Chapter 32 - Meeting a Person

She stepped out of the cave and enjoyed the warmth of the sun that covered her body— even if she felt her body weakening upon contact with it.

"Why do I feel so much weaker outside?"

She thought to herself before looking up at the sun in the sky, not quite looking at it since that would be an idiotic idea.

"Is it the sunlight? But I was in the sun before and I didn't feel this weak."

She had overheard tales from adventurers that passed through her little village about how vampires disliked the sun.

She had always thought that to be weird, but now that she was also a vampire and the sunlight was affecting her she could see it had some truth to it.

'But why would it be affecting me now even though I had been in the sunlight before.'

She lowered her head as she thought about it, deciding to walk and think since standing in one place was getting her nowhere.

She walked straight ahead, mainly because she had no idea which direction led to where— so it didn't matter which direction she walked.

'Maybe it's because my vampiric powers were never that strong before? I did get more in tune with it while underground— so it would make sense for its weaknesses to only show stronger now.'

She thought that that was the only reasonable explanation for it she could come up with— at least with the limited information she had.

She continued walking, occasionally stopping to look around.

Her senses weren't very keen on picking up anything that wasn't nearby; especially since the sun was bright and it weakened her greatly, especially with her lack of blood.

The longer she walked the slower she became until she eventually collapsed onto the ground and decided to rest for a while.

She had already been walking for hours, without a single building in sight.

She rested there for a moment, taking some time to rest her weakened body. That was when she spotted something in the distance that seemed like a shifting blur.

"What is that?"

It was hard to tell what it was with the sun being so intense, but it seemed to be the figure of a person that was moving closer to her.

She stood back up and began running towards it, for a second she thought it might be the sunlight playing a trick on her, but she couldn't pass up the chance that it might actually be other people.

Good or bad, people would be useful for her right now.

If they were bad and caused her trouble, then she would have something to eat. Blood would be very useful right now to get her strength back up.

If they were good then they could possibly help her. Even just a general direction would be extremely helpful to her right now— so she wouldn't have to wander around aimlessly like a headless chicken.

As she got closer to the figure— she realized it wasn't just the sun playing with her eyes— but she was actually seeing a person.

A male to be exact.

He looked perfectly fine even though he was walking through the hot sun with barely any clothing to cover him— next to him was a horse pulling a cart that seemed to have items on it.

Upon a closer inspection, she realized he was actually quite good-looking— he had long silver hair much like hers but unlike hers, his hair also had a mesh of light green at the tips of it, along with the insides.

"Hello?"

She called out as she got closer to him— causing him to stop and look in my direction. That gave me a good view of his eyes which shone with an amber tone when the light reflected in them.

"Hey, there pretty traveler!"

The man said with a soft voice, his tone carrying a hint of playfulness and flirtation— which Shi picked up on right away because she disliked it.

She tried not to show her dislike on her face though since the man didn't seem like a bad person, plus he was the only other person she encountered in a while so getting him angry would be a bad idea.

Shi kept her lips pressed together as she rolled her eyes. The man smiled at her, seeming amused by her reaction.

"Well, don't you look cute! What's someone like you doing all alone in a place like this? Don't you know it's dangerous?"

His words while sounding concerned weren't said in a concerned voice in the slightest. In fact, he said it in a more playful voice than anything else.

Before she could speak to answer his question, however, he spoke once more.

"Maybe you're here to buy some of my goods? I must say that is a wise choice I have quite the collection of amazing items, even some I made myself."

His voice grew louder as he spoke making it sound like he was trying to sell something to her.

His explanation caused her to glance over at the cart of stuff his horse was carrying around— on which she could see a range of items of all kinds.

From weapons to odd-looking tools that she had no idea what they would do.

"Well..."

She started to speak up but paused mid-sentence as she tried to find the right words to describe the situation.

"I don't have money with me to buy any of your, uh, interesting goods. But I do need to ask you something if you don't mind?"

The man seemed a bit disappointed that I didn't plan to buy anything from him, but he didn't show it for long and instead smiled again and spoke.

"No problem, what can I help you with? Oh, I forgot to tell you my name, I'm Shiva Thorn Jivah by the way, but a cute girl like you can just call me Shiva."

Shi shook her head and didn't give the man her name, instead she just asked the question she wanted to.

"Do you know the closest town to here?"

"Hmm... Well, I suppose that depends on your definition of 'town'. Do you mean a small village or a large kingdom? Because the biggest city that is close to here is Ruina Kingdom, which is part of the Demon Clan."

Shiva explained to Shi who nodded her head in response.

"Thank you, can you tell me which direction that is in?"

She asked hoping she could finally have a direction to go in otherwise she would starve to death in the endless desert most likely.

She hoped the man would help her without asking for anything in return.

"Oh, that's an easy one, it's about a day away by horse in that direction. Just left there myself and I'm on my way to another location."

Shiva replied as he pointed his finger in the direction behind him, to which Shi looked in and saw nothing.

"Thank you very much, I don't have anything to pay you for the direction, but I really appreciate the help."

"That's alright, I just did it because I thought you needed help. Plus you're cute."

The man said in reply to Shi with a chuckle, before walking towards his cart in the back.

Shi looked at him confused as he shifted through the different items he had in the back— finally he stopped and took out a paper. He threw the paper for her, which she quickly caught.

"A basic map of this area, it's not much, but it should help you find your way in case you get lost again."

He said with a smile— causing Shi to open the paper.

It was a much more detailed map than the one the old man had before. It had the layout of some rivers, mountains, and even dangerous areas where they are commonly seen.

"This is, this is more than I could ask for? I can't take this?"

Shi said with a questioning tone.

She didn't want to reject the offer but she also didn't feel right about taking something so expensive from someone she just met.

"It's fine, just take it. It's an old copy anyways I have a newer and much better one. How about this, you'll owe me a favor in the future if we meet again?"

Shi nodded her head and took the offer, she felt much better about taking the offer now that it wasn't for free.

Even if it wasn't a certain payment.