Gallo stoked the fire next to him, watching the as a spray of sparks leapt into the air and the fire let out a new spurt of warmth. The wood was already mostly burnt, though, and it was obvious that the fire wouldn’t last for much longer. Nervously, Gallo looked at Farn, who was still cultivating. It had been an hour since Farn had slowed Aurelie’s bleeding down and consequently used up all his Spirit Power. Farn had recovered about half an hour afterwards and kept watch for an hour until they agreed that it was unlikely that the monster was going to come in through there. Farn had re-entered his cultivation state and handn’t even twitched since. Gallo didn’t want to bother him, so he decided to take sole responsibility for his plan.

Carefully, Gallo slid Aurelie’s storage ring off her finger, though he apologized for his actions in advance.

‘I’m really sorry Aurelie, but Farn didn’t bring any spare clothes, and I only got one spare set and that’s already soaked. You need bandages, so I decided, on my own, that I would have to cut up your clothes in order to make them. I promise I’ll only use the really worn out and ratty clothes, so please forgive me for this intrusion of privacy.’ He said in his mind, not wanting to disturb Farn.

Then, without further ado, he inserted a tendril of Spirit Energy into the ring.

There were two methods of access to a storage ring. One was the standard method Aurelie used, which was to just summon whatever it was she wanted from her ring, visualizing the item and then sending in her Spirit Energy. The other was used more when you had no idea what exactly was inside. It was as though you projected your consciousness into the ring, letting you go through the contents yourself. This was the method Gallo used now.

While it was true he knew what he wanted- clothes- he had no idea which clothes exactly. If he used the first method and used the vague word ‘clothes’ as his point of summoning, then he could get anything from her best outfit to her underwear. He didn’t want to get her underwear. It would not only be embarrassing for both of them, she would probably kill him.

Slowly opening his eyes, Gallo took a look around. He was in a room. Stacked up in a corner of the room, there were incandescent boxes, made such that only the shimmering outline of the box could be seen. It had no color, and was fully transparent. In the opposite corner there was a dresser, in the same form as the boxes. In another corner was a table made of the same material as all the other furniture, piled high with weapons. There was also that black box that emitted light sitting there. Gallo knew that the weirdness of the furniture was due to the fact that they weren’t actually there. While they held her stuff, Aurelie couldn’t summon them out of her ring.

Gallo made his way to the dresser, apologized for his actions again, and opened the doors. Inside, there was a row of tops dangling from hangers made of the same material as all the other furniture. Relieved that there were no unmentionables lying around, he quickly went through the hangers, looking for any shirt he didn’t think would be missed. He finally settled on a too big shirt he’d seen her using as a nightshirt. Incidentally, this was the same shirt she had been wearing during the confrontation with Tanor, though he didn’t know that. Grabbing the shirt, Gallo exited the ring. He put the t-shirt down next to him, slipped the ring off of his finger, and back to its appropriate place on Aurelie’s finger.

Taking out his knife, Gallo first cut off the tattered lower half of Aurelie’s current shirt, turning it into a halter top of sorts, while wincing and apologizing again. But it really couldn’t be helped. The little scraps were beginning to stick to her wounds, and if he didn’t cut them off, it would be rather annoying, and he would have to have more contact with her body than strictly necessary, and that would lead to awkwardness and possible bloodshed. After that, he began to cut the shirt into one long strip, which he then proceeded to wrap around her wounds. The bandages did their job, soaking up the trickle of blood that still seeped from her wounds.

Tying the bandage off, Gallo leaned back to evaluate his handiwork with a critical eye. Not finding any glaring mistakes, he got up and went to the entrance, stepping around Farn. The monster hadn’t done anything since they came in, and Gallo hoped it understood that if it attacked the wall, then there was a possibility that the entire cave would come down around them. He also wished the monster didn’t know that they would have to leave soon, or else…

His grim thoughts were interrupted by the sudden absence of World Energy in his surroundings. Gallo whirled around, gaping at Farn, the origin of the suctioning force that pulled all the World Energy. Then he grew incredibly excited, though he refrained from giving any outward indication, not wanting to disturb the older boy. This suction meant that Farn was in the process of breaking through into the fifth stage of the Master Realm!

Gallo sat down carefully, watching the entrance wearily while keeping an eye on Aurelie and Farn, his skin prickling with awareness. His excitement faded, and he suddenly felt like telling Farn to hurry up. Something was going to happen soon, he could feel it in the air. It was why, after a long debate with himself, he had finally decided to go ahead with his bandage idea. He could tell that they would need to move soon, and keeping a wad of cloth pressed against Aurelie’s abdomen was impractical.

The suction stopped. Farn opened his eyes, letting out a breath and relaxing. Gallo jumped up happily.

“Congratulations Farn!” He cheered quietly. No sense in making noise and attracting more predators.

“Thanks.” Farn said, smiling. “How long have I been out?”

“Um, an hour or so. I don’t know for sure.” Gallo replied.

Farn nodded, then his gaze rested on Aurelie.

“Did she wake up for a bit?” He asked.

Somber, Gallo shook his head. The two of them sat in silence for a moment, then Gallo looked up.

“Hey, Farn.” He called, his tone uncertain.

“Yeah?” Farn replied looking up. Gallo looked around for a little while, refusing to look at Farn, but he seemed to gather his nerve, and his determined eyes met Farn’s curious ones.

“I think we should give up on the Spirit Fruit.”