They sat in silence for a while, with the sound of the wind lashing sand across the dunes and endless chatter a little distance from them.
Carla pulled her knees up, her chin resting on them. "What do you think we would be doing if this didn't happen?"
Olek chuckled, "You kidding? It's not even been half a day since we were literally sitting in one of Solomon's ethics lectures, watching him flex his way through the presentation."
She let out a small laugh, becoming more tired. "You think he's around somewhere?"
"Would not surprise me in the least. Although he's not the most coherent person, he's got an aura about him, I wouldn't be surprised if we bump into him soon."
Olek looked at the few water bottles half buried beside him in the sand so they didn't glide away. "We'll keep one out, store the rest, rations too."
Carla blinked at him, "Store them?"
Olek stared at the water bottles, then looked at his hand. Spatial Pocket. He hadn't actually used it yet. The System said it cost mana, gave some requirements, but never really told him how to use it.
Still he could feel how it worked when he thought about it.
"Okay," He mumbled, flexing his hands. "Let's figure this out."
He drew in a slow breath, letting his mind settle and his mana sense take over. One thing he noticed is that he didn't need to have his eyes open to sense mana. In fact, it was better when he closed his eyes.
Through his mind's eye the air within the satchel rippled faintly, slight currents of translucent grey twisted around the bottles of water and packets of food, leaving all but one.
'Spatial mana.' He recognized the mana from when he was in the black space.
He focused in on the spatial mana surrounding the items, and the space folded in on itself spontaneously, the bottles wavered, their form distorted for a mere moment, then slipped away in the blink of an eye, only making a vmmft sound.
Carla looking around for where that noise came from, "What the hell did you just-?"
Olek smirked.
He could sense the presence of the rations somewhere else entirely, he had no idea where exactly it was, but he felt this connection to the items inside the spatial pocket.
Raising his hand, the air shimmered again, and one of the bottles of water popped back into this material plane with a faint clap of air. He caught it casually.
He shook the bottle at Carla, "Spatial Pocket," he said, inspecting the bottle before making it disappear with that same vmmft noise. "They can't steal what we don't 'have', eh?"
Bringing up the System screen, he wanted to check something.
[ Mana Points: 80/120 ]
As he thought, opening the space to deposit items costed the full 20 mana, but to take items out it was effortless. He felt slightly more tired, but a different kind of tired to perhaps his stamina, more mentally tired.
Having figured it out once, he was confident in being able to do it without focusing as hard in the future. 'I wonder if everyone else is the same, or perhaps it's due to my affinity it was so easy.' He thought.
Carla sat next to him with her mouth agape, "That seems a bit fucking broken."
Olek grinned and laughed, "Despair at my greatness. This ability is going to push my business empire into greater heights!" He declared.
Carla's face slowly morphed into a blank, deadpanned stare. "What business empire you idiot? We're in a desert with nothing but a couple copper coins."
He looked over at her in distaste, putting his hand out to her, "Save the attitude Mrs. I don't need that type of negativity in my dreams."
She sighs, shaking her head, "No matter your delusions, this is a really useful spell you have. I wonder how many people have access to it."
"Well, that's the thing, no one." He said plainly.
Carla's eyebrow raised, "What do you mean? You're not the only Magician around you know."
Olek shrugged, "From what the Envoy told me, it should be impossible for any human to have an affinity, especially one as strong as mine, toward the space element. I don't know why though, he cut me off saying he'd 'Revealed too much'." He said, imitating the Envoy at the end.
"What are you the main protagonist of an anime?" Carla scoffed in disbelief.
"Obviously." He stated bluntly.
She clicked her tongue at him, "Tch, shut the fuck up and let's rest for a while till the sun sets."
Olek sniggered, "How romantic."
That earned him another punch from Carla.
"Ach, stop doing that!"
"Stop being an arse then!"
"Get some rest," He muttered, "My bet is that we'll start moving by sundown."
Slowly, they laid down to rest, waiting for their opportune moment.
***
Olek opened one eye. The heat finally gave way as the sun bled into the horizon. The dunes glowed a dull red. Wind whipped across the sand, carrying the mutterings and coughs from the scattered encampments.
Looking around Olek noticed a lot of people had copied him and the first group in making a makeshift tent. In fact he noticed a rather large tent over in the center of the crowd.
'How many people's satchels did it take to make that?' He wondered. 'It looks like we have a dominant group among the rabble.'
Carla was dozing beside him. The air had turned sharp, the relentless heat had shifted to a biting cold. Yet, her preferred this a dozen times over to the heat.
It had been quiet now for a bit too long.
Finally, the first shout happened near the center tent.
"Thief! That bastard stole a bottle of water!"
Olek sat up straight, someone had somehow made torches, his best bet was that someone in the main camp had quite the affinity for fire magic.
The torches flickered, and the silhouettes of people moved in to see what was happening. The yelling turned into a scuffle, as two figures were wrestling in the sand, the bystanders formed a ring around to better watch.
"Seems like it's started," Olek muttered, shaking Carla's shoulder, "About time to be honest."
Carla stirred, rubbing her tired eyes. "Hm-? What's happening?"
"Human greed, seems like a fight has broke out over water already." He said. "Come on let's get a closer look, I've got an idea."
He grabbed Carla's hand and yanked her upright, before walking off to the crowd. "Agh- Olek!" She scrambled to grab her bow and quiver before jogging after him.
The crowd's circle grew tighter. A black haired, thin man with naught but a couple daggers strapped to his lower back, was clutching a torn satchel. 'Rogue.' Olek gathered from his weapons.
A bigger, broader man stood over him with the the knife from the satchel. The smaller one pleaded with desperation in his voice, "It's mine! I swear to god it's mine! Help!"
The large man kicked him into the sand. "You think I'm stupid? Everybody got two bottles of water, yet how do I have one and you have three, huh!? People like you aren't needed to survive this hellhole!" He shouted in fury, raising his dagger to stab him.
Suddenly, a man came bursting through the crowd, "That's enough! Put your knife away!"
The large man halted his assault, turning to the voice in the crowd.
The man who spoke up stepped into torchlight in the center of the ring. He wasn't the most intimidating, but he had a strong build, tall, wearing a white button-up shirt rolled to his elbows, his forearms were defined and his knuckles were worn.
His hands were empty, but the domineering greataxe on his back was enough for his words to hold weight.
"Everyone take a breath, there is no need for bloodshed over a bottle, hm?" The man said. "If you spill blood tonight, it sets a bad precedent for the journey to come, and puts stupid ideas into desperate people's heads."
The man with the knife gnashed his teeth, "And who the hell are you to say that?"
"Marcus Hale." He said simply, "Now sheath your blade lest I take it from you."
The man's jaw flexed and the knife trembled in his hands. Sweat glistened on his forehead in the torchlight.
"I don't take orders from some fuckin' stranger, got that?!" He hissed. His knuckled whitened as his grip on the knife tightened. "You-" He glares at Marcus, "You think you can just step in when this FUCKER tried to steal from me? Like you're in charge?"
Marcus' tone never faltered - if anything, it softened slightly, "If it stops needless bloodshed in the present and future then yes. I will."
The crowd murmured, some supported Marcus, others thought the thief needed to go. The man's breath was ragged, for some reason it was like he couldn't handle his own anger. His eyes flickered between Marcus and the thief still sprawled in the sand.
Something inside of him snapped.
"Fuck. You." he spat, twisting his body toward Marcus and lunging forward - the blade flashing in the torchlight.
Marcus' eyes went wide - why was he so unreasonably angry?