Chapter 201 - Slow Recovery

The abrupt stop of the golem made Rynold open his eyes.

"We're back," Neana said with a disdained tone to her voice. She didn't appear to be in a good mood. Well, considering the situation, Rynold couldn't blame her for it.

With Rynold still injured, he could only watch from the golem's shoulder as Neana started her search. She looked at the same spot where they had left the child behind, hoping that the kid didn't move from there. After the fight against the brain creature, they could use a win right now.

And, luckily, the kid was still there.

He appeared to have done what Rynold had instructed. The thousand-year-old child followed what Rynold said and stayed still. The kid had kept what he had promised to Rynold and actually listened to what he said. It was, for the most part, a relief.

As Neana walked back to the golem with the kid in tow, Rynold then came to the realization: What next?

It dawned on Rynold that, so far, he hasn't accomplished anything he came here to do. For the most part, Rynold got distracted time and again. So much so that he had wasted most of the day now. And, even though his goals were clear, he currently had no idea how to get to them.

"What happened to you?" the kid concerningly asked as he saw Rynold from the ground. Without even needing to get closer, the injuries that Rynold sustained were far too obvious.

"I'm fine," Rynold answered as his voice was on its way to clearing up. Currently, it appeared as though Rynold's internal injuries had magically healed themselves, thanks to his Mana's recuperative properties.

It was still going to take some time, but he was on his way there.

"He got too cocky, is what happened," Neana gave a rather snarky response, eloquently expressing her displeasure. "Next time, try not to get yourself nearly killed, alright?"

Rynold knew it was coming, that Neana was bound to say something about the whole situation. And, now that Rynold showed signs of recovering, it was at this moment that she chose to do so.

However, she also knew not to go overboard. Neana was quite sensible, after all, as she knew Rynold acknowledged his mistakes. Anything more than what she already said would've only led to a fight. Which, right now, was neither time nor place for it.

"Alright, I admit it. Things did not go well," Rynold spoke with a somewhat broken voice. But, at the very least, it was more than one word and was comprehensible. "Things ended the way they did was entirely my fault. I should've known better. I'm sorry."

The apology was stiff. But, it was an apology nonetheless.

He meant every word of what he just said. And, if it helped, Rynold wouldn't shy away from any ridicule. He'll even accept whatever follow-up Neana might say. It was his way of apologizing and acknowledging his mistakes, especially when he troubled somebody else in the process.

"Good," Neana paid it no more mind as she shook her head. "What should we do now? We already wasted a bunch of time chasing after those guys."

Despite its simplicity, Rynold couldn't answer the question. He couldn't think of what other plausible plan of action moving forward.

For the most part, they could keep going forward into the city. But, well, considering what had happened so far, that might not be a good idea. Rynold somehow always got himself into more trouble the further he went. So, it was only inevitable that he would come to doubt himself.

Before Rynold could dictate his hesitation, though, the kid interrupted all of a sudden.

"When you were gone, I took it upon myself to scout things out," the kid explained, "At first, I didn't find anything of importance. As I looked around, I then saw a bunch of people grouped up in one place. It's a bit of a way from here, but we should be able to get there before the sun goes down."

Immediately after hearing that, Rynold became skeptical. He didn't doubt what the kid saw. Instead, he somehow didn't believe that people would stay here. There was no reason to, after all.

"Are you sure you saw people?" Neana reconfirmed.

"Without a doubt," the kid confidently answered, "They had tents and stuff all over the place. I think they even carried weapons with them."

Turning to Rynold, Neana immediately asked what he thought about all of this.

"You don't think it's-"

"I do," Rynold answered and interrupted without a moment's hesitation as he shifted his body slightly, showing how uneasy this made him feel. "It's an army camp. And, if it's near this place, I'm guessing it's a forward base of some sort. Since there are no citizens here, it's probably safe to assume that the soldiers stationed there are at the very edge of the perimeter."

Rynold's analysis was likely the reality. Which, consequently, was something Rynold was trying to avoid.

He didn't want to deal with any other people right now. At this point, Rynold was sick of dealing with interference that kept getting in his way. He didn't want to deal with any other creatures if he could help it.

From what Rynold gathered, human beings were the most annoying creatures out of the whole lot.

Feeling defeated before anything happened, Rynold felt his frustration well up. As far as confrontations go, Rynold would much rather deal with ghouls. Hell, he'd even choose to fight a Behemoth Ghoul rather than to deal with a bunch of soldiers.

"Hey!" Neana called out and snapped Rynold out of his frustrations. "We should probably get going now before it gets dark. He says it's kind of far from here, right?"

As much as Rynold wanted to say no, he couldn't. Especially not with the eager look that Neana carried. It seemed as though Rynold had no choice but to approach the camp. It's not like he could go out and do something else, anyway.

With yet another deep exhale, Rynold reluctantly nodded.

"Alright," Rynold frustratedly agreed, "But, if we're going to do this, we have to do it right. Getting into a fight with a bunch of arrogant blowhards is the last thing I want right now."

That said, Rynold tried to push himself off the golem's shoulder. Even though he had finally managed to get comfortable on top of it, Rynold would have to get rid of the golem. That is if they wanted to get into the camp without any problems. Approaching without a gigantic stone creature would be a better, less-conspicuous method.

But, even if Rynold had tried to exert the smallest amount of effort, he wasn't exactly in a condition to move. As far as his injuries went, Rynold got significantly better, but it still wasn't to the point of complete movement.

"What are you trying to do?" Neana asked as soon as she saw the strained expression Rynold made. He was trying to scooch off of the golem. Quite pathetically so.

"We need to get rid of the golem," Rynold answered apathetically, "It's going to be a massive pain if we tried to enter the camp with it. As much as I appreciate the thing carrying me, I'd much rather avoid any conflict."

Finishing with that, Rynold finally got around to jumping down from the golem's shoulder. It caused his body to ache all over, but at least his cuts didn't reopen.

"Right," Neana agreed as she canceled the summoning, "But are you sure that you can walk on your own?"

"I'll manage," Rynold said as he took his first step then turned to the child. "You ran off on your own, huh?"

"Yeah," the kid casually answered, not worried about what Rynold might say.

"Good, good. It's that intuition that you have to stick to, alright? Especially when I'm not around. Listening and following your instincts is the first step to survival."

Rynold then lightly patted the kid on the shoulder. He didn't mean anything by it, just the fact that the kid was doing better on his own. Rynold didn't even have to say or do anything that would've influenced the kid's opinions.

"Lead the way."

With the kid walking down the path, Neana followed behind without missing a beat. Rynold, on the other hand, could only limp as he took his next steps in following suit.

Their pace was considerably slower than what it should've been. With Rynold injured state, he can only walk slower than either of the two. In other words, Rynold was slowing them down.

It was at this moment Rynold thought of his Miniature Floating Platform. And, how much easier it would've been if he had actually fixed it before leaving for Ark City. Just the convenience of it alone was enough reason for Rynold to fix it.

But, there was no going back now. Rynold just had to deal with his injuries.

'Well, doesn't this just suck.'

Rynold staggered forward, with his injuries keeping him at a slower than desired pace. Taking one step at a time, Rynold found himself frustrated.

'There's got to be a better way. Wait. Maybe there is.'

For some reason, Rynold never thought to do this one thing. It's been a long time since he actually last touched it, and, weirdly enough, he never seemed to think of using it. Now, though, seemed a good a time as any.

With a smirk appearing on his face, Rynold opened his Attribute window. The one window he hadn't thought about looking into for some time. That he honestly had even forgotten.

And, now that he was looking at it, there was a good reason why he didn't.

'That doesn't look very good,' Rynold thought to himself as he continued walking at his pace. The reason why he thought that was simple: his Attribute distribution was weird.

As expected, his Intelligence Attribute was the highest among them, with a whopping 95 points into this one Attribute. It was thanks to the investment of his free points and his [Technomancer] Class that led to this high number.

For the other Attributes, though, it wasn't as good.

The highest Attribute following Intelligence was Endurace, for some bizarre reason. Hell, Rynold couldn't even recall when he put so many points into this one Attribute. But, hey, that explained his survivability so far; 50 points weren't some low number, after all.

That said, the other Attributes then followed. Stamina with 38. Agility with 30. Both Strength and Perception had 20.

All in all, four out of the six Attributes were underwhelming. Which, consequently, made him wonder how Oliver and the rest distributed their free points.

Regardless, the whopping one hundred and thirty-five points were calling out to him.

It was an absurd sum, Rynold admitted, but it didn't come for free. He knew how hard levelling up was. So much so that he started to overthink how he would spend his free points.

'Maybe if I...'

Rynold was an Intelligence-based fighter. His Mana Gauntlets scaled heavily with his Intelligence Attribute. But, it wasn't necessarily the best investment either.

He recalled what the Spirit of Fire told him before. Rynold was facing the same dilemma as the one Prominence Alpha described. It was uncanny how the guy detailed the exact situation Rynold was currently facing.

The Intelligence Attribute was more than useful for any Magic User. An increase in overall Mana capacity was great for anyone. And, with it, more powerful spells too.

But, Rynold also needed some survivability and raw power. With a close combat fighting style, this much was obvious. The answer to this was Strength, Agility, Stamina and Endurance.

Endurance would increase his survivability. Stamina pumped his ability to stay in fights longer. Agility and Strength would make his punches faster and harder. The one left was Perception, which was something he also needed to bring out True Caliber's potential.

Suffice it to say, this wasn't an easy problem to solve.