Chapter 49

Day 7 since entering the gnomes’ warren…

Waking up early I found I was alone.

Almost…Akira didn’t count. In his sleep he’d mumbled something about Yuriko a few times while licking his lips.

And why was he even in my tent anyway? There was no good reason for this. It also had happened when I’d had a nearly critical breakthrough both positively and negatively with Asakura. To have to sleep in a man’s tent with him, when you had been sleeping with women before is like the ultimate inhumane injustice! My teeth were grinding together thinking about it.

The recent events that had just happened with Asakura and being tricked by the other two, made it way worse. I had to take care of things properly while our relationship was still fragile.

Now I could tell why Yuriko had been mad at Akira recently too. Did she suggest this idea to Saiya or just lend support?

This whole thing was Saiya’s fault. She’d made a bunch of unnecessary rules which made a lot of people upset. It turns out that Akira and I weren’t the only ones trying form deep friendships and skinship with girls. Other guys had been too.

But none of them knew when they were listening to her put down the rules they she was playing for the other team. They didn’t believe me when I brought that up because she just countered it with labeling me in the sex club and that everyone in my tent would end up pregnant. Some of the girls looked at me like I was a criminal when that was brought up.

“Good job Rina,” I said sarcastically when they didn’t listen to me because of what she and Yumi had done.

“No! it was Yumi! It wasn’t me! Please believe me! I’m sorry Shun!” she kept saying over and over. She was crying about it but I couldn’t tell if that was real or fake tears. She clutched at my shirt sleeves pleading for forgiveness.

Ah man, how do you stay mad at people when they are like that. It’s hard.

First off, the new rule was no sharing of tents with those of the opposite sex. This was the cause for our present hellish conditions.

The first rule about no coed ‘dorms’ was a deathblow to Akira as soon as it was announced. I thought he was having a meltdown at first when it was announced. Yuriko seemed both pleased and conflicted somehow.

Some of the drama from that came from Yuriko not wanting to share Akira with the new girl. I think her name was Eri or something like that. I wasn’t sure how Asakura thought about it. Rina seemed to be clutching at me like she was apologizing for betrayal; she looked mentally stunned.

Of course I wasn’t happy either; sharing a tent with three beautiful women was part of the easing on my mind of these near apocalypse conditions. And now the reward is…sharing the tent with a goat man that scratches his ass a lot without realizing it. I wondered, was it caused by like a satyr racial tick of some kind? He didn’t realize how often he did it.

Sigh*

Wait a minute. Did I have to worry about what Rina might do to Saiya now? The look she was giving her didn’t look healthy suddenly.

The result after that was that now I was sharing a tent now during an especially cold night in the caverns with Akira instead while in the other tent spot Rina, Yumi, Asakura were all together in the other tent not too far from here.

Because I’d needed a lot of naps and sleep I’d slept a lot the last few days at the medical tent where the patients were most of the time but just came back right before real night sleeping for the day. And because the others were working pretty much sunup to sun down I’d not appreciated the full value of sleeping with many girls in the same tent as me, as the only guy among them.

Of course I’d taken it for granted before. But now I wanted it back! It was nearly worth crying over. Part of why I’d taken it for granted was that I hadn’t tried to sneak a peek at anyone. I had to right this wrong and fast! Why should the innocent be punished with the guilty?

With no one to chaperon Yumi I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night for fear of Yumi having a chance to molest her in her sleep. This was the classic fox guarding the hen house example. Actually comparing her to a fox is unfair to foxes.

How was I going to sleep now?! The thought of that made my heart beat like crazy with worry.

Not only that but now suddenly the gnomes had all been walking around during the day like they were angry ants that marched around in their tunnels in groups ever since the stabbing incident. Before they’d been likable and friendly, but now the previous image was disappearing fast. They’d been going everywhere in packs ever since the incident with Akimoto’s goons. I was the only one that I knew of that didn’t have to go around everywhere with gnomes keeping an eye on them too. Even the gnome kids seemed on edge and were afraid to be around us.

That was the biggest signal for future trouble, since kids didn’t usually get involved in trouble. It meant their parents were telling them how evil the humans are. The air was thick with tension, so bad I knew something was going to happen. I was already wary that they outnumbered us ten to one.

I was so angry at Saiya not just for that but for trying to change things the way I didn’t like. She was now trying to work against me. She’d also asked for a spot on the leadership planning meeting to sit with Steve, Asakura, and I. But she had no love for me by the look of the daggers in her eyes.

It was so obvious she was very similar to Yumi, wanting an all girls kingdom. I’d continually overlooked things before but the tactical double teaming of Yumi and Saiya’s goons to recruit Rina suggested it. I’d not given it much thought because at the time I thought they’d given up when they were rejected. But I hadn’t expected them to create conditions where they would have the guys put out so easily and this quickly.

The gnome elders didn’t give me a reason to reject her despite my wanting Steve to not do this. Steve probably reasoned that the more divided the humans were the easier it would be for the gnomes. He thinks he’s masking himself with fake innocence but I know what’s going on. He was going to be very surprised with how chaotic and annoying it can be when nobody wants the same thing and everyone is going in several directions at once.

The gnomes would regret it later. It was a sure thing that something would happen where they didn’t get their support later on. I would in the end probably leave this place in a few weeks, due to the selfishness of Saiya and Steve the gnome elder.

Sigh*

Actually…once the dwarven caravan arrived I think it would be time to leave with whoever was going with me. I didn’t care too much for Saiya and the others. I wasn’t obligated to provide them with a free living. I had also been worried about the cost of the rent. What if there was no one to heal too? Then I might not make anything here.

I think my magic was getting a bit stronger too.

It was also hard for me to balance my sleeping rhythm now because I had a lot of unnatural naps during the day. I’d been having a hard time making sure I was up at the same time as the others.

First I went to the spring and washed my face and hands, cleaning up. Then I went through the mana cultivation exercises many times again. I looked for chances to do this any chance I could now. First the chi strengthening types, and then after that I went over the dust spinner types that the spy had told me about.

Actually lately the spy hadn’t had anything new. That could be good and bad.

Hopefully in a few weeks I’d have a noticeable gain.

From today forward I’d make it a point to go over all of this daily.

So with Akira still snoring like a log I began carefully sifting through the crystal pieces of the demon box. It was hard work.

With no tape the only way I could verify if something was a match was to hold all of the shards together with one hand, trying to not get glass slivers in my fingers while with the other hand trying to find pieces that looked like possible matches.

Painstakingly I lost several hours. It was sunup already and I knew the others would soon by waking up. So I organized dividing the start of three base crystals which weren’t complete in separate slots from the other crystal debris. If I kept this up for a few days or weeks, depending on how long it took, eventually I’d have them all pieced together.

I still had no guarantee that I’d end up with anything usable. But even if I only came out with clues and knowledge of how things worked better that might help strengthen my power over the box.

No sooner had I put everything away than I was startled by the sound of footsteps.

“You were supposed to be asleep. I guess it doesn’t matter either way to me,” said a man’s voice. It sounded a bit deeper than a gnome’s voice would too.

A man but how could that be? Strange, we didn’t have any adult men still alive in our group right?

“Who is it?” I asked turning towards the voice and looking up.

Probably a patient; lately a lot of people had been piling up trying to come see me.

There was a person dressed in black standing before me suddenly. The person wasn’t just full in black, but they were also wearing a mask and had a metal dagger held tightly in the right fist. They were rushing towards me.

Assassin!

NO!

Alarm went off in my head. This was a bad situation!

It was too late to get my weapon up in time and this was in complete darkness. I hadn’t expected being attacked at night to prepare for this kind of thing.

*Splurch*

The dagger went in my chest. I’d managed to twist a bit so the dagger had avoided my heart and went up in the shoulder area instead. Oh shit. This was really bad. It was still pretty close to a vital area. Plus there was already a lot of blood.

“Aaaarrrrrrrgh,” I cried out.

The assassin tried to pull back to stab me again. I managed to put my hand up in time, but instead I got stabbed in the left arm too. My arm was bleeding like crazy.

“Akira, wake up,” I rasped urgently as loud as I could. My strength was leaving from the blood loss of the wound. While my blood was flowing it was like I was becoming light headed and weak. I felt the strength in my arm leaving.

I huffed and tried to breathe hard. The assassin in black again tried to go around and stab under, but I swatted it away. This person was getting frustrated by the angry intense stare in their eyes.

If I could only hang on long enough for Akira to get up…It’s not easy to block smaller weapons though because of them being smaller and light weight.

“Akira!” I kept crying out.

Shit!

He was a deep sleeper.

The enemy came at me quickly. He put his strength into his blows to try to finish me off. This was a tricky type of blocking too because I couldn’t just use my hands on the dagger. I had to somehow come from the side and smack the wrist holding the dagger away. The first blow came at me quickly, to which I slapped his wrist away, blocked. Then after that again but I slapped it away from below instead, blocked.

“Akira!”

Then I heard a roaring and felt some movement behind me.

Akira was running towards them and they bolted to flee. Wow Akira runs fast when he wants to! Those little goat legs can really go! I huffed some more while Akira was in chase. But I wasn’t safe yet. There’s a lot of blood.

But that was even scarier. What if they weren’t alone? What if there were two of them? People like that had assistants to help them with escape distractions at the least, and at most to verify and help confirm the target is dead.

Akira had chased the assassin blindly thinking that I’d be safe if I did. He also seemed pretty confident of his ability to catch the assassin. But the darkness was terrifying now that I was alone.

What if they ditched Akira and came back around some other way?

Hurriedly I used a knife taken from the orc loots and cut my shirt sleeves into strips while glancing about for more potential problems. Working as quickly as I could I had to stop the blood loss.

“Heal!” I chanted.

Then again, and again I activated the magic over the chest wound, until I was feeling faint. It felt a little bit better but it was still very painful. The pain was clouding my judgment too on how much I’d actually improved myself. I found it’s much harder to keep your concentration with magic when you have terrible pain but somehow I pulled it off, with a few close calls.

I was weakening more quickly. Sure enough after four straight heals I was barely conscious and couldn’t even stand up from the dizziness combined with the blood loss. I tried to lean against the cave wall to go grab the firefly lantern.

It was like I was seeing double now, like a drunk.

My hand went out towards the bug lantern but I somehow missed because I was all wobbly and weak. Then I knocked it over the next time I tried. Fortunately the bug lanterns are built with a glass case so the bugs won’t fly out if it’s dropped but they do get a bit stirred up. I managed to pick it up with great effort.

Akira still wasn’t back yet. Do I wait for him or try to go get help from the others?

If Akira doesn’t come back then the others might not even find out because of the way things were recently changed with sleeping arrangements. I decide I can’t wait. I just have to get over to the next campsite over from this one.

It’s only about a forty feet from here.

Trying to walk I move but it’s like my legs are stuttering. The dizziness continues while I try to follow the wall. After ten steps I fall down, but somehow don’t lose my grip on the bug lantern. They will only take so much violence before they become afraid of predators so I’m lucky.

Huff, huff….so sleepy.

I pick myself up while still trying to hold my knife wound shut. The heals helped but…it’s a bad wound I think.

“I can do this…I can….do…this,” I tell myself.

I have to seal the bleeding as soon as possible...but it’s hard to concentrate and I feel sleepy.

I managed about eight more feet and then fall to my knees. The cavern floor doesn’t feel good on knees but I’m forced to ignore it and work myself forward. I try to gather more willpower. But I feel to tired to stand back up again.

I start pulling myself forward on my hands and knees.

Soon there’s only fifteen feet left. Just a bit further…if I can be consistent it will be OK right?

I crawl some more. I focus on the light in front of the other tent. It’s my beacon of hope. All my thoughts are bent on reaching the bug lantern.

The weakness is continuing. I’m getting slower. But I don’t fall down as much now. I keep trying. I just have to make the decision in my mind to not stop even though I feel so weak.

I don’t dare cast another heal because I feel maxed out somehow. It feels like my heart would burst if I tried to do anymore.

But I’m losing a lot of blood still even with the heals. I thought the heals stopped bleeding? They did before…

The crawling is more desperate for every inch now. I push forward with my head trying to even throw my weight forward. It’s too hard to even stand up. I’m starting to lose momentum.

Come on! Come on please! Just a bit more.

My fingers are reaching out while they push through the sandy ground of this part of the cavern. There’s a lot of water content in the sand here, not wet but like a mild moistness to it.

Dang it! I’m only eight feet away from Asakura’s tent!

No!

I’m trying to push forward…I fall again. There’s like a sandy crunch sound from me hitting the ground again like a sack of potatoes.

“Hey what’s going on? Who’s there?” Yumi asks. I’m suddenly really glad that she’s a very alert person in general. I’d taken it for granted. She’s leaving the tent, poking her head out first. She sees me and the blood all over me.

I’m looking at her desperately. I think I’m too tired to talk or say anything. I kind of feel like I’m wobbly just when I’m not even moving now.

“Holy shit!” she gasps. “Get up! Get up everyone!” she rushes forward to help me.

Rina and Asakura wake up. In a few seconds their heads poked out of the tent too. Oh whew, I made it…they’ll help me. I was worried for a little while, when it was just Yumi alone seeing me.

“Get…help,” I hoarsely whisper.

At least I managed to put the demon box in stealth mode, in case I fall asleep…

It wasn’t until days later that I realized the assassin was human sized, not anything close to a gnome build.