Chapter 30

On a bed made of leaves, a girl opened her eyes while yawning sleepily.

'How long was I asleep for?" she thought as she sat slowly on the bed using her hands for support.

Crack

As she was positioning herself, she heard a crack coming from below her. Pushing aside the leaves below her palm, she noticed that there was a crack evident on the stone below it. Apart from Zena, who was in a state of panic.

'What happened to me?' She thought, trying to remember the last memory she had before passing out.

As the memories flooded her brain, her face twisted with disgust at the thought of what could have happened. However, when she looked around the room her disgust eased a little.

'If I am back here, does that mean we won?' She wondered.

Yes, the girl was Zena. She had finally woken up on her fourth day.

'Well, whatever the case is, I think I have broken through two levels in a row.' She thought, clenching and unclenching her fists.

Soon, a smell filled the whole house, making her stomach growl. 'Oh, that's right, I have not eaten anything in four days.'

Getting up from the bed, she headed to the living room outside. Soon she saw the source of the smell. Her eyes widened in disbelief at what she just saw.

Fares was standing at the stone stove, cooking what seemed like Raptor meat to her. But that was not what shocked her. She was shocked to see how he was cooking the meat.

Even though he was in front of the stone stove, he was not using it at all. He was just cooking the meat in mid-air using fire. Yes, using energy source fire.

"You are finally awake, young lady," Azkar said tenderly. At the voice, Fares turned to look at Zena.

Zena jumped in surprise and turned to look at Azkar. Laughing awkwardly, she said, "Umm, uncle Azkar, how long was I out for? And what happened after I passed out?"

"Unfortunately, we lost the bet." He said with guilt in his eyes, if not for him accepting the bet, they would not have been in this situation.

Hearing his statement, Zena fell on her knees with a lifeless look on her face as if losing all hope.

'It is over. It is all over. Mona… Mona would hate me, and then I will die all alone somewhere without knowing when or where.' Her mind raced as she thought of all the bad possibilities that would happen next.

"…a"

"…na"

"Zena!"

"Wake up, Zena!"

Zena snapped out of it when a strong arm grabbed her shoulders and shook it. It was Fares, who came to her first.

He knew what was going on inside her head right now, Azkar had already told him. When he realized that she had finally snapped out of it, he looked deeply into her eyes.

She blushed and turned her head to the side. However, he said, "Look at me Zena." in her mother tongue, greatly shocking her that she temporarily forgot about her problem.

Looking at his green eyes, Zena saw the resolution within it and calmed down enough to hear what he has got to say.

Once he realized she had finally come to, he said slowly, "Do not worry, I have a plan. For it to work, I need you to do exactly what I say. Do you understand?"

Even though he learned from Azkar a lot more from the language the past few days, he still was not fluent enough. Thus, he had to make sure she understood for now.

"Y-yes!" She replied, slightly dazed.

"Okay, so here is how it goes…" He then proceeded to explain his plan in detail, not even leaving out the reason it might work.

"If what you said is true, then there is a chance it might actually work," Azkar said rubbing his beard deep in thought.

There was finally hope in Zena's eyes, making up her mind, she got up from the ground and looked at Fares saying, "How do we make it work?"

"A good question, here's what you have got to do…" He said, this time, however, he whispered the steps.

A moment later, the door snapped open, and in came a little figure.

"What are you whispering about? Mona wants to know too." Mona said pouting. She was eavesdropping on them through the door, and pretty much everyone knew already. Except for Zena, who was in a state of panic.

"And that will be it for now." Fares said to them as he released his hands from Zena's shoulders. He then stood up and returned to his cooking.

Zena also stood up with determination in her eyes. Since when was she such a scaredy-cat? She lightly slapped both of her cheeks at the same time to wake herself up.

"I will help too." She said as she went to prepare the table with clean leaves as plates.

"STOP IGNORING ME!" Mona shouted as she puffed her cheeks.

"You do not have to worry, little Mona." Azkar said patting her shoulders.

"Hmph." She said, turning her head to face to the side.

A short while later, Fares readied the meat, just then he thought of something. He infused energy into his hands, shaping its edges thin at the hypothenar muscle area.

He then tried extending it above his hands. When it passed the 15 cm mark, it started to ripple and finally dispersed. 'That is my limit, huh?' He thought.

Fares then made another energy blade and attempted to cut the meat that was hovering in the air. The Raptor's meat was chopped perfectly into two halves.

After a few more cuts, Fares divided them into six portions and placed each on the leaf plates.

Everyone became amazed that he could do that already, except Mona, who still would not turn her head back.

"Come on, Mona, let's eat together." Fares said.

"Hmph." She harrumphed and still would not answer.

"How about I give you an extra piece of meat?" Fares said slowly, letting it sink in.

Her ears perked up, clearly interested.

"What about I give you 2 extra pieces?" He raised his offer.

This time, Mona could not take it anymore and agreed with a slightly sour face. "Fine."

Later, after the meal, Fares started training Zena for his plan to work. There was not enough time, ideally, he needed a week, but he did not have time, he needed three days to teach Zena the basics.

Unlike his expectations, Zena paid attention and learned the technique in a few hours, shocking Fares.

"That's quite nice. Are you secretly a genius?" Fares complimented.

"Heh Heh." Zena made some weird sound with her nose high up in pride.

"Mona wants to try too." Mona said next.

"Ha Ha." Fares laughed awkwardly, not knowing whether he should teach her or not? He still had to go over the plan with Zena.

"Not right now, Mona, I will teach you myself once I return safely." Zena said with nervousness on her face.

"Do not worry too much. If you follow the plan, there won't be any problems." Fares said as he tried to awkwardly pat her head. He had never had to ease any girl's nervousness before, and it was quite hard.

"UN." Zena said nodding as she lowered her gaze downwards blushing deep red.

Bang~ Bang~

Before Mona could retaliate that it was not fair, someone knocked at the door.

Dread appeared on Zena's face for a split second before making up her mind.

But Fares was a step faster and went to open the door. There he saw a muscular bald man with a deep scar running across his chest, from one shoulder to the other.

"It is about time she woke up." Said the bald man rudely.

A glint of coldness crossed Fares' eyes before hiding it again quickly. "You are going to have to wait for her, then." Fares said closing the door in the bald man's face.

"You rude bastard, I will teach you how to talk to your elders." The bald man screamed as he collected his energy into his fist and pinched at the door.

Fares paid him no attention and went to give Zena the clothes he made for her.

The bald man's fists hit the door, and he was sent flying a few meters back before coughing a mouthful of blood.

Azkar's barrier was still up, that was why Fares paid no heed to the bald man.

When Zena returned out after changing her clothes, Fares' heart beat too wildly in his chest. She looked too stunning, with her red hair and fit body. The clothes just served to refine her beautiful curves and smooth skin.

"So, how do I look?" She said blushing from Fares' stare.

Fares gulped and then said, "Beautiful, too beautiful." He was an honest man, what was in his heart was always on his tongue.

Zena blushed beet red with her heart beating rapidly in her chest.

"I will be going then. Wait for me, everybody." She said with resoluteness showing on her face.

"Good luck out there." Fares said tenderly.

"Good luck, sister Zena." Mona said sending her off as if she was sending her on a hunt.

"Good luck, young lad." Azkar joined in too.

Zena opened the door and headed out towards the grumpy bald man.

"Let's go." She said coldly to him.

"Let's see how you will keep up with this attitude." He said, sneering at her.