Still laying on the ground, Dave sighed, looked up at the sky and noticed he was probably a little late already. With a slight groan he got up to his feet.

The groan was more out of habit, than out of necessity. Before this whole apocalypse thing had given him super powers, he was spending way too much time sitting, so his body was always stiff. Together with his slightly unhealthy lifestyle, he sometimes felt like he was living in the body of a fifty year old.

That had changed completely though. With all the enhancements Mana made to his body and the countless hours Dave had spent training, his body was fitter than ever. Dave was in better shape than he had ever dreamed about.

On his way to his destination, Dave stopped by the freshly built log cabin. He walked through one of the two wooden doors and stepped into the room one would least expect in a log cabin in the middle of nowhere.

A fully functioning bathhouse. Dave wasn’t sure how much it had cost, and he definitely didn’t want to know, otherwise he would fret over all the extra days they needed to survive here to make the money back while taking a bath. And this was one of the few times a day when he could fully relax, so he didn’t want to ruin it.

He lowered himself into the welcoming hot water, but since he was in kind of a rush, he just quickly scrubbed off the roughest of dirt and blood from the day. Somehow it seemed like his stains wouldn’t end, but the water stayed clear as always.

“Of course the water itself is also magical.” Dave mused with a smile.

After getting out he felt like a newborn, fresh and free of his burdens, if only momentarily. His thoughts seemed clearer, the voice in his mind telling him he was wasting training time quieter, and he was actually content with himself.

The surprisingly soothing effect of the bath house alone was worth the money Max had spent. They had all been so on edge that it was a god bless. Everyone of them was weighed down by the dark sides of their lives recently, but since the bathhouse, moods were a little higher in general. Without the bathhouse they would’ve gone crazy one day, Dave could see that now.

Of course there was also the added effect of hygiene. Before their cleaning was done sporadically with some of the water from the pump Max had bought from the convenience store in the beginning.

Dave hadn’t even noticed it anymore, but now, seeing, and more importantly smelling, the difference, it seemed like night and day.

As he walked out of the water, he was stopped as he walked by the mirror. Body transformation seemed to almost underplay it. In his old life, Dave and mirrors were never on the best of terms, but now he could only marvel at the way he looked.

There wasn’t an ounce of fat on his body, his stomach was smooth and showed signs of a sixpack. He wasn’t overly muscular or bulky, but powerful muscles stretched and tensed under his athletic frame. He was like a coil ready to spring.

Just as he was walking out, Sam entered the men’s room of the bathhouse.

“Ahh Dave, I think she’s waiting already.” He winked.

Thanks to his generally raised body temperature after the bath, Dave didn’t blush immediately. But before he could muster enough brainpower to counter, Sam had already walked past him.

He tried to ignore Sam’s teasing, but nevertheless found himself walking a little faster. So Dave continued on his way, by now the moon was out. It was a bright green one this night, and it gave everything an eerily precious light. He made his way along the trodden paths, towards where he had seen and worked on the fallen tree a few days ago.

Mira already sat there, waiting for him. At the sound of him approaching, she turned and gave him a warm smile.

“You let me wait.” There was no reproach in her voice though. Her eyes sparkled joyfully.

Silently Dave thanked whatever god made the moon tonight such a bright one. “Well here I am.” He said.

“It’s a beautiful moon tonight isn’t it?” Mira gestured to a spot on the fallen tree next to her for him to sit.

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Dave went over gladly. “Way better than the last one.”

“Yeah that was the worst one I think. I hated the color.” Her accent made every h sound different, intriguing somehow.

“True, the brown was ugly.” Dave nodded. “But what about the moon that was so small? I ran into too many trees that nights.”

Mira chuckled. “Oh I forgot that one. Yes, that was probably the worst, way too dark.”

They had been meeting in the evenings for a few days now. Dave had gone to visit her in Sam’s makeshift infirmary after she was hit on the head by the snake thing. She was there on ordered bedrest for two days, both evenings Dave had been there to help her pass the time. Without really talking about it, they had just kept continuing their routine.

They sat together and continued talking comfortably for a while. About all matter of things, but none of them serious.

Later as the moon came out even more, they decided to take a little stroll. The whole forest looked like a fairytale, it was green and bright.

On their walk they passed Max. With a smirk on their faces, both of them exchanged nods.

After he was a good few meters past Dave and Mira, Max allowed his smile to break out fully. He wasn’t sure what exactly went on between those two, but he was more than happy about it.

Especially after all the ugly things that happened today. He was glad Dave had found some light right now, he knew how much of a burden his friends carried. Somehow he even marvelled at how well he was keeping it all together. Being a cold killing machine and able to function in a relationship at the same time.

Maybe he was even a bit jealous. Max shook his head to clear these thoughts, and refocused on his task at hand.

Managing their finances. He sighed, but he knew it was important. They had bought a second mine by now, one more effective than their previous one. Even though they were broke only a few weeks ago, after the big Nodefox attack on their camp, Max had gotten a lot of Mana Shards by leveling up his Skill and completing his quest.

The quest he had completed was about getting devoted followers.

*Leader, Domain: Get 6 devoted followers. 6/6*

It had sounded pretty ominous and weird in the beginning, and to be honest, Max still felt as if something wasn’t right with the quest. He wasn’t sure what changed, or how he had gotten the last devoted follower he was missing. Maybe one of his friends had changed their mindset after their recent Nodefox attack? Could it have been Bixby, who hadn’t been counted as a true part of their alliance due to his Nodefox nature at first?

There were just so many questions and things Max didn’t understand. Come to think of it, he had never really asked Bixby what his talk with the Nodefox, Sukanst, during the attack was about. Max knew a little about Bixby’s backstory and the overtaking of his clan back in his homeworld. He knew it was a touchy subject for Bixby, understandably so, that’s why he had held off on asking Bixby about his connection to the attacking Nodefox. Maybe it was time for that now though, Max needed to understand quests better.

The quest had been weird, but it had given him almost fifty Mana Shard for completion, so he wasn’t going to complain. Still Max felt anxious, because he knew they needed more Mana Shards, as fast as possible. That’s why he spent so much time comparing different methods of investing his Mana Shards for the biggest potential gain.

Should he buy another mine? If so, which one? Or should he hold off on his Mana Shards to have liquidity should another problem arise? There were just so many variables to consider.

After another hour of this, Max sighed and closed the Node Menu as he reached the familiar glow of their campfire. Ready for some social interactions to distract himself. To his surprise Ryland was the only one there, sitting on the tree stump he had carried over for himself, enjoying a bowl of stew.

Ryland nodded and smiled at him in greeting.

“Where’s the rest?” Max asked as he sat down opposite of him.

Ryland shrugged between spoonfuls of stew. “Sam’s in the bathhouse I think, Dave and Mira have their little private time.” He took another spoon to his mouth. “The other two I don’t know.”

“Everybody’s so secretive eh?” He chuckled. “What’s for dinner man?”

“Oh nothing special.” He said but the glimmer in his eyes told a different story. “Mira has grown some weird sort of carrots that I wanted to try out, they taste a bit like curry.” He spooned another mouthful of stew out of his bowl. “And it goes really well with the orange onions we had yesterday.”

Max filled a bowl for himself. “It smells delicious.” He blew a bit on the spoon to cool it down and put it in his mouth.

“Woah.” Was all Max could manage at first.

“I know right?” Ryland grinned.

Greedily shoveling another spoonful into his mouth, Max exclaimed. “That’s amazing! Ryland you’ve outdone yourself again.”

His friend blushed a little, but it was true. Ryland had shown a surprising knack for cooking, something that none of them would’ve expected from their brutish companion. The food he made was delicious, the flavors were surprisingly well balanced considering the little amount of choice Ryland had for ingredients. His cooking was a masterful symphony.

“That’s straight up restaurant quality Ryland.” Max praised again. “Where have you learned to cook like that?”

Ryland looked down into his bowl, trying to hide his joy at the compliment. “Well I watched my grandma cook a lot as a boy, she always let me help her in the kitchen.” He smiled fondly. “Keep eating or it will get cold.” He added with an obviously faked stern expression.

“Aye aye!” Max said. He didn’t need to be told that twice, and so he dug in.