Chapter 38: Supply talk

They rested for many minutes of silence as Steven even started closing his eyes to relax a bit.

A moment to clear his mind felt great, but it couldn’t stay. As just a bit later, Merency started moving slightly.

Until she opened her eyes, as she stared directly into his eyes. And after clearing her throat, she stood up, cleaning herself of any dust.

She stared down the cliff until Steven decided to rise too. ’’Time to continue climbing?’’ Steven asked, removing the sleep from his eyes.

Positioning herself next to him, she stared down the forest; the sun had already moved over the sky and had most likely already passed noon.

The tree below also had changed a bit already, with many more of them missing, probably destroyed in fights or maybe even for material.

Merency yawned beside him as she stretched her arms. "You’re right, it’s time." With that, they moved towards a fitting place to continue their climb. ’’Try to not fall behind too much.’’ She smiled at him.

Who was she to say something like that? He had only waited for her; still, he decided to follow up with her.

As they, to their luck, continued their path upwards peacefully, even though Steven had expected at least a few of those birds to attack him.

But nothing happened, as they reached another ledge, this one much bigger and with a small cave forming in the wall of stone.

It was a perfect place to stay for now, so they decided to take it as their base of operation.

While inspecting the cave, Steven noticed another carving of a finger, this time in the stone. They had been able to even monitor a place this far off. So why hasn’t anyone else noticed them yet?

He wasn’t sure, but it didn’t seem like Merency was even able to sense its magic energy emitting, or else she would’ve never chosen a place like this.

After placing down the few resources they got, Merency looked at him disappointed. ’’Is that really everything we got?’’

Watching him nod, her face darkened slightly as she pointed towards the food rations. ’’Don’t we have something more readable than this?’’

"I would wish, but that’s everything the teacher gave us, and I could plunder from some students that won’t need it anymore."

She only seemed more disappointed at his words, staring at the food as if it would magically change into something new.

But magic on this type of level would be a waste for food, so they had to survive with what they had.

Picking up a few things that looked at least edible, he sat down at one of the cave walls, chewing on something that felt more than just unnatural.

Merency let herself fall to the ground on the other side of the cave, first staring at him but then probably growing bored and staring at the ceiling instead.

They had barely settled down in the cave as a loud voice echoed through the sky. "Welcome, students. For passing the first few hours, you deemed yourself worthy of some supplies."

Steven jumped to his feet, watching four red lines from the sky as the voice continued. "Sadly we don’t have enough for everyone, so have fun." The voice sounded so sweet Steven wanted to punch the demoness.

As the line slowly faded away, only small red dots remained in the day sky, slowly growing closer.

Merency had already moved beside him as she stared at those points in the distance excitedly.

"We really should go or someone else might get one first." She spoke, seemingly already having picked a favorite.

"No," Steven answered as he turned away from the cave entrance back inside.

"What do you mean no?" She hurried behind him, grabbing his arm. "We need supplies, don’t we?"

Steven could only shake his head. "We have more than enough for now; our goal is to stay out here for at least two days with the least amount of combat necessary."

He spoke flatly like he was trying to educate her. "Also, those spots will be filled with masses of students now, who were probably much closer than we are right now."

All of his arguments made sense, but she still looked at him like he had lost his mind, her eyes trying to plead with him.

But he stood strong, not letting her fake cute act fool him. "It’s just not worth it," he spoke finally.

She just gave the red dots in the distance a last sad gaze until she turned away.

Steven felt bad for his actions even though they were right, so he made a compromise.

"We can go when another wave of supplies drops down; the masses of students should’ve decreased by then."

He spoke, knowing it would take probably until tomorrow for them to arrive, but at least it lightened the mood slightly as Merency’s smile returned.

"You promise we will try to get the next one no matter what?" She sounded excited as if she had already gotten the supplies in her hands.

Letting out a sigh, "Yes, we will get the next ones no matter what." He spoke unwillingly, watching her spin in a circle of happiness.

Where had all this energy been when they were climbing? He could only question it silently.

Until the silence was broken too, by something filling the sky once more with his professor’s voice.

"Seems like we got another round of supplies just now, so everyone get ready."

Steven froze as he could only stare at the distance where another two red lines formed and disappeared in red dots.

Tightening his fists, he could watch Merency’s face wander through pretty much every emotion as she jumped to her feet.

But Steven could only think one thing.

He was going to kill his professors no matter what after all this.