The party members by the fire all stood up on their feet and turned east toward the direction of the male voice. I also quickly sat upright and turned toward the sound.

In the far distance, a boy appeared to be approaching with a dying fire torch in one hand, while also helping an injured boy who couldn't walk properly. He slung the injured boy's arm over his shoulder and tried to quickly make his way to us.

"It's people! Finally!" He grunted, then he began to mutter to the seemingly dying boy beside him. "We are safe, we are safe Micheal. Just a bit further."

Ino quickly took a step to go help them, but then Dion reached and grabbed her hand then shook his head warily.

Ino gave him a quick look, then narrowed her eyes to the boys in the distance. "It looks like they need help." She turned back quickly to face Dion. "Aren't we going to help them?"

Dion leaned closer to her and quickly said in a tight voice. "We don't know who they are."

Ino went quiet for a moment. She frowned and bit her lip in contemplation.

I could understand the tense atmosphere and the reluctance of the party to help. After all, no one really trusted anything in this realm. And worse, with strange people now in this realm, it made it even harder to trust random people and encounters.

Celeste who was narrowing her eyes on the approaching boys finally muttered in a low voice. "I think I can see a haversack?" She quickly turned to the others. "They must be Cadets from a different bastion."

At that moment, the boy in the distance stumbled and both fell to the ground. When the boy's fire touch was extinguished, the boy yelled in even more desperation. "Please! Please help us!"

Hearing the desperate yell, Evelyn cursed and bolted into the desert.

"My lady…?" Julius started to protest, but then he shut his mouth and immediately followed her, lunging into the desert sand.

They quickly reached the boys, who were now struggling to stand.

Evelyn grabbed the boy who had called for help and helped him rise. Then she asked, "Can you walk on your own?"

The boy nodded while also gasping for breath. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

Evelyn then left him to assist the injured boy, who was now being helped up by Julius. Since the injured boy seemed to be in even worse condition, Evelyn slung one of his arms over her shoulder while Julius slung the other over his, and they quickly made their way back to us.

The closer they all got to where we camped, the more I could see the features of the two boys properly.

The injured boy was short with dirt-matted brown hair. His clothes were ragged, soaked in sweat, and matted in places with dried blood. His right leg had a deep cut, roughly bound with a cloth that was seeping fresh blood because it hadn't been tied properly and his face was twisted into a tight grimace of pain.

As for the other boy who had called for help, he seemed to be in much better condition. He was a lanky fellow with short, wavy black hair and a scruffy face. The moment I saw him, something about him rubbed me the wrong way. I couldn't quite explain it, but an immediate sense of wariness coiled in my gut. What's more, his face felt deeply familiar. I frowned as I tried to remember him.

…Just then, they all reached the grass after which Evelyn and Julius helped the injured boy onto the ground near the fire. He grunted in pain as he held his right leg.

At the same time, Ino had dropped beside the boy with a pouch of water. She quickly untied and took off the cloth, then began to pour the water over the boy's wound, causing him to grunt even more.

When Evelyn saw the large cut on his leg, and the how the boy grunted from the pain, she winced and bit her lip, a look of deep contemplation settling on her face. She looked like she wanted to heal him using her bonded ability, but for some reason, also didn't want to. If I were to guess, it was probably because of the drawback of using that power.

Julius then asked her, "Are you going to do something about it, my lady?"

She snapped her gaze to him, then shot back, "Why should I?"

She then stood up, seemingly made up her mind not to, and left the injured boy.

Meanwhile, Ino tore off a strip of her dress and began tying the boy's wound properly. "It's alright," she muttered to the boy in a low, focused voice. "This will hurt a lot less."

…All the while, I couldn't take my gaze off the lanky fellow. He stood expressionless as he watched Ino tend to his colleague's leg.

'Gamer Privileges?'

[Activating Gamer Privileges…]

'Pull up his profile.'

~~~~~~~~ Character Profile ~~~~~~~~

Character Name: [Yami Natsogu]

Age: [17]

Level: [16]

Grade: [2]

Element: [Darkness]

Exclusive Class: [Necromancer]

Class Attribute: [Puppetry]

Bond Name: [Valerius Drakmor]

Bonded Ability: [King of Souls]

Exclusive Skill: [Soul Eater - Lv10] [Soul Corridor - Lv10]

EXP: [7,500 / 10,000]

~~~~~~ ============== ~~~~~~

'Yami?! …Yami Natsogu?!'

As soon as I read the profile, a flood of memories from the game came back to me and I instantly recognized the boy.

He was a cadet from a different bastion called the Bastion of the Somarian Pride. Among the first years from that bastion, this lanky fellow was considered one of the strongest, but due to his evil nature, he was also considered a very dangerous cadet.

I had not been able to immediately recognize him earlier because one of the powers his bonded abilities gave to him was the ability to transfer his soul into another body after his death, and so, he never had the same face for long.

If I remembered correctly from the time I played the game, his current body was killed not too long after we crossed the veil at the puppeteers grove. This occurred after other cadets found out that he had been secretly killing them there to grow his power. The strong cadets, including me who played as Leon, ganged up on him. We thought we had killed him then, only to realize much later that he had simply jumped bodies.

Seeing this fellow here right now, I was struck by intense wariness. Contrary to how harmless he looked right now, only I knew how evil he was deep down.

'Oh, damnation. What kind of trouble have we just welcomed onto our doorstep?'

…At that moment, Ino finished tending to the injured boy's wound. But then almost immediately, the boy turned to the side and began coughing violently.

Yami, who had been watching quietly, quickly dropped beside the confused Ino. He reached out a hand, lowered his head, and said politely, "Can we please have some water? We haven't drunk anything in days."

"Oh…" Ino turned, grabbing a full water pouch from beside the fireplace, and quickly handed it over. "Here."

Yami then proceeded to uncork the pouch and gently hold it to the coughing boy's lips. He made sure the injured cadet took slow, controlled sips, pausing whenever the cough seized him.

When the boy was done drinking, Yami helped him lie back down on the grass, carefully adjusting the boy's position to ease his breathing. Then, he finally turned and drank deeply from the water pouch himself.

Once finished, Yami slumped tiredly onto the grass, letting the now-empty pouch fall from his grasp. He leaned back on one hand, rested the other on his knee, and tilted his head back, closing his eyes in exhausted relief. Then he muttered to himself, "Ahh… finally. Rest."

However, right at that moment, Ino stood up and asked. "Who are you guys?"

…Yami slowly opened his eyes. His gaze shifted from Ino, to the others who stood around him, before finally settling on me, sitting a few meters away with my arms crossed and staring intently.

Yami managed a small, tired smile. "Oh… forgive me for not introducing myself." He began politely, his gaze returning to Ino in front of him. "My name is Samael Morningstar and I'm from the Bastion of the Somarian Pride."

He weakly pointed to the injured boy on the ground, who was already sleeping from exhaustion, and added, "This is my party member, Michael. I only know his name. I do not know what Bastion he is from. I did not ask."

Yami took a few rattling, tired breaths, visibly gathering his strength. "After crossing the veil over a month ago, we were both unfortunate to wake up in the Orc territory of the Grade Two region. Since then, we began our long journey trying to make our way to the Puppeteers Grove. We finally reached the border of the Grade Two region a week ago. Unluckily for us, we were ambushed by imps and that was how Micheal got his injury. We managed to escape those annoying, pesky creatures into this desert four days ago. But it's been a grueling journey ever since with no food or water. Not even a place to camp."

He paused, then shot Ino a look. "…That's until we ran into you guys."

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