"Hey!! You can't just take that!!" Yuan shouted, but I ignored him and continued walking.
There was nothing he could do about it after all—such was the price of being weak. If I lost, I would expect no less. It was shameless of him to think I would have pity on him or his followers.
I was eager to get back to the cave before someone spotted us with the supplies, so I walked at a brisk pace, holding Luna's hand. I could tell she was uncomfortable from her flushed red face, but her comfort was not my priority right now.
In the shape I was in, I wouldn't be able to fight, and from her pathetic display earlier, Luna wouldn't be of much help either.
Why was I keeping her around again?
It wasn't long before we arrived at the cave. I recalled the Mockingbird back into my inventory. I was still wearing the same outfit I wore to the entrance exam. My shirt was covered in blood from the stab wound.
I was covered in fist-sized bruises; it was like I had been his punching bag. My body ached all over, and it was then that I realized the calmness I felt during the fight was probably just adrenaline, and it was wearing off quickly.
I sat on the ground of the cave and opened the supply bag. They had to have medical supplies, and thankfully they did. It was a miniature first aid kit. I picked it up and opened it; thankfully, there was a roll of bandage and a sterile needle. The only problem was that I had never used any of these before.
How hard could it be?
Tap.
There was a tap on my shoulder. I glanced up to see Luna staring at me. Even though she was the one who approached me, she still averted her eyes.
"I-I can help… with your injuries, I mean."
I decided to accept her offer and handed the kit to her. She sat in front of me and began cleaning my wound, her hands trembling as she did. We sat there in silence for a while until she let out a silent sigh. Then she got a strange look on her face, and for the first time in a while, she looked straight into my eyes.
"I don't like it when you hurt people. I don't like it at all!" she pouted, causing her cheeks to swell up.
Was this supposed to be anger?
She looked like a hamster.
Such childish dreams; she seemed the type of girl who viewed the world with wide-eyed wonder but there was something else that was bugging me about her.
"Why did you decide to help me back there? You could've easily sided with Yuan."
"That's because you said we were partners… And I also want to know your real name, and I want you to know mine." Wasting no time she said, "I'll go first this time; my name is Luna Dobrev."
"Why are you trying so hard to make friends with me?"
My question seemed to catch her off guard; maybe she thought I would jump at the opportunity to tell her my name.
"Because…" she paused and held her head down. "Because I don't have any friends, and I thought that maybe you don't either. That's why you…"
I guess there was no harm in telling her.
"My real name is Liam Morningstar." She cracked a small smile as she picked up the needle to begin suturing the wound.
"Why is your hero name the same as your first name?" I asked out of curiosity.
"Oh, I'm bad at naming, so I just decided to go with my first name."
It was a stupid idea. From what I learned from Alliah, it's always better to keep your identity secret, even though she herself was bad at that. That's why I didn't take off my mask in front of Yuan.
"This is going to hurt." She said after threading the needle and began suturing.
I wanted to know more about her, especially since we were going to be partners.
"What exactly does your system do? Explain it to me in detail."
"Huh? W-why do you want to know that?" She was visibly startled by my question. "I don't like my system."
"It's not the system that's the problem; it's you. You keep saying stupid things like that."
"No, you don't get it! It—"
"Changed your appearance? Who cares? It's your system. Getting worked up over a dumb thing like that is honestly ridiculous."
Her eyes got teary, and just when I thought she was about to cry, she looked up and asked me something.
"So you're fine with my appearance?"
She looked nervous asking the question. I reached out and placed my hand on her head. I felt it was the best way to get my point across.
"You look fine. In fact, on a societal level, you're considered very cute."
She was a beautiful girl; she was probably picked on because she was an easy target. The most that happened to me was people whispering and making jokes. They tried to avoid me more than anything. But maybe she had it worse.
Her face was bright red, her paleness skin made it hard for her to hide her emotions, which was understandable. A normal boy would've flinched at telling her she was cute or at least gotten nervous.
It was easy for for me since she meant nothing to me; she was just convenient in the moment. If it got her to be useful, I would say it as much as she wanted. I would feed her delusions of us being friends until she was no longer necessary.
"I think you're beautiful, Luna."
Maybe it backfired because she stared at me with a dumbfounded expression, and her breathing grew heavy. Her mouth was wide open, like she wanted to say something but couldn't. She then covered her face and began kicking her feet like she was on drugs.
"You can't just say that!! You idiot, moron!!"
She covered her mouth in surprise. So this is what she was like when she wasn't cowering.
Huh? Maybe I made a mistake.
"Fine, if you want to know more about my system, I'll tell you." She gave an exasperated sigh. "I only have two skills: Soul Extraction and Curse Creation. After the monsters have been killed, Soul Extraction allows me to extract their souls, and Curse Creation allows me to create new monsters out of the souls I collect, called curses."
That made sense.
"I'm guessing the quality of the monsters depends on the quality of the souls you collect?"
She nodded.
Honestly, it was convenient. There was no opposing force to our systems, since I got points after I killed the monster, and she could extract their souls after I killed them. That made our partnership all the more necessary.