the priority list, and washed them down with what water we had left, which was “my” neverending canteen. Back in the dungeon, I bestowed it unto Aki as I didn't necessarily have to worry about any microorganisms, and likely some of the toxins, possibly present in the water we could find underground. Being made of jelly had its upsides. Caeileera also had no issues with the local water, but I had no idea whether it was because there was nothing wrong with it or whether her being a magical being spawned by an Eldritch Abomination meant she didn't have a compatible biology to be affected. Assuming the concept even applied to her. She could also literally be “magic”. Come to think of it… Was I even a biological entity anymore? Wasn't I just a liquid shadow jelly with a human soul grafted onto it? The more I thought about it, the more I realised Caeileera and I weren't that different, at least in principle.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I miss living in a sane world.

After our “breakfast”, we started planning our next move.

‘How far away are we from Ror-Bhyk?’ I asked.

‘Isn’t it marked on your map?’

It never occured to me to check it. Hell, I even forgot the interface had a mapping module. I brought up the list of options.

The following options are available. You can access them by thinking or saying their name:

* Basic Details

* Attributes

* Skills

* Abilities

* Traits

* Statuses

* Map

* Notifications

* Quest Journal

* Utilities

Oh, right. There it is. Along that utilities screen I never checked.

So before I forgot again I did the latter. I would have hated myself if there was anything useful there.

Available utilities

* Clock

* Alarm

* Notepad

* Access External Network (No connections)

Access external network? What?

A tooltip appeared:

Allows the user to connect to a previously linked magical network (ie. Ward Posts, Magical Defences) and command it.

Current Number of Linked Networks: 0

Huh.

I opened the notepad and added a note there to look into that further. I was happy about the functionality as it would let me use my actual notebook for important things. Like drawing. Or researching runes on my sword. Or trying to figure the ones from the wall. Damn… I was actually looking forward to doing something that wasn't “Just surviving”.

Still… those “fun” activities were low on the list of priorities which looked like this:

1. One - Get Water

2. Two - Get Supplies

3. Three - Get to Ror-Bhyk

4. Four - Find Paying Work

5. Five - Find Naevud

Oh right. There was also the unsaid point Zero - Stay Alive.

Still… First thing first, I checked the map. What appeared before my eyes was a satellite-grade image of the hollow we were in.

What. The. Fuck.

I could only zoom it in to an extent, but holy fuck. Were there actual satellites in the sky? I would need to pay more attention to the night sky.

I zoomed out and there it was - a pin labelled Ror-Bhyk in the middle of nothing to the west of us. I gauged the distance to be maybe thirty kilometres based on the little map scale thing in the corner of my vision.

So paper maps are still useful, given how this tells me fuck-all as to how to get there…

‘Can you share maps?’ I asked.

‘Can’t see why not…’ Caei said. ‘Can you try Aki?’

She didn't know how, so we walked her through the quest sharing process and tried to apply it to the map instead. It worked and a new area appeared on the map to the south-east of us. It was a small village called Dan-Hem, its immediate surroundings and a route west, which then sharply veered off towards the mountains surrounding the hollow.

Where the goblins caught her.

Still I did find what I was looking for. There was a river by Aki’s village and it shouldn’t be that far to the south of us, probably across the forest or in the middle of it. We could likely then follow it west to the next village, assuming there was one, where we could get supplies.

‘Are there any villages between here and Ror-Bhyk?’

Aki’s brow furrowed as she thought and did some mental calculations.

‘Traders mentioned a place called Zel-vyme, but I’ve never been there, so I have no idea where that is.’

What was the place Ereshkigal told me to go? Lin-vyme? Is “-Vyme” kind of like “-Burg” or “-Stadt” on Earth? Maybe this was some sort of a translator weirdness where it didn't translate proper names?

I just realised I was in a wet dream of someone who finished social studies. A whole new world to examine, languages to learn, cultures to explore…

If only there weren't face-eating monsters that eat faces around…

I outlined my general travel plan to my companions, they agreed that it was as sound as it could be and we packed up and set off.

When we left the cover of the ruin and the mountains I found myself in the direct sunlight for the first time since I got here. You see, the day was fairly warm so I eschewed my coat, hoodies and armour and just walked around in my sleeveless tunic and pants. They repaired themselves enough that they only looked mildly tattered and most of the dirt covering them was gone. Soulbound items were very useful. So when the beam of light touched my exposed arm I experienced absolute agony I haven't felt since the Löwe’s fireball hit me in the chest. I screamed and holding my arm I instinctively backed into the shadows, where after I fell on my backside and just started to wait for the pain to stop. Caei and Aki were immediately by my side asking me what was wrong.

‘My… arm… it… feels… like… on… fire…’ I half groaned and half cried.

Caei quickly examined it.

‘It definitely looks red, but there is no other visible damage,’ she said.

Still, she cast some spell and with a flash of green light the pain immediately stopped.

‘Soothe Pain,’ she explained.

‘What the fuck happened?’ I asked, badly shaken.

‘Honestly… I have no idea.’ Caeileera began and exchanged worried looks with Aki.’If I were to make a guess, however, it is tied to you being made of literal shadow.’

‘You mean, this will always happen when Lil is out in the sun?’ Aki asked.

‘This is completely out of my field of expertise,’ Caei shrugged, earning a reproachful look from my girlfriend. ‘There is no sun in the Pale Badlands, nor do we have shadow creatures.’

Wait… no sun?

‘One way to find out I guess…’ I sighed.

I got up and with major trepidation extended my arm into the sun again. This time it still hurt, but not as badly.

Interesting.

I retracted my arm and extended the other one. I hissed when I agony started again, but as I was prepared for it I simply backed away and Caei wordlessly cast Soothe Pain again.

‘Apparently, my body will need to adjust to direct sunlight. Hopefully, it is a one-off process.’

Might as well get it over with.

I undressed, earning worried looks from my companions.

‘By the Blood,’ Caei swore. ‘Not that I mind, but what the hell are you doing?’

‘Something I will likely regret,’ I muttered and stepped into the sunlight.

I was right… that wasn’t the smartest thing to do.