THIRTY-EIGHT

Passing the puzzle piece to Hassan, I observed as he regarded it with a blank expression, his features giving no hint of what emotions the object stirred within him.

"If we've gotten one out of two hundred puzzle pieces it only means we have one hundred and ninety-nine more to get," Hassan said.

'What a great discovery ' I thought in the most sarcastic way possible.

What it meant wasn't so far-fetched to decipher. We weren't aimless anymore.

"We just have to find the remaining one hundred and ninety-nine puzzle pieces to get access to the final quest," Sky said

'Another groundbreaking discovery' I thought.

She said 'just' but her expression said the opposite; it said that the whole thing was a suicide mission. If it took us that much to get one puzzle piece how much more will it take us to get the remaining puzzle pieces?

"To what end" Sky cried with her knees trembling but unable to fall to the ground in fear of those parasitic miniature plants. "Why are we even here? "

The million-dollar question that plagued my mind ever since I first appeared in the vast darkness... But none of us could answer it.

After a moment of gloom brought upon by her question, she looked at the frost fire dagger in my palms and said

"Wow! That's really... Beautiful"

Her words trailed off a little, showing that she was mesmerized by the dagger.

The frost-fire dagger gleamed with a mystical radiance, a mesmerizing fusion of icy blues and fiery oranges that danced along its blade. Its hilt, crafted from an unknown material, seemed to shift in hue and mirrored the clash of elements within. Runes etched into the metal pulsed with a faint, pulsating energy that hinted at the dagger's hidden power.

As I held it, I could feel a tingling chill and a warm ember-like sensation simultaneously, as if the dagger itself contained the essence of both frost and fire, waiting to be unleashed.

The frost fire blade was truly a breathtaking site to behold.

Yet, I knew it wasn't meant for me. There was a more deserving recipient; a figure who had repeatedly saved my life and whose valor warranted such a gift.

"It's for you," I said to her

A broad smile of joy spread across her face as I placed the dagger in her hands, a gesture that resonated with her.

"Why would you give it to me? Don't you need it?" she asked, her voice carrying an undertone of fascination as she examined every inch of the dagger with the intensity of someone captivated by a newfound love.

She then proceeded to swing it a couple of times but she didn't use it as well as Hassan did his sword, probably because the dagger was shorter than the sword.

Without waiting for me to answer the question she said "Thank you so much. I needed a weapon that I could use to fight"

"Well... You're welcome"

I didn't need the thing at all because I had the mind transfer thing going on, and I needed her to protect my unconscious body any time we were in danger.

It was a win-win situation; giving her the dagger was going to ensure my safety and hers too.

Dismissing the dagger into her inventory she then laid a claim to it.

All it took was my conscious consent for her to take the dagger as her own. If I didn't consciously want her to take it she couldn't take it, even if she ran away with it. I'd just make it go back to my inventory with one single thought.

I knew all that because Sky told me.

They had done that when they swapped potions before they were captured by the creatures of the Blizzardkin

"You know that looking at that thing doesn't make it multiply," Sky said to Hassan who was carefully inspecting the puzzle piece as he turned and turned it.

"I know"

When I shifted my gaze towards the river, I spotted the creature from before. It must have vanished at some point after Sky woke up. The fascination I had initially felt for it had then faded, replaced by a gnawing hunger. Regardless of its nature, lethal or not, it seemed we could find a way to turn it into food.

"Hassan. We have to ... " My sentence trailed off as I caught sight of Hassan, his gaze fixed on the creature with a familiar intensity.

At that moment, it dawned on me again that we hadn't eaten anything in what could be days or even weeks, and we had likely depleted much of our body's energy reserve.

In the unfamiliar realm where survival was a constant struggle, the instinct to secure food was as potent as the instinct to survive itself.