The next day arrived soon enough.
Now that the rain had finally finished, the warmth of the white sun had returned beat back down on the lost island, quickly drying the previous floods away.
The first thing Hugo did was go back to salvage whatever materials he could from the Azure Bears corpse. Thankfully, it seemed that none of the creatures had decided to go near it before he could, so it's Soul Shards were still present.
'Are they scared of touching it?'
Most of the creatures here were weak, being only at the dormant rank and most being no more than a monster. It seemed the Azure bear was the sole exception, and ruled as this islands apex predator.
But that guardian had fallen to something much more terrifying. A human. In other words, the territory it had claimed around the river, was now Azdins territory.
And thus they did not dare touch his property, out of fear for their survival.
'It hasn't even been a week and he's already.. gah!'
Not that it was a problem.. but it just ticked him off the wrong way.
Anyhow, most of the Bears flesh was already useless since it had been left out in the rain for so long, by now it was already rotting. Although a little carrion would pose no trouble to the body of an Awakened, they quite frankly weren't that desperate. It was just disgusting.
The only useable parts aside from the obvious shards, were it's claws and pieces of its hide that he was able to dismantle, although with some difficulty. He was using a small dagger made from a Dormant creature on an Awakened one, so some struggle was inevitable.
There were it's bones too, but his arms were more than occupied.
'I should've brought Azdin with me.'
For some reason though, he didn't think that would be a good idea.
'For my sake or for his? Since when did I start caring?'
He sighed at himself, swiftly packing the collected materials into a large, makeshift shaft and left the carcass behind.
**
Later that day, the sun had already began to set with it now falling half way past the horizon line, staining the edge of the sky with a slow-burning ember red. Its colour spilled across the ocean in long, trembling paths, broken and rejoined by the movement of water.
Laying on the beach right next to a pile of neatly arranged wooden logs, was Azdin.
His work for the day was a fairly simple one, that being the creation of a bonfire that could be lit at any moment. With one this size, even a ship from a far distance away would be able to spot them.
With this, all the preparations that they needed to survive and escape were now made. It was only just a matter of time.
Chopping down trees was a fairly simple task for his awakened physique, so he had spent the whole day entertaining himself by gazing out at the ocean.
Despite how monotonous the sight was, watching the waves turn as the sun slowly set was awfully calming for him. He couldn't quite explain why, and there was no special meaning to it either. Or atleast there wasn't any he had yet to find.
As he thought this, a sudden growl rustled in his stomach. Patting it lightly, he realized.
'I'm hungry.'
He sat up, staring into space for a moment. A thought then came into his head.
'I should wait for Hugo.'
Eating without him would've been rude after all. He was the one that did all the cooking.
'Is he at the shelter?'
Getting up on his two feet with sand still clinging to his ankles, he quickly left the beach as yellow grains slowly faded from the ground, and gradually turned into dirt and emerald grass. The trees rose close to eachother at first, but then they thinned out, opening into a clearing scarred by old cuts and stumps scattered everywhere.
At the center was a shelter leaned together from salvaged wood and leaves stitched by rope and patience. In front of it, a campfire crackled low, smoke drifting straight up with what appeared to be a pot cooking over it.
In front of it sat Hugo, fiddling with the fresh materials he had obtained from the bear this morning.
Azdin asked, slightly surprised,
"Since when did we have that??"
Hugo took engrossed in whatever he was doing, didn't bother to look at him
"Some ocean junk I found on the way back. Don't worry about it."
His stomach still rumbling, Azdin subtly licked his lips as he leaned over to look inside. To his utter disappointment.. there was only water with a strange, white crust forming on its surface.
Concerned, he asked,
"..what are you making?"
Sighing, Hugo spared him a momentary glance before scoffing.
"I'm making salt."
Azdin appeared to be puzzle for a few seconds, before it clicked together.
"Salt? That sour tasting stuff?"
'He remembers what that is?'
A little dumbfounded, Hugo spoke without putting much thought into it,
"I'm boiling the water out of the seawater to leave the salt behind. We can use it to season the meat, that way it won't taste like crap anymore."
Azdins face hardened as he raised his hand to stroke his chin, with his eyes narrowing and focusing on Hugo.
In his most stern voice, he uttered,
"..I see."
'I don't get it.'
Ignoring him, Hugo got right back to work.
Azdin watched as he took one of the claws from the Azure bear, and wrapped it around a stripped piece of its leather, then tightly wrapped rope around it, creating a makeshift handle.
"What's that?"
"A knife."
As it stood, Hugo had no way of defending himself aside from using those tiny daggers made from the cubs claws. Swapping to the bears was a sizable upgrade, although not as impressive as Azdins sword, it would do for now.
He had created 4 such knives already. Picking one of them up, Azdin could tell that compared to his sword, although very close in sharpness, the difference in balance was like night and day.
Looking back at the pile of materials, Hugo glared at the three crystals glowing with a soft white radiance.
"You should really use those Soul Shards ya know. You killed both of them, so they're all yours."
Confused, Azdin asked,
"I can still use them??"
Hugo's face contorted as his face muscles tensed. He raised his palm to cover his face, before quickly recalling Azdins.. lack of ingenuity.
'Seriously.. was he always this.. dull?'
Sighing, he explained as best as he could,
"Absorbing the soul essence of other beings raises the quality of our own, but as an awakened it also makes our souls slightly larger. Our body steadily grows stronger, and we can even store more soul essence."
With vague curiosity glimmering in his eyes, Azdin picked up just one of the Soul shards. Observing it carefully, he could tell from just it's size and shine alone that it was much more powerful than the dormant soul shard of the Azure Cub.
Just then, another question popped into his head, before he could ask it though.. something truly strange occured.
Once again, he heard those strange, hollow, insidious whispers blow into his ears. But this time, they were accompanied by something unfamiliar.
Bright blue runes and symbols that he could not understand, began to take shape and manifest in the air before him.
[Compatibility confirmed]
[Would you like to create a memory?]
Azdin let out a loud, sharp yelp before dropping both the shard, and the claw to the ground.
"Whispers! Letters!! LETTERS!!!"