Ark Journey

"Don't worry, Tallulah, I'm fine."

Tallulah breathed a sigh of relief. If something happened to Alina, she really didn't know what would become of her.

"That's good, but since you took so many things from Xue Zhi, you must thank him. He seems to like Originium creations and the like."

"...Yes, I will definitely thank him."

Just when Tallulah was about to go back to deal with various matters within the organization, Alina called her again.

"Tallulah, can you teach me swordsmanship? I don't know how to use a sword yet."

"Swordsmanship? Sure, you're welcome to come find me anytime."

"Ah."

While the two of them were talking, Xue Zhi returned to the tent and saw a pile of equipment piled at the door.

Several snow monsters were watching curiously. When they saw Xue Zhi coming back, they asked:

"Brother Xue, why do the shield guards put their equipment at the door of your tent?"

Xue Zhi is in his twenties, so it's no problem for those who have just reached adulthood or are even underage to call him brother.

After collecting all the equipment, Xue Zhi replied with a smile:

"I'll help them repair it. If any of your equipment is damaged, you can come to me."

"Any equipment will do?"

"Theoretically, yes. If it can't be repaired, I'll just return it to you."

"That's it."

After opening the tent and putting away all the equipment, Xue Zhi took off the sack on her back.

"These are the fruits and vegetables we got in exchange. Remember to give them to Shuangxing."

"understood."

In the tent, Xue Zhi first looked at the pile of equipment, and then breathed a sigh of relief when she found that there were obvious name labels on them.

Otherwise, in order to prevent confusion, you have to wash them one set at a time, which is very inefficient.

After building an automated assembly line using funnels and boxes and replenishing the soapy water, Xue Zhi sat cross-legged on the blanket and began to do her own thing.

The clone appeared and began to move its body under control.

At night, unfortunately, Alina did not come to find Xue Zhi to teach the children.

Maybe he was disliked, or maybe people thought that he couldn't teach any good students.

That's what Xue Zhi thought anyway, but it wasn't a big problem. One less thing to do would free up time to do what he wanted, it just wasted some preparation time.

The next day, Xue Zhi was controlling her clone to deliver the large pile of prepared equipment to the shield guard. The large items with labels had been packed into the backpack, and the small pieces were floating beside the clone in the order in which the large items were packed in.

While walking on the road, Alina's voice suddenly came from the side.

"Xue Zhi, I forgot to look for you yesterday. Are you still going to teach the children as I promised?"

Xue Zhi looked in the direction of the voice, and the equipment that blocked her view separated on its own.

"why not?"

Alina didn't wear the dress he gave her, but the sword was still hanging on her waist.

Xue Zhi also noticed that her body seemed a little out of coordination, as if she had been very tired, especially her arms and waist. There were also some dark circles under her eyes, which were not there yesterday morning.

Thinking about some things, Xue Zhi soon had the answer.

"You went to practice swordplay?"

Alina was not surprised that he could see what she had done.

"Ah."

“It’s better to proceed step by step.”

"Are you afraid?"

Xue Zhi was speechless. He began to regret his behavior. How could such a good girl become like this in just a few days?

"Wait for me here."

"What do you want to do?"

"I won't hurt you."

Without saying much, Xue Zhi, who was about to hand these things over to the shield guard, left first.

Alina frowned, but chose to wait where she was.

In the Shield Guard camp, when Xue Zhi came in, a group of bear-eared men were wrestling.

Facing an environment with a strong philosophical atmosphere, Xue Zhi, who wanted to leave quickly, shouted:

"Your equipment has been repaired, come and claim it."

The bear-eared men who were hugging each other immediately separated and walked towards Xue Zhi.

Sets of armor flew out of the backpack, and together with various bits and pieces, formed ghost-like hollow armor in the air, and then floated in front of Xue Zhi in the form of a square.

"Your armor and shields have names on them, but the small parts at the joints don't. If you make a mistake, let me know."

Walking into the square formation of armor, the old shield guard admired while looking for his own armor.

"This team is more orderly than ours."

"What an amazing Originium skill and control. How heavy would the armors of so many of us combined be?"

"At least 10 tons or more."

"There aren't any magicians of this level in the Ursus army, right?"

"At least we haven't seen it. Maybe the magician corps can do it, but the precision is not that high. They can only bombard indiscriminately and can't do detailed work."

It didn't take long for everyone to find their own armor.

"Since you didn't take it by mistake, I'll leave first."

"Thank you, little brother. We will help you find Originium later."

"Ah."

After leaving the Shield Guard Camp, Xue Zhi saw Alina waiting for her on the road, with a group of children around her.

[It seems that when she's not talking to me, Alina is still quite normal. ]

Seeing Xue Zhi, Alina asked the children around her to calm down first.

"You're back, why do you want me to wait here?"

Xue Zhi stretched out her right hand and said:

"Give me your hand, I'll help you relieve the pain in your body. It's not okay to do this at the beginning of exercise. Your steps are too big."

【He is kind-hearted. 】

The children around didn't understand, but they still stared with eyes wide open, ready to see what the two older brothers and sisters were going to do.

Alina was indeed not feeling well. Her frail body was clearly unable to handle the extensive exercise for the first time. She even did not sleep well yesterday, which was why she did not go to look for Xue Zhi.

"Thank you."

After bowing her head to express her gratitude, she placed her small hand in Xue Zhi's palm. However, when their palms touched, Xue Zhi lowered her hand.

Perhaps to outsiders this may seem embarrassing, but from the perspective of the person involved it is a horror story.

The moment Alina placed her hand on it, it seemed to penetrate into Xue Zhi's hand, and the feeling she got was also empty.

"!"

Chapter 14: Quiet Change

Xue Zhi signaled to Alina with her eyes not to panic, and then lip-synched the word "clone". Seeing that she immediately calmed down, she must have understood.

The clone has too little mental power, so its magic control level is relatively poor. If you want to relax Alina's whole body, you must get closer. If the original body is there, it won't be so troublesome.

Waves of warmth came from the point where he touched Xue Zhi, and then spread to the whole body, as if soaking in a hot spring. The warm air flow gently wrapped around the body, as if every muscle and every inch of skin was being gently cared for.

As her body gradually relaxed, Alina subconsciously closed her eyes and enjoyed it. She seemed to be able to hear the energetic blood rushing through her body, washing every part of her body. The warm feeling reached the soles of her feet, and then began to rise slowly, passing through the body and reaching deep into the soul, making people forget the sufferings and fatigue of the world.

"Don't bother my brothers and sisters."

"Ah."

Although they didn't know what happened, the children left one by one when they saw Alina's relaxed expression, leaving the place to the two.

"You learned swordsmanship from Tallulah, right? She should have taught you the way her teacher taught her, but you are of different races and your physical fitness is very different. The method that suits her may not be suitable for you. What's more, your nutrition is not enough now."

Xue Zhi's voice woke up Alina who was immersed in it. She opened her eyes reluctantly and her face was a little red.

"You're right, she's from a noble family, and sometimes she does lack a little common sense."

"But she's still a very good leader."

"Ah."

Taking her hand back, Xue Zhi said:

"Okay, if you feel unwell in the future, you are welcome to come to me anytime. It's also okay if you feel hungry."

"When are you going to deal with Tallulah's problem?"

"Wait a few days, I will refine this clone and try to complete the task in one go."

"Well, I'll see you again tonight."

After making the appointment, the two separated.

Xue Zhi controlled her clone to wander around the base and look for something to do.

According to his idea, he would walk among the crowd to let his clone gain more popularity so as to better deceive Black Snake. By the way, he would see if he could meet Tallulah and try to arouse the Black Snake consciousness in her spiritual body in preparation for the future.

After walking around for a while, Xue Zhi heard someone calling him.

"Brother Xue, do you want to go pick raspberries together?"

"Raspberry? Sure."

So he followed a few snow monsters to pick raspberries outside the camp, and on the way he met many members of the Integration Movement who were out collecting.

The snow monster told Xue Zhi that this was a good thing for supplementing vitamins, and some of the fruits could even be exchanged for a lot of things in the village.

Because she was a clone, she couldn't use a strong mental scan, which resulted in Xue Zhi's search for raspberries being slow and unable to catch up with the snow monsters.

But after spending some time, I still collected a lot.

"That's all for today. We've picked quite a lot."

"Ah."

Carrying several baskets, the few people returned with full loads. It was a pity that no small animals ran out, otherwise they would have had a snack in the evening.

When they returned to the camp in another direction, Xue Zhi saw the Sarkaz troops here. Their camp was farther away than other troops.

"Brother Xue, let's go in and exchange the raspberries for something. I heard you're from Kazdel, have you seen them?"

“I probably haven’t seen it.”

[I also hope I have never met him, otherwise there is a high probability that he is a mortal enemy. 】

Following the footsteps of the yetis, Xue Zhi walked into the Sarkaz's camp.

This made him feel like returning home. The camp layout and personnel distribution were almost the same as those of the Hedley Mercenaries.

A few people walked to a tent with a stove. A Sarkaz, wearing only a vest in the cold weather, was repairing a long sword.

Seeing someone coming, he put down the hammer.

"Here we go again, boys. Same as before?"

"Yes, uncle."

The two sides exchanged some things, and the snow monsters exchanged several baskets of raspberries for a lot of Originium explosives.

After putting the raspberries away, the blacksmith noticed Xue Zhi.