"I told you to rest, did I not?."

  "Julian," Maria called, her voice nervous.

  Seeing Maria hurriedly making her way to him, Julian took a step back. His eyes peeked at the river that had glowed blue as usual. Seeing his son making that kind of face again, Maria halted her steps.

  "What is it? Speak."

  Julian had changed into a new set of black clothing. The black shirt and the black trousers did not look any different from before, except that they were no longer full of holes and dripping wet. Also, he covered everything under his neck.

  By everything, he was even wearing gloves.

  "Speak, what is it?" Julian called out, seeing Maria froze wordless.

  Maria looked as concerned as usual. It was as if it were the only state she could find herself in. She hesitatingly walked toward Julian, fingers fidgeting on the grasped spark stone. She had questions. But only one was the most important.

  "Are you fine, Julian?"

  "Of course."

  Julian saw Maria reaching out to him. Perhaps because there was no more ground behind him. Or perhaps because he felt no need to, Julian did not move away.

  "...You look pale."

  Julian let those pitifully skinny fingers caress his face. His entire body was stinging. He felt like throwing up, and he could barely see anything in front of him. However, they were warm.

  He complimented his decision to buy the spark stone.

  "Of course. It's cold."

  "If you say so," Maria uttered, appearing a little dejected.

  A sigh left his mouth without him realizing it. His eyes gazed up at the ceiling of the cave. Compared to the cave above, the ceiling there was low. He even doubted that he, in his previous life, could fit in such a tight spot.

  It was more suffocating too, especially after a certain someone decided t0 stuck close to him.

  "I told you I am fine."

  "I know, but...,"

  It was obvious that Maria did not trust Julian's words a bit.

  Smack.

  Julian swatted the fragile hands away. Unfortunately, the hands that he pushed away were too oblivious. Through his labored breathing and blurry eyes, a hot stone somehow found itself in his hands.

  "I should not have come, should I?"

  Maria snuck the spark stone in Julian's hands, clasping her hands around Julian's smaller, yet rough hands as if she was praying. It was hot enough to give some mobility to his stiff fingers. Yet, it was giving him no warmth.

  "That's enough."

  "Um..."

  "Have this back."

  "No, you hold onto it."

  "Don't need it."

  Julian pulled his hands away before tossing the stone back to Maria. Kneeling beside the water once again, Julian dipped his fingers in. The water was as cold, much colder than before.

  "Do you need more rest? We have to move now."

  "I am fine."

  "Good."

  Picking up all the stuff on the ground, Julian wore all that weight carefully.

  He remembered the words of Jring. That bandit claimed that someone from the village wanted to bring them back. While that word had no proof, he could not shake off the possibility.

  He was certain that if they did not spend so much time packing their stuff back in the village, they would not be caught so early into their journey. Since there might be people looking for the dead bandits, he did not want to make the same mistake again.

  Especially considering those three were from a Clan.

  Slosh.

  Ignoring the searing pain from his wounds, he pushed himself away, giving space for Maria.

  "Right, put that stone here," Julian said, swimming back to the footing and shoving his satchel to Maria.

  Slosh.

  Hearing that Maria had also jumped in, he began to swim ahead. If there were no major shift in terrain, he remembered that it should take a couple of hours to get to the inner part of the forest. By land that was.

  Knowing he was still not capable of helping a drowning person, he reminded himself to stop occasionally.

  "Julian," Maria called, rather urgently.

  "What?" Julian answered as he stopped and turned back.

  "Your necklace. You forgot it."

  Maria caught up to Julian, handing him the purple-glowing necklace. Julian flinched, taken aback to see the three-headed eel loosely held in Maria's hand.

  "Julian...?"

  Awakened from his daze, Julian snatched that necklace away and hurled it into the water.

  He glared at his mother, his teeth clenched and his eyes furious. Veins were popping on his temple.

  "...Forget it."

  Not even letting the other person peek, he continued, "If you truly love this son of yours, forget that thing."

  ***

  Splash.

  "Haa....Ha...Haa...."

  Surface. He did not know if he had longed for the surface more in his two lives combined.

  His eyes darted around, seeing if there was anything that he should be cautious of. It was, unsurprisingly, dark. But, it was not to the extent that he could not even see the bridge of his nose like before.

  Well, if his eyes were doing their jobs properly, he should be able to make out the surroundings better.

  "It's safe."

  Turning around, he waited for a couple of seconds before Maria emerged from the resurgence.

  "Dry yourself first. I am going to look around."

  Julian tossed to Maria the 4th, or perhaps the 5th spark stone that he had bought.

  [205:22:58]

  With the countdown as his reference, he calculated that it should be around midnight.

  He was tired, and his stomach had not stopped complaining for quite a while. He guessed that Maria was feeling the same, as she did not make a fuss even when he was straying away.

  "Is this edible?"

  Crouching under what he felt was a tree, his hands groped several not-so-round things poking out from the bushes. He instinctively guessed they were berries. As to what kind of berries, he was completely clueless.

  'I can't see...'

  Lived throughout his life in a sunless and moonless world, even young Julian had grown accustomed to the darkness. Even in that pitch black, his naked eyes should have seen at least a couple of steps ahead.

  However, he found himself in near blindness.

  Thud.

  He crumbled to his bottom. His hands clasped his nose, stopping the warm liquid from flowing out of his nostrils. He stayed silent and low. Even his breathing was halted. He was aware that the worst action was alerting the tainted again.

  Grabbing a handful of mud, he stuffed and plastered his nose before forcing some into his nostrils.

  'Let's get this over with.'

  He wanted to finish his gathering session that had just started and return to the river. At the very least, if he collapsed or bled, there would be water nearby. Not wanting to idle any longer, he plucked one of the berries.

  He was already poisoned; a little more would not hurt.

  But something stopped his hand. Something glowing.

  [Note Berries]

  'Berries that are usually consumed by foxes.'