We stopped right before the gate. I don't know really why. Maybe it was her, or maybe it was me, who froze first.

- Can... Can I go outside? - she asked me.

- Yeah, why not? Just go back when monsters will start coming, or you might die.

She nodded, and we went through the passage. She was looking at everything very carefully. At the tree line of twisted, black, and scary vegetation. On bushes dried out of life. But also at the completely normal grass in the area between the gate and the woods. Even at the blue, cloudless sky, and the sun shining on us.historical

- Kinda scary, isn't it? - I asked her.

- Yes - she responded, still in this trance of curiosity about the outside world.

The noise of moving bushes signalizing approaching monsters ripped her from it completely.

- Go back - I said.

She listened immediately. Then I created a pudao out of void essence for myself, and soon after the first creatures emerged. I didn't wait for those damn, ugly kittens to gather a larger force, instead, I charged at them, and the slaughter started. They were killed swiftly, vanishing in clouds of quickly disappearing black smoke, one after another.

Even though, their numbers were not going down but increasing. I had my hands full, and despite that, I was still peaking from time to time at the gate, just to make sure something wasn't running that way.

She was there, at the edge of the city, standing and watching. A couple of minutes after the second type of monster appeared, the hunched over humanoids. If I was alone, I wouldn't say it, but because I wasn't, I felt overwhelmed by their numbers. I couldn't tie all of them in a fight, which was making me nervous. Mora, and more with every second.

The skull-faced gorillas were the nail in the coffin. A few of them charged straight after me, but a bunch ignored, me, and went after Alexandra. Even when she saw them running straight at her, she didn't move, frozen by fear.

- Fuck - escaped my mouth, and I shadow walked out of there.

Then again, to appear right in front of her. She gasped out of surprise. I grabbed her by the waist, activated the shadow fusion, and jumped with the full force of my legs.

She screamed at a high pitch, almost deafening me, but we made it to the closest roof.

- S-sorry - she squeezed out of her mouth, trembling.

- Stay here - I said while summoning the shadows, to protect her.

They surrounded her like a living shield, and I jumped down, to quickly murder the apes. Then I clashed with the horde of monsters under the gate. I managed to block them there, and eventually finished off the last one.

- You ok? - I immediately yelled to her.

- Y-yes - she responded.

I rushed there and climbed the building with the help of the shadow walk skill.

- I'm so, so sorry... - she said. - I-I froze. I-I shouldn't even be standing there. I'm so stupid.

- Yeah, that was stupid. Fortunately, nothing bad happened to you.

- Thank you for saving me - I patted her on the shoulder, and with the last touch, shadow walked with her off the roof, on the street.

She emerged out of the void screaming at a high pitch, again but calmed herself down as she could see the city around her again. Then she looked at me, clearly embarrassed about that.

- It's a skill I use. Everything always goes dark for a moment - I explained.

- S-sorry - she mumbled again. - I panicked. I'm... I'm a bit nervous right now...

- How about you return, and bring people here, so we can take the crystals back? I'm gonna pile them up in the meantime.

She nodded, and after a moment of collecting herself, she went back, to the city center.

I unsummoned, and summoned my shadows again, so they could help me. The hoarding process took some time, but not even half of what was needed for her to make it there and back, so I spend a while just sitting on the cobblestone in the shadow of some nearby ruins.

I stood up only when the people showed on the horizon, which, with all the architecture around, was a pretty short distance. I headed straight towards Slaven because I actually wanted something from him.

- We need to move the crystals, and then I want you to count them, and calculate how many points we will get out by selling those.

- Why? - he asked.

- Because we need to upgrade your levitating ball.

- We already did that once.

- Good. But you need to do it at least twice more. I probably won't be able to get you guys that many stones, but we can at least afford one more upgrade. You need proper weapons. Some iron, not this wooden crap.

He nodded.

- Ok. I'll do it.

For the first time, I felt like he really wanted to follow my orders, which was a surprisingly nice feeling. I felt competent. Responsible.

We moved all the crystals to the city center in the span of few hours. Then the counting began. In the meantime, I went to check how much it will cost to upgrade the device. My first proved to be true, as the number we needed was one million. Then I waited for the results of Slaven's mathematics.

He returned to me with an insufficient number, although pretty close one to a million. I went to count the stones again, with him, just to confirm. Then we gave out a small portion of the crystals, to people. Just to make sure everybody has enough to eat. The rest I took, and hit in the building I was sleeping in.

This action was met with disapproval from almost everybody else, but I didn't give a shit about a few brave complaints. I put a barrier over the pile, just to be sure nobody is going to touch them without me knowing.

The upgrade was more important than people's whims, and I didn't even want to discuss that. The decision was already made. To my surprise, Slaven was agreeing with me on that.

Nothing more interesting happened through the rest of that day.