Johan hadn't slept well since the night that they had fought the bandits. Anne would come to him to talk almost every night, and then he would also study magic immediately after. This had led him to sleeping only a few hours a night.

Naturally, as one might put together since he was also traveling on foot, he was feeling dead tired at a near constant state. It was one of the most terrible things he felt like he had ever gone through, even if it wasn't really that bad, in the moment.

There were a handful of benefits to this however. For example, he had, in fact, made tremendous progress on the learning of Wind Blade. He was almost to the point of being able to do his first cast of the spell. According to his book about progression in magic, he should also finish his first cast much easier as well as faster than he had with Conjure Water, added to the fact that wind was naturally less corporeal than water, and it was also less mana intensive too.

"Alright!" Markus boomed out suddenly, pulling Johans attention out of his mind and into the world. "We're going to have to cross over a mountain. It will be the slowest part of our journey, as it will likely take a couple of weeks alone just to cross, but it's faster than the month long journey around the mountain."

"Why is it going to take so long though?" Pat asked.

"That," Adv responded. "is due to altitude sickness. As one goes up they get slowly more and more sick due to the atmospheric pressure shift as well as a few other things that you wouldn't understand, but in essence, the higher you go the more sick you'll feel. So you have to stop frequently to grow accustomed to it."

"Oh... Wow, okay. That's actually useful Adv. Thanks."

"That's the main reason." Markus said, nodding at Adv's words, "But another reason is due to how haggard some of you look. The bandits the other day really messed up some of you mentally, and it takes a toll on the mind, which passes it onto the body. Looking at a nice view should help a bit with that." Markus proceeded to explain.

"So it's a nature trip?" Jen asked.

"Yeah."

"That's cool. I don't think I've ever seen a real forest before!" Anne said, looking genuinely excited by the prospect.

"Same!" Pat said, although she seemed a bit less excited.

"I've seen them many times myself." Markus laughed a bit. "Honestly it's a bit sad to me that you all have never seen such a wonderful sight before. Nature influences a great many things about humanity after all."

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Johan started to phase out the conversation as the group walked and talked. They eventually stopped at a nice spot below a small slightly overhanging cliff to eat and adjust a bit. Johan could feel the nausea that Markus had said something about, as could most of the group, the exceptions being Markus, as well as Adv, who was a machine.

While he was laying there exhausted and feeling like he was about to vomit, he started to work on Wind Blade a bit more. At long last he felt something click into place in his manaspace, and all of a sudden he knew it would work. Then he silently dismissed the array, and opted to use the rest of the time to catch up on a bit of sleep.

-

Johan felt a light touch on the arm, and a slight shaking sensation as someone shook him awake. As his eyes opened with blurry mirage, he found himself looking at the thin face of Jen.

"Wha...? What time is it?" Johan said groggily, his words slurring together a bit.

"It's been a couple of hours since you fell asleep. Anne is currently helping Markus skin a few rabbits. I was told to wake you up."

"Oh. Thanks." Johan stretched a bit, and noticed that Jen was just kind of sitting there, staring off into space. "You... Good?"

Jen blinked a few times at his words and turned to face him. "Oh, uh, yeah, sorry. I was just kinda staring off. Anyways, I'll, uh... Go away now." she turned to leave, but Johan grabbed her wrist, making sure to be light about it.

"Sorry, if I made feel uncomfortable. I don't mean to try and push you away. You're friends with Anne after all. I'm just a bit unused to... well, a lot of this." Johan explained. "Ah, sorry, I rambled a bit. The short of it is, you aren't a bother. I don't want you to think that you bother me."

"Oh... Um..." Jen was a bit flushed in the face. "Thanks...? Sorry I'm not used to being touched. And... uh, men specifically are difficult for me." Jen pulled her arm away from Johan. She then ran off.

"Ah..." Johan realized that he may have come off as creepy without intending to. "Man, I hope she doesn't hate me now." Johan blamed his tired brain for being so stupid, she probably just said she was leaving in a weird way, and he went and took it another way entirely.

After a few minutes of replaying his mistakes in life in his brain, he eventually went to find Markus and Anne both gutting rabbits. Johan could tell that Pat was gone, as well as Jen. Though it was a bit odd that Pat left Adv behind.

"Morning sleepyhead!" Anne said to him.

"Hey. Where's Pat?" Johan asked.

"Jen dragged her off to talk about something or other. Oh... Good cut Anne." Markus replied absentmindedly.

"Alright. Need anymore help?" Johan questioned.

"Nah, this is the last one." Markus held up the raw corpse of the rabbit, notably missing its head.

"Alright. Ah, that's right. I'm going to do my first cast of Wind Blade tonight. I completed the circuit earlier today before I slept."

"That's quite good. Hope it doesn't take as long as the last one did. Alright, there we go." Markus finished the last rabbit as he spoke.

"I'll go get Pat and Jen." Anne said, taking some water from her water skin to wet a bit of cloth and wiping her hands.

"While Anne does that I guess I'll start making... Dinner." Johan said while looking at his watch for the time.

"Sounds good." Markus performed the same acts as Anne, and left Johan to do as he would.

Johan grabbed a bit of firewood he had grabbed from when he had gotten firewood some days prior out of the bag of holding, and made a small fire pit using the broad survival knife he had, and then lit it using the bit of flint on the end. He then started cooking dinner.