Trying his best to finish the meal, Rowan found it odd that being too full could hurt as well. So used to starvation, he had never experienced the opposite, where his stomach felt as though it was about to burst.
Groaning, he moved away from the table and sat down on the floor.
"A word of advice: don't push yourself too hard when you're exercising. You have to give time for your body to recover; otherwise, your effort won't amount to much. After every two to three days, take a rest day."
Leaving the room, Avery passed some final advice before going to clean out his bandages in the stream. Rowan nodded at him in passing and figured if he didn't rest tomorrow, he would have to rest the day after.
Nadia tidied up the area, extinguishing the coals using a wet rag, smothering them. Wanting to get more comfortable, Rowan left, finding the room he had slept in the previous night. Lying down, he closed his eyes, not expecting to fall into an immediate slumber.
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A day later, Rowan found himself at a loss for what to do. The others said that he had to rest, but he was growing more and more restless by the hour. Sighing, he gazed over the town from atop the roof of the base. He had found a part of the wall with outcropping blocks, and had scrambled up to get a full view.
It looked different from this angle. Rather than amidst the buildings, he could see through and across the streets, yet it still looked just as boring. He was largely used to boredom, but without even a book to reread, he found himself growing restless.
Going back to sleep wasn't an option; he had slept for what felt like forever over the past two days, as his body acclimatized to the harsh exercise he was putting it through.
Only the day before, he had dragged countless wolf carcasses to a corner of the cavern, where he had buried them, over the course of the entire day. There were still a few left, but Aoife had stopped him, going to finish the rest of the task herself. Apparently, they would start to rot soon, and he was not looking forward to enduring that stench atop everything else.
And now he waited, drifting between watching the glowing white crystals on the ceiling, and the dark black floor covering the ground. He had spent some time chatting with Avery this morning, while helping him with his bandages.
Avery had told him about his father's abilities, how he could camouflage with shadows, and more recently, turn the shadows into weapons. Rowan had learnt a lot about abilities in that conversation. The first one was random, as they had said, but it usually had some way of linking back to the personality or identity of their wielder.
The subsequent abilities from advancing through tiers filled gaps in an awakened's skillset, enhancing their original ability beyond what it was originally capable of.
They had also mentioned skills, but even they had no idea about the majority of them. Apparently, there were a lot of secrets regarding awakened's abilities and skills, secrets so hidden even family couldn't know about them.
He had, more importantly, learnt that the strongest awakened in the city was currently tier 4, called a Viscount by those within the centre. Her name was apparently Angela Burke, and her abilities were related to air in some way.
'I wonder what mine would be. I haven't done anything yet in my life, what would the system decide suits me best?'
He had no way of knowing, and the doubt swirled in his head, and all Rowan could do was sit and think about it, hoping and fearing for what he had no control over.
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Two more days passed, with the same routine each day. He was shoring up the tunnels, after growls and howls had been heard inside them. At least, that was what he had been supposed to do. The rocks sealing the tunnels were wedged tighter than he could imagine, and he couldn't think of how to seal them better aside from adding more rocks.
Aoife had said something along the lines of 'check for weak spots', but everywhere he looked yielded the same results. It was as though the rocks had expanded to fit any gap they could find inside the tunnel, and Rowan doubted any wolves would be able to get through.
Deciding to report the tunnels to Aoife when he saw her, Rowan began a light jog around the perimeter of the cave, finding it slightly easier than when he had started on the first day. His body still protested an ungodly amount, but he was getting better at ignoring his body's whines and moans.
Finding Aoife, he told her about the tunnels, and she went off towards them, with a frown on her face. Rowan stood guard in front of the one open tunnel, where Aoife did her hunting. The meat from the wolves went off quickly, with no way to store it. Nadia was attempting to dry some of the meat into something called 'jerky', but it had varying levels of success and would take a while to finish.
Rowan had tried his own hand at cooking the previous day, but found that it was a lot harder than it had seemed. He had ended up with a black brick that was brittle and tasted horrible. He expected it tasted much the same as the black rocks around him now.
'Surely no wolves would come here now, not with Aoife here.'
And indeed, since setting up in the town, no wolves had been seen coming out of the tunnels. Aoife was also complaining about the difficulty of finding wolves, and that the deeper she went to find them, the tighter the tunnels got. She had been talking about opening up another and sealing this one back up, and Rowan was beginning to wonder if she would kill all of the wolves without the other three having to do much of anything.
Not that they were simply lying about, of course. Nadia had been keeping everyone well fed, Rowan was training, and Avery had been working on a project of his own. He had started collecting the leftover bones from the dead wolves and was carving them with Rowan's borrowed knife, turning them into sharp needles or spikes, which he left in the doorway of the base at night.
He had been talking about hearing voices at night, which sounded to Rowan and Nadia as though he was developing a fever from his injury. It looked better than it had when Rowan had first found him, but it was still a rough sight, the inflamed skin a bad sign of what might be happening beneath his skin.
After waiting a few uneventful minutes, Aoife returned with a concerned expression on her face.
"The tunnels are sealed, but they weren't that well sealed when I built them the first time. They were rudimentary blockades, not impassable walls."
Rowan was about to comment on it, perhaps being the nature of the core, but stopped himself quickly, and shunned the idea from his mind. Knowing the core wouldn't do them any good yet, and what did it matter if it was or wasn't? They would have to contend with it either way. Whatever it was.
"For now, it sounds like a good thing, right? Tougher walls mean less chance of the wolves getting through, right?"
"It does, but I'm still not convinced about Avery's 'fever'. I think someone should stay up with him at night, and make sure there's nothing creeping around whilst we're asleep. We need to remember, we're in a Hell, this place is supposed to be the worst place imaginable. And though it's the first tier, it shouldn't be this easy."
'Easy. Fighting off dozens of wolves is easy for her, huh...'
"Either me or Nadia will stay up with him tonight. You need your rest, you're the one fighting after all."
"I think Nadia should stay up. I want you ready to fight before we figure out its core, and the sooner the better. She's still refusing to fight, so she can watch Avery instead.
"Speaking of, how's your fitness going? You don't look quite as skinny as before, though I wouldn't go so far as to say you look healthy yet."
Rowan smirked slightly, looking down at his arms. He didn't see any trace of improvement, but he appreciated her support regardless.
"I can jog around the town easier now, though I still have trouble using the sword. I can hold it up straight and swing it slowly, but nothing that'll be of actual use in a fight yet."
Aoife glanced at him before sitting down opposite him with the tunnel between them.
"That sword is a longsword, so it makes sense you're unable to use it properly yet. In the case of a fight right now, use the spear rather than the sword. You would be able to kill one easily with the sword, it's much more effective, but your swings will be slow and will leave you open.
"Now, let's close this tunnel up. I'm going to another one tomorrow, and there's no point leaving this one open if we're not going to use it."
Sighing, Rowan did as he was told, beginning the annoying process of lifting the rocks into the gaping tunnel.