After killing the mantis, Adrian came back to the group and confirmed to them the existence of a river and its safety. They arrived in less than five minutes as everyone was happy to finally drink. Adrian used this time to ask Aby about the cup of tea she was having earlier. It seems that she was summoned with her cup, that was weird because no one of them had phones, keys or wallets, just their clothes.

“Oh, why does it smell so bad?” Dale said while putting his hand on his nose. “Oh, fuck!” Dale jumped when he saw the mantis corpse. “Jeez, you fucking decapitated that bastard.”

“Of course,” Adrian said as a matter of fact. “Why I would risk getting discovered when I can execute them instantly.”

“Yeah, I know” Told Dale. “But at least you could have removed the corpse from the river.”

Adrian wanted to say something but closed his mouth. ‘No, he’s right. I think this situation is showing my worst.’

“Well, Dale,” Kayle said while pointing at the river with both hands. “Drink.”

“Shouldn’t Axel drink as he has Maxxed [Constituta]?” Dale said after a flash of inspiration. “Wouldn’t be he immune to poison?”

“Fuck.” Kayle swore under her breath. She just wanted his brother to drink that conspicuous water.

“What do you say, big boy?” Adrian told Axel.

“I see no problem” Axel responded. “I don’t even think the water is poisonous, it smells right,” Axel kneel to put his hand into the river. “—and it has a nice temperature and viscosity.”

“Right. O, your wilderness expert. Are you going to do it or not?” Adrian asked once again.

“Sure.” Axel affirmed and put water in his mouth.

Adrian wanted to comment that the absence of flora and fauna in the river was suspicious and it could kill small organisms, even if the praying mantis was drinking from it. But it was already late, Axel had already gulp it.

“Are you right?” Dale asked Axel. “No strange symptoms or poison?”

“Nah” Axel responded while having another sip. “Water’s fine.”

As he said so, everyone jumped to the river, metaphorically, of course. The party started to drink from the part that the mantis’ corpse didn’t touch. The stream of the river wasn’t strong, but it wasn’t weak neither. While Kayle, Aby and Dale were drinking, Adrian and Axel cleaned the blades of their weapons to stop any corrosion that the mantises’ blood could inflict. Mike did the same for the tip of his arrows. Dale didn’t need to clean his darts; he just wiped the blood as the darts didn’t penetrate that much and only poisoned the praying mantises.

“Does anyone have a waterskin or something like that?” Adrian asked once he was fine with the shininess of his daggers.

No one didn’t have anything like that, of course. The closest thing they had was their shoes, but none would drink from a shoe, or walk barefoot in the forest. Aby still had her cup, but it could only transport so much water and would leak at the minimum movement.

“I don’t think that would be necessary.” Aby said she was sat next to the stream of water.

“And that’s why?” Axel asked, who was still cleaning his two-handed sword. The blood was sticky and everywhere after he beat the devil out of the mantis.

“This is a river.” Aby stated.

“Yes, I know that.” Axel contested while tilting his head.

“Cities are built next to rivers, there are people in cities.” Explained Aby. “Should I clarify more my intentions?”

“No, that won’t be necessary.” Adrian said to her. “Axel got it. But now the million-dollar question. Where do we go to? Upstream or downstream?”

“That is the question.” Aby answered without answering, she just quoted Shakespeare.

“I think we should follow the river’s mouth,” Mike told after cleaning his three arrows and putting them into the quiver he was gifted by the Record. “There’s no mountain in sight, that means that the river’s origin is far away or is a lake. It would be safer if we go to the end of the river, that way we could find a coastal city.”

“I understand your reasoning, but” Adrian started “for that exact reason we could go upstream.”

“I have an idea,” Axel said once his enormous blade was clean. “Why don’t we try using Dale`s [Fortuna] to guide us?”

“That’s… not an extremely horrifyingly bad suggestion” Aby said. “Dale’s [Title] did say that he could be helped by fate. I think it’s worth a try.”

“Okay” Dale himself accepted. “But how do I do it.”

“Here,” Adrian said while giving him one of his daggers. “Give it a spin.”

Dale grabbed Adrian’s dagger and then search a good spot to spin it. He saw a rock with a plain enough surface that it wouldn’t affect the movement of the dagger. Dale then pushed the handle of the dagger with all the might he could summon with just his finger. The dagger started to spin. Dale put so much force that the dagger rotated for half a minute before coming to a stop. The blade’s tip pointed exactly as the direction of the downstream of the river.

“That’s a good sign, isn’t it?” Adrian said as he watched the place where his dagger was pointing to.

“Guys, I obtained a new skill.” Dale explained while reading the invisible Record window.

“Is it a Tarot skill?” Mike asked excitedly.

“Better than that.” Dale answered. “A double Tarot [Skill].”