System's POV

Yellow Striped Dusk Brute drank slowly after reaching the Oasis.

It was as if it was storing a week's worth of water inside its body and taking its sweet time.

Thirteen and Cristopher watched it from a distance, and also noticed a few things as well.

There were other creatures that had stopped dozens of meters away from the Oasis, likely waiting for the Yellow Striped Dusk Brute to finish drinking.

Clearly, they also knew how dangerous this creature was and were avoiding a direct confrontation with it.

Twenty minutes later, the Monitor Lizard finally had its fill and left the Oasis.

The handful of animals that had waited for it to leave finally approached the Oasis, making sure that they also kept a distance from each other.

Thirteen watched these Creatures, and after identifying what they were, he deemed that they were also too dangerous to fight head-on.

All of them were Rank 2 Monsters, and there were five of them drinking side by side.

Cristopher, who was hiding beside Thirteen, was doing his best to control his breathing.

He was having a minor panic attack due to the presence of the strong Monsters who could easily kill them once they were spotted.

'How is he still calm in this situation?' Cristopher thought as he looked at the seven-year-old, whose breathing was still stable despite the danger they were in. 'Is it because he is a member of the Leventis Family?'

The chubby boy thought for a while before shaking his head. He knew that Zion's father had been disowned by the Leventis Family, which meant that he wasn't getting any support from them.

Since that was the case, he could only think that the seven-year-old had also been trained by his parents to become one of the elites of the younger generation.

'I wish I could be like him,' Cristopher sighed as he did his best to keep himself calm. 'I'm older than him, but he's more collected and mature than I am.'

Several minutes later, the group of monsters also left the Oasis.

Thirteen waited a few more minutes before signaling Cristopher to follow him.

After reaching the Oasis, the seven-year-old climbed one of the trees, which the chubby boy believed was a species similar to a Desert Poplar.

It was one of the most common trees found in the Houdini Desert, and the chubby boy wondered what Thirteen was planning to do with it.

A few minutes later, he saw his Young Master breaking off the thinner branches of the tree and throwing them on the ground.

After he was done with the thinner branches, he tried to break the bigger ones that he could break, by stomping on them as hard as he could.

"Young Master, are you perhaps collecting firewood?" Cristopher asked.

"No," Thirteen replied as beads of sweat formed on his forehead. "I'm planning to make traps and some crude weapons. Cristopher, can you climb trees? If you can, help me collect branches."

"Understood, Young Master," Cristopher replied before going to another tree to collect branches.

Although he was chubby, there was also one thing that Cristopher was good at, and that was climbing trees.

In fact, he was good at anything that would allow him to run away or escape from anything that could harm him.

Half an hour later, a good number of branches were lying on the ground, ready for Thirteen to do whatever he planned on doing with them.

The boy then ordered Cristopher to take as much of the thicker branches he could carry toward the boulder where they hid a while ago, and then he went to the Oasis to look for smooth rocks that he could use.

Before Thirteen collected the tree branches, he collected a lot of sharp rocks that he could use as throwing weapons if necessary.

But after seeing the monsters that had just drunk in the Oasis, he deemed that throwing rocks wouldn't be enough to defeat any of them.

He needed to be resourceful and go all out, making use of everything in his arsenal to survive.

After collecting the rocks he needed, he returned to the boulder and started to chip away at the smooth rocks with the sharper rocks that he had gathered earlier.

It was time-consuming work, and the sound of rocks hitting each other spread in the surroundings as both boys went to work.

Cristopher created a small split in a tree branch and embedded a sharp rock in it.

He then used a vine that they found growing amid the branches of the Poplar trees, and tied it up, making a make-shift stone spear.

The two boys created stone spears and stone axes that they could use as weapons. They were very crude, but it was still better than having no weapons at all.

After getting the stone axes, they started hacking away on the bigger branches, and sharpened their tips, turning them into spear weapons as well.

When he was done, the next thing Thirteen did was dig.

He started digging a hole near the oasis with Cristopher's help.

It was another very time-consuming work, and by the time they were done, the sun was already setting on the horizon.

Both boys were tired, and they knew that the temperatures would start dropping once night came, so they decided to conserve what was left of their energy and returned to the boulder to rest.

Their stomachs were grumbling, but they paid it no mind. This was only their body's natural reaction, and they knew that they would be able to survive a few days without eating anything as long as there was water.

"Young Master, you can rest first," Cristopher said. "I'll take the first watch."

Thirteen nodded. "Cristopher, I want you to remember this. The moment you feel sleepy, even if it is just a little bit, wake me up. It doesn't matter even if I sleep for only half an hour or even less. We can't afford to be careless. Our survival depends on it, do you understand?"

"Yes, Young Master," Cristopher nodded. "At the first signs of drowsiness, I will wake you up."

"Good." Thirteen laid down on the pile of leaves that they had prepared to sleep on during the night.

They had scraped away the ground beside the boulder, creating a shallow pit where they dumped all the leaves that they'd collected from the trees.

It wasn't the best of beds, but it helped create a somewhat warm place to rest.

The boulder was the perfect windbreaker, so they didn't have to worry about winds hitting them from the back.

Although he was tired, hungry, and aching in a few places, Thirteen was able to sleep easily, leaving Cristopher in charge of the first watch.

Only an hour had passed after sunset, and yet, the sky was already studded with stars. The sight of it made the chubby boy remember the times when he was still living with his mother in the countryside.

Their life was simple, and they were fine with that. They foraged for edible plants and fruits to eat.

From time to time, they would also go fishing to have a change of pace. These were the memories that Cristopher treasured.

He wasn't a warrior, and he wasn't the least bit talented in literature and the arts either.

He was just a simple country boy, who wanted to live a simple life.

But it was impossible to live a simple life in a world where Dimensional Gates could appear anytime and anywhere.

His mother would enter a coma from time to time that lasted for a few months. This was all due to the injury that she received when a Tier-1 Dimensional Gate opened near their small village.

Some of his friends and acquaintances were eaten by the Scorpion-like Monsters that emerged from that Dimensional Gate.

His mother had been seriously injured because she tried to protect him.

If not for the fact that Wanderers arrived in time, both of them might have also died under the hands of these Monsters.

And that was why Cristopher decided to become a retainer of the Leventis Family.

He was willing to become a tool used by others just to ensure that his mother would get the medical help she needed.

If he became useful enough, he believed that the Leventis Family would ask a High-Ranking Wanderer to cure his mother's illness so that he would be able to see her smile again after years of suffering.

Glancing at the sleeping boy a few meters away from him, Cristopher wondered if his Master, Terence, would have done the same thing Zion did if they were in the same situation.

'No. He would have done things differently,' Cristopher thought. 'I'm sure of it.'

With these thoughts in his mind, the chubby boy paid extra attention to their surroundings.

Although night had come, the light of the stars and the two moons was still bright enough to allow him to see in the darkness.

However, there were creatures whose sight was way better than an ordinary Human boy during the night, and they all started to move in search of easy prey.

Fortunately for them, there were dozens of teenage boys and girls who were unlucky enough to appear in the Houdini Desert that they could feast on.

Back in Pangea, dozens of shooting stars could be seen falling in the sky, letting everyone know that somewhere out there, several teenagers had died on the first day of their journey in Solterra, never to be seen ever again.