Awkwaaard

Grant shook his head to try and get rid of the grogginess and dizziness that were clouding his vision as well as expressing his disappointment that once again, he had found himself unconscious.

Even worse yet, Skit had to save him from danger. He knew the unmistakable sound of Skit clapping, so unless another skeleton happened to be in the area who was somewhat sentient, then the only one who could have saved him, was Skit.

He didn't know how long he had been out, but he could tell just from the lack of lighting that it was probably night time already and he had been asleep for a few hours.

"About time you wake up, human. You do know you owe me another favor for saving your life, right?"

Without even looking to the corner where the voice was coming from, Grant knew exactly who it was. So he just shook his head in disappointment before he replied, "I know. Do the cores of those coyote's count as payment?"

"Ohoho if only. You do realize, I could have let you die and then taken those stones for myself, yes? So why would I allow you to use them as payment for a favor?"

Failing his attempt to weasel out of owing a favor, Grant accepted his fate. Mostly because he knew he couldn't win, even a verbal back and forth, against Skit, so he gave up after one attempt.

"Fine, I will get you a few extra cores to make up for it. In my bag, there is a core from a scorpion I killed the other day. You can take it as a deposit."

Skit, laughing with his signature Ohoho, went over to the bag before reaching in and pulling out the core of the scorpion. Grant had planned on using it to restore mana to the dungeon core, but he had no choice but to let it go.

"Now that I've made a deposit, why are you here? You could have easily left after saving me. Richard and Robin would have come back to get me after everyone else was safe.

Even though I told them not too."

"Why indeed.. if anything, I was curious. You humans live much different lives than other races I have met before.

I have met hive minded races that pursue a unified goal with extreme dedication, I have met blood thirsty races that do nothing but fight, I have even met cowardice races that refuse to take up arms even when the lives of their loved ones are threatened.

But none have come close to the complexity of human behavior.

I had grown bored of waiting for you to return so I decided that I would come and find out what you had been up too. I arrived shortly after you left the camp with those weak humans.

I watched as they forced themselves to fight and grow stronger, which is logical considering the state of this planet, but as they killed, they cried and wept for monsters that would gladly eat them given the chance.

And you, you could have easily abandoned the lot of them and escaped on your own if you had wanted too. But you remained with them and fought. I could tell that you were losing your temper because of the deaths of those people as well, which confused me.

Soldiers are meant to fight and die for the cause, are they not?

Yet, when you had finally defeated some of the enemies and reduced the burden on yourself, you took on more enemies to allow them to escape. Had you not done enough?

I know you knew that once your skills ran out that the coyote's, as you call them, would overwhelm and kill you. And yet you fought nonetheless.

And then, I meet the two kids you spoke of before, we had an opportunity to chat about you, and I can tell how highly they regard you. You are like family to them, apparently, their words; not mine. And yet they abandoned you to fight?

And then this lady named Ally? She treats you with such care and affection but when I asked her if you two were together, she freaked out and ran out of the tent?

As I said, you humans are strange."

Grant was surprised by how much Skit was talking. Normally he was a quite skeleton, who rarely shared his opinions on anything but apparently that didn't hold true when he found something that intrigued him. Because he had said more words in the last five minutes that he had the entire time that him and Grant had been training together.

But then Grant froze on the bed, sitting upright with his hands slightly behind him at his sides.

"YOU DID WHAT?!?! You asked Ally if we were together?! Why on Earth would you do that?!"

Skit was confused by Grant's outburst. In his mind, love wasn't an emotion that he nor anyone from his race ever felt. They all operated on duty and logic, so he couldn't understand why Grant would be upset.

"I simply asked her a question. I read about the concept of love from a book I found the other day, and it appeared to me as if she was looking at you the way it was described. So I inquired about it. What is the issue?"

Grant just face palmed at the absolute ignorance of his skeleton friend. He knew the Skit didn't understand what he was asking and he was simply trying to sate his curiosity, but it was going to be make things super awkward for him the next time he saw Ally.

"Forget it. I'll deal with that later.

I need to tell you about my plans for the dungeon so it works out that you are here now."

After spectacularly ignoring the problems that future Grant would have to deal with, Grant explained his plans for relocating the settlement to the dungeon. When he began to discuss the plans on moving the large number of people, Skit had a solution that Grant would have thought impossible.

"You can open a gate between two locations? Seriously?!"

"Why are you surprised?

Spacial skills are not that rare where I come from because we are required to move vast armies to attack and defend locations constantly. You didn't think my people marched across the entire planet to defend the dungeons, did you?"

"Well.. I mean if you put it that way.. I guess not? I just assumed you guys had places all over the planet with standing populations that defended those areas. If you can use spatial magic then that makes things MUCH easier."

Grant knew he had to share the information with the leadership of the settlement so without waiting, he struggled out of bed and walked to the flap of the tent.

As he pulled back the flap, he came face to face with Ally who was just about to enter.

There was, what felt like an eternity, of silence while the two looked at each other.

Eventually, Grant worked up the courage to speak first.

"Hey Ally, I heard you were the one who did all these bandages. Thank you again for taking care of me."

Ally just blushed, and nodded her head. Although she was in her mid 30's, she was acting like a teenage school girl now.

Since she didn't seem like she was going to answer, Grant asked her if she could go get the leaders of the settlement and bring them there as soon as possible because their would be changes to the moving plans.

Once again, Ally just nodded her head before running off to get Scott, Jerrod, and everyone else.

"I still do not believe that you two do not have feelings for each other."

"Shut it Skeletor."

After telling Skit to shut up, Grant limped back to the bed and laid back down.

Neither of them said anything to each other again until everyone else arrived.

Once the leadership arrived, Grant told them about Skit's ability to create a portal from the settlement to the dungeon.

Of course, everyone was surprised by the fact that something like that was possible, but after a few weeks of The Path's existence, nothing really seemed completely impossible anymore so they gradually accepted it.

The prevailing emotion was actually relief because everyone had been concerned about guarding the procession of survivors.

During the time that Grant was fighting off the three coyote's that had attacked him, the other two had managed to kill more than half of the group that Grant had been leveling so they were short on people with the strength to defend the group.

The idea that they could instantly move everyone without having to face the dangers of the open path, was a massive relief.

It also meant that they wouldn't have to wait for Grant to heal completely. That way, the move wouldn't have to be delayed.

Skit told them that he could maintain the pathway for a little more than an hour with his current mana capacity so the settlement should be gathered and ready to move as soon as he opened the pathway.

Once they all hashed out the details, it was decided that they would move at midday the next day.

Since dinner was in the process of being distributed, Jerrod and Scott left as soon as the details were decided on so that they could inform everyone. They had a lot of work too do and not enough time to get it done.

Everyone else left to handle the logistics of the move except for Ally, Skit, and Grant. Ally stayed behind with the two to redress Grants wounds.

A heavy silence hung over the room as Ally did her work.