Well... the eyeball fiasco went surprisingly well. To Evelynn's disbelief, no one even died this time. Sure, the landscape was strewn with dead vegetation and mister Johnson was still unconscious—but compared to the mess of the past few months, Evelynn had learned to count her lucky stars.

As the horses pulled the wagon at a trot, Evelynn was laying mister Johnson on the tarp in a more comfortable position. It wouldn't do to leave mister Johnson slumped in the driver's seat. After all, Evelynn needed to take over the reins... and she felt a little regretful for bashing his head.

Evelynn grimaced. Knocking mister Johnson unconscious was distasteful, but necessary, and now Evelynn was left with the mess of how to explain the situation when he woke up.

Evelynn had already cleaned the bloodstains from her sword hilt, so she could spin it as the eyeballs having directly caused the injury. However, she wasn't sure whether mister Johnson saw her in the split second between him turning around and his head getting bonked.

Either way, Evelynn cleaned mister Johnson's head wound and shelved the issue for later.

She went back to watching Charlie playing with the eyeball. Rolling the blue sclera abomination and spinning it like a top. If Evelynn didn't know that the Roaming Eyes captured victims and slowly drained them for sustenance, the scene would have been cute.

As it was—the eyeball's presence was mildly uncomfortable. The blue sclera abomination rolled across the wagon bottom, solid black pupil fixed on her face. A glimpse into the abyss. Staring at her with an alternative future where they didn't win the last altercation.

Evelynn shivered and grabbed the horses' reins. Charlie might be unfazed, but Evelynn preferred placing some distance between herself and the swarm they fought off not an hour earlier.

Snapping the reins, Evelynn urged the horses to run faster—moving from a trot to a canter. Given Charlie's warning to stop fearing the eyeballs, Evelynn wasn't afraid. She was just slightly disturbed.

And no one would be able to blame her. The Roaming Eyes were a known threat with hotspots scattered throughout the Veilith Empire. Most people avoided going anywhere near the death-zones. Hence the empty road leading to Glennworth city.

The only people who were willing to brave such danger were adventurers, and even they would only sign up if they were strapped for cash. After all, the pay didn't scale with the inherent diffi-

Evelynn glanced back at Charlie.

Or more specifically, the rolling eyeball.

She couldn't believe she was thinking this—but eldritch material was worth quite a lot. And the fresher the abomination, the more lucrative the payment.

Evelynn chewed on her lower lip. The worst part was the danger. But they had already proven capable of surviving a swarm. Most of the issues disappeared by keeping calm and relying on Charlie to scythe extending stalks.

Evelynn stared at the spinning eyeball as she pulled on the reins. The wagon slowly rolled to a stop, interrupting the eyeball's spinning, and causing it to bump into mister Johnson.

Charlie blinked and looked up, curious over why the wagon had stopped. She locked eyes with Evelynn, and saw that Evelynn was strangely fixated on the eyeball. Sure, the blue sclera eyeball was pretty, but Evelynn never seemed to like the bottom feeders.

Charlie grabbed the eyeball and held it out to Evelynn.

"Evy? Do you also want to hug the eyeball?"

Evelynn blinked and averted her eyes from the solid black pupil staring at her. She gestured Charlie to put the eyeball down, and properly turned to face her best friend.

"No. I've been thinking... We can make quite a lot of money by filling the wagon with Roaming Eyes."

Charlie cocked her head in confusion. Evelynn loved her coins, but changing from avoiding the eyeballs to embracing them was a pretty far leap. Who knew money could be such a great incentive? Also, this could mean additional toys!

"So... does this mean I can gather more eyeball stalks?"

Rubbing her hands with suppressed glee, Charlie stared at Evelynn imploringly. The extra toys would be great fun! Also, having to ship so many eyeballs would prevent the rest of the trip from getting boring. Evelynn shifted uncomfortably at seeing Charlie's excitement, but with a last glance at the swiveling eyeball, ended up sighing.

"...yes. We'll turn the wagon around and gather some eyeballs. Well, mostly you, Charlie. Since you can defend yourself."

Charlie squealed. This was amazing! Lunging forwards, she hugged the startled Evelynn , before releasing her and starting to hop around the wagon.

Evelynn had turned around and was guiding the horses back down the road to the site of the battle. The horses took some convincing to head back. After some rein tugging, they were moving at a sedate trot, with Charlie craning her neck to catch a glimpse of the vegetation pile.

They were some distance from the scene of the fight. Charlie couldn't see the massive heap of green because of all the hills blocking the view. The slow ride also wasn't improving Charlie's impatience.

Charlie wanted to be picking pretty eyeballs. Not sitting in a slow-moving wagon. The sweat covered horses weren't ready to start galloping, and Evelynn wasn't pushing them to go faster. They deserved to set a slower pace after straining themselves while fleeing the swarm, however that didn't solve Charlie's frustration.

There was only so much bright sunshine and rolling hills that Charlie was willing to take. Especially when she had something new to attract her attention. After all, Charlie now had Evelynn's blessing to frolic amongst the eyeball stalks.

Fidgeting, Charlie trailed some tendrils from her robe. It would be a lot faster if she ran ahead. Using her tendrils, Charlie could easily lap the horses, and would even outpace them when they were galloping.

"Evy? May I run ahead to grab some eyeballs?"

Evelynn wasn't really paying attention. She was muttering numbers, eyes glazed over, and didn't bother to look up.

"Sure... Grab thirty living eyeballs... and a few armfuls of freshly cut stalks. Stack them by the road."

Shrugging off Evelynn's weirdness, Charlie stretched out her arms and poured a stream of tendrils from her robe. Finger-width tendrils snaked down the sides of the wagon and stabbed into the ground. Lifting herself into the air, Charlie set off at a fast pace.

After doing it numerous times, it still felt weird that her human body was hanging in the air, while her tendrils were sweeping down the road like a many-legged spider. Except spider legs had joints to bend.

Her fluid tendrils could not only bend in numerous directions, but would even change their shape to aid her locomotion. Without any conscious thought, her tendrils were spearing the ground in front of her, before automatically shifting into hooks to pull Charlie forwards.

She didn't bother with the road. Gouging furrows into the ground and leaping from hilltop to hilltop, Charlie swiftly left the wagon behind.

And from a higher vantage point, she saw the pile of dead vegetation.

Or at least the remains.

From the towering height of dozens of meters and blanketing the road for miles—the heap of eyeball stalks had shrunk. It was a few meters shorter and had receded towards the valley from whence they emerged.

Living eyeball stalks were looping around the severed vines and dragged them back while the eyeballs were sponging up the ocular fluids. None of the eyeball stalks paid Charlie any attention. They didn't stop salvaging the shredded remains even when Charlie halted a few meters from the pile of dead vegetation.

She rubbed her head. This was unpleasant and unexpected. Evelynn would probably tell Charlie to collect the specified material from the foraging eyeball stalks in front of her, but Charlie wanted to explore.

There was no fun if all she did was walk around for a few minutes and prune the nearby foliage. It would be the same as plucking leaves from a tree.

Charlie huffed, gazing at the eyeballs dispiritedly. And the eyeballs didn't even stare back.

Maybe she should travel a bit further.

Pay the eyeball stalk valleys a visit and look around. Charlie never paid these fodder any attention while she was in the abyss, but if memory served, there was more to these bottom feeders than a single eyeball mounted on a stalk.

A smile traced itself across her face.

Charlie looked up and patted the nearest eyeball. The red sclera eyeball jerked back, but she was already sweeping down the swath of dead vegetation. Charlie was heading towards the eyeball stalk valleys, and she had a pretty good idea of what she would find.

Evelynn had considered the eyeball stalks valuable, so she would be extra happy when Charlie brought back one of the eyeball stalk heads!

After all, they had only encountered the limbs.

Evelynn was trying to remember how much the adventure guild paid for an eyeball or a stalk. The price depended on Glennworth's demand for nausea-inducing fluid or very stretchy plant fiber. Distant armed conflicts might also swing the prices, because the city was a hub for passing traders. The freshness of a living eyeball would be of interest to alchemists while the craftspeople couldn't care less.

Consumed in her thoughts and calculations, Evelynn absentmindedly guided the wagon along the road. She was barely paying attention when she told Charlie to go ahead and pluck some eyeballs. Evelynn was sure Charlie was fine. As her best friend had demonstrated, Charlie knew what she was doing. Most of the time.

Evelynn was alerted by a soft groan. Mister Johnson had a hand clapped over his head wound as he rolled himself over on the tarp, thankfully cushioned with his cloth merchandise. A blinding headache at his age was bad enough without adding a sore back. Evelynn gave mister Johnson a minute to recover and gather his bearings.

"How're you feeling, mister Johnson? If you're thirsty, the flask of water is by your head."

Mister Johnson didn't answer, and since he had his eyes closed, he felt along the ground before grasping the metal flask. He took a drink as he propped himself up on an elbow. After taking a few sips, mister Johnson capped the flask and set it aside. Sighing, he sat up straighter and squinted at his surroundings.

"I-I'm still alive? And-"

Mister Johnson flinched when he caught sight of Evelynn. Even though he quickly recovered and grinned at her, Evelynn still caught him slightly shifting away from her.

"Miss Evelynn! You also survived! I didn't think we wou-... What about miss Charlie? Is she okay?"

He was sitting against the wagon's side, uneasily looking around, trying to locate the conspicuously absent Charlie. Evelynn eyed him before carefully replying.

"Charlie is fine, and went for a walk. You might have some questions, so I'll do my best to answer them."

Tugging on the horses reins, Evelynn slowed the wagon to a stop and fully turned to face mister Johnson. Keeping a casual posture, she draped both arms over the wagon's side and away from her belt of sword and daggers. Mister Johnson relaxed a little.

"I'll admit it is a relief to hear Charlie is fine. I thought all of us were goners," Mister Johnson chuckled a little and felt at his head, "Aside from this bump on my head, it is a surprise that... everything is intact. No one died. And all my merchandise is still sellable."

He looked at all his wares. A little mystified. Pulling up a corner of the tarp, he checked on his bolts of cloth and clothing. Evelynn nodded along while keeping an eye on a burlap sack stuffed behind her bag of herbs. That subject was going to be awkward to broach.

Satisfied with the condition of his wares, mister Johnson sat back.

"Miss Evelynn. How long was I out?" Mister Johnson asked before frowning perplexedly. "For that matter. How did we survive a Roaming Eyes swarm?"

Evelynn waved a hand nonchalantly.

"You were unconscious for an hour or two. And... the Roaming Eyes swarm curiously pulled back. No idea why."

She tapped a finger on her chin before shrugging. Meeting mister Johnson's incredulous expression, Evelynn just gave a sigh of resignation.

"I really have no idea why the swarm left. We were being overwhelmed and everything had descended into chaos. I'm just thankful to be alive."

"Right... So, why aren't we moving? Shouldn't we be trying to get away from the Roaming Eyes in case they come back?"

Evelynn cracked an awkward smile. She bit her lower lip as she muddled through how she could phrase this harebrained scheme better.

"Remember how I said that Charlie is taking a walk?"

"Right..." Mister Johnson replied quizzically.

"Well, Charlie went back to collect some Roaming Eyes."

Evelynn gave mister Johnson a strained smile as he blinked and rubbed his ears. Mister Johnson opened and closed his mouth several times, but Evelynn interrupted him.

"Yeah, I know this sounds stupid, but hear me out. While fighting the Roaming Eyes Charlie and I found out that the swarm is attracted to fear. So, the Roaming Eyes won't attack anyone who is suppressing their fear."

"B-But, how can you be sure? One mistake and we'll all wish we were dead! We should be running and hoping that the Roaming Eyes won't notice us."

Mister Johnson stared at Evelynn wide-eyed, aghast at the risk they were taking on such flimsy reasoning. His breathing had quickened, and he had his hands clenched together. Evelynn eyed mister Johnson warily, but forged ahead anyways. She needed his wagon and horses.

"I can assure you it works. Charlie and I tested it out, and the swarm ignored us. Not to mention, it'll only be Charlie picking the Roaming Eyes, so you'll be safe at this distance."

Evelynn hastened to assure him. After highlighting that the risks were mitigated, mister Johnson still appeared adverse to the plan. His horrified expression and fast breathing hadn't changed. Since Evelynn couldn't say Charlie would rip any threatening Roaming Eyes to shreds, she went for distracting him.

"Think of it this way. The eyeballs and stalks of the Roaming Eyes are quite valuable."

Giving him a reassuring smile, Evelynn gestured at the wagon, letting him take in all the empty space they could utilize.

"If we fill up the entire wagon, we'll be able to sell the eldritch material for around thirty gold even if we lowball the prices the adventure guild will be willing to pay."

Evelynn stared at mister Johnson, hoping money would be enticing enough to get him to forget about the risks. It wasn't enough. Mister Johnson rubbed his temples before regarding her with a disappointed stare.

"Miss Evelynn. Money is great, but I didn't get to my age by taking disproportionate risks. And hunting Roaming Eyes with only two Bronze ranks is definitely an unacceptable risk."

Evelynn sighed and glanced at the burlap sack.

Maybe she should take a leaf out of Charlie's book.

If the discussion doesn't go though, then Evelynn would have to show mister Johnson that it was irrational to be scared of an eyeball.