Petunia

Another day passed, a day in which Kai decides to stay in the Dome and relax after all that happened yesterday. Even though the Poisoned status effect was long gone, he still got a little light headed from time to time.

The artificial sun was shining, the moon birds were chirping and the grass on the ground was growing. A normal day.

Walking through the luscious and green meadow near the edge of the Dome, he opened his status and looked at how long was left.

Time remaining - 419: 42: 33

Pairs remaining 156/250

Points earned: 187

Just over 17 days remained in stage three of the tutorial, or it could be the final stage and Kai might finally be free after this.

Doubtful... And so many have died so far. The scouts managed to find around eighty people so far, but who knows how many the abominations have...

Noticing something in the distance, Kai stops walking and watches silently. Sitting on a rock looking at a flower patch is an absolute unit of a man, a little smaller than Beefcake though, the one who attacked Kai and Noelle.

He looks to be around 30 and has short, black hair. His muscles are so well defined they look as if they're about to burst through the fabric of the gray bodysuit wrapped around his body. The mans arms look as if they could rip trees out of the ground with little effort. As if noticing someone watching, the man turns and looks at Kai.

"Oh, hey there..." The burly man then looks back down at the multi-coloured flowers at his feet. "Beautiful, aren't they?"

Walking up beside the man, Kai looks down at the vibrant flowers. They do look pretty, he admits, but-

"What exactly are they?" He asks curiously, looking at the man who is watching the flowers wistfully as they sway in the light breeze.

"Petunias." The man answers, an underlying tone of happiness in his voice as he talks about them. The flowers seeming to be a source of contentment for him.

"You know, my daughter was called Petunia, her mother was from England and her great-grandmother had the name, so we called her that. She would've been nine... or maybe she already is, I don't know."

An somber silence fills the air, only for it to be blown away by the pitter patter of a wolfs paws as Umbra walks up to her master, rubbing her furry head against his thigh.

The man's eyes light up, a shimmer of excitedness washing away the previous sadness, a small sparkle hiding in the depths of his tired eyes.

"Well who's this lovely thing?" He smiles, reaching his hand out to pet the moon wolf.

"Be nice to him, please." Kai says to Umbra through his Telepathy skill, the skill being more useful than he ever would've imagined back at level 5.

Honestly, I can't believe I even thought about picking illusionary dagger, I still kind of miss earth spike though...

Umbra let's the muscular man pet her, enjoying the sensation of his large hands rubbing her. The man has an almost childlike glee to him while he pets the pitch black wolf.

"So... what's your name?" Kai asks as Umbra returns to his side, leaving the man with empty hands.

"John, John Jones." The man smiles as he stands up, wiping his hands on his bodysuit. "What about you?"

"I'm Kai..." He pauses, realising the man said his second name too. Thinking back, Kai realises he never shared his second name with Sofia or Noelle, then again, they never shared theirs with him either so he guesses that it's fine.

"Well Kai." John speaks up, patting Kai on the shoulder as he does. "You're a good kid, and thanks for letting me pet the wolf, made me realise how much I miss my own dog... and daughter of course... and wife."

Chuckling slightly, Kai cranes his neck to look up at the sturdy man and let's the fact that he called him a 'good kid' pass.

"Don't worry about it, and I'm sure your family is fine, just like mine is..." He tries to sound confident when he says the last part, but doubt creeps in and makes his voice crack. He really hopes his family is fine after all. His mother, father...

Please let me see them again soon...

Undoubtably, the scariest thing about this whole situation is not the moon Demon, not talking beasts, not even the abominations. Its the fact Kai is slowly forgetting the faces of those he once knew.

Even if he gets out of the tutorial alive, what's the point if there's no one there to reunite with, or even worse, he just doesn't recognise them in general.

"Yeah, I'm sure they are too..." John gives a sad smiles one last time before gives a wink to Umbra, he then walks off towards the centre of the Dome. While walking he shouts over his shoulder:

"I'll see you around, Kai, I should get back to training."

Frowning slightly, Kai decides to identify the man, and what he sees makes him sigh.

Level: 17

It seems that everyone really is ahead of me because of that week.

As if sensing his disappointment, the familiar ring of a notification enters his ears. Curious, Kai opens his status to see what he possibly could've gotten.

The Ever-changing gives a small XP bonus for a heartfelt good deed.

Well, it seems The Ever-changing gives XP based on things they like, not just 'good performances'.

Smiling slightly, Kai shakes his head and looks back at the Petunia's near his feat. He then talks in a soft tone to himself, or who he knows is probably watching him.

"Thanks d-" He was about to say dude, but then remembers that The Ever-changing doesn't really have a gender, or not one that Kai knows of anyway, so with a sigh and a shake of his head, he relents and whispers:

"Thanks, Master."

He then looks back to Umbra and pets his furry familiar softly before starting to walk back to the center of the Dome, towards Failure's cabin.

Its about time I at least asked him to train me, and even if he says no I can just keep going on hunts with Aldred. I would rather Failure says yes though, I don't want to end up in another ambush situation...

A while later, Kai arrives at the cabin. Umbra left him to go with one of the scouting parties to hunt and train, meaning he walks into the cozy wooden home alone.

Looking around the cabin, Kai can't spot the charismatic man anywhere, the place is empty.

Should I peek into one of the rooms? What could possibly be in there anyway, it's probably just bedrooms or something...

Right then, as if sensing the intrusion, Failure walks out of one of the possible bedrooms. His normally jubilant and attractive face now looks pale and tired, with deep bags under his eyes. His brown hair, which is normally well kept, is now disheveled and messy, His stance screaming for him to go to sleep.

"Oh... hello Kai." Failure smiles weakly, struggling to lift his head to look at Kai. Even when he successfully lifts his head to look at him, his eyes seem to be gazing through him. "What can I do for you?"

Kai flinches at the sight, after all, Failure looks like he just got out of prison or something. "Are.. you okay?" He asks slowly, looking at Failure's unkempt appearance.

"Oh, I'm doing splendid, nothing to worry about. As I said though, what can I do for you?"

Failure lies through the skin of his teeth, and Kai knows it, but if the man wants to keep whatever it is to himself, Kai won't pressure him.

"I was just hoping you could... train me or something. You know a lot about everything that's going on now, while I know bare minimum, maybe even less than that. I would understand if you were to say no though."

"Oh, don't worry friend, I don't mind at all. It's just now is a bad time, I would be willing to do it tommorow though."

Kai blinks a few times, then his face light up when Failure agrees to his request, he sighs in relief and says in a grateful tone:

"Thanks, Failure, I appreciate it. If there's anything I can do for you, just ask."

The man chuckles, but even that can't wash away the tiredness etched onto his pale face.

"Don't worry about it, besides, it's not like theirs much you could do much for me anyway. I would rather just have our esteemed Catalyst not die on us. Now, if you would excuse me though, I need to get some rest."

With that, Failure trudged past Kai with heavy feet towards one of the closed rooms. When the door opens, Kai cranes his neck and sees it really is just a bedroom.

Well, that one is anyway...

Walking out of the cozy wooden cabin, Kai knows what he has to do next, a way he can obtain information about the past and maybe what's to come.

Making sure no one sees him, he walks back to the meadow where he met John. While he was there to relax after what happened yesterday, there was another reason, one which had to be postponed due to John being there.

A single tree stands taller than the others in the vast meadow. This particular tree has pink leaves, unlike the surrounding trees which all have various shades of green on them. The tree sticks out like a sore thumb, easily identifiable if one wanted to look for it.

Standing under the beautiful pink tree, Kai looks down at the ground below him. Signs that it was freshly dug is visible to the naked eye, so Kai crouches down and starts to scoop at it with his hands.

About a minute later, he finds what he was looking for. Pulling out a mess of papers covered by worn leather, he sits down and leans back against the tree.

With Ethania's diary in hand and Failures words in mind, he opens the decrepit diary and opens it to the page after the one he previously read.

'Dear diary,

Everyone is a liar.'

Looking at the page, Kai frowns slightly. Even though the diary has to be at least thousands of years old, yet it has small little wet marks blotted onto the page, as if Ethania was crying when writing this.

'Why? Just because some perverted god wants me as their little whore they want me to be their sacrifice. Even father wanted me to go to the tower, after everything I did for him. I even kept the fact he cheated on mother a secret, and the fact he has a bastard child, wherever they are. So why should I, the only person in the right in this whole situation, have to sell myself for the kingdom I raised? I say no.

I will not do what they want, I have already told Sir Constance I plan to leave as I know that he will never betray me. Maybe I shouldn't have told him though, as now he plans to come with me. I tried to stop him... but he says his siblings will be fine without him, saying that Sally turns fifteen in a week and how she already has a job.

I won't tell him, but I'm extremely thankful he's coming, but it would make me feel guilty if I told him that... but I deserve to be a little selfish after giving so much away, right?

Right.'

The page ends there, but Kai's mind only starts turning.

So the king was a dickhead cheater who had a bastard child, everyone wanted her to give herself up to Eye of the moon and she had a knight named Sir Constance who was loyal to her who she ran away with..

The picture always becomes clearer with a better lens...

With nothing better to do until his training session with Failure tomorrow, he flips the page and starts to read the next diary entry.