But then, if he wanted to be someone who flaunted what he had and boasted a lot, he'd probably be dead by now.

So he decided to let Riven be engulfed in that moment of self-praise.

"And the plot twist in all this is that you'd swear I gained my ability from the rifle..." Riven said, only to be interrupted by Tatehan before she could continue.

"You didn't?"

"Nope," she said with a smile, as always. "That device that can detect footsteps and sounds before they get close was what granted me my ability."

"How did you get it?" he asked.

"I found it half-buried in the sand when I was around eight. I initially thought it was a toy, so I used it as one. That was until one day I saw a series of messages flood my retina with words saying that I'd awakened a weapon and the weapon had granted me an ability."

Despite her earlier self-deprecation, Tatehan believed the ability to predict incoming attacks from an enemy was pretty cool. Imagine if he had it combined with his current abilities, he'd be nearly invincible. At that point, he was even sure he could take on two maulers alone, together, and actually come out on top.

It was a... good ability.

With her rifle, she should be making the most out of it.

"Your ability is cool, to be honest," Tatehan told her. He felt that some reassurance wouldn't hurt.

They continued the journey in silence, and now Tatehan was slowly increasing the speed of the Dust Rider. He was gradually increasing it to the level from earlier that made streaks of tears drop from his eyes.

The land in front of him was still barren and empty like the areas they'd just passed, and Tatehan found that to be odd since he'd expected to be seeing houses or maybe cities by now.

"The place has been so dry," he said to Riven, who had her head rested on his back. There wasn't any romantic tension between the two even though they were way too close and Riven was gripping him very tightly.

To them, it felt normal, what had to be done so she wouldn't fall.

"It's to be expected," Riven replied. "This is the near-end region of Mars, and it's mostly made up of barren places, a few canyons and boulders. More of a desert even though it isn't technically one."

That made Tatehan wonder what Riven had been doing here in the first place. What was her aim for reaching a place as far and deserted as this? Back at the spaceship, the Spaceship's AI had told him that the ship was hidden where it was 99.9 percent sure a human wouldn't find it.

This seemed to be true because even the Obscuron, as strong as he was, didn't know where the Spaceship was. Same would apply to Riven. Something must have brought her to the destination where he'd found her. Maybe she was looking for something. He couldn't say.

The following minutes were tedious as they said little. They passed a mini mountain, something so small Tatehan was slightly taller than it, then they passed a region where large monsters they couldn't identify were scattered about.

The monsters were tall and lanky, with bony hands and elongated fingers, clearly suffering from starvation because there wasn't a single way for them to find food except by eating each other in a place as deserted as this.

They looked almost skeletal, their movements sluggish as they wandered aimlessly across the red wasteland.

"Don't slow down," Riven whispered urgently into his ear. "Those are Bone Walkers. They look slow, but they're not. If they sense vibrations stopping, they swarm."

'She sure knows Mars so well,' Tatehan thought after what Riven said. While he had never seen these monsters before, Riven was already giving him advice like she was holding a history book on Martian monsters.

Their names sounded like ones given from their appearance. And pondering on it for some seconds almost made him laugh.

Bone Walkers.

It meant that it was their bones that were walking.

Dark humor kind of joke.

But then, the name made him remember a TV series he'd watched back on Earth. It had 'Walkers' in it.

He seemed to have forgotten the full name, what came before walkers...

He kept the Dust Rider at full speed. He didn't need to be told twice that he needed to avoid these creatures.

He sped between them, like he was going through a field of cacti, trying hard so that none would get a hold on them. If that happened, either he or Riven would be jerked down forcefully and they'd have to engage in another battle, which he wanted to avoid.

Of course, he didn't know what type of cores the monsters possessed or how useful they would be to him. Perhaps they might grant him another ability.

Tatehan dismissed the thought. He was too tired to engage in a fight with creatures as desperate as these. Creatures that had their eyes literally glowing with hunger and starvation.

Creatures that had bones walking rather than flesh.

One of them turned its eyeless head toward them as they passed, its jaw hanging open in what might have been hunger or just eternal exhaustion.

They left the Bone Walkers behind, and Tatehan exhaled in relief.

"I almost feel pity for them," he muttered.

"Then I bet you'd be so generous to spare a portion of your thighs?" Riven said dryly. "They'd thank you till your last breath for it."

Tatehan got the joke and he chuckled.

Some minutes passed and Tatehan was starting to get worried that they'd only been riding for not even an hour. The core he'd installed earlier had a duration, and now they were still using it.

'Time sure is slow.'

The sun had shifted position in the sky, casting longer shadows across the place. Tatehan checked the core status mentally.

Suddenly, he saw words across his retina:

[Core energy depleting]

[Duration remaining: Four minutes, thirty-seven seconds]

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