"I feel sleepy." A yawn escaped her lips as the nameless girl rubbed her eyes, trying to keep herself awake.

By the time they had left the venue, the sun had already set below the horizon. Now covering themselves with the clothes they had on as much as possible, they walked down a narrow path devoid of any walking creatures.

'If only these clothes were woollen...' He rubbed his palms together, warming them amidst the shivering in his body from the coldness around them.

On top of that, the hunger wasn't helping either. He had already tried to look for any type of jobs that would pay for their meals tonight. But either the pay wasn't enough to meet the costs of food or the shopkeepers didn't have any work for them.

Soon enough, they reached a dead end where a narrow concrete wall rose up. To the left and the right were run down houses, where when David tried peeking in, he found people living in them.

"I guess we are sleeping here today." He sighed as he informed her.

The nameless girl, in her dizzy state, didn't find in her to even nod properly and instead walked to the wall, leaning against it.

"Good night, big brother..."

David watched her in slight amusement as in a minute, she dozed off to sleep, her head falling on her shoulders.

"Well...sleep tightly." He muttered slowly as he looked around him where few dustbins lay on the ground, spilling all the wastes and making a dirty mess.

He picked up the near empty dustbins and formed a barricade like structure in front of the nameless girl. Then taking up something that almost resembled a piece of sack, he dusted the dirt from it and then covered the girl with it.

"Seems like all work is done. This should provide enough security until I come back."

He nodded to himself as he once again looked over the place. Other than the entrance to this narrow lane and the two windows of the houses, there was no other way humans could peek into here.

Having done all that, he walked away. Backtracking his steps, he reached a crossroad.

The last time he had taken the left road, but this time he walked down the right one.

As he walked, the lamps that were lighting the roads decreased in number and even the road had lots of cracks on it.

"I should be resting, tomorrow would be no joke afterall. But honestly, I have no choice now..." He muttered with a sigh as the brick road ended, paving way to a village road.

'Well, not a road exactly. Just a narrow lane of soil minus the grasses.

There were no lamps or streetlights that could illuminate the path ahead of him. Even the pinkish hue from the moon was blocked by the large branches of the trees overhead.

***

David finally reached a village which so happened to be an inclusive territory of the Southern Capital.

Although he said it was a village, it was more of a trade city with underdeveloped facilities.

'I probably wouldn't have done this but neither do I have the money nor do I have the strength to fight off those monsters tomorrow.'

He had only fought four rounds, leaving him with six more rounds to qualify for the Sihapi training, which would mean that he needed to fight six times in a single day.

As if that was not enough, the contestants on the third day were nothing like the summer green children that had been present in large numbers, especially on the first day.

All the participants of the third day were individuals who have themselves won multiple fights on consecutively two days.

'Even considering there are few odd candidates like me, that didn't make my case any better.'

So, after a lot of thinking, he had finally decided to do some farming. Not of food but rather money and...soul fragments.

After a little bit of loitering around, he found several key buildings and targets. And currently he was standing in front of one of them.

A factory loomed in front of him, isolated from the residential houses. It had a large central iron gate and a smaller gate just a little distance away. Three armed individuals guarded the two entrances - two of them at the central gate and the third one guarding the smaller gate.

This was a wine factory, atleast in name. However beneath all that, it was just a place controlled by local goons who dealt in smuggling of gold and other expensive items with neighbouring kingdoms, sold drugs and enticed the young generation into addiction.

'On top of that, it seems they frequently haunt the families at night time, regularly looting people without consequences. And if the villagers are to be believed, these goons are backed up by powerful individuals of the kingdom.'

He snickered as he thought inwardly, 'Miss Valerie, you really need to up your game or this lawless behaviour of your people shall only bring you trouble later.'

But time wasn't exactly on his side and so, without wasting any more of it, he quickly climbed a tree that overlooked the gate.

"One guard is at the small gate...hmm so he won't be able to see if I attack the central gate. I was wondering about this technique for some time anyway."

He raised his hand, pointing it at the central gate.

All of a sudden, unseen to both the guards guarding that gate, the air between them split as a vacuum was suddenly created.

David squinted his eyes in focus as the split increased in length, when at one point, a wall of vacuum stood between the two guards at the central gate.

Then holding the vacuum wall with one of his hand, David pointed his short spear at the guard that stood to the left.

*Swish*

The spear flew at an incredulous speed as the guard finally noticed the flying object. His eyes widened but before he could shout or even dodge it, the spear struck him on his chest and passed through the other side.

The man's mouth opened in a silent scream, his body involuntarily making gasping noises as he tried to breathe in air.

And all through it, the other soldier didn't even notice the strange occurence as the vaccum didn't let any sound pass to the other side.

With a thud, the guard struck the gate behind him and fell down to his death.

[You have gained 1 soul fragment.]

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