Grey pulled himself up and through the fireplace, patting himself down from the soot and smiling. Though his smile was probably quite creepy right about now.
"Sorry about all of this. Like I said, I canât take this off. I promise Iâm usually a lot more handsome than this."
Greyâs words very clearly made her several levels more uncomfortable, but he didnât seem to care at all as he strolled toward her.
She fidgeted. Grey could practically see her toes curling through the shoes she wore as though she was forcefully rooting herself in place. She was trying very hard not to turn tail right this moment.
"So, water?"
"Oh, right, right." The girl remembered the reason Grey had agreed to approach. She pulled at her hip, taking out a small vial.
Grey raised an eyebrow and wondered whether he should just kill her now if she was going to play games, but then the vial suddenly expanded into a liter-sized metal bottle.
"Here."
Grey didnât hesitate, barely sniffing it at all. His metal jaw unhinged and he swallowed in large gulps.
He didnât consider poison in the slightest. The idea to drink water was his own. If this girl had prepared to poison him ahead of time in some 5D chess move, then heâd just have to hand it to her.
What he was really paying attention to was whether or not she would attack him.
To his surprise, though, not only did the waterfall of water not end as quickly as he expected it to, but she wasnât making an attempt to attack him at all.
Grey was quite subtle in how he watched her. There was nothing about his posture that suggested he even thought she might attack.
But other than clenching her fists around her staff, the girl made no such attempt.
âInteresting...â
Grey gasped for air, sighing with relief. He checked his stamina and just from that session alone he gained another 3 bars. He felt alive.
âThat canât be normal water. Maybe there are some advanced electrolytes in there.â
At least there were some benefits to this shithole of a place. The advancements were next level.
Usually it would take some time before Grey felt some benefits outside of acute relief from that water. But he felt revitalized almost instantly.
In the time he was thinking about it, his stamina actually ticked up again from six to seven.
âThe Looping Necklace feels like itâs helping again. Iâm sorry, May, but it looks like you were better off dead, at least for me. Waitâ.â
A random thought popped into Greyâs head as he looked toward the moon shining down through the windows.
ââif there was a night span between the tutorial and the start of the registration, that means I didnât just last a half day like I thought. And that means when I died, I went more than a day back...â
It was hard to assess the value of time while you were stuck in a cave. But that wasnât what was important.
What was important was the fact that the time loop that he had been in wasnât based on a day. It was based on something else.
What was that something else?
"Alright, thank you." Grey handed the water bottle back. "That water was really helpful to me. I can help escort you back now if youâd like."
"Ah, right... yes, please."
Grey nodded. "Letâs go."
âAfter I finish dealing with this, Iâll have to come back. There are a lot of good materials in the mech of the witch I donât want to leave behind.â
Grey knew he didnât have enough space in his Tool Space for those materials, which was why he wasnât too broken up about it. He had also already used the most valuable of the materialsâthe Aurum Nullite and the Cyber Coreâso what was left behind was much less so.
The cool breeze of the night air hit Grey and he sighed as his stamina ticked up to eight.
Honestly, he didnât expect such a turn. That water was definitely not normal.
He wished she would hurry up and attack him already so that he could take it off her body.
âIf it wasnât for those fucking bastards, I would have already attacked her myself.â
Unfortunately, if he could help it, he would rather not fall into another scandal so easily. Sure, they could edit and manipulate things as they pleased, but heâd rather not make it easy for them.
If he attacked this girl first, especially after she just gave him water, he would be handing them their narrative on a silver platter.
"So, whatâs your name?" Grey asked, making small talk.
The young woman trailed him a step or two from behind, but he walked ahead as though it didnât matter much.
"... My name is Sabrina."
"Oh, thatâs an interesting name. Iâm Grey."
"Whatâs interesting...?" Sabrinaâs voice trailed off as though she realized she really didnât want to make conversation with Grey. But Grey didnât seem to notice as they left the ruins of the Wicked Forest Witch.
"I know a Sabrina, I mean. Well, I have no idea if sheâs alive by now or not. It kind of sucks what happened to our world, no? Where did you live before?"
"... Spain."
"Really?" Grey blinked. "So youâre not speaking English?"
"No."
Grey frowned a bit. That didnât make any sense. He didnât understand Spanish, and even if he did, he would know it when he heard it.
If there was automatic translation, that would make sense. But he didnât have a Nexis Suit that functioned properly.
So how was he understanding?
"Thatâs cool." Grey chuckled. "Iâve heard great things about Spain, though Iâve never been. Iâm from North America."
"I can tell."
Grey burst into a fit of laughter. "You know, there are two other countries in North America, right? You really are the stereotypical European."
Sabrina seemed flushed for a second. It was like Grey had baited her into saying that on purpose. What did he mean by it?
"Iâm Canadian, actually. From a place they call Saskatchewan."
"They say Canadians are very nice..." Sabrina replied.
"Maybe. But weâre also responsible for 90% of whatâs in the Geneva Convention."
Greyâs grin rattled his metal jaw.