Andrew was ripped out of his sleep by a horrible scream. He jumped to his feet and looked around in panic. After some time, he realized that he himself had screamed in his sleep.

With an exhausted groan, he let himself sink into his bed of leaves again. He had been haunted by bizarre nightmares since he got his soul injury. It seemed like his skills didn’t properly work while he was sleeping.

But what really disconcerted him was that he still hadn’t gotten the system prompt about getting a class. Tobias and himself had talked a lot about this phenomenon and came to the conclusion that the system somehow had to be deeply connected to the soul.

The only difference between him and the other people was his soul injury. They couldn’t be sure if this was really the cause of it, but it seemed very likely.

Andrew just hoped that this wasn’t something permanent. At least it felt like his soul injury got better every day, especially since Melissa figured out a way to speed up the process.

She didn’t have a lot of time for him, though, as she was helping the traumatized people Sarah had brought over from the other camp.

With a sigh, Andrew went outside his cave to get some fresh air. He had started to sleep alone in a cave since he had started screaming. He didn’t want to worry the people even more.

Contrary to his expectations, the people didn’t lose trust in him because of his weakness. They got closer to him. He always felt some kind of distance between him and most of them, but this had disappeared by now.

"I guess I wore a mask for too long." Andrew mumbled while stepping into the open. It was pretty chilly during the night by now, and he actually felt cold.

The first thing he saw in the dim light of the slowly rising sun was a naked Alex, who was stumbling around with a confused look on his face.

"What the…?" Andrew mumbled and quickly walked over to him.

"What’s going on, Alex? Where are your clothes?" He asked the bulky man and tried not to look at his private parts.

He was pretty dirty and had some blood on him, but Andrew couldn’t see any wounds, apart from a nearly healed bite mark on his shoulder.

"Oh boy." Andrew sighed with an exasperated voice, while Alex slowly noticed that someone was talking to him.

"Sarah attacked me!" He shouted as soon as he regained his bearings. "I told you, she is dangerous!"

Listen, Alex." Andrew started talking while already feeling exhausted from the coming conversation. "It certainly is not okay that she attacked you."

"Not ok? She is insane, I tell you…"

"STOP!" Andrew shouted, with some anger welling up inside of him. Luckily, his skills had improved by now, and the anger had subsided somewhat.

Alex looked at him with a shocked expression, as if Andrew had hit him physically.

"You have been bothering her since we got here. For the creator's sake, Alex, even I wanted to punch you for what you said to her. Just what is going on with you? Why are you becoming more and more hostile?"

Alex was speechless for a few moments, just looking at Andrew with wide, open eyes. Then his face was again crunched up from anger, and he started shouting again. "I told you since the beginning that she is dangerous! She has attacked me twice by now. And she is not even human." He made a disgusted face and shuddered, as if he had eaten something disgusting.

Andrew couldn’t help but look at Alex with a hint of disdain in his eyes. "Alex. Look at yourself. Can you be considered fully human anymore?"

"This is different!" He immediately shouted and nearly poked one of Andrew's eyes out with the finger he held in front of his face. "The great system tells me that I am human. And she isn’t. But I see what is going on."

Alex’ face was distorted by a ridiculing smile. "You like them malformed, don’t you?"

Andrew felt almost sick from this maliciousness. He felt emotions well up inside him again. But this time, he used them.

He didn’t exactly know how he did it, but he pulled out the suppressed fear inside of him and somehow pushed it towards Alex.

One moment the man was smiling with narrowed eyes; the next, his legs started shaking like crazy.

The moment only lasted for a few seconds, but it was enough.

"You went too far, Andrew." Alex told him with a dangerously quiet voice.

"You too." Andrew responded to him but wanted to appease him nonetheless. "We both made mistakes. Sarah also made mistakes. How about we talk about it and try to put it behind us? There is no point in driving a wedge in our cooperation."

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Alex just looked at him for a few moments and spat on the ground. "You wish. I will show people who you really are. You and your deranged little mistress. Just you wait."

With these words, Alex walked away. He was still naked, but probably too furious to notice.

Andrew sighed deeply and looked at the sky. "What have I gotten myself into?" he mumbled into the empty morning sky. But the more concerning question was: What was going on with Alex? He had known him since the beginning, and he had always been nothing but supportive.

After Karen disappeared, he started to change. He was angry all the time. But he really started to act like a lunatic a short while ago.

"Wait a moment…" Andrew mumbled, a shocked expression now on his face.

Alex started acting like this after the refugees arrived. And Sarah had warned about someone. Denise, to be specific. Sarah told him about her assumption that Denise had similar powers as he did.

But Andrew shook his head. He had talked to her, and she seemed normal. She had seamlessly melded into their group and did her job as part of the community. Everyone liked her.

Wait, did everyone like her? Why did he think that? He barely knew her.

Andrew felt a headache coming up and staggered for a moment as dizziness overcame him for a moment.

"Well, it doesn’t matter." He mumbled and started walking in the direction of Sarah’s cave while trying to banish these distracting thoughts from his head. He had more important matters to deal with.

He rubbed his still aching head and mentally prepared himself for the second confrontation this morning. "And all of this without breakfast. I must be cursed."

After some short walking, he arrived in front of the cave, which was located pretty high above ground.

He shouted for some time, but no one answered. With an annoyed sigh, he decided to throw rocks at the opening. This situation had to be addressed immediately. Especially before Sarah could make everything worse by letting herself be provoked again.

He lifted up a stone and wondered for a moment if he would even be able to throw it that high. He shrugged his shoulders, took aim, and let the rock fly.

He wissled as he saw that the rock flew towards the cave in a straight line without slowing down all that much. Level ten strength really changed something.

Right at the moment when the stone reached the cave, Sarah’s head suddenly popped out. And the stone hit her forehead with an audible thud.

"Ahhh, you idiot! Why do you need to make me jealous?!" She screamed in anger, and Andrew closed his eyes in horror. This would get even worse now.

Sarah rubbed her head and bared her sharp teeth at him. "I hope this is something important, fish-face."

"It is. So please come down so we can talk. And sorry about the stone." Andrew shouted to her and held his hands up in apology, pointedly ignoring the stuff she said about making her jealous. She said such strange things so often that he got used to ignoring them.

Sarah rolled her eyes and started climbing down. It was weirdly fascinating to watch her do that. Andrew had never really experienced her physical prowess until now.

She more or less ran down the steep cliff with feline grace. Numerous times, it looked like she would fall down at any moment, only for her to grab onto the wall in the last possible moment.

When she arrived in front of him, he shook himself out of his daze. He didn’t want her to tease him because he stared at her.

Sarah stood in front of him with crossed arms and looked at him with raised eyebrows. In the dim light of the beginning day, her eyes glowed a mysterious yellow. Her dark, wavy hair had grown somewhat and reached her chin by now. This could have been a fascinating sight if there hadn’t been the swollen bump on her forehead.

Andrew stifled a laugh and tried to be serious. Sarah looked at him with narrowed eyes, but luckily she didn’t catch on.

As soon as Andrew realized what he had to discuss with her, every amusement disappeared.

"Did you attack Alex?" he asked her directly. He had to know if it was true first.

Sarah’s imposing demeanor disappeared like a lie, and she smiled at him apologetically. "Maybe…?"

"Oh Sarah. We talked about this. You can’t just attack and hurt people." Andrew groaned and rested his face in his right hand.

"I know, I am sorry."

Andrew was so surprised by her saying that that he looked at her with wide eyes.

"Don’t look like that, you idiot. I know it’s not okay to do something like that to our tribe. But let’s face the facts: Alex is a major asshole." Sarah spoke in a surprisingly calm voice. "He threatened me. Provoked me. Insulted me. The. Whole. Time."

Andrew nodded in agreement. "I know. And he had it coming. Heck, even I got angry at his remarks. But still." He looked at her with serious eyes. "Not everyone knows this. A lot of people like him because he has protected us and hunted for food since the start. He wanted to convince people from the beginning that you were dangerous. And now he can even claim you attacked him again."

Sarah made a sour face and threw her hands in the air in frustration. "I know Andrew. But let’s look at the positive part: I didn’t kill him, right? And I even brought him back!"

Andrew wanted to refute, but quickly realized that Sarah was right. He was honestly surprised when Alex told him about Sarah attacking him and him coming out alive and barely harmed. "Listen, I understand you. But we have to act smart now. I also lashed out at him when we talked about it. He threatened me afterwards, and I have no idea what he will do now. I just hope he isn’t stupid enough to cause unrest in the tribe."

But Sarah didn’t listen to him. She grinned with an excited expression and punched his shoulder. "You lashed out? Awesome!"

"Focus."

"Sorry."

Andrew sighed and started talking again. "I just need you to stay out of his way. Can you do that? I will try to talk with him and calm him down. I’m sure he’ll listen to reason somehow."

"Yeah sure." Sarah spoke with a snort and patted his aching shoulder. "And just so you know, he got to level ten. And he is also on the path of conflict. Tell me, if you need protection."

This news was quite concerning for Andrew. He understood why Sarah was on the path of conflict. But why, Alex? He had assumed his path would lead more towards protection or hunting. This was worrying.

"I will let you know." He answered her with a grateful smile.

He let out an exhausted sigh. This had only been the start of his day. He didn’t feel ready for the chaos of this camp today.

"How about we go eat something?" Andrew asked her, and she started stretching a little. He was sure that with some food in his stomach, he would feel a lot better.

Sarah looked at him with a horrified expression. "Did you cook?"

"No?"

"Then sure!" Sarah shouted with an excited voice and started bouncing towards the kitchen area.

Andrew felt insulted, but he couldn’t be all that mad at her. After the disastrous cooking experience with Melissa and Sarah, he tried cooking for other people. After he had caused someone to awaken a poison resistance skill, he stopped.

Sarah had already gone quite far ahead when Andrew remembered that she always ate all the tasty mushrooms if left unchecked.

So Andrew started sprinting after her as fast as he could.