Somewhere around what Izoke assumed was 2 am Sumiko woke up. She took a shift watching the hollow tree entrance. Izoke only slept for about four or five hours. Being a player meant he was more resilient and needed less rest. As the sun rose into the sky Izoke slowly opened his eyes, blocking the light with his hand. The air was cool and crisp and morning dew was everywhere. Their surroundings felt quite peaceful and quiet. He stood up and looked around only to realize something was missing.  Sumiko was gone and her blanket was discarded on the ground. Izoke's heart raced, Where could she have gone? Who could have taken her without me sensing it? Izoke asked himself completely distraught. He franticly began searching for her. Worried that something bad may have happened to her he looked for clues. Finding a trace of someone's footprint he followed the trail. The trail led him to the sounds of flowing and roaring waters. Many beasts and hermits are known to live near sources of water so Izoke called out, "Sumiko! Sumiko!"

 Somehow over the sounds of the water, she didn't hear him, or perhaps she was distracted by other thoughts. Izoke approached closer to the freshwater source only to catch sight of Sumiko bathing beneath a small waterfall. Embarrassed Izoke rushed as fast as he could back to their camp. ‘If she had seen me, then that would have been bad!” He thought while laying on the ground.

Izoke's heart pounded as Sumiko returned to camp:

- Ba-dump! -

“Good morning Sumiko, Where were you? I was so worried,” Izoke asked feigning ignorance.

“Ohh, I was just…” She made an excuse that Izoke knew was a lie. Why didn't she want me to know she took a bath? Did she want me to think she always smelled good regardless? Are all women crazy?

*Editor's Note* "Some are yes".

“I see... Well please don't run off like that without me knowing. I don't know what id do if something happened to you,” Izoke said truthfully.

later, Izoke and Sumiko ate a light breakfast or dried sausages before resuming their journey. They marched up the mountain for several hours before reaching a lower peak on the mountain. Some mountains have multiple peaks at different heights like the north Georgia mountains or the Rocky mountains. Technically this place was considered one massive mountain with staggered tower-like peaks. The scenery from this point was gorgeous. Between their current peak and the next was a grassy valley or plain called, "Majestic Grassland". The air was flowing intensely like water and the grass was moving in the same direction. The grassland was like some kind of fantasy world to Izoke. Many peaceful animals were roaming around eating the grass. There was an animal called “Flame-tailed goat” which looks just like a goat but its horns are bigger and its tail is on fire. Many other rare animals were also there like Puffer-iguana, Green Roybock, Tusked Deer, etc. All the animals were different but lived in perfect harmony. It looked like they came from some kind of fairy tale. Izoke has never seen such gentle and mystical animals before. Sumiko already knows about this land and this was the place where her father told her to return home. This was the place Sumiko had been to before with her parents. Izoke's destination was far beyond it but it could be seen in the distance. Sumiko has never traveled beyond this point but she remembered the rest of the map that led to Kalan's point.

Izoke thought about hunting those animals to gain some experience points. 

“Sumiko, rest here. I will hunt down some of those.”

“Ok... They are friendly but they do need their population to be controlled. They have few natural predators in this valley. If provoked they can defend themselves be careful,” Sumiko warned.

Izoke went near a Tusked deer. It was a beautiful shining white deer with Ivory tusks and horns. Its Horns were shorter and straighter than most deer had and its eyes were crystal blue. Izoke took out his sword from his inventory.

Sword drawn Izoke slowly approached but the deer took off running. Izoke was still faster and blocked the beast's path.  He was about to strike when another creature attacked. What the heck! Izoke shouted mentally.

A notification popup,

"Well, this just blows!" Izoke said frustrated finally realizing what the negative curse on his sword did. He was fortunate there had only been one Orc to fight in his weapons debut battle.

The beast who had charged him was a Flame-tailed goat. It charged at him again like it was going to impale him on its horns.  Its head was low to the ground to either increase momentum or take out his mobility. Izoke managed to dodge off to the side since its momentum made it unable to turn sharply. Izoke tried to slash the goat in half but narrowly avoided a point-blank fireball to the face. The fireball was thrown at Izoke through its tail. It acted kinda like a fireball launching flamethrower. The goat shot a second blast this time too close to dodge so Izoke brought his arms up to protect his vitals. The burst of flame singed his right arm and did a surprising 60 points of damage.

Tired of the drawn-out battle and fearing the tusked deer was waiting for an opportunity to sneak attack him Izoke activated "Holy Sword" aura skill. The sword glowed black and with a strike, Izoke purposefully made look like a feint sliced the goat sideways from chest to tail.

A notification popped up,

Still in combat Izoke simply chose "yes" mentally.

Charging the now frozen in shock deer Izoke dealt the final blow.

Woah, I guess today’s lunch is going to be Meat, He thought cheerfully. Venison is quite delicious meat.

Izoke wondered about his new skill and read his remaining popups about it.

I should test it out now, he thought. Although he was a bit worried because the Flame-tailed goat threw fireballs using its Tail. As a human Izoke doesn’t have a tail. Activating [Contact Flame] skill nothing seemed to happen either. He was confused by this development. He then continued to search for the answer in the system prompts.

Ah, that’s the case... Does it mean the goat's tail was equipment? he questioned. He recalled that his Demonic sword was also magical equipment. It can use magic skills! Izoke thought, putting forth his focus on the cursed weapon. Izoke held the sword forwards and said, "Activate! Contact Flame Skill”. The sword became covered in intense sinister black flames similar in color to the altered "Holy Sword" skill. The only difference as far as Izoke could tell was that its fire element instead of light. Or in the case of this sword, Izoke suspected darkness. The Demonic weapon seemed to corrupt the light element of the holy sword and turn flame into hellfire.