The moment they were clear, Julius, Aika, and I collapsed entirely, scattering like broken dolls around the limp bodies of Celeste and Evelyn.

All of us were struggling to catch our breaths, and for a long moment, the only sound was the harsh, ragged wheezing of five exhausted people and the faint, unsettling rush of air from the chasm where the bridge had been moments before.

Julius was the first to speak, his voice breathless. "That... that was close. Too close." He then struggled to turn toward Evelyn, who was lying sprawled and looking pale and almost lifeless.

"Are you okay, my lady?"

Evelyn slowly turned her head to him and nodded once tiredly.

Meanwhile, I struggled to sit up. Even though I was in a world of throbbing pain, I forced myself to focus on ensuring we were not in any immediate danger.

My long black hair, now slick with sweat, covered my eyes, and so using my good left hand, I brushed the wet strands back from my face. Then I took a quick desperate look around. The terrain was dirty and rough, paved with small, jagged stones. Just over a hundred meters away, a vast, large river began. The sight made it immediately clear that the precarious edge we had fallen onto was, in fact, a desolate riverbank.

'This must be the Grail river…' I thought, as I studied the river.

There were lots of wood scattered in the water including a few twigs and a few massive, dark logs drifting slowly in the water near the bank.

I exhaled a breath of relief as I confirmed that at least for now, we wouldn't be attacked by any creatures.

I then looked to my right arm and tried to flex my fingers but they wouldn't obey. It felt like the entire limb was useless from the shoulder radiating a mix of pain and strange numbness.

Just then, I heard Aika's voice beside me. "Chew on this."

I turned my head to see her reaching out a small, tightly folded towel that she had pulled out from the inventory.

I took it and looked at it in a mix of confusion and curiosity, before looking back to her. She mimed, pointing to her mouth and then to the cloth, urging me to bite down hard.

I then tucked the towel into my mouth and bit down, giving her a questioning look that asked if I was doing it right.

She gave a small nod, then reached out and grabbed my dislocated right arm.

'Hey… what do you…'~

Before I could finish, her expression grew serious as she suddenly jerked my arm straight out and twisted it sharply toward my body.

A blinding, white-hot spike of agony suddenly shot from my shoulder socket down to my spine causing me to chokingly scream into the towel. I bucked against the pain, my vision swimming for a moment.

Then, just as suddenly, the pain subsided to a throbbing ache. Aika let go, pulling back her hands and watching my reaction for a bit before asking tiredly. "...You feel better?"

I spat out the towel and winced, then tentatively rotated my arm. "Yeah…" I looked to her. "Thanks."

She looked away and slumped onto the ground. For a moment after, a calming silence settled over us. I then joined and gently lay on the ground. And just like that, all party members lay sprawled on the ground, simply too exhausted to care about anything else.

***

Hours later, my eyes fluttered open to see that the sunny sky had changed and it was now sunset.

I didn't know when I had slept.

However, before a thought could even form, I immediately sat upright, looking around. Then I heaved a sigh of relief when I confirmed we were all okay.

Dion was sleeping on Ino's lap while she seemed to be busy on the whisperglobe. She looked okay and had likely recovered from her earlier exhaustion.

Celeste was sleeping on the ground at exactly the same spot she had been earlier.

Evelyn was sitting on the ground some meters away, leaning on Julius while still asleep.

As for Aika…

I immediately darted my gaze to a small distance away where I saw her sitting in front of a fireplace that she had probably made using the equipment from the inventory. A large black cooking pot was suspended over the flames on a makeshift tripod. She had wrapped a heavy, dark length of cloth around her shoulders like a shawl and seemed to be drinking something from a bowl. A rich, earthy aroma from some kind of broth drifted toward me.

With a grunt, I pushed myself off the floor, then wobbled my way toward her and dropped beside her on the ground. She turned to look at me briefly, her eyes darting from my face to my shoulder, before finally looking away toward the fireplace. Then she said softly. "I made us some soup."

There was a small empty bowl on the ground, with a small dirty towel resting beside it. I first tied my long hair back, then using the towel to cushion my grip on the handle, I picked up the small pot and emptied its warm, amber contents into the bowl.

I took a hasty sip and immediately gasped, smacking my tongue against the roof of my mouth. 'Hot... damn, that's hot.'

I shifted the bowl, blowing into the liquid for a while, then took another, careful sip.

Then just as I lifted my head, a large notification popped up in front of me in vivid green and black causing me to flinch slightly.

[The exclusive attribute Gamer Privileges has detected major changes outside its scope of meta knowledge and wishes to update its database.]

'Hm?'

[Do you accept?]

I slowly turned to face Aika. She looked at me, then after a few seconds, gave a slight shrug. I looked back at the floating screen. A few seconds passed in contemplation and then I responded.

'I accept.'

[Updating Gamer Privileges…]

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