Reunion 

But suddenly, something pulled her under the surface.

As the water enveloped her, she clung tightly to his muscular arm, her ribs aching from the impact of her injury.

"You returned so soon. I am glad," He grunted deeply, in his raspy voice, as they floated above the surface. They were hidden in a tangle of roots, to her horror surrounded by softened, bloated animal carcasses.

´Did he drag me to his pantry?´ - She panicked and tried so hard not to vomit.

"You are hurt. Use that," He pointed somewhere above her head. Surprised, she reached for the ointment he had earned the first day they met, "Rest. I'll go and tear them to pieces for you," and turned around so he could disappear under the water. She was the first company he had in years and the audacity of these other humans only fueled his rage.

He disappeared under the surface and she pulled herself a little higher into the tangle of roots to avoid being in the water with the rotting bodies. The sounds outside were only muffled and she finally had a chance to breathe a little. She tried to pull the arrows from her back but only managed to wiggle out the two above her shoulder. She then chewed another flower to try to slow down the bleeding.

Her lungs were filling with blood and her breaths became shallow as she tried not to move that much.

Anna started to scroll through the settings. He was offline. Bugak was still in the alliance but offline... How long would it take for NPCs to respawn? He always appeared at dusk in the prologue map, mortally wounded, but she had already saved him from that fate by inviting him into their alliance, right?

A short scream echoed in the distance, silenced before it could fully develop.

These were undoubtedly elite "pay-to-win" players. They were well matched; this would surely be one of the top alliances if not two working together.

The fight moved further away from her hideout. It grew quiet; there was no longer any sound of clanking weapons or shouting. She listened intently, trying to make sense of what was happening.

Coldblooded Crocodilian ~ friendly ~ 83% HP

He suddenly emerged and pulled himself a little out of the water.

"Some of them were too crunchy," He complained.

"You saved my life for which I'm grateful to you," Anna told him quietly, wondering how much she should tell him "But I can't stay. My lover was killed by this group and I want to find him again."

The crocodilian looked at her with confusion "If he was killed, he is dead, no?" 

"Well, not necessary,"

"But - if he was killed, how is he worthy of mating with you? His offspring will be weak, your babies won't survive for long," He said again, still confused.

Suddenly, she understood. He was simply too simple. Anna remembered the rare item she found earlier this week, loosened up the red ribbon from her wrist, and quickly wrapped it around his elbow. +100 intelligence has to help. While he probably won't be able to use the mana that binds to intelligence, a bit of common sense could help him out.

"Explain it again," he asked her as he waited patiently.

"This world will reconstruct your body if you die. It's either the place of your origin, or your home, sometimes it can even be a place where you slept last time. He got ambushed and was killed as he tried to wile them away from me. He bought me enough time to get away. But I have no idea where to look for him. I'll have to think it through…"