Arin didn't say much,and casting incredulous glance at the Liv as she mercilessly hacked and cut the meat. He somehow stopped his hand from trembling but couldn't stop periodically flinching .He couldn't help but imagine himself in place of the meat. The vivid picture kept appearing in his mind.
Come on. Don't be a coward. Arin chided himself, trying to calm his heart down.
By the time he fully calmed his heart, LIv was already done butchering the meat into sizable pieces. She finally lifted her head and asked in neutral tone.
"Thank you for helping me cut the meat. Now do you have any water left?"
"Ugmm? Ugmm? Yes!" First confused but soon he understood the sarcasm and answered with an awkward smile.
Getting the answer, she extended an arm to him. A second later, a beautiful canteen made of metal appeared in his hand. He passed it to her.
"I haven't used much so it's almost full."
As she rinsed the meat with water he came to the conclusion. She does not look afraid nor she hesitate. Definitely not a normal girl. But Instead of being afraid, he was relieved because for one thing: if Liv really wanted to kill him, she could have just cut him into pieces while he was sleeping.
I am lucky she is just abnormal not completely crazy, otherwise…. He gulped the air as he stole a glance at her.
"Here is your share." She returned the canteen and few meat pieces.
He first brought the bottle to his lips and drank the cool, fresh water. The water tasted heavenly and it surprised him. Was I thirsty?
Liv stabbed the meat with her knife and held it on fire.
"What happened to your canteen?" Arin asked as he copied her actions.
"Uh…I was careless and wasted most of my water keeping myself clean." He nodded in understanding.
"So you didn't find any water source since then?" Arin asked trying to fish for any useful information.
***
Kaelen stood in front of a broken mall. Behind him were his so called elite group called Iron Vanguard.
"You sure, it is here?"
"Yes Captain!" answered a member
"Did you bring everything?" Kaelen's gaze drifted across all of them.
"Yes Captain!" everyone nodded.
"Then let's get things done here quickly. We have to start the march toward south east after this." Kaelen gestured his man to take the lead.
They navigate through the debris of fallen shopping district . After searching for about half an hour they find and intact shop. It's scratchless door didn't match its broken surroundings and it drew group's attention toward it akin to a whirlpool in a sea drawing all the water in the middle. Although it was hidden but it looked like as if the one who left it here wanted others to notice this.
"That's the one captain." the man guiding the group shouted.
Kaelen gestured his men to stop and walked past the guide toward the shop. As he was at to push the door open someone from his squad shouted.
"Carefull captain. A powerful monster could be in there, like that boss we heard about few days back."
Hearing this Kaelen frowned a little but didn't say anything but inwardly he sneered. How could a boss monster be trapped in a small room. It's nothing but fortune favouring me and giving this great opportunity to me. But if others think it as threat than so be it.
Seeing the Kaelen standing silently the person who warned began to get nervous and spoke again.
"If you want, we can send some scavengers first to …"
"No " Kaelen suddenly shouted cutting him off.
"Urm..Urm.. No need for that. You can't fully depend others to do all the work for you." he cleared his throat before giving an excuse for his sudden burst.
After everything was said and done. He once again moved toward the door of shop and entered, closing the door behind it. Just as he walked few steps everything lighted up. His eyes landed on interiors and he smiled.
So intel provided was true. I had some expectation but this is really a jackpot. With this maybe we can defeat the remaining bosses of this trial.
***
As time passed number of meat pieces diminished and Arin started to become tense, questioning where had he gone wrong. From the start of conversation he is the one who kept giving useful information knowingly or unknowingly. He even consider preparing few misleading answers. But he couldn't do it. So, he pretended like nothing had happened and continued conversation.
"So you are saying it's just this area not the whole trial thats covered in ash fog. But according to you just entered this area. Which means exit should be near too but How come I couldn't walk out of this area before? Hmm. That's intriguing."
Arin didn't say anything and just focused on his meat that tasted like burnt wood.
As they finished eating Liv stood up and put out the fire.
"Let's rest for a while. Fighting immediately after eating is not good."
"What? We are going to fight."
"Well. Yes and no. We will first explore the area. According to what you said and what I experienced this should be the outer part of this area. Here we lost our way when we were near the exit point. So let's move to the core area, maybe there will be some answers." Liv shared her thoughts and plan.
"And the core area is highly likely to have more monsters roaming. But we don't necessarily have to hunt them." Arin continued the train of thoughts.
"I don't think monsters will just let us go if they spot us. And we have to reach level 5 and above that if possible." Liv gave her reason.
"Why go beyond our objective? Isn't fulfilling the the objective of quest enough?"
"This is called Trial. What do you think comes after a trial?"
"Ummm. Full paid subscription?"
Hearing Arin's answer, Liv didn't know what to say. After staring at him for a while she doubted that maybe he was not joking.
"No. After trial comes the real deal. If we just fulfil the requirement we will just be mediocre at best. We have to do our best from the start. This is my chances." She gave her reason as she turned towards the open sky, which was filled with suspended ash-fog.
"But what do….." Arin was going to ask what chance she talking about but seeing her full of determination he halted his previous question and voiced new one.
"So, what's the plan for now"