Escape

The night passed, and the trio continued on their journey. Faloan, Autumn, and Aaron were back on the swan and were trying their best to ease their boredom. Faloan was absentmindedly polishing his swords, trying to restore them to their previous glory, though it would prove to be a near-impossible task. He would need a blacksmith to properly repair the weapons. The blades already had holes all over them, and it was only because of the strong material they were made of that they weren't already destroyed.

Meanwhile, Autumn was sadly looking at his sword. Or at least, the fragments of it. To begin with, the materials used to make it couldn't be compared to those Faloan's swords were made of, so shortly after the battle, it had broken apart when Autumn tried to swing it. Normally, he would bring it to a blacksmith as well, but he knew it was a lost cause. He may as well scrap it and buy a new one, it would be much cheaper than repairing it anyways. His sword wasn't all that rare, so it could be found practically everywhere. With the budget they had, that was the best option.

Aaron found himself as the only one with nothing to do. He reached for the pouch at his side, deciding to look at that strange rock more closely.

Reaching into the pouch, moved his hand around, trying to find the rock. There was nothing there.

'Where did it go?' He wondered. Had he misplaced it somewhere?

He checked the pockets in his coat, then the ones in his pants, and even turned the pouch inside out.

He didn't find it.

"Where did it go!?" He shouted out.

"What happened?" Faloan asked.

"You know that rock you gave me? The one from the cave?"

Faloan nodded.

"It's missing!" Aaron cried.

Faloan looked at him, confused.

"Are you sure you didn't misplace it?" He asked.

"I'm sure I didn't!" Aaron answered agitatedly, "I must have left it behind when we stopped to sleep! We need to go back and get it!"

Faloan replied, rolling his eyes. "Very well, but if we can't find it after half a day, we're continuing towards the city."

Aaron agreed reluctantly, still wanting more time to look for it, and they flew back.

...

Meanwhile...

'Whew.' Roland let out a sigh of relief. The moment he had heard that they could be there in just a few more days, he knew he needed to get off. If he escaped while they were flying, they would immediately chase after him, so he waited until they went to sleep to escape.

The reason he left as soon as possible was that if he got into the city Aaron and the others lived in, he wouldn't get a chance to escape, surrounded by so many people. Plus, what if the material his body was made of was rare? Escaping in the middle of a city would attract more attention and make more people chase after him. That's why he decisively left when he got the opportunity.

When they fell asleep, he had left, and he was already miles from the site of his escape.

He now found himself in another forest, with trees as tall as two-story buildings. The sunlight filtered through the tree leaves, and small rays of light lit up the forest floor. In contrast to the places he explored previously, this place had so many animals it was almost overcrowded. Most of them were around level 4 though, so he wouldn't get much experience from them. When he flew up to get a better vantage point, he could a small mountain in the distance

He checked how much time was left until the update was complete.

[Time Until Upgrade is Complete: 2 Days, 19 Hours, 31 Minutes]

'Not much longer,' he thought to himself, before continuing. He didn't have a concrete goal and was just flying around the forest randomly. He found a few interesting plants around, alongside other things, and simply placed them in the Spacial Storage. He would look at them when the system finished updating. Not much happened for another few hours, besides a foolish beast that tried to eat him. He got rid of it with a few wind blades, then continued. There were many varieties of creatures in this forest. He could see many animals from Earth, although oversized, and a few looked like they were straight out of a video game. There was a two-headed turtle ambling by, a giant venus flytrap the size of a man that had three heads, and there was a spider web in a tree with strands as thick as a baby's arm. However, those were rare, and he eventually decided to do something more productive; Skill grinding.

His logic was that since there wasn't anything else to do, he might as well improve his strength. He already knew that even if he trained his skills while the system was upgrading, the levels would be added when it was done, so he spent the next few hours doing just that. The only thing he regretted was not looking at his status before the system started upgrading. If he had, he could have started leveling up Thunder Beam by now.

...

Aaron sighed as they rode on the back of the swan, dejected. Obviously, they had never found the rock. If he had sold it, he probably could have gotten enough money to support the orphanage for months! Unfortunately, it had disappeared.

Autumn and Faloan comforted him, telling him they could just do a few more missions and they could get just as much money, but he wasn't convinced.

Their words only made him feel more guilty. During the battle, he was the one knocked out while the other two fought, and now, Faloan had entrusted him with that rock, but he had lost it!

He felt useless, like he couldn't contribute to anything. It was like he was just dead weight, leeching off of the efforts and hard work of others.

Oblivious to Aaron's inner monologue, Faloan and Autumn were having a conversation.

"How much longer do I have to wait?!" complained Autumn.

"Not sure," said Faloan, uncertain. He hoped they would get back to the city as soon as possible. The longer they stayed out here, the higher the chances of something going wrong. Plus, their food supply was running out. In another 5 days, they would be out of food.

"Not much of an answer," Autumn muttered, but he stayed silent for the rest of the flight.

...

Three long, boring days passed until eventually, a giant wall appeared in Aaron's vision.

"Estaria!" He called out, excited at the very thought of returning to the city.

"We're back!"