Chapter 3: Mole hill.

  “You dumbass!” Jason was cutting up the catfish while pointing out the obvious. Right after Fay left the lake there was a swarm of eels, or whatever they were; they could have been sea snakes. Congregated to the blood, trying to eat anything there. If Fay was any later he would be eaten alive, as each fish was the same size of the catfish, and had razor sharp teeth that could chew through bone. “Dumbass. Dumbass. Dumbass.” He kept smiling throughout, clearly proud in some way.

  Bark had taken a liking to skinning the rabbits in his own morbid way, finding it satisfying, planning to use the pelts for something later. Promising to make Fay a cool set of white pants and Millie to make her robe more palatable, unknowingly just insulting their clothes by saying it needed desperate improvements.

  They decided, as the yellow sky afternoon came, that Millie would keep watch while they slept, all night. She said her skill was nightvision, one of the best Common ones, but with her grey eyes, it was very easy to tell when the pupil was constricted or dilated. And Fay saw that her pupils were very much struggling to see into the dark of the forest ahead.

  The screams had pretty much stopped in the distance, likely half of the people who came here were dead, the rest surviving much like them. Who knew how many would die after night came and went, who knew if it was going to be them.

  Fay played with the sand, trying to see just how little mana he could use with the skill he had, it happened to be a water droplet at minimum, he could drop a tiny whisk of sand and then stop it mid fall, letting it regain its momentum a second later. That only used one mana, and was quite fun because he could stop a clump of sand and then whack it mid fall to change its trajectory.

  With that experiment, he could also see how long he could stop a clump of sand for, the answer was a bit tricky, and he couldn't really figure out the math but it was something like this: He dropped a trail of sand, froze it, froze it again, but instead of it costing one, it costs two, so he thought it may compound, but then when the sand happened to fall a tiny bit, it returned back to one, so if he were to stack the skill on one single object while it's already stopped, then it'll cost twice as much, but if he were to time it, the price reset.

  More interestingly, he found that the object, when you repeat the skill on it, becomes less of a floating object, like how sand would work under water, to a solid, like it was frozen. He pressed his palm against the double stacked skill sand and it was like it was stuck it place, he had to really push on it to have it move, and when he stacked it three times, it was impossible to move, and he guessed he could stand on the frozen sand and keep his balance before it fell again.

  But he was using too much mana, the third stack cost 16 instead of 4 like he would guess, so he took a break.

  “What are you planning to do when you get out of here?” Jason spoke to nobody in particular. Gutting and deboning the fish, leaving the guts on the sand to be used as bait later for traps.

  Bark was the first to answer, “I wanna become rich, like a celebrity.”

  “Well yeah, if you make it out you'll become a celebrity.” Jason chuckled, “how about you Fay?”

  “Sleep.” He wasn't really thinking about the question but rather getting ready for a nap, the exhaustion got to him.

  Jason laughed, “Yeah? Okay…” He finally fully gutted the fish and removed the bones, now getting the fire ready. “I’m gonna kill the prophet if I get out.”

  Fay grew cold, his fingers felt prickles and his eyes were struck open, he felt an unbearable danger nearby, something he had never felt prior. Like a dragon or a demon was about to slash at his innards, like an explosion was a second away from turning them into a paste. Looking around, he only saw his group. And her. Millie. Sitting politely on her knees, getting the fire ready. His heart began to race, feeling like the next moments could very well be his last.

  “Why’s that?” Millie asked. Poking at the fire to get it burning, she used two flint rocks to cause a spark on some dry grass.

  “He kills kids.” Fay answered for him, getting a look into her eyes, constricted pupils and all. “Doesn’t he?” He tried to give a nonchalant smile.

  “The monsters kill kids.” She smiled, “but yes, I suppose. Though nobody should blame the executioner, he is just doing his job.”

  The feeling in his fingers died down, surprisingly nobody else happened to feel the same danger he felt. They were happily working away at their jobs, not knowing that something somewhere was about to stop their hearts. Fay kept silent and groaned, “maaan im hungry. This is lame.”

  “‘Least we’re not dead.” He fried the fish on the now stoked fire, “to think that this was all there is, it isn't so bad is it? They said this place was a warzone, seems fine.”

  “You’ll give us bad karma!” Bark finished all three rabbits, having a neat set of pelts along with bloody pieces of meat that went straight onto sticks to be cooked. With the butcher's skill he found it easy to gut them, and to put the sticks in and avoid bones, letting the sticks rest between bones so it won't fall apart.

  Fay, wondering for a moment, or at least trying to distract himself off Millie, tried to freeze a flame, on the edge of the fireplace, watching as the skill took up 20 of his MP and the flame dissipated completely. Jason was a bit annoyed but it told Fay alot, he didn’t exactly know why, but it probably had something to do with the parameters of ‘momentum’ and how fire and flames being frozen will likely be without a source to feed off. But the reaction was so intense and quick that even that didn't feel right.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Whatever, I don't care. He told himself and ate his first portion of catfish, it tasted fine, he didn’t really care about food. He knew that was a strange quality to have, but he really didn’t care for a lot of things, food, alcohol, certainly fighting, drama was another thing, though nobody has ever said they like drama, people love drama. Not him, that wasn't to say he didn’t enjoy life, he just hadn't found the thing that brought that spark, like his dad with fletching or apparently Bark with skinning animals alive creepily.

  The sun finally hit some of the trees and mountains in the distance and the air grew cold. Jason ate some of the worst parts of the food because of his skill, becoming full much faster than Bark and Fay, while Millie decided to just nibble and play with some plants she found, something she seemed to genuinely enjoy.

  “I may go searching for more plants, is that okay?” Millie stood up and bowed, “I will be back before sunset. Thank you, friends.” She politely bowed yet again, excessively, and strolled towards the forest.

  Fay stood up as well, “I'll join her, can I bring a sword?” Fay asked. Bark was hesitant to give away his weapon, but with Jason around he relented and let Fay hold it.

  “Be careful…” he said.

  “Thanks.” Fay had to hold the sword close to the blade because the far edge was bitten and gross, it had little holes in it that freaked Fay out for some strange reason. “Millie!” Fay shouted and ran over along the sand and onto the grass. “Can I come?”

  “Of course.” She bowed again and continued her trail into the forest, which at this point was dark and rustling constantly with nighttime winds.

  With Fay’s hair still wet he ran the risk of getting some cold sickness, but since she was a “healer” he felt safer than normal. “What are you looking for?”

  “There’s a certain tree sap that can be mixed with yellow spined mushrooms, it makes a narcotic, much like a hallucinogen. We don't have the mana required for poison making just yet, especially with monsters, so hallucinations will be as good as we can get.” She droned on, “and don’t you forget that if we find mana crystal fungi, the ones that usually grow around damp swampy areas, we can turn the yellow spined mushrooms into a tasty snack, on high heat, so the effects don't take place, they say it tastes like sweet chicken.”

  I’m bored

  She continued to stroll, spotting a certain berry on a bush, “these are good for-” claws reach out of the bush and swipe at her, she fell backwards in an attempt to seem clumsy, but it just so happened to allow her to roll away from the creature's next attack. “Help!” She shouted, whipping her hand out in what looked to be an attack. Fay got a good look at the animal, it looked like a big mole with its fingers sharpened into dagger-like appendages.

  How much mana do I have again?

  [Status]

  [Fay]

  HP: (60/60)

  MP: (64/90)

  He brought the sword up in a swing while the creature happened to just be standing still, staring at her. The blade arched down into the moles back and hit what must've been bone, it didn't matter, as the mole whipped around and broke Fay’s sword.

  Millie looked completely out of breath, so he knew she wasn't going to help as the mole slashed at his stomach.

  [FAILED Stop Momentum]

  He tried to stop it but its size and momentum was too much, a few nails dug through his armor and tickled the skin of his belly. He had no way of knowing if his insides were about to spill out so he decided to kick the mole's small arm weakly.

  [Activated Stop Momentum]

  He used it on himself so he didn’t stumble backwards and dragged his body around the creature's nails and the sword into its face. It didn’t relent as its other arm tried to intersect the half broken sword.

  [Activated Stop Momentum]

  [Activated Stop Momentum]

  He used it twice on the sword, the moles other nails clanked against the sword as it froze in mid air for a second or two. Fay pulled away, twisted his body to be in the front of the mole, all the while its nails on one arm were trying to unstick itself from the frozen object. He grabbed the sword right as it unfroze and slammed it into the moles round furry head.

  That still didn't kill it, as the blade was definitely too dull and at most acted as a hammer, the mole got ready to slice at Fay again, until the creature simply droned downwards, like it was getting ready to nap. And rested atop of Fay as if he were a pillow. The back of the mole was bleeding the whole time, and all Fay could have thought at that time was that this fighting thing was stupid. Who would want to do this? This sucks.

  He felt the need to sleep but resisted it for a while longer, Millie grabbed his shoulders and pulled him from underneath. “Just missed your skin, huh.” She poked his belly, “gotta stitch that up, luckily the leather not your stomach.” The front of Fay’s armor was torn and flapped open, becoming essentially useless, “or we find a corpse to loot.” She looked him in the eyes. The sun had finally set and darkness was encroaching upon them, the moon appeared right behind her from his view, making her look ghostly pale.

  [Slain Rabid Mole (LVL 2)]

  +12 XP

  Only 12 XP.

  Millie took the sword and began to cut the nails of the mole, "If we can get these on hilts, they’d be useful.” She told him, the nails were pretty much stronger than steel, so he just watched her cut the creature apart, collecting the nails in her robe and continuing into the forest.

  “You’re still going?” Fay stood up, dizzy and staggered.

  “Just looping around, come on.” She walked into the bushes and fully expected Fay to follow her, which he did.

  He wasn't joining her for no reason, he wanted to know if that feeling he had about her was real. Or if he was being paranoid or mentally ill, she certainly looked tired after rolling away but the mole didn’t attack her. Did she use a spell? He did remember her wafting her arm, but that could have been anything, a spell without a signal was dangerous, even Fay’s stop momentum spell made a small plunk sound.

  They found a small hole in the ground, “There’s home.” She took out some herbs and much like before, began to mix them using her blood. The concoction, within minutes began to seep a low red gas. “Don’t breathe it in, it'll make you drown in mucus.” She said and collected the fluid in her hands and dripped it down the hole. The gas slipped down as it was heavier than air. They moved away and waited a solid thirty seconds in the bushes. Fay heard a squeal, then the rapid tapping of dirt breaking apart, then nothing.

  “Only one…” She sighed and continued to walk, “usually they are in groups of five, hm.”

  Fay pretended not to hear as they finally turned back towards the base, she did find some yellow spined fungus beside a puddle, but it was small and uncultivated, so she left it to grow, kicking water onto it.

  They arrived back at the base to a worried Jason and Bark, the fire was dimming down and it made sense to keep it that way, to not become a target. “Thought you died!” Jason hugged Fay and noticed his armor, “oh, bad fight?”

  “With a dragon yeah.” Fay sat back down and laid flat, “I’m tired, g’night.” He shut his eyes, and without a worry in the world, fell asleep.