DAA) Chapter 2 Part 3

Cap led me through the crevice to a small little inlet that had enough space for us all to have a small space of our own. “Carlos, Thomas you two are on watch. I need to change Aiya’s bandages.”

“Yes, Sir.” Carlos was the one who spoke. Thomas was very quiet. My gut tells me he was not doing too well. We lost both Briggs and Bryan. Two of my brothers had died so far. Carlos was hurt, and Thomas seemed to be losing it. Things were not looking very good.

“Cap. Thomas…” I began while Cap was unwrapping the bandage around my eyes.

“I know. He needs time. He and Bryan were close. But he also knows what he needs to do.” Cap paused before I felt something pressed against my lips. “Bite this. I need to scrap some skin.”

“Urrr!” I clenched my teeth against the leather strap Cap gave me to bite down on as I clenched my fists. The feeling of having skin scraped away was not a pleasant one. This was followed up by another dose of disinfectant.

“Done.” Cap wrapped my eyes back up as I let out a sigh of relief. That was not pain I wished to deal with, but I had no choice but to. “You get some rest. I will go take a look at Carlos. You did well today Aiya.”

“Thanks Cap.” I shifted my head slightly to try to get a bit more comfortable before trying to rest. I would say I closed my eyes but my eyelids were currently taped up. But since I finally had a chance to rest, I still tried to get some sleep, if only a little.

I guess the fatigue hit me quickly because before I knew it I was being nudged by someone calling my name. “Aiya, you have been sleeping for six hours. Try to eat something.”

“Carlos?” I let out a small yawn as I focused my strange vision and looked around. Thomas seemed to be on watch while Cap was resting against a rock. Carlos was next to me, holding a can of what smelt like beans. I could only see the outlines, but it was enough to get a rough idea of what was going on around me.

“Eat while it’s hot.” A warm can was pushed into my hands. I couldn’t help but smile as I felt the warmth. My stomach seemed happy since it let out a rumble.

“Thanks.” With spoon in hand, I dug in. It was strange eating when you could only see the outlines of things, but I still managed. It would be better if this annoying [Level Up!] window thing would just go away.

“Carlos do you still see the level up window?”

“Yeah. It’s still there. Reminds me of the novels I read when I was young. But I am not sure how to get rid of it if it is like one of those system things.” What Carlos said piqued my interest.

“Can you explain a bit of what those novels were about and what a system thing is?”

“From what I remember, people would get sent to another world and would gain a system. These systems would allow a person to level up. By saying the word status you would be able to bring up a status menu. But I already tried that and nothing seems to work. So I am not sure what to make of this window.”

A status screen, huh? “Status…” I figured I would give it a try, but sadly… “Nothing…”

“Yeah. It’s fucking embarrassing too be saying that shit out loud as well. Haha!” Carlos was at least still himself. He had not lost all hope yet.

“How’s Thomas?” I asked in a low whisper. I did not want Thomas to hear me.

“He’s still out of it. He stopped speaking unless you talk to him. He’s not hostile but I think he is broken right now. He just needs time I think.”

“Yeah, I can understand that.” It hurts to know my brothers are dead, but there was nothing that I can do at this time. Right now was not the time to mourn anyone’s death.

After eating, I began working on my vision more. Trying to get a better understanding of how I was doing it and what the bluish-purple strands of energy, I guess it was actually called, was. Everything else was outlined in white except these strands that floated through everything.

After hearing Carlos’s explanation, it made me wonder if we could take these strands in and keep them in our bodies. They were passing through all of us but not actually being sucked in fully.

Like right now I was watching a strand of this energy flow in one side of my arm and then out the other. It reduced by a tiny bit, but after not even a second, it built back up to the same size as it was before.

I watched as the next strand began to enter my arm. This time I concentrated hard and tried to will the strand to stay in my arm. But my results were just as laughable as my strange ideas. Although I did feel a tiny bit of warmth flow through my arm this time. “Hmm?”

I was not sure if I was seeing things, but it seemed the strand that exited my arm was much smaller than the last one. I tried this again a few times, and each time, it seemed the strand was smaller than the last. I tested it a few times by not trying to will the energy to stay inside me and the strands did not shrink as much and were like they were when they passed any object around me. So, I can only assume I was actually taking more of this strange energy in.

The warm feeling in my arm also began to expand more as well. I had no idea if this was a bad thing or not, but I felt that my vision seemed to have expanded a bit more. Not by much, just a few feet more than before. But I was not sure if this was due to the strands of energy or my constant use of this new vision which I was slowly getting used to using. Whatever it was, I had nothing to lose at this point by taking in this energy.