12 Relief

Earlier that day.

Nathan just stepped out of the cave, brimming with energy.

These past few days, Nathan had been using Vin's teachings, such as knowing north is by following the rule that is the sun rises in the east.

While unsure if this is still a fact in the current world, they're living in. It's the most reliable one as there are no stars yet, not even the one they're calling the sun.

Their cave is in the south. To the north is the river. To the east is their nightmare, which is the enormous pit of corpses. The only cardinal direction that remains unexplored is the west.

This time, Nathan invoked [Wind Steps] actively. Excited to see how fast he can move now after his breakthrough, Nathan dashed through.

After running for what he thought was 10 minutes, Nathan began to slow down.

Unlike Vin, who has been trained in the ways of survival, Nathan is a true blue lock-in of the 21st century.

Besides the bed, he has never climbed into anything or anyone for that matter.

Living his days in a eat, study, play, and sleep cycle. Nathan was never one to stand out. That was due to him getting bullied at a young age.

Nathan grew up in a metropolitan city and attended a middle-class private school. Compared to an elitist school where the competition revolves around the cunning. This kind of school has chaotic environments, and bullying is very intense.

One day, Nathan got bullied badly and developed a severe panic disorder.

Panic disorder is when anxiety takes over control of one's body, filling it with intense fear and discomfort from unexpected places.

Due to this, he became fearful of society. Due to this, he trusted no one. Feeling the fear of living, Nathan turned to the virtual world in the form of gaming. His parents supported him when they saw his condition improving.

Just like a typical middle-class family in an urban city, both his parents work while renting a place. In their case, they have been living in a rent to own, two-bedroom condo unit.

Along with his brother Mark, they began to play various games ranging from RPG to Survival games and even MOBAS.

Nathan played competitively; however, due to his commitments at school, which he never gave up on as a promise to his parents, he never became an e-athlete. Thus he had more freedom to play any kind of game he likes.

Due to technological limitations, games in the 21st century are limited to keyboard and mouse. Compared to Vin's virtual reality training, besides the theory of survival, Nathan has absolutely no experience in surviving.

Not even the memes and life hacks he found on the internet give him sufficient hands-on experience to deal with his current situation.

Oh, how he wished to climb a tree by pressing the space key.

How he yearned to see the description of the things he put in his mouth in a little square interface.

How he coveted to have a backpack that can store 32 units of 64 stacks of logs without feeling its weight.

However, here he was, carrying a crudely sewn together sack. Even trying out the fruits he could find, sweet, sour, and vomit flavors invaded his tongue. Luckily enough, he never seems to get poisoned by anything.

Vin suspected that the white orbs are protecting them in mysterious ways. Nathan just nodded. He can't create any assumptions himself about the current situation anyways.

From his perspective, Vin is an intellectual man who keeps a billion of secrets. The kind of people he fears the most.

For a layman like him, who have been slapped by the cruelty of the world. For all intents and purposes, he would've run away the moment he faced Vin.

But for some unknown and explicit reasons, he became attached to Vin. Maybe it's because he's reliable or because he misses his little brother. In any case, for the last ten days, he treated Vin as his best friend and gave him the same treatment as he does with his brother.

Unlike Vin's doubts towards Nathan, Natha looks at Vin with relief in his heart. Besides the time he just arrived in this world, and that time where he faced death, Nathan never had a panic attack.

He was never sure if it was due to the help of the white orbs or because of the reliable Vin. In any case, he's been relieved from worry all this time.

Compared to how he lived on Earth, this is so much more comfortable. He even got the strength to fight back!

Sometimes he couldn't help but fantasize where he cast [Flame Burst] beneath his bully back in his elementary days.

With these kinds of thoughts, a smile was plastered on his face.

Aimlessly, he kept trudging on. After stepping on an area with broken trees, he saw a human skeleton lying at the side. In its hands is a chipped stone dagger.

Nathan cast [Courage Boost] on himself and looted the dagger.

Without any background on inspection, he went around to look for stuff that is obvious to him—not realizing the dangers hanging above his head.

Vin hasn't caught up to Nathan yet at this point.

When the snake was about to pounce, Nathan invoked [Wind Steps] once again and ran away. The ominous feeling of being beside a dead body sent him signals to run away.

In the nick of time, Nathan dodged the pouncing snake without realizing it.

The snake remained in its position in a daze. Unsure if its prey were smart to run away or an idiot, cluelessly running around.

When Nathan disappeared out of its sight, he sensed danger coming from behind and immediately hid away.

Once Nathan could no longer see the wrecked area. He slowed down once again.

Every time he feels that his mana dips below 80%, he looks around and gathers what he can from fruits, new kinds of leaves and branches, and even eccentric-looking stones.

Due to the lack of knowledge, Nathan and Vin have no idea how to bring forth electrical energy or if they can use mana as a replacement.

From time to time, Nathan also invokes [Arcane Track] to see if there's anything sublime happening. Sometimes it leads him to a weird stone. Sometimes he'll see post-battle destruction. It's just another strange shiny fruit.

Being ignorant can really be frustrating, "Will these fruits buff me or nerf me?" he kept thinking.

With all these findings, all the corpse he passed through, why is he not meeting anything. Unlike when he needs to find food, he'll discover weak prey and a bountiful harvest. When he wants to explore, he finds unique items and odd stuff.

After wandering for so long peacefully, Nathan completely let down his guard.

"Can my luck really be this godly?" he pondered. "It's really weird that nothing has gone wrong yet," he continued.

At this moment, he heard a scream from behind him.

His body felt a chill and froze on the spot, not because he's afraid he's in trouble, nor was he panicking, but he recognized the voice.

It's Vin!

Without a sense of cautiousness, Nathan ran towards the sounds. In his mind, there are only the words "hold on, buddy, I'm coming!"