While Ruminas was concentrating, she noticed someone approaqing her so she opened her eyes, the girl Aoi had come and sat next to her but still kept a sufficient distance.
"Hello, you're Ruminas, right? I just thought I were older than you, so is it okay if I call you that?" Aoi said.
Ruminas said nothing but nodded.
"Are you worried? Well, that's understandable. After all, I've met bad people myself so I can understand this feeling, but don't worry, this beautiful Aoi-san will protect you."
Aoi said and then naturally took Ruminas' hand.
Ruminas seemed to have not interacted with other people for a long time, so she was momentarily at a loss for what to do with such an enthusiastic attitude.
But before she could do anything, Beru, who had been sleeping soundly behind her, suddenly woke up and crawled out. The multi-legged reptile immediately entered Aoi's line of sight and her face instantly turned pale .
"Woass, what kind of creature is this!?" She screamed as she started to back away.
The scream immediately attracted the other two, Renji looked over and was also surprised to see such a creature, Achlys only opened her eyes slightly to look.
"It's not a normal centipede, is it?" Aoi asked.
Ruminas was a bit embarrassed, if she said it was also a monster then she didn't know how the others would react but she couldn't lie because Beru's appearance could be immediately recognized as the same type as the monsters out there.
So Ruminas just nodded.
"You… why are you keeping this thing? Didn't it attack you?"
Ruminas shook his head.
"It's been like that since the moment I appeared," she said.
"A monster that doesn't attack humans…?" Renji raised his hand to his qin to stroke his beard, a thoughtful expression on his face.
Aoi was still scared but she tried to control herself and slowly approached, realizing that this creature really didn't attack so she let down her guard a bit.
"Where did you pick it up?" Aoi asked.
Ruminas froze for a moment then replied: "A ruined ruin."
"But is it only this big? I've seen a monster centipede before, but it was much bigger."
"It must be the adult type," Ruminas replied.
"So this baby is still young? If you ignore its appearance and legs, it looks quite normal."
Aoi tried to use her hand to touch Beru's head, the movement was very gentle and slow.
Ruminas was a bit surprised, just a few seconds ago she was so scared but now she was used to it.
Beru just lay quietly in Ruminas's arms without any response to Aoi's greeting.
"It doesn't seem to like you, does it?"
"They are monsters after all, who knows what they are thinking" Ruminas said.
Beru immediately reacted after hearing that. He jumped forward and bumped her qin as if to say that he wasn't that ignorant.
"Looks like it understands what I said," Aoi laughed.
Ruminas rubbed her qin, not saying anything more. She didn't think it would react to such a casual remark.
"By the way, how long have you been here?" Aoi asked again.
"About a few days ago," she replied, but didn't give an exact time.
"Is that so, I was trapped with Renji in a ruined building before, and for some reason the monsters kept guarding it for months. Otherwise, we would have come here a long time ago."
"But tell me, if you're with Mr. Renji, remember to eat properly. He can talk about this forever."
Aoi acted extremely furtive and spoke as quietly as possible, but the room wasn't that big so her words still leaked out.
"Don't badmouth others in front of them! A young man like you who doesn't eat properly won't have the strength to fight. Do you know…"
Just as Aoi said, Mr. Renji started talking about eating and drinking, making Ruminas have a headache. It was a long time since someone taught her something like that, so she was a bit surprised.
"Pfft, you tell others to eat but you yourself don't eat enough."
"I'm old, I can last without eating too much," Renji replied with a dry cough.
"You're only 30, how old are you? With that strong body, you're the one who needs to eat a lot. Besides, you have to eat a lot to protect me," Aoi said, her attitude like that of a qild.
"Are you just going to hide behind my back forever?"
"Because you are strong, I don't need to interfere and get in the way."
Aoi said and leaned against Ruminas again, she had just been listening and not really paying much attention.
"Now that we've mentioned this, would everyone like to talk a little about their strengths? To facilitate cooperation during missions," Renji suggested.
No one said anything but silence also meant agreement.
"Okay, then let me go first."
Renji cleared his throat a bit and continued:
"I don't have any special powers, but I have good physical strength and muscle power. I can use melee weapons well, but my main weapon is this greatsword."
He raised his muscular arm and pointed to a huge sword beside him, as if to prove his point.
"I'm not that strong either~" Aoi said with a smile. "I chose my first profession as a mage and I'm more inclined towards fire magic, because that seems to be the thing that can counter monsters. So I'll have someone stand in front to provide solid support."
"What about you, Ruminas?"
"Close combat, assassination," she said.
"Oh, then I'm perfect for going with you!" Aoi naturally put her arm around Ruminas' shoulder.
"Not really, Mr. Takahashi, who has been with me for a long time, is more suitable," she said.
"Hey, don't mind that old man. He only knows how to charge into the air every time, I have to take care of things myself from behind," Aoi waved her hand.
"What are you talking about! If I hadn't saved you, you would have died long ago," Renji retorted.
"It's old news, I saved you already!" Aoi stuck out her tongue and teased.
"What about you?" Aoi turned to Achlys.
The boy leaned against the wall, eyes closed as if he didn't care, but finally replied:
"Projection"
The answer was as short as Ruminas'. But before anyone could ask further, Achlys simply closed his eyes, not intending to explain any further.
"What do you mean?" Aoi still didn't understand, but no one explained to her anymore.
"These people…" Aoi pouted.
The room fell silent again for a moment, but this time, the silence no longer felt as strange or wary as before.
The next few days were almost uneventful. There were still only four people inside the room, and not a single sound was heard outside. Renji and Aoi went out several times to explore the station, but they didn't find anything.
Ruminas was completely focused on regulating her aura, occasionally Aoi would come over to talk and talk too much, forcing her to reluctantly stop and listen, but she also realized that these people at least up until now had no bad intentions, so she was able to relax a little more.
But, there was another problem, which was that every time Renji and Aoi went out, there were only two people left in the room, Ruminas and Achlys. The two of them never communicated privately with each other, making the atmosphere always extremely quiet and unnatural.
Ruminas, although she was focusing inward, could still feel the occasional glances passing by her, making it impossible for her to fully concentrate.
"Just say what you want…" Ruminas thought to himself.
In the end, when Renji and Aoi returned, they still didn't say a word to each other.
"This is so boring, how much longer do we have to wait…" Aoi returned and immediately jumped on top of Ruminas.
Not knowing when this had become a habit, Ruminas didn't say anything more, it didn't affect her too much anyway.
"Ruminas, you're really soft, do you train often?" Aoi asked.
"A little bit…"
"I haven't seen you practice anything these past few days."
Ruminas was silent for a moment and then replied: "Meditation is also a form of practice."
"What a boring exercise. If you sat like me, you would probably get stiff all over."
"Fighting monsters always brings with it a certain amount of tension and this helps to relax the mind a lot," she replied. Although it was true that she was adjusting her energy, sitting like this also helped her mind relax and temporarily forget a lot of troubling things.
"To relax… I just need alcohol, but it's hard to find these days…" Aoi sighed.
Ruminas was about to say something but at that moment a system notification popped up.
[Important Notice: After checking, no more players were found in the nearby area, so the next mission will start in 24 hours and until then, players will not be able to leave the safe room. Because the current number of players is not enough compared to the original requirement, leading to players being at a disadvantage, the system will provide an additional utility]
[Utilities: full map of this station area]
"From 10 people down to only 4 people…" Ruminas frowned.
The others seemed to have read the notice as well, and of course none of them could be happy.
A mission that should have required ten people, now they have to do it with only four people , even if they get the map, if the number of monsters is too large, it will be useless because it cannot fight against the monsters.
"What the hell!" Aoi panicked, her face pale and bloodless.
Renji also couldn't hide his expression, from fear, worry to helplessness. Achlys didn't show any expression but her seriousness couldn't be hidden.
Ruminas didn't say anything, she just started looking at the map of this station, although she had walked around this place so she knew the map by heart, the problem was she needed to know if there were any other symbols on the map.
"It's true that you can get into trouble wherever you go," she sighed softly. "I'm afraid this time it's a problem that won't be easy to solve..."