Ren woke up, sweaty, on Eric's back. The base was nowhere to be seen.
"What..? Where are we..?"
Ren asked while trying to move, but quickly gave up as pain shot through his body.
"Argh..!"
"You shouldn't move too much,"
said Rita, calmly looking at him.
"Where are we..?"
Ren asked, looking around, trying to figure out where they were.
"Somewhere in the desert. You collapsed after killing the worm, but we didn't want to waste time, so we decided to move while carrying you,"
Eric said, making sure to tighten the cloth he used to carry Ren so he wouldn't move too much.
"Why didn't you just leave me behind? What if another one of those things appeared?"
Rita hit him.
"Fuck! What the hell?!"
"You could have just thanked us, you know?"
Rita said, shaking her head.
Ren looked at her, kept quiet for a while, and finally reluctantly said:
".. thanks."
Rita smiled at him.
"You're welcome,"
said both Rita and Eric.
Ren then looked around a bit longer. His gaze lingered on the vast sea of sand around them.
"So.. where are we going..?"
Ren asked, looking at Rita once again, but Karma was the one to answer.
"We decided to go to a nearby oasis to rest and heal for a bit. We're also going to get some more water. Then we'll have to choose a destination."
Ren looked at him and nodded.
"Good thinking."
Ren nodded in agreement with their decision.
After the fight, the group felt closer. Even Ren, who hadn't told them his name yet, was friendlier towards them. He was still cautious, but no longer completely paranoid.
The group kept walking for a few hours before finally stopping to rest as the sun rose.
They took a piece of cloth and a few sticks to make themselves a makeshift parasol. They would be kind of cramped, but it was still better than burning in the sun.
Ren still couldn't move much, and Eric couldn't use both his hands because of his missing fingers and because he was carrying Ren and most of the supplies, so Rita and Karma were responsible for most of the manual labor. It didn't take as much time as they thought, since Karma was actually pretty skilled with his hands. After only a few minutes, the parasol was complete.
The team immediately went to sleep, since they hadn't slept the whole night, but Ren wasn't tired considering he had slept through the day and night.
"This is gonna be a pain.. I need to get my internal clock back on track."
Ren said, lying down and looking up at the grey piece of cloth shielding them from the sun.
He tried to lie still, hoping to fall asleep, but couldn't pull it off.
Bored, he summoned his stone tablet to check if anything changed, and to his surprise something did.
"What..?"
Ren quickly sat up and looked at the changes the tablet underwent.
[Name: Ren Gray]
[Title:]
[Skill: Instinct Lv 1, Primitive Stab Lv 1]
[Level of growth: 0]
[Achievements: 1]
Ren stood there, baffled.
'Okay, this really looks like a video game..'
As Ren touched the new "Skills", the writing on the stone tablet shifted.
"What the..?"
The letters moved and changed, some were added, others disappeared until it finally stopped, revealing some sort of skill description.
[Instinct: Survival instincts that have dulled after multiple years of comfort and safety had to quickly resurface in a dangerous battle. The survivor's instincts are heightened so that they can more easily predict their opponent's attack.
Rarity: Uncommon]
[Primitive Stab: A simple attack used for the first time mid-battle where someone uses a sharp object and quickly uses it to pierce through the opponent's flesh. It could use some work. Slightly improves damage caused by stabbing.]
"... okay, this is cool."
Ren said, mesmerized by the tablet.
After studying it a bit longer, Ren finally managed to fall asleep.
Upon waking up, the group immediately started moving. They weren't very far away now, and should arrive before sunrise.
"Hey guys! I think I see it!"
said Karma while looking in the distance.
"Oh! I see it too!" replied Eric.
The group sped up and quickly reached the oasis. There was a lake with clean water, and a house next to it. It was pretty run down.
Rita and Karma quickly ran toward the fresh water while Eric brought Ren inside the house. He saw a bed, made Ren lie down on it, and sat next to him.
Ren looked at him, thinking.
"Show me your injury,"
Ren said as he sat down.
"H-huh?"
"Your fingers. You lost them, right?"
"Well... yes but..." answered Eric, confused.
"I'll properly bandage it,"
Ren said, confusing Eric even more.
"... um... okay.."
Eric slowly took off the cloth that was already there and gave Ren another clean tissue.
Ren grabbed his hand and carefully started cleaning his injury with water, then carefully bandaged his cut fingers, making sure to hurt him as little as possible. When he was done, Eric was left with a clean bandage on each of his two fingers.
"We'll have to change it every once in a while."
Eric looked at his hands, then at Ren, dumbfounded by how nicely done the bandage was. He wasn't very fond of letting Ren touch his fingers at first, since he didn't know whether to see Ren as a proper ally or not because of his previous behavior.
"This is... very well done! You're very good at bandaging!"
Eric said, smiling at Ren. His smile almost made Ren shiver. He was nice, but he definitely looked creepy.
"... I used to live alone, and since I wanted to cook my meals... well, I had more than one accident.."
said Ren as he showed some scars on his fingers to Eric.
"Oh... well, thanks. Um..."
Eric paused, realizing he didn't know his name.
".. Ren. My name's Ren."
"..!"
Eric stared at Ren, surprised by his change in behavior.
"...Can I ask... why... why are you acting so different?"
Ren looked at Eric.
"I'm not going to lie to you, I didn't trust you at first. I didn't want to risk giving you my trust and risk getting betrayed just after... but I guess... well, not that I trust you yet, but you guys could have left me back there and saved on resources... so I owe you that, I guess.."
The conversation between Ren and Eric was awkward, but genuine.
Eric looked at him and smiled.
"I should probably go see the others. Stay here and recover,"
Eric said as he walked away.
Ren lay back down and looked at the ceiling. There were holes in it, so he could see the sky slowly getting illuminated by the sun's bright light.
Days passed as Ren slowly healed. Soon enough, he could move again. Soon after, he started trying to stay active by running in the morning or just moving in general.
During their stay, they obtained more water, canned food that was in the house, clothes, and one more knife. Despite his skill, Ren decided to leave the knife for Rita, who didn't have a decent weapon anymore.
After a few more days, to make sure everyone was rested and all the supplies they needed were there, they finally started to plan their next move.
Rita was the first one to speak.
"So... should we just go to the nearest base?"
"How do we know if it's abandoned though?"
Karma pointed out.
"We don't."
"What— you're telling me we're just going blind?"
"She's right. We don't have any other way to know. But we could still find more information in case it's another abandoned base. We did in the last one at least." Added Ren.
Karma was unhappy with this decision but couldn't argue back, so he finally agreed.
The group chose to go the night after, to rest one more day.
Ren's body barely hurt anymore, and Eric's hands were usable again, so all they really had left to do was leave.
When the night came, they were already ready to leave. Glancing one last time behind them, they left — oblivious to what was about to unfold.