29: great gain

The fights kept coming every day and, since the cohort was strong, they didn't avoid all the fights. It was getting harder for Sasha to keep her flaw hidden.

Only three days had passed, but there were many fights; many fights equaled many problems for her.

She had to keep her flaw hidden, which was disastrous.

But it was getting more difficult; the cohort members, except for her friend, were already looking at her with suspicion every time she asked for a short break after each battle.

'I should tell them, at least I can trust Jony. If the others try something, he would defend me during that short period of weakness.'

Sasha thought, already tired of having to hide such a disastrous flaw. Besides, not telling could have very serious consequences if a hidden enemy appeared after the fights.

'Yes, I should tell them, at least I should tell Jony and see what he thinks. Ah, I'll tell him in the morning.'

...

It was the morning of the fourth day after her training fight with Jony and Ludwin.

Sasha told her friend to follow her. They both went to a corner of the coral platform they had climbed the day before to talk alone.

"So, what did you want to tell me? We're about to head to the next high point," said her friend, with a worried look on his face due to Sasha's sudden call.

He already had an inkling of what would happen, as the constant fights and her requests for rest almost confirmed his suspicions, but he didn't say anything until she told him.

Then Sasha spoke.

"Well, it's about my flaw, it's becoming very problematic to hide it. I at least have to tell you. I still don't fully trust the other two."

Sasha said, casting a cautious glance at Ludwin and Isac, who were talking on the other side of the coral.

"Well, I think I already know what your flaw is or at least what it can cause," her friend replied, with a reassuring smile on his face as he looked at her with warm eyes.

She calmed down at her friend's look and then spoke.

"That's good, it makes things easier. As you may have noticed, after each battle we have with the beasts, I need to rest, but it's not because I'm tired or injured. It's something worse, it's because I become so weak that anything could kill me."

Jonathan didn't expect her flaw to leave her completely defenseless against any harm. He thought her flaw only left her tired for a while, but not defenseless.

He slightly widened his eyes in surprise and looked intently at his friend.

"If that's really what was happening, you should have told me much earlier. What would I have done if a monster appeared out of nowhere after the fight and hurt you? Why didn't you tell me before? That's very dangerous, you put yourself at great risk," her friend exclaimed, with concern and intensity in his voice.

Sasha smiled and felt very happy that he cared so much about her. She liked his worried face and those red eyes looking at her intensely, but she also felt somewhat guilty for not telling him something so important earlier.

"I'm sorry, it's not that I don't trust you, it's just that I didn't want to be a burden. In the end, I only put myself in danger."

He looked at her with a mix of guilt for making her apologize, concern for her situation, and remorse for making her feel that way.

"Don't apologize, I ask for your forgiveness. I shouldn't have said those things, you have the right not to tell your flaw to anyone. It's just that you're the only friend I have and I wouldn't know what to do if something happened to you."

Indeed, Sasha was the only person Jonathan cared about, the first person he considered a friend, the only one he could relax and let his guard down with. He trusted her a lot, and the idea of losing her made him feel nauseous. She was the only company he had in this strange world after transmigrating.

"Thank you, I really appreciate that you feel that way. But I think it's time for us to move on. I just want to ask you to be by my side when we finish the battle, I'll need you to protect me if something goes wrong or if any of them try something. They probably also suspect something about my flaw."

Her tone was calm and reassuring; she had finally taken a load of worry off her shoulders.

"Alright, I'll be by your side when the battle ends, I'll also keep an eye on those two. Thanks for trusting me with your flaw."

...

An hour had passed since they descended into the coral labyrinth that wasn't really coral, just something similar that they decided to call that way due to its resemblance.

They were running, twisting and turning around the labyrinth looking for a high point.

Jonathan sensed another group of scavengers, but this time it was different, there was another group, a larger one, of other awakened creatures.

'Maybe they are those centipedes mentioned in the novel, they must be fighting against the scavengers,' he thought, knowing about the existence of other monsters besides the scavengers thanks to the novel.

The entire cohort followed Jonathan to a camping area where there were a total of 27 awakened beasts. The familiar crabs and some new beasts they were seeing for the first time.

The beasts resembled giant centipedes with many pointed legs on their sides and firm, toothed mandibles that could easily pierce the strongest steel.

They all hid to watch 14 scavengers fight against 13 centipedes. Many more corpses were scattered on the red ground, and the fight seemed to be in favor of the scavengers.

The centipedes attacked with their incredible sharp legs, or coiled around the scavengers while stabbing them with their legs and biting with their mandibles.

The scavengers slashed and clawed at the centipedes' legs and skin, which seemed to have a corrosive or poisonous substance as the scavengers' pincers turned a rotten color after contacting their skin.

The centipedes could also spit acid from their mouths, which was deadly for anyone, but the tough shell of the scavengers managed to withstand this corrosive substance.

After several minutes of fighting, only four centipedes and six scavengers remained. That's when Jonathan decided to speak.

"Get ready, we'll kill those over there who are injured," he ordered. The rest prepared, and they all came out at the same time.

Surprised by the sudden appearance of the sleepers, the beasts stopped fighting each other and attacked the humans who emerged from the labyrinth.

Sasha and the scavenger handled two centipedes at the same time.

Ludwin fought a scavenger, Isac killed two with his powerful black sword and helped the rest of the cohort with their fights.

Jonathan was battling a centipede and a scavenger that lunged at him.

He dodged the acid spat by the centipede and then a pincer that the scavenger tried to stab into his chest.

He ran and slid between them and cut off the scavenger's head, which was already weakened by the acid and its battle wounds.

As for the centipede, he was careful with its acid and corrosive skin.

He combined his two daggers to create a longer one. With it, he cut the centipede's skin while sliding along its back, protected from the acid by his ascended armor.

On Sasha's and her scavenger's side.

She blocked the mandibles of a centipede that closed near her head and stabbed the creature's eye with her sword.

Her friend's scavenger helped and cut off the head of their enemy with its improved pincers, which started to corrode from the acid.

The second centipede had also been killed by the scavenger, leaving a good mark of its mandibles on its shell.

Ludwin handled the scavenger with ease, and Isac helped with the others.

After finishing with everyone, Jonathan approached Sasha, who was resting near a scavenger's body.

"You'll have plenty of time to rest now, we have a big loot to claim from the ones we killed and those already dead."

"Thanks, I'll need a whole minute now."

So, they both stayed close, and Jonathan sent his puppet to collect as many cores as it could.

...

Five minutes later, they gathered and placed the loot in the middle of a pile of soul cores.

There were 38 in total, now they had to distribute them.

Jonathan was the first to speak.

"We can divide them equally or you can have the ones from your killed beasts, and the rest will be divided among each of us."

"I don't mind dividing them among the four," said Isac.

"They're a lot anyway," said Ludwin, without thinking too much about it.

"Do whatever you want, but I prefer we share them among everyone," Isac added.

"Perfect, I don't need my share, I'm already very strong without them. You need to get stronger, so divide the cores into three. Uh, that's 12 for each and one extra for Isac, who helped a lot and is the weakest. Absorb the cores quickly and let's go; more beasts could come," their team leader ordered, who began to gather some meat for the trip.

"Alright," they all said simultaneously, grabbing 12 cores each and absorbing them.

...

At the end of the day, they managed to find another platform to stay on and all climbed up. Along the way, they killed two more groups of scavengers, one of five and one of eight.

The cohort was gradually becoming much stronger; each battle made them more united as a team in fights, increasing their lethality.

"Can you pass me the water, Isac?" With Isac's memory containing 10 liters of water, they could drink from it and not worry about water every day.

Hours passed, and they all ate and slept. Over the days, Ludwin and Isac decided to trust their leader's scavenger and had begun to sleep through the night, waking up completely refreshed the next morning.