SSS Rank Awakening: The World Beyond Redemption

Rael nodded slowly, turning the thought over. ”In the short time we had him, he never once looked for a way out of anything. Kept his feet even when the ground didn’t want him to.” A pause. ”That kind of stubbornness keeps people breathing longer than it should.”

”And Suzy?”

”If anyone protected her instinct to stay close to the group, it’s probably kept her alive.”

Lila hugged her knees, some of the earlier tension bleeding out of her shoulders. ”I hope you’re right.”

”I hope I am too.”

A silence settled, not uncomfortable, just full — the particular quiet of two people who had already run out of easy things to say and weren’t ready yet for the hard ones.

”We rest,” Rael said finally. ”When we can both move properly, we can go look for them.”

”It’s dangerous.” Lila’s voice sharpened again, worry doing what embarrassment couldn’t. ”One Savage-rank Ape nearly ended us both. If there’s worse out there —”

”There is worse out there. That’s not a reason to stay in a hole until we starve.” He flexed his fingers, testing the new density the level-ups had left behind, watching the motion like he was still getting used to owning it. ”It’ll be different this time. I’m stronger than before that fight. I’ll be stronger still by the time we’re ready to move.”

He met her eyes, steady, certain in a way that didn’t ask for her agreement, only her trust. ”I don’t plan on losing anyone else. Not you. Not them, if we can help it.”

Something in her chest loosened at that, though she didn’t examine it too closely. ”You say things like that so plainly. Like it’s obvious.”

”It is obvious. To me, at least.”

She looked at him a moment longer than the conversation required, then busied herself with the storage ring before he could see whatever was sitting on her face.

She took out the horned-rabbit carcass and worked it with the goblin blade, efficient and quiet, hands moving with more confidence than her voice had a minute ago. This was the first real cooking either of them had done since entering the realm. Until now they had survived on the cold rations she had carried in. The smell of roasting meat filled the small space, rich and unfamiliar, curling up toward the low stone ceiling.

Rael cursed himself silently, watching her work. If he had known he would awaken, he would have packed properly — tools, better weapons, spare potions, dried supplies that didn’t rely on someone else’s foresight. The Emberwood wand was gone now too, destroyed in the ape’s neck, one more piece of borrowed convenience he’d have to replace with nothing but his own two hands.

”You keep doing that,” Lila said without looking up from the meat.

”Doing what?”

”Going quiet and disappearing somewhere behind your own eyes. What are you thinking about?”

He considered lying. Decided against it. ”How unprepared I was. How much easier this would be if I’d walked in with even half the equipment everyone else had.”

”You walked in with nothing and you’re already stronger than the rest of us combined.” She glanced up at him, something almost teasing in it, an attempt to pull him back out of whatever dark corner he’d wandered into. ”I think you’re being too hard on yourself.”

”Or exactly hard enough. The realm doesn’t care about excuses. Being underprepared gets people killed just as easily as being weak.”

”You’re not weak. And you’re not as unprepared as you think. You have me.” The words left her before she’d fully decided to say them, and she flushed again, quickly adding, ”And my supplies. My arrows. That’s what I meant.”

”I know what you meant,” he said, and something in his tone — gentle, deliberately careless — let the moment pass without either of them having to stand inside it.

She handed him a portion of the rabbit, glad for the excuse to change the subject. The meat was denser than anything from Titan, the flavor clean and slightly wild, faintly smoky from the fire.

”It’s better than normal rabbit meat,” she said, chewing thoughtfully.

”Higher mana density in the muscle, probably. Everything here runs richer than back home.” He took another bite, savoring it despite himself, despite everything.

A soft chime sounded at the edge of his vision.

[+2 Agility]

He froze mid-chew.