Chapter 30: Setting Camp
Rudith led Rohan and Elane over to the other five in her group, introducing them one by one. They had all unsummoned their armour by this point so Rohan and Elane could get a good look at each one of their faces and appearances.
Rudith started it off by introducing the only other woman besides her, who she described as ’her most trusted ally’ in the Origin Realm.
"This is Sarah; she’s the closest thing I have to a sister in this place! We’ve been exploring and fighting alongside each other from the very first day we set foot in the Origin Realm. She’s the scout of our group; her Gene significantly boosted all of her senses after she absorbed it, so she’d be the first to know of any movements in our area."
’So that’s why we were discovered despite being so quiet and so far away from them.’ Rohan mused.
The group of six were already staring in their direction before neither he nor Elane had noticed their presence. Sarah was likely the reason behind this.
"This is Joe, Niko, Noa, and Aron. Joe uses a sword like me; Noa focuses more on ranged fights, while Niko and Aron are flexible — they switch between a variety of weapons depending on the situation."
Rudith introduced the other four members, who each provided a small nod of acknowledgement but didn’t provide any further input than that.
"Joe, Niko and Aron will be joining you in fending off the horde of Worker Ants, while Me, Sarah and Noa will be facing down the Soldier Ant at the helm. Does that sound good to you?"
Rohan didn’t have much input to offer. He was still new to fighting in general, and had no experience or knowledge whatsoever about how fighting a battle in a big team like this worked.
He turned to Elane, seeing if she had anything to say.
However, she just offered a shrug.
"You guys know your specialities and abilities better than us, so we’ll just follow your lead. He’s a spear user, and I’m a bow user, by the way." Elane offered.
"Great!" Rudith exclaimed.
"Let’s get moving then, shall we?"
***
The group of eight Awakened trudged and cleaved their way through the dense undergrowth of the Firestone Forest. Joe and Rudith stood at the forefront and swung their swords at any vine, bush or branch that blocked their path.
Rohan and Elane stood at the flank of the group, doing their best to keep up with everyone else’s pace. Their bodies were much weaker than Rudith’s group of six due to their lack of Origin Energy cultivation, so they naturally lagged behind.
By this point, the group had been travelling for an hour through the forest and the foliage only grew denser the farther they travelled north.
"How far have we travelled?" Rohan asked Elane, catching his breath.
"I’d say about 20 kilometres so far." She answered, not wanting to use any more words than necessary to preserve her own stamina.
Travelling 20 kilometres in an hour was a lot for fresh F rank newbies like them.
It was approaching dusk at the time Rohan and Elane encountered Rudith’s group, and so the sun was already on the horizon by this point.
Rudith explained to them earlier after they set off that they planned to set camp overnight a kilometre or two away from the Ant Nest, before setting off at dawn the following day to begin their assault.
However, she didn’t tell them the exact distance to the Ant Nest, only that it was ’a few dozen kilometres’ away from where they originally met. So they could be approaching their stopping point or keep going for another hour for all they knew!
Thankfully, it seemed to be closer to the former.
"We’re about five kilometres out now; we should start looking for a good place to camp right about now." Rudith suddenly addressed from the front.
"Sarah, you see anything?" She asked her friend to the side.
The group came to a sudden stop after Rudith asked her question, everyone turning towards Sarah in complete silence, as if enraptured by her image.
Rohan and Elane were confused at first, but Rudith shushed them, so they simply followed along and observed Sarah’s actions with curiosity.
Sarah sucked in a deep breath and closed her eyes. Rohan questioned her actions internally, confused by what he was seeing, but swallowed his words after a second.
Sarah’s eyes shot back open.
’Her eyes are glowing red!’
The most striking difference was noticed instantly — Sarah’s eyes no longer looked the same and, instead, shifted to this new form. Her pupils looked like they disappeared, but instead they grew so small that it only seemed that way.
Sarah shifted her head in a panoramic view to the north for a few seconds until she finally opened her mouth to break the tense silence.
"There’s a small clearing in this direction about 1.5 kilometres ahead."
Rudith nodded in approval, as if everything she just witnessed were a normal everyday thing.
"That is my ability." Sarah suddenly explained to the bedazzled Rohan and Elane, noticing their shocked and confused expressions.
"Rudy already told you that my gene is a sensory-based gene, and what you just saw was one of the abilities I acquired from it. I essentially just turbo-charged all my senses to the max, which allowed me to see much farther ahead even in this darkness."
Rohan was amazed! He’d long heard about all the kinds of magical abilities that you could acquire if you absorbed a gene, but this was the first time he had the chance to bear witness to one in person!
’This just makes me even more excited to head back to Earth and absorb my Firestone Skin gene!’
The last five days had been an impatient few for him, as every night consisted of him daydreaming about all the things he could achieve once he absorbed the Firestone Skin, before eventually falling asleep hours later...
"And that’s why we needed complete silence while she activates the ability. It’s not just her sight that’s significantly boosted, but the other four senses too. Any sound we made, even a tiny footstep, would sound extremely loud to Sarah’s sensitive ears and throw her off." Rudith explained.
"Wow..."
Rohan was mesmerised.
Elane was also quite interested in Sarah’s ability, but less so than Rohan. She had been around Awakened all her life, so seeing magical scenes like that was a normal everyday occurrence to her. Though it did become rarer in recent times due to her continuous failed attempts to awaken...
"We can discuss all about genes later once we’ve settled down. First let’s make our way over to the location Sarah picked out." Aron suddenly interjected, not wanting to delay them anymore.
They were already behind schedule due to having to slow down for Rohan and Elane to keep up, so he was slightly annoyed.
But they were a team, so he had no choice other than to put up with it.
’Still, did she really have to invite two newbies along with us? They could mess up our teamwork and get us injured, or worse...’
He was the one who disagreed with Rudith’s decision the most, but he trusted her judgement over his own. If she felt that adding these two would help them in the upcoming fight, then he had nothing else to say.