Chapter 19：A Week

The journey through the tunnel was just as long as before, at least a few hours by Stanis's guesses. However, unlike the journey to the temple, this time Stanis's mind wasn't plagued by a yearning for the temple and so the trek back became more of a time to think upon his thoughts and actions.

The first thing he noticed was that he was still blind as a bat, despite the fact that he now had basic dark vision. This either meant that the trait was dysfunctional, which was unlikely since both the other traits were working, or it meant that his trait was too weak to see through this darkness.

Stanis had first thought this when he had manipulated the darkness to cover his arms, at how there could be different qualities of darkness. And now that idea was reinforced in his mind since he had no other explanation for such an event.

After a bit of thought, Stanis then began thinking about the type of people he had met so far. Some had been kind-hearted, or at-least as kind-hearted as they came after the apocalypse, such as Jayesh, while others had scared Stanis like Orena. It wasn't to the stage of flesh crawling fear that he held for Gahlnym, but it was still at the stage of 'I don't ever want to fight this person' fear.

And then he thought of how he himself had acted after the apocalypse. Of some rare moments he was proud of, such as when he had watched Lucas being killed by Jayesh. Although people like him had only become common-place after that trial. However, most of the moments he thought of were negative, where he had acted pathetic and weak. He now understood that this was beyond-dangerous in this world: weakness would only ever be exploited here.

There is the old saying that you don't appreciate parts of life, until you lose those very parts. Stanis had felt the epitome of hopelessness and powerlessness in the past few days, especially after he had lost his arm. He had been one of the stronger Humans in the Camp prior to that incident, and now he was sure he could do even better. In fact, he had to do better… Meeting Gahlnym and hearing a bit about the new world told him he had to take risks here if he wanted to survive.

The hours became minutes, minutes seconds, and seconds moments as Stanis became engrossed in his thoughts. To his surprise, he could see a light in the distance of the tunnel. He had reached the end of the tunnel so quickly… Unbeknownst to him, it had already been hours though…

He ambled towards the exit, now mostly at peace with himself.

He walked out onto the dusky-stone, which he now noticed looked like a low-quality version of the stone used in the cave. In fact, it was highly possible that this whole area was designed around that cave itself, all for the Zelaro representative. The grandeur of said place made pride blossom inside his heart: he secretly hoped that the other races' temples weren't as grand.

Within minutes of walking he was back at the beach, each grain of sand scratching against his feet, nothing at all like the smooth stone texture. The light he had seen from the tunnel wasn't actually sunlight, but rather moonlight. The moonlight reflected off the sea and into the surroundings, allowing Stanis to see his surroundings with clarity. He still hadn't had a chance to test out his dark vision…

The darkness veils across his arms remained as dark as before, even in the shining light. He lifted both arms up; no one would notice the physical difference between his arms with the veils on, but it was a different story when the veils came off.

From the reaction Gahlnym had when he first talked to Stanis, it sounded as if he was surprised that there was here so quick. Stanis hoped that this meant that the other representatives would only start coming out later, and would hopefully be weak even when they did come.

After all, since Gahlnym had implied that he would have to kill other representatives, it also meant that others would try to kill him…

Finally reaching his cave where he had slept before, he was once again at a crossroad. Strangely enough, he felt no fatigue despite having gone through a hell of a day. So he went into his cave, took the remaining supplies that he had left there, and began walking towards the Camp after taking a deep drink of the sea. This was fine as he now knew of the natural buffs Humans had gained from the Hu.

Stanis wasn't actually going to the Camp but rather towards the Forest past it. He felt out of place at the Camp due to the fact that he had ran away from the second battle while the others had put their lives on the line. Well that, and now the fact that he had an allegiance to a species that didn't really respect Humanity.

A short while later, the Camp was well in sight and larger than before. Stanis knew that this meant that they had won the last battle as the additional tents set up signified that they had already taken out the new supplies. While deciding on whether to walk through or around the Camp, he realised that the supplies could come in helpful and so decided to walk through the Camp.

It was as if he was walking through that he saw a shadow in the distance, who he easily recognised as Jayesh due to his now-working dark vision. Jayesh hadn't truly helped him during his Injured-phase but he had provided him with help before that, and so Stanis felt it was only right to pay his respects to an old friend.

Despite squinting and rubbing his eyes, Jayesh was still shocked as he saw Stanis walking towards him. It had been 5 full days since anyone had seen him… Jayesh had already thought of him as another victim of the apocalypse by now, only to be smacked in the face by reality.

"Jayesh, how are you?"

Ignoring pleasantries, Jayesh went straight to what he wanted to know.

"Stanis boy, where have you been for the last 5 days? No one has seen you since before the fight last week!"

Stanis was about to respond that he had only left the day prior, when he realised at how long he had actually been in the temple for. Only the Gods knew how he had passed that many days without his mind, nor body realising it…

"Ahh. I was involved in some shit. Ha-ha, don't worry about it."

Jayesh would be blind if he didn't notice the looming darkness snugly wrapped around Stanis's arms, but he was too smart to ask such a personal question. Instead, he was just happy that an old friend was still alive; he had thought he was now passed the kid since he had made new friends here at the camp, but it seemed old was still gold.

This time it was Stanis's turn to ask some questions.

"5 days, eh? What's happened in that time? How did the fight go?"

Jayesh had to think for a while before he responded, after all every day was now a hectic one.

"That battle was probably our best. The plan Juan came up with worked a treat, we wiped out all the Wolves within minutes. What followed that was a race to reach and harvest the Goblins first. Ha-ha, you should have seen the Dead 4 there, you would not have been able to tell which side were the actual monsters.

But since that day, we have been getting regular attacks from the Goblins. It's why I and a few other lads are on Patrol duty right now, in fact even the people who are sleeping right now are only doing so lightly. The Goblin and Wolf camp seems to be getting stronger, and more numerous. A few small groups have done a few small raids near their base, but no one has actually gotten there due to how numerous the enemies become…"

Stanis thought back to what Gahlnym had told him, about how the enemies were only going to get more numerous and powerful as the stronger ones began to invade. It meant that humanity would have to level up quickly in order to put up a fight.

"Jayesh, what level are you right now?"

"Me? Let me just check. Ahh, I'm level 12 already, but I've heard the Dead 4 are approaching 14. In fact, Anatoly is apparently already level 14. What about you?"

"I'm level 9. I guess I'll have to catch up."

Jayesh was now more curious and puzzled than before. So Stanis was gone for 5 days, in which he got some kind of darkness power over his arms but he hadn't fought a single monster…

What in hell had he been doing? But he was still too wise to actually ask such an intrusive question.

"Stanis, it seems you are in a bit of a rush. Why don't you at least take some supplies before leaving?" Jayesh felt he would give his friend the last bit of help he could offer.

"Sure. Take me there, the new formation of the Camp is a bit confusing."

What followed was the two walking over to the supply centre, getting Stanis some supplies while they carried on some unrelated talk. Amongst this smalltalk was a bit about a nearby Camp breaking up, which had caused an influx of people to this Camp. Luckily there was still more than enough supplies to support everyone, and so the proceedings had passed peacefully.

While they were there, Stanis also got a belt to carry his sword by and a solid spear which was the length of his arm-span. He had realised that he had been far too restrictive of himself earlier by only using simple weapons; the ones to survive here would be the ones who took risks. His choice to pick the spear was fuelled by the multiple advantages and capabilities it brought, alongside with Orena's fighting image that brought inspiration to him.

Less than an hour had passed since Stanis had arrived, and he was already leaving. Jayesh was satisfied, he had already said all that was on his mind to Stanis and had offered him as much help as he could. The rest was up to Stanis himself.

Stanis had thought he had let go of his Human side when he had accepted the monster he would eventually become. But the feeling of gratitude and kinship he felt for Jayesh was without a doubt those of a Human's… Stanis let these thoughts go as he began walking away from the Camp.

It had been midnight when Stanis had initially exited the tunnel to the temple, and now it was already 3 am. You could see the hints of sunlight peeking around the corner of the sky, although Stanis didn't need any light as he used his dark-vision to navigate the Forest. His dark-vision was actually pretty good, barely worse than his normal vision. This made the darkness from the tunnel even more enigmatic.

Now quite deep within the Forest, Stanis was quite surprised as he hadn't seen any of the scouting Goblins so far. He held his new spear with a firm grip as he trod through the clumps of leaves, a feeling that now felt weird due to how long it had been since he had last fought.

About 5 more minutes in, Stanis's ears caught sign of a Goblin. It seemed the Goblins were deeper than usual due to the daily attacks the Camp now made against them. The last time Stanis had been in this Forest, he had been trying his utmost to stay out of sight and maximise sneaking. However, Stanis now felt comfort within the darkness and walked with natural grace. He was sure this had something to do with Darkness manipulation.

After a bit of walking, Stanis finally saw the Goblin in question. It was up to hip height like the ones he had fought before, but it was far better equipped. It had what looked like a steel short-sword slung around its waist, and light leather armour across its body. Stanis could see its bulbous face searching around with caution as it walked, most likely due to the dangers brought by the Humans.

Well, it was in bad luck…

Stanis tensed his legs, before exploding forwards. He covered the distance between the two within short seconds and was on the Goblin just as it pulled out its sword. He first pierced the Goblin with his spear while stepping forward, although the Goblin managed to barely block it with its own sword. However, Stanis was already close and confident enough to drive his foot around the Goblin's stomach, sending it sprawling to the ground.

He quickly followed this with a downwards stab, before the Goblin even got a chance to squeal. Stanis himself was surprised at how smoothly the fight had gone in comparison to his previous ones, it was almost like he was a completely new person.