Jen woke up a few hours later. Johan had stopped practicing his mana control prior to Jen waking up, and was actually eating some rations when she woke.

"Oh, hey. You're up. How are you feeling? Anything hurt?" Johan asked as he stared at her.

"Mm? Oh! You're okay! Thank goodness! I... I thought...." Jen started to cry a bit.

"Yeah. I'm alright. I know it was probably a scary situation for you. I *almost* died. If you hadn't been with me... Well, I don't think I would've been able to survive. Thank you for that Jen." Johan gently hugged her, rubbing her back as she cried. There was no motive to it, not really. He just saw someone who had gone through something quite traumatic and decided to try to comfort them.

Johan and Jen weren't super close, in fact, Johan thought she hated him, but through this endeavor he was certain that they had gotten a bit closer. After all, those who were with each other in times where they almost die usually have a special bond in some way. This was no different.

Eventually Jen stopped crying and just kinda held onto Johan. After another few minutes she spoke from her position.

"Johan... I... I need to tell you." Jen pulled herself away from him, and looked him in the face. Her eyes were slightly red and puffy from crying. "I... I like you. No, not like... I... Love you."

Johan could tell his face went blank, but he couldn't help it as his mind ran at light speed to tell him what to believe. In the end, he pieced together that she was being honest. In fact, it was even somewhat obvious as he looked back. His sisters friends would often crush on his back in Ambevelance, even though he wasn't a great looking guy, they were just wanting boys to pay attention to them. Jen had done many of the same things, but Johan took them differently because of his environment and state of mind.

"I... See..." Johan whispered, then cleared his throat, "Uh, alright. I'll be honest I thought that you hated me, Jen. It makes a *lot* more sense now though... Unfotunately... I don't think I can return your feelings, at least not right now." Johan said, trying to be as kind and casual about it as he could so as not to hurt her. Even if he didn't love her, he didn't want her to be hurt simply because of that.

"Oh. I see, no, I get it. Anne told me that would likely be your answer, given what kind of situation we're in. Sorry for the bother." Jen said dejectedly.

"It's not your fault. Your brain decided to fall in love with someone at a bad time. I'd try to comfort you, but I don't imagine that'd feel good from the person that just shot you down, so let's get started on the plan to get out of here." Johan said, deciding to try and shift to a new topic, before explaining his plan to tunnel out using Earth Manipulation.

"I see. Alright. I think that'll work. You know what you're doing this time right?" Jen said, making sure that Johan wouldn't do something similar to what got the two of them into this mess in the first place.

"Pretty sure. Earth Manipulation lets you also sense the earth around you. I should be able to easily fix anything I do on the way up." Johan replied, trying to assure her that it would work out well.

"Well, you *are* the mage... I'll leave the magic to you, just make sure we get out safely." Jen agreed to the plan.

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"Cool. I'll get started now then." Johan turned to the rockface, and started to slowly move the rock to the sides of where he was wanting to go, it wasn't the fastest tunneling, but it was safe, Johan made sure of that. After another 4 or so hours, they finally breached the surface, an Johan began to close the tunnel up behind them. Closing the tunnel only took 30 or so minutes as he was just putting things back, and didn't need to worry about making sure everything was stable like he did on the way up.

"Sweet, sweet air!" Johan almost yelled into the sky.

"It feels so nice." Jen stretched.

"Yeah. Hah... Anyways, we should go find the others." Johan said, before turning to the direction they had initially seen the others in before.

"Alright. They should have made marks to indicate where they've gone right? I think it was an X with their knives?" Jen said, pointing to a tree that had that marking.

"Yeah, that was it." Johan walked over to the tree and fount that the mark was fresh, being only a day old. "This looks right. Let's follow these marked trees."

The two of them then proceeded to follow the marked trees, making sure to mark them again to ensure that if the others circled back that they would know that Johan and Jen had made it.

Jen was significantly better than Johan was at finding the marks. She was able to spot them easily from over a hundred feet away, where as Johan could easily miss it at 10. It was somewhat expected from a girl who considered herself good at gathering information.

After a few hours, they noticed that the trees had started to wrap around back the way they had gone. With a bit more excitement the duo quickly picked up their pace a bit. Along the way, Johan had set himself to fixing the loose ground they would stumble upon, making it safer for now and later if they would walk over it.

Finally, as dusk was finally overtaking the sky, Johan spotted the light of a fire. Around the fire he saw some familiar silhouettes. There was the figure of a muscular and large man, two smaller, more feminine figures and a box.

Johan approached happy to finally make it back to the group, when Jen grabbed him.

"They aren't moving at all." She said, "We should be careful, I don't think that's our group."

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't they be moving?" Johan said, while silently retrieving his spear from his bag of holding.

"They could be dummies, or they could be under a spell too. Monsters can use magic occasionally." Jen explained.

"Ah... I had almost forgotten that monsters that are intelligent exist." Johan sighed. "Alright, let's approach."

The two of them inched slowly, and nearly silently, closer to the camp. As they got closer, Johan could tell that these were fakes. For one, there was no detail shift as he got closer. No matter what angle he was at, they remained as silhouettes. It was likely some sort of illusion based spell, though not advanced.

Johan signaled to Jen that he was coming closer to her, and got up next to her so he could whisper into her ear.

"Those are illusions. Do you know what monsters are usually able to use illusions that also live on mountains?" Johan asked.

Jen nodded, and Johan turned his head so he could hear her.

"Things like trolls are able to do so occasionally. We might have to fight a shaman. Be very careful. Trolls have superhuman strength, and can easily crush a trained knight if they don't dodge." Johan felt her warm breath tickle his ears as she spoke, but kept it out of his mind after what she said.

Johan nodded, and then moved a bit away so they could get closer to inspect what was going on.

Once they got close enough, the silhouettes seemed to just fade away, and in the firelight, the duo saw a few trolls sitting around. Their long drooping noses and warty faces and bodies were disgusting to look at, but Johan carried on and noticed a difference with one of them. He saw that one carried a long thin tree, almost like a staff. The others carried a club and one had a bastard sword, likely earned from fighting an unexperienced fighter who got over their heads.

Johan signaled to Jen which one was magical, and that she needed to be careful with the one that had a sword, to which she nodded.

As Johan got closer he began to understand just how large these creatures were. Each was easily twice as tall as he was, and the one wielding the sword was almost thrice as tall as him. This was going to be a tough fight.