"Ahhh… Gosh I feel like shit." Dion muttered as he wobbled tiredly over to me, who sat in a corner drinking hot tea from a cup.

He immediately dropped down in front of me, leaned close, and bent over to see what was in the cup. "What is that? Ooh, it smells nice. Can I have some?"

"No!" I exclaimed sharply, pushing his head back firmly with my free hand.

Dion leaned back, tilting his head back, and sighed dramatically. "Ino, I've confirmed it. This bastard hates me."

Ino, who had just walked up to us, ignored him and sat down in front of me too. She held a whisperglobe in her hand that was projecting a large map, and she immediately rotated the projection so that the image was clearly visible to all of us. Then she began:

"Though this entire region is insanely unpredictable, I've tried to chart the most defensible paths that lead to the Puppeteer's Grove." She zoomed out and highlighted a winding line on the map. "To get there, we need to keep heading Northwest. If my calculations are right, it should take us a few days to completely leave this immediate territory."

Her finger tapped the line. "There are a few caves along this initial route, so finding shelter before nightfall shouldn't be an issue. All we can hope for now is that the torrential rainfall we had yesterday doesn't repeat itself, and that the caves we stop at are empty."

She adjusted the map while simultaneously pointing at three locations. "There are three small territorial crossings directly after Merdini's Burial Ground to the northwest that all lead to The Bridge of Nothing."

She tapped the first territory. "If we go through this one right here: The Floodlands, we'd likely end up dying of elemental causes before the monsters there even got to us."

She moved her finger to the territory in the middle, then circled it. "As for this territory, it's a complete blank spot on the whisperglobe; nothing is recorded. We know nothing about it, so I think it's best we avoid it entirely."

She pointed firmly to the last territory. "This third territory is The Valley of the Screaming Dead. Using this route would be horrendously unpleasant, as we would constantly need to fight the multitudes of undead creatures non-stop. It is also significantly longer, but it is the only viable option we have if we are to make it to The Bridge alive."

After that, she paused to let us process that. Dion scratched his hair, his face twisting into an expression of reluctant resignation that clearly read: 'I don't like this, but since we don't have a choice, we might as well just go with it.'

I, on the other hand, narrowed my eyes, studying the second territory.

Ino was right when she said that nothing had been recorded on the whisperglobe about it. The reason was that everyone who stepped foot into it died almost immediately. Without prior information, it was impossible to make it through the territory alive, to even record anything about it.

Luckily, I had information about this territory, including a way to get through it safely.

I raised my head to Ino. "What if there was a way to get through that second territory safely?"

"What?" Ino looked to me questioningly. "You know a way?"

I nodded.

She looked at Dion in stunned silence, then turned back to me as I took a sip of my drink. "How? Not even whisperglobes have anything on that territory."

I lowered the cup, then scratched the side of my head with a finger. "Uhm… I have an ability that lets me know a few things... sometimes…"

Hearing that, Dion gasped jealously. "Woah dude…"

Meanwhile, Ino glanced swiftly at the map, then back at me. "That changes things. Uh… we'll use the second territory. And if we make it out safe, then…"

She zoomed out of the map and pointed to a large location after the three territories. "...we'll find ourselves at the edge of the Bridge of Nothing. From what we know, this bridge is one of the paths that leads into the Grade One region, and the only path closest to us."

Her expression dimmed again. "The only problem is that this bridge appears for only one hour a day. We would have to run across the entire Bridge of Nothing to reach the edge of the Grade One region before it vanishes."

She looked to me, a flicker of doubt in her eyes. "Can we truly run across the bridge to the other side before it disappears?"

I was quiet for a moment, then I shrugged and replied. "We'd have to try."

Dion exhaled tiredly. "That means we'd have to run at top speed for almost an hour to be able to make it across before the bridge disappears." He looked away from the map, then chuckled sarcastically at the idea. "I can already feel my lungs… no, my entire body burn, from just saying it out loud."

He rubbed his face with slightly trembling hands and let out a weary sigh.

A heavy silence followed until Ino looked away from him to me, breaking the quiet:

"When do we depart?"

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, thinking about it. I didn't want us to stay long here, in case something unexpected attacked us again, like the people before, or worse. But there were two reasons why I also couldn't say that we should leave immediately.

Eventually, I looked up to Ino then replied. "We'll leave after three days."

She nodded slightly in agreement.

A short while later, I stood up and walked toward the dark path leading to the cave's entrance, intent on finding the first reason we couldn't leave immediately.

The path wasn't entirely dark, as someone sat leaning against the narrow wall with a small oil lamp flickering by her side.

It was Celeste.

Ever since she woke up, she had borrowed an oil lamp and had come here to sit quietly alone. She held a ferret in both hands and kept stroking it. Her entire face and clothes were drenched in sweat and her skin looked even paler than normal.

'She must have last used right before she crossed the veil.' I thought as I approached her.

She must have brought enough to manage the doses, but having lost her haversack in the Aziz Beautiful Garden, she was now going through severe withdrawal.

Celeste flinched and turned to me when she saw me, but I just waved a hand and offered a quiet, "Hey." I then pointed to the ground beside her. "Can I sit?"

She smiled warmly and nodded a few times.

I then walked over and dropped down beside her.

For a moment, we were silent together. Then I finally spoke.

"It'll pass soon."

Celeste looked at me, then nodded slowly.

I then reached to side, pulled out a pouch of water from the inventory, and handed it to her.

"Here, drink a lot, it'll help with your dehydration. Just be sure to take small, frequent sips, okay?"

She reached out shakily, took the pouch, and said weakly, "Thank you."

[You have acquired 50 Karma points.]

[Available Karma points: N 1,865 / P 650]

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