Gareth's rough and suspicious voice filled the cave, prompting everyone to look at Moon.
Moon turned toward him, keeping his expression neutral. "I received a call from nature, so I'm responding."
Gareth remained silent for a moment, his gaze measuring. "There's a place deeper inside the cave. We dug out a section for people to do it there."
"No, it's fine. I'm more comfortable doing it outside." Moon gestured vaguely toward the entrance. "I don't think there's any plumbing system in this cave after all."
The excuse was weak, but plausible enough. Privacy was a reasonable request.
Gareth waited another moment, his weathered face unreadable. Then he nodded slowly. "Alright. Don't take too long. It's dangerous outside."
"I won't."
Moon walked toward the cave entrance, feeling Gareth's eyes on his back the entire way. He could sense Selene watching too, her expression curious but not alarmed. Derek and the others paid him no attention, too focused on warming themselves and recovering from the journey.
Moon stepped out into the brutal cold, and the merciless cold wind hit him immediately, stealing his breath; the temperature drop was shocking even after a few hours inside the relative warmth of the cave.
Snow continued to fall, thick and relentless, reducing visibility.
Moon moved away from the entrance, far enough that he'd be out of direct sight but not so far that he'd lose his way back. His breath came out in thick clouds of frost. His fingers were already going numb again.
But he needed to see the area around.
He scanned the area around the cave entrance, looking for tracks, signs of movement, evidence of the other survivors Gareth claimed would return at night.
He didn't bother looking for footprints because the snow would have covered all traces, given how heavily it was falling. The wind alone would erase any prints within minutes.
After doing a circle around the area, Moon didn't notice anything strange until he stumbled on some bones partially buried in the snow.
He didn't think much of it at first. It was perfectly normal to find bones around the area. This was a place filled with beasts. Once the survivors finished with the flesh and extracted what they needed, they would discard the bones nearby. They didn't have much use except for perhaps weapon creation, but if no blacksmith was present, it made sense why they'd simply throw them out rather than store them.
Moon didn't dwell on it and continued his survey until he stumbled on more bones. These were larger and scattered across a wider area. He knelt down, brushing snow away from one particular piece.
"Is this... a human skull?"
The discovery made him stop in his tracks, he was concerned.
Finding human bones around the same area meant the bones he'd found earlier might not be from beasts at all. They might all be human remains.
Moon's heart rate increased despite the cold numbing his extremities. He quickly searched the surrounding area, moving carefully through the snow, his eyes scanning for more evidence.
He found more bones, lots of them. Ribs, femurs, and vertebrae still had scraps of frozen flesh clinging to them. Others were picked completely clean. And taking a closer look, comparing the proportions and structure, they were unmistakably human.
"What is this... am I in a human graveyard?"
A frown formed on Moon's face. This was more than troubling; it was horrifying.
Either Gareth and the others were using this area as a graveyard for humans who died in the hidden realm, which would make sense given the frozen ground would be nearly impossible to dig proper graves in...
Or there was something far more sinister happening that Moon's group was completely oblivious to.
Moon straightened, his eyes moving back toward the cave entrance, barely visible through the falling snow.
His mind drifted back to the iron smell inside the cave, the foul odour Gareth had attributed to unwashed clothes.
The hollow eyes of the woman by the fire. The injured man who hadn't spoken a word.
The fact that Gareth had been so far from the cave, supposedly hunting, but had approached them immediately when they appeared.
The fact that he'd invited nine fresh awakeners back to his shelter without hesitation.
To Moon, these things didn't add up. Had he been in Gareth's shoes, he wouldn't have just invited awakeners to their base. Firstly, their goal was unknown; they could be a danger to the base. Secondly, why would they share the resources with others?
Moon's hand moved instinctively to gather mana. This time, he didn't use the water element. Rather, he focused on fire, channelling the Four Element Affinity that came with his copied class. Warmth bloomed in his palm, just enough to create a flame to combat the brutal cold seeping into his bones.
The skill responded smoothly, proof that his proficiency with the Elemental Mage class was growing. But the small comfort did nothing to ease the dread settling in his stomach.
Moon forced himself to breathe slowly, to calm the panic trying to claw its way up his throat.
He had two options.
The first was to leave and not come back. Walk away from the cave, from Gareth, from whatever was waiting inside and strike out on his own into the frozen wasteland.
But that was incredibly risky in itself. Being alone in a hidden realm with no permanent class, no one to copy abilities from when his twenty-four hour timer expired, would be suicidal. He needed someone with him. Even if it was just one person, having another awakener increased his survival odds dramatically.
The second option was to go back and enter the cave as if nothing had happened.
Pretend he'd seen nothing, act natural and investigate further. But to do that, he needed to ensure Gareth wouldn't notice anything different in his behaviour, wouldn't suspect that Moon had discovered the graveyard of bones outside their shelter.
While he wasn't completely certain about his theory, every instinct screamed at him to be cautious.
The bones. The smell. The missing survivors who were supposedly returning at night. After some time thinking, weighing the options against each other, Moon decided to head back.
Going alone meant certain death from exposure or beasts. Staying gave him a chance, however slim, to figure out what was really happening and potentially save at least some of his group and get them out before whatever Gareth had planned came to fruition.
Moon dispersed the mana in his palm and began walking back toward the cave entrance, his footsteps crunching through the snow. He forced his expression into something neutral, tired, cold. Just someone returning from relieving themselves in miserable conditions.
As the cave entrance came into view through the falling snow, Moon rehearsed his demeanour.
He stepped back into the cave, the relative warmth hitting him immediately.
Gareth was standing near the entrance, almost as if he'd been waiting. His eyes locked onto Moon the moment he appeared.
"Took you long enough." Gareth didn't blink as he spoke; his gaze on the newcomer.
Moon shrugged, rubbing his arms as if trying to warm them. "It's cold out there. Didn't want to rush and slip on the ice."
Gareth studied him for another moment, then nodded slowly. "Get back to the fire. You'll need your strength for tonight."
Moon walked past him, feeling those eyes tracking his every movement, and returned to his spot near Selene.
She glanced at him, her expression questioning.
He settled back down near the fire, his mind racing through possibilities, through plans, through ways to survive what was coming when night finally fell.