The central cavern was even more ravaged than when Matthew had first visited it.

  Rivers of blood stained the limestone walls, and deep crevices larger than him were torn into the ground.

  There was a horrible smell of smoke and burnt bodies.

  Matthew looked at the bodies of his comrades.

  They were missing many parts of them. They couldn't even find two bodies.

  One was the cowardly Loadbearer from the first group. Matthew had never thought to learn the boy's name.

  The whole journey through the White Caves, the Dark Forest, and the horrible battle of the central cavern had been long and hard on everyone, yet they had dismissed the boy, finding him annoying and cowardly.

  Yet the cowardly boy had never run. He was with them the whole way and had died helping Joey distract a Stone Titan.

  He had been crying, but he stayed.

  Joey looked slightly out of it, watching the cavern with a glazed expression.

  Matthew glanced up at him, feeling he had to say something that would make everything make some sense.

  Joey shook himself out of it before asking, "Hey, where's your sword? Let's cut up these monsters."

  Matthew sighed. "We'll talk about it later, but I'd rather not summon that thing."

  They took their time checking the bodies. Some were too pulverized to eat, but what they wanted was spirit essence.

  Unfortunately, there was none.

  Brian puffed his cheeks, disappointed. "All this death, but we can't profit off it?"

  Parker walked like he was eighty years older than he looked. He had about ten essences in his hand. "I have four from the Blade Demon, three from the Salamander, and a couple of them had one essence with them for some reason."

  Asha had about eleven, nodding. "I landed a blow on some of them before they died. I guess one is the minimum for participation."

  Kirk had a long cut on his arm. He held out seven essences to Matthew. "Matthew, these are yours from those two you killed—the Salamander and the Blade Demon. They were torn apart, but we found ten essences in the Safe Point."

  Matthew shook his head. "Give it to Parker for now."

  Kirk looked unsure about that but handed them over anyway. Matthew watched him and the many others searching for essence in the battlefield.

  They stared at the black blood scattered over the place with an impatient look on their faces.

  Jesse wrapped his leg in bandages and helped him stand. They returned to the Safe Point to use the hidden exit back to the White Temple.

  The tunnel was so dark they had to constantly brush their arms against the walls.

  He had nearly fainted putting shoes on his burnt legs, but now, walking through the rough, rocky road, he realized it was for the best.

  The place still smelled faintly of the can of repellent he had burned to produce the white smoke.

  It was strangely overpowered by Jesse's perfume. Cedarwood and lemon. Reminds me of Sicily.

  Jesse's hesitant voice reached him through the darkness. "Am I—do I smell bad?"

  Matthew wanted to kill himself for being so obvious in the dark. Did she hear me, or is this one of those situations where darkness enhances your hearing and smell?

  Matthew laughed awkwardly. "No, your perfume… it reminded me of something."

  "What did it remind you of?" Jesse asked.

  Matthew looked forward for a second. There was nothing here to move the conversation from this.

  He considered saying he just thought she smelled nice but soundlessly groaned. "Well, when I was younger, in my first year in uni, I traveled with my friends to Italy…"

  Jesse began to talk about how her dad had gotten the perfume from there.

  Before long, they launched into a conversation about traveling with friends. Her dad had never allowed Jesse to leave the state, not to mention the country.

  Matthew shrugged. "It was easier in uni. Just lied about when school was closing, and we bought the Eurostar tickets early. From there, we had a friend in Paris who was really rich—or normal rich. He never liked talking about it. Anyway, he would grab us tickets for Frecciarossa to Milan, and we'd stay for a week or two."

  The entire tunnel was quiet, and Matthew realized probably everyone had heard them.

  Jesse said slowly, "Damn, you're a lot cooler than I thought."

  Matthew glared in the dark, "what's that supposed to mean?"

  Kirk sighed in defeat. "I've never even been out of my hometown. I lived with my parents throughout uni."

  "My grandma shipped me out to boarding school from Year Seven. She kept giving me a speech like I was supposed to be gutted about leaving," Matthew explained.

  Asha laughed. "Most parents don't realise the favor they're doing for their kids sending them to Boarding. When I lived with my uncle in London, I was always too skint to travel."

  Parker hummed in annoyance. "Aye, we get it, mate. You guys are international."

  Jesse sighed. "I'm more shocked you lied to your parents, Matthew. I trusted you, but you're just like the others." She sighed dramatically, shaking her head beside him.

  The tunnel was already tight for two people, so Matthew pressed against the smooth walls of the tunnel uncomfortably—but also against her, warmly.

  He filled his mind with thoughts about the hidden tunnel to avoid other thoughts.

  Why is the wall so smooth? Why was this place hidden anyway? There aren't many monsters that can see aren't many. Why would an animal worry about hiding the entrance with a perfectly carved hollow stone too?

  Jesse roused him from his thoughts. "You lived with your grandma?"

  Matthew frowned. He had foolishly said something about his life they didn't know. "I'm too tired to talk about all that now."

  Jesse grew quiet. After leaving the hidden tunnel, they walked back to the second exit.

  The corridor outside the second exit was strangely colder. The rocks were black, and there was more moss here—different types.

  It looked a little like the glowing white moss was consuming the more natural moss.

  There was a lot of moss against the second tunnel.

  As they were entering the exit from the Dark Corridor, an echoing roar rang out, but they all just shivered and ignored it.

  The White Temple was strangely quiet, it expansive hall and four great pillars glistened under the torchlight.

  Many people sat against the walls or were sprawled on the floor weakly. Many were asleep.

  The rest of their group was surrounded by haggard-looking people.

  Adelina walked up to them, a distressed look in her eyes. "Everyone's asking for food."

  Jamie scowled. "They can fuck off. Didn't they call us stupid for leaving?"

  Someone scoffed. "Tell them to go out and kill something for a meal."

  Jesse looked dismayed as everyone began to make fun of the hungry people.

  Matthew couldn't blame them.

  They had been ridiculed and eventually extorted by people who thought they were idiots.

  The people hearing them ridicule them had a mix of reactions:

  "Come on, man, we were wrong. Doesn't mean you have to treat us like shit."

  "I guess y'all are real big now."

  "What if we wanted to join but were scared? I never made fun of you guys."

  Many of the group members began to argue with the people begging.

  Joey pushed someone aside. "With that attitude, I recommend eating your shit soon."

  "Hey, don't put your hands on me," the guy quickly retorted, stepping back at Joey before backing down as the rest of the first group stepped up to him—excluding Matthew for obvious reasons.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Jesse watched the argument, a little disappointed, as she helped Matthew take off his shoes.

  He gasped and cursed as he took them off, lying back as the stinging pain racked his body.

  Parker said, "I want to feel sorry for you, man, but there's something wrong with you."

  Asha nodded quickly. "You could have let that monster beat those ants up."

  "Monarch," Kirk corrected.

  Parker raised an eyebrow. "I get that it's sort of friendly to us, but it could have killed us in the chaos. Why do y'all always call him that?"

  Matthew was about to answer before shouting, "Joey, lad, can you put it to rest, please?"

  Joey and Brian turned back to him, sending a warning glare to the people they had been arguing with before leaving.

  He sighed, moving his toes painfully. "The Forest Monarch is not a monster. He's sort of the guardian of the Dark Forest. Most likely, he goes to war against the ants because of how overpowered they are. He likes to keep the balance in the forest stable—if not, the fragile balance there will fall apart quickly."

  Asha laughed derisively. "He told you that, huh?"

  Matthew nodded, which confused both her and everyone else. Most had stopped arguing and were just listening.

  "It can speak. Like, telepathically. But it's not words—it's images, symbols, colors, feelings, and just a whole lot of things."

  They all looked dumbstruck and skeptical at what he was describing, but Brian shrugged. "Why are we all acting like we don't have magic screens? Besides, it was obvious that the Monarch is special."

  Asha looked totally lost for a second before lighting up with vivid excitement. "Wait, it spoke to you?! What did he say? Also, it came over to us at the end of the fight, and its horn was glowing. I thought he was going to erase us, but it just left. Did it tell you anything?"

  She had crawled over as curiosity overtook her, and Jesse was the only thing holding her back from Matthew as she raved on.

  Matthew answered quietly, "We've only communicated twice. And it is a she… I think. Once, she asked me for fruit. The other time was to thank me for helping her."

  "A she?!" Everyone exclaimed—some worried, others rather interested, while most couldn't believe it.

  "Wait, does that mean she could have kids?"

  "No, thank you. Can two of those things even move around together? This world's too small for that."

  "She likes fruits, huh? Could be useful to us. When did she thank you?"

  Matthew couldn't raise himself to look at who asked that, so he shrugged and looked at the green dot in the corner of his right eye.

  He willed the interface to open playfully because he was too tired to use his hands—but then it actually opened.

  That makes a lot of sense, honestly, because my hands have definitely passed it without accidentally opening the screen. Intent is key, I guess.

  Matthew looked at his screen and checked his spirit essence counter by asking it to show him.

  ---

  name: Matthew Holloway

  level: 2(Spirit essence: 6/8)

  Health: 60/110

  stamina: 30/80

  mana: 10/10

  traits:

  - Ariel's Web

  skills:

  armaments:

  - Kinslayer

  stat_cards:

  ---

  Not bad.

  The Monarch had directly given him some essence from the ants. Its wide range of abilities continued to astound him.

  He had a strange idea and asked the Screen if it was possible to absorb essence without touching it. A prompt appeared immediately:

  Automatically absorb essence from enemies slain?

  Yes / No

  Matthew was very annoyed by this. There was no indication that this was possible before—so how would they have known?

  He sighed and listened as they began to recount the events of the fight.

  During their escape from the safe point, Vasilis and his goons had fled.

  Only Petyr remained, having betrayed Vasilis and helped them retrieve their spirit essence. He watched Matthew with a conflicted expression.

  Matthew, of course, ignored him. He would deal with him later, but for now, he had to rest and slowly fade from the unfortunate spotlight he had put himself under.

  Unfortunately, Jesse wasn't making it easy.

  She knelt beside him with some fruit and their water bottles, then raised his head lightly to place it on her legs.

  He stared, uncomfortable. "Hey, you don't have to—"

  "Shut up. Don't make it awkward. The only reason I have to help is because you don't seem to have a sense of self-preservation."

  Matthew felt a little annoyed by her tone but shut it away. "I did what I had—"

  "Shut up. I don't care."

  Matthew rolled his eyes. "Would you let me speak?"

  "When you learn to not throw yourself at any problem headfirst," she muttered before shoving a piece of fruit she had cut into his mouth.

  She had some herself and smiled. "Yoooo, what the hell? It tastes like a really sweet strawberry, but it has more juice."

  "Too much juice, honestly."

  "Shut up. It's alright."

  Matthew licked the inside of his mouth. The fruit was a bit too sweet. He asked, "Can I have water?"

  She glared at him before letting him have some from her bottle.

  He decided to eat the fruit peacefully to avoid an argument. He personally preferred the one with red spots he had given the Monarch.

  Joey stared at him a little funny before Matthew remembered their talk in the Dark Forest. Jamie was also looking at him grimly.

  She's throwing a spanner in the works. Jamie will never hear a word out of my mouth clearly again.

  Parker was smiling at him and seemed to want to say something dumb. Before Matthew could stop him, he asked—

  "Hey, what about that sword you got?"

  Everyone turned to him, remembering he had gotten an Armament.

  Brian frowned. "Where'd you get a wish coin anyway?"

  "I gave him one. It was Paul's… well, you know. Anyway, he said he would give me one back."

  Matthew winced as he fished the three wish coins out of his pocket and tossed them to Parker.

  Adelina beamed. "Wow, you guys really went hard."

  Joey shrugged. "Matthew found two, and Jamie found one later. Hehe, you can say Matthew's winning—two to one."

  Jamie glared at him, but Joey laughed carelessly.

  Brian frowned but ignored them, instead asking, "Summon the sword. Let's see."

  Matthew internally groaned. I'm on, like, ten percent charge. Can you folks leave me alone?

  He sighed, summoning some strength to speak.

  Jesse beat him to it. "Hey, let him rest. He… he's an idiot who almost killed himself five times today."

  "Two times, actually, I—"

  "Shut up."

  Matthew sighed before sitting up, resisting Jesse's attempt to pull him back down.

  He grimaced in pain and turned to Brian, looking at him through exhausted eyes.

  He hesitated before saying, "The name of the sword is Kinslayer. Its rank is Rare."

  Parker shook his head, impressed. "What's its description? Why don't you summon it?"

  Asha intervened. "It's kind of a cursed sword. He can't dismiss it till he hurts something with it."

  She rubbed her forearm where a small cut was.

  Seeing the concerned look in Parker's eyes, she quickly added, "I asked him to cut me so that he could dismiss it."

  Kirk was completely geeked out, smiling. "Kinslayer is such a cool name! And that's the first rare thing we've gotten from the Root."

  Matthew had hoped no one would notice, but this, of course, started another conversation.