Third Floor, The Tower.

As the first rays of morning landed on the tent, one of the two men sitting around the embers of a campfire got to their feet. Watching his companion lost in the book he sighed looking around the empty grasslands. But, before he could think further a red screen appeared in front of him.

[You have rested for 8 hours in Circle of Protection, The Time limit per floor is 8 Hours.]

[The Circle of Protection will no longer protect you.]

“This is bad,” Byung-Ho muttered.

Not only did his team get separated, but now they couldn’t use the Circle of Protection that kept monsters at bay to camp out. The golden glow that emanated from the Angel statue dimmed before vanishing as if to drive in the point further. He had no way of contacting the other teammates or knowing where they’d be. The initial plan was to stay put and hope they’d find them in time. Yet, morning had arrived and he couldn’t see signs of them in the vast grassland.

“We need to move Ethan Hyung.” Byung-Ho turned to the guy flipping through the book.

Ethan, without a word, stood up and looked ready to move.

“You aren’t going to ask me where we’ll go or why?” Byung-Ho didn’t have confidence himself, but things worked differently for Ethan.

“It is Pointless after all.” He said.

A wry smile appeared on Byung-Ho’s lips, unlike him, Ethan didn’t have any worries. Not for the fact that they got stranded, and the statute won't protect them anymore. From the start, nothing bothered this man, while the situation had him biting his nails.

‘Still, we have to move. Hyung said that if the team is small staying in open areas is dangerous.’ Byung-ho hadn’t moved last night because of the statue and the darkness, but now they had to move.

In an open space like these grasslands they can spot the beasts, but those beasts could also spot them from afar. If surrounded they’d be in danger because they had no one who could attack. So, he wanted to enter the nearby forest where more options to run away or hide would be open. They could even lose the monsters if they played their cards right.

‘I’ve seen Hyung do it, so if I try to follow, it should increase our chances.’ Byung-Ho himself didn’t want to leave. The chances something unforeseen happened were high.

With Do-Yun and Eun-Young, they would definitely look for them. The main crux of this plan would be the Angel Statues, as transport points they could only appear near them even if they got split. If both parties start to wander the chances of missing each other would increase exponentially. Not to mention the threat of Beasts they could encounter along the way.

But, there was one thing that gave Byung-Ho a little courage to follow through with this plan. That was the Floor Clear objective.

[Third Floor Clear Objective: Wipe out the remaining Fire Seed Goblin Tribe and Wind Stepping Goblin Tribe.]

“Hyung did say that Goblins and Orcs do not leave their areas, Since they are tribes they shouldn’t leave the area they settled down in… so if we avoid their settlements it should be fine… yeah that’s good.” Ethan heard Byung-Ho speaking to himself and took out a book from his inventory.

“The names of those two tribes were in this book, there is also a map marking their locations. The angel statues are also marked in here.” They found this book in the orc cavern on the first floor and it mentioned the tribes along with the surrounding habitats.

As he expected, Byung-Ho's face brightened up more when he explained the map to him. With the White Top mountains in the north, the Fire Seed tribe took residence in the forest of the west, and the Wind Stepping tribe lived in the grasslands of the east. Their position was on the edge of the grasslands and the forest.

With the name alone Byung-ho didn’t want to face the Wind Stepping tribe in the open grasslands. They’d catch up much faster to them, so the idea of entering the forest started to sound much better. Yet, at some point, they’d have to go to the Grasslands.

Byung-ho took a deep breath to compose himself, he had a map and the location of the tribes and the angel statues. He had learned a little about mapping and finding paths from Do-Yun, if he stayed focused, things wouldn’t go wrong.

‘I hope we can find Hyung and Miss Kim in the forest.’ With that in mind, the two entered the forest.

***

‘It is driving me nuts.’ Eun-Young clenched her fist watching Do-Yun eat. She wanted some of the meat he grilled too. Yet, she had to continue doing push-ups with a boulder on her back.

She started in the morning and looked forward to what ways he had to teach her. But, aside from normal body training with extra steps, he didn’t give her anything.

‘Setting up impossible tasks like doing a Million pushups or two hundred thousand burpees in 20 minutes and whatnot, he is not even letting me eat if I fail.’ If she tried to argue he’d pull the agreement card out. So, gritting her teeth, she followed through.

It didn’t do much in the morning, but by afternoon she felt hungry, and by night the frown had glued itself to her forehead. But, he went about the day without a show of care and entered the tent to sleep. Today too, she had to stand guard for the entire night because she failed to do her training.

The second day went similar to the first one, constant body training without food. This time he had strapped the boulder to her back and they walked around the forest instead. She didn’t know where they were headed, but following along became a bigger issue as the ropes snapped a few times.

‘To think he made me carry it on top of my head for the rest of the journey.’ Eun-Young sighed, the size of the boulder increased from yesterday, and moving around a forest with that on her head became a task that challenged her core further.

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‘It did help with stability and balance, but there isn’t much improvement.’ She poked the fire on an empty stomach again. Food waited in her inventory, but he still refused to let her eat because she almost dropped the boulder once.

“He must have a plan... surely.” Ignoring the protests of her stomach Eun-Young took a short walk around the perimeter to shake off the scent of meat he grilled before when she heard the bushes rustling.

Her eyes turned to the source. She saw a small blue mouse with long whiskers. Frightened by her eerie red gaze it ran away. Looking at the small creature scurry away she stared at the area around that place. But even after a few minutes nothing but the dark silence stared back at her.

“Is my hunger making me see things again?” Eun-Young sighed continuing her patrol before returning to the fire in the middle.

Soon morning arrived, she got ready to wash her face after some routine stretches and headed for the nearby stream. But, Do-Yun exited the tent a step before.

“Go and find a bigger boulder.” Was what he said munching on his morning meal in front of her. Seeing her dissatisfaction he smiled.

“What you don’t want to listen? You can totes give up.”

“I’ll go.” Tired she left without any complaints.

Her current boulder was as wide as a car, it took her some time to dig it out of the ground. Now he wanted her to find a bigger one?

‘What do I need a truck-sized one or something?’ This became a tedious task in itself, but she rolled her sleeves and got to it.

After what seemed like 2 hours, she finally found a boulder that matched the condition. The condition that it should be bigger than the previous one was met. Overall it wasn’t an enormous upgrade by any means. Even if she looked around for a few more hours finding one bigger than this would be a challenge in this forest.

Returning to the camp she didn’t find Do-Yun there. She set the boulder aside and looked at her clothes, so much dirt and mud had caked up on the armor that it had formed another layer of defense on top. Even her nails weren’t spared and got stuffed with dirt.

‘I’ll wash up by the stream till that guy is away.’ Do-Yun going missing had become common in the past two days.

Although he didn’t do it too frequently, it had happened five times by now. Each time she waited by the camp because trying to search for him could end up with her getting lost.

Walking towards the stream, Eun-Young started to feel an itch all over her sweaty body. Her brow furrowed as it felt unusual even for her. Coming to the Tower was a big opportunity. Not only can she increase her power, but the path to obtaining what she wanted also opened up. But, it all came with serious drawbacks.

“I have never missed a bucket of water so much in my life.” She sighed reaching the stream.

Since entering the Tower she hadn’t washed her body even once. She had to limit it to washing her face to save drinking water. With a stream, none of that would be an issue. However, some issues arose when she reached the small river.

“…” Her eyes widened staring at Do-Yun standing in the middle of the stream.

The sunlight reflected from the water drops running across his bare skin as he turned to see her. And then……

“Kyaa! A Pervert!!!” He screeched without any attempt to cover himself up.

“That’s my line ya bastard!!!” She chucked rocks at him as he ran to take cover.

It took a while for things to calm down. Eun-Young rushed away as Do-Yun finished his business and came back to the camp to find her. With a face red because of anger and some other things, she glared at him with murderous intent.

“Haha, it has been a while since someone walked in when I took a bath.” His chuckle pissed her off further.

“Stop making it sound like it is normal ya freak! Who the hell strips naked in the middle of a jungle full of beasts?”

“Me.” Do-Yun raised his hand. He used to do this often. He was alone, so it never became too much of an issue.

“That’s nothin’ to be proud about! I’ll have ya arrested for public indecency.” Eun-Young huffed, never in her life did she think that she’d see a male genitalia like this.

“The outside rules don’t apply in the Tower. Anyway, go and wash yourself we’ll leave after that.” Do-Yun sat down unbothered by her outburst.

Right now, Eun-Young has two choices. Either continue the topic and get angry one-sidedly to ruin her mental state, or carry on with the day. She chose the second one better because Do-Yun didn’t take the situation with much importance. In the grand scheme of things, it had no importance. It was but an accident as neither of them did it with intention.

“If you come near I’ll kill you.” She said before leaving only for him to laugh it off.

In the end, she spent the entire time looking around and didn’t even take her clothes off. Wet from head to toe, she returned to the camp and entered the tent to change her inner clothes. The leather armour didn’t take much time to dry and within 20 minutes they could move from this place.

After packing things up the two moved in the direction of the rising Sun. Eun-Young kept pace with Do-Yun's nimble movements through the forest. He had picked up pace in the middle again, but getting used to the extra baggage she followed without any problems. Along the way they didn’t come across any foes and the journey was smooth for the most part, that was until they exited the forest some time before evening.

“Can I have some food at least?” Eun-Young asked. Her stomach had twisted backward in protest, and she could feel herself weaken a little. With no energy to burn her body started to feel heavy, however, he shook his head.

She clicked her tongue watching his smile, even if he hadn’t spoken she could guess his next words. That was why she continued.

“I kind of understand the boulder and body training now, you want me to get used to the feeling of always suppressing my strength and be able to shrug it off at a moment’s notice, right? I am getting used to it thanks to you changing your pace along the way.” Eun-Young sat down staring him dead in the eye, “But I don’t understand what starving’s gotta do with that. What’s the purpose of that?”

Because of the agreement, Eun-Young followed his orders no matter how absurd they seemed. Now that she understood some of it, she could feel that the rest would also have some sort of aim. Every time she doubted his methods, they worked in the end. So, this time shouldn’t be different. And if understanding it could help her get better results, she wanted to know more about his vision.

“Purpose…?” Do-Yun tilted his head. But flinched immediately.

“Ah… yes, purpose… there is a purpose. Like a really big purpose. Really big!” He tried to laugh it off, but he soon jumped back.

A crackling fist landed on the spot and the ground caved in splitting into large cracks that spread for meters. With a thundering boom dirt and stones flew across, the wild wind current that rose in the place to destroy the silent evening. In the middle stood Eun-Young, with a deathly blank face she turned to Do-Yun who landed 20 meters away unscathed.

“I’ll kill you… right now…” With a voice devoid of any feeling, her blazing red eyes locked onto him.

Do-Yun chuckled feeling the tingle on his back. It was something he felt every time he died, the touch of death.

“Aiiya… I am in danger.”

-:Moments Lost Between Pages:-

Byung-Ho: Did the ground just tremble?

[Looks around vigilantly]

Byung-Ho: (But Ethan Hyung didn’t react. Did it really happen?)

Byung-Ho: (No, I shouldn’t let my guard down like that! Focus Byung-Ho!)

[Looks around with more vigilance as the ground shook continuously.]

Ethan: …He is sweating.

[In the end, Byung-Ho couldn’t sleep at all.]