Chapter 205: Punching Up
Lukas sat there in the silence of the night, thinking.
When they finally returned to the ringed city, the first thing they would do was rest. Of course, his feet needed a Medic before he put them through anything serious.
And after a few days, maybe more, depending on how everyone felt, they’d tackle a dungeon. It would be their first dungeon run on the Second Floor, with Karrakas guiding them through it the same way he’d guided them through the desert.
He smiled to himself and couldn’t help but admit that he was quite looking forward to it.
Morning arrived gradually, the darkness at the eastern edge of the sky thinning first into grey, then into a pale gold as the sun began its climb.
The cold released its grip in stages, the air warming degree by degree until Lukas reached into his spatial ring and swapped back to his day clothes, the cooling underlayer settling against his skin.
The tent flap opened behind him.
Akira stepped out, both arms raised above her head in a long, loud yawn that she made no effort to contain. She dropped her arms, blinked at the morning light, and walked over to where Lukas was sitting.
"Morning," she said.
"Good morning, Akira."
She looked at him for a moment, then at the desert, then back at him. "How long have you been out here?"
"Not too long, but enough to enjoy the stars before the sun came out."
She nodded as if that was exactly the answer she’d expected, then turned and went back into the tent.
Minutes passed, then the aroma reached him.
It was faint at first, slowly growing stronger. It was the familiar aroma that came with meat grilled with spices. His stomach growled loudly, his mouth watering in anticipation.
Melody emerged from the tent carrying skewered meat, the pieces golden brown and still steaming slightly in the morning air.
"Akira grilled them," she said, holding one out to him.
He took it, a small frown on his face. "From the vultures?"
"Of course not. We brought meat with us into the Second Floor in our spatial rings, remember?" Melody said.
"Oh."
Karrakas’s tent flap moved. The man stepped out, his hair slightly less neat than usual, and stopped when the smell hit him. His expression shifted immediately.
"Is that..."
"You guys should make yourselves comfortable," Akira called out from inside the tent.
Karrakas’ eyes lit up and he retrieved another chair from his spatial ring, sitting on it.
Akira emerged a minute later with more skewers. She handed Karrakas his own and he accepted it with genuine gratitude, turning it over once before taking a bite.
They sat together as the sun rose across the sky, eating without rushing.
When the last skewer was finished, Karrakas set his hands on his knees and looked at the group.
"Based on the notes we made before coming out here, the Spiked Turtle should have moved through this area and continued on its migration path," he said. "Which means the beasts will start returning. Slowly at first, then in greater numbers the closer we get to the city."
"The return journey will take at least two days, because this time, we’ll be stopping to sleep. We’ll rest properly, and we won’t push through the night the way we did coming out."
"Agreed," Lukas said.
Melody and Akira nodded.
Karrakas stood, brushing sand from his suit. "Then let’s pack up and move."
They broke camp together.
Lukas crouched beside the nearest tent and worked at the fastenings, pulling the material down carefully and folding it into a manageable shape before storing it in his spatial ring.
He felt the pain shooting up his feet with every shift of his weight, but the boots kept the pain contained to something he could ignore entirely.
When they finished packing the remaining equipment, Karrakas moved a few meters away from where the tents had stood and crouched in the sand.
He brushed the surface of the sand aside with his hand, revealing a small marker he’d planted when they’d first made camp. It looked like a narrow spike driven into the ground with four lines atop it pointing in eight different directions.
Each point had a small letter carved into it, denoting the direction.
He brought out his compass and held it next to the marker, using it to find his reference point.
"There," he said, standing and pointing. "That’s our line back."
They arranged themselves and set off, all four walking together this time.
The first hour passed without incident.
The desert around them stayed empty, the sand looking undisturbed in every direction. Unlike what they’d expected, there were no eruptions or movements to show the beasts were around.
Lukas looked out at the flat expanse around them. "With the way the desert still looks... deserted, is the Turtle still close?"
Karrakas considered it. "Possibly. The absence of beasts tells us it hasn’t moved far enough away for them to feel safe returning."
He kept his eyes forward. "But even if it’s already gone, it’ll take time for the beasts to start returning. Most beasts around here are cautious of stronger beasts. They don’t come back to an area the moment the threat leaves. They wait a bit to make sure it’s actually gone."
He turned to smile at them. "Either way, we won’t see many for a while yet."
"I’ll take it," Akira said, then she reached into her spatial ring and retrieved [Temptation], holding it loosely at her side as she walked.
All three of them turned to look at her, eyebrows raised.
Akira grinned at them. "Just in case."
Nobody said anything to that.
They kept walking as the morning sun continued its climb overhead.
Then a notification appeared in front of Lukas.
Ding!
[Quest: Punching Up]
[Defeat the C-rank Spiked Turtle.]
[Reward: +2000 Gacha Points]
Lukas stared at it, eyes wide.
Two thousand points?!
He opened his mouth to say something, and that was the moment the sand ahead of them exploded.
