Chapter 81 - 81: Giving Gondrax something to do. . .

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"Hey Arialle, can you give me the salt and pepper out of your ring please." I said to her after putting the stew onto the fire.

"Sure thing." She commented while getting them out.

"Thanks. If you want, go ahead and put some into the stew for me. I'm gonna cut up some of the vegetables we got." I mentioned to her.

"I can do that. Do you want me to make a side too?" She then asked while putting some salt and pepper into the stew pot.

"If you want. You don't have to though." I told her.

"Okidoki." She commented.

While Arialle was putting the salt and pepper into the stew, I was cutting up some carrots, peppers, broccoli, and some celery to put into the stew. I already had some bear, scorpion, rocke, and wolf meat in the pot. I also decided to cut up some potatoes too. I looked over towards Arialle, and she was making a salad to go with the stew. It took me maybe five more minutes to cut everything, then I threw it into the pot. I put the lid on it, and let it cook. I figured it should be ready in about an hour.

"How is your salad coming along?" I decided to walk over towards her while asking that.

"It is coming along. I just need some carrots if you still have any left." She told me.

"I do. I still have quite a few left actually." I commented while grabbing some carrots out of my ring.

"Thanks! So, how far are we away from the valley?" She then asked after taking the carrots from me.

"Um. . . Looks like still two weeks away. Since we've had to stop a few extra times due to Dj overworking himself." I told her.

"Yeah. . . He needs to watch what he is doing. If he ends up over doing it, he will just hurt himself worse. . ." She commented with a sad look in her eyes.

"Indeed he will, that is why I had him lay down all day. I've already felt what it's like to overwork yourself. . ." I just looked up at the sky when I commented.

"I remember. . . You slept for almost two days. . ." She told me.

"Yeah. . . Anyways. We still have about 45 minutes left until the stew is ready, so you can just put the salad in your ring that way no bugs get to it." I explained to her.

"Was already planning to do that." She said chuckling.

I just kept looking up into the sky. I was trying to forget a memory that had come up. It was back from my old world. I had remembered the time I had stayed up for almost four days where all I was doing was literally working. After I was done, I slept for almost three days straight. It suċkėd so damn badly.

"You ok?" Arialle then asked me.

"Yeah. . . I'm alright. . . Just remembering something from my past." I told her.

"Is it a bad memory?" She then asked me.

I decided to look down, and I noticed her worried face. "I mean, it wasn't exactly bad. I just worked for way too long, and I ended up sleeping for almost two days."

"Oh. . . That doesn't sound good. . ." Arialle answered.

"It wasn't that bad. Luckily I didn't have to work over the weekend, so I didn't get into any trouble. I was working a lot for money, because I wanted to buy something for someone." I told her.

"Oh ok." She commented.

"Anyways, I do believe the stew is probably ready by now. Wanna go wake up the sleepy heads?" I then asked her after removing the lid to the pot.

"Yeah I can do that." She answered while getting up.

"Thanks!" I commented to her.

"Thanks bud. . ." Dj commented while yawning.

"No problem. How was your rest?" I then asked.

"Still freaking tired, but I'm a little better. You wasn't kidding about being mentally exhausted. . ." He answered me after grabbing a spoon from me.

"Yeah I figured as much. I've done it before, so make sure you rest more often from now on. Don't want to keep having to do this." I told him while eating my food.

"The stew is great, by the way." Arialle mentioned to me.

"Thanks. I figured since we had so many types of meat, we could put them all together in a stew. It actually turned out better than what I thought it would have." I told her.

"Yeah it is really good. Then again you've always been good at making random types of food." Dj commented.

"I guess I have." I said while scratching the back of my head."

We continued eating for a short time afterwards, and like usual I was the first one done. After me it was then DJ, then Blue, and Tyson.

"Alright you three. Go back to bed. Get some more rest before tomorrow." I told them.

"Alright. . ." Dj yawned.

{{Goodnight. . .}} Blue squawked at me.

"Rrruuuffff" Tyson barked.

They got up, and then walked back towards the tent.

"You should probably go to bed too." I commented towards Arialle.

"You sure? I can stay awake first tonight if you want." She answered towards me.

"Nah, it's ok. You can go to sleep first. I just need to clear my head of a few things. I'll be alright." I said with a smile on my face.

"Alright. . . Make sure to wake me up an hour earlier alright. . . I want you to get some sleep too." She commented towards me while getting up and walking towards the tent.

"Will do!" She answered.

{No. . . I'm not ok. . .}

[You're remembering more of your past aren't you. . .]

{Yes. . . Yes I am. . .}

[It will be alright, the memories will come and go.]

{Thanks. . .}

I decided to just sit back and relax for a little bit before cleaning the dishes from our meal. Sadly there haven't been any creeks or rivers near us, so we have had to use water bottles to clean them. We should hopefully be coming up on a river here shortly, but not exactly sure of when we will. I took a look into the pot, and there was still quite a bit of stew left, so decided to grab me another bowl before I put it into my ring for safe keeping. We could have it for lunch tomorrow. I ended up eating my bowl of stew pretty quickly again, so I then started cleaning the bowls and utensils. I then put the pot and lid back into my ring.

[Uh. . . Can that stay hot inside of your ring? I know it can be in your inventory, but not sure about the ring.]

{. . . I'm not sure. . .}

I decided to take the pot and lid back out, and instead put it into my personal inventory.

[Hmm. . . If I had to take a guess, it would probably be around level 8.]

{Not bad. . . I was thinking around level 9.}

[Guess we gotta wait and see.]

{Indeed. . . So how has our companion been acting recently?}

[He has been bored. Since you haven't been fighting, he has been pestering me, but the problem with that is I don't pay attention to him.]

{Let me talk to him.}

[Alright. . . Give me a sec.]

So I waited there for about a minute before he yelled inside of my head.

[ARTHRALL!!!!]

{FUCK! Dude don't fuċkɨnġ yell man. . . Gotta remember you're inside of me. I can hear you just fine. . .}

[Sorry. . . Anyways, why haven't you been fighting? It is so boring just watching you do nothing. . .]

{Because I've been having Blue and Dj fight. I want them to level up and get experience fighting mobs before we reach the valley.}

[So basically your teaching them how to work as a team then?]

{Basically yeah.}

[Well, it is still boring. . . Zoe hasn't put much of anything in here to keep me entertained. . .]

{Well if you stop pestering her, maybe I can help with that.}

[Really!?]

{Yes really.}

[If you can, then I won't pester her at all.]

{Ok, then put her back on.}

[Ok.]

I again waited for a shorter period this time, considering he was in a hurry to go and get her.

[What did you tell him?]

{I told him I would talk to you about getting him something he could do.}

[And that is?]

{Look into my memories, and find something that is called a computer and an Xbox 320.}

[Alright, why do you want me to look for them?]

{I want you to get him one of each, with every game possible. That will keep him entertained for quite a while honestly. Hell WoW would keep him completely entertained.}

[I will have to talk to the system, but I think we could do it.]

{Alright, thank you! I figured this would help you out quite a bit. Also, make sure he has instructions on how to use them.}

[WIll do! I'll talk to you tomorrow then, I have a feeling it will take me awhile to find all the games.]

{Yeah it will. Talk to you later Zoe. Goodnight!}

[Goodnight Arthrall!]

After that, I decided it was time to go and wake Arialle up. I walked over towards the tent, and poked my head inside. Everyone was currently curled up inside of the tent, Onyx was sleeping with Arialle, Tyson was sleeping next to Blue, Dj was trying to cuddle Orion, but it wasn't working out that well. I then poked Arialle's leg to wake her up.

"Arialle, it's time to switch." I whispered towards her.

"I'm awake. . ." She said while yawning.