“We got one today!” Mark yelled to Kailey.

“Oh good! With this and the fishes, we have food for a month!” She yelled and ran to Crazel with a smile on her face.

“Ah…” Tian smirked. “You that happy to see him huh…” He continued.

“Seriously.” Kailey turned her half-circle into a straight line. “I am happy about the fucking deer,” She bit her lips, “I hate you now, you know.”

“Hahaha!” Tian laughed.

“And we also hate you, Kailey.” The three all said together.

“What? Was this all planned?” The three continued, leaving Kailey yelling behind them. “Wait! Don’t just ignore my questions! Oh, come on!”

Crazel brought the deer behind the logs, and the three sat around it. “So… how do we skin this?” Tian asked.

“With the spear.” Mark held the top of the wooden stick and removed the rope.

“Wait!” Tian yelled. He stood up and ran to the opposite side of the camp, to the place where he desperately tried to make a weapon.

After a minute, Tian came back with a spearhead, though in actuality, it wasn’t a spearhead, more like a sharp stone, but it really just looked the same.

“I mean, I did crack it, thanks for the jinx, Max, but it will be more useful if we just use this for now.”

“Nice!” Crazel said.

“I didn’t Jinx it, it was just true.”

“Uhuh,” Tian replied.

“Guys wait! Are you going to skin it without me?! That’s my job!” Kailey yelled.

“Of course not, come here now honey!” Crazel yelled, and Tian smiled with joy seeping out of his open mouth.

The four skinned the deer for a whole day until it turned night. They though Tian how they had been skinning deers and that immortality makes one not waste a single piece of any animal.

One might hate the pain of consuming a poisonous body part, but as an immortal, and a person without any supplies, you really had no right to be picky.

After night came, the three slept and Tian went back to finish crafting his weapon head, though, morning soon came, and his progress couldn’t even be differentiated from just picking up another stone somewhere.

Once the three woke up, they all continued to skin the deer. A few days passed with this cycle until everything was finished. Tian’s group of fish from the ground was used as food for a few days until it ran out.

Not a lot of things happened from these days, just a few conversations here and there, the stories of their life, and some unsuccessful hunting sessions. One such conversation was something that could be considered a good topic.

“By the way, if you guys just eat anything, why not just eat this skin?” Tian asked.

“Well, you see here, little boy Tian,” Kailey said.

“Pretty sure I’m older than you.”

Kailey tapped his shoulders, “As a resourceful woman, I know that skins take a really long time to process on the human body, so it’s better to just not eat it. And also the fur is really disturbing on your tongue.”

“Wow, where did hear that from?” Tian asked.

“What! You think I-”

“It was from someone at The Empire,” Crazel answered.

“Really!” Kailey complained.

“Oh, okay, well we can at least make something out of these skins.”

“If we had any needles and threads, we would, but we don’t.”

“Then what do you do with the skins?” Tian asked.

“We s-” Kailey said.

“We will tell you after we finish.” Crazel interrupted.

***

“Okay, well then, let’s go.” Mark stood up from the ground after picking up some of the skins.

“Here you carry some too, you are supposed to be strong.” Crazel threw the rest of the skins.

“Oh okay… you just don’t wanna carry anything.”

“Hey! I carried the deer last time! I deserve it!”

“Bye! See you later!” Kailey waved her hands.

“Bye-bye!” Everyone said.

To the opposite of the camp, and the opposite of the deer area, the three-headed inside the forest in the direction of The Empire.

The Empire is a relatively large country. It has hundreds of citizens, and there might be a more specific number somewhere on the King's desk, but that’s not important.

The King of The Empire is someone who is a “Resistor.” A name given to people who didn’t faint from the pain of being stabbed in their chest.

“You were probably one of them too, Tian,” Mark said.

“Well… I don’t remember clearly… but I think I did faint.”

“Hmm, might just be your memory though,” Crazel said.

Arthur Fallen. Whether his name was derived from King Arthur or it was actually just a really good coincidence, no one knows.

He is a powerful man, but in reality, there was never any definitive way to rank people’s strengths other than their stats. Even someone who has the status of a King hasn’t even leveled up once. It truly was just that hard.

Many people had left The Empire, but of course, whether it was for image or not, they allowed it quite easily. When you enter the kingdom, you are never immediately part of it, like any normal country. When you want to leave the country as a citizen, just some smashing of rocks, and you're good to go.

That also meant trade existed in the countries, and that is the main purpose of the deer leather. For many of the people who left “The Empire” some went to different countries and others just stayed close by.

But what type of trade could they even give? Was “The Empire” that established and rich?

“Now I get it! I think you are misunderstanding something heavy here Tian,” Mark said.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“What?”

“Despite its name, “The Empire” isn’t really something that grand.”

They walked out of the forest, a large plain grass area with a few small hills around. Immediately, they spotted a small piece of land with many different small camps and wooden fences surrounding everything. Some small farms were on the sides. Though they looked more like a swamp.

“It looks pathetic, doesn’t it,” Crazel said.

Tian’s jaw dropped down, leaving a wide open mouth where a moth just flew inside. He closed his mouth and swallowed it. “Okay, so I definitely thought it would be some country with high stone walls, with banners around. Where towers where on four sides and a ballista in each of them.”

“Well, you thought wrong,” Mark answered.

The three walked closer to the empire… which didn’t really need any more glorifying quotes after seeing such a pathetic side.

“Don’t hate on it too much though, I mean, can you make what you imagined in just two years?” Mark asked.

“Oh… okay, fine I get what you mean.”

Two guards, dressed in modern shirts and pants, were positioned at both ends of the entrance. Crazel blocked Tian from moving any closer and took the deer skin from him. The two walked to the guards.

“Mark and Crazel! How have you guys been?” One of the guards yelled.

“We’ve been good Dorel,” Mark answered.

“Here’s the hide of an entire deer, we’re not going to stay for long so just give it to us now.” Crazel dropped the skin to the ground.

“Okay, okay,” Dorel said. He pointed his finger behind him and the other guard ran inside.

Man, they really don’t look like actual guards. White shirts, black pants, sandals, and not even a good-looking spear, well our spear doesn’t look good either, but we’re not country guards.

After a few minutes, the other guy arrived struggling to drag a bunch of cleaned logs tied to a rope.

“Fifty pieces!” The man pulled one last time and panted heavily.

“Thank you.” Said Mark. “Tian!” He yelled.

“Stopping me, then calling me, what are your guys deal?” He said.

“This is Tian,” Mark said to Dorel.

“Oh, it seems you found some random rat in the forest.” Dorel replied. He reached out his hand, but Tian shoved the hand away and walked past the man.

“You just want me to drag this right? As much as I want to see you guys struggle, fine, fine, I’ll do it.” Tian leaned down and picked up the rope and walked toward the two with zero struggle.

“What!” Dorel yelled.

“Stop yelling, ant.” Tian walked past Dorel and around Mark and Crazel.

“Hahaha!” The two laughed.

“Wait! How the fuck! Where did you fi- No! Young man! Do you wan…” Dorel went on to try and recruit Tian, but the three ignored the man and left laughing their asses off.

“Okay, so, you do this for fifty pieces of planks? What for?” Tian asked.

“They are not simple planks, they are firewoods. Do you think we just cut trees on our own? Try cutting one on your own and you’ll realize just how hard it is.” Mark answered.

“So they sell this for leather? It seems like an unfair trade… for them.” Tian said.

“Well, they have a lot of people, if you go deeper to the right, you will find a lot of cut-off trees. With a lot of manpower, such labor is no task for a country.”

Tian tried to understand the logistics of what Mark said, but after a long pull of his eyebrows, he just gave up. “Ehh… whatever you say, man.”

“Okay, so when I saw our stats, it wasn’t that far out, are you really just that much stronger than me?” Crazel asked.

“I mean he does double you, man,” Mark said.

“Hm? Well, it is heavy, so heavy that my arm is in pain after only a few seconds.” Tian answered.

“Oh… so you’re just enduring the pain again?” Crazel asked.

“Yep! You know what, next time, I’ll teach you two about things I thought of as training.”

“No, no, no, no,” The two shook their hands in disagreement as fast as they could.

“Don’t want it!” Crazel yelled.

“I don’t want it either,” Mark said, then continued on, “But Crazel really needs it if he wants to protect Kailey, right Tian?”

“What the fuck! Are yo-”

“Yeah, fine, it will just be Crazel first, but I tell you, you’ll regret it, Mark.”

“Wait what no!!! I never agreed to anything!”

“It’s okay Crazel,” Mark patted his back.

“Don’t! What the fuck! Are you seriously going to torture me without my consent!” Crazel yelled.

“Well, they never asked for my consent either,” Tian answered, leaving the two instantly silent.

“Unfair men, you can’t just trauma dump like that… fine… I agree to it…” Crazel said.

“Me too…”

“Good!” Tian looked back with a huge smile.

They finally reached the forest and took upon a different hurdle. Because of the close spread of the trees, the firewood couldn’t be dragged normally, and so all three carried the firewood; Tian at the front end, and the two at the back.

“Man if Kailey sees this comp, you are losing so many appeal points Crazel.”

“Sh- and you’re gaining a lot of appeal points, Tian.” Crazel stopped his urges to shout and counter-attacked.

“I’m fat and ugly, bad argument man.”

“Oh shut up! You know what! I’ll hunt so many deers and become fat if you won’t stop this shit!” Crazel argued.

“Do whatever man.”

“Hahaha!” Mark laughed.