I slept more or less soundly, with nothing interrupting me. Was I lucky, or did I have a sense for how this world worked now? There were clearly safe zones all over the place–that was something I could take solace in.

  When I woke up, I checked all of my stuff and confirmed that I had all my uses back. If today was about to be another day of fighting through the caverns, then I wanted to be ready.

  That said, where next? I could go back through the door and re-enter the red world, but I would only do that if there was no way out.

  On that note, I did notice something. It was faint, but with my Level active, I noticed that slightly fresher air was coming in from somewhere. After a little bit of searching–of running my fingers along the uneven rock wall, I found something.

  It was a distinct boulder, sort of lodged into the wall. It wasn’t just a rockfall or some scattered debris. This thing was deliberate. It had settled against the entrance like a natural barricade, maybe wedged into place by time itself. But fresh air leaked through the cracks, curling around the edges, reaching me–the guy who didn’t want to turn back.

  I pressed a hand against it. This bad boy was heavy. This wasn’t something a human could just expect to push.

  Good thing I had New Arm. The way its capabilities worked was weird, but I had gotten a sense for how to make the most of it.

  I planted my feet, rolled my shoulder, and swung.

  The impact shuddered through the cavern. Cracks splintered across the boulder’s surface. I struck again. And again. My strikes took a steady rhythm, hammering against the rock, each hit striking with mechanical, predictable precision.

  This was the way. The stats of the Signature Weapon were weird. Instead of numerical values, it had Grades for attack and defense, a lot like my willpower did.

  So, New Arm’s stats were:

  Level 9 (Because it leveled up with me)

  Attack: C

  Defense: B

  Durability: 60

  When in Gimmick Mode, the stats changed to:

  Attack: B

  Defense: D

  I didn’t know what those grades meant other than the relative comparisons. New Arm was more defensive than New Sword, and New Sword was more attacky.

  How the stats worked with reality were tricky. New Arm, for example, showed its “attack” in its explosive power, like the power of a punch or swing. When it came to grappling, or sustained activity like pull-ups, I could tell there was a difference. It was still better than my flesh-and-bone arm, but its ability to lift wasn’t keeping up with its ability to punch.

  Now the defense stat was tricky. When I was “defending” I was suddenly very able to “endure.” If a creature punched me, and I put up New Arm—even with all its weight behind the attack, it was very likely that I would be able to withstand it, unless something like the ground being slippery happened.

  If there was something I was happy about it was that I had fought so much, that I now had a near perfect sense of how New Arm worked, and when exactly its stats would come into play.

  That’s why I started with punches. When my umpteenth punch got it to move, I braced, digging my heels into the ground, muscles straining as I put my full weight into the motion. New Arm whined against the resistance—but it held.

  Turning on my levels for a moment, I pushed the boulder a few inches forward, and then another few, until the gap was wide enough for me to escape through.

  Real, open, unburdened air rushed past me, cool against my skin. My breath caught. I slipped out from behind the boulder. The world opened into a wide, expansive cavern.

  My memories of this life came rushing back.

  The cavern led out onto a ridge. A jagged, uneven cliff edge, overlooking something vast.

  “No way… It was hidden right here? What a dumb joke…”

  Stumbling along loose gravel, I caught myself on the ledge.

  “Ahh…”

  A valley I had never seen from so high stretched before my eyes.

  There was a vast, bowl-shaped depression in the earth. A forest encircled it—a wall of gnarled trees and bushes, their branches twisting into each other to form thick canopies of dark leaves.

  And there, nestled in the center of all of it, was home—the village ‘Set’ was born in.

  The crooked thatched roofs that barely prevented dust from drifting in. The crooked barn where Old Man Crown stored whatever we managed to gather or farm. The palisade walls, their sharpened logs standing like half-dead sentinels. The Shadow Flame sitting on the obsidian tower that the village was built around…

  My knees hit the ground. Dust puffed around me.

  "I… made it."

  The words came out cracked, barely a whisper. I hadn’t realized I was shaking until then. My hands trembled against the rock, fingers digging into the dirt as if to prove this wasn’t another hallucination, another cruel trick of the dark.

  After everything—the Shadow Beasts, the caverns, the thing that had worn Lyra’s skin, the red world—I was here. Our village. Set’s village.

  A laugh bubbled up, raw and disbelieving. I dragged in a breath—a stupid, stale breath whose only merit was that those stupid, scary trees breathed it and made it different than the stale air of the tunnels. I exhaled hard enough that my eyes stung and watered.

  And then, the most surprising sound, but the one I needed to hear reached me up in these heights.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  A long, cracking “Set!” echoed.

  I got on my feet. This was no time to be on my knees. I had gotten through everything—heck I had just finished sleeping. I could run!

  “Set, where are you?” that voice called, her echo bouncing all over the cavern.

  The person who was calling was the one who made the memories in this heart throb. So many memories regained a warmth…

  That person who called was Set’s home—she was Set’s heart calling out to him–calling out to me. And for that reason, I made it to her, with not a single care of how many tumbles or cuts I experienced, emerging from the trees, when she was looking off in another direction on the verge of frustrated tears.

  “Set! Where are you? I’m right here, Set!”

  My voice almost failed. “I’m right here, Runica.”

  She turned on her heels immediately. The memory of her shone the brightest, and it was true. She was just like how I remembered.

  Runica was the warmth I held in the back of my mind. A presence so steady and bright–I knew now that she really was the sun of my life. Her face had delicate features, her eyes bluer than mine–the memories of Earth told me they were as blue as the sky. The curve of her lips, no matter how much they trembled, always had a hint of defiance. They issued a challenge—she would always find the strength to go on even when this place was so miserable.

  Her light golden hair tumbled past her shoulders in loose waves, each strand catching the mushroom colonies’ dim light and making her seem almost luminous. It wasn’t a cold glow—nothing about her ever was.

  Runica’s breath hitched. For the briefest moment, she just stared—her lips parted, her eyes wide, like she had to process that I was really here, really standing in front of her.

  “Runica.” I cracked a smile. “I’m here.”

  I must have looked so scary. Of course she would be scared—

  “Set!”

  She ran, tears flowing from her eyes. She wasn’t going to stop. She was going to slam into me. I held my right hand out and believed in my cloak’s defense stat.

  She wasn’t tall, nor was she particularly small—just the right height that, when she ran into my embrace, her head would fit perfectly against my shoulder. The moment stretched between us–this was what it was all for…

  “Set!” she choked against my shoulder, fingers digging into my back. “You idiot! You absolute, horrible idiot! I thought—” Her voice cracked. “I thought you—but I kept calling for you, because you couldn’t die–you wouldn’t die when we were still here!”

  My hand moved on its own. I cupped the back of her head, fingers sliding into her hair, pulling her closer more than I had ever done as Set. I would have brought out New Arm, but I restrained myself.

  “Set, I really missed you,” she cried.

  She was crying and smiling, her cheeks red and snot running from her nose. My grip tightened slightly.

  “Did he do anything to you?”

  She stilled in response. I could feel her heartbeat against my chest.

  I immediately realized how it sounded. The question came out hard, with barely restrained fury behind it.

  Runica pulled back slightly, just enough to look at me, her hands cradling my face. Her thumbs brushed my cheekbones, her warmth spreading through me, grounding me.

  “No,” she murmured, and her voice—it was so gentle now. “No, Set. He didn’t do anything to me. I stayed with my father, my cousins, and Selma. I was safe. I promise.” She probed my eyes. “Is that what you were worried about this whole time?”

  I exhaled, my forehead nearly resting against hers.

  “Set?” she asked, her voice a little higher and her temperature increasing.

  Relief surged through me so strong it nearly buckled my knees.

  Her fingers trembled against my skin. She was taking in every inch of my face, her expression raw and open in a way that made my chest ache.

  And I—I did the same.

  Guided by memories from infancy until now, I got to know this girl once more. My right hand cradled her cheek, feeling the warmth beneath my palm, the wetness of her tears. She leaned into it, her eyes flickering shut for the briefest moment.

  And when they opened, they wandered to my left shoulder and widened. “Set… Your arm.”

  Her grip tightened. My thumb brushed along her jaw–she had a tiny scar here from when she tripped because she was chasing after Set a little too quickly.

  She swallowed hard. “Hey, Set, your arm–what happened–”

  “I lost it to a Mauler, but I got away.”

  “Oh,” she sounded, looking at me with immense sadness.

  “Don’t feel bad for me. I’m alive.”

  She put on a quivering smile and nodded. “Uhuh, you are. You really are.”

  Sniffling, she wiped her eyes, repeating her last few words over and over. She looked at me once more and grinned.

  “What happened, Set?”

  “Veyrith, that bastard,” I spat, saying his name for the first time since I remembered my past life–shit name almost made me puke. “The bastard pushed me into a Mauler after he led us out of the hunting zone.”

  Runica’s eyes widened as the shock shook her.

  I chuckled dryly. “What’d that guy say? That it was an accident? Maybe I stumbled into it?”

  Runica, mouth hanging open, shook her head. “No, no not at all. I didn’t believe them when they said it. Selma didn’t either.”

  I raised a brow. “What? What did he say?”

  “He said that hunger was making you desperate. That you took the bits of food you found and ate them before they noticed.”

  I shook my head. “No, me and Saela told Veyrith that we were in an overhunted area. There was nothing to be found.”

  “He said that you fought with the others and insisted that there would be something right outside of the hunting zone, but then, you were upset that they caught you. You were upset that they were going us that you were a mad thief. When you were outside of the hunting zone, you made noise and tried to attract a Mauler. But you were so mad that you didn’t see the Mauler right behind you–that was stalking the group!”

  My mouth fell open as Runica panted.

  “Seriously?” I asked.

  “Yeah, but I didn’t believe them! That was nothing like you! We knew that! I know–I know Veyrith is blessed, but come on! The people who knew you knew that something was wrong.”

  I swallowed. “The others—Edrin, Kast, Saela—they didn’t refute it?”

  “N-No, they just cursed you for making them go past the boundary. They were angry you ate the food that was meant to be shared!”

  “Bastards… They killed me, and they don’t even let me keep my good name?”

  “Set, I’m sorry! I’m really sorry—”

  I pried Runica off of me.

  “Set!” she cried.

  “Runica, that idiot—where is Veyrith right now?”

  “Erm, umm,” she replied, eyes darting all over the place. “He’s out hunting with the party. I’m only out here because he’s not around.”

  I nodded. “Yeah… Because he’d harass you otherwise… Where’s he hunting?”

  “Arm Six… but why are you asking?” Runica gasped. She sensed what I was about to do. “Set, please, let’s go back to the village! We can tell everyone your side of the story.”

  I took a step back, ignoring her call. “Truth is, Runica… I was able to get back here because I was tracking a Mauler,” I lied.

  Runica went pale. “Huh?”

  “I tracked a Mauler through the caves… That Mauler’s out there right now… A real beast,” I said, my thoughts filled with images of that awful man. “I’m going to finish my hunt. Make sure that Mauler will never endanger anyone.”

  Runica slowly shook her head. “Set, no. You just got back. You just got back from being dead.”

  I turned away from her. “Please tell Selma that I’m in the area, but no one else, okay?” I bobbed my head. “Well, you can tell your cousins if you want.”

  She reached for me. “Set, this isn’t fair—”

  “When I get back… I’ll…” I took a breath. “There won’t be any room for misunderstanding—what it is that I feel for you… Okay?”

  She froze. “Okay,” she stammered.

  And with that, I ran back into the forest, before she could say anything else. I turned on my Levels, and I caught her fading whimper—

  “Please come back to me, Set.”

  I nodded, wiping my eyes. “Always.”

  really need a chocolate bar.