The Venator turned around and bounded off, droplets of mud splashing everywhere before she suddenly stopped and began walking normally again. Her entire group had returned alive, albeit with a few injuries. They returned from the Zone lugging a bunch of game that they had hunted – mostly from the forest region, but some from the city as well. They had already set up stations for skinning, processing and cooking, and were busy at it. As Kumkani was in his little chair, taking a moment, he saw that the woman was back, once again dragging something behind her.
'What is it this time?' He asked himself, groaning internally.
Without even saying a word, the Venator, who was pulling sled type thing behind her, started offloading what looked to be an unnecessary amount of kit from it. There was a wooden stool, a bucket, and some other miscellaneous stuff. She set the stool and bucket down right in front of where Kumkani was seated and grabbed a large toiletry bag.
"What are you doing?"
"You repay kindness with kindness. I'm doing the same." She said as she opened the bag. "I have medicine for burns. But can't apply over dirt. You have to wash."
"My arms…"
"Yes. I will help."
'I wasn't even trying to help. I just wanted to hang around long enough to have insurance if the snake had followed me.' He thought to himself.
The orange hair bobbed about as she pulled one of her daggers and cut the burned sleeve carefully in order to have proper access to the burned skin. She then poured something into the water and agitated it, and began wiping Kumkani's arm down with a face cloth, making sure not to be too rough.
"Painful?" She asked.
"Everything is, not just my arm. But it's alright."
The Venator continued to wipe Kumkani's arm and hand in silence, her brow furrowed with intense concentration. When she was done, she pulled an odourless ointment out from her bag, and began to apply it. It had an immediate effect, soothing the now dull stinging in Kumkani's arm.
"That's… really effective." He said, drawing an immediate sigh of relief from the Venator. "Horatio."
"Huh?" She said as she looked up at him.
"My name; Horatio. But you can call me Kumkani."
"Vajra." The woman responded.
"Vajra, thank you for this."
"Welcome." Vajra said with a nod and a pride in her eyes.
She then packed everything away, but left the bucket and the stool behind, which made it easier for her to just pick the sled thing up and carry it back to her groups camp. A bunch of chatting and whooping could be heard coming from the group. Kumkani looked at his arm, clenching and opening his fist a few times.
"That ointment is really effective." He said to himself with a nod. "I'd love to analyse it some time."
Soon, Vajra had returned, carrying a large wooden serving bowl that doubled up as a tray. The hare from earlier – which had been portioned and flame roasted – was placed within along with an assortment of flat breads, sauces and pickled vegetables. She set the large bowl on the bucket, and after setting another two bowls with clean water next to their respective chairs, Vajra looked at Kumkani, and then at the food.
"Food. Let's eat."
"Thank you." Kumkani replied awkwardly, before sampling each food item individually. "Delicious." He said with a nod.
He was testing to see if his throat was healed enough to handle slightly harder foods, and it turned out that it was. The pair ate in complete silence, however they both polished off all of the food that in the bowl. Hands were washed, water was downed, and soon, Vajra was on her way back to her own camp to bathe and pass out. There was a communal bathing area, however that was largely known as a rendezvous spot, so it was an enter at own risk kind of area. Once again, she was welcomed back to her back with no small amount of fanfare, meanwhile Kumkani sat and contemplated everything he had discovered and experienced in the Zone. Entering the Mind Realm while appearing to be asleep, he began to compile his notes.
"I've come across Gobins and Kobolds in the outskirts, but I cannot discount the chances if there being more monster races in the Outskirts. Before returning to that overgrown area, I think I should take this week to explore laterally and see as much of the area as possible. I can likely handle the Goblins and such, but who knows what other giant beasts lie in wait beyond the Outskirts."
Suddenly, on one of the rat windows, the squeaks that he was hearing were not like regular squeaks, and he got a POV shot of rats mating.
'This, I don't need to see.' He thought to himself before muting and blacking the visuals out.
A holographic image of his body popped up next to the floating window screens. The image was green, however from the feet to just below the ankles, it was a different colour, with a deep, moving and sentient looking red fluid like substance wriggling within.
"Assimilation is coming along nicely. I kind of forced the five droplets of Primordial Blood, but luckily, this Dimensions 'me' was fairly weak physically. It shouldn't take much more than a year at worst to fully Assimilate, and change this body's make up. That being said, I'd like to gain access to the Flesh Realm soon – this body is banged up, and I don't have access to a lab to concoct something, so I can't just sit and let it heal. That being said, if Goblins have access to Fireball Runes, they might have access to other types… and even if they don't, I might be able to extract the power and fuel other spells. I can't keep using Blood Magic – especially with how the creatures in the Zone are able to identify the blood within the magic."
Kumkani remained in the Mind Realm, jotting down new terminologies for the things he witnessed and experienced, planned to look into deeper, and more, until he was forcefully woken up by an Aegis Venator.