Ren woke up, sweaty, on Eric's back. The base was nowhere to be seen.
"What..? Where are we..?"
He tried to move, but quickly gave up as pain shot through his body.
"Argh..!"
"You shouldn't move too much," said Rita, calmly watching him.
"Where are we..?" Ren asked again, looking around.
"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, tightening the cloth he'd used to strap Ren to his back so he wouldn't shift too much.
"Why didn't you just leave me behind? It would've saved you resources. And what if another one of those things had shown up?"
Rita hit him.
"Ow! What the hell?!"
"You could have just thanked us, you know?" Rita said, shaking her head.
Ren looked at her and stayed quiet for a while. Then, reluctantly:
".. Thanks."
Rita smiled.
"You're welcome," said Rita and Eric together.
Ren looked around a bit longer, his gaze lingering on the vast sea of sand surrounding them.
"So.. where are we going..?" he asked, turning to Rita again, but Karma was the one who answered.
"We decided to go to a nearby oasis to rest and heal for a bit. We'll also get some more water. Then we'll have to choose a destination."
Ren looked at him and nodded.
"Good thinking."
After the fight, the group felt closer. Even Ren, who still hadn't told them his name, was friendlier toward them. He was still cautious, but no longer completely paranoid.
They kept walking for a few hours before stopping to rest as the sun rose. They used a piece of cloth and a few sticks to build a makeshift parasol. It would be cramped, but it was still better than burning in the sun.
Ren still couldn't move much, and Eric couldn't use both hands properly, between his missing fingers and the weight of carrying Ren and most of the supplies. That left Rita and Karma with most of the manual labor. It took less time than they'd expected, since Karma turned out to be pretty skilled with his hands. After only a few minutes, the parasol was done.
The team went straight to sleep, since they hadn't slept all night. Ren, however, wasn't tired, having slept through the day and the night.
"This is gonna be a pain.. I need to get my internal clock back on track."
He lay down, looking up at the grey cloth shielding them from the sun, and tried to lie still, hoping to doze off. It didn't work.
Bored, he summoned his stone tablet to check whether anything had changed, and to his surprise, something had.
"What..?"
Ren sat up quickly and studied the changes.
[Name: Ren Gray]
[Title:]
[Skill: Instinct Lv 1, Primitive Stab Lv 1]
[Level of growth: 0]
[Achievements: 1]
He stared, baffled.
'Okay, this really looks like a video game..'
When he touched the new "Skills," the writing on the tablet shifted.
"What the..?"
The letters moved and changed, some appearing, others disappearing, until they finally settled into some sort of skill description.
[Instinct: Survival instincts that had 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 a sharp object was used to pierce through the opponent's flesh. It could use some work. Slightly improves damage caused by stabbing.
Rarity: Common]
"... Okay, this is cool," Ren said, mesmerized.
After studying it a little longer, he finally managed to fall asleep.
When they woke, the group set off again right away. They weren't far now and should arrive before sunrise.
"Hey, guys! I think I see it!" said Karma, looking into the distance.
"Oh! I see it too!" replied Eric.
The group sped up and quickly reached the oasis. There was a lake of clean water, and next to it stood a house, pretty run down.
Rita and Karma ran straight to the fresh water, while Eric carried Ren inside the house. He found a bed, helped Ren lie down, and sat beside him.
Ren looked at him, thinking.
"Show me your hand."
"H-huh?"
"Your fingers. You lost them, right?"
"Well... yes, but..." Eric answered, confused.
"I'll bandage them properly," said Ren, confusing Eric even more.
"... Um... okay.."
Eric slowly took off the cloth that was already there and handed Ren a clean piece of fabric. Ren took his hand and carefully cleaned the injury with water, then bandaged the cut fingers, taking care to hurt him as little as possible. When he was done, Eric had a clean bandage on each of his two fingers.
"We'll have to change them every once in a while."
Eric looked at his hands, then at Ren, dumbfounded by how neatly it had been done. He hadn't been fond of letting Ren touch his fingers at first, since he didn't know whether to consider him a true ally after his earlier behavior.
"This is... very well done! You're very good at bandaging!"
Eric smiled at him. The smile almost made Ren shiver. Eric was nice, but he definitely looked creepy.
"... I used to live alone, and since I wanted to cook my own meals... well, I had more than one accident.."
Ren showed him some scars on his fingers.
"Oh... Well, thanks. Um..."
Eric paused, realizing he didn't know his name.
".. Ren. My name's Ren."
"..!"
Ren had been thinking about it for a while now, and it was honestly silly of him not to have shared his name with the group. He didn't fully trust them yet, but they were clearly not fairies who would enslave him after hearing it. He couldn't help feeling embarrassed for ever suspecting that was why Rita wanted it.
Eric stared at him, surprised by the change.
"...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 give you my trust and risk getting betrayed right after... But I guess... well, it's 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 was awkward, but genuine.
Eric smiled at him.
"I should probably go see the others. Stay here and recover," he said, walking away.
Ren lay back down and looked up at the ceiling. There were holes in it, and through them he could see the sky slowly brightening with the sun's light.
Days passed as Ren slowly healed. Soon enough, he could move again, and soon after, he began trying to stay active by running in the morning or simply moving around.
During their stay, they gathered more water, canned food that was in the house, clothes, and one more knife. Despite his new skill, Ren decided to leave the knife to Rita, who no longer had a decent weapon.
After a few more days, to make sure everyone was rested and had all the supplies they needed, they finally started planning their next move. Rita spoke first.
"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 in blind?"
"She's right. We don't have any other way to know," Ren added. "But if it turns out to be another abandoned base, we could still find useful information there. We did in the last one."
Karma was unhappy with the decision but couldn't argue, so he finally agreed.
The group chose to leave the following night, to rest one more day.
Ren's body barely hurt anymore, and Eric's hands were usable again, so all that was left to do was go. When night fell, they were ready. Glancing one last time behind them, they left, oblivious to what was about to unfold.